1 The Project Gutenberg EBook of War and Peace, by Leo Tolstoy
3 This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with almost
4 no restrictions whatsoever. You may copy it, give it away or re-use it
5 under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included with this
6 eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org
13 Translators: Louise and Aylmer Maude
15 Posting Date: January 10, 2009 [EBook #2600]
17 Last Updated: March 15, 2013
22 *** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK WAR AND PEACE ***
24 An Anonymous Volunteer, and David Widger
32 By Leo Tolstoy/Tolstoi
312 BOOK SEVEN: 1810 - 11
340 BOOK EIGHT: 1811 - 12
698 BOOK FIFTEEN: 1812 - 13
740 FIRST EPILOGUE: 1813 - 20
807 "Well, Prince, so Genoa and Lucca are now just family estates of the
808 Buonapartes. But I warn you, if you don't tell me that this means war,
809 if you still try to defend the infamies and horrors perpetrated by that
810 Antichrist--I really believe he is Antichrist--I will have nothing more
811 to do with you and you are no longer my friend, no longer my 'faithful
812 slave,' as you call yourself! But how do you do? I see I have frightened
813 you--sit down and tell me all the news."
815 It was in July, 1805, and the speaker was the well-known Anna Pavlovna
816 Scherer, maid of honor and favorite of the Empress Marya Fedorovna. With
817 these words she greeted Prince Vasili Kuragin, a man of high rank and
818 importance, who was the first to arrive at her reception. Anna Pavlovna
819 had had a cough for some days. She was, as she said, suffering from la
820 grippe; grippe being then a new word in St. Petersburg, used only by the
823 All her invitations without exception, written in French, and delivered
824 by a scarlet-liveried footman that morning, ran as follows:
826 "If you have nothing better to do, Count (or Prince), and if the
827 prospect of spending an evening with a poor invalid is not too terrible,
828 I shall be very charmed to see you tonight between 7 and 10--Annette
831 "Heavens! what a virulent attack!" replied the prince, not in the least
832 disconcerted by this reception. He had just entered, wearing an
833 embroidered court uniform, knee breeches, and shoes, and had stars on
834 his breast and a serene expression on his flat face. He spoke in that
835 refined French in which our grandfathers not only spoke but thought, and
836 with the gentle, patronizing intonation natural to a man of importance
837 who had grown old in society and at court. He went up to Anna Pavlovna,
838 kissed her hand, presenting to her his bald, scented, and shining head,
839 and complacently seated himself on the sofa.
841 "First of all, dear friend, tell me how you are. Set your friend's mind
842 at rest," said he without altering his tone, beneath the politeness and
843 affected sympathy of which indifference and even irony could be
846 "Can one be well while suffering morally? Can one be calm in times like
847 these if one has any feeling?" said Anna Pavlovna. "You are staying the
848 whole evening, I hope?"
850 "And the fete at the English ambassador's? Today is Wednesday. I must
851 put in an appearance there," said the prince. "My daughter is coming for
852 me to take me there."
854 "I thought today's fete had been canceled. I confess all these
855 festivities and fireworks are becoming wearisome."
857 "If they had known that you wished it, the entertainment would have been
858 put off," said the prince, who, like a wound-up clock, by force of habit
859 said things he did not even wish to be believed.
861 "Don't tease! Well, and what has been decided about Novosiltsev's
862 dispatch? You know everything."
864 "What can one say about it?" replied the prince in a cold, listless
865 tone. "What has been decided? They have decided that Buonaparte has
866 burnt his boats, and I believe that we are ready to burn ours."
868 Prince Vasili always spoke languidly, like an actor repeating a stale
869 part. Anna Pavlovna Scherer on the contrary, despite her forty years,
870 overflowed with animation and impulsiveness. To be an enthusiast had
871 become her social vocation and, sometimes even when she did not feel
872 like it, she became enthusiastic in order not to disappoint the
873 expectations of those who knew her. The subdued smile which, though it
874 did not suit her faded features, always played round her lips expressed,
875 as in a spoiled child, a continual consciousness of her charming defect,
876 which she neither wished, nor could, nor considered it necessary, to
879 In the midst of a conversation on political matters Anna Pavlovna burst
882 "Oh, don't speak to me of Austria. Perhaps I don't understand things,
883 but Austria never has wished, and does not wish, for war. She is
884 betraying us! Russia alone must save Europe. Our gracious sovereign
885 recognizes his high vocation and will be true to it. That is the one
886 thing I have faith in! Our good and wonderful sovereign has to perform
887 the noblest role on earth, and he is so virtuous and noble that God will
888 not forsake him. He will fulfill his vocation and crush the hydra of
889 revolution, which has become more terrible than ever in the person of
890 this murderer and villain! We alone must avenge the blood of the just
891 one.... Whom, I ask you, can we rely on?... England with her commercial
892 spirit will not and cannot understand the Emperor Alexander's loftiness
893 of soul. She has refused to evacuate Malta. She wanted to find, and
894 still seeks, some secret motive in our actions. What answer did
895 Novosiltsev get? None. The English have not understood and cannot
896 understand the self-abnegation of our Emperor who wants nothing for
897 himself, but only desires the good of mankind. And what have they
898 promised? Nothing! And what little they have promised they will not
899 perform! Prussia has always declared that Buonaparte is invincible, and
900 that all Europe is powerless before him.... And I don't believe a word
901 that Hardenburg says, or Haugwitz either. This famous Prussian
902 neutrality is just a trap. I have faith only in God and the lofty
903 destiny of our adored monarch. He will save Europe!"
905 She suddenly paused, smiling at her own impetuosity.
907 "I think," said the prince with a smile, "that if you had been sent
908 instead of our dear Wintzingerode you would have captured the King of
909 Prussia's consent by assault. You are so eloquent. Will you give me a
912 "In a moment. A propos," she added, becoming calm again, "I am expecting
913 two very interesting men tonight, le Vicomte de Mortemart, who is
914 connected with the Montmorencys through the Rohans, one of the best
915 French families. He is one of the genuine emigres, the good ones. And
916 also the Abbe Morio. Do you know that profound thinker? He has been
917 received by the Emperor. Had you heard?"
919 "I shall be delighted to meet them," said the prince. "But tell me," he
920 added with studied carelessness as if it had only just occurred to him,
921 though the question he was about to ask was the chief motive of his
922 visit, "is it true that the Dowager Empress wants Baron Funke to be
923 appointed first secretary at Vienna? The baron by all accounts is a poor
926 Prince Vasili wished to obtain this post for his son, but others were
927 trying through the Dowager Empress Marya Fedorovna to secure it for the
930 Anna Pavlovna almost closed her eyes to indicate that neither she nor
931 anyone else had a right to criticize what the Empress desired or was
934 "Baron Funke has been recommended to the Dowager Empress by her sister,"
935 was all she said, in a dry and mournful tone.
937 As she named the Empress, Anna Pavlovna's face suddenly assumed an
938 expression of profound and sincere devotion and respect mingled with
939 sadness, and this occurred every time she mentioned her illustrious
940 patroness. She added that Her Majesty had deigned to show Baron Funke
941 beaucoup d'estime, and again her face clouded over with sadness.
943 The prince was silent and looked indifferent. But, with the womanly and
944 courtierlike quickness and tact habitual to her, Anna Pavlovna wished
945 both to rebuke him (for daring to speak as he had done of a man
946 recommended to the Empress) and at the same time to console him, so she
949 "Now about your family. Do you know that since your daughter came out
950 everyone has been enraptured by her? They say she is amazingly
953 The prince bowed to signify his respect and gratitude.
955 "I often think," she continued after a short pause, drawing nearer to
956 the prince and smiling amiably at him as if to show that political and
957 social topics were ended and the time had come for intimate
958 conversation--"I often think how unfairly sometimes the joys of life are
959 distributed. Why has fate given you two such splendid children? I don't
960 speak of Anatole, your youngest. I don't like him," she added in a tone
961 admitting of no rejoinder and raising her eyebrows. "Two such charming
962 children. And really you appreciate them less than anyone, and so you
963 don't deserve to have them."
965 And she smiled her ecstatic smile.
967 "I can't help it," said the prince. "Lavater would have said I lack the
970 "Don't joke; I mean to have a serious talk with you. Do you know I am
971 dissatisfied with your younger son? Between ourselves" (and her face
972 assumed its melancholy expression), "he was mentioned at Her Majesty's
973 and you were pitied...."
975 The prince answered nothing, but she looked at him significantly,
976 awaiting a reply. He frowned.
978 "What would you have me do?" he said at last. "You know I did all a
979 father could for their education, and they have both turned out fools.
980 Hippolyte is at least a quiet fool, but Anatole is an active one. That
981 is the only difference between them." He said this smiling in a way more
982 natural and animated than usual, so that the wrinkles round his mouth
983 very clearly revealed something unexpectedly coarse and unpleasant.
985 "And why are children born to such men as you? If you were not a father
986 there would be nothing I could reproach you with," said Anna Pavlovna,
987 looking up pensively.
989 "I am your faithful slave and to you alone I can confess that my
990 children are the bane of my life. It is the cross I have to bear. That
991 is how I explain it to myself. It can't be helped!"
993 He said no more, but expressed his resignation to cruel fate by a
994 gesture. Anna Pavlovna meditated.
996 "Have you never thought of marrying your prodigal son Anatole?" she
997 asked. "They say old maids have a mania for matchmaking, and though I
998 don't feel that weakness in myself as yet, I know a little person who is
999 very unhappy with her father. She is a relation of yours, Princess Mary
1002 Prince Vasili did not reply, though, with the quickness of memory and
1003 perception befitting a man of the world, he indicated by a movement of
1004 the head that he was considering this information.
1006 "Do you know," he said at last, evidently unable to check the sad
1007 current of his thoughts, "that Anatole is costing me forty thousand
1008 rubles a year? And," he went on after a pause, "what will it be in five
1009 years, if he goes on like this?" Presently he added: "That's what we
1010 fathers have to put up with.... Is this princess of yours rich?"
1012 "Her father is very rich and stingy. He lives in the country. He is the
1013 well-known Prince Bolkonski who had to retire from the army under the
1014 late Emperor, and was nicknamed 'the King of Prussia.' He is very clever
1015 but eccentric, and a bore. The poor girl is very unhappy. She has a
1016 brother; I think you know him, he married Lise Meinen lately. He is an
1017 aide-de-camp of Kutuzov's and will be here tonight."
1019 "Listen, dear Annette," said the prince, suddenly taking Anna Pavlovna's
1020 hand and for some reason drawing it downwards. "Arrange that affair for
1021 me and I shall always be your most devoted slave-slafe with an f, as a
1022 village elder of mine writes in his reports. She is rich and of good
1023 family and that's all I want."
1025 And with the familiarity and easy grace peculiar to him, he raised the
1026 maid of honor's hand to his lips, kissed it, and swung it to and fro as
1027 he lay back in his armchair, looking in another direction.
1029 "Attendez," said Anna Pavlovna, reflecting, "I'll speak to Lise, young
1030 Bolkonski's wife, this very evening, and perhaps the thing can be
1031 arranged. It shall be on your family's behalf that I'll start my
1032 apprenticeship as old maid."
1039 Anna Pavlovna's drawing room was gradually filling. The highest
1040 Petersburg society was assembled there: people differing widely in age
1041 and character but alike in the social circle to which they belonged.
1042 Prince Vasili's daughter, the beautiful Helene, came to take her father
1043 to the ambassador's entertainment; she wore a ball dress and her badge
1044 as maid of honor. The youthful little Princess Bolkonskaya, known as la
1045 femme la plus seduisante de Petersbourg, * was also there. She had been
1046 married during the previous winter, and being pregnant did not go to any
1047 large gatherings, but only to small receptions. Prince Vasili's son,
1048 Hippolyte, had come with Mortemart, whom he introduced. The Abbe Morio
1049 and many others had also come.
1052 * The most fascinating woman in Petersburg.
1054 To each new arrival Anna Pavlovna said, "You have not yet seen my aunt,"
1055 or "You do not know my aunt?" and very gravely conducted him or her to a
1056 little old lady, wearing large bows of ribbon in her cap, who had come
1057 sailing in from another room as soon as the guests began to arrive; and
1058 slowly turning her eyes from the visitor to her aunt, Anna Pavlovna
1059 mentioned each one's name and then left them.
1061 Each visitor performed the ceremony of greeting this old aunt whom not
1062 one of them knew, not one of them wanted to know, and not one of them
1063 cared about; Anna Pavlovna observed these greetings with mournful and
1064 solemn interest and silent approval. The aunt spoke to each of them in
1065 the same words, about their health and her own, and the health of Her
1066 Majesty, "who, thank God, was better today." And each visitor, though
1067 politeness prevented his showing impatience, left the old woman with a
1068 sense of relief at having performed a vexatious duty and did not return
1069 to her the whole evening.
1071 The young Princess Bolkonskaya had brought some work in a gold-
1072 embroidered velvet bag. Her pretty little upper lip, on which a delicate
1073 dark down was just perceptible, was too short for her teeth, but it
1074 lifted all the more sweetly, and was especially charming when she
1075 occasionally drew it down to meet the lower lip. As is always the case
1076 with a thoroughly attractive woman, her defect--the shortness of her
1077 upper lip and her half-open mouth--seemed to be her own special and
1078 peculiar form of beauty. Everyone brightened at the sight of this pretty
1079 young woman, so soon to become a mother, so full of life and health, and
1080 carrying her burden so lightly. Old men and dull dispirited young ones
1081 who looked at her, after being in her company and talking to her a
1082 little while, felt as if they too were becoming, like her, full of life
1083 and health. All who talked to her, and at each word saw her bright smile
1084 and the constant gleam of her white teeth, thought that they were in a
1085 specially amiable mood that day.
1087 The little princess went round the table with quick, short, swaying
1088 steps, her workbag on her arm, and gaily spreading out her dress sat
1089 down on a sofa near the silver samovar, as if all she was doing was a
1090 pleasure to herself and to all around her. "I have brought my work,"
1091 said she in French, displaying her bag and addressing all present.
1092 "Mind, Annette, I hope you have not played a wicked trick on me," she
1093 added, turning to her hostess. "You wrote that it was to be quite a
1094 small reception, and just see how badly I am dressed." And she spread
1095 out her arms to show her short-waisted, lace-trimmed, dainty gray dress,
1096 girdled with a broad ribbon just below the breast.
1098 "Soyez tranquille, Lise, you will always be prettier than anyone else,"
1099 replied Anna Pavlovna.
1101 "You know," said the princess in the same tone of voice and still in
1102 French, turning to a general, "my husband is deserting me? He is going
1103 to get himself killed. Tell me what this wretched war is for?" she
1104 added, addressing Prince Vasili, and without waiting for an answer she
1105 turned to speak to his daughter, the beautiful Helene.
1107 "What a delightful woman this little princess is!" said Prince Vasili to
1110 One of the next arrivals was a stout, heavily built young man with
1111 close-cropped hair, spectacles, the light-colored breeches fashionable
1112 at that time, a very high ruffle, and a brown dress coat. This stout
1113 young man was an illegitimate son of Count Bezukhov, a well-known
1114 grandee of Catherine's time who now lay dying in Moscow. The young man
1115 had not yet entered either the military or civil service, as he had only
1116 just returned from abroad where he had been educated, and this was his
1117 first appearance in society. Anna Pavlovna greeted him with the nod she
1118 accorded to the lowest hierarchy in her drawing room. But in spite of
1119 this lowest-grade greeting, a look of anxiety and fear, as at the sight
1120 of something too large and unsuited to the place, came over her face
1121 when she saw Pierre enter. Though he was certainly rather bigger than
1122 the other men in the room, her anxiety could only have reference to the
1123 clever though shy, but observant and natural, expression which
1124 distinguished him from everyone else in that drawing room.
1126 "It is very good of you, Monsieur Pierre, to come and visit a poor
1127 invalid," said Anna Pavlovna, exchanging an alarmed glance with her aunt
1128 as she conducted him to her.
1130 Pierre murmured something unintelligible, and continued to look round as
1131 if in search of something. On his way to the aunt he bowed to the little
1132 princess with a pleased smile, as to an intimate acquaintance.
1134 Anna Pavlovna's alarm was justified, for Pierre turned away from the
1135 aunt without waiting to hear her speech about Her Majesty's health. Anna
1136 Pavlovna in dismay detained him with the words: "Do you know the Abbe
1137 Morio? He is a most interesting man."
1139 "Yes, I have heard of his scheme for perpetual peace, and it is very
1140 interesting but hardly feasible."
1142 "You think so?" rejoined Anna Pavlovna in order to say something and get
1143 away to attend to her duties as hostess. But Pierre now committed a
1144 reverse act of impoliteness. First he had left a lady before she had
1145 finished speaking to him, and now he continued to speak to another who
1146 wished to get away. With his head bent, and his big feet spread apart,
1147 he began explaining his reasons for thinking the abbe's plan chimerical.
1149 "We will talk of it later," said Anna Pavlovna with a smile.
1151 And having got rid of this young man who did not know how to behave, she
1152 resumed her duties as hostess and continued to listen and watch, ready
1153 to help at any point where the conversation might happen to flag. As the
1154 foreman of a spinning mill, when he has set the hands to work, goes
1155 round and notices here a spindle that has stopped or there one that
1156 creaks or makes more noise than it should, and hastens to check the
1157 machine or set it in proper motion, so Anna Pavlovna moved about her
1158 drawing room, approaching now a silent, now a too-noisy group, and by a
1159 word or slight rearrangement kept the conversational machine in steady,
1160 proper, and regular motion. But amid these cares her anxiety about
1161 Pierre was evident. She kept an anxious watch on him when he approached
1162 the group round Mortemart to listen to what was being said there, and
1163 again when he passed to another group whose center was the abbe.
1165 Pierre had been educated abroad, and this reception at Anna Pavlovna's
1166 was the first he had attended in Russia. He knew that all the
1167 intellectual lights of Petersburg were gathered there and, like a child
1168 in a toyshop, did not know which way to look, afraid of missing any
1169 clever conversation that was to be heard. Seeing the self-confident and
1170 refined expression on the faces of those present he was always expecting
1171 to hear something very profound. At last he came up to Morio. Here the
1172 conversation seemed interesting and he stood waiting for an opportunity
1173 to express his own views, as young people are fond of doing.
1180 Anna Pavlovna's reception was in full swing. The spindles hummed
1181 steadily and ceaselessly on all sides. With the exception of the aunt,
1182 beside whom sat only one elderly lady, who with her thin careworn face
1183 was rather out of place in this brilliant society, the whole company had
1184 settled into three groups. One, chiefly masculine, had formed round the
1185 abbe. Another, of young people, was grouped round the beautiful Princess
1186 Helene, Prince Vasili's daughter, and the little Princess Bolkonskaya,
1187 very pretty and rosy, though rather too plump for her age. The third
1188 group was gathered round Mortemart and Anna Pavlovna.
1190 The vicomte was a nice-looking young man with soft features and polished
1191 manners, who evidently considered himself a celebrity but out of
1192 politeness modestly placed himself at the disposal of the circle in
1193 which he found himself. Anna Pavlovna was obviously serving him up as a
1194 treat to her guests. As a clever maitre d'hotel serves up as a specially
1195 choice delicacy a piece of meat that no one who had seen it in the
1196 kitchen would have cared to eat, so Anna Pavlovna served up to her
1197 guests, first the vicomte and then the abbe, as peculiarly choice
1198 morsels. The group about Mortemart immediately began discussing the
1199 murder of the Duc d'Enghien. The vicomte said that the Duc d'Enghien had
1200 perished by his own magnanimity, and that there were particular reasons
1201 for Buonaparte's hatred of him.
1203 "Ah, yes! Do tell us all about it, Vicomte," said Anna Pavlovna, with a
1204 pleasant feeling that there was something a la Louis XV in the sound of
1205 that sentence: "Contez nous cela, Vicomte."
1207 The vicomte bowed and smiled courteously in token of his willingness to
1208 comply. Anna Pavlovna arranged a group round him, inviting everyone to
1211 "The vicomte knew the duc personally," whispered Anna Pavlovna to one of
1212 the guests. "The vicomte is a wonderful raconteur," said she to another.
1213 "How evidently he belongs to the best society," said she to a third; and
1214 the vicomte was served up to the company in the choicest and most
1215 advantageous style, like a well-garnished joint of roast beef on a hot
1218 The vicomte wished to begin his story and gave a subtle smile.
1220 "Come over here, Helene, dear," said Anna Pavlovna to the beautiful
1221 young princess who was sitting some way off, the center of another
1224 The princess smiled. She rose with the same unchanging smile with which
1225 she had first entered the room--the smile of a perfectly beautiful
1226 woman. With a slight rustle of her white dress trimmed with moss and
1227 ivy, with a gleam of white shoulders, glossy hair, and sparkling
1228 diamonds, she passed between the men who made way for her, not looking
1229 at any of them but smiling on all, as if graciously allowing each the
1230 privilege of admiring her beautiful figure and shapely shoulders, back,
1231 and bosom--which in the fashion of those days were very much exposed--
1232 and she seemed to bring the glamour of a ballroom with her as she moved
1233 toward Anna Pavlovna. Helene was so lovely that not only did she not
1234 show any trace of coquetry, but on the contrary she even appeared shy of
1235 her unquestionable and all too victorious beauty. She seemed to wish,
1236 but to be unable, to diminish its effect.
1238 "How lovely!" said everyone who saw her; and the vicomte lifted his
1239 shoulders and dropped his eyes as if startled by something extraordinary
1240 when she took her seat opposite and beamed upon him also with her
1243 "Madame, I doubt my ability before such an audience," said he, smilingly
1246 The princess rested her bare round arm on a little table and considered
1247 a reply unnecessary. She smilingly waited. All the time the story was
1248 being told she sat upright, glancing now at her beautiful round arm,
1249 altered in shape by its pressure on the table, now at her still more
1250 beautiful bosom, on which she readjusted a diamond necklace. From time
1251 to time she smoothed the folds of her dress, and whenever the story
1252 produced an effect she glanced at Anna Pavlovna, at once adopted just
1253 the expression she saw on the maid of honor's face, and again relapsed
1254 into her radiant smile.
1256 The little princess had also left the tea table and followed Helene.
1258 "Wait a moment, I'll get my work.... Now then, what are you thinking
1259 of?" she went on, turning to Prince Hippolyte. "Fetch me my workbag."
1261 There was a general movement as the princess, smiling and talking
1262 merrily to everyone at once, sat down and gaily arranged herself in her
1265 "Now I am all right," she said, and asking the vicomte to begin, she
1268 Prince Hippolyte, having brought the workbag, joined the circle and
1269 moving a chair close to hers seated himself beside her.
1271 Le charmant Hippolyte was surprising by his extraordinary resemblance to
1272 his beautiful sister, but yet more by the fact that in spite of this
1273 resemblance he was exceedingly ugly. His features were like his
1274 sister's, but while in her case everything was lit up by a joyous, self-
1275 satisfied, youthful, and constant smile of animation, and by the
1276 wonderful classic beauty of her figure, his face on the contrary was
1277 dulled by imbecility and a constant expression of sullen self-
1278 confidence, while his body was thin and weak. His eyes, nose, and mouth
1279 all seemed puckered into a vacant, wearied grimace, and his arms and
1280 legs always fell into unnatural positions.
1282 "It's not going to be a ghost story?" said he, sitting down beside the
1283 princess and hastily adjusting his lorgnette, as if without this
1284 instrument he could not begin to speak.
1286 "Why no, my dear fellow," said the astonished narrator, shrugging his
1289 "Because I hate ghost stories," said Prince Hippolyte in a tone which
1290 showed that he only understood the meaning of his words after he had
1293 He spoke with such self-confidence that his hearers could not be sure
1294 whether what he said was very witty or very stupid. He was dressed in a
1295 dark-green dress coat, knee breeches of the color of cuisse de nymphe
1296 effrayee, as he called it, shoes, and silk stockings.
1298 The vicomte told his tale very neatly. It was an anecdote, then current,
1299 to the effect that the Duc d'Enghien had gone secretly to Paris to visit
1300 Mademoiselle George; that at her house he came upon Bonaparte, who also
1301 enjoyed the famous actress' favors, and that in his presence Napoleon
1302 happened to fall into one of the fainting fits to which he was subject,
1303 and was thus at the duc's mercy. The latter spared him, and this
1304 magnanimity Bonaparte subsequently repaid by death.
1306 The story was very pretty and interesting, especially at the point where
1307 the rivals suddenly recognized one another; and the ladies looked
1310 "Charming!" said Anna Pavlovna with an inquiring glance at the little
1313 "Charming!" whispered the little princess, sticking the needle into her
1314 work as if to testify that the interest and fascination of the story
1315 prevented her from going on with it.
1317 The vicomte appreciated this silent praise and smiling gratefully
1318 prepared to continue, but just then Anna Pavlovna, who had kept a
1319 watchful eye on the young man who so alarmed her, noticed that he was
1320 talking too loudly and vehemently with the abbe, so she hurried to the
1321 rescue. Pierre had managed to start a conversation with the abbe about
1322 the balance of power, and the latter, evidently interested by the young
1323 man's simple-minded eagerness, was explaining his pet theory. Both were
1324 talking and listening too eagerly and too naturally, which was why Anna
1325 Pavlovna disapproved.
1327 "The means are... the balance of power in Europe and the rights of the
1328 people," the abbe was saying. "It is only necessary for one powerful
1329 nation like Russia--barbaric as she is said to be--to place herself
1330 disinterestedly at the head of an alliance having for its object the
1331 maintenance of the balance of power of Europe, and it would save the
1334 "But how are you to get that balance?" Pierre was beginning.
1336 At that moment Anna Pavlovna came up and, looking severely at Pierre,
1337 asked the Italian how he stood Russian climate. The Italian's face
1338 instantly changed and assumed an offensively affected, sugary
1339 expression, evidently habitual to him when conversing with women.
1341 "I am so enchanted by the brilliancy of the wit and culture of the
1342 society, more especially of the feminine society, in which I have had
1343 the honor of being received, that I have not yet had time to think of
1344 the climate," said he.
1346 Not letting the abbe and Pierre escape, Anna Pavlovna, the more
1347 conveniently to keep them under observation, brought them into the
1355 Just then another visitor entered the drawing room: Prince Andrew
1356 Bolkonski, the little princess' husband. He was a very handsome young
1357 man, of medium height, with firm, clearcut features. Everything about
1358 him, from his weary, bored expression to his quiet, measured step,
1359 offered a most striking contrast to his quiet, little wife. It was
1360 evident that he not only knew everyone in the drawing room, but had
1361 found them to be so tiresome that it wearied him to look at or listen to
1362 them. And among all these faces that he found so tedious, none seemed to
1363 bore him so much as that of his pretty wife. He turned away from her
1364 with a grimace that distorted his handsome face, kissed Anna Pavlovna's
1365 hand, and screwing up his eyes scanned the whole company.
1367 "You are off to the war, Prince?" said Anna Pavlovna.
1369 "General Kutuzov," said Bolkonski, speaking French and stressing the
1370 last syllable of the general's name like a Frenchman, "has been pleased
1371 to take me as an aide-de-camp...."
1373 "And Lise, your wife?"
1375 "She will go to the country."
1377 "Are you not ashamed to deprive us of your charming wife?"
1379 "Andre," said his wife, addressing her husband in the same coquettish
1380 manner in which she spoke to other men, "the vicomte has been telling us
1381 such a tale about Mademoiselle George and Buonaparte!"
1383 Prince Andrew screwed up his eyes and turned away. Pierre, who from the
1384 moment Prince Andrew entered the room had watched him with glad,
1385 affectionate eyes, now came up and took his arm. Before he looked round
1386 Prince Andrew frowned again, expressing his annoyance with whoever was
1387 touching his arm, but when he saw Pierre's beaming face he gave him an
1388 unexpectedly kind and pleasant smile.
1390 "There now!... So you, too, are in the great world?" said he to Pierre.
1392 "I knew you would be here," replied Pierre. "I will come to supper with
1393 you. May I?" he added in a low voice so as not to disturb the vicomte
1394 who was continuing his story.
1396 "No, impossible!" said Prince Andrew, laughing and pressing Pierre's
1397 hand to show that there was no need to ask the question. He wished to
1398 say something more, but at that moment Prince Vasili and his daughter
1399 got up to go and the two young men rose to let them pass.
1401 "You must excuse me, dear Vicomte," said Prince Vasili to the Frenchman,
1402 holding him down by the sleeve in a friendly way to prevent his rising.
1403 "This unfortunate fete at the ambassador's deprives me of a pleasure,
1404 and obliges me to interrupt you. I am very sorry to leave your
1405 enchanting party," said he, turning to Anna Pavlovna.
1407 His daughter, Princess Helene, passed between the chairs, lightly
1408 holding up the folds of her dress, and the smile shone still more
1409 radiantly on her beautiful face. Pierre gazed at her with rapturous,
1410 almost frightened, eyes as she passed him.
1412 "Very lovely," said Prince Andrew.
1414 "Very," said Pierre.
1416 In passing Prince Vasili seized Pierre's hand and said to Anna Pavlovna:
1417 "Educate this bear for me! He has been staying with me a whole month and
1418 this is the first time I have seen him in society. Nothing is so
1419 necessary for a young man as the society of clever women."
1421 Anna Pavlovna smiled and promised to take Pierre in hand. She knew his
1422 father to be a connection of Prince Vasili's. The elderly lady who had
1423 been sitting with the old aunt rose hurriedly and overtook Prince Vasili
1424 in the anteroom. All the affectation of interest she had assumed had
1425 left her kindly and tear-worn face and it now expressed only anxiety and
1428 "How about my son Boris, Prince?" said she, hurrying after him into the
1429 anteroom. "I can't remain any longer in Petersburg. Tell me what news I
1430 may take back to my poor boy."
1432 Although Prince Vasili listened reluctantly and not very politely to the
1433 elderly lady, even betraying some impatience, she gave him an
1434 ingratiating and appealing smile, and took his hand that he might not go
1437 "What would it cost you to say a word to the Emperor, and then he would
1438 be transferred to the Guards at once?" said she.
1440 "Believe me, Princess, I am ready to do all I can," answered Prince
1441 Vasili, "but it is difficult for me to ask the Emperor. I should advise
1442 you to appeal to Rumyantsev through Prince Golitsyn. That would be the
1445 The elderly lady was a Princess Drubetskaya, belonging to one of the
1446 best families in Russia, but she was poor, and having long been out of
1447 society had lost her former influential connections. She had now come to
1448 Petersburg to procure an appointment in the Guards for her only son. It
1449 was, in fact, solely to meet Prince Vasili that she had obtained an
1450 invitation to Anna Pavlovna's reception and had sat listening to the
1451 vicomte's story. Prince Vasili's words frightened her, an embittered
1452 look clouded her once handsome face, but only for a moment; then she
1453 smiled again and clutched Prince Vasili's arm more tightly.
1455 "Listen to me, Prince," said she. "I have never yet asked you for
1456 anything and I never will again, nor have I ever reminded you of my
1457 father's friendship for you; but now I entreat you for God's sake to do
1458 this for my son--and I shall always regard you as a benefactor," she
1459 added hurriedly. "No, don't be angry, but promise! I have asked Golitsyn
1460 and he has refused. Be the kindhearted man you always were," she said,
1461 trying to smile though tears were in her eyes.
1463 "Papa, we shall be late," said Princess Helene, turning her beautiful
1464 head and looking over her classically molded shoulder as she stood
1465 waiting by the door.
1467 Influence in society, however, is a capital which has to be economized
1468 if it is to last. Prince Vasili knew this, and having once realized that
1469 if he asked on behalf of all who begged of him, he would soon be unable
1470 to ask for himself, he became chary of using his influence. But in
1471 Princess Drubetskaya's case he felt, after her second appeal, something
1472 like qualms of conscience. She had reminded him of what was quite true;
1473 he had been indebted to her father for the first steps in his career.
1474 Moreover, he could see by her manners that she was one of those women--
1475 mostly mothers--who, having once made up their minds, will not rest
1476 until they have gained their end, and are prepared if necessary to go on
1477 insisting day after day and hour after hour, and even to make scenes.
1478 This last consideration moved him.
1480 "My dear Anna Mikhaylovna," said he with his usual familiarity and
1481 weariness of tone, "it is almost impossible for me to do what you ask;
1482 but to prove my devotion to you and how I respect your father's memory,
1483 I will do the impossible--your son shall be transferred to the Guards.
1484 Here is my hand on it. Are you satisfied?"
1486 "My dear benefactor! This is what I expected from you--I knew your
1487 kindness!" He turned to go.
1489 "Wait--just a word! When he has been transferred to the Guards..." she
1490 faltered. "You are on good terms with Michael Ilarionovich Kutuzov...
1491 recommend Boris to him as adjutant! Then I shall be at rest, and
1494 Prince Vasili smiled.
1496 "No, I won't promise that. You don't know how Kutuzov is pestered since
1497 his appointment as Commander in Chief. He told me himself that all the
1498 Moscow ladies have conspired to give him all their sons as adjutants."
1500 "No, but do promise! I won't let you go! My dear benefactor..."
1502 "Papa," said his beautiful daughter in the same tone as before, "we
1505 "Well, au revoir! Good-bye! You hear her?"
1507 "Then tomorrow you will speak to the Emperor?"
1509 "Certainly; but about Kutuzov, I don't promise."
1511 "Do promise, do promise, Vasili!" cried Anna Mikhaylovna as he went,
1512 with the smile of a coquettish girl, which at one time probably came
1513 naturally to her, but was now very ill-suited to her careworn face.
1515 Apparently she had forgotten her age and by force of habit employed all
1516 the old feminine arts. But as soon as the prince had gone her face
1517 resumed its former cold, artificial expression. She returned to the
1518 group where the vicomte was still talking, and again pretended to
1519 listen, while waiting till it would be time to leave. Her task was
1527 "And what do you think of this latest comedy, the coronation at Milan?"
1528 asked Anna Pavlovna, "and of the comedy of the people of Genoa and Lucca
1529 laying their petitions before Monsieur Buonaparte, and Monsieur
1530 Buonaparte sitting on a throne and granting the petitions of the
1531 nations? Adorable! It is enough to make one's head whirl! It is as if
1532 the whole world had gone crazy."
1534 Prince Andrew looked Anna Pavlovna straight in the face with a sarcastic
1537 "'Dieu me la donne, gare a qui la touche!' * They say he was very fine
1538 when he said that," he remarked, repeating the words in Italian: "'Dio
1539 mi l'ha dato. Guai a chi la tocchi!'"
1542 * God has given it to me, let him who touches it beware!
1544 "I hope this will prove the last drop that will make the glass run
1545 over," Anna Pavlovna continued. "The sovereigns will not be able to
1546 endure this man who is a menace to everything."
1548 "The sovereigns? I do not speak of Russia," said the vicomte, polite but
1549 hopeless: "The sovereigns, madame... What have they done for Louis XVII,
1550 for the Queen, or for Madame Elizabeth? Nothing!" and he became more
1551 animated. "And believe me, they are reaping the reward of their betrayal
1552 of the Bourbon cause. The sovereigns! Why, they are sending ambassadors
1553 to compliment the usurper."
1555 And sighing disdainfully, he again changed his position.
1557 Prince Hippolyte, who had been gazing at the vicomte for some time
1558 through his lorgnette, suddenly turned completely round toward the
1559 little princess, and having asked for a needle began tracing the Conde
1560 coat of arms on the table. He explained this to her with as much gravity
1561 as if she had asked him to do it.
1563 "Baton de gueules, engrele de gueules d'azur--maison Conde," said he.
1565 The princess listened, smiling.
1567 "If Buonaparte remains on the throne of France a year longer," the
1568 vicomte continued, with the air of a man who, in a matter with which he
1569 is better acquainted than anyone else, does not listen to others but
1570 follows the current of his own thoughts, "things will have gone too far.
1571 By intrigues, violence, exile, and executions, French society--I mean
1572 good French society--will have been forever destroyed, and then..."
1574 He shrugged his shoulders and spread out his hands. Pierre wished to
1575 make a remark, for the conversation interested him, but Anna Pavlovna,
1576 who had him under observation, interrupted:
1578 "The Emperor Alexander," said she, with the melancholy which always
1579 accompanied any reference of hers to the Imperial family, "has declared
1580 that he will leave it to the French people themselves to choose their
1581 own form of government; and I believe that once free from the usurper,
1582 the whole nation will certainly throw itself into the arms of its
1583 rightful king," she concluded, trying to be amiable to the royalist
1586 "That is doubtful," said Prince Andrew. "Monsieur le Vicomte quite
1587 rightly supposes that matters have already gone too far. I think it will
1588 be difficult to return to the old regime."
1590 "From what I have heard," said Pierre, blushing and breaking into the
1591 conversation, "almost all the aristocracy has already gone over to
1594 "It is the Buonapartists who say that," replied the vicomte without
1595 looking at Pierre. "At the present time it is difficult to know the real
1596 state of French public opinion."
1598 "Bonaparte has said so," remarked Prince Andrew with a sarcastic smile.
1600 It was evident that he did not like the vicomte and was aiming his
1601 remarks at him, though without looking at him.
1603 "'I showed them the path to glory, but they did not follow it,'" Prince
1604 Andrew continued after a short silence, again quoting Napoleon's words.
1605 "'I opened my antechambers and they crowded in.' I do not know how far
1606 he was justified in saying so."
1608 "Not in the least," replied the vicomte. "After the murder of the duc
1609 even the most partial ceased to regard him as a hero. If to some
1610 people," he went on, turning to Anna Pavlovna, "he ever was a hero,
1611 after the murder of the duc there was one martyr more in heaven and one
1612 hero less on earth."
1614 Before Anna Pavlovna and the others had time to smile their appreciation
1615 of the vicomte's epigram, Pierre again broke into the conversation, and
1616 though Anna Pavlovna felt sure he would say something inappropriate, she
1617 was unable to stop him.
1619 "The execution of the Duc d'Enghien," declared Monsieur Pierre, "was a
1620 political necessity, and it seems to me that Napoleon showed greatness
1621 of soul by not fearing to take on himself the whole responsibility of
1624 "Dieu! Mon Dieu!" muttered Anna Pavlovna in a terrified whisper.
1626 "What, Monsieur Pierre... Do you consider that assassination shows
1627 greatness of soul?" said the little princess, smiling and drawing her
1630 "Oh! Oh!" exclaimed several voices.
1632 "Capital!" said Prince Hippolyte in English, and began slapping his knee
1633 with the palm of his hand.
1635 The vicomte merely shrugged his shoulders. Pierre looked solemnly at his
1636 audience over his spectacles and continued.
1638 "I say so," he continued desperately, "because the Bourbons fled from
1639 the Revolution leaving the people to anarchy, and Napoleon alone
1640 understood the Revolution and quelled it, and so for the general good,
1641 he could not stop short for the sake of one man's life."
1643 "Won't you come over to the other table?" suggested Anna Pavlovna.
1645 But Pierre continued his speech without heeding her.
1647 "No," cried he, becoming more and more eager, "Napoleon is great because
1648 he rose superior to the Revolution, suppressed its abuses, preserved all
1649 that was good in it--equality of citizenship and freedom of speech and
1650 of the press--and only for that reason did he obtain power."
1652 "Yes, if having obtained power, without availing himself of it to commit
1653 murder he had restored it to the rightful king, I should have called him
1654 a great man," remarked the vicomte.
1656 "He could not do that. The people only gave him power that he might rid
1657 them of the Bourbons and because they saw that he was a great man. The
1658 Revolution was a grand thing!" continued Monsieur Pierre, betraying by
1659 this desperate and provocative proposition his extreme youth and his
1660 wish to express all that was in his mind.
1662 "What? Revolution and regicide a grand thing?... Well, after that... But
1663 won't you come to this other table?" repeated Anna Pavlovna.
1665 "Rousseau's Contrat Social," said the vicomte with a tolerant smile.
1667 "I am not speaking of regicide, I am speaking about ideas."
1669 "Yes: ideas of robbery, murder, and regicide," again interjected an
1672 "Those were extremes, no doubt, but they are not what is most important.
1673 What is important are the rights of man, emancipation from prejudices,
1674 and equality of citizenship, and all these ideas Napoleon has retained
1677 "Liberty and equality," said the vicomte contemptuously, as if at last
1678 deciding seriously to prove to this youth how foolish his words were,
1679 "high-sounding words which have long been discredited. Who does not love
1680 liberty and equality? Even our Saviour preached liberty and equality.
1681 Have people since the Revolution become happier? On the contrary. We
1682 wanted liberty, but Buonaparte has destroyed it."
1684 Prince Andrew kept looking with an amused smile from Pierre to the
1685 vicomte and from the vicomte to their hostess. In the first moment of
1686 Pierre's outburst Anna Pavlovna, despite her social experience, was
1687 horror-struck. But when she saw that Pierre's sacrilegious words had not
1688 exasperated the vicomte, and had convinced herself that it was
1689 impossible to stop him, she rallied her forces and joined the vicomte in
1690 a vigorous attack on the orator.
1692 "But, my dear Monsieur Pierre," said she, "how do you explain the fact
1693 of a great man executing a duc--or even an ordinary man who--is innocent
1696 "I should like," said the vicomte, "to ask how monsieur explains the
1697 18th Brumaire; was not that an imposture? It was a swindle, and not at
1698 all like the conduct of a great man!"
1700 "And the prisoners he killed in Africa? That was horrible!" said the
1701 little princess, shrugging her shoulders.
1703 "He's a low fellow, say what you will," remarked Prince Hippolyte.
1705 Pierre, not knowing whom to answer, looked at them all and smiled. His
1706 smile was unlike the half-smile of other people. When he smiled, his
1707 grave, even rather gloomy, look was instantaneously replaced by another-
1708 -a childlike, kindly, even rather silly look, which seemed to ask
1711 The vicomte who was meeting him for the first time saw clearly that this
1712 young Jacobin was not so terrible as his words suggested. All were
1715 "How do you expect him to answer you all at once?" said Prince Andrew.
1716 "Besides, in the actions of a statesman one has to distinguish between
1717 his acts as a private person, as a general, and as an emperor. So it
1720 "Yes, yes, of course!" Pierre chimed in, pleased at the arrival of this
1723 "One must admit," continued Prince Andrew, "that Napoleon as a man was
1724 great on the bridge of Arcola, and in the hospital at Jaffa where he
1725 gave his hand to the plague-stricken; but... but there are other acts
1726 which it is difficult to justify."
1728 Prince Andrew, who had evidently wished to tone down the awkwardness of
1729 Pierre's remarks, rose and made a sign to his wife that it was time to
1732 Suddenly Prince Hippolyte started up making signs to everyone to attend,
1733 and asking them all to be seated began:
1735 "I was told a charming Moscow story today and must treat you to it.
1736 Excuse me, Vicomte--I must tell it in Russian or the point will be
1737 lost...." And Prince Hippolyte began to tell his story in such Russian
1738 as a Frenchman would speak after spending about a year in Russia.
1739 Everyone waited, so emphatically and eagerly did he demand their
1740 attention to his story.
1742 "There is in Moscow a lady, une dame, and she is very stingy. She must
1743 have two footmen behind her carriage, and very big ones. That was her
1744 taste. And she had a lady's maid, also big. She said..."
1746 Here Prince Hippolyte paused, evidently collecting his ideas with
1749 "She said... Oh yes! She said, 'Girl,' to the maid, 'put on a livery,
1750 get up behind the carriage, and come with me while I make some calls.'"
1752 Here Prince Hippolyte spluttered and burst out laughing long before his
1753 audience, which produced an effect unfavorable to the narrator. Several
1754 persons, among them the elderly lady and Anna Pavlovna, did however
1757 "She went. Suddenly there was a great wind. The girl lost her hat and
1758 her long hair came down...." Here he could contain himself no longer and
1759 went on, between gasps of laughter: "And the whole world knew...."
1761 And so the anecdote ended. Though it was unintelligible why he had told
1762 it, or why it had to be told in Russian, still Anna Pavlovna and the
1763 others appreciated Prince Hippolyte's social tact in so agreeably ending
1764 Pierre's unpleasant and unamiable outburst. After the anecdote the
1765 conversation broke up into insignificant small talk about the last and
1766 next balls, about theatricals, and who would meet whom, and when and
1774 Having thanked Anna Pavlovna for her charming soiree, the guests began
1775 to take their leave.
1777 Pierre was ungainly. Stout, about the average height, broad, with huge
1778 red hands; he did not know, as the saying is, how to enter a drawing
1779 room and still less how to leave one; that is, how to say something
1780 particularly agreeable before going away. Besides this he was absent-
1781 minded. When he rose to go, he took up instead of his own, the general's
1782 three-cornered hat, and held it, pulling at the plume, till the general
1783 asked him to restore it. All his absent-mindedness and inability to
1784 enter a room and converse in it was, however, redeemed by his kindly,
1785 simple, and modest expression. Anna Pavlovna turned toward him and, with
1786 a Christian mildness that expressed forgiveness of his indiscretion,
1787 nodded and said: "I hope to see you again, but I also hope you will
1788 change your opinions, my dear Monsieur Pierre."
1790 When she said this, he did not reply and only bowed, but again everybody
1791 saw his smile, which said nothing, unless perhaps, "Opinions are
1792 opinions, but you see what a capital, good-natured fellow I am." And
1793 everyone, including Anna Pavlovna, felt this.
1795 Prince Andrew had gone out into the hall, and, turning his shoulders to
1796 the footman who was helping him on with his cloak, listened
1797 indifferently to his wife's chatter with Prince Hippolyte who had also
1798 come into the hall. Prince Hippolyte stood close to the pretty, pregnant
1799 princess, and stared fixedly at her through his eyeglass.
1801 "Go in, Annette, or you will catch cold," said the little princess,
1802 taking leave of Anna Pavlovna. "It is settled," she added in a low
1805 Anna Pavlovna had already managed to speak to Lise about the match she
1806 contemplated between Anatole and the little princess' sister-in-law.
1808 "I rely on you, my dear," said Anna Pavlovna, also in a low tone. "Write
1809 to her and let me know how her father looks at the matter. Au revoir!"--
1810 and she left the hall.
1812 Prince Hippolyte approached the little princess and, bending his face
1813 close to her, began to whisper something.
1815 Two footmen, the princess' and his own, stood holding a shawl and a
1816 cloak, waiting for the conversation to finish. They listened to the
1817 French sentences which to them were meaningless, with an air of
1818 understanding but not wishing to appear to do so. The princess as usual
1819 spoke smilingly and listened with a laugh.
1821 "I am very glad I did not go to the ambassador's," said Prince Hippolyte
1822 "-so dull-. It has been a delightful evening, has it not? Delightful!"
1824 "They say the ball will be very good," replied the princess, drawing up
1825 her downy little lip. "All the pretty women in society will be there."
1827 "Not all, for you will not be there; not all," said Prince Hippolyte
1828 smiling joyfully; and snatching the shawl from the footman, whom he even
1829 pushed aside, he began wrapping it round the princess. Either from
1830 awkwardness or intentionally (no one could have said which) after the
1831 shawl had been adjusted he kept his arm around her for a long time, as
1832 though embracing her.
1834 Still smiling, she gracefully moved away, turning and glancing at her
1835 husband. Prince Andrew's eyes were closed, so weary and sleepy did he
1838 "Are you ready?" he asked his wife, looking past her.
1840 Prince Hippolyte hurriedly put on his cloak, which in the latest fashion
1841 reached to his very heels, and, stumbling in it, ran out into the porch
1842 following the princess, whom a footman was helping into the carriage.
1844 "Princesse, au revoir," cried he, stumbling with his tongue as well as
1847 The princess, picking up her dress, was taking her seat in the dark
1848 carriage, her husband was adjusting his saber; Prince Hippolyte, under
1849 pretense of helping, was in everyone's way.
1851 "Allow me, sir," said Prince Andrew in Russian in a cold, disagreeable
1852 tone to Prince Hippolyte who was blocking his path.
1854 "I am expecting you, Pierre," said the same voice, but gently and
1857 The postilion started, the carriage wheels rattled. Prince Hippolyte
1858 laughed spasmodically as he stood in the porch waiting for the vicomte
1859 whom he had promised to take home.
1861 "Well, mon cher," said the vicomte, having seated himself beside
1862 Hippolyte in the carriage, "your little princess is very nice, very nice
1863 indeed, quite French," and he kissed the tips of his fingers. Hippolyte
1866 "Do you know, you are a terrible chap for all your innocent airs,"
1867 continued the vicomte. "I pity the poor husband, that little officer who
1868 gives himself the airs of a monarch."
1870 Hippolyte spluttered again, and amid his laughter said, "And you were
1871 saying that the Russian ladies are not equal to the French? One has to
1872 know how to deal with them."
1874 Pierre reaching the house first went into Prince Andrew's study like one
1875 quite at home, and from habit immediately lay down on the sofa, took
1876 from the shelf the first book that came to his hand (it was Caesar's
1877 Commentaries), and resting on his elbow, began reading it in the middle.
1879 "What have you done to Mlle Scherer? She will be quite ill now," said
1880 Prince Andrew, as he entered the study, rubbing his small white hands.
1882 Pierre turned his whole body, making the sofa creak. He lifted his eager
1883 face to Prince Andrew, smiled, and waved his hand.
1885 "That abbe is very interesting but he does not see the thing in the
1886 right light.... In my opinion perpetual peace is possible but--I do not
1887 know how to express it... not by a balance of political power...."
1889 It was evident that Prince Andrew was not interested in such abstract
1892 "One can't everywhere say all one thinks, mon cher. Well, have you at
1893 last decided on anything? Are you going to be a guardsman or a
1894 diplomatist?" asked Prince Andrew after a momentary silence.
1896 Pierre sat up on the sofa, with his legs tucked under him.
1898 "Really, I don't yet know. I don't like either the one or the other."
1900 "But you must decide on something! Your father expects it."
1902 Pierre at the age of ten had been sent abroad with an abbe as tutor, and
1903 had remained away till he was twenty. When he returned to Moscow his
1904 father dismissed the abbe and said to the young man, "Now go to
1905 Petersburg, look round, and choose your profession. I will agree to
1906 anything. Here is a letter to Prince Vasili, and here is money. Write to
1907 me all about it, and I will help you in everything." Pierre had already
1908 been choosing a career for three months, and had not decided on
1909 anything. It was about this choice that Prince Andrew was speaking.
1910 Pierre rubbed his forehead.
1912 "But he must be a Freemason," said he, referring to the abbe whom he had
1915 "That is all nonsense." Prince Andrew again interrupted him, "let us
1916 talk business. Have you been to the Horse Guards?"
1918 "No, I have not; but this is what I have been thinking and wanted to
1919 tell you. There is a war now against Napoleon. If it were a war for
1920 freedom I could understand it and should be the first to enter the army;
1921 but to help England and Austria against the greatest man in the world is
1924 Prince Andrew only shrugged his shoulders at Pierre's childish words. He
1925 put on the air of one who finds it impossible to reply to such nonsense,
1926 but it would in fact have been difficult to give any other answer than
1927 the one Prince Andrew gave to this naive question.
1929 "If no one fought except on his own conviction, there would be no wars,"
1932 "And that would be splendid," said Pierre.
1934 Prince Andrew smiled ironically.
1936 "Very likely it would be splendid, but it will never come about..."
1938 "Well, why are you going to the war?" asked Pierre.
1940 "What for? I don't know. I must. Besides that I am going..." He paused.
1941 "I am going because the life I am leading here does not suit me!"
1948 The rustle of a woman's dress was heard in the next room. Prince Andrew
1949 shook himself as if waking up, and his face assumed the look it had had
1950 in Anna Pavlovna's drawing room. Pierre removed his feet from the sofa.
1951 The princess came in. She had changed her gown for a house dress as
1952 fresh and elegant as the other. Prince Andrew rose and politely placed a
1955 "How is it," she began, as usual in French, settling down briskly and
1956 fussily in the easy chair, "how is it Annette never got married? How
1957 stupid you men all are not to have married her! Excuse me for saying so,
1958 but you have no sense about women. What an argumentative fellow you are,
1961 "And I am still arguing with your husband. I can't understand why he
1962 wants to go to the war," replied Pierre, addressing the princess with
1963 none of the embarrassment so commonly shown by young men in their
1964 intercourse with young women.
1966 The princess started. Evidently Pierre's words touched her to the quick.
1968 "Ah, that is just what I tell him!" said she. "I don't understand it; I
1969 don't in the least understand why men can't live without wars. How is it
1970 that we women don't want anything of the kind, don't need it? Now you
1971 shall judge between us. I always tell him: Here he is Uncle's aide-de-
1972 camp, a most brilliant position. He is so well known, so much
1973 appreciated by everyone. The other day at the Apraksins' I heard a lady
1974 asking, 'Is that the famous Prince Andrew?' I did indeed." She laughed.
1975 "He is so well received everywhere. He might easily become aide-de-camp
1976 to the Emperor. You know the Emperor spoke to him most graciously.
1977 Annette and I were speaking of how to arrange it. What do you think?"
1979 Pierre looked at his friend and, noticing that he did not like the
1980 conversation, gave no reply.
1982 "When are you starting?" he asked.
1984 "Oh, don't speak of his going, don't! I won't hear it spoken of," said
1985 the princess in the same petulantly playful tone in which she had spoken
1986 to Hippolyte in the drawing room and which was so plainly ill-suited to
1987 the family circle of which Pierre was almost a member. "Today when I
1988 remembered that all these delightful associations must be broken off...
1989 and then you know, Andre..." (she looked significantly at her husband)
1990 "I'm afraid, I'm afraid!" she whispered, and a shudder ran down her
1993 Her husband looked at her as if surprised to notice that someone besides
1994 Pierre and himself was in the room, and addressed her in a tone of
1997 "What is it you are afraid of, Lise? I don't understand," said he.
1999 "There, what egotists men all are: all, all egotists! Just for a whim of
2000 his own, goodness only knows why, he leaves me and locks me up alone in
2003 "With my father and sister, remember," said Prince Andrew gently.
2005 "Alone all the same, without my friends.... And he expects me not to be
2008 Her tone was now querulous and her lip drawn up, giving her not a
2009 joyful, but an animal, squirrel-like expression. She paused as if she
2010 felt it indecorous to speak of her pregnancy before Pierre, though the
2011 gist of the matter lay in that.
2013 "I still can't understand what you are afraid of," said Prince Andrew
2014 slowly, not taking his eyes off his wife.
2016 The princess blushed, and raised her arms with a gesture of despair.
2018 "No, Andrew, I must say you have changed. Oh, how you have..."
2020 "Your doctor tells you to go to bed earlier," said Prince Andrew. "You
2023 The princess said nothing, but suddenly her short downy lip quivered.
2024 Prince Andrew rose, shrugged his shoulders, and walked about the room.
2026 Pierre looked over his spectacles with naive surprise, now at him and
2027 now at her, moved as if about to rise too, but changed his mind.
2029 "Why should I mind Monsieur Pierre being here?" exclaimed the little
2030 princess suddenly, her pretty face all at once distorted by a tearful
2031 grimace. "I have long wanted to ask you, Andrew, why you have changed so
2032 to me? What have I done to you? You are going to the war and have no
2033 pity for me. Why is it?"
2035 "Lise!" was all Prince Andrew said. But that one word expressed an
2036 entreaty, a threat, and above all conviction that she would herself
2037 regret her words. But she went on hurriedly:
2039 "You treat me like an invalid or a child. I see it all! Did you behave
2040 like that six months ago?"
2042 "Lise, I beg you to desist," said Prince Andrew still more emphatically.
2044 Pierre, who had been growing more and more agitated as he listened to
2045 all this, rose and approached the princess. He seemed unable to bear the
2046 sight of tears and was ready to cry himself.
2048 "Calm yourself, Princess! It seems so to you because... I assure you I
2049 myself have experienced... and so... because... No, excuse me! An
2050 outsider is out of place here... No, don't distress yourself... Good-
2053 Prince Andrew caught him by the hand.
2055 "No, wait, Pierre! The princess is too kind to wish to deprive me of the
2056 pleasure of spending the evening with you."
2058 "No, he thinks only of himself," muttered the princess without
2059 restraining her angry tears.
2061 "Lise!" said Prince Andrew dryly, raising his voice to the pitch which
2062 indicates that patience is exhausted.
2064 Suddenly the angry, squirrel-like expression of the princess' pretty
2065 face changed into a winning and piteous look of fear. Her beautiful eyes
2066 glanced askance at her husband's face, and her own assumed the timid,
2067 deprecating expression of a dog when it rapidly but feebly wags its
2070 "Mon Dieu, mon Dieu!" she muttered, and lifting her dress with one hand
2071 she went up to her husband and kissed him on the forehead.
2073 "Good night, Lise," said he, rising and courteously kissing her hand as
2074 he would have done to a stranger.
2081 The friends were silent. Neither cared to begin talking. Pierre
2082 continually glanced at Prince Andrew; Prince Andrew rubbed his forehead
2083 with his small hand.
2085 "Let us go and have supper," he said with a sigh, going to the door.
2087 They entered the elegant, newly decorated, and luxurious dining room.
2088 Everything from the table napkins to the silver, china, and glass bore
2089 that imprint of newness found in the households of the newly married.
2090 Halfway through supper Prince Andrew leaned his elbows on the table and,
2091 with a look of nervous agitation such as Pierre had never before seen on
2092 his face, began to talk--as one who has long had something on his mind
2093 and suddenly determines to speak out.
2095 "Never, never marry, my dear fellow! That's my advice: never marry till
2096 you can say to yourself that you have done all you are capable of, and
2097 until you have ceased to love the woman of your choice and have seen her
2098 plainly as she is, or else you will make a cruel and irrevocable
2099 mistake. Marry when you are old and good for nothing--or all that is
2100 good and noble in you will be lost. It will all be wasted on trifles.
2101 Yes! Yes! Yes! Don't look at me with such surprise. If you marry
2102 expecting anything from yourself in the future, you will feel at every
2103 step that for you all is ended, all is closed except the drawing room,
2104 where you will be ranged side by side with a court lackey and an
2105 idiot!... But what's the good?..." and he waved his arm.
2107 Pierre took off his spectacles, which made his face seem different and
2108 the good-natured expression still more apparent, and gazed at his friend
2111 "My wife," continued Prince Andrew, "is an excellent woman, one of those
2112 rare women with whom a man's honor is safe; but, O God, what would I not
2113 give now to be unmarried! You are the first and only one to whom I
2114 mention this, because I like you."
2116 As he said this Prince Andrew was less than ever like that Bolkonski who
2117 had lolled in Anna Pavlovna's easy chairs and with half-closed eyes had
2118 uttered French phrases between his teeth. Every muscle of his thin face
2119 was now quivering with nervous excitement; his eyes, in which the fire
2120 of life had seemed extinguished, now flashed with brilliant light. It
2121 was evident that the more lifeless he seemed at ordinary times, the more
2122 impassioned he became in these moments of almost morbid irritation.
2124 "You don't understand why I say this," he continued, "but it is the
2125 whole story of life. You talk of Bonaparte and his career," said he
2126 (though Pierre had not mentioned Bonaparte), "but Bonaparte when he
2127 worked went step by step toward his goal. He was free, he had nothing
2128 but his aim to consider, and he reached it. But tie yourself up with a
2129 woman and, like a chained convict, you lose all freedom! And all you
2130 have of hope and strength merely weighs you down and torments you with
2131 regret. Drawing rooms, gossip, balls, vanity, and triviality--these are
2132 the enchanted circle I cannot escape from. I am now going to the war,
2133 the greatest war there ever was, and I know nothing and am fit for
2134 nothing. I am very amiable and have a caustic wit," continued Prince
2135 Andrew, "and at Anna Pavlovna's they listen to me. And that stupid set
2136 without whom my wife cannot exist, and those women... If you only knew
2137 what those society women are, and women in general! My father is right.
2138 Selfish, vain, stupid, trivial in everything--that's what women are when
2139 you see them in their true colors! When you meet them in society it
2140 seems as if there were something in them, but there's nothing, nothing,
2141 nothing! No, don't marry, my dear fellow; don't marry!" concluded Prince
2144 "It seems funny to me," said Pierre, "that you, you should consider
2145 yourself incapable and your life a spoiled life. You have everything
2146 before you, everything. And you..."
2148 He did not finish his sentence, but his tone showed how highly he
2149 thought of his friend and how much he expected of him in the future.
2151 "How can he talk like that?" thought Pierre. He considered his friend a
2152 model of perfection because Prince Andrew possessed in the highest
2153 degree just the very qualities Pierre lacked, and which might be best
2154 described as strength of will. Pierre was always astonished at Prince
2155 Andrew's calm manner of treating everybody, his extraordinary memory,
2156 his extensive reading (he had read everything, knew everything, and had
2157 an opinion about everything), but above all at his capacity for work and
2158 study. And if Pierre was often struck by Andrew's lack of capacity for
2159 philosophical meditation (to which he himself was particularly
2160 addicted), he regarded even this not as a defect but as a sign of
2163 Even in the best, most friendly and simplest relations of life, praise
2164 and commendation are essential, just as grease is necessary to wheels
2165 that they may run smoothly.
2167 "My part is played out," said Prince Andrew. "What's the use of talking
2168 about me? Let us talk about you," he added after a silence, smiling at
2169 his reassuring thoughts.
2171 That smile was immediately reflected on Pierre's face.
2173 "But what is there to say about me?" said Pierre, his face relaxing into
2174 a careless, merry smile. "What am I? An illegitimate son!" He suddenly
2175 blushed crimson, and it was plain that he had made a great effort to say
2176 this. "Without a name and without means... And it really..." But he did
2177 not say what "it really" was. "For the present I am free and am all
2178 right. Only I haven't the least idea what I am to do; I wanted to
2179 consult you seriously."
2181 Prince Andrew looked kindly at him, yet his glance--friendly and
2182 affectionate as it was--expressed a sense of his own superiority.
2184 "I am fond of you, especially as you are the one live man among our
2185 whole set. Yes, you're all right! Choose what you will; it's all the
2186 same. You'll be all right anywhere. But look here: give up visiting
2187 those Kuragins and leading that sort of life. It suits you so badly--all
2188 this debauchery, dissipation, and the rest of it!"
2190 "What would you have, my dear fellow?" answered Pierre, shrugging his
2191 shoulders. "Women, my dear fellow; women!"
2193 "I don't understand it," replied Prince Andrew. "Women who are comme il
2194 faut, that's a different matter; but the Kuragins' set of women, 'women
2195 and wine' I don't understand!"
2197 Pierre was staying at Prince Vasili Kuragin's and sharing the dissipated
2198 life of his son Anatole, the son whom they were planning to reform by
2199 marrying him to Prince Andrew's sister.
2201 "Do you know?" said Pierre, as if suddenly struck by a happy thought,
2202 "seriously, I have long been thinking of it.... Leading such a life I
2203 can't decide or think properly about anything. One's head aches, and one
2204 spends all one's money. He asked me for tonight, but I won't go."
2206 "You give me your word of honor not to go?"
2215 It was past one o'clock when Pierre left his friend. It was a cloudless,
2216 northern, summer night. Pierre took an open cab intending to drive
2217 straight home. But the nearer he drew to the house the more he felt the
2218 impossibility of going to sleep on such a night. It was light enough to
2219 see a long way in the deserted street and it seemed more like morning or
2220 evening than night. On the way Pierre remembered that Anatole Kuragin
2221 was expecting the usual set for cards that evening, after which there
2222 was generally a drinking bout, finishing with visits of a kind Pierre
2225 "I should like to go to Kuragin's," thought he.
2227 But he immediately recalled his promise to Prince Andrew not to go
2228 there. Then, as happens to people of weak character, he desired so
2229 passionately once more to enjoy that dissipation he was so accustomed to
2230 that he decided to go. The thought immediately occurred to him that his
2231 promise to Prince Andrew was of no account, because before he gave it he
2232 had already promised Prince Anatole to come to his gathering; "besides,"
2233 thought he, "all such 'words of honor' are conventional things with no
2234 definite meaning, especially if one considers that by tomorrow one may
2235 be dead, or something so extraordinary may happen to one that honor and
2236 dishonor will be all the same!" Pierre often indulged in reflections of
2237 this sort, nullifying all his decisions and intentions. He went to
2240 Reaching the large house near the Horse Guards' barracks, in which
2241 Anatole lived, Pierre entered the lighted porch, ascended the stairs,
2242 and went in at the open door. There was no one in the anteroom; empty
2243 bottles, cloaks, and overshoes were lying about; there was a smell of
2244 alcohol, and sounds of voices and shouting in the distance.
2246 Cards and supper were over, but the visitors had not yet dispersed.
2247 Pierre threw off his cloak and entered the first room, in which were the
2248 remains of supper. A footman, thinking no one saw him, was drinking on
2249 the sly what was left in the glasses. From the third room came sounds of
2250 laughter, the shouting of familiar voices, the growling of a bear, and
2251 general commotion. Some eight or nine young men were crowding anxiously
2252 round an open window. Three others were romping with a young bear, one
2253 pulling him by the chain and trying to set him at the others.
2255 "I bet a hundred on Stevens!" shouted one.
2257 "Mind, no holding on!" cried another.
2259 "I bet on Dolokhov!" cried a third. "Kuragin, you part our hands."
2261 "There, leave Bruin alone; here's a bet on."
2263 "At one draught, or he loses!" shouted a fourth.
2265 "Jacob, bring a bottle!" shouted the host, a tall, handsome fellow who
2266 stood in the midst of the group, without a coat, and with his fine linen
2267 shirt unfastened in front. "Wait a bit, you fellows.... Here is Petya!
2268 Good man!" cried he, addressing Pierre.
2270 Another voice, from a man of medium height with clear blue eyes,
2271 particularly striking among all these drunken voices by its sober ring,
2272 cried from the window: "Come here; part the bets!" This was Dolokhov, an
2273 officer of the Semenov regiment, a notorious gambler and duelist, who
2274 was living with Anatole. Pierre smiled, looking about him merrily.
2276 "I don't understand. What's it all about?"
2278 "Wait a bit, he is not drunk yet! A bottle here," said Anatole, taking a
2279 glass from the table he went up to Pierre.
2281 "First of all you must drink!"
2283 Pierre drank one glass after another, looking from under his brows at
2284 the tipsy guests who were again crowding round the window, and listening
2285 to their chatter. Anatole kept on refilling Pierre's glass while
2286 explaining that Dolokhov was betting with Stevens, an English naval
2287 officer, that he would drink a bottle of rum sitting on the outer ledge
2288 of the third floor window with his legs hanging out.
2290 "Go on, you must drink it all," said Anatole, giving Pierre the last
2291 glass, "or I won't let you go!"
2293 "No, I won't," said Pierre, pushing Anatole aside, and he went up to the
2296 Dolokhov was holding the Englishman's hand and clearly and distinctly
2297 repeating the terms of the bet, addressing himself particularly to
2300 Dolokhov was of medium height, with curly hair and light-blue eyes. He
2301 was about twenty-five. Like all infantry officers he wore no mustache,
2302 so that his mouth, the most striking feature of his face, was clearly
2303 seen. The lines of that mouth were remarkably finely curved. The middle
2304 of the upper lip formed a sharp wedge and closed firmly on the firm
2305 lower one, and something like two distinct smiles played continually
2306 round the two corners of the mouth; this, together with the resolute,
2307 insolent intelligence of his eyes, produced an effect which made it
2308 impossible not to notice his face. Dolokhov was a man of small means and
2309 no connections. Yet, though Anatole spent tens of thousands of rubles,
2310 Dolokhov lived with him and had placed himself on such a footing that
2311 all who knew them, including Anatole himself, respected him more than
2312 they did Anatole. Dolokhov could play all games and nearly always won.
2313 However much he drank, he never lost his clearheadedness. Both Kuragin
2314 and Dolokhov were at that time notorious among the rakes and scapegraces
2317 The bottle of rum was brought. The window frame which prevented anyone
2318 from sitting on the outer sill was being forced out by two footmen, who
2319 were evidently flurried and intimidated by the directions and shouts of
2320 the gentlemen around.
2322 Anatole with his swaggering air strode up to the window. He wanted to
2323 smash something. Pushing away the footmen he tugged at the frame, but
2324 could not move it. He smashed a pane.
2326 "You have a try, Hercules," said he, turning to Pierre.
2328 Pierre seized the crossbeam, tugged, and wrenched the oak frame out with
2331 "Take it right out, or they'll think I'm holding on," said Dolokhov.
2333 "Is the Englishman bragging?... Eh? Is it all right?" said Anatole.
2335 "First-rate," said Pierre, looking at Dolokhov, who with a bottle of rum
2336 in his hand was approaching the window, from which the light of the sky,
2337 the dawn merging with the afterglow of sunset, was visible.
2339 Dolokhov, the bottle of rum still in his hand, jumped onto the window
2340 sill. "Listen!" cried he, standing there and addressing those in the
2341 room. All were silent.
2343 "I bet fifty imperials"--he spoke French that the Englishman might
2344 understand him, but he did not speak it very well--"I bet fifty
2345 imperials... or do you wish to make it a hundred?" added he, addressing
2348 "No, fifty," replied the latter.
2350 "All right. Fifty imperials... that I will drink a whole bottle of rum
2351 without taking it from my mouth, sitting outside the window on this
2352 spot" (he stooped and pointed to the sloping ledge outside the window)
2353 "and without holding on to anything. Is that right?"
2355 "Quite right," said the Englishman.
2357 Anatole turned to the Englishman and taking him by one of the buttons of
2358 his coat and looking down at him--the Englishman was short--began
2359 repeating the terms of the wager to him in English.
2361 "Wait!" cried Dolokhov, hammering with the bottle on the window sill to
2362 attract attention. "Wait a bit, Kuragin. Listen! If anyone else does the
2363 same, I will pay him a hundred imperials. Do you understand?"
2365 The Englishman nodded, but gave no indication whether he intended to
2366 accept this challenge or not. Anatole did not release him, and though he
2367 kept nodding to show that he understood, Anatole went on translating
2368 Dolokhov's words into English. A thin young lad, an hussar of the Life
2369 Guards, who had been losing that evening, climbed on the window sill,
2370 leaned over, and looked down.
2372 "Oh! Oh! Oh!" he muttered, looking down from the window at the stones of
2375 "Shut up!" cried Dolokhov, pushing him away from the window. The lad
2376 jumped awkwardly back into the room, tripping over his spurs.
2378 Placing the bottle on the window sill where he could reach it easily,
2379 Dolokhov climbed carefully and slowly through the window and lowered his
2380 legs. Pressing against both sides of the window, he adjusted himself on
2381 his seat, lowered his hands, moved a little to the right and then to the
2382 left, and took up the bottle. Anatole brought two candles and placed
2383 them on the window sill, though it was already quite light. Dolokhov's
2384 back in his white shirt, and his curly head, were lit up from both
2385 sides. Everyone crowded to the window, the Englishman in front. Pierre
2386 stood smiling but silent. One man, older than the others present,
2387 suddenly pushed forward with a scared and angry look and wanted to seize
2388 hold of Dolokhov's shirt.
2390 "I say, this is folly! He'll be killed," said this more sensible man.
2392 Anatole stopped him.
2394 "Don't touch him! You'll startle him and then he'll be killed. Eh?...
2397 Dolokhov turned round and, again holding on with both hands, arranged
2398 himself on his seat.
2400 "If anyone comes meddling again," said he, emitting the words separately
2401 through his thin compressed lips, "I will throw him down there. Now
2404 Saying this he again turned round, dropped his hands, took the bottle
2405 and lifted it to his lips, threw back his head, and raised his free hand
2406 to balance himself. One of the footmen who had stooped to pick up some
2407 broken glass remained in that position without taking his eyes from the
2408 window and from Dolokhov's back. Anatole stood erect with staring eyes.
2409 The Englishman looked on sideways, pursing up his lips. The man who had
2410 wished to stop the affair ran to a corner of the room and threw himself
2411 on a sofa with his face to the wall. Pierre hid his face, from which a
2412 faint smile forgot to fade though his features now expressed horror and
2413 fear. All were still. Pierre took his hands from his eyes. Dolokhov
2414 still sat in the same position, only his head was thrown further back
2415 till his curly hair touched his shirt collar, and the hand holding the
2416 bottle was lifted higher and higher and trembled with the effort. The
2417 bottle was emptying perceptibly and rising still higher and his head
2418 tilting yet further back. "Why is it so long?" thought Pierre. It seemed
2419 to him that more than half an hour had elapsed. Suddenly Dolokhov made a
2420 backward movement with his spine, and his arm trembled nervously; this
2421 was sufficient to cause his whole body to slip as he sat on the sloping
2422 ledge. As he began slipping down, his head and arm wavered still more
2423 with the strain. One hand moved as if to clutch the window sill, but
2424 refrained from touching it. Pierre again covered his eyes and thought he
2425 would never open them again. Suddenly he was aware of a stir all around.
2426 He looked up: Dolokhov was standing on the window sill, with a pale but
2431 He threw the bottle to the Englishman, who caught it neatly. Dolokhov
2432 jumped down. He smelt strongly of rum.
2434 "Well done!... Fine fellow!... There's a bet for you!... Devil take
2435 you!" came from different sides.
2437 The Englishman took out his purse and began counting out the money.
2438 Dolokhov stood frowning and did not speak. Pierre jumped upon the window
2441 "Gentlemen, who wishes to bet with me? I'll do the same thing!" he
2442 suddenly cried. "Even without a bet, there! Tell them to bring me a
2443 bottle. I'll do it.... Bring a bottle!"
2445 "Let him do it, let him do it," said Dolokhov, smiling.
2447 "What next? Have you gone mad?... No one would let you!... Why, you go
2448 giddy even on a staircase," exclaimed several voices.
2450 "I'll drink it! Let's have a bottle of rum!" shouted Pierre, banging the
2451 table with a determined and drunken gesture and preparing to climb out
2454 They seized him by his arms; but he was so strong that everyone who
2455 touched him was sent flying.
2457 "No, you'll never manage him that way," said Anatole. "Wait a bit and
2458 I'll get round him.... Listen! I'll take your bet tomorrow, but now we
2459 are all going to ----'s."
2461 "Come on then," cried Pierre. "Come on!... And we'll take Bruin with
2464 And he caught the bear, took it in his arms, lifted it from the ground,
2465 and began dancing round the room with it.
2472 Prince Vasili kept the promise he had given to Princess Drubetskaya who
2473 had spoken to him on behalf of her only son Boris on the evening of Anna
2474 Pavlovna's soiree. The matter was mentioned to the Emperor, an exception
2475 made, and Boris transferred into the regiment of Semenov Guards with the
2476 rank of cornet. He received, however, no appointment to Kutuzov's staff
2477 despite all Anna Mikhaylovna's endeavors and entreaties. Soon after Anna
2478 Pavlovna's reception Anna Mikhaylovna returned to Moscow and went
2479 straight to her rich relations, the Rostovs, with whom she stayed when
2480 in the town and where her darling Bory, who had only just entered a
2481 regiment of the line and was being at once transferred to the Guards as
2482 a cornet, had been educated from childhood and lived for years at a
2483 time. The Guards had already left Petersburg on the tenth of August, and
2484 her son, who had remained in Moscow for his equipment, was to join them
2485 on the march to Radzivilov.
2487 It was St. Natalia's day and the name day of two of the Rostovs--the
2488 mother and the youngest daughter--both named Nataly. Ever since the
2489 morning, carriages with six horses had been coming and going
2490 continually, bringing visitors to the Countess Rostova's big house on
2491 the Povarskaya, so well known to all Moscow. The countess herself and
2492 her handsome eldest daughter were in the drawing-room with the visitors
2493 who came to congratulate, and who constantly succeeded one another in
2496 The countess was a woman of about forty-five, with a thin Oriental type
2497 of face, evidently worn out with childbearing--she had had twelve. A
2498 languor of motion and speech, resulting from weakness, gave her a
2499 distinguished air which inspired respect. Princess Anna Mikhaylovna
2500 Drubetskaya, who as a member of the household was also seated in the
2501 drawing room, helped to receive and entertain the visitors. The young
2502 people were in one of the inner rooms, not considering it necessary to
2503 take part in receiving the visitors. The count met the guests and saw
2504 them off, inviting them all to dinner.
2506 "I am very, very grateful to you, mon cher," or "ma chere"--he called
2507 everyone without exception and without the slightest variation in his
2508 tone, "my dear," whether they were above or below him in rank--"I thank
2509 you for myself and for our two dear ones whose name day we are keeping.
2510 But mind you come to dinner or I shall be offended, ma chere! On behalf
2511 of the whole family I beg you to come, mon cher!" These words he
2512 repeated to everyone without exception or variation, and with the same
2513 expression on his full, cheerful, clean-shaven face, the same firm
2514 pressure of the hand and the same quick, repeated bows. As soon as he
2515 had seen a visitor off he returned to one of those who were still in the
2516 drawing room, drew a chair toward him or her, and jauntily spreading out
2517 his legs and putting his hands on his knees with the air of a man who
2518 enjoys life and knows how to live, he swayed to and fro with dignity,
2519 offered surmises about the weather, or touched on questions of health,
2520 sometimes in Russian and sometimes in very bad but self-confident
2521 French; then again, like a man weary but unflinching in the fulfillment
2522 of duty, he rose to see some visitors off and, stroking his scanty gray
2523 hairs over his bald patch, also asked them to dinner. Sometimes on his
2524 way back from the anteroom he would pass through the conservatory and
2525 pantry into the large marble dining hall, where tables were being set
2526 out for eighty people; and looking at the footmen, who were bringing in
2527 silver and china, moving tables, and unfolding damask table linen, he
2528 would call Dmitri Vasilevich, a man of good family and the manager of
2529 all his affairs, and while looking with pleasure at the enormous table
2530 would say: "Well, Dmitri, you'll see that things are all as they should
2531 be? That's right! The great thing is the serving, that's it." And with a
2532 complacent sigh he would return to the drawing room.
2534 "Marya Lvovna Karagina and her daughter!" announced the countess'
2535 gigantic footman in his bass voice, entering the drawing room. The
2536 countess reflected a moment and took a pinch from a gold snuffbox with
2537 her husband's portrait on it.
2539 "I'm quite worn out by these callers. However, I'll see her and no more.
2540 She is so affected. Ask her in," she said to the footman in a sad voice,
2541 as if saying: "Very well, finish me off."
2543 A tall, stout, and proud-looking woman, with a round-faced smiling
2544 daughter, entered the drawing room, their dresses rustling.
2546 "Dear Countess, what an age... She has been laid up, poor child... at
2547 the Razumovski's ball... and Countess Apraksina... I was so
2548 delighted..." came the sounds of animated feminine voices, interrupting
2549 one another and mingling with the rustling of dresses and the scraping
2550 of chairs. Then one of those conversations began which last out until,
2551 at the first pause, the guests rise with a rustle of dresses and say, "I
2552 am so delighted... Mamma's health... and Countess Apraksina..." and
2553 then, again rustling, pass into the anteroom, put on cloaks or mantles,
2554 and drive away. The conversation was on the chief topic of the day: the
2555 illness of the wealthy and celebrated beau of Catherine's day, Count
2556 Bezukhov, and about his illegitimate son Pierre, the one who had behaved
2557 so improperly at Anna Pavlovna's reception.
2559 "I am so sorry for the poor count," said the visitor. "He is in such bad
2560 health, and now this vexation about his son is enough to kill him!"
2562 "What is that?" asked the countess as if she did not know what the
2563 visitor alluded to, though she had already heard about the cause of
2564 Count Bezukhov's distress some fifteen times.
2566 "That's what comes of a modern education," exclaimed the visitor. "It
2567 seems that while he was abroad this young man was allowed to do as he
2568 liked, now in Petersburg I hear he has been doing such terrible things
2569 that he has been expelled by the police."
2571 "You don't say so!" replied the countess.
2573 "He chose his friends badly," interposed Anna Mikhaylovna. "Prince
2574 Vasili's son, he, and a certain Dolokhov have, it is said, been up to
2575 heaven only knows what! And they have had to suffer for it. Dolokhov has
2576 been degraded to the ranks and Bezukhov's son sent back to Moscow.
2577 Anatole Kuragin's father managed somehow to get his son's affair hushed
2578 up, but even he was ordered out of Petersburg."
2580 "But what have they been up to?" asked the countess.
2582 "They are regular brigands, especially Dolokhov," replied the visitor.
2583 "He is a son of Marya Ivanovna Dolokhova, such a worthy woman, but
2584 there, just fancy! Those three got hold of a bear somewhere, put it in a
2585 carriage, and set off with it to visit some actresses! The police tried
2586 to interfere, and what did the young men do? They tied a policeman and
2587 the bear back to back and put the bear into the Moyka Canal. And there
2588 was the bear swimming about with the policeman on his back!"
2590 "What a nice figure the policeman must have cut, my dear!" shouted the
2591 count, dying with laughter.
2593 "Oh, how dreadful! How can you laugh at it, Count?"
2595 Yet the ladies themselves could not help laughing.
2597 "It was all they could do to rescue the poor man," continued the
2598 visitor. "And to think it is Cyril Vladimirovich Bezukhov's son who
2599 amuses himself in this sensible manner! And he was said to be so well
2600 educated and clever. This is all that his foreign education has done for
2601 him! I hope that here in Moscow no one will receive him, in spite of his
2602 money. They wanted to introduce him to me, but I quite declined: I have
2603 my daughters to consider."
2605 "Why do you say this young man is so rich?" asked the countess, turning
2606 away from the girls, who at once assumed an air of inattention. "His
2607 children are all illegitimate. I think Pierre also is illegitimate."
2609 The visitor made a gesture with her hand.
2611 "I should think he has a score of them."
2613 Princess Anna Mikhaylovna intervened in the conversation, evidently
2614 wishing to show her connections and knowledge of what went on in
2617 "The fact of the matter is," said she significantly, and also in a half
2618 whisper, "everyone knows Count Cyril's reputation.... He has lost count
2619 of his children, but this Pierre was his favorite."
2621 "How handsome the old man still was only a year ago!" remarked the
2622 countess. "I have never seen a handsomer man."
2624 "He is very much altered now," said Anna Mikhaylovna. "Well, as I was
2625 saying, Prince Vasili is the next heir through his wife, but the count
2626 is very fond of Pierre, looked after his education, and wrote to the
2627 Emperor about him; so that in the case of his death--and he is so ill
2628 that he may die at any moment, and Dr. Lorrain has come from Petersburg-
2629 -no one knows who will inherit his immense fortune, Pierre or Prince
2630 Vasili. Forty thousand serfs and millions of rubles! I know it all very
2631 well for Prince Vasili told me himself. Besides, Cyril Vladimirovich is
2632 my mother's second cousin. He's also my Bory's godfather," she added, as
2633 if she attached no importance at all to the fact.
2635 "Prince Vasili arrived in Moscow yesterday. I hear he has come on some
2636 inspection business," remarked the visitor.
2638 "Yes, but between ourselves," said the princess, "that is a pretext. The
2639 fact is he has come to see Count Cyril Vladimirovich, hearing how ill he
2642 "But do you know, my dear, that was a capital joke," said the count; and
2643 seeing that the elder visitor was not listening, he turned to the young
2644 ladies. "I can just imagine what a funny figure that policeman cut!"
2646 And as he waved his arms to impersonate the policeman, his portly form
2647 again shook with a deep ringing laugh, the laugh of one who always eats
2648 well and, in particular, drinks well. "So do come and dine with us!" he
2656 Silence ensued. The countess looked at her callers, smiling affably, but
2657 not concealing the fact that she would not be distressed if they now
2658 rose and took their leave. The visitor's daughter was already smoothing
2659 down her dress with an inquiring look at her mother, when suddenly from
2660 the next room were heard the footsteps of boys and girls running to the
2661 door and the noise of a chair falling over, and a girl of thirteen,
2662 hiding something in the folds of her short muslin frock, darted in and
2663 stopped short in the middle of the room. It was evident that she had not
2664 intended her flight to bring her so far. Behind her in the doorway
2665 appeared a student with a crimson coat collar, an officer of the Guards,
2666 a girl of fifteen, and a plump rosy-faced boy in a short jacket.
2668 The count jumped up and, swaying from side to side, spread his arms wide
2669 and threw them round the little girl who had run in.
2671 "Ah, here she is!" he exclaimed laughing. "My pet, whose name day it is.
2674 "Ma chere, there is a time for everything," said the countess with
2675 feigned severity. "You spoil her, Ilya," she added, turning to her
2678 "How do you do, my dear? I wish you many happy returns of your name
2679 day," said the visitor. "What a charming child," she added, addressing
2682 This black-eyed, wide-mouthed girl, not pretty but full of life--with
2683 childish bare shoulders which after her run heaved and shook her bodice,
2684 with black curls tossed backward, thin bare arms, little legs in lace-
2685 frilled drawers, and feet in low slippers--was just at that charming age
2686 when a girl is no longer a child, though the child is not yet a young
2687 woman. Escaping from her father she ran to hide her flushed face in the
2688 lace of her mother's mantilla--not paying the least attention to her
2689 severe remark--and began to laugh. She laughed, and in fragmentary
2690 sentences tried to explain about a doll which she produced from the
2693 "Do you see?... My doll... Mimi... You see..." was all Natasha managed
2694 to utter (to her everything seemed funny). She leaned against her mother
2695 and burst into such a loud, ringing fit of laughter that even the prim
2696 visitor could not help joining in.
2698 "Now then, go away and take your monstrosity with you," said the mother,
2699 pushing away her daughter with pretended sternness, and turning to the
2700 visitor she added: "She is my youngest girl."
2702 Natasha, raising her face for a moment from her mother's mantilla,
2703 glanced up at her through tears of laughter, and again hid her face.
2705 The visitor, compelled to look on at this family scene, thought it
2706 necessary to take some part in it.
2708 "Tell me, my dear," said she to Natasha, "is Mimi a relation of yours? A
2709 daughter, I suppose?"
2711 Natasha did not like the visitor's tone of condescension to childish
2712 things. She did not reply, but looked at her seriously.
2714 Meanwhile the younger generation: Boris, the officer, Anna Mikhaylovna's
2715 son; Nicholas, the undergraduate, the count's eldest son; Sonya, the
2716 count's fifteen-year-old niece, and little Petya, his youngest boy, had
2717 all settled down in the drawing room and were obviously trying to
2718 restrain within the bounds of decorum the excitement and mirth that
2719 shone in all their faces. Evidently in the back rooms, from which they
2720 had dashed out so impetuously, the conversation had been more amusing
2721 than the drawing-room talk of society scandals, the weather, and
2722 Countess Apraksina. Now and then they glanced at one another, hardly
2723 able to suppress their laughter.
2725 The two young men, the student and the officer, friends from childhood,
2726 were of the same age and both handsome fellows, though not alike. Boris
2727 was tall and fair, and his calm and handsome face had regular, delicate
2728 features. Nicholas was short with curly hair and an open expression.
2729 Dark hairs were already showing on his upper lip, and his whole face
2730 expressed impetuosity and enthusiasm. Nicholas blushed when he entered
2731 the drawing room. He evidently tried to find something to say, but
2732 failed. Boris on the contrary at once found his footing, and related
2733 quietly and humorously how he had known that doll Mimi when she was
2734 still quite a young lady, before her nose was broken; how she had aged
2735 during the five years he had known her, and how her head had cracked
2736 right across the skull. Having said this he glanced at Natasha. She
2737 turned away from him and glanced at her younger brother, who was
2738 screwing up his eyes and shaking with suppressed laughter, and unable to
2739 control herself any longer, she jumped up and rushed from the room as
2740 fast as her nimble little feet would carry her. Boris did not laugh.
2742 "You were meaning to go out, weren't you, Mamma? Do you want the
2743 carriage?" he asked his mother with a smile.
2745 "Yes, yes, go and tell them to get it ready," she answered, returning
2748 Boris quietly left the room and went in search of Natasha. The plump boy
2749 ran after them angrily, as if vexed that their program had been
2757 The only young people remaining in the drawing room, not counting the
2758 young lady visitor and the countess' eldest daughter (who was four years
2759 older than her sister and behaved already like a grown-up person), were
2760 Nicholas and Sonya, the niece. Sonya was a slender little brunette with
2761 a tender look in her eyes which were veiled by long lashes, thick black
2762 plaits coiling twice round her head, and a tawny tint in her complexion
2763 and especially in the color of her slender but graceful and muscular
2764 arms and neck. By the grace of her movements, by the softness and
2765 flexibility of her small limbs, and by a certain coyness and reserve of
2766 manner, she reminded one of a pretty, half-grown kitten which promises
2767 to become a beautiful little cat. She evidently considered it proper to
2768 show an interest in the general conversation by smiling, but in spite of
2769 herself her eyes under their thick long lashes watched her cousin who
2770 was going to join the army, with such passionate girlish adoration that
2771 her smile could not for a single instant impose upon anyone, and it was
2772 clear that the kitten had settled down only to spring up with more
2773 energy and again play with her cousin as soon as they too could, like
2774 Natasha and Boris, escape from the drawing room.
2776 "Ah yes, my dear," said the count, addressing the visitor and pointing
2777 to Nicholas, "his friend Boris has become an officer, and so for
2778 friendship's sake he is leaving the university and me, his old father,
2779 and entering the military service, my dear. And there was a place and
2780 everything waiting for him in the Archives Department! Isn't that
2781 friendship?" remarked the count in an inquiring tone.
2783 "But they say that war has been declared," replied the visitor.
2785 "They've been saying so a long while," said the count, "and they'll say
2786 so again and again, and that will be the end of it. My dear, there's
2787 friendship for you," he repeated. "He's joining the hussars."
2789 The visitor, not knowing what to say, shook her head.
2791 "It's not at all from friendship," declared Nicholas, flaring up and
2792 turning away as if from a shameful aspersion. "It is not from friendship
2793 at all; I simply feel that the army is my vocation."
2795 He glanced at his cousin and the young lady visitor; and they were both
2796 regarding him with a smile of approbation.
2798 "Schubert, the colonel of the Pavlograd Hussars, is dining with us
2799 today. He has been here on leave and is taking Nicholas back with him.
2800 It can't be helped!" said the count, shrugging his shoulders and
2801 speaking playfully of a matter that evidently distressed him.
2803 "I have already told you, Papa," said his son, "that if you don't wish
2804 to let me go, I'll stay. But I know I am no use anywhere except in the
2805 army; I am not a diplomat or a government clerk.--I don't know how to
2806 hide what I feel." As he spoke he kept glancing with the flirtatiousness
2807 of a handsome youth at Sonya and the young lady visitor.
2809 The little kitten, feasting her eyes on him, seemed ready at any moment
2810 to start her gambols again and display her kittenish nature.
2812 "All right, all right!" said the old count. "He always flares up! This
2813 Buonaparte has turned all their heads; they all think of how he rose
2814 from an ensign and became Emperor. Well, well, God grant it," he added,
2815 not noticing his visitor's sarcastic smile.
2817 The elders began talking about Bonaparte. Julie Karagina turned to young
2820 "What a pity you weren't at the Arkharovs' on Thursday. It was so dull
2821 without you," said she, giving him a tender smile.
2823 The young man, flattered, sat down nearer to her with a coquettish
2824 smile, and engaged the smiling Julie in a confidential conversation
2825 without at all noticing that his involuntary smile had stabbed the heart
2826 of Sonya, who blushed and smiled unnaturally. In the midst of his talk
2827 he glanced round at her. She gave him a passionately angry glance, and
2828 hardly able to restrain her tears and maintain the artificial smile on
2829 her lips, she got up and left the room. All Nicholas' animation
2830 vanished. He waited for the first pause in the conversation, and then
2831 with a distressed face left the room to find Sonya.
2833 "How plainly all these young people wear their hearts on their sleeves!"
2834 said Anna Mikhaylovna, pointing to Nicholas as he went out. "Cousinage--
2835 dangereux voisinage;" * she added.
2838 * Cousinhood is a dangerous neighborhood.
2840 "Yes," said the countess when the brightness these young people had
2841 brought into the room had vanished; and as if answering a question no
2842 one had put but which was always in her mind, "and how much suffering,
2843 how much anxiety one has had to go through that we might rejoice in them
2844 now! And yet really the anxiety is greater now than the joy. One is
2845 always, always anxious! Especially just at this age, so dangerous both
2846 for girls and boys."
2848 "It all depends on the bringing up," remarked the visitor.
2850 "Yes, you're quite right," continued the countess. "Till now I have
2851 always, thank God, been my children's friend and had their full
2852 confidence," said she, repeating the mistake of so many parents who
2853 imagine that their children have no secrets from them. "I know I shall
2854 always be my daughters' first confidante, and that if Nicholas, with his
2855 impulsive nature, does get into mischief (a boy can't help it), he will
2856 all the same never be like those Petersburg young men."
2858 "Yes, they are splendid, splendid youngsters," chimed in the count, who
2859 always solved questions that seemed to him perplexing by deciding that
2860 everything was splendid. "Just fancy: wants to be an hussar. What's one
2863 "What a charming creature your younger girl is," said the visitor; "a
2866 "Yes, a regular volcano," said the count. "Takes after me! And what a
2867 voice she has; though she's my daughter, I tell the truth when I say
2868 she'll be a singer, a second Salomoni! We have engaged an Italian to
2871 "Isn't she too young? I have heard that it harms the voice to train it
2874 "Oh no, not at all too young!" replied the count. "Why, our mothers used
2875 to be married at twelve or thirteen."
2877 "And she's in love with Boris already. Just fancy!" said the countess
2878 with a gentle smile, looking at Boris and went on, evidently concerned
2879 with a thought that always occupied her: "Now you see if I were to be
2880 severe with her and to forbid it... goodness knows what they might be up
2881 to on the sly" (she meant that they would be kissing), "but as it is, I
2882 know every word she utters. She will come running to me of her own
2883 accord in the evening and tell me everything. Perhaps I spoil her, but
2884 really that seems the best plan. With her elder sister I was stricter."
2886 "Yes, I was brought up quite differently," remarked the handsome elder
2887 daughter, Countess Vera, with a smile.
2889 But the smile did not enhance Vera's beauty as smiles generally do; on
2890 the contrary it gave her an unnatural, and therefore unpleasant,
2891 expression. Vera was good-looking, not at all stupid, quick at learning,
2892 was well-brought up, and had a pleasant voice; what she said was true
2893 and appropriate, yet, strange to say, everyone--the visitors and
2894 countess alike--turned to look at her as if wondering why she had said
2895 it, and they all felt awkward.
2897 "People are always too clever with their eldest children and try to make
2898 something exceptional of them," said the visitor.
2900 "What's the good of denying it, my dear? Our dear countess was too
2901 clever with Vera," said the count. "Well, what of that? She's turned out
2902 splendidly all the same," he added, winking at Vera.
2904 The guests got up and took their leave, promising to return to dinner.
2906 "What manners! I thought they would never go," said the countess, when
2907 she had seen her guests out.
2914 When Natasha ran out of the drawing room she only went as far as the
2915 conservatory. There she paused and stood listening to the conversation
2916 in the drawing room, waiting for Boris to come out. She was already
2917 growing impatient, and stamped her foot, ready to cry at his not coming
2918 at once, when she heard the young man's discreet steps approaching
2919 neither quickly nor slowly. At this Natasha dashed swiftly among the
2920 flower tubs and hid there.
2922 Boris paused in the middle of the room, looked round, brushed a little
2923 dust from the sleeve of his uniform, and going up to a mirror examined
2924 his handsome face. Natasha, very still, peered out from her ambush,
2925 waiting to see what he would do. He stood a little while before the
2926 glass, smiled, and walked toward the other door. Natasha was about to
2927 call him but changed her mind. "Let him look for me," thought she.
2928 Hardly had Boris gone than Sonya, flushed, in tears, and muttering
2929 angrily, came in at the other door. Natasha checked her first impulse to
2930 run out to her, and remained in her hiding place, watching--as under an
2931 invisible cap--to see what went on in the world. She was experiencing a
2932 new and peculiar pleasure. Sonya, muttering to herself, kept looking
2933 round toward the drawing-room door. It opened and Nicholas came in.
2935 "Sonya, what is the matter with you? How can you?" said he, running up
2938 "It's nothing, nothing; leave me alone!" sobbed Sonya.
2940 "Ah, I know what it is."
2942 "Well, if you do, so much the better, and you can go back to her!"
2944 "So-o-onya! Look here! How can you torture me and yourself like that,
2945 for a mere fancy?" said Nicholas taking her hand.
2947 Sonya did not pull it away, and left off crying. Natasha, not stirring
2948 and scarcely breathing, watched from her ambush with sparkling eyes.
2949 "What will happen now?" thought she.
2951 "Sonya! What is anyone in the world to me? You alone are everything!"
2952 said Nicholas. "And I will prove it to you."
2954 "I don't like you to talk like that."
2956 "Well, then, I won't; only forgive me, Sonya!" He drew her to him and
2959 "Oh, how nice," thought Natasha; and when Sonya and Nicholas had gone
2960 out of the conservatory she followed and called Boris to her.
2962 "Boris, come here," said she with a sly and significant look. "I have
2963 something to tell you. Here, here!" and she led him into the
2964 conservatory to the place among the tubs where she had been hiding.
2966 Boris followed her, smiling.
2968 "What is the something?" asked he.
2970 She grew confused, glanced round, and, seeing the doll she had thrown
2971 down on one of the tubs, picked it up.
2973 "Kiss the doll," said she.
2975 Boris looked attentively and kindly at her eager face, but did not
2978 "Don't you want to? Well, then, come here," said she, and went further
2979 in among the plants and threw down the doll. "Closer, closer!" she
2982 She caught the young officer by his cuffs, and a look of solemnity and
2983 fear appeared on her flushed face.
2985 "And me? Would you like to kiss me?" she whispered almost inaudibly,
2986 glancing up at him from under her brows, smiling, and almost crying from
2991 "How funny you are!" he said, bending down to her and blushing still
2992 more, but he waited and did nothing.
2994 Suddenly she jumped up onto a tub to be higher than he, embraced him so
2995 that both her slender bare arms clasped him above his neck, and, tossing
2996 back her hair, kissed him full on the lips.
2998 Then she slipped down among the flowerpots on the other side of the tubs
2999 and stood, hanging her head.
3001 "Natasha," he said, "you know that I love you, but..."
3003 "You are in love with me?" Natasha broke in.
3005 "Yes, I am, but please don't let us do like that.... In another four
3006 years... then I will ask for your hand."
3010 "Thirteen, fourteen, fifteen, sixteen," she counted on her slender
3011 little fingers. "All right! Then it's settled?"
3013 A smile of joy and satisfaction lit up her eager face.
3015 "Settled!" replied Boris.
3017 "Forever?" said the little girl. "Till death itself?"
3019 She took his arm and with a happy face went with him into the adjoining
3027 After receiving her visitors, the countess was so tired that she gave
3028 orders to admit no more, but the porter was told to be sure to invite to
3029 dinner all who came "to congratulate." The countess wished to have a
3030 tête-à-tête talk with the friend of her childhood, Princess Anna
3031 Mikhaylovna, whom she had not seen properly since she returned from
3032 Petersburg. Anna Mikhaylovna, with her tear-worn but pleasant face, drew
3033 her chair nearer to that of the countess.
3035 "With you I will be quite frank," said Anna Mikhaylovna. "There are not
3036 many left of us old friends! That's why I so value your friendship."
3038 Anna Mikhaylovna looked at Vera and paused. The countess pressed her
3041 "Vera," she said to her eldest daughter who was evidently not a
3042 favorite, "how is it you have so little tact? Don't you see you are not
3043 wanted here? Go to the other girls, or..."
3045 The handsome Vera smiled contemptuously but did not seem at all hurt.
3047 "If you had told me sooner, Mamma, I would have gone," she replied as
3048 she rose to go to her own room.
3050 But as she passed the sitting room she noticed two couples sitting, one
3051 pair at each window. She stopped and smiled scornfully. Sonya was
3052 sitting close to Nicholas who was copying out some verses for her, the
3053 first he had ever written. Boris and Natasha were at the other window
3054 and ceased talking when Vera entered. Sonya and Natasha looked at Vera
3055 with guilty, happy faces.
3057 It was pleasant and touching to see these little girls in love; but
3058 apparently the sight of them roused no pleasant feeling in Vera.
3060 "How often have I asked you not to take my things?" she said. "You have
3061 a room of your own," and she took the inkstand from Nicholas.
3063 "In a minute, in a minute," he said, dipping his pen.
3065 "You always manage to do things at the wrong time," continued Vera. "You
3066 came rushing into the drawing room so that everyone felt ashamed of
3069 Though what she said was quite just, perhaps for that very reason no one
3070 replied, and the four simply looked at one another. She lingered in the
3071 room with the inkstand in her hand.
3073 "And at your age what secrets can there be between Natasha and Boris, or
3074 between you two? It's all nonsense!"
3076 "Now, Vera, what does it matter to you?" said Natasha in defense,
3077 speaking very gently.
3079 She seemed that day to be more than ever kind and affectionate to
3082 "Very silly," said Vera. "I am ashamed of you. Secrets indeed!"
3084 "All have secrets of their own," answered Natasha, getting warmer. "We
3085 don't interfere with you and Berg."
3087 "I should think not," said Vera, "because there can never be anything
3088 wrong in my behavior. But I'll just tell Mamma how you are behaving with
3091 "Natalya Ilynichna behaves very well to me," remarked Boris. "I have
3092 nothing to complain of."
3094 "Don't, Boris! You are such a diplomat that it is really tiresome," said
3095 Natasha in a mortified voice that trembled slightly. (She used the word
3096 "diplomat," which was just then much in vogue among the children, in the
3097 special sense they attached to it.) "Why does she bother me?" And she
3098 added, turning to Vera, "You'll never understand it, because you've
3099 never loved anyone. You have no heart! You are a Madame de Genlis and
3100 nothing more" (this nickname, bestowed on Vera by Nicholas, was
3101 considered very stinging), "and your greatest pleasure is to be
3102 unpleasant to people! Go and flirt with Berg as much as you please," she
3105 "I shall at any rate not run after a young man before visitors..."
3107 "Well, now you've done what you wanted," put in Nicholas--"said
3108 unpleasant things to everyone and upset them. Let's go to the nursery."
3110 All four, like a flock of scared birds, got up and left the room.
3112 "The unpleasant things were said to me," remarked Vera, "I said none to
3115 "Madame de Genlis! Madame de Genlis!" shouted laughing voices through
3118 The handsome Vera, who produced such an irritating and unpleasant effect
3119 on everyone, smiled and, evidently unmoved by what had been said to her,
3120 went to the looking glass and arranged her hair and scarf. Looking at
3121 her own handsome face she seemed to become still colder and calmer.
3123 In the drawing room the conversation was still going on.
3125 "Ah, my dear," said the countess, "my life is not all roses either.
3126 Don't I know that at the rate we are living our means won't last long?
3127 It's all the Club and his easygoing nature. Even in the country do we
3128 get any rest? Theatricals, hunting, and heaven knows what besides! But
3129 don't let's talk about me; tell me how you managed everything. I often
3130 wonder at you, Annette--how at your age you can rush off alone in a
3131 carriage to Moscow, to Petersburg, to those ministers and great people,
3132 and know how to deal with them all! It's quite astonishing. How did you
3133 get things settled? I couldn't possibly do it."
3135 "Ah, my love," answered Anna Mikhaylovna, "God grant you never know what
3136 it is to be left a widow without means and with a son you love to
3137 distraction! One learns many things then," she added with a certain
3138 pride. "That lawsuit taught me much. When I want to see one of those big
3139 people I write a note: 'Princess So-and-So desires an interview with So
3140 and-So,' and then I take a cab and go myself two, three, or four times--
3141 till I get what I want. I don't mind what they think of me."
3143 "Well, and to whom did you apply about Bory?" asked the countess. "You
3144 see yours is already an officer in the Guards, while my Nicholas is
3145 going as a cadet. There's no one to interest himself for him. To whom
3148 "To Prince Vasili. He was so kind. He at once agreed to everything, and
3149 put the matter before the Emperor," said Princess Anna Mikhaylovna
3150 enthusiastically, quite forgetting all the humiliation she had endured
3153 "Has Prince Vasili aged much?" asked the countess. "I have not seen him
3154 since we acted together at the Rumyantsovs' theatricals. I expect he has
3155 forgotten me. He paid me attentions in those days," said the countess,
3158 "He is just the same as ever," replied Anna Mikhaylovna, "overflowing
3159 with amiability. His position has not turned his head at all. He said to
3160 me, 'I am sorry I can do so little for you, dear Princess. I am at your
3161 command.' Yes, he is a fine fellow and a very kind relation. But,
3162 Nataly, you know my love for my son: I would do anything for his
3163 happiness! And my affairs are in such a bad way that my position is now
3164 a terrible one," continued Anna Mikhaylovna, sadly, dropping her voice.
3165 "My wretched lawsuit takes all I have and makes no progress. Would you
3166 believe it, I have literally not a penny and don't know how to equip
3167 Boris." She took out her handkerchief and began to cry. "I need five
3168 hundred rubles, and have only one twenty-five-ruble note. I am in such a
3169 state.... My only hope now is in Count Cyril Vladimirovich Bezukhov. If
3170 he will not assist his godson--you know he is Bory's godfather--and
3171 allow him something for his maintenance, all my trouble will have been
3172 thrown away.... I shall not be able to equip him."
3174 The countess' eyes filled with tears and she pondered in silence.
3176 "I often think, though, perhaps it's a sin," said the princess, "that
3177 here lives Count Cyril Vladimirovich Bezukhov so rich, all alone... that
3178 tremendous fortune... and what is his life worth? It's a burden to him,
3179 and Bory's life is only just beginning...."
3181 "Surely he will leave something to Boris," said the countess.
3183 "Heaven only knows, my dear! These rich grandees are so selfish. Still,
3184 I will take Boris and go to see him at once, and I shall speak to him
3185 straight out. Let people think what they will of me, it's really all the
3186 same to me when my son's fate is at stake." The princess rose. "It's now
3187 two o'clock and you dine at four. There will just be time."
3189 And like a practical Petersburg lady who knows how to make the most of
3190 time, Anna Mikhaylovna sent someone to call her son, and went into the
3193 "Good-bye, my dear," said she to the countess who saw her to the door,
3194 and added in a whisper so that her son should not hear, "Wish me good
3197 "Are you going to Count Cyril Vladimirovich, my dear?" said the count
3198 coming out from the dining hall into the anteroom, and he added: "If he
3199 is better, ask Pierre to dine with us. He has been to the house, you
3200 know, and danced with the children. Be sure to invite him, my dear. We
3201 will see how Taras distinguishes himself today. He says Count Orlov
3202 never gave such a dinner as ours will be!"
3209 "My dear Boris," said Princess Anna Mikhaylovna to her son as Countess
3210 Rostova's carriage in which they were seated drove over the straw
3211 covered street and turned into the wide courtyard of Count Cyril
3212 Vladimirovich Bezukhov's house. "My dear Boris," said the mother,
3213 drawing her hand from beneath her old mantle and laying it timidly and
3214 tenderly on her son's arm, "be affectionate and attentive to him. Count
3215 Cyril Vladimirovich is your godfather after all, your future depends on
3216 him. Remember that, my dear, and be nice to him, as you so well know how
3219 "If only I knew that anything besides humiliation would come of it..."
3220 answered her son coldly. "But I have promised and will do it for your
3223 Although the hall porter saw someone's carriage standing at the
3224 entrance, after scrutinizing the mother and son (who without asking to
3225 be announced had passed straight through the glass porch between the
3226 rows of statues in niches) and looking significantly at the lady's old
3227 cloak, he asked whether they wanted the count or the princesses, and,
3228 hearing that they wished to see the count, said his excellency was worse
3229 today, and that his excellency was not receiving anyone.
3231 "We may as well go back," said the son in French.
3233 "My dear!" exclaimed his mother imploringly, again laying her hand on
3234 his arm as if that touch might soothe or rouse him.
3236 Boris said no more, but looked inquiringly at his mother without taking
3239 "My friend," said Anna Mikhaylovna in gentle tones, addressing the hall
3240 porter, "I know Count Cyril Vladimirovich is very ill... that's why I
3241 have come... I am a relation. I shall not disturb him, my friend... I
3242 only need see Prince Vasili Sergeevich: he is staying here, is he not?
3243 Please announce me."
3245 The hall porter sullenly pulled a bell that rang upstairs, and turned
3248 "Princess Drubetskaya to see Prince Vasili Sergeevich," he called to a
3249 footman dressed in knee breeches, shoes, and a swallow-tail coat, who
3250 ran downstairs and looked over from the halfway landing.
3252 The mother smoothed the folds of her dyed silk dress before a large
3253 Venetian mirror in the wall, and in her trodden-down shoes briskly
3254 ascended the carpeted stairs.
3256 "My dear," she said to her son, once more stimulating him by a touch,
3259 The son, lowering his eyes, followed her quietly.
3261 They entered the large hall, from which one of the doors led to the
3262 apartments assigned to Prince Vasili.
3264 Just as the mother and son, having reached the middle of the hall, were
3265 about to ask their way of an elderly footman who had sprung up as they
3266 entered, the bronze handle of one of the doors turned and Prince Vasili
3267 came out--wearing a velvet coat with a single star on his breast, as was
3268 his custom when at home--taking leave of a good-looking, dark-haired
3269 man. This was the celebrated Petersburg doctor, Lorrain.
3271 "Then it is certain?" said the prince.
3273 "Prince, humanum est errare, * but..." replied the doctor, swallowing
3274 his r's, and pronouncing the Latin words with a French accent.
3279 "Very well, very well..."
3281 Seeing Anna Mikhaylovna and her son, Prince Vasili dismissed the doctor
3282 with a bow and approached them silently and with a look of inquiry. The
3283 son noticed that an expression of profound sorrow suddenly clouded his
3284 mother's face, and he smiled slightly.
3286 "Ah, Prince! In what sad circumstances we meet again! And how is our
3287 dear invalid?" said she, as though unaware of the cold offensive look
3290 Prince Vasili stared at her and at Boris questioningly and perplexed.
3291 Boris bowed politely. Prince Vasili without acknowledging the bow turned
3292 to Anna Mikhaylovna, answering her query by a movement of the head and
3293 lips indicating very little hope for the patient.
3295 "Is it possible?" exclaimed Anna Mikhaylovna. "Oh, how awful! It is
3296 terrible to think.... This is my son," she added, indicating Boris. "He
3297 wanted to thank you himself."
3299 Boris bowed again politely.
3301 "Believe me, Prince, a mother's heart will never forget what you have
3304 "I am glad I was able to do you a service, my dear Anna Mikhaylovna,"
3305 said Prince Vasili, arranging his lace frill, and in tone and manner,
3306 here in Moscow to Anna Mikhaylovna whom he had placed under an
3307 obligation, assuming an air of much greater importance than he had done
3308 in Petersburg at Anna Scherer's reception.
3310 "Try to serve well and show yourself worthy," added he, addressing Boris
3311 with severity. "I am glad.... Are you here on leave?" he went on in his
3312 usual tone of indifference.
3314 "I am awaiting orders to join my new regiment, your excellency," replied
3315 Boris, betraying neither annoyance at the prince's brusque manner nor a
3316 desire to enter into conversation, but speaking so quietly and
3317 respectfully that the prince gave him a searching glance.
3319 "Are you living with your mother?"
3321 "I am living at Countess Rostova's," replied Boris, again adding, "your
3324 "That is, with Ilya Rostov who married Nataly Shinshina," said Anna
3327 "I know, I know," answered Prince Vasili in his monotonous voice. "I
3328 never could understand how Nataly made up her mind to marry that
3329 unlicked bear! A perfectly absurd and stupid fellow, and a gambler too,
3332 "But a very kind man, Prince," said Anna Mikhaylovna with a pathetic
3333 smile, as though she too knew that Count Rostov deserved this censure,
3334 but asked him not to be too hard on the poor old man. "What do the
3335 doctors say?" asked the princess after a pause, her worn face again
3336 expressing deep sorrow.
3338 "They give little hope," replied the prince.
3340 "And I should so like to thank Uncle once for all his kindness to me and
3341 Boris. He is his godson," she added, her tone suggesting that this fact
3342 ought to give Prince Vasili much satisfaction.
3344 Prince Vasili became thoughtful and frowned. Anna Mikhaylovna saw that
3345 he was afraid of finding in her a rival for Count Bezukhov's fortune,
3346 and hastened to reassure him.
3348 "If it were not for my sincere affection and devotion to Uncle," said
3349 she, uttering the word with peculiar assurance and unconcern, "I know
3350 his character: noble, upright... but you see he has no one with him
3351 except the young princesses.... They are still young...." She bent her
3352 head and continued in a whisper: "Has he performed his final duty,
3353 Prince? How priceless are those last moments! It can make things no
3354 worse, and it is absolutely necessary to prepare him if he is so ill. We
3355 women, Prince," and she smiled tenderly, "always know how to say these
3356 things. I absolutely must see him, however painful it may be for me. I
3357 am used to suffering."
3359 Evidently the prince understood her, and also understood, as he had done
3360 at Anna Pavlovna's, that it would be difficult to get rid of Anna
3363 "Would not such a meeting be too trying for him, dear Anna Mikhaylovna?"
3364 said he. "Let us wait until evening. The doctors are expecting a
3367 "But one cannot delay, Prince, at such a moment! Consider that the
3368 welfare of his soul is at stake. Ah, it is awful: the duties of a
3371 A door of one of the inner rooms opened and one of the princesses, the
3372 count's niece, entered with a cold, stern face. The length of her body
3373 was strikingly out of proportion to her short legs. Prince Vasili turned
3378 "Still the same; but what can you expect, this noise..." said the
3379 princess, looking at Anna Mikhaylovna as at a stranger.
3381 "Ah, my dear, I hardly knew you," said Anna Mikhaylovna with a happy
3382 smile, ambling lightly up to the count's niece. "I have come, and am at
3383 your service to help you nurse my uncle. I imagine what you have gone
3384 through," and she sympathetically turned up her eyes.
3386 The princess gave no reply and did not even smile, but left the room as
3387 Anna Mikhaylovna took off her gloves and, occupying the position she had
3388 conquered, settled down in an armchair, inviting Prince Vasili to take a
3391 "Boris," she said to her son with a smile, "I shall go in to see the
3392 count, my uncle; but you, my dear, had better go to Pierre meanwhile and
3393 don't forget to give him the Rostovs' invitation. They ask him to
3394 dinner. I suppose he won't go?" she continued, turning to the prince.
3396 "On the contrary," replied the prince, who had plainly become depressed,
3397 "I shall be only too glad if you relieve me of that young man.... Here
3398 he is, and the count has not once asked for him."
3400 He shrugged his shoulders. A footman conducted Boris down one flight of
3401 stairs and up another, to Pierre's rooms.
3408 Pierre, after all, had not managed to choose a career for himself in
3409 Petersburg, and had been expelled from there for riotous conduct and
3410 sent to Moscow. The story told about him at Count Rostov's was true.
3411 Pierre had taken part in tying a policeman to a bear. He had now been
3412 for some days in Moscow and was staying as usual at his father's house.
3413 Though he expected that the story of his escapade would be already known
3414 in Moscow and that the ladies about his father--who were never favorably
3415 disposed toward him--would have used it to turn the count against him,
3416 he nevertheless on the day of his arrival went to his father's part of
3417 the house. Entering the drawing room, where the princesses spent most of
3418 their time, he greeted the ladies, two of whom were sitting at
3419 embroidery frames while a third read aloud. It was the eldest who was
3420 reading--the one who had met Anna Mikhaylovna. The two younger ones were
3421 embroidering: both were rosy and pretty and they differed only in that
3422 one had a little mole on her lip which made her much prettier. Pierre
3423 was received as if he were a corpse or a leper. The eldest princess
3424 paused in her reading and silently stared at him with frightened eyes;
3425 the second assumed precisely the same expression; while the youngest,
3426 the one with the mole, who was of a cheerful and lively disposition,
3427 bent over her frame to hide a smile probably evoked by the amusing scene
3428 she foresaw. She drew her wool down through the canvas and, scarcely
3429 able to refrain from laughing, stooped as if trying to make out the
3432 "How do you do, cousin?" said Pierre. "You don't recognize me?"
3434 "I recognize you only too well, too well."
3436 "How is the count? Can I see him?" asked Pierre, awkwardly as usual, but
3439 "The count is suffering physically and mentally, and apparently you have
3440 done your best to increase his mental sufferings."
3442 "Can I see the count?" Pierre again asked.
3444 "Hm.... If you wish to kill him, to kill him outright, you can see
3445 him... Olga, go and see whether Uncle's beef tea is ready--it is almost
3446 time," she added, giving Pierre to understand that they were busy, and
3447 busy making his father comfortable, while evidently he, Pierre, was only
3448 busy causing him annoyance.
3450 Olga went out. Pierre stood looking at the sisters; then he bowed and
3451 said: "Then I will go to my rooms. You will let me know when I can see
3454 And he left the room, followed by the low but ringing laughter of the
3455 sister with the mole.
3457 Next day Prince Vasili had arrived and settled in the count's house. He
3458 sent for Pierre and said to him: "My dear fellow, if you are going to
3459 behave here as you did in Petersburg, you will end very badly; that is
3460 all I have to say to you. The count is very, very ill, and you must not
3463 Since then Pierre had not been disturbed and had spent the whole time in
3466 When Boris appeared at his door Pierre was pacing up and down his room,
3467 stopping occasionally at a corner to make menacing gestures at the wall,
3468 as if running a sword through an invisible foe, and glaring savagely
3469 over his spectacles, and then again resuming his walk, muttering
3470 indistinct words, shrugging his shoulders and gesticulating.
3472 "England is done for," said he, scowling and pointing his finger at
3473 someone unseen. "Mr. Pitt, as a traitor to the nation and to the rights
3474 of man, is sentenced to..." But before Pierre--who at that moment
3475 imagined himself to be Napoleon in person and to have just effected the
3476 dangerous crossing of the Straits of Dover and captured London--could
3477 pronounce Pitt's sentence, he saw a well-built and handsome young
3478 officer entering his room. Pierre paused. He had left Moscow when Boris
3479 was a boy of fourteen, and had quite forgotten him, but in his usual
3480 impulsive and hearty way he took Boris by the hand with a friendly
3483 "Do you remember me?" asked Boris quietly with a pleasant smile. "I have
3484 come with my mother to see the count, but it seems he is not well."
3486 "Yes, it seems he is ill. People are always disturbing him," answered
3487 Pierre, trying to remember who this young man was.
3489 Boris felt that Pierre did not recognize him but did not consider it
3490 necessary to introduce himself, and without experiencing the least
3491 embarrassment looked Pierre straight in the face.
3493 "Count Rostov asks you to come to dinner today," said he, after a
3494 considerable pause which made Pierre feel uncomfortable.
3496 "Ah, Count Rostov!" exclaimed Pierre joyfully. "Then you are his son,
3497 Ilya? Only fancy, I didn't know you at first. Do you remember how we
3498 went to the Sparrow Hills with Madame Jacquot?... It's such an age..."
3500 "You are mistaken," said Boris deliberately, with a bold and slightly
3501 sarcastic smile. "I am Boris, son of Princess Anna Mikhaylovna
3502 Drubetskaya. Rostov, the father, is Ilya, and his son is Nicholas. I
3503 never knew any Madame Jacquot."
3505 Pierre shook his head and arms as if attacked by mosquitoes or bees.
3507 "Oh dear, what am I thinking about? I've mixed everything up. One has so
3508 many relatives in Moscow! So you are Boris? Of course. Well, now we know
3509 where we are. And what do you think of the Boulogne expedition? The
3510 English will come off badly, you know, if Napoleon gets across the
3511 Channel. I think the expedition is quite feasible. If only Villeneuve
3512 doesn't make a mess of things!"
3514 Boris knew nothing about the Boulogne expedition; he did not read the
3515 papers and it was the first time he had heard Villeneuve's name.
3517 "We here in Moscow are more occupied with dinner parties and scandal
3518 than with politics," said he in his quiet ironical tone. "I know nothing
3519 about it and have not thought about it. Moscow is chiefly busy with
3520 gossip," he continued. "Just now they are talking about you and your
3523 Pierre smiled in his good-natured way as if afraid for his companion's
3524 sake that the latter might say something he would afterwards regret. But
3525 Boris spoke distinctly, clearly, and dryly, looking straight into
3528 "Moscow has nothing else to do but gossip," Boris went on. "Everybody is
3529 wondering to whom the count will leave his fortune, though he may
3530 perhaps outlive us all, as I sincerely hope he will..."
3532 "Yes, it is all very horrid," interrupted Pierre, "very horrid."
3534 Pierre was still afraid that this officer might inadvertently say
3535 something disconcerting to himself.
3537 "And it must seem to you," said Boris flushing slightly, but not
3538 changing his tone or attitude, "it must seem to you that everyone is
3539 trying to get something out of the rich man?"
3541 "So it does," thought Pierre.
3543 "But I just wish to say, to avoid misunderstandings, that you are quite
3544 mistaken if you reckon me or my mother among such people. We are very
3545 poor, but for my own part at any rate, for the very reason that your
3546 father is rich, I don't regard myself as a relation of his, and neither
3547 I nor my mother would ever ask or take anything from him."
3549 For a long time Pierre could not understand, but when he did, he jumped
3550 up from the sofa, seized Boris under the elbow in his quick, clumsy way,
3551 and, blushing far more than Boris, began to speak with a feeling of
3552 mingled shame and vexation.
3554 "Well, this is strange! Do you suppose I... who could think?... I know
3557 But Boris again interrupted him.
3559 "I am glad I have spoken out fully. Perhaps you did not like it? You
3560 must excuse me," said he, putting Pierre at ease instead of being put at
3561 ease by him, "but I hope I have not offended you. I always make it a
3562 rule to speak out... Well, what answer am I to take? Will you come to
3563 dinner at the Rostovs'?"
3565 And Boris, having apparently relieved himself of an onerous duty and
3566 extricated himself from an awkward situation and placed another in it,
3567 became quite pleasant again.
3569 "No, but I say," said Pierre, calming down, "you are a wonderful fellow!
3570 What you have just said is good, very good. Of course you don't know me.
3571 We have not met for such a long time... not since we were children. You
3572 might think that I... I understand, quite understand. I could not have
3573 done it myself, I should not have had the courage, but it's splendid. I
3574 am very glad to have made your acquaintance. It's queer," he added after
3575 a pause, "that you should have suspected me!" He began to laugh. "Well,
3576 what of it! I hope we'll get better acquainted," and he pressed Boris'
3577 hand. "Do you know, I have not once been in to see the count. He has not
3578 sent for me.... I am sorry for him as a man, but what can one do?"
3580 "And so you think Napoleon will manage to get an army across?" asked
3583 Pierre saw that Boris wished to change the subject, and being of the
3584 same mind he began explaining the advantages and disadvantages of the
3585 Boulogne expedition.
3587 A footman came in to summon Boris--the princess was going. Pierre, in
3588 order to make Boris' better acquaintance, promised to come to dinner,
3589 and warmly pressing his hand looked affectionately over his spectacles
3590 into Boris' eyes. After he had gone Pierre continued pacing up and down
3591 the room for a long time, no longer piercing an imaginary foe with his
3592 imaginary sword, but smiling at the remembrance of that pleasant,
3593 intelligent, and resolute young man.
3595 As often happens in early youth, especially to one who leads a lonely
3596 life, he felt an unaccountable tenderness for this young man and made up
3597 his mind that they would be friends.
3599 Prince Vasili saw the princess off. She held a handkerchief to her eyes
3600 and her face was tearful.
3602 "It is dreadful, dreadful!" she was saying, "but cost me what it may I
3603 shall do my duty. I will come and spend the night. He must not be left
3604 like this. Every moment is precious. I can't think why his nieces put it
3605 off. Perhaps God will help me to find a way to prepare him!... Adieu,
3606 Prince! May God support you..."
3608 "Adieu, ma bonne," answered Prince Vasili turning away from her.
3610 "Oh, he is in a dreadful state," said the mother to her son when they
3611 were in the carriage. "He hardly recognizes anybody."
3613 "I don't understand, Mamma--what is his attitude to Pierre?" asked the
3616 "The will will show that, my dear; our fate also depends on it."
3618 "But why do you expect that he will leave us anything?"
3620 "Ah, my dear! He is so rich, and we are so poor!"
3622 "Well, that is hardly a sufficient reason, Mamma..."
3624 "Oh, Heaven! How ill he is!" exclaimed the mother.
3631 After Anna Mikhaylovna had driven off with her son to visit Count Cyril
3632 Vladimirovich Bezukhov, Countess Rostova sat for a long time all alone
3633 applying her handkerchief to her eyes. At last she rang.
3635 "What is the matter with you, my dear?" she said crossly to the maid who
3636 kept her waiting some minutes. "Don't you wish to serve me? Then I'll
3637 find you another place."
3639 The countess was upset by her friend's sorrow and humiliating poverty,
3640 and was therefore out of sorts, a state of mind which with her always
3641 found expression in calling her maid "my dear" and speaking to her with
3642 exaggerated politeness.
3644 "I am very sorry, ma'am," answered the maid.
3646 "Ask the count to come to me."
3648 The count came waddling in to see his wife with a rather guilty look as
3651 "Well, little countess? What a saute of game au madere we are to have,
3652 my dear! I tasted it. The thousand rubles I paid for Taras were not ill-
3653 spent. He is worth it!"
3655 He sat down by his wife, his elbows on his knees and his hands ruffling
3658 "What are your commands, little countess?"
3660 "You see, my dear... What's that mess?" she said, pointing to his
3661 waistcoat. "It's the saute, most likely," she added with a smile. "Well,
3662 you see, Count, I want some money."
3664 Her face became sad.
3666 "Oh, little countess!"... and the count began bustling to get out his
3669 "I want a great deal, Count! I want five hundred rubles," and taking out
3670 her cambric handkerchief she began wiping her husband's waistcoat.
3672 "Yes, immediately, immediately! Hey, who's there?" he called out in a
3673 tone only used by persons who are certain that those they call will rush
3674 to obey the summons. "Send Dmitri to me!"
3676 Dmitri, a man of good family who had been brought up in the count's
3677 house and now managed all his affairs, stepped softly into the room.
3679 "This is what I want, my dear fellow," said the count to the deferential
3680 young man who had entered. "Bring me..." he reflected a moment, "yes,
3681 bring me seven hundred rubles, yes! But mind, don't bring me such
3682 tattered and dirty notes as last time, but nice clean ones for the
3685 "Yes, Dmitri, clean ones, please," said the countess, sighing deeply.
3687 "When would you like them, your excellency?" asked Dmitri. "Allow me to
3688 inform you... But, don't be uneasy," he added, noticing that the count
3689 was beginning to breathe heavily and quickly which was always a sign of
3690 approaching anger. "I was forgetting... Do you wish it brought at once?"
3692 "Yes, yes; just so! Bring it. Give it to the countess."
3694 "What a treasure that Dmitri is," added the count with a smile when the
3695 young man had departed. "There is never any 'impossible' with him.
3696 That's a thing I hate! Everything is possible."
3698 "Ah, money, Count, money! How much sorrow it causes in the world," said
3699 the countess. "But I am in great need of this sum."
3701 "You, my little countess, are a notorious spendthrift," said the count,
3702 and having kissed his wife's hand he went back to his study.
3704 When Anna Mikhaylovna returned from Count Bezukhov's the money, all in
3705 clean notes, was lying ready under a handkerchief on the countess'
3706 little table, and Anna Mikhaylovna noticed that something was agitating
3709 "Well, my dear?" asked the countess.
3711 "Oh, what a terrible state he is in! One would not know him, he is so
3712 ill! I was only there a few moments and hardly said a word..."
3714 "Annette, for heaven's sake don't refuse me," the countess began, with a
3715 blush that looked very strange on her thin, dignified, elderly face, and
3716 she took the money from under the handkerchief.
3718 Anna Mikhaylovna instantly guessed her intention and stooped to be ready
3719 to embrace the countess at the appropriate moment.
3721 "This is for Boris from me, for his outfit."
3723 Anna Mikhaylovna was already embracing her and weeping. The countess
3724 wept too. They wept because they were friends, and because they were
3725 kindhearted, and because they--friends from childhood--had to think
3726 about such a base thing as money, and because their youth was over....
3727 But those tears were pleasant to them both.
3734 Countess Rostova, with her daughters and a large number of guests, was
3735 already seated in the drawing room. The count took the gentlemen into
3736 his study and showed them his choice collection of Turkish pipes. From
3737 time to time he went out to ask: "Hasn't she come yet?" They were
3738 expecting Marya Dmitrievna Akhrosimova, known in society as le terrible
3739 dragon, a lady distinguished not for wealth or rank, but for common
3740 sense and frank plainness of speech. Marya Dmitrievna was known to the
3741 Imperial family as well as to all Moscow and Petersburg, and both cities
3742 wondered at her, laughed privately at her rudenesses, and told good
3743 stories about her, while none the less all without exception respected
3746 In the count's room, which was full of tobacco smoke, they talked of war
3747 that had been announced in a manifesto, and about the recruiting. None
3748 of them had yet seen the manifesto, but they all knew it had appeared.
3749 The count sat on the sofa between two guests who were smoking and
3750 talking. He neither smoked nor talked, but bending his head first to one
3751 side and then to the other watched the smokers with evident pleasure and
3752 listened to the conversation of his two neighbors, whom he egged on
3755 One of them was a sallow, clean-shaven civilian with a thin and wrinkled
3756 face, already growing old, though he was dressed like a most fashionable
3757 young man. He sat with his legs up on the sofa as if quite at home and,
3758 having stuck an amber mouthpiece far into his mouth, was inhaling the
3759 smoke spasmodically and screwing up his eyes. This was an old bachelor,
3760 Shinshin, a cousin of the countess', a man with "a sharp tongue" as they
3761 said in Moscow society. He seemed to be condescending to his companion.
3762 The latter, a fresh, rosy officer of the Guards, irreproachably washed,
3763 brushed, and buttoned, held his pipe in the middle of his mouth and with
3764 red lips gently inhaled the smoke, letting it escape from his handsome
3765 mouth in rings. This was Lieutenant Berg, an officer in the Semenov
3766 regiment with whom Boris was to travel to join the army, and about whom
3767 Natasha had teased her elder sister Vera, speaking of Berg as her
3768 "intended." The count sat between them and listened attentively. His
3769 favorite occupation when not playing boston, a card game he was very
3770 fond of, was that of listener, especially when he succeeded in setting
3771 two loquacious talkers at one another.
3773 "Well, then, old chap, mon tres honorable Alphonse Karlovich," said
3774 Shinshin, laughing ironically and mixing the most ordinary Russian
3775 expressions with the choicest French phrases--which was a peculiarity of
3776 his speech. "Vous comptez vous faire des rentes sur l'etat; * you want
3777 to make something out of your company?"
3780 * You expect to make an income out of the government.
3782 "No, Peter Nikolaevich; I only want to show that in the cavalry the
3783 advantages are far less than in the infantry. Just consider my own
3784 position now, Peter Nikolaevich..."
3786 Berg always spoke quietly, politely, and with great precision. His
3787 conversation always related entirely to himself; he would remain calm
3788 and silent when the talk related to any topic that had no direct bearing
3789 on himself. He could remain silent for hours without being at all put
3790 out of countenance himself or making others uncomfortable, but as soon
3791 as the conversation concerned himself he would begin to talk
3792 circumstantially and with evident satisfaction.
3794 "Consider my position, Peter Nikolaevich. Were I in the cavalry I should
3795 get not more than two hundred rubles every four months, even with the
3796 rank of lieutenant; but as it is I receive two hundred and thirty," said
3797 he, looking at Shinshin and the count with a joyful, pleasant smile, as
3798 if it were obvious to him that his success must always be the chief
3799 desire of everyone else.
3801 "Besides that, Peter Nikolaevich, by exchanging into the Guards I shall
3802 be in a more prominent position," continued Berg, "and vacancies occur
3803 much more frequently in the Foot Guards. Then just think what can be
3804 done with two hundred and thirty rubles! I even manage to put a little
3805 aside and to send something to my father," he went on, emitting a smoke
3808 "La balance y est... * A German knows how to skin a flint, as the
3809 proverb says," remarked Shinshin, moving his pipe to the other side of
3810 his mouth and winking at the count.
3813 * So that squares matters.
3815 The count burst out laughing. The other guests seeing that Shinshin was
3816 talking came up to listen. Berg, oblivious of irony or indifference,
3817 continued to explain how by exchanging into the Guards he had already
3818 gained a step on his old comrades of the Cadet Corps; how in wartime the
3819 company commander might get killed and he, as senior in the company,
3820 might easily succeed to the post; how popular he was with everyone in
3821 the regiment, and how satisfied his father was with him. Berg evidently
3822 enjoyed narrating all this, and did not seem to suspect that others,
3823 too, might have their own interests. But all he said was so prettily
3824 sedate, and the naivete of his youthful egotism was so obvious, that he
3825 disarmed his hearers.
3827 "Well, my boy, you'll get along wherever you go--foot or horse--that
3828 I'll warrant," said Shinshin, patting him on the shoulder and taking his
3831 Berg smiled joyously. The count, by his guests, went into the drawing
3834 It was just the moment before a big dinner when the assembled guests,
3835 expecting the summons to zakuska, * avoid engaging in any long
3836 conversation but think it necessary to move about and talk, in order to
3837 show that they are not at all impatient for their food. The host and
3838 hostess look toward the door, and now and then glance at one another,
3839 and the visitors try to guess from these glances who, or what, they are
3840 waiting for--some important relation who has not yet arrived, or a dish
3841 that is not yet ready.
3846 Pierre had come just at dinnertime and was sitting awkwardly in the
3847 middle of the drawing room on the first chair he had come across,
3848 blocking the way for everyone. The countess tried to make him talk, but
3849 he went on naively looking around through his spectacles as if in search
3850 of somebody and answered all her questions in monosyllables. He was in
3851 the way and was the only one who did not notice the fact. Most of the
3852 guests, knowing of the affair with the bear, looked with curiosity at
3853 this big, stout, quiet man, wondering how such a clumsy, modest fellow
3854 could have played such a prank on a policeman.
3856 "You have only lately arrived?" the countess asked him.
3858 "Oui, madame," replied he, looking around him.
3860 "You have not yet seen my husband?"
3862 "Non, madame." He smiled quite inappropriately.
3864 "You have been in Paris recently, I believe? I suppose it's very
3869 The countess exchanged glances with Anna Mikhaylovna. The latter
3870 understood that she was being asked to entertain this young man, and
3871 sitting down beside him she began to speak about his father; but he
3872 answered her, as he had the countess, only in monosyllables. The other
3873 guests were all conversing with one another. "The Razumovskis... It was
3874 charming... You are very kind... Countess Apraksina..." was heard on all
3875 sides. The countess rose and went into the ballroom.
3877 "Marya Dmitrievna?" came her voice from there.
3879 "Herself," came the answer in a rough voice, and Marya Dmitrievna
3882 All the unmarried ladies and even the married ones except the very
3883 oldest rose. Marya Dmitrievna paused at the door. Tall and stout,
3884 holding high her fifty-year-old head with its gray curls, she stood
3885 surveying the guests, and leisurely arranged her wide sleeves as if
3886 rolling them up. Marya Dmitrievna always spoke in Russian.
3888 "Health and happiness to her whose name day we are keeping and to her
3889 children," she said, in her loud, full-toned voice which drowned all
3890 others. "Well, you old sinner," she went on, turning to the count who
3891 was kissing her hand, "you're feeling dull in Moscow, I daresay? Nowhere
3892 to hunt with your dogs? But what is to be done, old man? Just see how
3893 these nestlings are growing up," and she pointed to the girls. "You must
3894 look for husbands for them whether you like it or not...."
3896 "Well," said she, "how's my Cossack?" (Marya Dmitrievna always called
3897 Natasha a Cossack) and she stroked the child's arm as she came up
3898 fearless and gay to kiss her hand. "I know she's a scamp of a girl, but
3901 She took a pair of pear-shaped ruby earrings from her huge reticule and,
3902 having given them to the rosy Natasha, who beamed with the pleasure of
3903 her saint's-day fete, turned away at once and addressed herself to
3906 "Eh, eh, friend! Come here a bit," said she, assuming a soft high tone
3907 of voice. "Come here, my friend..." and she ominously tucked up her
3908 sleeves still higher. Pierre approached, looking at her in a childlike
3909 way through his spectacles.
3911 "Come nearer, come nearer, friend! I used to be the only one to tell
3912 your father the truth when he was in favor, and in your case it's my
3913 evident duty." She paused. All were silent, expectant of what was to
3914 follow, for this was clearly only a prelude.
3916 "A fine lad! My word! A fine lad!... His father lies on his deathbed and
3917 he amuses himself setting a policeman astride a bear! For shame, sir,
3918 for shame! It would be better if you went to the war."
3920 She turned away and gave her hand to the count, who could hardly keep
3923 "Well, I suppose it is time we were at table?" said Marya Dmitrievna.
3925 The count went in first with Marya Dmitrievna, the countess followed on
3926 the arm of a colonel of hussars, a man of importance to them because
3927 Nicholas was to go with him to the regiment; then came Anna Mikhaylovna
3928 with Shinshin. Berg gave his arm to Vera. The smiling Julie Karagina
3929 went in with Nicholas. After them other couples followed, filling the
3930 whole dining hall, and last of all the children, tutors, and governesses
3931 followed singly. The footmen began moving about, chairs scraped, the
3932 band struck up in the gallery, and the guests settled down in their
3933 places. Then the strains of the count's household band were replaced by
3934 the clatter of knives and forks, the voices of visitors, and the soft
3935 steps of the footmen. At one end of the table sat the countess with
3936 Marya Dmitrievna on her right and Anna Mikhaylovna on her left, the
3937 other lady visitors were farther down. At the other end sat the count,
3938 with the hussar colonel on his left and Shinshin and the other male
3939 visitors on his right. Midway down the long table on one side sat the
3940 grownup young people: Vera beside Berg, and Pierre beside Boris; and on
3941 the other side, the children, tutors, and governesses. From behind the
3942 crystal decanters and fruit vases, the count kept glancing at his wife
3943 and her tall cap with its light-blue ribbons, and busily filled his
3944 neighbors' glasses, not neglecting his own. The countess in turn,
3945 without omitting her duties as hostess, threw significant glances from
3946 behind the pineapples at her husband whose face and bald head seemed by
3947 their redness to contrast more than usual with his gray hair. At the
3948 ladies' end an even chatter of voices was heard all the time, at the
3949 men's end the voices sounded louder and louder, especially that of the
3950 colonel of hussars who, growing more and more flushed, ate and drank so
3951 much that the count held him up as a pattern to the other guests. Berg
3952 with tender smiles was saying to Vera that love is not an earthly but a
3953 heavenly feeling. Boris was telling his new friend Pierre who the guests
3954 were and exchanging glances with Natasha, who was sitting opposite.
3955 Pierre spoke little but examined the new faces, and ate a great deal. Of
3956 the two soups he chose turtle with savory patties and went on to the
3957 game without omitting a single dish or one of the wines. These latter
3958 the butler thrust mysteriously forward, wrapped in a napkin, from behind
3959 the next man's shoulders and whispered: "Dry Madeira"... "Hungarian"...
3960 or "Rhine wine" as the case might be. Of the four crystal glasses
3961 engraved with the count's monogram that stood before his plate, Pierre
3962 held out one at random and drank with enjoyment, gazing with ever-
3963 increasing amiability at the other guests. Natasha, who sat opposite,
3964 was looking at Boris as girls of thirteen look at the boy they are in
3965 love with and have just kissed for the first time. Sometimes that same
3966 look fell on Pierre, and that funny lively little girl's look made him
3967 inclined to laugh without knowing why.
3969 Nicholas sat at some distance from Sonya, beside Julie Karagina, to whom
3970 he was again talking with the same involuntary smile. Sonya wore a
3971 company smile but was evidently tormented by jealousy; now she turned
3972 pale, now blushed and strained every nerve to overhear what Nicholas and
3973 Julie were saying to one another. The governess kept looking round
3974 uneasily as if preparing to resent any slight that might be put upon the
3975 children. The German tutor was trying to remember all the dishes, wines,
3976 and kinds of dessert, in order to send a full description of the dinner
3977 to his people in Germany; and he felt greatly offended when the butler
3978 with a bottle wrapped in a napkin passed him by. He frowned, trying to
3979 appear as if he did not want any of that wine, but was mortified because
3980 no one would understand that it was not to quench his thirst or from
3981 greediness that he wanted it, but simply from a conscientious desire for
3989 At the men's end of the table the talk grew more and more animated. The
3990 colonel told them that the declaration of war had already appeared in
3991 Petersburg and that a copy, which he had himself seen, had that day been
3992 forwarded by courier to the commander-in-chief.
3994 "And why the deuce are we going to fight Bonaparte?" remarked Shinshin.
3995 "He has stopped Austria's cackle and I fear it will be our turn next."
3997 The colonel was a stout, tall, plethoric German, evidently devoted to
3998 the service and patriotically Russian. He resented Shinshin's remark.
4000 "It is for the reasson, my goot sir," said he, speaking with a German
4001 accent, "for the reasson zat ze Emperor knows zat. He declares in ze
4002 manifessto zat he cannot fiew wiz indifference ze danger vreatening
4003 Russia and zat ze safety and dignity of ze Empire as vell as ze sanctity
4004 of its alliances..." he spoke this last word with particular emphasis as
4005 if in it lay the gist of the matter.
4007 Then with the unerring official memory that characterized him he
4008 repeated from the opening words of the manifesto:
4010 ... and the wish, which constitutes the Emperor's sole and absolute aim-
4011 -to establish peace in Europe on firm foundations--has now decided him
4012 to despatch part of the army abroad and to create a new condition for
4013 the attainment of that purpose.
4015 "Zat, my dear sir, is vy..." he concluded, drinking a tumbler of wine
4016 with dignity and looking to the count for approval.
4018 "Connaissez-vous le Proverbe: * 'Jerome, Jerome, do not roam, but turn
4019 spindles at home!'?" said Shinshin, puckering his brows and smiling.
4020 "Cela nous convient a merveille.*(2) Suvorov now--he knew what he was
4021 about; yet they beat him a plate couture,*(3) and where are we to find
4022 Suvorovs now? Je vous demande un peu,"*(4) said he, continually changing
4023 from French to Russian.
4026 *Do you know the proverb?
4028 *(2) That suits us down to the ground.
4032 *(4) I just ask you that.
4034 "Ve must vight to the last tr-r-op of our plood!" said the colonel,
4035 thumping the table; "and ve must tie for our Emperor, and zen all vill
4036 pe vell. And ve must discuss it as little as po-o-ossible"... he dwelt
4037 particularly on the word possible... "as po-o-ossible," he ended, again
4038 turning to the count. "Zat is how ve old hussars look at it, and zere's
4039 an end of it! And how do you, a young man and a young hussar, how do you
4040 judge of it?" he added, addressing Nicholas, who when he heard that the
4041 war was being discussed had turned from his partner with eyes and ears
4042 intent on the colonel.
4044 "I am quite of your opinion," replied Nicholas, flaming up, turning his
4045 plate round and moving his wineglasses about with as much decision and
4046 desperation as though he were at that moment facing some great danger.
4047 "I am convinced that we Russians must die or conquer," he concluded,
4048 conscious--as were others--after the words were uttered that his remarks
4049 were too enthusiastic and emphatic for the occasion and were therefore
4052 "What you said just now was splendid!" said his partner Julie.
4054 Sonya trembled all over and blushed to her ears and behind them and down
4055 to her neck and shoulders while Nicholas was speaking.
4057 Pierre listened to the colonel's speech and nodded approvingly.
4059 "That's fine," said he.
4061 "The young man's a real hussar!" shouted the colonel, again thumping the
4064 "What are you making such a noise about over there?" Marya Dmitrievna's
4065 deep voice suddenly inquired from the other end of the table. "What are
4066 you thumping the table for?" she demanded of the hussar, "and why are
4067 you exciting yourself? Do you think the French are here?"
4069 "I am speaking ze truce," replied the hussar with a smile.
4071 "It's all about the war," the count shouted down the table. "You know my
4072 son's going, Marya Dmitrievna? My son is going."
4074 "I have four sons in the army but still I don't fret. It is all in God's
4075 hands. You may die in your bed or God may spare you in a battle,"
4076 replied Marya Dmitrievna's deep voice, which easily carried the whole
4077 length of the table.
4081 Once more the conversations concentrated, the ladies' at the one end and
4082 the men's at the other.
4084 "You won't ask," Natasha's little brother was saying; "I know you won't
4087 "I will," replied Natasha.
4089 Her face suddenly flushed with reckless and joyous resolution. She half
4090 rose, by a glance inviting Pierre, who sat opposite, to listen to what
4091 was coming, and turning to her mother:
4093 "Mamma!" rang out the clear contralto notes of her childish voice,
4094 audible the whole length of the table.
4096 "What is it?" asked the countess, startled; but seeing by her daughter's
4097 face that it was only mischief, she shook a finger at her sternly with a
4098 threatening and forbidding movement of her head.
4100 The conversation was hushed.
4102 "Mamma! What sweets are we going to have?" and Natasha's voice sounded
4103 still more firm and resolute.
4105 The countess tried to frown, but could not. Marya Dmitrievna shook her
4108 "Cossack!" she said threateningly.
4110 Most of the guests, uncertain how to regard this sally, looked at the
4113 "You had better take care!" said the countess.
4115 "Mamma! What sweets are we going to have?" Natasha again cried boldly,
4116 with saucy gaiety, confident that her prank would be taken in good part.
4118 Sonya and fat little Petya doubled up with laughter.
4120 "You see! I have asked," whispered Natasha to her little brother and to
4121 Pierre, glancing at him again.
4123 "Ice pudding, but you won't get any," said Marya Dmitrievna.
4125 Natasha saw there was nothing to be afraid of and so she braved even
4128 "Marya Dmitrievna! What kind of ice pudding? I don't like ice cream."
4132 "No! What kind, Marya Dmitrievna? What kind?" she almost screamed; "I
4135 Marya Dmitrievna and the countess burst out laughing, and all the guests
4136 joined in. Everyone laughed, not at Marya Dmitrievna's answer but at the
4137 incredible boldness and smartness of this little girl who had dared to
4138 treat Marya Dmitrievna in this fashion.
4140 Natasha only desisted when she had been told that there would be
4141 pineapple ice. Before the ices, champagne was served round. The band
4142 again struck up, the count and countess kissed, and the guests, leaving
4143 their seats, went up to "congratulate" the countess, and reached across
4144 the table to clink glasses with the count, with the children, and with
4145 one another. Again the footmen rushed about, chairs scraped, and in the
4146 same order in which they had entered but with redder faces, the guests
4147 returned to the drawing room and to the count's study.
4154 The card tables were drawn out, sets made up for boston, and the count's
4155 visitors settled themselves, some in the two drawing rooms, some in the
4156 sitting room, some in the library.
4158 The count, holding his cards fanwise, kept himself with difficulty from
4159 dropping into his usual after-dinner nap, and laughed at everything. The
4160 young people, at the countess' instigation, gathered round the
4161 clavichord and harp. Julie by general request played first. After she
4162 had played a little air with variations on the harp, she joined the
4163 other young ladies in begging Natasha and Nicholas, who were noted for
4164 their musical talent, to sing something. Natasha, who was treated as
4165 though she were grown up, was evidently very proud of this but at the
4168 "What shall we sing?" she said.
4170 "'The Brook,'" suggested Nicholas.
4172 "Well, then, let's be quick. Boris, come here," said Natasha. "But where
4175 She looked round and seeing that her friend was not in the room ran to
4178 Running into Sonya's room and not finding her there, Natasha ran to the
4179 nursery, but Sonya was not there either. Natasha concluded that she must
4180 be on the chest in the passage. The chest in the passage was the place
4181 of mourning for the younger female generation in the Rostov household.
4182 And there in fact was Sonya lying face downward on Nurse's dirty feather
4183 bed on the top of the chest, crumpling her gauzy pink dress under her,
4184 hiding her face with her slender fingers, and sobbing so convulsively
4185 that her bare little shoulders shook. Natasha's face, which had been so
4186 radiantly happy all that saint's day, suddenly changed: her eyes became
4187 fixed, and then a shiver passed down her broad neck and the corners of
4190 "Sonya! What is it? What is the matter?... Oo... Oo... Oo...!" And
4191 Natasha's large mouth widened, making her look quite ugly, and she began
4192 to wail like a baby without knowing why, except that Sonya was crying.
4193 Sonya tried to lift her head to answer but could not, and hid her face
4194 still deeper in the bed. Natasha wept, sitting on the blue-striped
4195 feather bed and hugging her friend. With an effort Sonya sat up and
4196 began wiping her eyes and explaining.
4198 "Nicholas is going away in a week's time, his... papers... have come...
4199 he told me himself... but still I should not cry," and she showed a
4200 paper she held in her hand--with the verses Nicholas had written,
4201 "still, I should not cry, but you can't... no one can understand... what
4204 And she began to cry again because he had such a noble soul.
4206 "It's all very well for you... I am not envious... I love you and Boris
4207 also," she went on, gaining a little strength; "he is nice... there are
4208 no difficulties in your way.... But Nicholas is my cousin... one would
4209 have to... the Metropolitan himself... and even then it can't be done.
4210 And besides, if she tells Mamma" (Sonya looked upon the countess as her
4211 mother and called her so) "that I am spoiling Nicholas' career and am
4212 heartless and ungrateful, while truly... God is my witness," and she
4213 made the sign of the cross, "I love her so much, and all of you, only
4214 Vera... And what for? What have I done to her? I am so grateful to you
4215 that I would willingly sacrifice everything, only I have nothing...."
4217 Sonya could not continue, and again hid her face in her hands and in the
4218 feather bed. Natasha began consoling her, but her face showed that she
4219 understood all the gravity of her friend's trouble.
4221 "Sonya," she suddenly exclaimed, as if she had guessed the true reason
4222 of her friend's sorrow, "I'm sure Vera has said something to you since
4223 dinner? Hasn't she?"
4225 "Yes, these verses Nicholas wrote himself and I copied some others, and
4226 she found them on my table and said she'd show them to Mamma, and that I
4227 was ungrateful, and that Mamma would never allow him to marry me, but
4228 that he'll marry Julie. You see how he's been with her all day...
4229 Natasha, what have I done to deserve it?..."
4231 And again she began to sob, more bitterly than before. Natasha lifted
4232 her up, hugged her, and, smiling through her tears, began comforting
4235 "Sonya, don't believe her, darling! Don't believe her! Do you remember
4236 how we and Nicholas, all three of us, talked in the sitting room after
4237 supper? Why, we settled how everything was to be. I don't quite remember
4238 how, but don't you remember that it could all be arranged and how nice
4239 it all was? There's Uncle Shinshin's brother has married his first
4240 cousin. And we are only second cousins, you know. And Boris says it is
4241 quite possible. You know I have told him all about it. And he is so
4242 clever and so good!" said Natasha. "Don't you cry, Sonya, dear love,
4243 darling Sonya!" and she kissed her and laughed. "Vera's spiteful; never
4244 mind her! And all will come right and she won't say anything to Mamma.
4245 Nicholas will tell her himself, and he doesn't care at all for Julie."
4247 Natasha kissed her on the hair.
4249 Sonya sat up. The little kitten brightened, its eyes shone, and it
4250 seemed ready to lift its tail, jump down on its soft paws, and begin
4251 playing with the ball of worsted as a kitten should.
4253 "Do you think so?... Really? Truly?" she said, quickly smoothing her
4256 "Really, truly!" answered Natasha, pushing in a crisp lock that had
4257 strayed from under her friend's plaits.
4261 "Well, let's go and sing 'The Brook.'"
4265 "Do you know, that fat Pierre who sat opposite me is so funny!" said
4266 Natasha, stopping suddenly. "I feel so happy!"
4268 And she set off at a run along the passage.
4270 Sonya, shaking off some down which clung to her and tucking away the
4271 verses in the bosom of her dress close to her bony little chest, ran
4272 after Natasha down the passage into the sitting room with flushed face
4273 and light, joyous steps. At the visitors' request the young people sang
4274 the quartette, "The Brook," with which everyone was delighted. Then
4275 Nicholas sang a song he had just learned:
4278 At nighttime in the moon's fair glow How sweet, as fancies wander free,
4279 To feel that in this world there's one Who still is thinking but of
4282 That while her fingers touch the harp Wafting sweet music o'er the lea,
4283 It is for thee thus swells her heart, Sighing its message out to thee...
4285 A day or two, then bliss unspoilt, But oh! till then I cannot live!...
4287 He had not finished the last verse before the young people began to get
4288 ready to dance in the large hall, and the sound of the feet and the
4289 coughing of the musicians were heard from the gallery.
4291 Pierre was sitting in the drawing-room where Shinshin had engaged him,
4292 as a man recently returned from abroad, in a political conversation in
4293 which several others joined but which bored Pierre. When the music began
4294 Natasha came in and walking straight up to Pierre said, laughing and
4297 "Mamma told me to ask you to join the dancers."
4299 "I am afraid of mixing the figures," Pierre replied; "but if you will be
4300 my teacher..." And lowering his big arm he offered it to the slender
4303 While the couples were arranging themselves and the musicians tuning up,
4304 Pierre sat down with his little partner. Natasha was perfectly happy;
4305 she was dancing with a grown-up man, who had been abroad. She was
4306 sitting in a conspicuous place and talking to him like a grown-up lady.
4307 She had a fan in her hand that one of the ladies had given her to hold.
4308 Assuming quite the pose of a society woman (heaven knows when and where
4309 she had learned it) she talked with her partner, fanning herself and
4310 smiling over the fan.
4312 "Dear, dear! Just look at her!" exclaimed the countess as she crossed
4313 the ballroom, pointing to Natasha.
4315 Natasha blushed and laughed.
4317 "Well, really, Mamma! Why should you? What is there to be surprised at?"
4319 In the midst of the third ecossaise there was a clatter of chairs being
4320 pushed back in the sitting room where the count and Marya Dmitrievna had
4321 been playing cards with the majority of the more distinguished and older
4322 visitors. They now, stretching themselves after sitting so long, and
4323 replacing their purses and pocketbooks, entered the ballroom. First came
4324 Marya Dmitrievna and the count, both with merry countenances. The count,
4325 with playful ceremony somewhat in ballet style, offered his bent arm to
4326 Marya Dmitrievna. He drew himself up, a smile of debonair gallantry lit
4327 up his face and as soon as the last figure of the ecossaise was ended,
4328 he clapped his hands to the musicians and shouted up to their gallery,
4329 addressing the first violin:
4331 "Semen! Do you know the Daniel Cooper?"
4333 This was the count's favorite dance, which he had danced in his youth.
4334 (Strictly speaking, Daniel Cooper was one figure of the anglaise.)
4336 "Look at Papa!" shouted Natasha to the whole company, and quite
4337 forgetting that she was dancing with a grown-up partner she bent her
4338 curly head to her knees and made the whole room ring with her laughter.
4340 And indeed everybody in the room looked with a smile of pleasure at the
4341 jovial old gentleman, who standing beside his tall and stout partner,
4342 Marya Dmitrievna, curved his arms, beat time, straightened his
4343 shoulders, turned out his toes, tapped gently with his foot, and, by a
4344 smile that broadened his round face more and more, prepared the
4345 onlookers for what was to follow. As soon as the provocatively gay
4346 strains of Daniel Cooper (somewhat resembling those of a merry peasant
4347 dance) began to sound, all the doorways of the ballroom were suddenly
4348 filled by the domestic serfs--the men on one side and the women on the
4349 other--who with beaming faces had come to see their master making merry.
4351 "Just look at the master! A regular eagle he is!" loudly remarked the
4352 nurse, as she stood in one of the doorways.
4354 The count danced well and knew it. But his partner could not and did not
4355 want to dance well. Her enormous figure stood erect, her powerful arms
4356 hanging down (she had handed her reticule to the countess), and only her
4357 stern but handsome face really joined in the dance. What was expressed
4358 by the whole of the count's plump figure, in Marya Dmitrievna found
4359 expression only in her more and more beaming face and quivering nose.
4360 But if the count, getting more and more into the swing of it, charmed
4361 the spectators by the unexpectedness of his adroit maneuvers and the
4362 agility with which he capered about on his light feet, Marya Dmitrievna
4363 produced no less impression by slight exertions--the least effort to
4364 move her shoulders or bend her arms when turning, or stamp her foot--
4365 which everyone appreciated in view of her size and habitual severity.
4366 The dance grew livelier and livelier. The other couples could not
4367 attract a moment's attention to their own evolutions and did not even
4368 try to do so. All were watching the count and Marya Dmitrievna. Natasha
4369 kept pulling everyone by sleeve or dress, urging them to "look at Papa!"
4370 though as it was they never took their eyes off the couple. In the
4371 intervals of the dance the count, breathing deeply, waved and shouted to
4372 the musicians to play faster. Faster, faster, and faster; lightly, more
4373 lightly, and yet more lightly whirled the count, flying round Marya
4374 Dmitrievna, now on his toes, now on his heels; until, turning his
4375 partner round to her seat, he executed the final pas, raising his soft
4376 foot backwards, bowing his perspiring head, smiling and making a wide
4377 sweep with his arm, amid a thunder of applause and laughter led by
4378 Natasha. Both partners stood still, breathing heavily and wiping their
4379 faces with their cambric handkerchiefs.
4381 "That's how we used to dance in our time, ma chere," said the count.
4383 "That was a Daniel Cooper!" exclaimed Marya Dmitrievna, tucking up her
4384 sleeves and puffing heavily.
4391 While in the Rostovs' ballroom the sixth anglaise was being danced, to a
4392 tune in which the weary musicians blundered, and while tired footmen and
4393 cooks were getting the supper, Count Bezukhov had a sixth stroke. The
4394 doctors pronounced recovery impossible. After a mute confession,
4395 communion was administered to the dying man, preparations made for the
4396 sacrament of unction, and in his house there was the bustle and thrill
4397 of suspense usual at such moments. Outside the house, beyond the gates,
4398 a group of undertakers, who hid whenever a carriage drove up, waited in
4399 expectation of an important order for an expensive funeral. The Military
4400 Governor of Moscow, who had been assiduous in sending aides-de-camp to
4401 inquire after the count's health, came himself that evening to bid a
4402 last farewell to the celebrated grandee of Catherine's court, Count
4405 The magnificent reception room was crowded. Everyone stood up
4406 respectfully when the Military Governor, having stayed about half an
4407 hour alone with the dying man, passed out, slightly acknowledging their
4408 bows and trying to escape as quickly as possible from the glances fixed
4409 on him by the doctors, clergy, and relatives of the family. Prince
4410 Vasili, who had grown thinner and paler during the last few days,
4411 escorted him to the door, repeating something to him several times in
4414 When the Military Governor had gone, Prince Vasili sat down all alone on
4415 a chair in the ballroom, crossing one leg high over the other, leaning
4416 his elbow on his knee and covering his face with his hand. After sitting
4417 so for a while he rose, and, looking about him with frightened eyes,
4418 went with unusually hurried steps down the long corridor leading to the
4419 back of the house, to the room of the eldest princess.
4421 Those who were in the dimly lit reception room spoke in nervous
4422 whispers, and, whenever anyone went into or came from the dying man's
4423 room, grew silent and gazed with eyes full of curiosity or expectancy at
4424 his door, which creaked slightly when opened.
4426 "The limits of human life... are fixed and may not be o'erpassed," said
4427 an old priest to a lady who had taken a seat beside him and was
4428 listening naively to his words.
4430 "I wonder, is it not too late to administer unction?" asked the lady,
4431 adding the priest's clerical title, as if she had no opinion of her own
4434 "Ah, madam, it is a great sacrament," replied the priest, passing his
4435 hand over the thin grizzled strands of hair combed back across his bald
4438 "Who was that? The Military Governor himself?" was being asked at the
4439 other side of the room. "How young-looking he is!"
4441 "Yes, and he is over sixty. I hear the count no longer recognizes
4442 anyone. They wished to administer the sacrament of unction."
4444 "I knew someone who received that sacrament seven times."
4446 The second princess had just come from the sickroom with her eyes red
4447 from weeping and sat down beside Dr. Lorrain, who was sitting in a
4448 graceful pose under a portrait of Catherine, leaning his elbow on a
4451 "Beautiful," said the doctor in answer to a remark about the weather.
4452 "The weather is beautiful, Princess; and besides, in Moscow one feels as
4453 if one were in the country."
4455 "Yes, indeed," replied the princess with a sigh. "So he may have
4456 something to drink?"
4460 "Has he taken his medicine?"
4464 The doctor glanced at his watch.
4466 "Take a glass of boiled water and put a pinch of cream of tartar," and
4467 he indicated with his delicate fingers what he meant by a pinch.
4469 "Dere has neffer been a gase," a German doctor was saying to an aide-de-
4470 camp, "dat one liffs after de sird stroke."
4472 "And what a well-preserved man he was!" remarked the aide-de-camp. "And
4473 who will inherit his wealth?" he added in a whisper.
4475 "It von't go begging," replied the German with a smile.
4477 Everyone again looked toward the door, which creaked as the second
4478 princess went in with the drink she had prepared according to Lorrain's
4479 instructions. The German doctor went up to Lorrain.
4481 "Do you think he can last till morning?" asked the German, addressing
4482 Lorrain in French which he pronounced badly.
4484 Lorrain, pursing up his lips, waved a severely negative finger before
4487 "Tonight, not later," said he in a low voice, and he moved away with a
4488 decorous smile of self-satisfaction at being able clearly to understand
4489 and state the patient's condition.
4491 Meanwhile Prince Vasili had opened the door into the princess' room.
4493 In this room it was almost dark; only two tiny lamps were burning before
4494 the icons and there was a pleasant scent of flowers and burnt pastilles.
4495 The room was crowded with small pieces of furniture, whatnots,
4496 cupboards, and little tables. The quilt of a high, white feather bed was
4497 just visible behind a screen. A small dog began to bark.
4499 "Ah, is it you, cousin?"
4501 She rose and smoothed her hair, which was as usual so extremely smooth
4502 that it seemed to be made of one piece with her head and covered with
4505 "Has anything happened?" she asked. "I am so terrified."
4507 "No, there is no change. I only came to have a talk about business,
4508 Catiche," * muttered the prince, seating himself wearily on the chair
4509 she had just vacated. "You have made the place warm, I must say," he
4510 remarked. "Well, sit down: let's have a talk."
4515 "I thought perhaps something had happened," she said with her unchanging
4516 stonily severe expression; and, sitting down opposite the prince, she
4519 "I wished to get a nap, mon cousin, but I can't."
4521 "Well, my dear?" said Prince Vasili, taking her hand and bending it
4522 downwards as was his habit.
4524 It was plain that this "well?" referred to much that they both
4525 understood without naming.
4527 The princess, who had a straight, rigid body, abnormally long for her
4528 legs, looked directly at Prince Vasili with no sign of emotion in her
4529 prominent gray eyes. Then she shook her head and glanced up at the icons
4530 with a sigh. This might have been taken as an expression of sorrow and
4531 devotion, or of weariness and hope of resting before long. Prince Vasili
4532 understood it as an expression of weariness.
4534 "And I?" he said; "do you think it is easier for me? I am as worn out as
4535 a post horse, but still I must have a talk with you, Catiche, a very
4538 Prince Vasili said no more and his cheeks began to twitch nervously, now
4539 on one side, now on the other, giving his face an unpleasant expression
4540 which was never to be seen on it in a drawing room. His eyes too seemed
4541 strange; at one moment they looked impudently sly and at the next
4542 glanced round in alarm.
4544 The princess, holding her little dog on her lap with her thin bony
4545 hands, looked attentively into Prince Vasili's eyes evidently resolved
4546 not to be the first to break silence, if she had to wait till morning.
4548 "Well, you see, my dear princess and cousin, Catherine Semenovna,"
4549 continued Prince Vasili, returning to his theme, apparently not without
4550 an inner struggle; "at such a moment as this one must think of
4551 everything. One must think of the future, of all of you... I love you
4552 all, like children of my own, as you know."
4554 The princess continued to look at him without moving, and with the same
4557 "And then of course my family has also to be considered," Prince Vasili
4558 went on, testily pushing away a little table without looking at her.
4559 "You know, Catiche, that we--you three sisters, Mamontov, and my wife--
4560 are the count's only direct heirs. I know, I know how hard it is for you
4561 to talk or think of such matters. It is no easier for me; but, my dear,
4562 I am getting on for sixty and must be prepared for anything. Do you know
4563 I have sent for Pierre? The count," pointing to his portrait,
4564 "definitely demanded that he should be called."
4566 Prince Vasili looked questioningly at the princess, but could not make
4567 out whether she was considering what he had just said or whether she was
4568 simply looking at him.
4570 "There is one thing I constantly pray God to grant, mon cousin," she
4571 replied, "and it is that He would be merciful to him and would allow his
4572 noble soul peacefully to leave this..."
4574 "Yes, yes, of course," interrupted Prince Vasili impatiently, rubbing
4575 his bald head and angrily pulling back toward him the little table that
4576 he had pushed away. "But... in short, the fact is... you know yourself
4577 that last winter the count made a will by which he left all his
4578 property, not to us his direct heirs, but to Pierre."
4580 "He has made wills enough!" quietly remarked the princess. "But he
4581 cannot leave the estate to Pierre. Pierre is illegitimate."
4583 "But, my dear," said Prince Vasili suddenly, clutching the little table
4584 and becoming more animated and talking more rapidly: "what if a letter
4585 has been written to the Emperor in which the count asks for Pierre's
4586 legitimation? Do you understand that in consideration of the count's
4587 services, his request would be granted?..."
4589 The princess smiled as people do who think they know more about the
4590 subject under discussion than those they are talking with.
4592 "I can tell you more," continued Prince Vasili, seizing her hand, "that
4593 letter was written, though it was not sent, and the Emperor knew of it.
4594 The only question is, has it been destroyed or not? If not, then as soon
4595 as all is over," and Prince Vasili sighed to intimate what he meant by
4596 the words all is over, "and the count's papers are opened, the will and
4597 letter will be delivered to the Emperor, and the petition will certainly
4598 be granted. Pierre will get everything as the legitimate son."
4600 "And our share?" asked the princess smiling ironically, as if anything
4601 might happen, only not that.
4603 "But, my poor Catiche, it is as clear as daylight! He will then be the
4604 legal heir to everything and you won't get anything. You must know, my
4605 dear, whether the will and letter were written, and whether they have
4606 been destroyed or not. And if they have somehow been overlooked, you
4607 ought to know where they are, and must find them, because..."
4609 "What next?" the princess interrupted, smiling sardonically and not
4610 changing the expression of her eyes. "I am a woman, and you think we are
4611 all stupid; but I know this: an illegitimate son cannot inherit... un
4612 batard!" * she added, as if supposing that this translation of the word
4613 would effectively prove to Prince Vasili the invalidity of his
4619 "Well, really, Catiche! Can't you understand! You are so intelligent,
4620 how is it you don't see that if the count has written a letter to the
4621 Emperor begging him to recognize Pierre as legitimate, it follows that
4622 Pierre will not be Pierre but will become Count Bezukhov, and will then
4623 inherit everything under the will? And if the will and letter are not
4624 destroyed, then you will have nothing but the consolation of having been
4625 dutiful et tout ce qui s'ensuit! * That's certain."
4628 * And all that follows therefrom.
4630 "I know the will was made, but I also know that it is invalid; and you,
4631 mon cousin, seem to consider me a perfect fool," said the princess with
4632 the expression women assume when they suppose they are saying something
4635 "My dear Princess Catherine Semenovna," began Prince Vasili impatiently,
4636 "I came here not to wrangle with you, but to talk about your interests
4637 as with a kinswoman, a good, kind, true relation. And I tell you for the
4638 tenth time that if the letter to the Emperor and the will in Pierre's
4639 favor are among the count's papers, then, my dear girl, you and your
4640 sisters are not heiresses! If you don't believe me, then believe an
4641 expert. I have just been talking to Dmitri Onufrich" (the family
4642 solicitor) "and he says the same."
4644 At this a sudden change evidently took place in the princess' ideas; her
4645 thin lips grew white, though her eyes did not change, and her voice when
4646 she began to speak passed through such transitions as she herself
4647 evidently did not expect.
4649 "That would be a fine thing!" said she. "I never wanted anything and I
4652 She pushed the little dog off her lap and smoothed her dress.
4654 "And this is gratitude--this is recognition for those who have
4655 sacrificed everything for his sake!" she cried. "It's splendid! Fine! I
4656 don't want anything, Prince."
4658 "Yes, but you are not the only one. There are your sisters..." replied
4661 But the princess did not listen to him.
4663 "Yes, I knew it long ago but had forgotten. I knew that I could expect
4664 nothing but meanness, deceit, envy, intrigue, and ingratitude--the
4665 blackest ingratitude--in this house..."
4667 "Do you or do you not know where that will is?" insisted Prince Vasili,
4668 his cheeks twitching more than ever.
4670 "Yes, I was a fool! I still believed in people, loved them, and
4671 sacrificed myself. But only the base, the vile succeed! I know who has
4674 The princess wished to rise, but the prince held her by the hand. She
4675 had the air of one who has suddenly lost faith in the whole human race.
4676 She gave her companion an angry glance.
4678 "There is still time, my dear. You must remember, Catiche, that it was
4679 all done casually in a moment of anger, of illness, and was afterwards
4680 forgotten. Our duty, my dear, is to rectify his mistake, to ease his
4681 last moments by not letting him commit this injustice, and not to let
4682 him die feeling that he is rendering unhappy those who..."
4684 "Who sacrificed everything for him," chimed in the princess, who would
4685 again have risen had not the prince still held her fast, "though he
4686 never could appreciate it. No, mon cousin," she added with a sigh, "I
4687 shall always remember that in this world one must expect no reward, that
4688 in this world there is neither honor nor justice. In this world one has
4689 to be cunning and cruel."
4691 "Now come, come! Be reasonable. I know your excellent heart."
4693 "No, I have a wicked heart."
4695 "I know your heart," repeated the prince. "I value your friendship and
4696 wish you to have as good an opinion of me. Don't upset yourself, and let
4697 us talk sensibly while there is still time, be it a day or be it but an
4698 hour.... Tell me all you know about the will, and above all where it is.
4699 You must know. We will take it at once and show it to the count. He has,
4700 no doubt, forgotten it and will wish to destroy it. You understand that
4701 my sole desire is conscientiously to carry out his wishes; that is my
4702 only reason for being here. I came simply to help him and you."
4704 "Now I see it all! I know who has been intriguing--I know!" cried the
4707 "That's not the point, my dear."
4709 "It's that protege of yours, that sweet Princess Drubetskaya, that Anna
4710 Mikhaylovna whom I would not take for a housemaid... the infamous, vile
4713 "Do not let us lose any time..."
4715 "Ah, don't talk to me! Last winter she wheedled herself in here and told
4716 the count such vile, disgraceful things about us, especially about
4717 Sophie--I can't repeat them--that it made the count quite ill and he
4718 would not see us for a whole fortnight. I know it was then he wrote this
4719 vile, infamous paper, but I thought the thing was invalid."
4721 "We've got to it at last--why did you not tell me about it sooner?"
4723 "It's in the inlaid portfolio that he keeps under his pillow," said the
4724 princess, ignoring his question. "Now I know! Yes; if I have a sin, a
4725 great sin, it is hatred of that vile woman!" almost shrieked the
4726 princess, now quite changed. "And what does she come worming herself in
4727 here for? But I will give her a piece of my mind. The time will come!"
4734 While these conversations were going on in the reception room and the
4735 princess' room, a carriage containing Pierre (who had been sent for) and
4736 Anna Mikhaylovna (who found it necessary to accompany him) was driving
4737 into the court of Count Bezukhov's house. As the wheels rolled softly
4738 over the straw beneath the windows, Anna Mikhaylovna, having turned with
4739 words of comfort to her companion, realized that he was asleep in his
4740 corner and woke him up. Rousing himself, Pierre followed Anna
4741 Mikhaylovna out of the carriage, and only then began to think of the
4742 interview with his dying father which awaited him. He noticed that they
4743 had not come to the front entrance but to the back door. While he was
4744 getting down from the carriage steps two men, who looked like
4745 tradespeople, ran hurriedly from the entrance and hid in the shadow of
4746 the wall. Pausing for a moment, Pierre noticed several other men of the
4747 same kind hiding in the shadow of the house on both sides. But neither
4748 Anna Mikhaylovna nor the footman nor the coachman, who could not help
4749 seeing these people, took any notice of them. "It seems to be all
4750 right," Pierre concluded, and followed Anna Mikhaylovna. She hurriedly
4751 ascended the narrow dimly lit stone staircase, calling to Pierre, who
4752 was lagging behind, to follow. Though he did not see why it was
4753 necessary for him to go to the count at all, still less why he had to go
4754 by the back stairs, yet judging by Anna Mikhaylovna's air of assurance
4755 and haste, Pierre concluded that it was all absolutely necessary.
4756 Halfway up the stairs they were almost knocked over by some men who,
4757 carrying pails, came running downstairs, their boots clattering. These
4758 men pressed close to the wall to let Pierre and Anna Mikhaylovna pass
4759 and did not evince the least surprise at seeing them there.
4761 "Is this the way to the princesses' apartments?" asked Anna Mikhaylovna
4764 "Yes," replied a footman in a bold loud voice, as if anything were now
4765 permissible; "the door to the left, ma'am."
4767 "Perhaps the count did not ask for me," said Pierre when he reached the
4768 landing. "I'd better go to my own room."
4770 Anna Mikhaylovna paused and waited for him to come up.
4772 "Ah, my friend!" she said, touching his arm as she had done her son's
4773 when speaking to him that afternoon, "believe me I suffer no less than
4774 you do, but be a man!"
4776 "But really, hadn't I better go away?" he asked, looking kindly at her
4777 over his spectacles.
4779 "Ah, my dear friend! Forget the wrongs that may have been done you.
4780 Think that he is your father... perhaps in the agony of death." She
4781 sighed. "I have loved you like a son from the first. Trust yourself to
4782 me, Pierre. I shall not forget your interests."
4784 Pierre did not understand a word, but the conviction that all this had
4785 to be grew stronger, and he meekly followed Anna Mikhaylovna who was
4786 already opening a door.
4788 This door led into a back anteroom. An old man, a servant of the
4789 princesses, sat in a corner knitting a stocking. Pierre had never been
4790 in this part of the house and did not even know of the existence of
4791 these rooms. Anna Mikhaylovna, addressing a maid who was hurrying past
4792 with a decanter on a tray as "my dear" and "my sweet," asked about the
4793 princess' health and then led Pierre along a stone passage. The first
4794 door on the left led into the princesses' apartments. The maid with the
4795 decanter in her haste had not closed the door (everything in the house
4796 was done in haste at that time), and Pierre and Anna Mikhaylovna in
4797 passing instinctively glanced into the room, where Prince Vasili and the
4798 eldest princess were sitting close together talking. Seeing them pass,
4799 Prince Vasili drew back with obvious impatience, while the princess
4800 jumped up and with a gesture of desperation slammed the door with all
4803 This action was so unlike her usual composure and the fear depicted on
4804 Prince Vasili's face so out of keeping with his dignity that Pierre
4805 stopped and glanced inquiringly over his spectacles at his guide. Anna
4806 Mikhaylovna evinced no surprise, she only smiled faintly and sighed, as
4807 if to say that this was no more than she had expected.
4809 "Be a man, my friend. I will look after your interests," said she in
4810 reply to his look, and went still faster along the passage.
4812 Pierre could not make out what it was all about, and still less what
4813 "watching over his interests" meant, but he decided that all these
4814 things had to be. From the passage they went into a large, dimly lit
4815 room adjoining the count's reception room. It was one of those sumptuous
4816 but cold apartments known to Pierre only from the front approach, but
4817 even in this room there now stood an empty bath, and water had been
4818 spilled on the carpet. They were met by a deacon with a censer and by a
4819 servant who passed out on tiptoe without heeding them. They went into
4820 the reception room familiar to Pierre, with two Italian windows opening
4821 into the conservatory, with its large bust and full length portrait of
4822 Catherine the Great. The same people were still sitting here in almost
4823 the same positions as before, whispering to one another. All became
4824 silent and turned to look at the pale tear-worn Anna Mikhaylovna as she
4825 entered, and at the big stout figure of Pierre who, hanging his head,
4826 meekly followed her.
4828 Anna Mikhaylovna's face expressed a consciousness that the decisive
4829 moment had arrived. With the air of a practical Petersburg lady she now,
4830 keeping Pierre close beside her, entered the room even more boldly than
4831 that afternoon. She felt that as she brought with her the person the
4832 dying man wished to see, her own admission was assured. Casting a rapid
4833 glance at all those in the room and noticing the count's confessor
4834 there, she glided up to him with a sort of amble, not exactly bowing yet
4835 seeming to grow suddenly smaller, and respectfully received the blessing
4836 first of one and then of another priest.
4838 "God be thanked that you are in time," said she to one of the priests;
4839 "all we relatives have been in such anxiety. This young man is the
4840 count's son," she added more softly. "What a terrible moment!"
4842 Having said this she went up to the doctor.
4844 "Dear doctor," said she, "this young man is the count's son. Is there
4847 The doctor cast a rapid glance upwards and silently shrugged his
4848 shoulders. Anna Mikhaylovna with just the same movement raised her
4849 shoulders and eyes, almost closing the latter, sighed, and moved away
4850 from the doctor to Pierre. To him, in a particularly respectful and
4851 tenderly sad voice, she said:
4853 "Trust in His mercy!" and pointing out a small sofa for him to sit and
4854 wait for her, she went silently toward the door that everyone was
4855 watching and it creaked very slightly as she disappeared behind it.
4857 Pierre, having made up his mind to obey his monitress implicitly, moved
4858 toward the sofa she had indicated. As soon as Anna Mikhaylovna had
4859 disappeared he noticed that the eyes of all in the room turned to him
4860 with something more than curiosity and sympathy. He noticed that they
4861 whispered to one another, casting significant looks at him with a kind
4862 of awe and even servility. A deference such as he had never before
4863 received was shown him. A strange lady, the one who had been talking to
4864 the priests, rose and offered him her seat; an aide-de-camp picked up
4865 and returned a glove Pierre had dropped; the doctors became respectfully
4866 silent as he passed by, and moved to make way for him. At first Pierre
4867 wished to take another seat so as not to trouble the lady, and also to
4868 pick up the glove himself and to pass round the doctors who were not
4869 even in his way; but all at once he felt that this would not do, and
4870 that tonight he was a person obliged to perform some sort of awful rite
4871 which everyone expected of him, and that he was therefore bound to
4872 accept their services. He took the glove in silence from the aide-de-
4873 camp, and sat down in the lady's chair, placing his huge hands
4874 symmetrically on his knees in the naive attitude of an Egyptian statue,
4875 and decided in his own mind that all was as it should be, and that in
4876 order not to lose his head and do foolish things he must not act on his
4877 own ideas tonight, but must yield himself up entirely to the will of
4878 those who were guiding him.
4880 Not two minutes had passed before Prince Vasili with head erect
4881 majestically entered the room. He was wearing his long coat with three
4882 stars on his breast. He seemed to have grown thinner since the morning;
4883 his eyes seemed larger than usual when he glanced round and noticed
4884 Pierre. He went up to him, took his hand (a thing he never used to do),
4885 and drew it downwards as if wishing to ascertain whether it was firmly
4888 "Courage, courage, my friend! He has asked to see you. That is well!"
4889 and he turned to go.
4891 But Pierre thought it necessary to ask: "How is..." and hesitated, not
4892 knowing whether it would be proper to call the dying man "the count,"
4893 yet ashamed to call him "father."
4895 "He had another stroke about half an hour ago. Courage, my friend..."
4897 Pierre's mind was in such a confused state that the word "stroke"
4898 suggested to him a blow from something. He looked at Prince Vasili in
4899 perplexity, and only later grasped that a stroke was an attack of
4900 illness. Prince Vasili said something to Lorrain in passing and went
4901 through the door on tiptoe. He could not walk well on tiptoe and his
4902 whole body jerked at each step. The eldest princess followed him, and
4903 the priests and deacons and some servants also went in at the door.
4904 Through that door was heard a noise of things being moved about, and at
4905 last Anna Mikhaylovna, still with the same expression, pale but resolute
4906 in the discharge of duty, ran out and touching Pierre lightly on the arm
4909 "The divine mercy is inexhaustible! Unction is about to be administered.
4912 Pierre went in at the door, stepping on the soft carpet, and noticed
4913 that the strange lady, the aide-de-camp, and some of the servants, all
4914 followed him in, as if there were now no further need for permission to
4922 Pierre well knew this large room divided by columns and an arch, its
4923 walls hung round with Persian carpets. The part of the room behind the
4924 columns, with a high silk-curtained mahogany bedstead on one side and on
4925 the other an immense case containing icons, was brightly illuminated
4926 with red light like a Russian church during evening service. Under the
4927 gleaming icons stood a long invalid chair, and in that chair on snowy-
4928 white smooth pillows, evidently freshly changed, Pierre saw--covered to
4929 the waist by a bright green quilt--the familiar, majestic figure of his
4930 father, Count Bezukhov, with that gray mane of hair above his broad
4931 forehead which reminded one of a lion, and the deep characteristically
4932 noble wrinkles of his handsome, ruddy face. He lay just under the icons;
4933 his large thick hands outside the quilt. Into the right hand, which was
4934 lying palm downwards, a wax taper had been thrust between forefinger and
4935 thumb, and an old servant, bending over from behind the chair, held it
4936 in position. By the chair stood the priests, their long hair falling
4937 over their magnificent glittering vestments, with lighted tapers in
4938 their hands, slowly and solemnly conducting the service. A little behind
4939 them stood the two younger princesses holding handkerchiefs to their
4940 eyes, and just in front of them their eldest sister, Catiche, with a
4941 vicious and determined look steadily fixed on the icons, as though
4942 declaring to all that she could not answer for herself should she glance
4943 round. Anna Mikhaylovna, with a meek, sorrowful, and all-forgiving
4944 expression on her face, stood by the door near the strange lady. Prince
4945 Vasili in front of the door, near the invalid chair, a wax taper in his
4946 left hand, was leaning his left arm on the carved back of a velvet chair
4947 he had turned round for the purpose, and was crossing himself with his
4948 right hand, turning his eyes upward each time he touched his forehead.
4949 His face wore a calm look of piety and resignation to the will of God.
4950 "If you do not understand these sentiments," he seemed to be saying, "so
4951 much the worse for you!"
4953 Behind him stood the aide-de-camp, the doctors, and the menservants; the
4954 men and women had separated as in church. All were silently crossing
4955 themselves, and the reading of the church service, the subdued chanting
4956 of deep bass voices, and in the intervals sighs and the shuffling of
4957 feet were the only sounds that could be heard. Anna Mikhaylovna, with an
4958 air of importance that showed that she felt she quite knew what she was
4959 about, went across the room to where Pierre was standing and gave him a
4960 taper. He lit it and, distracted by observing those around him, began
4961 crossing himself with the hand that held the taper.
4963 Sophie, the rosy, laughter-loving, youngest princess with the mole,
4964 watched him. She smiled, hid her face in her handkerchief, and remained
4965 with it hidden for awhile; then looking up and seeing Pierre she again
4966 began to laugh. She evidently felt unable to look at him without
4967 laughing, but could not resist looking at him: so to be out of
4968 temptation she slipped quietly behind one of the columns. In the midst
4969 of the service the voices of the priests suddenly ceased, they whispered
4970 to one another, and the old servant who was holding the count's hand got
4971 up and said something to the ladies. Anna Mikhaylovna stepped forward
4972 and, stooping over the dying man, beckoned to Lorrain from behind her
4973 back. The French doctor held no taper; he was leaning against one of the
4974 columns in a respectful attitude implying that he, a foreigner, in spite
4975 of all differences of faith, understood the full importance of the rite
4976 now being performed and even approved of it. He now approached the sick
4977 man with the noiseless step of one in full vigor of life, with his
4978 delicate white fingers raised from the green quilt the hand that was
4979 free, and turning sideways felt the pulse and reflected a moment. The
4980 sick man was given something to drink, there was a stir around him, then
4981 the people resumed their places and the service continued. During this
4982 interval Pierre noticed that Prince Vasili left the chair on which he
4983 had been leaning, and--with an air which intimated that he knew what he
4984 was about and if others did not understand him it was so much the worse
4985 for them--did not go up to the dying man, but passed by him, joined the
4986 eldest princess, and moved with her to the side of the room where stood
4987 the high bedstead with its silken hangings. On leaving the bed both
4988 Prince Vasili and the princess passed out by a back door, but returned
4989 to their places one after the other before the service was concluded.
4990 Pierre paid no more attention to this occurrence than to the rest of
4991 what went on, having made up his mind once for all that what he saw
4992 happening around him that evening was in some way essential.
4994 The chanting of the service ceased, and the voice of the priest was
4995 heard respectfully congratulating the dying man on having received the
4996 sacrament. The dying man lay as lifeless and immovable as before. Around
4997 him everyone began to stir: steps were audible and whispers, among which
4998 Anna Mikhaylovna's was the most distinct.
5000 Pierre heard her say:
5002 "Certainly he must be moved onto the bed; here it will be impossible..."
5004 The sick man was so surrounded by doctors, princesses, and servants that
5005 Pierre could no longer see the reddish-yellow face with its gray mane--
5006 which, though he saw other faces as well, he had not lost sight of for a
5007 single moment during the whole service. He judged by the cautious
5008 movements of those who crowded round the invalid chair that they had
5009 lifted the dying man and were moving him.
5011 "Catch hold of my arm or you'll drop him!" he heard one of the servants
5012 say in a frightened whisper. "Catch hold from underneath. Here!"
5013 exclaimed different voices; and the heavy breathing of the bearers and
5014 the shuffling of their feet grew more hurried, as if the weight they
5015 were carrying were too much for them.
5017 As the bearers, among whom was Anna Mikhaylovna, passed the young man he
5018 caught a momentary glimpse between their heads and backs of the dying
5019 man's high, stout, uncovered chest and powerful shoulders, raised by
5020 those who were holding him under the armpits, and of his gray, curly,
5021 leonine head. This head, with its remarkably broad brow and cheekbones,
5022 its handsome, sensual mouth, and its cold, majestic expression, was not
5023 disfigured by the approach of death. It was the same as Pierre
5024 remembered it three months before, when the count had sent him to
5025 Petersburg. But now this head was swaying helplessly with the uneven
5026 movements of the bearers, and the cold listless gaze fixed itself upon
5029 After a few minutes' bustle beside the high bedstead, those who had
5030 carried the sick man dispersed. Anna Mikhaylovna touched Pierre's hand
5031 and said, "Come." Pierre went with her to the bed on which the sick man
5032 had been laid in a stately pose in keeping with the ceremony just
5033 completed. He lay with his head propped high on the pillows. His hands
5034 were symmetrically placed on the green silk quilt, the palms downward.
5035 When Pierre came up the count was gazing straight at him, but with a
5036 look the significance of which could not be understood by mortal man.
5037 Either this look meant nothing but that as long as one has eyes they
5038 must look somewhere, or it meant too much. Pierre hesitated, not knowing
5039 what to do, and glanced inquiringly at his guide. Anna Mikhaylovna made
5040 a hurried sign with her eyes, glancing at the sick man's hand and moving
5041 her lips as if to send it a kiss. Pierre, carefully stretching his neck
5042 so as not to touch the quilt, followed her suggestion and pressed his
5043 lips to the large boned, fleshy hand. Neither the hand nor a single
5044 muscle of the count's face stirred. Once more Pierre looked
5045 questioningly at Anna Mikhaylovna to see what he was to do next. Anna
5046 Mikhaylovna with her eyes indicated a chair that stood beside the bed.
5047 Pierre obediently sat down, his eyes asking if he were doing right. Anna
5048 Mikhaylovna nodded approvingly. Again Pierre fell into the naively
5049 symmetrical pose of an Egyptian statue, evidently distressed that his
5050 stout and clumsy body took up so much room and doing his utmost to look
5051 as small as possible. He looked at the count, who still gazed at the
5052 spot where Pierre's face had been before he sat down. Anna Mikhaylovna
5053 indicated by her attitude her consciousness of the pathetic importance
5054 of these last moments of meeting between the father and son. This lasted
5055 about two minutes, which to Pierre seemed an hour. Suddenly the broad
5056 muscles and lines of the count's face began to twitch. The twitching
5057 increased, the handsome mouth was drawn to one side (only now did Pierre
5058 realize how near death his father was), and from that distorted mouth
5059 issued an indistinct, hoarse sound. Anna Mikhaylovna looked attentively
5060 at the sick man's eyes, trying to guess what he wanted; she pointed
5061 first to Pierre, then to some drink, then named Prince Vasili in an
5062 inquiring whisper, then pointed to the quilt. The eyes and face of the
5063 sick man showed impatience. He made an effort to look at the servant who
5064 stood constantly at the head of the bed.
5066 "Wants to turn on the other side," whispered the servant, and got up to
5067 turn the count's heavy body toward the wall.
5069 Pierre rose to help him.
5071 While the count was being turned over, one of his arms fell back
5072 helplessly and he made a fruitless effort to pull it forward. Whether he
5073 noticed the look of terror with which Pierre regarded that lifeless arm,
5074 or whether some other thought flitted across his dying brain, at any
5075 rate he glanced at the refractory arm, at Pierre's terror-stricken face,
5076 and again at the arm, and on his face a feeble, piteous smile appeared,
5077 quite out of keeping with his features, that seemed to deride his own
5078 helplessness. At sight of this smile Pierre felt an unexpected quivering
5079 in his breast and a tickling in his nose, and tears dimmed his eyes. The
5080 sick man was turned on to his side with his face to the wall. He sighed.
5082 "He is dozing," said Anna Mikhaylovna, observing that one of the
5083 princesses was coming to take her turn at watching. "Let us go."
5092 There was now no one in the reception room except Prince Vasili and the
5093 eldest princess, who were sitting under the portrait of Catherine the
5094 Great and talking eagerly. As soon as they saw Pierre and his companion
5095 they became silent, and Pierre thought he saw the princess hide
5096 something as she whispered:
5098 "I can't bear the sight of that woman."
5100 "Catiche has had tea served in the small drawing room," said Prince
5101 Vasili to Anna Mikhaylovna. "Go and take something, my poor Anna
5102 Mikhaylovna, or you will not hold out."
5104 To Pierre he said nothing, merely giving his arm a sympathetic squeeze
5105 below the shoulder. Pierre went with Anna Mikhaylovna into the small
5108 "There is nothing so refreshing after a sleepless night as a cup of this
5109 delicious Russian tea," Lorrain was saying with an air of restrained
5110 animation as he stood sipping tea from a delicate Chinese handleless cup
5111 before a table on which tea and a cold supper were laid in the small
5112 circular room. Around the table all who were at Count Bezukhov's house
5113 that night had gathered to fortify themselves. Pierre well remembered
5114 this small circular drawing room with its mirrors and little tables.
5115 During balls given at the house Pierre, who did not know how to dance,
5116 had liked sitting in this room to watch the ladies who, as they passed
5117 through in their ball dresses with diamonds and pearls on their bare
5118 shoulders, looked at themselves in the brilliantly lighted mirrors which
5119 repeated their reflections several times. Now this same room was dimly
5120 lighted by two candles. On one small table tea things and supper dishes
5121 stood in disorder, and in the middle of the night a motley throng of
5122 people sat there, not merrymaking, but somberly whispering, and
5123 betraying by every word and movement that they none of them forgot what
5124 was happening and what was about to happen in the bedroom. Pierre did
5125 not eat anything though he would very much have liked to. He looked
5126 inquiringly at his monitress and saw that she was again going on tiptoe
5127 to the reception room where they had left Prince Vasili and the eldest
5128 princess. Pierre concluded that this also was essential, and after a
5129 short interval followed her. Anna Mikhaylovna was standing beside the
5130 princess, and they were both speaking in excited whispers.
5132 "Permit me, Princess, to know what is necessary and what is not
5133 necessary," said the younger of the two speakers, evidently in the same
5134 state of excitement as when she had slammed the door of her room.
5136 "But, my dear princess," answered Anna Mikhaylovna blandly but
5137 impressively, blocking the way to the bedroom and preventing the other
5138 from passing, "won't this be too much for poor Uncle at a moment when he
5139 needs repose? Worldly conversation at a moment when his soul is already
5142 Prince Vasili was seated in an easy chair in his familiar attitude, with
5143 one leg crossed high above the other. His cheeks, which were so flabby
5144 that they looked heavier below, were twitching violently; but he wore
5145 the air of a man little concerned in what the two ladies were saying.
5147 "Come, my dear Anna Mikhaylovna, let Catiche do as she pleases. You know
5148 how fond the count is of her."
5150 "I don't even know what is in this paper," said the younger of the two
5151 ladies, addressing Prince Vasili and pointing to an inlaid portfolio she
5152 held in her hand. "All I know is that his real will is in his writing
5153 table, and this is a paper he has forgotten...."
5155 She tried to pass Anna Mikhaylovna, but the latter sprang so as to bar
5158 "I know, my dear, kind princess," said Anna Mikhaylovna, seizing the
5159 portfolio so firmly that it was plain she would not let go easily. "Dear
5160 princess, I beg and implore you, have some pity on him! Je vous en
5163 The princess did not reply. Their efforts in the struggle for the
5164 portfolio were the only sounds audible, but it was evident that if the
5165 princess did speak, her words would not be flattering to Anna
5166 Mikhaylovna. Though the latter held on tenaciously, her voice lost none
5167 of its honeyed firmness and softness.
5169 "Pierre, my dear, come here. I think he will not be out of place in a
5170 family consultation; is it not so, Prince?"
5172 "Why don't you speak, cousin?" suddenly shrieked the princess so loud
5173 that those in the drawing room heard her and were startled. "Why do you
5174 remain silent when heaven knows who permits herself to interfere, making
5175 a scene on the very threshold of a dying man's room? Intriguer!" she
5176 hissed viciously, and tugged with all her might at the portfolio.
5178 But Anna Mikhaylovna went forward a step or two to keep her hold on the
5179 portfolio, and changed her grip.
5181 Prince Vasili rose. "Oh!" said he with reproach and surprise, "this is
5182 absurd! Come, let go I tell you."
5184 The princess let go.
5188 But Anna Mikhaylovna did not obey him.
5190 "Let go, I tell you! I will take the responsibility. I myself will go
5191 and ask him, I!... does that satisfy you?"
5193 "But, Prince," said Anna Mikhaylovna, "after such a solemn sacrament,
5194 allow him a moment's peace! Here, Pierre, tell them your opinion," said
5195 she, turning to the young man who, having come quite close, was gazing
5196 with astonishment at the angry face of the princess which had lost all
5197 dignity, and at the twitching cheeks of Prince Vasili.
5199 "Remember that you will answer for the consequences," said Prince Vasili
5200 severely. "You don't know what you are doing."
5202 "Vile woman!" shouted the princess, darting unexpectedly at Anna
5203 Mikhaylovna and snatching the portfolio from her.
5205 Prince Vasili bent his head and spread out his hands.
5207 At this moment that terrible door, which Pierre had watched so long and
5208 which had always opened so quietly, burst noisily open and banged
5209 against the wall, and the second of the three sisters rushed out
5212 "What are you doing!" she cried vehemently. "He is dying and you leave
5215 Her sister dropped the portfolio. Anna Mikhaylovna, stooping, quickly
5216 caught up the object of contention and ran into the bedroom. The eldest
5217 princess and Prince Vasili, recovering themselves, followed her. A few
5218 minutes later the eldest sister came out with a pale hard face, again
5219 biting her underlip. At sight of Pierre her expression showed an
5220 irrepressible hatred.
5222 "Yes, now you may be glad!" said she; "this is what you have been
5223 waiting for." And bursting into tears she hid her face in her
5224 handkerchief and rushed from the room.
5226 Prince Vasili came next. He staggered to the sofa on which Pierre was
5227 sitting and dropped onto it, covering his face with his hand. Pierre
5228 noticed that he was pale and that his jaw quivered and shook as if in an
5231 "Ah, my friend!" said he, taking Pierre by the elbow; and there was in
5232 his voice a sincerity and weakness Pierre had never observed in it
5233 before. "How often we sin, how much we deceive, and all for what? I am
5234 near sixty, dear friend... I too... All will end in death, all! Death is
5235 awful..." and he burst into tears.
5237 Anna Mikhaylovna came out last. She approached Pierre with slow, quiet
5242 Pierre gave her an inquiring look. She kissed the young man on his
5243 forehead, wetting him with her tears. Then after a pause she said:
5247 Pierre looked at her over his spectacles.
5249 "Come, I will go with you. Try to weep, nothing gives such relief as
5252 She led him into the dark drawing room and Pierre was glad no one could
5253 see his face. Anna Mikhaylovna left him, and when she returned he was
5254 fast asleep with his head on his arm.
5256 In the morning Anna Mikhaylovna said to Pierre:
5258 "Yes, my dear, this is a great loss for us all, not to speak of you. But
5259 God will support you: you are young, and are now, I hope, in command of
5260 an immense fortune. The will has not yet been opened. I know you well
5261 enough to be sure that this will not turn your head, but it imposes
5262 duties on you, and you must be a man."
5266 "Perhaps later on I may tell you, my dear boy, that if I had not been
5267 there, God only knows what would have happened! You know, Uncle promised
5268 me only the day before yesterday not to forget Boris. But he had no
5269 time. I hope, my dear friend, you will carry out your father's wish?"
5271 Pierre understood nothing of all this and coloring shyly looked in
5272 silence at Princess Anna Mikhaylovna. After her talk with Pierre, Anna
5273 Mikhaylovna returned to the Rostovs' and went to bed. On waking in the
5274 morning she told the Rostovs and all her acquaintances the details of
5275 Count Bezukhov's death. She said the count had died as she would herself
5276 wish to die, that his end was not only touching but edifying. As to the
5277 last meeting between father and son, it was so touching that she could
5278 not think of it without tears, and did not know which had behaved better
5279 during those awful moments--the father who so remembered everything and
5280 everybody at last and had spoken such pathetic words to the son, or
5281 Pierre, whom it had been pitiful to see, so stricken was he with grief,
5282 though he tried hard to hide it in order not to sadden his dying father.
5283 "It is painful, but it does one good. It uplifts the soul to see such
5284 men as the old count and his worthy son," said she. Of the behavior of
5285 the eldest princess and Prince Vasili she spoke disapprovingly, but in
5286 whispers and as a great secret.
5293 At Bald Hills, Prince Nicholas Andreevich Bolkonski's estate, the
5294 arrival of young Prince Andrew and his wife was daily expected, but this
5295 expectation did not upset the regular routine of life in the old
5296 prince's household. General in Chief Prince Nicholas Andreevich
5297 (nicknamed in society, "the King of Prussia") ever since the Emperor
5298 Paul had exiled him to his country estate had lived there continuously
5299 with his daughter, Princess Mary, and her companion, Mademoiselle
5300 Bourienne. Though in the new reign he was free to return to the
5301 capitals, he still continued to live in the country, remarking that
5302 anyone who wanted to see him could come the hundred miles from Moscow to
5303 Bald Hills, while he himself needed no one and nothing. He used to say
5304 that there are only two sources of human vice--idleness and
5305 superstition, and only two virtues--activity and intelligence. He
5306 himself undertook his daughter's education, and to develop these two
5307 cardinal virtues in her gave her lessons in algebra and geometry till
5308 she was twenty, and arranged her life so that her whole time was
5309 occupied. He was himself always occupied: writing his memoirs, solving
5310 problems in higher mathematics, turning snuffboxes on a lathe, working
5311 in the garden, or superintending the building that was always going on
5312 at his estate. As regularity is a prime condition facilitating activity,
5313 regularity in his household was carried to the highest point of
5314 exactitude. He always came to table under precisely the same conditions,
5315 and not only at the same hour but at the same minute. With those about
5316 him, from his daughter to his serfs, the prince was sharp and invariably
5317 exacting, so that without being a hardhearted man he inspired such fear
5318 and respect as few hardhearted men would have aroused. Although he was
5319 in retirement and had now no influence in political affairs, every high
5320 official appointed to the province in which the prince's estate lay
5321 considered it his duty to visit him and waited in the lofty antechamber
5322 just as the architect, gardener, or Princess Mary did, till the prince
5323 appeared punctually to the appointed hour. Everyone sitting in this
5324 antechamber experienced the same feeling of respect and even fear when
5325 the enormously high study door opened and showed the figure of a rather
5326 small old man, with powdered wig, small withered hands, and bushy gray
5327 eyebrows which, when he frowned, sometimes hid the gleam of his shrewd,
5328 youthfully glittering eyes.
5330 On the morning of the day that the young couple were to arrive, Princess
5331 Mary entered the antechamber as usual at the time appointed for the
5332 morning greeting, crossing herself with trepidation and repeating a
5333 silent prayer. Every morning she came in like that, and every morning
5334 prayed that the daily interview might pass off well.
5336 An old powdered manservant who was sitting in the antechamber rose
5337 quietly and said in a whisper: "Please walk in."
5339 Through the door came the regular hum of a lathe. The princess timidly
5340 opened the door which moved noiselessly and easily. She paused at the
5341 entrance. The prince was working at the lathe and after glancing round
5344 The enormous study was full of things evidently in constant use. The
5345 large table covered with books and plans, the tall glass-fronted
5346 bookcases with keys in the locks, the high desk for writing while
5347 standing up, on which lay an open exercise book, and the lathe with
5348 tools laid ready to hand and shavings scattered around--all indicated
5349 continuous, varied, and orderly activity. The motion of the small foot
5350 shod in a Tartar boot embroidered with silver, and the firm pressure of
5351 the lean sinewy hand, showed that the prince still possessed the
5352 tenacious endurance and vigor of hardy old age. After a few more turns
5353 of the lathe he removed his foot from the pedal, wiped his chisel,
5354 dropped it into a leather pouch attached to the lathe, and, approaching
5355 the table, summoned his daughter. He never gave his children a blessing,
5356 so he simply held out his bristly cheek (as yet unshaven) and, regarding
5357 her tenderly and attentively, said severely:
5359 "Quite well? All right then, sit down." He took the exercise book
5360 containing lessons in geometry written by himself and drew up a chair
5363 "For tomorrow!" said he, quickly finding the page and making a scratch
5364 from one paragraph to another with his hard nail.
5366 The princess bent over the exercise book on the table.
5368 "Wait a bit, here's a letter for you," said the old man suddenly, taking
5369 a letter addressed in a woman's hand from a bag hanging above the table,
5370 onto which he threw it.
5372 At the sight of the letter red patches showed themselves on the
5373 princess' face. She took it quickly and bent her head over it.
5375 "From Heloise?" asked the prince with a cold smile that showed his still
5376 sound, yellowish teeth.
5378 "Yes, it's from Julie," replied the princess with a timid glance and a
5381 "I'll let two more letters pass, but the third I'll read," said the
5382 prince sternly; "I'm afraid you write much nonsense. I'll read the
5385 "Read this if you like, Father," said the princess, blushing still more
5386 and holding out the letter.
5388 "The third, I said the third!" cried the prince abruptly, pushing the
5389 letter away, and leaning his elbows on the table he drew toward him the
5390 exercise book containing geometrical figures.
5392 "Well, madam," he began, stooping over the book close to his daughter
5393 and placing an arm on the back of the chair on which she sat, so that
5394 she felt herself surrounded on all sides by the acrid scent of old age
5395 and tobacco, which she had known so long. "Now, madam, these triangles
5396 are equal; please note that the angle ABC..."
5398 The princess looked in a scared way at her father's eyes glittering
5399 close to her; the red patches on her face came and went, and it was
5400 plain that she understood nothing and was so frightened that her fear
5401 would prevent her understanding any of her father's further
5402 explanations, however clear they might be. Whether it was the teacher's
5403 fault or the pupil's, this same thing happened every day: the princess'
5404 eyes grew dim, she could not see and could not hear anything, but was
5405 only conscious of her stern father's withered face close to her, of his
5406 breath and the smell of him, and could think only of how to get away
5407 quickly to her own room to make out the problem in peace. The old man
5408 was beside himself: moved the chair on which he was sitting noisily
5409 backward and forward, made efforts to control himself and not become
5410 vehement, but almost always did become vehement, scolded, and sometimes
5411 flung the exercise book away.
5413 The princess gave a wrong answer.
5415 "Well now, isn't she a fool!" shouted the prince, pushing the book aside
5416 and turning sharply away; but rising immediately, he paced up and down,
5417 lightly touched his daughter's hair and sat down again.
5419 He drew up his chair, and continued to explain.
5421 "This won't do, Princess; it won't do," said he, when Princess Mary,
5422 having taken and closed the exercise book with the next day's lesson,
5423 was about to leave: "Mathematics are most important, madam! I don't want
5424 to have you like our silly ladies. Get used to it and you'll like it,"
5425 and he patted her cheek. "It will drive all the nonsense out of your
5428 She turned to go, but he stopped her with a gesture and took an uncut
5429 book from the high desk.
5431 "Here is some sort of Key to the Mysteries that your Heloise has sent
5432 you. Religious! I don't interfere with anyone's belief... I have looked
5433 at it. Take it. Well, now go. Go."
5435 He patted her on the shoulder and himself closed the door after her.
5437 Princess Mary went back to her room with the sad, scared expression that
5438 rarely left her and which made her plain, sickly face yet plainer. She
5439 sat down at her writing table, on which stood miniature portraits and
5440 which was littered with books and papers. The princess was as untidy as
5441 her father was tidy. She put down the geometry book and eagerly broke
5442 the seal of her letter. It was from her most intimate friend from
5443 childhood; that same Julie Karagina who had been at the Rostovs' name-
5446 Julie wrote in French:
5448 Dear and precious Friend, How terrible and frightful a thing is
5449 separation! Though I tell myself that half my life and half my happiness
5450 are wrapped up in you, and that in spite of the distance separating us
5451 our hearts are united by indissoluble bonds, my heart rebels against
5452 fate and in spite of the pleasures and distractions around me I cannot
5453 overcome a certain secret sorrow that has been in my heart ever since we
5454 parted. Why are we not together as we were last summer, in your big
5455 study, on the blue sofa, the confidential sofa? Why cannot I now, as
5456 three months ago, draw fresh moral strength from your look, so gentle,
5457 calm, and penetrating, a look I loved so well and seem to see before me
5460 Having read thus far, Princess Mary sighed and glanced into the mirror
5461 which stood on her right. It reflected a weak, ungraceful figure and
5462 thin face. Her eyes, always sad, now looked with particular hopelessness
5463 at her reflection in the glass. "She flatters me," thought the princess,
5464 turning away and continuing to read. But Julie did not flatter her
5465 friend, the princess' eyes--large, deep and luminous (it seemed as if at
5466 times there radiated from them shafts of warm light)--were so beautiful
5467 that very often in spite of the plainness of her face they gave her an
5468 attraction more powerful than that of beauty. But the princess never saw
5469 the beautiful expression of her own eyes--the look they had when she was
5470 not thinking of herself. As with everyone, her face assumed a forced
5471 unnatural expression as soon as she looked in a glass. She went on
5474 All Moscow talks of nothing but war. One of my two brothers is already
5475 abroad, the other is with the Guards, who are starting on their march to
5476 the frontier. Our dear Emperor has left Petersburg and it is thought
5477 intends to expose his precious person to the chances of war. God grant
5478 that the Corsican monster who is destroying the peace of Europe may be
5479 overthrown by the angel whom it has pleased the Almighty, in His
5480 goodness, to give us as sovereign! To say nothing of my brothers, this
5481 war has deprived me of one of the associations nearest my heart. I mean
5482 young Nicholas Rostov, who with his enthusiasm could not bear to remain
5483 inactive and has left the university to join the army. I will confess to
5484 you, dear Mary, that in spite of his extreme youth his departure for the
5485 army was a great grief to me. This young man, of whom I spoke to you
5486 last summer, is so noble-minded and full of that real youthfulness which
5487 one seldom finds nowadays among our old men of twenty and, particularly,
5488 he is so frank and has so much heart. He is so pure and poetic that my
5489 relations with him, transient as they were, have been one of the
5490 sweetest comforts to my poor heart, which has already suffered so much.
5491 Someday I will tell you about our parting and all that was said then.
5492 That is still too fresh. Ah, dear friend, you are happy not to know
5493 these poignant joys and sorrows. You are fortunate, for the latter are
5494 generally the stronger! I know very well that Count Nicholas is too
5495 young ever to be more to me than a friend, but this sweet friendship,
5496 this poetic and pure intimacy, were what my heart needed. But enough of
5497 this! The chief news, about which all Moscow gossips, is the death of
5498 old Count Bezukhov, and his inheritance. Fancy! The three princesses
5499 have received very little, Prince Vasili nothing, and it is Monsieur
5500 Pierre who has inherited all the property and has besides been
5501 recognized as legitimate; so that he is now Count Bezukhov and possessor
5502 of the finest fortune in Russia. It is rumored that Prince Vasili played
5503 a very despicable part in this affair and that he returned to Petersburg
5506 I confess I understand very little about all these matters of wills and
5507 inheritance; but I do know that since this young man, whom we all used
5508 to know as plain Monsieur Pierre, has become Count Bezukhov and the
5509 owner of one of the largest fortunes in Russia, I am much amused to
5510 watch the change in the tone and manners of the mammas burdened by
5511 marriageable daughters, and of the young ladies themselves, toward him,
5512 though, between you and me, he always seemed to me a poor sort of
5513 fellow. As for the past two years people have amused themselves by
5514 finding husbands for me (most of whom I don't even know), the
5515 matchmaking chronicles of Moscow now speak of me as the future Countess
5516 Bezukhova. But you will understand that I have no desire for the post. A
5517 propos of marriages: do you know that a while ago that universal auntie
5518 Anna Mikhaylovna told me, under the seal of strict secrecy, of a plan of
5519 marriage for you. It is neither more nor less than with Prince Vasili's
5520 son Anatole, whom they wish to reform by marrying him to someone rich
5521 and distinguee, and it is on you that his relations' choice has fallen.
5522 I don't know what you will think of it, but I consider it my duty to let
5523 you know of it. He is said to be very handsome and a terrible
5524 scapegrace. That is all I have been able to find out about him.
5526 But enough of gossip. I am at the end of my second sheet of paper, and
5527 Mamma has sent for me to go and dine at the Apraksins'. Read the
5528 mystical book I am sending you; it has an enormous success here. Though
5529 there are things in it difficult for the feeble human mind to grasp, it
5530 is an admirable book which calms and elevates the soul. Adieu! Give my
5531 respects to monsieur your father and my compliments to Mademoiselle
5532 Bourienne. I embrace you as I love you.
5536 P.S. Let me have news of your brother and his charming little wife.
5538 The princess pondered awhile with a thoughtful smile and her luminous
5539 eyes lit up so that her face was entirely transformed. Then she suddenly
5540 rose and with her heavy tread went up to the table. She took a sheet of
5541 paper and her hand moved rapidly over it. This is the reply she wrote,
5544 Dear and precious Friend, Your letter of the 13th has given me great
5545 delight. So you still love me, my romantic Julie? Separation, of which
5546 you say so much that is bad, does not seem to have had its usual effect
5547 on you. You complain of our separation. What then should I say, if I
5548 dared complain, I who am deprived of all who are dear to me? Ah, if we
5549 had not religion to console us life would be very sad. Why do you
5550 suppose that I should look severely on your affection for that young
5551 man? On such matters I am only severe with myself. I understand such
5552 feelings in others, and if never having felt them I cannot approve of
5553 them, neither do I condemn them. Only it seems to me that Christian
5554 love, love of one's neighbor, love of one's enemy, is worthier, sweeter,
5555 and better than the feelings which the beautiful eyes of a young man can
5556 inspire in a romantic and loving young girl like yourself.
5558 The news of Count Bezukhov's death reached us before your letter and my
5559 father was much affected by it. He says the count was the last
5560 representative but one of the great century, and that it is his own turn
5561 now, but that he will do all he can to let his turn come as late as
5562 possible. God preserve us from that terrible misfortune!
5564 I cannot agree with you about Pierre, whom I knew as a child. He always
5565 seemed to me to have an excellent heart, and that is the quality I value
5566 most in people. As to his inheritance and the part played by Prince
5567 Vasili, it is very sad for both. Ah, my dear friend, our divine
5568 Saviour's words, that it is easier for a camel to go through the eye of
5569 a needle than for a rich man to enter the Kingdom of God, are terribly
5570 true. I pity Prince Vasili but am still more sorry for Pierre. So young,
5571 and burdened with such riches--to what temptations he will be exposed!
5572 If I were asked what I desire most on earth, it would be to be poorer
5573 than the poorest beggar. A thousand thanks, dear friend, for the volume
5574 you have sent me and which has such success in Moscow. Yet since you
5575 tell me that among some good things it contains others which our weak
5576 human understanding cannot grasp, it seems to me rather useless to spend
5577 time in reading what is unintelligible and can therefore bear no fruit.
5578 I never could understand the fondness some people have for confusing
5579 their minds by dwelling on mystical books that merely awaken their
5580 doubts and excite their imagination, giving them a bent for exaggeration
5581 quite contrary to Christian simplicity. Let us rather read the Epistles
5582 and Gospels. Let us not seek to penetrate what mysteries they contain;
5583 for how can we, miserable sinners that we are, know the terrible and
5584 holy secrets of Providence while we remain in this flesh which forms an
5585 impenetrable veil between us and the Eternal? Let us rather confine
5586 ourselves to studying those sublime rules which our divine Saviour has
5587 left for our guidance here below. Let us try to conform to them and
5588 follow them, and let us be persuaded that the less we let our feeble
5589 human minds roam, the better we shall please God, who rejects all
5590 knowledge that does not come from Him; and the less we seek to fathom
5591 what He has been pleased to conceal from us, the sooner will He
5592 vouchsafe its revelation to us through His divine Spirit.
5594 My father has not spoken to me of a suitor, but has only told me that he
5595 has received a letter and is expecting a visit from Prince Vasili. In
5596 regard to this project of marriage for me, I will tell you, dear sweet
5597 friend, that I look on marriage as a divine institution to which we must
5598 conform. However painful it may be to me, should the Almighty lay the
5599 duties of wife and mother upon me I shall try to perform them as
5600 faithfully as I can, without disquieting myself by examining my feelings
5601 toward him whom He may give me for husband.
5603 I have had a letter from my brother, who announces his speedy arrival at
5604 Bald Hills with his wife. This pleasure will be but a brief one,
5605 however, for he will leave us again to take part in this unhappy war
5606 into which we have been drawn, God knows how or why. Not only where you
5607 are--at the heart of affairs and of the world--is the talk all of war,
5608 even here amid fieldwork and the calm of nature--which townsfolk
5609 consider characteristic of the country--rumors of war are heard and
5610 painfully felt. My father talks of nothing but marches and
5611 countermarches, things of which I understand nothing; and the day before
5612 yesterday during my daily walk through the village I witnessed a
5613 heartrending scene.... It was a convoy of conscripts enrolled from our
5614 people and starting to join the army. You should have seen the state of
5615 the mothers, wives, and children of the men who were going and should
5616 have heard the sobs. It seems as though mankind has forgotten the laws
5617 of its divine Saviour, Who preached love and forgiveness of injuries--
5618 and that men attribute the greatest merit to skill in killing one
5621 Adieu, dear and kind friend; may our divine Saviour and His most Holy
5622 Mother keep you in their holy and all-powerful care!
5626 "Ah, you are sending off a letter, Princess? I have already dispatched
5627 mine. I have written to my poor mother," said the smiling Mademoiselle
5628 Bourienne rapidly, in her pleasant mellow tones and with guttural r's.
5629 She brought into Princess Mary's strenuous, mournful, and gloomy world a
5630 quite different atmosphere, careless, lighthearted, and self-satisfied.
5632 "Princess, I must warn you," she added, lowering her voice and evidently
5633 listening to herself with pleasure, and speaking with exaggerated
5634 grasseyement, "the prince has been scolding Michael Ivanovich. He is in
5635 a very bad humor, very morose. Be prepared."
5637 "Ah, dear friend," replied Princess Mary, "I have asked you never to
5638 warn me of the humor my father is in. I do not allow myself to judge him
5639 and would not have others do so."
5641 The princess glanced at her watch and, seeing that she was five minutes
5642 late in starting her practice on the clavichord, went into the sitting
5643 room with a look of alarm. Between twelve and two o'clock, as the day
5644 was mapped out, the prince rested and the princess played the
5652 The gray-haired valet was sitting drowsily listening to the snoring of
5653 the prince, who was in his large study. From the far side of the house
5654 through the closed doors came the sound of difficult passages--twenty
5655 times repeated--of a sonata by Dussek.
5657 Just then a closed carriage and another with a hood drove up to the
5658 porch. Prince Andrew got out of the carriage, helped his little wife to
5659 alight, and let her pass into the house before him. Old Tikhon, wearing
5660 a wig, put his head out of the door of the antechamber, reported in a
5661 whisper that the prince was sleeping, and hastily closed the door.
5662 Tikhon knew that neither the son's arrival nor any other unusual event
5663 must be allowed to disturb the appointed order of the day. Prince Andrew
5664 apparently knew this as well as Tikhon; he looked at his watch as if to
5665 ascertain whether his father's habits had changed since he was at home
5666 last, and, having assured himself that they had not, he turned to his
5669 "He will get up in twenty minutes. Let us go across to Mary's room," he
5672 The little princess had grown stouter during this time, but her eyes and
5673 her short, downy, smiling lip lifted when she began to speak just as
5674 merrily and prettily as ever.
5676 "Why, this is a palace!" she said to her husband, looking around with
5677 the expression with which people compliment their host at a ball. "Let's
5678 come, quick, quick!" And with a glance round, she smiled at Tikhon, at
5679 her husband, and at the footman who accompanied them.
5681 "Is that Mary practicing? Let's go quietly and take her by surprise."
5683 Prince Andrew followed her with a courteous but sad expression.
5685 "You've grown older, Tikhon," he said in passing to the old man, who
5688 Before they reached the room from which the sounds of the clavichord
5689 came, the pretty, fair haired Frenchwoman, Mademoiselle Bourienne,
5690 rushed out apparently beside herself with delight.
5692 "Ah! what joy for the princess!" exclaimed she: "At last! I must let her
5695 "No, no, please not... You are Mademoiselle Bourienne," said the little
5696 princess, kissing her. "I know you already through my sister-in-law's
5697 friendship for you. She was not expecting us?"
5699 They went up to the door of the sitting room from which came the sound
5700 of the oft-repeated passage of the sonata. Prince Andrew stopped and
5701 made a grimace, as if expecting something unpleasant.
5703 The little princess entered the room. The passage broke off in the
5704 middle, a cry was heard, then Princess Mary's heavy tread and the sound
5705 of kissing. When Prince Andrew went in the two princesses, who had only
5706 met once before for a short time at his wedding, were in each other's
5707 arms warmly pressing their lips to whatever place they happened to
5708 touch. Mademoiselle Bourienne stood near them pressing her hand to her
5709 heart, with a beatific smile and obviously equally ready to cry or to
5710 laugh. Prince Andrew shrugged his shoulders and frowned, as lovers of
5711 music do when they hear a false note. The two women let go of one
5712 another, and then, as if afraid of being too late, seized each other's
5713 hands, kissing them and pulling them away, and again began kissing each
5714 other on the face, and then to Prince Andrew's surprise both began to
5715 cry and kissed again. Mademoiselle Bourienne also began to cry. Prince
5716 Andrew evidently felt ill at ease, but to the two women it seemed quite
5717 natural that they should cry, and apparently it never entered their
5718 heads that it could have been otherwise at this meeting.
5720 "Ah! my dear!... Ah! Mary!" they suddenly exclaimed, and then laughed.
5721 "I dreamed last night..."--"You were not expecting us?..." "Ah! Mary,
5722 you have got thinner?..." "And you have grown stouter!..."
5724 "I knew the princess at once," put in Mademoiselle Bourienne.
5726 "And I had no idea!..." exclaimed Princess Mary. "Ah, Andrew, I did not
5729 Prince Andrew and his sister, hand in hand, kissed one another, and he
5730 told her she was still the same crybaby as ever. Princess Mary had
5731 turned toward her brother, and through her tears the loving, warm,
5732 gentle look of her large luminous eyes, very beautiful at that moment,
5733 rested on Prince Andrew's face.
5735 The little princess talked incessantly, her short, downy upper lip
5736 continually and rapidly touching her rosy nether lip when necessary and
5737 drawing up again next moment when her face broke into a smile of
5738 glittering teeth and sparkling eyes. She told of an accident they had
5739 had on the Spasski Hill which might have been serious for her in her
5740 condition, and immediately after that informed them that she had left
5741 all her clothes in Petersburg and that heaven knew what she would have
5742 to dress in here; and that Andrew had quite changed, and that Kitty
5743 Odyntsova had married an old man, and that there was a suitor for Mary,
5744 a real one, but that they would talk of that later. Princess Mary was
5745 still looking silently at her brother and her beautiful eyes were full
5746 of love and sadness. It was plain that she was following a train of
5747 thought independent of her sister-in-law's words. In the midst of a
5748 description of the last Petersburg fete she addressed her brother:
5750 "So you are really going to the war, Andrew?" she said sighing.
5754 "Yes, and even tomorrow," replied her brother.
5756 "He is leaving me here, God knows why, when he might have had
5759 Princess Mary did not listen to the end, but continuing her train of
5760 thought turned to her sister-in-law with a tender glance at her figure.
5762 "Is it certain?" she said.
5764 The face of the little princess changed. She sighed and said: "Yes,
5765 quite certain. Ah! it is very dreadful..."
5767 Her lip descended. She brought her face close to her sister-in-law's and
5768 unexpectedly again began to cry.
5770 "She needs rest," said Prince Andrew with a frown. "Don't you, Lise?
5771 Take her to your room and I'll go to Father. How is he? Just the same?"
5773 "Yes, just the same. Though I don't know what your opinion will be,"
5774 answered the princess joyfully.
5776 "And are the hours the same? And the walks in the avenues? And the
5777 lathe?" asked Prince Andrew with a scarcely perceptible smile which
5778 showed that, in spite of all his love and respect for his father, he was
5779 aware of his weaknesses.
5781 "The hours are the same, and the lathe, and also the mathematics and my
5782 geometry lessons," said Princess Mary gleefully, as if her lessons in
5783 geometry were among the greatest delights of her life.
5785 When the twenty minutes had elapsed and the time had come for the old
5786 prince to get up, Tikhon came to call the young prince to his father.
5787 The old man made a departure from his usual routine in honor of his
5788 son's arrival: he gave orders to admit him to his apartments while he
5789 dressed for dinner. The old prince always dressed in old-fashioned
5790 style, wearing an antique coat and powdered hair; and when Prince Andrew
5791 entered his father's dressing room (not with the contemptuous look and
5792 manner he wore in drawing rooms, but with the animated face with which
5793 he talked to Pierre), the old man was sitting on a large leather-covered
5794 chair, wrapped in a powdering mantle, entrusting his head to Tikhon.
5796 "Ah! here's the warrior! Wants to vanquish Buonaparte?" said the old
5797 man, shaking his powdered head as much as the tail, which Tikhon was
5798 holding fast to plait, would allow.
5800 "You at least must tackle him properly, or else if he goes on like this
5801 he'll soon have us, too, for his subjects! How are you?" And he held out
5804 The old man was in a good temper after his nap before dinner. (He used
5805 to say that a nap "after dinner was silver--before dinner, golden.") He
5806 cast happy, sidelong glances at his son from under his thick, bushy
5807 eyebrows. Prince Andrew went up and kissed his father on the spot
5808 indicated to him. He made no reply on his father's favorite topic--
5809 making fun of the military men of the day, and more particularly of
5812 "Yes, Father, I have come to you and brought my wife who is pregnant,"
5813 said Prince Andrew, following every movement of his father's face with
5814 an eager and respectful look. "How is your health?"
5816 "Only fools and rakes fall ill, my boy. You know me: I am busy from
5817 morning till night and abstemious, so of course I am well."
5819 "Thank God," said his son smiling.
5821 "God has nothing to do with it! Well, go on," he continued, returning to
5822 his hobby; "tell me how the Germans have taught you to fight Bonaparte
5823 by this new science you call 'strategy.'"
5825 Prince Andrew smiled.
5827 "Give me time to collect my wits, Father," said he, with a smile that
5828 showed that his father's foibles did not prevent his son from loving and
5829 honoring him. "Why, I have not yet had time to settle down!"
5831 "Nonsense, nonsense!" cried the old man, shaking his pigtail to see
5832 whether it was firmly plaited, and grasping his by the hand. "The house
5833 for your wife is ready. Princess Mary will take her there and show her
5834 over, and they'll talk nineteen to the dozen. That's their woman's way!
5835 I am glad to have her. Sit down and talk. About Mikhelson's army I
5836 understand--Tolstoy's too... a simultaneous expedition.... But what's
5837 the southern army to do? Prussia is neutral... I know that. What about
5838 Austria?" said he, rising from his chair and pacing up and down the room
5839 followed by Tikhon, who ran after him, handing him different articles of
5840 clothing. "What of Sweden? How will they cross Pomerania?"
5842 Prince Andrew, seeing that his father insisted, began--at first
5843 reluctantly, but gradually with more and more animation, and from habit
5844 changing unconsciously from Russian to French as he went on--to explain
5845 the plan of operation for the coming campaign. He explained how an army,
5846 ninety thousand strong, was to threaten Prussia so as to bring her out
5847 of her neutrality and draw her into the war; how part of that army was
5848 to join some Swedish forces at Stralsund; how two hundred and twenty
5849 thousand Austrians, with a hundred thousand Russians, were to operate in
5850 Italy and on the Rhine; how fifty thousand Russians and as many English
5851 were to land at Naples, and how a total force of five hundred thousand
5852 men was to attack the French from different sides. The old prince did
5853 not evince the least interest during this explanation, but as if he were
5854 not listening to it continued to dress while walking about, and three
5855 times unexpectedly interrupted. Once he stopped it by shouting: "The
5856 white one, the white one!"
5858 This meant that Tikhon was not handing him the waistcoat he wanted.
5859 Another time he interrupted, saying:
5861 "And will she soon be confined?" and shaking his head reproachfully
5862 said: "That's bad! Go on, go on."
5864 The third interruption came when Prince Andrew was finishing his
5865 description. The old man began to sing, in the cracked voice of old age:
5866 "Malbrook s'en va-t-en guerre. Dieu sait quand reviendra." *
5869 * "Marlborough is going to the wars; God knows when he'll return."
5871 His son only smiled.
5873 "I don't say it's a plan I approve of," said the son; "I am only telling
5874 you what it is. Napoleon has also formed his plan by now, not worse than
5877 "Well, you've told me nothing new," and the old man repeated,
5878 meditatively and rapidly:
5880 "Dieu sait quand reviendra. Go to the dining room."
5887 At the appointed hour the prince, powdered and shaven, entered the
5888 dining room where his daughter-in-law, Princess Mary, and Mademoiselle
5889 Bourienne were already awaiting him together with his architect, who by
5890 a strange caprice of his employer's was admitted to table though the
5891 position of that insignificant individual was such as could certainly
5892 not have caused him to expect that honor. The prince, who generally kept
5893 very strictly to social distinctions and rarely admitted even important
5894 government officials to his table, had unexpectedly selected Michael
5895 Ivanovich (who always went into a corner to blow his nose on his checked
5896 handkerchief) to illustrate the theory that all men are equals, and had
5897 more than once impressed on his daughter that Michael Ivanovich was "not
5898 a whit worse than you or I." At dinner the prince usually spoke to the
5899 taciturn Michael Ivanovich more often than to anyone else.
5901 In the dining room, which like all the rooms in the house was
5902 exceedingly lofty, the members of the household and the footmen--one
5903 behind each chair--stood waiting for the prince to enter. The head
5904 butler, napkin on arm, was scanning the setting of the table, making
5905 signs to the footmen, and anxiously glancing from the clock to the door
5906 by which the prince was to enter. Prince Andrew was looking at a large
5907 gilt frame, new to him, containing the genealogical tree of the Princes
5908 Bolkonski, opposite which hung another such frame with a badly painted
5909 portrait (evidently by the hand of the artist belonging to the estate)
5910 of a ruling prince, in a crown--an alleged descendant of Rurik and
5911 ancestor of the Bolkonskis. Prince Andrew, looking again at that
5912 genealogical tree, shook his head, laughing as a man laughs who looks at
5913 a portrait so characteristic of the original as to be amusing.
5915 "How thoroughly like him that is!" he said to Princess Mary, who had
5918 Princess Mary looked at her brother in surprise. She did not understand
5919 what he was laughing at. Everything her father did inspired her with
5920 reverence and was beyond question.
5922 "Everyone has his Achilles' heel," continued Prince Andrew. "Fancy, with
5923 his powerful mind, indulging in such nonsense!"
5925 Princess Mary could not understand the boldness of her brother's
5926 criticism and was about to reply, when the expected footsteps were heard
5927 coming from the study. The prince walked in quickly and jauntily as was
5928 his wont, as if intentionally contrasting the briskness of his manners
5929 with the strict formality of his house. At that moment the great clock
5930 struck two and another with a shrill tone joined in from the drawing
5931 room. The prince stood still; his lively glittering eyes from under
5932 their thick, bushy eyebrows sternly scanned all present and rested on
5933 the little princess. She felt, as courtiers do when the Tsar enters, the
5934 sensation of fear and respect which the old man inspired in all around
5935 him. He stroked her hair and then patted her awkwardly on the back of
5938 "I'm glad, glad, to see you," he said, looking attentively into her
5939 eyes, and then quickly went to his place and sat down. "Sit down, sit
5940 down! Sit down, Michael Ianovich!"
5942 He indicated a place beside him to his daughter-in-law. A footman moved
5945 "Ho, ho!" said the old man, casting his eyes on her rounded figure.
5946 "You've been in a hurry. That's bad!"
5948 He laughed in his usual dry, cold, unpleasant way, with his lips only
5949 and not with his eyes.
5951 "You must walk, walk as much as possible, as much as possible," he said.
5953 The little princess did not, or did not wish to, hear his words. She was
5954 silent and seemed confused. The prince asked her about her father, and
5955 she began to smile and talk. He asked about mutual acquaintances, and
5956 she became still more animated and chattered away giving him greetings
5957 from various people and retelling the town gossip.
5959 "Countess Apraksina, poor thing, has lost her husband and she has cried
5960 her eyes out," she said, growing more and more lively.
5962 As she became animated the prince looked at her more and more sternly,
5963 and suddenly, as if he had studied her sufficiently and had formed a
5964 definite idea of her, he turned away and addressed Michael Ivanovich.
5966 "Well, Michael Ivanovich, our Bonaparte will be having a bad time of it.
5967 Prince Andrew" (he always spoke thus of his son) "has been telling me
5968 what forces are being collected against him! While you and I never
5969 thought much of him."
5971 Michael Ivanovich did not at all know when "you and I" had said such
5972 things about Bonaparte, but understanding that he was wanted as a peg on
5973 which to hang the prince's favorite topic, he looked inquiringly at the
5974 young prince, wondering what would follow.
5976 "He is a great tactician!" said the prince to his son, pointing to the
5979 And the conversation again turned on the war, on Bonaparte, and the
5980 generals and statesmen of the day. The old prince seemed convinced not
5981 only that all the men of the day were mere babies who did not know the A
5982 B C of war or of politics, and that Bonaparte was an insignificant
5983 little Frenchy, successful only because there were no longer any
5984 Potemkins or Suvorovs left to oppose him; but he was also convinced that
5985 there were no political difficulties in Europe and no real war, but only
5986 a sort of puppet show at which the men of the day were playing,
5987 pretending to do something real. Prince Andrew gaily bore with his
5988 father's ridicule of the new men, and drew him on and listened to him
5989 with evident pleasure.
5991 "The past always seems good," said he, "but did not Suvorov himself fall
5992 into a trap Moreau set him, and from which he did not know how to
5995 "Who told you that? Who?" cried the prince. "Suvorov!" And he jerked
5996 away his plate, which Tikhon briskly caught. "Suvorov!... Consider,
5997 Prince Andrew. Two... Frederick and Suvorov; Moreau!... Moreau would
5998 have been a prisoner if Suvorov had had a free hand; but he had the
5999 Hofs-kriegs-wurst-schnapps-Rath on his hands. It would have puzzled the
6000 devil himself! When you get there you'll find out what those Hofs-
6001 kriegs-wurst-Raths are! Suvorov couldn't manage them so what chance has
6002 Michael Kutuzov? No, my dear boy," he continued, "you and your generals
6003 won't get on against Buonaparte; you'll have to call in the French, so
6004 that birds of a feather may fight together. The German, Pahlen, has been
6005 sent to New York in America, to fetch the Frenchman, Moreau," he said,
6006 alluding to the invitation made that year to Moreau to enter the Russian
6007 service.... "Wonderful!... Were the Potemkins, Suvorovs, and Orlovs
6008 Germans? No, lad, either you fellows have all lost your wits, or I have
6009 outlived mine. May God help you, but we'll see what will happen.
6010 Buonaparte has become a great commander among them! Hm!..."
6012 "I don't at all say that all the plans are good," said Prince Andrew, "I
6013 am only surprised at your opinion of Bonaparte. You may laugh as much as
6014 you like, but all the same Bonaparte is a great general!"
6016 "Michael Ivanovich!" cried the old prince to the architect who, busy
6017 with his roast meat, hoped he had been forgotten: "Didn't I tell you
6018 Buonaparte was a great tactician? Here, he says the same thing."
6020 "To be sure, your excellency," replied the architect.
6022 The prince again laughed his frigid laugh.
6024 "Buonaparte was born with a silver spoon in his mouth. He has got
6025 splendid soldiers. Besides he began by attacking Germans. And only
6026 idlers have failed to beat the Germans. Since the world began everybody
6027 has beaten the Germans. They beat no one--except one another. He made
6028 his reputation fighting them."
6030 And the prince began explaining all the blunders which, according to
6031 him, Bonaparte had made in his campaigns and even in politics. His son
6032 made no rejoinder, but it was evident that whatever arguments were
6033 presented he was as little able as his father to change his opinion. He
6034 listened, refraining from a reply, and involuntarily wondered how this
6035 old man, living alone in the country for so many years, could know and
6036 discuss so minutely and acutely all the recent European military and
6039 "You think I'm an old man and don't understand the present state of
6040 affairs?" concluded his father. "But it troubles me. I don't sleep at
6041 night. Come now, where has this great commander of yours shown his
6042 skill?" he concluded.
6044 "That would take too long to tell," answered the son.
6046 "Well, then go to your Buonaparte! Mademoiselle Bourienne, here's
6047 another admirer of that powder-monkey emperor of yours," he exclaimed in
6050 "You know, Prince, I am not a Bonapartist!"
6052 "Dieu sait quand reviendra..." hummed the prince out of tune and, with a
6053 laugh still more so, he quitted the table.
6055 The little princess during the whole discussion and the rest of the
6056 dinner sat silent, glancing with a frightened look now at her father-in-
6057 law and now at Princess Mary. When they left the table she took her
6058 sister-in-law's arm and drew her into another room.
6060 "What a clever man your father is," said she; "perhaps that is why I am
6063 "Oh, he is so kind!" answered Princess Mary.
6070 Prince Andrew was to leave next evening. The old prince, not altering
6071 his routine, retired as usual after dinner. The little princess was in
6072 her sister-in-law's room. Prince Andrew in a traveling coat without
6073 epaulettes had been packing with his valet in the rooms assigned to him.
6074 After inspecting the carriage himself and seeing the trunks put in, he
6075 ordered the horses to be harnessed. Only those things he always kept
6076 with him remained in his room; a small box, a large canteen fitted with
6077 silver plate, two Turkish pistols and a saber--a present from his father
6078 who had brought it from the siege of Ochakov. All these traveling
6079 effects of Prince Andrew's were in very good order: new, clean, and in
6080 cloth covers carefully tied with tapes.
6082 When starting on a journey or changing their mode of life, men capable
6083 of reflection are generally in a serious frame of mind. At such moments
6084 one reviews the past and plans for the future. Prince Andrew's face
6085 looked very thoughtful and tender. With his hands behind him he paced
6086 briskly from corner to corner of the room, looking straight before him
6087 and thoughtfully shaking his head. Did he fear going to the war, or was
6088 he sad at leaving his wife?--perhaps both, but evidently he did not wish
6089 to be seen in that mood, for hearing footsteps in the passage he
6090 hurriedly unclasped his hands, stopped at a table as if tying the cover
6091 of the small box, and assumed his usual tranquil and impenetrable
6092 expression. It was the heavy tread of Princess Mary that he heard.
6094 "I hear you have given orders to harness," she cried, panting (she had
6095 apparently been running), "and I did so wish to have another talk with
6096 you alone! God knows how long we may again be parted. You are not angry
6097 with me for coming? You have changed so, Andrusha," she added, as if to
6098 explain such a question.
6100 She smiled as she uttered his pet name, "Andrusha." It was obviously
6101 strange to her to think that this stern handsome man should be Andrusha-
6102 -the slender mischievous boy who had been her playfellow in childhood.
6104 "And where is Lise?" he asked, answering her question only by a smile.
6106 "She was so tired that she has fallen asleep on the sofa in my room. Oh,
6107 Andrew! What a treasure of a wife you have," said she, sitting down on
6108 the sofa, facing her brother. "She is quite a child: such a dear, merry
6109 child. I have grown so fond of her."
6111 Prince Andrew was silent, but the princess noticed the ironical and
6112 contemptuous look that showed itself on his face.
6114 "One must be indulgent to little weaknesses; who is free from them,
6115 Andrew? Don't forget that she has grown up and been educated in society,
6116 and so her position now is not a rosy one. We should enter into
6117 everyone's situation. Tout comprendre, c'est tout pardonner. * Think
6118 what it must be for her, poor thing, after what she has been used to, to
6119 be parted from her husband and be left alone in the country, in her
6120 condition! It's very hard."
6123 * To understand all is to forgive all.
6125 Prince Andrew smiled as he looked at his sister, as we smile at those we
6126 think we thoroughly understand.
6128 "You live in the country and don't think the life terrible," he replied.
6130 "I... that's different. Why speak of me? I don't want any other life,
6131 and can't, for I know no other. But think, Andrew: for a young society
6132 woman to be buried in the country during the best years of her life, all
6133 alone--for Papa is always busy, and I... well, you know what poor
6134 resources I have for entertaining a woman used to the best society.
6135 There is only Mademoiselle Bourienne...."
6137 "I don't like your Mademoiselle Bourienne at all," said Prince Andrew.
6139 "No? She is very nice and kind and, above all, she's much to be pitied.
6140 She has no one, no one. To tell the truth, I don't need her, and she's
6141 even in my way. You know I always was a savage, and now am even more so.
6142 I like being alone.... Father likes her very much. She and Michael
6143 Ivanovich are the two people to whom he is always gentle and kind,
6144 because he has been a benefactor to them both. As Sterne says: 'We don't
6145 love people so much for the good they have done us, as for the good we
6146 have done them.' Father took her when she was homeless after losing her
6147 own father. She is very good-natured, and my father likes her way of
6148 reading. She reads to him in the evenings and reads splendidly."
6150 "To be quite frank, Mary, I expect Father's character sometimes makes
6151 things trying for you, doesn't it?" Prince Andrew asked suddenly.
6153 Princess Mary was first surprised and then aghast at this question.
6155 "For me? For me?... Trying for me!..." said she.
6157 "He always was rather harsh; and now I should think he's getting very
6158 trying," said Prince Andrew, apparently speaking lightly of their father
6159 in order to puzzle or test his sister.
6161 "You are good in every way, Andrew, but you have a kind of intellectual
6162 pride," said the princess, following the train of her own thoughts
6163 rather than the trend of the conversation--"and that's a great sin. How
6164 can one judge Father? But even if one might, what feeling except
6165 veneration could such a man as my father evoke? And I am so contented
6166 and happy with him. I only wish you were all as happy as I am."
6168 Her brother shook his head incredulously.
6170 "The only thing that is hard for me... I will tell you the truth,
6171 Andrew... is Father's way of treating religious subjects. I don't
6172 understand how a man of his immense intellect can fail to see what is as
6173 clear as day, and can go so far astray. That is the only thing that
6174 makes me unhappy. But even in this I can see lately a shade of
6175 improvement. His satire has been less bitter of late, and there was a
6176 monk he received and had a long talk with."
6178 "Ah! my dear, I am afraid you and your monk are wasting your powder,"
6179 said Prince Andrew banteringly yet tenderly.
6181 "Ah! mon ami, I only pray, and hope that God will hear me. Andrew..."
6182 she said timidly after a moment's silence, "I have a great favor to ask
6187 "No--promise that you will not refuse! It will give you no trouble and
6188 is nothing unworthy of you, but it will comfort me. Promise,
6189 Andrusha!..." said she, putting her hand in her reticule but not yet
6190 taking out what she was holding inside it, as if what she held were the
6191 subject of her request and must not be shown before the request was
6194 She looked timidly at her brother.
6196 "Even if it were a great deal of trouble..." answered Prince Andrew, as
6197 if guessing what it was about.
6199 "Think what you please! I know you are just like Father. Think as you
6200 please, but do this for my sake! Please do! Father's father, our
6201 grandfather, wore it in all his wars." (She still did not take out what
6202 she was holding in her reticule.) "So you promise?"
6204 "Of course. What is it?"
6206 "Andrew, I bless you with this icon and you must promise me you will
6207 never take it off. Do you promise?"
6209 "If it does not weigh a hundredweight and won't break my neck... To
6210 please you..." said Prince Andrew. But immediately, noticing the pained
6211 expression his joke had brought to his sister's face, he repented and
6212 added: "I am glad; really, dear, I am very glad."
6214 "Against your will He will save and have mercy on you and bring you to
6215 Himself, for in Him alone is truth and peace," said she in a voice
6216 trembling with emotion, solemnly holding up in both hands before her
6217 brother a small, oval, antique, dark-faced icon of the Saviour in a gold
6218 setting, on a finely wrought silver chain.
6220 She crossed herself, kissed the icon, and handed it to Andrew.
6222 "Please, Andrew, for my sake!..."
6224 Rays of gentle light shone from her large, timid eyes. Those eyes lit up
6225 the whole of her thin, sickly face and made it beautiful. Her brother
6226 would have taken the icon, but she stopped him. Andrew understood,
6227 crossed himself and kissed the icon. There was a look of tenderness, for
6228 he was touched, but also a gleam of irony on his face.
6230 "Thank you, my dear." She kissed him on the forehead and sat down again
6231 on the sofa. They were silent for a while.
6233 "As I was saying to you, Andrew, be kind and generous as you always used
6234 to be. Don't judge Lise harshly," she began. "She is so sweet, so good-
6235 natured, and her position now is a very hard one."
6237 "I do not think I have complained of my wife to you, Masha, or blamed
6238 her. Why do you say all this to me?"
6240 Red patches appeared on Princess Mary's face and she was silent as if
6243 "I have said nothing to you, but you have already been talked to. And I
6244 am sorry for that," he went on.
6246 The patches grew deeper on her forehead, neck, and cheeks. She tried to
6247 say something but could not. Her brother had guessed right: the little
6248 princess had been crying after dinner and had spoken of her forebodings
6249 about her confinement, and how she dreaded it, and had complained of her
6250 fate, her father-in-law, and her husband. After crying she had fallen
6251 asleep. Prince Andrew felt sorry for his sister.
6253 "Know this, Masha: I can't reproach, have not reproached, and never
6254 shall reproach my wife with anything, and I cannot reproach myself with
6255 anything in regard to her; and that always will be so in whatever
6256 circumstances I may be placed. But if you want to know the truth... if
6257 you want to know whether I am happy? No! Is she happy? No! But why this
6258 is so I don't know..."
6260 As he said this he rose, went to his sister, and, stooping, kissed her
6261 forehead. His fine eyes lit up with a thoughtful, kindly, and
6262 unaccustomed brightness, but he was looking not at his sister but over
6263 her head toward the darkness of the open doorway.
6265 "Let us go to her, I must say good-by. Or--go and wake and I'll come in
6266 a moment. Petrushka!" he called to his valet: "Come here, take these
6267 away. Put this on the seat and this to the right."
6269 Princess Mary rose and moved to the door, then stopped and said:
6270 "Andrew, if you had faith you would have turned to God and asked Him to
6271 give you the love you do not feel, and your prayer would have been
6274 "Well, may be!" said Prince Andrew. "Go, Masha; I'll come immediately."
6276 On the way to his sister's room, in the passage which connected one wing
6277 with the other, Prince Andrew met Mademoiselle Bourienne smiling
6278 sweetly. It was the third time that day that, with an ecstatic and
6279 artless smile, she had met him in secluded passages.
6281 "Oh! I thought you were in your room," she said, for some reason
6282 blushing and dropping her eyes.
6284 Prince Andrew looked sternly at her and an expression of anger suddenly
6285 came over his face. He said nothing to her but looked at her forehead
6286 and hair, without looking at her eyes, with such contempt that the
6287 Frenchwoman blushed and went away without a word. When he reached his
6288 sister's room his wife was already awake and her merry voice, hurrying
6289 one word after another, came through the open door. She was speaking as
6290 usual in French, and as if after long self-restraint she wished to make
6293 "No, but imagine the old Countess Zubova, with false curls and her mouth
6294 full of false teeth, as if she were trying to cheat old age.... Ha, ha,
6297 This very sentence about Countess Zubova and this same laugh Prince
6298 Andrew had already heard from his wife in the presence of others some
6299 five times. He entered the room softly. The little princess, plump and
6300 rosy, was sitting in an easy chair with her work in her hands, talking
6301 incessantly, repeating Petersburg reminiscences and even phrases. Prince
6302 Andrew came up, stroked her hair, and asked if she felt rested after
6303 their journey. She answered him and continued her chatter.
6305 The coach with six horses was waiting at the porch. It was an autumn
6306 night, so dark that the coachman could not see the carriage pole.
6307 Servants with lanterns were bustling about in the porch. The immense
6308 house was brilliant with lights shining through its lofty windows. The
6309 domestic serfs were crowding in the hall, waiting to bid good-by to the
6310 young prince. The members of the household were all gathered in the
6311 reception hall: Michael Ivanovich, Mademoiselle Bourienne, Princess
6312 Mary, and the little princess. Prince Andrew had been called to his
6313 father's study as the latter wished to say good-by to him alone. All
6314 were waiting for them to come out.
6316 When Prince Andrew entered the study the old man in his old-age
6317 spectacles and white dressing gown, in which he received no one but his
6318 son, sat at the table writing. He glanced round.
6320 "Going?" And he went on writing.
6322 "I've come to say good-by."
6324 "Kiss me here," and he touched his cheek: "Thanks, thanks!"
6326 "What do you thank me for?"
6328 "For not dilly-dallying and not hanging to a woman's apron strings. The
6329 Service before everything. Thanks, thanks!" And he went on writing, so
6330 that his quill spluttered and squeaked. "If you have anything to say,
6331 say it. These two things can be done together," he added.
6333 "About my wife... I am ashamed as it is to leave her on your hands..."
6335 "Why talk nonsense? Say what you want."
6337 "When her confinement is due, send to Moscow for an accoucheur.... Let
6340 The old prince stopped writing and, as if not understanding, fixed his
6341 stern eyes on his son.
6343 "I know that no one can help if nature does not do her work," said
6344 Prince Andrew, evidently confused. "I know that out of a million cases
6345 only one goes wrong, but it is her fancy and mine. They have been
6346 telling her things. She has had a dream and is frightened."
6348 "Hm... Hm..." muttered the old prince to himself, finishing what he was
6349 writing. "I'll do it."
6351 He signed with a flourish and suddenly turning to his son began to
6354 "It's a bad business, eh?"
6356 "What is bad, Father?"
6358 "The wife!" said the old prince, briefly and significantly.
6360 "I don't understand!" said Prince Andrew.
6362 "No, it can't be helped, lad," said the prince. "They're all like that;
6363 one can't unmarry. Don't be afraid; I won't tell anyone, but you know it
6366 He seized his son by the hand with small bony fingers, shook it, looked
6367 straight into his son's face with keen eyes which seemed to see through
6368 him, and again laughed his frigid laugh.
6370 The son sighed, thus admitting that his father had understood him. The
6371 old man continued to fold and seal his letter, snatching up and throwing
6372 down the wax, the seal, and the paper, with his accustomed rapidity.
6374 "What's to be done? She's pretty! I will do everything. Make your mind
6375 easy," said he in abrupt sentences while sealing his letter.
6377 Andrew did not speak; he was both pleased and displeased that his father
6378 understood him. The old man got up and gave the letter to his son.
6380 "Listen!" said he; "don't worry about your wife: what can be done shall
6381 be. Now listen! Give this letter to Michael Ilarionovich. * I have
6382 written that he should make use of you in proper places and not keep you
6383 long as an adjutant: a bad position! Tell him I remember and like him.
6384 Write and tell me how he receives you. If he is all right--serve him.
6385 Nicholas Bolkonski's son need not serve under anyone if he is in
6386 disfavor. Now come here."
6391 He spoke so rapidly that he did not finish half his words, but his son
6392 was accustomed to understand him. He led him to the desk, raised the
6393 lid, drew out a drawer, and took out an exercise book filled with his
6394 bold, tall, close handwriting.
6396 "I shall probably die before you. So remember, these are my memoirs;
6397 hand them to the Emperor after my death. Now here is a Lombard bond and
6398 a letter; it is a premium for the man who writes a history of Suvorov's
6399 wars. Send it to the Academy. Here are some jottings for you to read
6400 when I am gone. You will find them useful."
6402 Andrew did not tell his father that he would no doubt live a long time
6403 yet. He felt that he must not say it.
6405 "I will do it all, Father," he said.
6407 "Well, now, good-by!" He gave his son his hand to kiss, and embraced
6408 him. "Remember this, Prince Andrew, if they kill you it will hurt me,
6409 your old father..." he paused unexpectedly, and then in a querulous
6410 voice suddenly shrieked: "but if I hear that you have not behaved like a
6411 son of Nicholas Bolkonski, I shall be ashamed!"
6413 "You need not have said that to me, Father," said the son with a smile.
6415 The old man was silent.
6417 "I also wanted to ask you," continued Prince Andrew, "if I'm killed and
6418 if I have a son, do not let him be taken away from you--as I said
6419 yesterday... let him grow up with you.... Please."
6421 "Not let the wife have him?" said the old man, and laughed.
6423 They stood silent, facing one another. The old man's sharp eyes were
6424 fixed straight on his son's. Something twitched in the lower part of the
6427 "We've said good-by. Go!" he suddenly shouted in a loud, angry voice,
6430 "What is it? What?" asked both princesses when they saw for a moment at
6431 the door Prince Andrew and the figure of the old man in a white dressing
6432 gown, spectacled and wigless, shouting in an angry voice.
6434 Prince Andrew sighed and made no reply.
6436 "Well!" he said, turning to his wife.
6438 And this "Well!" sounded coldly ironic, as if he were saying,: "Now go
6439 through your performance."
6441 "Andrew, already!" said the little princess, turning pale and looking
6442 with dismay at her husband.
6444 He embraced her. She screamed and fell unconscious on his shoulder.
6446 He cautiously released the shoulder she leaned on, looked into her face,
6447 and carefully placed her in an easy chair.
6449 "Adieu, Mary," said he gently to his sister, taking her by the hand and
6450 kissing her, and then he left the room with rapid steps.
6452 The little princess lay in the armchair, Mademoiselle Bourienne chafing
6453 her temples. Princess Mary, supporting her sister-in-law, still looked
6454 with her beautiful eyes full of tears at the door through which Prince
6455 Andrew had gone and made the sign of the cross in his direction. From
6456 the study, like pistol shots, came the frequent sound of the old man
6457 angrily blowing his nose. Hardly had Prince Andrew gone when the study
6458 door opened quickly and the stern figure of the old man in the white
6459 dressing gown looked out.
6461 "Gone? That's all right!" said he; and looking angrily at the
6462 unconscious little princess, he shook his head reprovingly and slammed
6472 In October, 1805, a Russian army was occupying the villages and towns of
6473 the Archduchy of Austria, and yet other regiments freshly arriving from
6474 Russia were settling near the fortress of Braunau and burdening the
6475 inhabitants on whom they were quartered. Braunau was the headquarters of
6476 the commander-in-chief, Kutuzov.
6478 On October 11, 1805, one of the infantry regiments that had just reached
6479 Braunau had halted half a mile from the town, waiting to be inspected by
6480 the commander-in-chief. Despite the un-Russian appearance of the
6481 locality and surroundings--fruit gardens, stone fences, tiled roofs, and
6482 hills in the distance--and despite the fact that the inhabitants (who
6483 gazed with curiosity at the soldiers) were not Russians, the regiment
6484 had just the appearance of any Russian regiment preparing for an
6485 inspection anywhere in the heart of Russia.
6487 On the evening of the last day's march an order had been received that
6488 the commander-in-chief would inspect the regiment on the march. Though
6489 the words of the order were not clear to the regimental commander, and
6490 the question arose whether the troops were to be in marching order or
6491 not, it was decided at a consultation between the battalion commanders
6492 to present the regiment in parade order, on the principle that it is
6493 always better to "bow too low than not bow low enough." So the soldiers,
6494 after a twenty-mile march, were kept mending and cleaning all night long
6495 without closing their eyes, while the adjutants and company commanders
6496 calculated and reckoned, and by morning the regiment--instead of the
6497 straggling, disorderly crowd it had been on its last march the day
6498 before--presented a well-ordered array of two thousand men each of whom
6499 knew his place and his duty, had every button and every strap in place,
6500 and shone with cleanliness. And not only externally was all in order,
6501 but had it pleased the commander-in-chief to look under the uniforms he
6502 would have found on every man a clean shirt, and in every knapsack the
6503 appointed number of articles, "awl, soap, and all," as the soldiers say.
6504 There was only one circumstance concerning which no one could be at
6505 ease. It was the state of the soldiers' boots. More than half the men's
6506 boots were in holes. But this defect was not due to any fault of the
6507 regimental commander, for in spite of repeated demands boots had not
6508 been issued by the Austrian commissariat, and the regiment had marched
6509 some seven hundred miles.
6511 The commander of the regiment was an elderly, choleric, stout, and
6512 thick-set general with grizzled eyebrows and whiskers, and wider from
6513 chest to back than across the shoulders. He had on a brand-new uniform
6514 showing the creases where it had been folded and thick gold epaulettes
6515 which seemed to stand rather than lie down on his massive shoulders. He
6516 had the air of a man happily performing one of the most solemn duties of
6517 his life. He walked about in front of the line and at every step pulled
6518 himself up, slightly arching his back. It was plain that the commander
6519 admired his regiment, rejoiced in it, and that his whole mind was
6520 engrossed by it, yet his strut seemed to indicate that, besides military
6521 matters, social interests and the fair sex occupied no small part of his
6524 "Well, Michael Mitrich, sir?" he said, addressing one of the battalion
6525 commanders who smilingly pressed forward (it was plain that they both
6526 felt happy). "We had our hands full last night. However, I think the
6527 regiment is not a bad one, eh?"
6529 The battalion commander perceived the jovial irony and laughed.
6531 "It would not be turned off the field even on the Tsaritsin Meadow."
6533 "What?" asked the commander.
6535 At that moment, on the road from the town on which signalers had been
6536 posted, two men appeared on horse back. They were an aide-de-camp
6537 followed by a Cossack.
6539 The aide-de-camp was sent to confirm the order which had not been
6540 clearly worded the day before, namely, that the commander-in-chief
6541 wished to see the regiment just in the state in which it had been on the
6542 march: in their greatcoats, and packs, and without any preparation
6545 A member of the Hofkriegsrath from Vienna had come to Kutuzov the day
6546 before with proposals and demands for him to join up with the army of
6547 the Archduke Ferdinand and Mack, and Kutuzov, not considering this
6548 junction advisable, meant, among other arguments in support of his view,
6549 to show the Austrian general the wretched state in which the troops
6550 arrived from Russia. With this object he intended to meet the regiment;
6551 so the worse the condition it was in, the better pleased the commander-
6552 in-chief would be. Though the aide-de-camp did not know these
6553 circumstances, he nevertheless delivered the definite order that the men
6554 should be in their greatcoats and in marching order, and that the
6555 commander-in-chief would otherwise be dissatisfied. On hearing this the
6556 regimental commander hung his head, silently shrugged his shoulders, and
6557 spread out his arms with a choleric gesture.
6559 "A fine mess we've made of it!" he remarked.
6561 "There now! Didn't I tell you, Michael Mitrich, that if it was said 'on
6562 the march' it meant in greatcoats?" said he reproachfully to the
6563 battalion commander. "Oh, my God!" he added, stepping resolutely
6564 forward. "Company commanders!" he shouted in a voice accustomed to
6565 command. "Sergeants major!... How soon will he be here?" he asked the
6566 aide-de-camp with a respectful politeness evidently relating to the
6567 personage he was referring to.
6569 "In an hour's time, I should say."
6571 "Shall we have time to change clothes?"
6573 "I don't know, General...."
6575 The regimental commander, going up to the line himself, ordered the
6576 soldiers to change into their greatcoats. The company commanders ran off
6577 to their companies, the sergeants major began bustling (the greatcoats
6578 were not in very good condition), and instantly the squares that had up
6579 to then been in regular order and silent began to sway and stretch and
6580 hum with voices. On all sides soldiers were running to and fro, throwing
6581 up their knapsacks with a jerk of their shoulders and pulling the straps
6582 over their heads, unstrapping their overcoats and drawing the sleeves on
6585 In half an hour all was again in order, only the squares had become gray
6586 instead of black. The regimental commander walked with his jerky steps
6587 to the front of the regiment and examined it from a distance.
6589 "Whatever is this? This!" he shouted and stood still. "Commander of the
6592 "Commander of the third company wanted by the general!... commander to
6593 the general... third company to the commander." The words passed along
6594 the lines and an adjutant ran to look for the missing officer.
6596 When the eager but misrepeated words had reached their destination in a
6597 cry of: "The general to the third company," the missing officer appeared
6598 from behind his company and, though he was a middle-aged man and not in
6599 the habit of running, trotted awkwardly stumbling on his toes toward the
6600 general. The captain's face showed the uneasiness of a schoolboy who is
6601 told to repeat a lesson he has not learned. Spots appeared on his nose,
6602 the redness of which was evidently due to intemperance, and his mouth
6603 twitched nervously. The general looked the captain up and down as he
6604 came up panting, slackening his pace as he approached.
6606 "You will soon be dressing your men in petticoats! What is this?"
6607 shouted the regimental commander, thrusting forward his jaw and pointing
6608 at a soldier in the ranks of the third company in a greatcoat of bluish
6609 cloth, which contrasted with the others. "What have you been after? The
6610 commander in chief is expected and you leave your place? Eh? I'll teach
6611 you to dress the men in fancy coats for a parade.... Eh...?"
6613 The commander of the company, with his eyes fixed on his superior,
6614 pressed two fingers more and more rigidly to his cap, as if in this
6615 pressure lay his only hope of salvation.
6617 "Well, why don't you speak? Whom have you got there dressed up as a
6618 Hungarian?" said the commander with an austere gibe.
6620 "Your excellency..."
6622 "Well, your excellency, what? Your excellency! But what about your
6623 excellency?... nobody knows."
6625 "Your excellency, it's the officer Dolokhov, who has been reduced to the
6626 ranks," said the captain softly.
6628 "Well? Has he been degraded into a field marshal, or into a soldier? If
6629 a soldier, he should be dressed in regulation uniform like the others."
6631 "Your excellency, you gave him leave yourself, on the march."
6633 "Gave him leave? Leave? That's just like you young men," said the
6634 regimental commander cooling down a little. "Leave indeed.... One says a
6635 word to you and you... What?" he added with renewed irritation, "I beg
6636 you to dress your men decently."
6638 And the commander, turning to look at the adjutant, directed his jerky
6639 steps down the line. He was evidently pleased at his own display of
6640 anger and walking up to the regiment wished to find a further excuse for
6641 wrath. Having snapped at an officer for an unpolished badge, at another
6642 because his line was not straight, he reached the third company.
6644 "H-o-o-w are you standing? Where's your leg? Your leg?" shouted the
6645 commander with a tone of suffering in his voice, while there were still
6646 five men between him and Dolokhov with his bluish-gray uniform.
6648 Dolokhov slowly straightened his bent knee, looking straight with his
6649 clear, insolent eyes in the general's face.
6651 "Why a blue coat? Off with it... Sergeant major! Change his coat... the
6652 ras..." he did not finish.
6654 "General, I must obey orders, but I am not bound to endure..." Dolokhov
6655 hurriedly interrupted.
6657 "No talking in the ranks!... No talking, no talking!"
6659 "Not bound to endure insults," Dolokhov concluded in loud, ringing
6662 The eyes of the general and the soldier met. The general became silent,
6663 angrily pulling down his tight scarf.
6665 "I request you to have the goodness to change your coat," he said as he
6673 "He's coming!" shouted the signaler at that moment.
6675 The regimental commander, flushing, ran to his horse, seized the stirrup
6676 with trembling hands, threw his body across the saddle, righted himself,
6677 drew his saber, and with a happy and resolute countenance, opening his
6678 mouth awry, prepared to shout. The regiment fluttered like a bird
6679 preening its plumage and became motionless.
6681 "Att-ention!" shouted the regimental commander in a soul-shaking voice
6682 which expressed joy for himself, severity for the regiment, and welcome
6683 for the approaching chief.
6685 Along the broad country road, edged on both sides by trees, came a high,
6686 light blue Viennese caleche, slightly creaking on its springs and drawn
6687 by six horses at a smart trot. Behind the caleche galloped the suite and
6688 a convoy of Croats. Beside Kutuzov sat an Austrian general, in a white
6689 uniform that looked strange among the Russian black ones. The caleche
6690 stopped in front of the regiment. Kutuzov and the Austrian general were
6691 talking in low voices and Kutuzov smiled slightly as treading heavily he
6692 stepped down from the carriage just as if those two thousand men
6693 breathlessly gazing at him and the regimental commander did not exist.
6695 The word of command rang out, and again the regiment quivered, as with a
6696 jingling sound it presented arms. Then amidst a dead silence the feeble
6697 voice of the commander-in-chief was heard. The regiment roared, "Health
6698 to your ex... len... len... lency!" and again all became silent. At
6699 first Kutuzov stood still while the regiment moved; then he and the
6700 general in white, accompanied by the suite, walked between the ranks.
6702 From the way the regimental commander saluted the commander-in-chief and
6703 devoured him with his eyes, drawing himself up obsequiously, and from
6704 the way he walked through the ranks behind the generals, bending forward
6705 and hardly able to restrain his jerky movements, and from the way he
6706 darted forward at every word or gesture of the commander-in-chief, it
6707 was evident that he performed his duty as a subordinate with even
6708 greater zeal than his duty as a commander. Thanks to the strictness and
6709 assiduity of its commander the regiment, in comparison with others that
6710 had reached Braunau at the same time, was in splendid condition. There
6711 were only 217 sick and stragglers. Everything was in good order except
6714 Kutuzov walked through the ranks, sometimes stopping to say a few
6715 friendly words to officers he had known in the Turkish war, sometimes
6716 also to the soldiers. Looking at their boots he several times shook his
6717 head sadly, pointing them out to the Austrian general with an expression
6718 which seemed to say that he was not blaming anyone, but could not help
6719 noticing what a bad state of things it was. The regimental commander ran
6720 forward on each such occasion, fearing to miss a single word of the
6721 commander-in-chief's regarding the regiment. Behind Kutuzov, at a
6722 distance that allowed every softly spoken word to be heard, followed
6723 some twenty men of his suite. These gentlemen talked among themselves
6724 and sometimes laughed. Nearest of all to the commander-in-chief walked a
6725 handsome adjutant. This was Prince Bolkonski. Beside him was his comrade
6726 Nesvitski, a tall staff officer, extremely stout, with a kindly,
6727 smiling, handsome face and moist eyes. Nesvitski could hardly keep from
6728 laughter provoked by a swarthy hussar officer who walked beside him.
6729 This hussar, with a grave face and without a smile or a change in the
6730 expression of his fixed eyes, watched the regimental commander's back
6731 and mimicked his every movement. Each time the commander started and
6732 bent forward, the hussar started and bent forward in exactly the same
6733 manner. Nesvitski laughed and nudged the others to make them look at the
6736 Kutuzov walked slowly and languidly past thousands of eyes which were
6737 starting from their sockets to watch their chief. On reaching the third
6738 company he suddenly stopped. His suite, not having expected this,
6739 involuntarily came closer to him.
6741 "Ah, Timokhin!" said he, recognizing the red-nosed captain who had been
6742 reprimanded on account of the blue greatcoat.
6744 One would have thought it impossible for a man to stretch himself more
6745 than Timokhin had done when he was reprimanded by the regimental
6746 commander, but now that the commander-in-chief addressed him he drew
6747 himself up to such an extent that it seemed he could not have sustained
6748 it had the commander-in-chief continued to look at him, and so Kutuzov,
6749 who evidently understood his case and wished him nothing but good,
6750 quickly turned away, a scarcely perceptible smile flitting over his
6751 scarred and puffy face.
6753 "Another Ismail comrade," said he. "A brave officer! Are you satisfied
6754 with him?" he asked the regimental commander.
6756 And the latter--unconscious that he was being reflected in the hussar
6757 officer as in a looking glass--started, moved forward, and answered:
6758 "Highly satisfied, your excellency!"
6760 "We all have our weaknesses," said Kutuzov smiling and walking away from
6761 him. "He used to have a predilection for Bacchus."
6763 The regimental commander was afraid he might be blamed for this and did
6764 not answer. The hussar at that moment noticed the face of the red-nosed
6765 captain and his drawn-in stomach, and mimicked his expression and pose
6766 with such exactitude that Nesvitski could not help laughing. Kutuzov
6767 turned round. The officer evidently had complete control of his face,
6768 and while Kutuzov was turning managed to make a grimace and then assume
6769 a most serious, deferential, and innocent expression.
6771 The third company was the last, and Kutuzov pondered, apparently trying
6772 to recollect something. Prince Andrew stepped forward from among the
6773 suite and said in French:
6775 "You told me to remind you of the officer Dolokhov, reduced to the ranks
6778 "Where is Dolokhov?" asked Kutuzov.
6780 Dolokhov, who had already changed into a soldier's gray greatcoat, did
6781 not wait to be called. The shapely figure of the fair-haired soldier,
6782 with his clear blue eyes, stepped forward from the ranks, went up to the
6783 commander in chief, and presented arms.
6785 "Have you a complaint to make?" Kutuzov asked with a slight frown.
6787 "This is Dolokhov," said Prince Andrew.
6789 "Ah!" said Kutuzov. "I hope this will be a lesson to you. Do your duty.
6790 The Emperor is gracious, and I shan't forget you if you deserve well."
6792 The clear blue eyes looked at the commander-in-chief just as boldly as
6793 they had looked at the regimental commander, seeming by their expression
6794 to tear open the veil of convention that separates a commander-in-chief
6795 so widely from a private.
6797 "One thing I ask of your excellency," Dolokhov said in his firm,
6798 ringing, deliberate voice. "I ask an opportunity to atone for my fault
6799 and prove my devotion to His Majesty the Emperor and to Russia!"
6801 Kutuzov turned away. The same smile of the eyes with which he had turned
6802 from Captain Timokhin again flitted over his face. He turned away with a
6803 grimace as if to say that everything Dolokhov had said to him and
6804 everything he could say had long been known to him, that he was weary of
6805 it and it was not at all what he wanted. He turned away and went to the
6808 The regiment broke up into companies, which went to their appointed
6809 quarters near Braunau, where they hoped to receive boots and clothes and
6810 to rest after their hard marches.
6812 "You won't bear me a grudge, Prokhor Ignatych?" said the regimental
6813 commander, overtaking the third company on its way to its quarters and
6814 riding up to Captain Timokhin who was walking in front. (The regimental
6815 commander's face now that the inspection was happily over beamed with
6816 irrepressible delight.) "It's in the Emperor's service... it can't be
6817 helped... one is sometimes a bit hasty on parade... I am the first to
6818 apologize, you know me!... He was very pleased!" And he held out his
6819 hand to the captain.
6821 "Don't mention it, General, as if I'd be so bold!" replied the captain,
6822 his nose growing redder as he gave a smile which showed where two front
6823 teeth were missing that had been knocked out by the butt end of a gun at
6826 "And tell Mr. Dolokhov that I won't forget him--he may be quite easy.
6827 And tell me, please--I've been meaning to ask--how is he behaving
6828 himself, and in general..."
6830 "As far as the service goes he is quite punctilious, your excellency;
6831 but his character..." said Timokhin.
6833 "And what about his character?" asked the regimental commander.
6835 "It's different on different days," answered the captain. "One day he is
6836 sensible, well educated, and good-natured, and the next he's a wild
6837 beast.... In Poland, if you please, he nearly killed a Jew."
6839 "Oh, well, well!" remarked the regimental commander. "Still, one must
6840 have pity on a young man in misfortune. You know he has important
6841 connections... Well, then, you just..."
6843 "I will, your excellency," said Timokhin, showing by his smile that he
6844 understood his commander's wish.
6846 "Well, of course, of course!"
6848 The regimental commander sought out Dolokhov in the ranks and, reining
6849 in his horse, said to him:
6851 "After the next affair... epaulettes."
6853 Dolokhov looked round but did not say anything, nor did the mocking
6854 smile on his lips change.
6856 "Well, that's all right," continued the regimental commander. "A cup of
6857 vodka for the men from me," he added so that the soldiers could hear. "I
6858 thank you all! God be praised!" and he rode past that company and
6859 overtook the next one.
6861 "Well, he's really a good fellow, one can serve under him," said
6862 Timokhin to the subaltern beside him.
6864 "In a word, a hearty one..." said the subaltern, laughing (the
6865 regimental commander was nicknamed King of Hearts).
6867 The cheerful mood of their officers after the inspection infected the
6868 soldiers. The company marched on gaily. The soldiers' voices could be
6869 heard on every side.
6871 "And they said Kutuzov was blind of one eye?"
6873 "And so he is! Quite blind!"
6875 "No, friend, he is sharper-eyed than you are. Boots and leg bands... he
6876 noticed everything..."
6878 "When he looked at my feet, friend... well, thinks I..."
6880 "And that other one with him, the Austrian, looked as if he were smeared
6881 with chalk--as white as flour! I suppose they polish him up as they do
6884 "I say, Fedeshon!... Did he say when the battles are to begin? You were
6885 near him. Everybody said that Buonaparte himself was at Braunau."
6887 "Buonaparte himself!... Just listen to the fool, what he doesn't know!
6888 The Prussians are up in arms now. The Austrians, you see, are putting
6889 them down. When they've been put down, the war with Buonaparte will
6890 begin. And he says Buonaparte is in Braunau! Shows you're a fool. You'd
6891 better listen more carefully!"
6893 "What devils these quartermasters are! See, the fifth company is turning
6894 into the village already... they will have their buckwheat cooked before
6895 we reach our quarters."
6897 "Give me a biscuit, you devil!"
6899 "And did you give me tobacco yesterday? That's just it, friend! Ah,
6900 well, never mind, here you are."
6902 "They might call a halt here or we'll have to do another four miles
6905 "Wasn't it fine when those Germans gave us lifts! You just sit still and
6908 "And here, friend, the people are quite beggarly. There they all seemed
6909 to be Poles--all under the Russian crown--but here they're all regular
6912 "Singers to the front" came the captain's order.
6914 And from the different ranks some twenty men ran to the front. A
6915 drummer, their leader, turned round facing the singers, and flourishing
6916 his arm, began a long-drawn-out soldiers' song, commencing with the
6917 words: "Morning dawned, the sun was rising," and concluding: "On then,
6918 brothers, on to glory, led by Father Kamenski." This song had been
6919 composed in the Turkish campaign and now being sung in Austria, the only
6920 change being that the words "Father Kamenski" were replaced by "Father
6923 Having jerked out these last words as soldiers do and waved his arms as
6924 if flinging something to the ground, the drummer--a lean, handsome
6925 soldier of forty--looked sternly at the singers and screwed up his eyes.
6926 Then having satisfied himself that all eyes were fixed on him, he raised
6927 both arms as if carefully lifting some invisible but precious object
6928 above his head and, holding it there for some seconds, suddenly flung it
6931 "Oh, my bower, oh, my bower...!"
6933 "Oh, my bower new...!" chimed in twenty voices, and the castanet player,
6934 in spite of the burden of his equipment, rushed out to the front and,
6935 walking backwards before the company, jerked his shoulders and
6936 flourished his castanets as if threatening someone. The soldiers,
6937 swinging their arms and keeping time spontaneously, marched with long
6938 steps. Behind the company the sound of wheels, the creaking of springs,
6939 and the tramp of horses' hoofs were heard. Kutuzov and his suite were
6940 returning to the town. The commander-in-chief made a sign that the men
6941 should continue to march at ease, and he and all his suite showed
6942 pleasure at the sound of the singing and the sight of the dancing
6943 soldier and the gay and smartly marching men. In the second file from
6944 the right flank, beside which the carriage passed the company, a blue-
6945 eyed soldier involuntarily attracted notice. It was Dolokhov marching
6946 with particular grace and boldness in time to the song and looking at
6947 those driving past as if he pitied all who were not at that moment
6948 marching with the company. The hussar cornet of Kutuzov's suite who had
6949 mimicked the regimental commander, fell back from the carriage and rode
6952 Hussar cornet Zherkov had at one time, in Petersburg, belonged to the
6953 wild set led by Dolokhov. Zherkov had met Dolokhov abroad as a private
6954 and had not seen fit to recognize him. But now that Kutuzov had spoken
6955 to the gentleman ranker, he addressed him with the cordiality of an old
6958 "My dear fellow, how are you?" said he through the singing, making his
6959 horse keep pace with the company.
6961 "How am I?" Dolokhov answered coldly. "I am as you see."
6963 The lively song gave a special flavor to the tone of free and easy
6964 gaiety with which Zherkov spoke, and to the intentional coldness of
6967 "And how do you get on with the officers?" inquired Zherkov.
6969 "All right. They are good fellows. And how have you wriggled onto the
6972 "I was attached; I'm on duty."
6976 "She let the hawk fly upward from her wide right sleeve," went the song,
6977 arousing an involuntary sensation of courage and cheerfulness. Their
6978 conversation would probably have been different but for the effect of
6981 "Is it true that Austrians have been beaten?" asked Dolokhov.
6983 "The devil only knows! They say so."
6985 "I'm glad," answered Dolokhov briefly and clearly, as the song demanded.
6987 "I say, come round some evening and we'll have a game of faro!" said
6990 "Why, have you too much money?"
6994 "I can't. I've sworn not to. I won't drink and won't play till I get
6997 "Well, that's only till the first engagement."
7001 They were again silent.
7003 "Come if you need anything. One can at least be of use on the staff..."
7005 Dolokhov smiled. "Don't trouble. If I want anything, I won't beg--I'll
7008 "Well, never mind; I only..."
7017 "It's a long, long way. To my native land..."
7019 Zherkov touched his horse with the spurs; it pranced excitedly from foot
7020 to foot uncertain with which to start, then settled down, galloped past
7021 the company, and overtook the carriage, still keeping time to the song.
7028 On returning from the review, Kutuzov took the Austrian general into his
7029 private room and, calling his adjutant, asked for some papers relating
7030 to the condition of the troops on their arrival, and the letters that
7031 had come from the Archduke Ferdinand, who was in command of the advanced
7032 army. Prince Andrew Bolkonski came into the room with the required
7033 papers. Kutuzov and the Austrian member of the Hofkriegsrath were
7034 sitting at the table on which a plan was spread out.
7036 "Ah!..." said Kutuzov glancing at Bolkonski as if by this exclamation he
7037 was asking the adjutant to wait, and he went on with the conversation in
7040 "All I can say, General," said he with a pleasant elegance of expression
7041 and intonation that obliged one to listen to each deliberately spoken
7042 word. It was evident that Kutuzov himself listened with pleasure to his
7043 own voice. "All I can say, General, is that if the matter depended on my
7044 personal wishes, the will of His Majesty the Emperor Francis would have
7045 been fulfilled long ago. I should long ago have joined the archduke. And
7046 believe me on my honour that to me personally it would be a pleasure to
7047 hand over the supreme command of the army into the hands of a better
7048 informed and more skillful general--of whom Austria has so many--and to
7049 lay down all this heavy responsibility. But circumstances are sometimes
7050 too strong for us, General."
7052 And Kutuzov smiled in a way that seemed to say, "You are quite at
7053 liberty not to believe me and I don't even care whether you do or not,
7054 but you have no grounds for telling me so. And that is the whole point."
7056 The Austrian general looked dissatisfied, but had no option but to reply
7059 "On the contrary," he said, in a querulous and angry tone that
7060 contrasted with his flattering words, "on the contrary, your
7061 excellency's participation in the common action is highly valued by His
7062 Majesty; but we think the present delay is depriving the splendid
7063 Russian troops and their commander of the laurels they have been
7064 accustomed to win in their battles," he concluded his evidently
7065 prearranged sentence.
7067 Kutuzov bowed with the same smile.
7069 "But that is my conviction, and judging by the last letter with which
7070 His Highness the Archduke Ferdinand has honored me, I imagine that the
7071 Austrian troops, under the direction of so skillful a leader as General
7072 Mack, have by now already gained a decisive victory and no longer need
7073 our aid," said Kutuzov.
7075 The general frowned. Though there was no definite news of an Austrian
7076 defeat, there were many circumstances confirming the unfavorable rumors
7077 that were afloat, and so Kutuzov's suggestion of an Austrian victory
7078 sounded much like irony. But Kutuzov went on blandly smiling with the
7079 same expression, which seemed to say that he had a right to suppose so.
7080 And, in fact, the last letter he had received from Mack's army informed
7081 him of a victory and stated strategically the position of the army was
7084 "Give me that letter," said Kutuzov turning to Prince Andrew. "Please
7085 have a look at it"--and Kutuzov with an ironical smile about the corners
7086 of his mouth read to the Austrian general the following passage, in
7087 German, from the Archduke Ferdinand's letter:
7089 We have fully concentrated forces of nearly seventy thousand men with
7090 which to attack and defeat the enemy should he cross the Lech. Also, as
7091 we are masters of Ulm, we cannot be deprived of the advantage of
7092 commanding both sides of the Danube, so that should the enemy not cross
7093 the Lech, we can cross the Danube, throw ourselves on his line of
7094 communications, recross the river lower down, and frustrate his
7095 intention should he try to direct his whole force against our faithful
7096 ally. We shall therefore confidently await the moment when the Imperial
7097 Russian army will be fully equipped, and shall then, in conjunction with
7098 it, easily find a way to prepare for the enemy the fate he deserves.
7100 Kutuzov sighed deeply on finishing this paragraph and looked at the
7101 member of the Hofkriegsrath mildly and attentively.
7103 "But you know the wise maxim your excellency, advising one to expect the
7104 worst," said the Austrian general, evidently wishing to have done with
7105 jests and to come to business. He involuntarily looked round at the
7108 "Excuse me, General," interrupted Kutuzov, also turning to Prince
7109 Andrew. "Look here, my dear fellow, get from Kozlovski all the reports
7110 from our scouts. Here are two letters from Count Nostitz and here is one
7111 from His Highness the Archduke Ferdinand and here are these," he said,
7112 handing him several papers, "make a neat memorandum in French out of all
7113 this, showing all the news we have had of the movements of the Austrian
7114 army, and then give it to his excellency."
7116 Prince Andrew bowed his head in token of having understood from the
7117 first not only what had been said but also what Kutuzov would have liked
7118 to tell him. He gathered up the papers and with a bow to both, stepped
7119 softly over the carpet and went out into the waiting room.
7121 Though not much time had passed since Prince Andrew had left Russia, he
7122 had changed greatly during that period. In the expression of his face,
7123 in his movements, in his walk, scarcely a trace was left of his former
7124 affected languor and indolence. He now looked like a man who has time to
7125 think of the impression he makes on others, but is occupied with
7126 agreeable and interesting work. His face expressed more satisfaction
7127 with himself and those around him, his smile and glance were brighter
7128 and more attractive.
7130 Kutuzov, whom he had overtaken in Poland, had received him very kindly,
7131 promised not to forget him, distinguished him above the other adjutants,
7132 and had taken him to Vienna and given him the more serious commissions.
7133 From Vienna Kutuzov wrote to his old comrade, Prince Andrew's father.
7135 Your son bids fair to become an officer distinguished by his industry,
7136 firmness, and expedition. I consider myself fortunate to have such a
7139 On Kutuzov's staff, among his fellow officers and in the army generally,
7140 Prince Andrew had, as he had had in Petersburg society, two quite
7141 opposite reputations. Some, a minority, acknowledged him to be different
7142 from themselves and from everyone else, expected great things of him,
7143 listened to him, admired, and imitated him, and with them Prince Andrew
7144 was natural and pleasant. Others, the majority, disliked him and
7145 considered him conceited, cold, and disagreeable. But among these people
7146 Prince Andrew knew how to take his stand so that they respected and even
7149 Coming out of Kutuzov's room into the waiting room with the papers in
7150 his hand Prince Andrew came up to his comrade, the aide-de-camp on duty,
7151 Kozlovski, who was sitting at the window with a book.
7153 "Well, Prince?" asked Kozlovski.
7155 "I am ordered to write a memorandum explaining why we are not
7160 Prince Andrew shrugged his shoulders.
7162 "Any news from Mack?"
7166 "If it were true that he has been beaten, news would have come."
7168 "Probably," said Prince Andrew moving toward the outer door.
7170 But at that instant a tall Austrian general in a greatcoat, with the
7171 order of Maria Theresa on his neck and a black bandage round his head,
7172 who had evidently just arrived, entered quickly, slamming the door.
7173 Prince Andrew stopped short.
7175 "Commander in Chief Kutuzov?" said the newly arrived general speaking
7176 quickly with a harsh German accent, looking to both sides and advancing
7177 straight toward the inner door.
7179 "The commander-in-chief is engaged," said Kozlovski, going hurriedly up
7180 to the unknown general and blocking his way to the door. "Whom shall I
7183 The unknown general looked disdainfully down at Kozlovski, who was
7184 rather short, as if surprised that anyone should not know him.
7186 "The commander-in-chief is engaged," repeated Kozlovski calmly.
7188 The general's face clouded, his lips quivered and trembled. He took out
7189 a notebook, hurriedly scribbled something in pencil, tore out the leaf,
7190 gave it to Kozlovski, stepped quickly to the window, and threw himself
7191 into a chair, gazing at those in the room as if asking, "Why do they
7192 look at me?" Then he lifted his head, stretched his neck as if he
7193 intended to say something, but immediately, with affected indifference,
7194 began to hum to himself, producing a queer sound which immediately broke
7195 off. The door of the private room opened and Kutuzov appeared in the
7196 doorway. The general with the bandaged head bent forward as though
7197 running away from some danger, and, making long, quick strides with his
7198 thin legs, went up to Kutuzov.
7200 "Vous voyez le malheureux Mack," he uttered in a broken voice.
7202 Kutuzov's face as he stood in the open doorway remained perfectly
7203 immobile for a few moments. Then wrinkles ran over his face like a wave
7204 and his forehead became smooth again, he bowed his head respectfully,
7205 closed his eyes, silently let Mack enter his room before him, and closed
7206 the door himself behind him.
7208 The report which had been circulated that the Austrians had been beaten
7209 and that the whole army had surrendered at Ulm proved to be correct.
7210 Within half an hour adjutants had been sent in various directions with
7211 orders which showed that the Russian troops, who had hitherto been
7212 inactive, would also soon have to meet the enemy.
7214 Prince Andrew was one of those rare staff officers whose chief interest
7215 lay in the general progress of the war. When he saw Mack and heard the
7216 details of his disaster he understood that half the campaign was lost,
7217 understood all the difficulties of the Russian army's position, and
7218 vividly imagined what awaited it and the part he would have to play.
7219 Involuntarily he felt a joyful agitation at the thought of the
7220 humiliation of arrogant Austria and that in a week's time he might,
7221 perhaps, see and take part in the first Russian encounter with the
7222 French since Suvorov met them. He feared that Bonaparte's genius might
7223 outweigh all the courage of the Russian troops, and at the same time
7224 could not admit the idea of his hero being disgraced.
7226 Excited and irritated by these thoughts Prince Andrew went toward his
7227 room to write to his father, to whom he wrote every day. In the corridor
7228 he met Nesvitski, with whom he shared a room, and the wag Zherkov; they
7229 were as usual laughing.
7231 "Why are you so glum?" asked Nesvitski noticing Prince Andrew's pale
7232 face and glittering eyes.
7234 "There's nothing to be gay about," answered Bolkonski.
7236 Just as Prince Andrew met Nesvitski and Zherkov, there came toward them
7237 from the other end of the corridor, Strauch, an Austrian general who on
7238 Kutuzov's staff in charge of the provisioning of the Russian army, and
7239 the member of the Hofkriegsrath who had arrived the previous evening.
7240 There was room enough in the wide corridor for the generals to pass the
7241 three officers quite easily, but Zherkov, pushing Nesvitski aside with
7242 his arm, said in a breathless voice,
7244 "They're coming!... they're coming!... Stand aside, make way, please
7247 The generals were passing by, looking as if they wished to avoid
7248 embarrassing attentions. On the face of the wag Zherkov there suddenly
7249 appeared a stupid smile of glee which he seemed unable to suppress.
7251 "Your excellency," said he in German, stepping forward and addressing
7252 the Austrian general, "I have the honor to congratulate you."
7254 He bowed his head and scraped first with one foot and then with the
7255 other, awkwardly, like a child at a dancing lesson.
7257 The member of the Hofkriegsrath looked at him severely but, seeing the
7258 seriousness of his stupid smile, could not but give him a moment's
7259 attention. He screwed up his eyes showing that he was listening.
7261 "I have the honor to congratulate you. General Mack has arrived, quite
7262 well, only a little bruised just here," he added, pointing with a
7263 beaming smile to his head.
7265 The general frowned, turned away, and went on.
7267 "Gott, wie naiv!" * said he angrily, after he had gone a few steps.
7270 * "Good God, what simplicity!"
7272 Nesvitski with a laugh threw his arms round Prince Andrew, but
7273 Bolkonski, turning still paler, pushed him away with an angry look and
7274 turned to Zherkov. The nervous irritation aroused by the appearance of
7275 Mack, the news of his defeat, and the thought of what lay before the
7276 Russian army found vent in anger at Zherkov's untimely jest.
7278 "If you, sir, choose to make a buffoon of yourself," he said sharply,
7279 with a slight trembling of the lower jaw, "I can't prevent your doing
7280 so; but I warn you that if you dare to play the fool in my presence, I
7281 will teach you to behave yourself."
7283 Nesvitski and Zherkov were so surprised by this outburst that they gazed
7284 at Bolkonski silently with wide-open eyes.
7286 "What's the matter? I only congratulated them," said Zherkov.
7288 "I am not jesting with you; please be silent!" cried Bolkonski, and
7289 taking Nesvitski's arm he left Zherkov, who did not know what to say.
7291 "Come, what's the matter, old fellow?" said Nesvitski trying to soothe
7294 "What's the matter?" exclaimed Prince Andrew standing still in his
7295 excitement. "Don't you understand that either we are officers serving
7296 our Tsar and our country, rejoicing in the successes and grieving at the
7297 misfortunes of our common cause, or we are merely lackeys who care
7298 nothing for their master's business. Quarante mille hommes massacres et
7299 l'armee de nos allies detruite, et vous trouvez la le mot pour rire," *
7300 he said, as if strengthening his views by this French sentence. "C'est
7301 bien pour un garcon de rien comme cet individu dont vous avez fait un
7302 ami, mais pas pour vous, pas pour vous. *(2) Only a hobbledehoy could
7303 amuse himself in this way," he added in Russian--but pronouncing the
7304 word with a French accent--having noticed that Zherkov could still hear
7308 * "Forty thousand men massacred and the army of our allies destroyed,
7309 and you find that a cause for jesting!"
7311 * (2) "It is all very well for that good-for-nothing fellow of whom you
7312 have made a friend, but not for you, not for you."
7314 He waited a moment to see whether the cornet would answer, but he turned
7315 and went out of the corridor.
7322 The Pavlograd Hussars were stationed two miles from Braunau. The
7323 squadron in which Nicholas Rostov served as a cadet was quartered in the
7324 German village of Salzeneck. The best quarters in the village were
7325 assigned to cavalry-captain Denisov, the squadron commander, known
7326 throughout the whole cavalry division as Vaska Denisov. Cadet Rostov,
7327 ever since he had overtaken the regiment in Poland, had lived with the
7330 On October 11, the day when all was astir at headquarters over the news
7331 of Mack's defeat, the camp life of the officers of this squadron was
7332 proceeding as usual. Denisov, who had been losing at cards all night,
7333 had not yet come home when Rostov rode back early in the morning from a
7334 foraging expedition. Rostov in his cadet uniform, with a jerk to his
7335 horse, rode up to the porch, swung his leg over the saddle with a supple
7336 youthful movement, stood for a moment in the stirrup as if loathe to
7337 part from his horse, and at last sprang down and called to his orderly.
7339 "Ah, Bondarenko, dear friend!" said he to the hussar who rushed up
7340 headlong to the horse. "Walk him up and down, my dear fellow," he
7341 continued, with that gay brotherly cordiality which goodhearted young
7342 people show to everyone when they are happy.
7344 "Yes, your excellency," answered the Ukrainian gaily, tossing his head.
7346 "Mind, walk him up and down well!"
7348 Another hussar also rushed toward the horse, but Bondarenko had already
7349 thrown the reins of the snaffle bridle over the horse's head. It was
7350 evident that the cadet was liberal with his tips and that it paid to
7351 serve him. Rostov patted the horse's neck and then his flank, and
7352 lingered for a moment.
7354 "Splendid! What a horse he will be!" he thought with a smile, and
7355 holding up his saber, his spurs jingling, he ran up the steps of the
7356 porch. His landlord, who in a waistcoat and a pointed cap, pitchfork in
7357 hand, was clearing manure from the cowhouse, looked out, and his face
7358 immediately brightened on seeing Rostov. "Schon gut Morgen! Schon gut
7359 Morgen!" * he said winking with a merry smile, evidently pleased to
7360 greet the young man.
7363 * "A very good morning! A very good morning!"
7365 "Schon fleissig?" * said Rostov with the same gay brotherly smile which
7366 did not leave his eager face. "Hoch Oestreicher! Hoch Russen! Kaiser
7367 Alexander hoch!" *(2) said he, quoting words often repeated by the
7373 * (2) "Hurrah for the Austrians! Hurrah for the Russians! Hurrah for
7376 The German laughed, came out of the cowshed, pulled off his cap, and
7377 waving it above his head cried:
7379 "Und die ganze Welt hoch!" *
7382 * "And hurrah for the whole world!"
7384 Rostov waved his cap above his head like the German and cried laughing,
7385 "Und vivat die ganze Welt!" Though neither the German cleaning his
7386 cowshed nor Rostov back with his platoon from foraging for hay had any
7387 reason for rejoicing, they looked at each other with joyful delight and
7388 brotherly love, wagged their heads in token of their mutual affection,
7389 and parted smiling, the German returning to his cowshed and Rostov going
7390 to the cottage he occupied with Denisov.
7392 "What about your master?" he asked Lavrushka, Denisov's orderly, whom
7393 all the regiment knew for a rogue.
7395 "Hasn't been in since the evening. Must have been losing," answered
7396 Lavrushka. "I know by now, if he wins he comes back early to brag about
7397 it, but if he stays out till morning it means he's lost and will come
7398 back in a rage. Will you have coffee?"
7402 Ten minutes later Lavrushka brought the coffee. "He's coming!" said he.
7403 "Now for trouble!" Rostov looked out of the window and saw Denisov
7404 coming home. Denisov was a small man with a red face, sparkling black
7405 eyes, and black tousled mustache and hair. He wore an unfastened cloak,
7406 wide breeches hanging down in creases, and a crumpled shako on the back
7407 of his head. He came up to the porch gloomily, hanging his head.
7409 "Lavwuska!" he shouted loudly and angrily, "take it off, blockhead!"
7411 "Well, I am taking it off," replied Lavrushka's voice.
7413 "Ah, you're up already," said Denisov, entering the room.
7415 "Long ago," answered Rostov, "I have already been for the hay, and have
7416 seen Fraulein Mathilde."
7418 "Weally! And I've been losing, bwother. I lost yesterday like a damned
7419 fool!" cried Denisov, not pronouncing his r's. "Such ill luck! Such ill
7420 luck. As soon as you left, it began and went on. Hullo there! Tea!"
7422 Puckering up his face though smiling, and showing his short strong
7423 teeth, he began with stubby fingers of both hands to ruffle up his thick
7426 "And what devil made me go to that wat?" (an officer nicknamed "the
7427 rat") he said, rubbing his forehead and whole face with both hands.
7428 "Just fancy, he didn't let me win a single cahd, not one cahd."
7430 He took the lighted pipe that was offered to him, gripped it in his
7431 fist, and tapped it on the floor, making the sparks fly, while he
7434 "He lets one win the singles and collahs it as soon as one doubles it;
7435 gives the singles and snatches the doubles!"
7437 He scattered the burning tobacco, smashed the pipe, and threw it away.
7438 Then he remained silent for a while, and all at once looked cheerfully
7439 with his glittering, black eyes at Rostov.
7441 "If at least we had some women here; but there's nothing foh one to do
7442 but dwink. If we could only get to fighting soon. Hullo, who's there?"
7443 he said, turning to the door as he heard a tread of heavy boots and the
7444 clinking of spurs that came to a stop, and a respectful cough.
7446 "The squadron quartermaster!" said Lavrushka.
7448 Denisov's face puckered still more.
7450 "Wetched!" he muttered, throwing down a purse with some gold in it.
7451 "Wostov, deah fellow, just see how much there is left and shove the
7452 purse undah the pillow," he said, and went out to the quartermaster.
7454 Rostov took the money and, mechanically arranging the old and new coins
7455 in separate piles, began counting them.
7457 "Ah! Telyanin! How d'ye do? They plucked me last night," came Denisov's
7458 voice from the next room.
7460 "Where? At Bykov's, at the rat's... I knew it," replied a piping voice,
7461 and Lieutenant Telyanin, a small officer of the same squadron, entered
7464 Rostov thrust the purse under the pillow and shook the damp little hand
7465 which was offered him. Telyanin for some reason had been transferred
7466 from the Guards just before this campaign. He behaved very well in the
7467 regiment but was not liked; Rostov especially detested him and was
7468 unable to overcome or conceal his groundless antipathy to the man.
7470 "Well, young cavalryman, how is my Rook behaving?" he asked. (Rook was a
7471 young horse Telyanin had sold to Rostov.)
7473 The lieutenant never looked the man he was speaking to straight in the
7474 face; his eyes continually wandered from one object to another.
7476 "I saw you riding this morning..." he added.
7478 "Oh, he's all right, a good horse," answered Rostov, though the horse
7479 for which he had paid seven hundred rubbles was not worth half that sum.
7480 "He's begun to go a little lame on the left foreleg," he added.
7482 "The hoof's cracked! That's nothing. I'll teach you what to do and show
7483 you what kind of rivet to use."
7485 "Yes, please do," said Rostov.
7487 "I'll show you, I'll show you! It's not a secret. And it's a horse
7488 you'll thank me for."
7490 "Then I'll have it brought round," said Rostov wishing to avoid
7491 Telyanin, and he went out to give the order.
7493 In the passage Denisov, with a pipe, was squatting on the threshold
7494 facing the quartermaster who was reporting to him. On seeing Rostov,
7495 Denisov screwed up his face and pointing over his shoulder with his
7496 thumb to the room where Telyanin was sitting, he frowned and gave a
7499 "Ugh! I don't like that fellow," he said, regardless of the
7500 quartermaster's presence.
7502 Rostov shrugged his shoulders as much as to say: "Nor do I, but what's
7503 one to do?" and, having given his order, he returned to Telyanin.
7505 Telyanin was sitting in the same indolent pose in which Rostov had left
7506 him, rubbing his small white hands.
7508 "Well there certainly are disgusting people," thought Rostov as he
7511 "Have you told them to bring the horse?" asked Telyanin, getting up and
7512 looking carelessly about him.
7516 "Let us go ourselves. I only came round to ask Denisov about yesterday's
7517 order. Have you got it, Denisov?"
7519 "Not yet. But where are you off to?"
7521 "I want to teach this young man how to shoe a horse," said Telyanin.
7523 They went through the porch and into the stable. The lieutenant
7524 explained how to rivet the hoof and went away to his own quarters.
7526 When Rostov went back there was a bottle of vodka and a sausage on the
7527 table. Denisov was sitting there scratching with his pen on a sheet of
7528 paper. He looked gloomily in Rostov's face and said: "I am witing to
7531 He leaned his elbows on the table with his pen in his hand and,
7532 evidently glad of a chance to say quicker in words what he wanted to
7533 write, told Rostov the contents of his letter.
7535 "You see, my fwiend," he said, "we sleep when we don't love. We are
7536 childwen of the dust... but one falls in love and one is a God, one is
7537 pua' as on the first day of cweation... Who's that now? Send him to the
7538 devil, I'm busy!" he shouted to Lavrushka, who went up to him not in the
7541 "Who should it be? You yourself told him to come. It's the quartermaster
7544 Denisov frowned and was about to shout some reply but stopped.
7546 "Wetched business," he muttered to himself. "How much is left in the
7547 puhse?" he asked, turning to Rostov.
7549 "Seven new and three old imperials."
7551 "Oh, it's wetched! Well, what are you standing there for, you sca'cwow?
7552 Call the quahtehmasteh," he shouted to Lavrushka.
7554 "Please, Denisov, let me lend you some: I have some, you know," said
7557 "Don't like bowwowing from my own fellows, I don't," growled Denisov.
7559 "But if you won't accept money from me like a comrade, you will offend
7560 me. Really I have some," Rostov repeated.
7564 And Denisov went to the bed to get the purse from under the pillow.
7566 "Where have you put it, Wostov?"
7568 "Under the lower pillow."
7572 Denisov threw both pillows on the floor. The purse was not there.
7576 "Wait, haven't you dropped it?" said Rostov, picking up the pillows one
7577 at a time and shaking them.
7579 He pulled off the quilt and shook it. The purse was not there.
7581 "Dear me, can I have forgotten? No, I remember thinking that you kept it
7582 under your head like a treasure," said Rostov. "I put it just here.
7583 Where is it?" he asked, turning to Lavrushka.
7585 "I haven't been in the room. It must be where you put it."
7589 "You're always like that; you thwow a thing down anywhere and forget it.
7590 Feel in your pockets."
7592 "No, if I hadn't thought of it being a treasure," said Rostov, "but I
7593 remember putting it there."
7595 Lavrushka turned all the bedding over, looked under the bed and under
7596 the table, searched everywhere, and stood still in the middle of the
7597 room. Denisov silently watched Lavrushka's movements, and when the
7598 latter threw up his arms in surprise saying it was nowhere to be found
7599 Denisov glanced at Rostov.
7601 "Wostov, you've not been playing schoolboy twicks..."
7603 Rostov felt Denisov's gaze fixed on him, raised his eyes, and instantly
7604 dropped them again. All the blood which had seemed congested somewhere
7605 below his throat rushed to his face and eyes. He could not draw breath.
7607 "And there hasn't been anyone in the room except the lieutenant and
7608 yourselves. It must be here somewhere," said Lavrushka.
7610 "Now then, you devil's puppet, look alive and hunt for it!" shouted
7611 Denisov, suddenly, turning purple and rushing at the man with a
7612 threatening gesture. "If the purse isn't found I'll flog you, I'll flog
7615 Rostov, his eyes avoiding Denisov, began buttoning his coat, buckled on
7616 his saber, and put on his cap.
7618 "I must have that purse, I tell you," shouted Denisov, shaking his
7619 orderly by the shoulders and knocking him against the wall.
7621 "Denisov, let him alone, I know who has taken it," said Rostov, going
7622 toward the door without raising his eyes. Denisov paused, thought a
7623 moment, and, evidently understanding what Rostov hinted at, seized his
7626 "Nonsense!" he cried, and the veins on his forehead and neck stood out
7627 like cords. "You are mad, I tell you. I won't allow it. The purse is
7628 here! I'll flay this scoundwel alive, and it will be found."
7630 "I know who has taken it," repeated Rostov in an unsteady voice, and
7633 "And I tell you, don't you dahe to do it!" shouted Denisov, rushing at
7634 the cadet to restrain him.
7636 But Rostov pulled away his arm and, with as much anger as though Denisov
7637 were his worst enemy, firmly fixed his eyes directly on his face.
7639 "Do you understand what you're saying?" he said in a trembling voice.
7640 "There was no one else in the room except myself. So that if it is not
7643 He could not finish, and ran out of the room.
7645 "Ah, may the devil take you and evewybody," were the last words Rostov
7648 Rostov went to Telyanin's quarters.
7650 "The master is not in, he's gone to headquarters," said Telyanin's
7651 orderly. "Has something happened?" he added, surprised at the cadet's
7656 "You've only just missed him," said the orderly.
7658 The headquarters were situated two miles away from Salzeneck, and
7659 Rostov, without returning home, took a horse and rode there. There was
7660 an inn in the village which the officers frequented. Rostov rode up to
7661 it and saw Telyanin's horse at the porch.
7663 In the second room of the inn the lieutenant was sitting over a dish of
7664 sausages and a bottle of wine.
7666 "Ah, you've come here too, young man!" he said, smiling and raising his
7669 "Yes," said Rostov as if it cost him a great deal to utter the word; and
7670 he sat down at the nearest table.
7672 Both were silent. There were two Germans and a Russian officer in the
7673 room. No one spoke and the only sounds heard were the clatter of knives
7674 and the munching of the lieutenant.
7676 When Telyanin had finished his lunch he took out of his pocket a double
7677 purse and, drawing its rings aside with his small, white, turned-up
7678 fingers, drew out a gold imperial, and lifting his eyebrows gave it to
7681 "Please be quick," he said.
7683 The coin was a new one. Rostov rose and went up to Telyanin.
7685 "Allow me to look at your purse," he said in a low, almost inaudible,
7688 With shifting eyes but eyebrows still raised, Telyanin handed him the
7691 "Yes, it's a nice purse. Yes, yes," he said, growing suddenly pale, and
7692 added, "Look at it, young man."
7694 Rostov took the purse in his hand, examined it and the money in it, and
7695 looked at Telyanin. The lieutenant was looking about in his usual way
7696 and suddenly seemed to grow very merry.
7698 "If we get to Vienna I'll get rid of it there but in these wretched
7699 little towns there's nowhere to spend it," said he. "Well, let me have
7700 it, young man, I'm going."
7702 Rostov did not speak.
7704 "And you? Are you going to have lunch too? They feed you quite decently
7705 here," continued Telyanin. "Now then, let me have it."
7707 He stretched out his hand to take hold of the purse. Rostov let go of
7708 it. Telyanin took the purse and began carelessly slipping it into the
7709 pocket of his riding breeches, with his eyebrows lifted and his mouth
7710 slightly open, as if to say, "Yes, yes, I am putting my purse in my
7711 pocket and that's quite simple and is no one else's business."
7713 "Well, young man?" he said with a sigh, and from under his lifted brows
7714 he glanced into Rostov's eyes.
7716 Some flash as of an electric spark shot from Telyanin's eyes to Rostov's
7717 and back, and back again and again in an instant.
7719 "Come here," said Rostov, catching hold of Telyanin's arm and almost
7720 dragging him to the window. "That money is Denisov's; you took it..." he
7721 whispered just above Telyanin's ear.
7723 "What? What? How dare you? What?" said Telyanin.
7725 But these words came like a piteous, despairing cry and an entreaty for
7726 pardon. As soon as Rostov heard them, an enormous load of doubt fell
7727 from him. He was glad, and at the same instant began to pity the
7728 miserable man who stood before him, but the task he had begun had to be
7731 "Heaven only knows what the people here may imagine," muttered Telyanin,
7732 taking up his cap and moving toward a small empty room. "We must have an
7735 "I know it and shall prove it," said Rostov.
7739 Every muscle of Telyanin's pale, terrified face began to quiver, his
7740 eyes still shifted from side to side but with a downward look not rising
7741 to Rostov's face, and his sobs were audible.
7743 "Count!... Don't ruin a young fellow... here is this wretched money,
7744 take it..." He threw it on the table. "I have an old father and
7747 Rostov took the money, avoiding Telyanin's eyes, and went out of the
7748 room without a word. But at the door he stopped and then retraced his
7749 steps. "O God," he said with tears in his eyes, "how could you do it?"
7751 "Count..." said Telyanin drawing nearer to him.
7753 "Don't touch me," said Rostov, drawing back. "If you need it, take the
7754 money," and he threw the purse to him and ran out of the inn.
7761 That same evening there was an animated discussion among the squadron's
7762 officers in Denisov's quarters.
7764 "And I tell you, Rostov, that you must apologize to the colonel!" said a
7765 tall, grizzly-haired staff captain, with enormous mustaches and many
7766 wrinkles on his large features, to Rostov who was crimson with
7769 The staff captain, Kirsten, had twice been reduced to the ranks for
7770 affairs of honor and had twice regained his commission.
7772 "I will allow no one to call me a liar!" cried Rostov. "He told me I
7773 lied, and I told him he lied. And there it rests. He may keep me on duty
7774 every day, or may place me under arrest, but no one can make me
7775 apologize, because if he, as commander of this regiment, thinks it
7776 beneath his dignity to give me satisfaction, then..."
7778 "You just wait a moment, my dear fellow, and listen," interrupted the
7779 staff captain in his deep bass, calmly stroking his long mustache. "You
7780 tell the colonel in the presence of other officers that an officer has
7783 "I'm not to blame that the conversation began in the presence of other
7784 officers. Perhaps I ought not to have spoken before them, but I am not a
7785 diplomatist. That's why I joined the hussars, thinking that here one
7786 would not need finesse; and he tells me that I am lying--so let him give
7789 "That's all right. No one thinks you a coward, but that's not the point.
7790 Ask Denisov whether it is not out of the question for a cadet to demand
7791 satisfaction of his regimental commander?"
7793 Denisov sat gloomily biting his mustache and listening to the
7794 conversation, evidently with no wish to take part in it. He answered the
7795 staff captain's question by a disapproving shake of his head.
7797 "You speak to the colonel about this nasty business before other
7798 officers," continued the staff captain, "and Bogdanich" (the colonel was
7799 called Bogdanich) "shuts you up."
7801 "He did not shut me up, he said I was telling an untruth."
7803 "Well, have it so, and you talked a lot of nonsense to him and must
7806 "Not on any account!" exclaimed Rostov.
7808 "I did not expect this of you," said the staff captain seriously and
7809 severely. "You don't wish to apologize, but, man, it's not only to him
7810 but to the whole regiment--all of us--you're to blame all round. The
7811 case is this: you ought to have thought the matter over and taken
7812 advice; but no, you go and blurt it all straight out before the
7813 officers. Now what was the colonel to do? Have the officer tried and
7814 disgrace the whole regiment? Disgrace the whole regiment because of one
7815 scoundrel? Is that how you look at it? We don't see it like that. And
7816 Bogdanich was a brick: he told you you were saying what was not true.
7817 It's not pleasant, but what's to be done, my dear fellow? You landed
7818 yourself in it. And now, when one wants to smooth the thing over, some
7819 conceit prevents your apologizing, and you wish to make the whole affair
7820 public. You are offended at being put on duty a bit, but why not
7821 apologize to an old and honorable officer? Whatever Bogdanich may be,
7822 anyway he is an honorable and brave old colonel! You're quick at taking
7823 offense, but you don't mind disgracing the whole regiment!" The staff
7824 captain's voice began to tremble. "You have been in the regiment next to
7825 no time, my lad, you're here today and tomorrow you'll be appointed
7826 adjutant somewhere and can snap your fingers when it is said 'There are
7827 thieves among the Pavlograd officers!' But it's not all the same to us!
7828 Am I not right, Denisov? It's not the same!"
7830 Denisov remained silent and did not move, but occasionally looked with
7831 his glittering black eyes at Rostov.
7833 "You value your own pride and don't wish to apologize," continued the
7834 staff captain, "but we old fellows, who have grown up in and, God
7835 willing, are going to die in the regiment, we prize the honor of the
7836 regiment, and Bogdanich knows it. Oh, we do prize it, old fellow! And
7837 all this is not right, it's not right! You may take offense or not but I
7838 always stick to mother truth. It's not right!"
7840 And the staff captain rose and turned away from Rostov.
7843 "That's twue, devil take it!" shouted Denisov, jumping up. "Now then,
7846 Rostov, growing red and pale alternately, looked first at one officer
7847 and then at the other.
7849 "No, gentlemen, no... you mustn't think... I quite understand. You're
7850 wrong to think that of me... I... for me... for the honor of the
7851 regiment I'd... Ah well, I'll show that in action, and for me the honor
7852 of the flag... Well, never mind, it's true I'm to blame, to blame all
7853 round. Well, what else do you want?..."
7855 "Come, that's right, Count!" cried the staff captain, turning round and
7856 clapping Rostov on the shoulder with his big hand.
7858 "I tell you," shouted Denisov, "he's a fine fellow."
7860 "That's better, Count," said the staff captain, beginning to address
7861 Rostov by his title, as if in recognition of his confession. "Go and
7862 apologize, your excellency. Yes, go!"
7864 "Gentlemen, I'll do anything. No one shall hear a word from me," said
7865 Rostov in an imploring voice, "but I can't apologize, by God I can't, do
7866 what you will! How can I go and apologize like a little boy asking
7869 Denisov began to laugh.
7871 "It'll be worse for you. Bogdanich is vindictive and you'll pay for your
7872 obstinacy," said Kirsten.
7874 "No, on my word it's not obstinacy! I can't describe the feeling. I
7877 "Well, it's as you like," said the staff captain. "And what has become
7878 of that scoundrel?" he asked Denisov.
7880 "He has weported himself sick, he's to be stwuck off the list tomowwow,"
7883 "It is an illness, there's no other way of explaining it," said the
7886 "Illness or not, he'd better not cwoss my path. I'd kill him!" shouted
7887 Denisov in a bloodthirsty tone.
7889 Just then Zherkov entered the room.
7891 "What brings you here?" cried the officers turning to the newcomer.
7893 "We're to go into action, gentlemen! Mack has surrendered with his whole
7898 "I've seen him myself!"
7900 "What? Saw the real Mack? With hands and feet?"
7902 "Into action! Into action! Bring him a bottle for such news! But how did
7905 "I've been sent back to the regiment all on account of that devil, Mack.
7906 An Austrian general complained of me. I congratulated him on Mack's
7907 arrival... What's the matter, Rostov? You look as if you'd just come out
7910 "Oh, my dear fellow, we're in such a stew here these last two days."
7912 The regimental adjutant came in and confirmed the news brought by
7913 Zherkov. They were under orders to advance next day.
7915 "We're going into action, gentlemen!"
7917 "Well, thank God! We've been sitting here too long!"
7924 Kutuzov fell back toward Vienna, destroying behind him the bridges over
7925 the rivers Inn (at Braunau) and Traun (near Linz). On October 23 the
7926 Russian troops were crossing the river Enns. At midday the Russian
7927 baggage train, the artillery, and columns of troops were defiling
7928 through the town of Enns on both sides of the bridge.
7930 It was a warm, rainy, autumnal day. The wide expanse that opened out
7931 before the heights on which the Russian batteries stood guarding the
7932 bridge was at times veiled by a diaphanous curtain of slanting rain, and
7933 then, suddenly spread out in the sunlight, far-distant objects could be
7934 clearly seen glittering as though freshly varnished. Down below, the
7935 little town could be seen with its white, red-roofed houses, its
7936 cathedral, and its bridge, on both sides of which streamed jostling
7937 masses of Russian troops. At the bend of the Danube, vessels, an island,
7938 and a castle with a park surrounded by the waters of the confluence of
7939 the Enns and the Danube became visible, and the rocky left bank of the
7940 Danube covered with pine forests, with a mystic background of green
7941 treetops and bluish gorges. The turrets of a convent stood out beyond a
7942 wild virgin pine forest, and far away on the other side of the Enns the
7943 enemy's horse patrols could be discerned.
7945 Among the field guns on the brow of the hill the general in command of
7946 the rearguard stood with a staff officer, scanning the country through
7947 his fieldglass. A little behind them Nesvitski, who had been sent to the
7948 rearguard by the commander-in-chief, was sitting on the trail of a gun
7949 carriage. A Cossack who accompanied him had handed him a knapsack and a
7950 flask, and Nesvitski was treating some officers to pies and real
7951 doppelkummel. The officers gladly gathered round him, some on their
7952 knees, some squatting Turkish fashion on the wet grass.
7954 "Yes, the Austrian prince who built that castle was no fool. It's a fine
7955 place! Why are you not eating anything, gentlemen?" Nesvitski was
7958 "Thank you very much, Prince," answered one of the officers, pleased to
7959 be talking to a staff officer of such importance. "It's a lovely place!
7960 We passed close to the park and saw two deer... and what a splendid
7963 "Look, Prince," said another, who would have dearly liked to take
7964 another pie but felt shy, and therefore pretended to be examining the
7965 countryside--"See, our infantrymen have already got there. Look there in
7966 the meadow behind the village, three of them are dragging something.
7967 They'll ransack that castle," he remarked with evident approval.
7969 "So they will," said Nesvitski. "No, but what I should like," added he,
7970 munching a pie in his moist-lipped handsome mouth, "would be to slip in
7973 He pointed with a smile to a turreted nunnery, and his eyes narrowed and
7976 "That would be fine, gentlemen!"
7978 The officers laughed.
7980 "Just to flutter the nuns a bit. They say there are Italian girls among
7981 them. On my word I'd give five years of my life for it!"
7983 "They must be feeling dull, too," said one of the bolder officers,
7986 Meanwhile the staff officer standing in front pointed out something to
7987 the general, who looked through his field glass.
7989 "Yes, so it is, so it is," said the general angrily, lowering the field
7990 glass and shrugging his shoulders, "so it is! They'll be fired on at the
7991 crossing. And why are they dawdling there?"
7993 On the opposite side the enemy could be seen by the naked eye, and from
7994 their battery a milk-white cloud arose. Then came the distant report of
7995 a shot, and our troops could be seen hurrying to the crossing.
7997 Nesvitski rose, puffing, and went up to the general, smiling.
7999 "Would not your excellency like a little refreshment?" he said.
8001 "It's a bad business," said the general without answering him, "our men
8002 have been wasting time."
8004 "Hadn't I better ride over, your excellency?" asked Nesvitski.
8006 "Yes, please do," answered the general, and he repeated the order that
8007 had already once been given in detail: "and tell the hussars that they
8008 are to cross last and to fire the bridge as I ordered; and the
8009 inflammable material on the bridge must be reinspected."
8011 "Very good," answered Nesvitski.
8013 He called the Cossack with his horse, told him to put away the knapsack
8014 and flask, and swung his heavy person easily into the saddle.
8016 "I'll really call in on the nuns," he said to the officers who watched
8017 him smilingly, and he rode off by the winding path down the hill.
8019 "Now then, let's see how far it will carry, Captain. Just try!" said the
8020 general, turning to an artillery officer. "Have a little fun to pass the
8023 "Crew, to your guns!" commanded the officer.
8025 In a moment the men came running gaily from their campfires and began
8028 "One!" came the command.
8030 Number one jumped briskly aside. The gun rang out with a deafening
8031 metallic roar, and a whistling grenade flew above the heads of our
8032 troops below the hill and fell far short of the enemy, a little smoke
8033 showing the spot where it burst.
8035 The faces of officers and men brightened up at the sound. Everyone got
8036 up and began watching the movements of our troops below, as plainly
8037 visible as if but a stone's throw away, and the movements of the
8038 approaching enemy farther off. At the same instant the sun came fully
8039 out from behind the clouds, and the clear sound of the solitary shot and
8040 the brilliance of the bright sunshine merged in a single joyous and
8041 spirited impression.
8048 Two of the enemy's shots had already flown across the bridge, where
8049 there was a crush. Halfway across stood Prince Nesvitski, who had
8050 alighted from his horse and whose big body was jammed against the
8051 railings. He looked back laughing to the Cossack who stood a few steps
8052 behind him holding two horses by their bridles. Each time Prince
8053 Nesvitski tried to move on, soldiers and carts pushed him back again and
8054 pressed him against the railings, and all he could do was to smile.
8056 "What a fine fellow you are, friend!" said the Cossack to a convoy
8057 soldier with a wagon, who was pressing onto the infantrymen who were
8058 crowded together close to his wheels and his horses. "What a fellow! You
8059 can't wait a moment! Don't you see the general wants to pass?"
8061 But the convoyman took no notice of the word "general" and shouted at
8062 the soldiers who were blocking his way. "Hi there, boys! Keep to the
8063 left! Wait a bit." But the soldiers, crowded together shoulder to
8064 shoulder, their bayonets interlocking, moved over the bridge in a dense
8065 mass. Looking down over the rails Prince Nesvitski saw the rapid, noisy
8066 little waves of the Enns, which rippling and eddying round the piles of
8067 the bridge chased each other along. Looking on the bridge he saw equally
8068 uniform living waves of soldiers, shoulder straps, covered shakos,
8069 knapsacks, bayonets, long muskets, and, under the shakos, faces with
8070 broad cheekbones, sunken cheeks, and listless tired expressions, and
8071 feet that moved through the sticky mud that covered the planks of the
8072 bridge. Sometimes through the monotonous waves of men, like a fleck of
8073 white foam on the waves of the Enns, an officer, in a cloak and with a
8074 type of face different from that of the men, squeezed his way along;
8075 sometimes like a chip of wood whirling in the river, an hussar on foot,
8076 an orderly, or a townsman was carried through the waves of infantry; and
8077 sometimes like a log floating down the river, an officers' or company's
8078 baggage wagon, piled high, leather covered, and hemmed in on all sides,
8079 moved across the bridge.
8081 "It's as if a dam had burst," said the Cossack hopelessly. "Are there
8082 many more of you to come?"
8084 "A million all but one!" replied a waggish soldier in a torn coat, with
8085 a wink, and passed on followed by another, an old man.
8087 "If he" (he meant the enemy) "begins popping at the bridge now," said
8088 the old soldier dismally to a comrade, "you'll forget to scratch
8091 That soldier passed on, and after him came another sitting on a cart.
8093 "Where the devil have the leg bands been shoved to?" said an orderly,
8094 running behind the cart and fumbling in the back of it.
8096 And he also passed on with the wagon. Then came some merry soldiers who
8097 had evidently been drinking.
8099 "And then, old fellow, he gives him one in the teeth with the butt end
8100 of his gun..." a soldier whose greatcoat was well tucked up said gaily,
8101 with a wide swing of his arm.
8103 "Yes, the ham was just delicious..." answered another with a loud laugh.
8104 And they, too, passed on, so that Nesvitski did not learn who had been
8105 struck on the teeth, or what the ham had to do with it.
8107 "Bah! How they scurry. He just sends a ball and they think they'll all
8108 be killed," a sergeant was saying angrily and reproachfully.
8110 "As it flies past me, Daddy, the ball I mean," said a young soldier with
8111 an enormous mouth, hardly refraining from laughing, "I felt like dying
8112 of fright. I did, 'pon my word, I got that frightened!" said he, as if
8113 bragging of having been frightened.
8115 That one also passed. Then followed a cart unlike any that had gone
8116 before. It was a German cart with a pair of horses led by a German, and
8117 seemed loaded with a whole houseful of effects. A fine brindled cow with
8118 a large udder was attached to the cart behind. A woman with an unweaned
8119 baby, an old woman, and a healthy German girl with bright red cheeks
8120 were sitting on some feather beds. Evidently these fugitives were
8121 allowed to pass by special permission. The eyes of all the soldiers
8122 turned toward the women, and while the vehicle was passing at foot pace
8123 all the soldiers' remarks related to the two young ones. Every face bore
8124 almost the same smile, expressing unseemly thoughts about the women.
8126 "Just see, the German sausage is making tracks, too!"
8128 "Sell me the missis," said another soldier, addressing the German, who,
8129 angry and frightened, strode energetically along with downcast eyes.
8131 "See how smart she's made herself! Oh, the devils!"
8133 "There, Fedotov, you should be quartered on them!"
8135 "I have seen as much before now, mate!"
8137 "Where are you going?" asked an infantry officer who was eating an
8138 apple, also half smiling as he looked at the handsome girl.
8140 The German closed his eyes, signifying that he did not understand.
8142 "Take it if you like," said the officer, giving the girl an apple.
8144 The girl smiled and took it. Nesvitski like the rest of the men on the
8145 bridge did not take his eyes off the women till they had passed. When
8146 they had gone by, the same stream of soldiers followed, with the same
8147 kind of talk, and at last all stopped. As often happens, the horses of a
8148 convoy wagon became restive at the end of the bridge, and the whole
8151 "And why are they stopping? There's no proper order!" said the soldiers.
8152 "Where are you shoving to? Devil take you! Can't you wait? It'll be
8153 worse if he fires the bridge. See, here's an officer jammed in too"--
8154 different voices were saying in the crowd, as the men looked at one
8155 another, and all pressed toward the exit from the bridge.
8157 Looking down at the waters of the Enns under the bridge, Nesvitski
8158 suddenly heard a sound new to him, of something swiftly approaching...
8159 something big, that splashed into the water.
8161 "Just see where it carries to!" a soldier near by said sternly, looking
8164 "Encouraging us to get along quicker," said another uneasily.
8166 The crowd moved on again. Nesvitski realized that it was a cannon ball.
8168 "Hey, Cossack, my horse!" he said. "Now, then, you there! get out of the
8171 With great difficulty he managed to get to his horse, and shouting
8172 continually he moved on. The soldiers squeezed themselves to make way
8173 for him, but again pressed on him so that they jammed his leg, and those
8174 nearest him were not to blame for they were themselves pressed still
8177 "Nesvitski, Nesvitski! you numskull!" came a hoarse voice from behind
8180 Nesvitski looked round and saw, some fifteen paces away but separated by
8181 the living mass of moving infantry, Vaska Denisov, red and shaggy, with
8182 his cap on the back of his black head and a cloak hanging jauntily over
8185 "Tell these devils, these fiends, to let me pass!" shouted Denisov
8186 evidently in a fit of rage, his coal-black eyes with their bloodshot
8187 whites glittering and rolling as he waved his sheathed saber in a small
8188 bare hand as red as his face.
8190 "Ah, Vaska!" joyfully replied Nesvitski. "What's up with you?"
8192 "The squadwon can't pass," shouted Vaska Denisov, showing his white
8193 teeth fiercely and spurring his black thoroughbred Arab, which twitched
8194 its ears as the bayonets touched it, and snorted, spurting white foam
8195 from his bit, tramping the planks of the bridge with his hoofs, and
8196 apparently ready to jump over the railings had his rider let him. "What
8197 is this? They're like sheep! Just like sheep! Out of the way!... Let us
8198 pass!... Stop there, you devil with the cart! I'll hack you with my
8199 saber!" he shouted, actually drawing his saber from its scabbard and
8202 The soldiers crowded against one another with terrified faces, and
8203 Denisov joined Nesvitski.
8205 "How's it you're not drunk today?" said Nesvitski when the other had
8208 "They don't even give one time to dwink!" answered Vaska Denisov. "They
8209 keep dwagging the wegiment to and fwo all day. If they mean to fight,
8210 let's fight. But the devil knows what this is."
8212 "What a dandy you are today!" said Nesvitski, looking at Denisov's new
8213 cloak and saddlecloth.
8215 Denisov smiled, took out of his sabretache a handkerchief that diffused
8216 a smell of perfume, and put it to Nesvitski's nose.
8218 "Of course. I'm going into action! I've shaved, bwushed my teeth, and
8221 The imposing figure of Nesvitski followed by his Cossack, and the
8222 determination of Denisov who flourished his sword and shouted
8223 frantically, had such an effect that they managed to squeeze through to
8224 the farther side of the bridge and stopped the infantry. Beside the
8225 bridge Nesvitski found the colonel to whom he had to deliver the order,
8226 and having done this he rode back.
8228 Having cleared the way Denisov stopped at the end of the bridge.
8229 Carelessly holding in his stallion that was neighing and pawing the
8230 ground, eager to rejoin its fellows, he watched his squadron draw
8231 nearer. Then the clang of hoofs, as of several horses galloping,
8232 resounded on the planks of the bridge, and the squadron, officers in
8233 front and men four abreast, spread across the bridge and began to emerge
8236 The infantry who had been stopped crowded near the bridge in the
8237 trampled mud and gazed with that particular feeling of ill-will,
8238 estrangement, and ridicule with which troops of different arms usually
8239 encounter one another at the clean, smart hussars who moved past them in
8242 "Smart lads! Only fit for a fair!" said one.
8244 "What good are they? They're led about just for show!" remarked another.
8246 "Don't kick up the dust, you infantry!" jested an hussar whose prancing
8247 horse had splashed mud over some foot soldiers.
8249 "I'd like to put you on a two days' march with a knapsack! Your fine
8250 cords would soon get a bit rubbed," said an infantryman, wiping the mud
8251 off his face with his sleeve. "Perched up there, you're more like a bird
8254 "There now, Zikin, they ought to put you on a horse. You'd look fine,"
8255 said a corporal, chaffing a thin little soldier who bent under the
8256 weight of his knapsack.
8258 "Take a stick between your legs, that'll suit you for a horse!" the
8259 hussar shouted back.
8266 The last of the infantry hurriedly crossed the bridge, squeezing
8267 together as they approached it as if passing through a funnel. At last
8268 the baggage wagons had all crossed, the crush was less, and the last
8269 battalion came onto the bridge. Only Denisov's squadron of hussars
8270 remained on the farther side of the bridge facing the enemy, who could
8271 be seen from the hill on the opposite bank but was not yet visible from
8272 the bridge, for the horizon as seen from the valley through which the
8273 river flowed was formed by the rising ground only half a mile away. At
8274 the foot of the hill lay wasteland over which a few groups of our
8275 Cossack scouts were moving. Suddenly on the road at the top of the high
8276 ground, artillery and troops in blue uniform were seen. These were the
8277 French. A group of Cossack scouts retired down the hill at a trot. All
8278 the officers and men of Denisov's squadron, though they tried to talk of
8279 other things and to look in other directions, thought only of what was
8280 there on the hilltop, and kept constantly looking at the patches
8281 appearing on the skyline, which they knew to be the enemy's troops. The
8282 weather had cleared again since noon and the sun was descending brightly
8283 upon the Danube and the dark hills around it. It was calm, and at
8284 intervals the bugle calls and the shouts of the enemy could be heard
8285 from the hill. There was no one now between the squadron and the enemy
8286 except a few scattered skirmishers. An empty space of some seven hundred
8287 yards was all that separated them. The enemy ceased firing, and that
8288 stern, threatening, inaccessible, and intangible line which separates
8289 two hostile armies was all the more clearly felt.
8291 "One step beyond that boundary line which resembles the line dividing
8292 the living from the dead lies uncertainty, suffering, and death. And
8293 what is there? Who is there?--there beyond that field, that tree, that
8294 roof lit up by the sun? No one knows, but one wants to know. You fear
8295 and yet long to cross that line, and know that sooner or later it must
8296 be crossed and you will have to find out what is there, just as you will
8297 inevitably have to learn what lies the other side of death. But you are
8298 strong, healthy, cheerful, and excited, and are surrounded by other such
8299 excitedly animated and healthy men." So thinks, or at any rate feels,
8300 anyone who comes in sight of the enemy, and that feeling gives a
8301 particular glamour and glad keenness of impression to everything that
8302 takes place at such moments.
8304 On the high ground where the enemy was, the smoke of a cannon rose, and
8305 a ball flew whistling over the heads of the hussar squadron. The
8306 officers who had been standing together rode off to their places. The
8307 hussars began carefully aligning their horses. Silence fell on the whole
8308 squadron. All were looking at the enemy in front and at the squadron
8309 commander, awaiting the word of command. A second and a third cannon
8310 ball flew past. Evidently they were firing at the hussars, but the balls
8311 with rapid rhythmic whistle flew over the heads of the horsemen and fell
8312 somewhere beyond them. The hussars did not look round, but at the sound
8313 of each shot, as at the word of command, the whole squadron with its
8314 rows of faces so alike yet so different, holding its breath while the
8315 ball flew past, rose in the stirrups and sank back again. The soldiers
8316 without turning their heads glanced at one another, curious to see their
8317 comrades' impression. Every face, from Denisov's to that of the bugler,
8318 showed one common expression of conflict, irritation, and excitement,
8319 around chin and mouth. The quartermaster frowned, looking at the
8320 soldiers as if threatening to punish them. Cadet Mironov ducked every
8321 time a ball flew past. Rostov on the left flank, mounted on his Rook--a
8322 handsome horse despite its game leg--had the happy air of a schoolboy
8323 called up before a large audience for an examination in which he feels
8324 sure he will distinguish himself. He was glancing at everyone with a
8325 clear, bright expression, as if asking them to notice how calmly he sat
8326 under fire. But despite himself, on his face too that same indication of
8327 something new and stern showed round the mouth.
8329 "Who's that curtseying there? Cadet Miwonov! That's not wight! Look at
8330 me," cried Denisov who, unable to keep still on one spot, kept turning
8331 his horse in front of the squadron.
8333 The black, hairy, snub-nosed face of Vaska Denisov, and his whole short
8334 sturdy figure with the sinewy hairy hand and stumpy fingers in which he
8335 held the hilt of his naked saber, looked just as it usually did,
8336 especially toward evening when he had emptied his second bottle; he was
8337 only redder than usual. With his shaggy head thrown back like birds when
8338 they drink, pressing his spurs mercilessly into the sides of his good
8339 horse, Bedouin, and sitting as though falling backwards in the saddle,
8340 he galloped to the other flank of the squadron and shouted in a hoarse
8341 voice to the men to look to their pistols. He rode up to Kirsten. The
8342 staff captain on his broad-backed, steady mare came at a walk to meet
8343 him. His face with its long mustache was serious as always, only his
8344 eyes were brighter than usual.
8346 "Well, what about it?" said he to Denisov. "It won't come to a fight.
8347 You'll see--we shall retire."
8349 "The devil only knows what they're about!" muttered Denisov. "Ah,
8350 Wostov," he cried noticing the cadet's bright face, "you've got it at
8353 And he smiled approvingly, evidently pleased with the cadet. Rostov felt
8354 perfectly happy. Just then the commander appeared on the bridge. Denisov
8357 "Your excellency! Let us attack them! I'll dwive them off."
8359 "Attack indeed!" said the colonel in a bored voice, puckering up his
8360 face as if driving off a troublesome fly. "And why are you stopping
8361 here? Don't you see the skirmishers are retreating? Lead the squadron
8364 The squadron crossed the bridge and drew out of range of fire without
8365 having lost a single man. The second squadron that had been in the front
8366 line followed them across and the last Cossacks quitted the farther side
8369 The two Pavlograd squadrons, having crossed the bridge, retired up the
8370 hill one after the other. Their colonel, Karl Bogdanich Schubert, came
8371 up to Denisov's squadron and rode at a footpace not far from Rostov,
8372 without taking any notice of him although they were now meeting for the
8373 first time since their encounter concerning Telyanin. Rostov, feeling
8374 that he was at the front and in the power of a man toward whom he now
8375 admitted that he had been to blame, did not lift his eyes from the
8376 colonel's athletic back, his nape covered with light hair, and his red
8377 neck. It seemed to Rostov that Bogdanich was only pretending not to
8378 notice him, and that his whole aim now was to test the cadet's courage,
8379 so he drew himself up and looked around him merrily; then it seemed to
8380 him that Bogdanich rode so near in order to show him his courage. Next
8381 he thought that his enemy would send the squadron on a desperate attack
8382 just to punish him--Rostov. Then he imagined how, after the attack,
8383 Bogdanich would come up to him as he lay wounded and would magnanimously
8384 extend the hand of reconciliation.
8386 The high-shouldered figure of Zherkov, familiar to the Pavlograds as he
8387 had but recently left their regiment, rode up to the colonel. After his
8388 dismissal from headquarters Zherkov had not remained in the regiment,
8389 saying he was not such a fool as to slave at the front when he could get
8390 more rewards by doing nothing on the staff, and had succeeded in
8391 attaching himself as an orderly officer to Prince Bagration. He now came
8392 to his former chief with an order from the commander of the rear guard.
8394 "Colonel," he said, addressing Rostov's enemy with an air of gloomy
8395 gravity and glancing round at his comrades, "there is an order to stop
8396 and fire the bridge."
8398 "An order to who?" asked the colonel morosely.
8400 "I don't myself know 'to who,'" replied the cornet in a serious tone,
8401 "but the prince told me to 'go and tell the colonel that the hussars
8402 must return quickly and fire the bridge.'"
8404 Zherkov was followed by an officer of the suite who rode up to the
8405 colonel of hussars with the same order. After him the stout Nesvitski
8406 came galloping up on a Cossack horse that could scarcely carry his
8409 "How's this, Colonel?" he shouted as he approached. "I told you to fire
8410 the bridge, and now someone has gone and blundered; they are all beside
8411 themselves over there and one can't make anything out."
8413 The colonel deliberately stopped the regiment and turned to Nesvitski.
8415 "You spoke to me of inflammable material," said he, "but you said
8416 nothing about firing it."
8418 "But, my dear sir," said Nesvitski as he drew up, taking off his cap and
8419 smoothing his hair wet with perspiration with his plump hand, "wasn't I
8420 telling you to fire the bridge, when inflammable material had been put
8423 "I am not your 'dear sir,' Mr. Staff Officer, and you did not tell me to
8424 burn the bridge! I know the service, and it is my habit orders strictly
8425 to obey. You said the bridge would be burned, but who would it burn, I
8426 could not know by the holy spirit!"
8428 "Ah, that's always the way!" said Nesvitski with a wave of the hand.
8429 "How did you get here?" said he, turning to Zherkov.
8431 "On the same business. But you are damp! Let me wring you out!"
8433 "You were saying, Mr. Staff Officer..." continued the colonel in an
8436 "Colonel," interrupted the officer of the suite, "You must be quick or
8437 the enemy will bring up his guns to use grapeshot."
8439 The colonel looked silently at the officer of the suite, at the stout
8440 staff officer, and at Zherkov, and he frowned.
8442 "I will the bridge fire," he said in a solemn tone as if to announce
8443 that in spite of all the unpleasantness he had to endure he would still
8446 Striking his horse with his long muscular legs as if it were to blame
8447 for everything, the colonel moved forward and ordered the second
8448 squadron, that in which Rostov was serving under Denisov, to return to
8451 "There, it's just as I thought," said Rostov to himself. "He wishes to
8452 test me!" His heart contracted and the blood rushed to his face. "Let
8453 him see whether I am a coward!" he thought.
8455 Again on all the bright faces of the squadron the serious expression
8456 appeared that they had worn when under fire. Rostov watched his enemy,
8457 the colonel, closely--to find in his face confirmation of his own
8458 conjecture, but the colonel did not once glance at Rostov, and looked as
8459 he always did when at the front, solemn and stern. Then came the word of
8462 "Look sharp! Look sharp!" several voices repeated around him.
8464 Their sabers catching in the bridles and their spurs jingling, the
8465 hussars hastily dismounted, not knowing what they were to do. The men
8466 were crossing themselves. Rostov no longer looked at the colonel, he had
8467 no time. He was afraid of falling behind the hussars, so much afraid
8468 that his heart stood still. His hand trembled as he gave his horse into
8469 an orderly's charge, and he felt the blood rush to his heart with a
8470 thud. Denisov rode past him, leaning back and shouting something. Rostov
8471 saw nothing but the hussars running all around him, their spurs catching
8472 and their sabers clattering.
8474 "Stretchers!" shouted someone behind him.
8476 Rostov did not think what this call for stretchers meant; he ran on,
8477 trying only to be ahead of the others; but just at the bridge, not
8478 looking at the ground, he came on some sticky, trodden mud, stumbled,
8479 and fell on his hands. The others outstripped him.
8481 "At boss zides, Captain," he heard the voice of the colonel, who, having
8482 ridden ahead, had pulled up his horse near the bridge, with a
8483 triumphant, cheerful face.
8485 Rostov wiping his muddy hands on his breeches looked at his enemy and
8486 was about to run on, thinking that the farther he went to the front the
8487 better. But Bogdanich, without looking at or recognizing Rostov, shouted
8490 "Who's that running on the middle of the bridge? To the right! Come
8491 back, Cadet!" he cried angrily; and turning to Denisov, who, showing off
8492 his courage, had ridden on to the planks of the bridge:
8494 "Why run risks, Captain? You should dismount," he said.
8496 "Oh, every bullet has its billet," answered Vaska Denisov, turning in
8499 Meanwhile Nesvitski, Zherkov, and the officer of the suite were standing
8500 together out of range of the shots, watching, now the small group of men
8501 with yellow shakos, dark-green jackets braided with cord, and blue
8502 riding breeches, who were swarming near the bridge, and then at what was
8503 approaching in the distance from the opposite side--the blue uniforms
8504 and groups with horses, easily recognizable as artillery.
8506 "Will they burn the bridge or not? Who'll get there first? Will they get
8507 there and fire the bridge or will the French get within grapeshot range
8508 and wipe them out?" These were the questions each man of the troops on
8509 the high ground above the bridge involuntarily asked himself with a
8510 sinking heart--watching the bridge and the hussars in the bright evening
8511 light and the blue tunics advancing from the other side with their
8514 "Ugh. The hussars will get it hot!" said Nesvitski; "they are within
8515 grapeshot range now."
8517 "He shouldn't have taken so many men," said the officer of the suite.
8519 "True enough," answered Nesvitski; "two smart fellows could have done
8520 the job just as well."
8522 "Ah, your excellency," put in Zherkov, his eyes fixed on the hussars,
8523 but still with that naive air that made it impossible to know whether he
8524 was speaking in jest or in earnest. "Ah, your excellency! How you look
8525 at things! Send two men? And who then would give us the Vladimir medal
8526 and ribbon? But now, even if they do get peppered, the squadron may be
8527 recommended for honors and he may get a ribbon. Our Bogdanich knows how
8530 "There now!" said the officer of the suite, "that's grapeshot."
8532 He pointed to the French guns, the limbers of which were being detached
8533 and hurriedly removed.
8535 On the French side, amid the groups with cannon, a cloud of smoke
8536 appeared, then a second and a third almost simultaneously, and at the
8537 moment when the first report was heard a fourth was seen. Then two
8538 reports one after another, and a third.
8540 "Oh! Oh!" groaned Nesvitski as if in fierce pain, seizing the officer of
8541 the suite by the arm. "Look! A man has fallen! Fallen, fallen!"
8545 "If I were Tsar I would never go to war," said Nesvitski, turning away.
8547 The French guns were hastily reloaded. The infantry in their blue
8548 uniforms advanced toward the bridge at a run. Smoke appeared again but
8549 at irregular intervals, and grapeshot cracked and rattled onto the
8550 bridge. But this time Nesvitski could not see what was happening there,
8551 as a dense cloud of smoke arose from it. The hussars had succeeded in
8552 setting it on fire and the French batteries were now firing at them, no
8553 longer to hinder them but because the guns were trained and there was
8556 The French had time to fire three rounds of grapeshot before the hussars
8557 got back to their horses. Two were misdirected and the shot went too
8558 high, but the last round fell in the midst of a group of hussars and
8559 knocked three of them over.
8561 Rostov, absorbed by his relations with Bogdanich, had paused on the
8562 bridge not knowing what to do. There was no one to hew down (as he had
8563 always imagined battles to himself), nor could he help to fire the
8564 bridge because he had not brought any burning straw with him like the
8565 other soldiers. He stood looking about him, when suddenly he heard a
8566 rattle on the bridge as if nuts were being spilt, and the hussar nearest
8567 to him fell against the rails with a groan. Rostov ran up to him with
8568 the others. Again someone shouted, "Stretchers!" Four men seized the
8569 hussar and began lifting him.
8571 "Oooh! For Christ's sake let me alone!" cried the wounded man, but still
8572 he was lifted and laid on the stretcher.
8574 Nicholas Rostov turned away and, as if searching for something, gazed
8575 into the distance, at the waters of the Danube, at the sky, and at the
8576 sun. How beautiful the sky looked; how blue, how calm, and how deep! How
8577 bright and glorious was the setting sun! With what soft glitter the
8578 waters of the distant Danube shone. And fairer still were the faraway
8579 blue mountains beyond the river, the nunnery, the mysterious gorges, and
8580 the pine forests veiled in the mist of their summits... There was peace
8581 and happiness... "I should wish for nothing else, nothing, if only I
8582 were there," thought Rostov. "In myself alone and in that sunshine there
8583 is so much happiness; but here... groans, suffering, fear, and this
8584 uncertainty and hurry... There--they are shouting again, and again are
8585 all running back somewhere, and I shall run with them, and it, death, is
8586 here above me and around... Another instant and I shall never again see
8587 the sun, this water, that gorge!..."
8589 At that instant the sun began to hide behind the clouds, and other
8590 stretchers came into view before Rostov. And the fear of death and of
8591 the stretchers, and love of the sun and of life, all merged into one
8592 feeling of sickening agitation.
8594 "O Lord God! Thou who art in that heaven, save, forgive, and protect
8595 me!" Rostov whispered.
8597 The hussars ran back to the men who held their horses; their voices
8598 sounded louder and calmer, the stretchers disappeared from sight.
8600 "Well, fwiend? So you've smelt powdah!" shouted Vaska Denisov just above
8603 "It's all over; but I am a coward--yes, a coward!" thought Rostov, and
8604 sighing deeply he took Rook, his horse, which stood resting one foot,
8605 from the orderly and began to mount.
8607 "Was that grapeshot?" he asked Denisov.
8609 "Yes and no mistake!" cried Denisov. "You worked like wegular bwicks and
8610 it's nasty work! An attack's pleasant work! Hacking away at the dogs!
8611 But this sort of thing is the very devil, with them shooting at you like
8614 And Denisov rode up to a group that had stopped near Rostov, composed of
8615 the colonel, Nesvitski, Zherkov, and the officer from the suite.
8617 "Well, it seems that no one has noticed," thought Rostov. And this was
8618 true. No one had taken any notice, for everyone knew the sensation which
8619 the cadet under fire for the first time had experienced.
8621 "Here's something for you to report," said Zherkov. "See if I don't get
8622 promoted to a sublieutenancy."
8624 "Inform the prince that I the bridge fired!" said the colonel
8625 triumphantly and gaily.
8627 "And if he asks about the losses?"
8629 "A trifle," said the colonel in his bass voice: "two hussars wounded,
8630 and one knocked out," he added, unable to restrain a happy smile, and
8631 pronouncing the phrase "knocked out" with ringing distinctness.
8638 Pursued by the French army of a hundred thousand men under the command
8639 of Bonaparte, encountering a population that was unfriendly to it,
8640 losing confidence in its allies, suffering from shortness of supplies,
8641 and compelled to act under conditions of war unlike anything that had
8642 been foreseen, the Russian army of thirty-five thousand men commanded by
8643 Kutuzov was hurriedly retreating along the Danube, stopping where
8644 overtaken by the enemy and fighting rearguard actions only as far as
8645 necessary to enable it to retreat without losing its heavy equipment.
8646 There had been actions at Lambach, Amstetten, and Melk; but despite the
8647 courage and endurance--acknowledged even by the enemy--with which the
8648 Russians fought, the only consequence of these actions was a yet more
8649 rapid retreat. Austrian troops that had escaped capture at Ulm and had
8650 joined Kutuzov at Braunau now separated from the Russian army, and
8651 Kutuzov was left with only his own weak and exhausted forces. The
8652 defense of Vienna was no longer to be thought of. Instead of an
8653 offensive, the plan of which, carefully prepared in accord with the
8654 modern science of strategics, had been handed to Kutuzov when he was in
8655 Vienna by the Austrian Hofkriegsrath, the sole and almost unattainable
8656 aim remaining for him was to effect a junction with the forces that were
8657 advancing from Russia, without losing his army as Mack had done at Ulm.
8659 On the twenty-eighth of October Kutuzov with his army crossed to the
8660 left bank of the Danube and took up a position for the first time with
8661 the river between himself and the main body of the French. On the
8662 thirtieth he attacked Mortier's division, which was on the left bank,
8663 and broke it up. In this action for the first time trophies were taken:
8664 banners, cannon, and two enemy generals. For the first time, after a
8665 fortnight's retreat, the Russian troops had halted and after a fight had
8666 not only held the field but had repulsed the French. Though the troops
8667 were ill-clad, exhausted, and had lost a third of their number in
8668 killed, wounded, sick, and stragglers; though a number of sick and
8669 wounded had been abandoned on the other side of the Danube with a letter
8670 in which Kutuzov entrusted them to the humanity of the enemy; and though
8671 the big hospitals and the houses in Krems converted into military
8672 hospitals could no longer accommodate all the sick and wounded, yet the
8673 stand made at Krems and the victory over Mortier raised the spirits of
8674 the army considerably. Throughout the whole army and at headquarters
8675 most joyful though erroneous rumors were rife of the imaginary approach
8676 of columns from Russia, of some victory gained by the Austrians, and of
8677 the retreat of the frightened Bonaparte.
8679 Prince Andrew during the battle had been in attendance on the Austrian
8680 General Schmidt, who was killed in the action. His horse had been
8681 wounded under him and his own arm slightly grazed by a bullet. As a mark
8682 of the commander-in-chief's special favor he was sent with the news of
8683 this victory to the Austrian court, now no longer at Vienna (which was
8684 threatened by the French) but at Brunn. Despite his apparently delicate
8685 build Prince Andrew could endure physical fatigue far better than many
8686 very muscular men, and on the night of the battle, having arrived at
8687 Krems excited but not weary, with dispatches from Dokhturov to Kutuzov,
8688 he was sent immediately with a special dispatch to Brunn. To be so sent
8689 meant not only a reward but an important step toward promotion.
8691 The night was dark but starry, the road showed black in the snow that
8692 had fallen the previous day--the day of the battle. Reviewing his
8693 impressions of the recent battle, picturing pleasantly to himself the
8694 impression his news of a victory would create, or recalling the send-off
8695 given him by the commander-in-chief and his fellow officers, Prince
8696 Andrew was galloping along in a post chaise enjoying the feelings of a
8697 man who has at length begun to attain a long-desired happiness. As soon
8698 as he closed his eyes his ears seemed filled with the rattle of the
8699 wheels and the sensation of victory. Then he began to imagine that the
8700 Russians were running away and that he himself was killed, but he
8701 quickly roused himself with a feeling of joy, as if learning afresh that
8702 this was not so but that on the contrary the French had run away. He
8703 again recalled all the details of the victory and his own calm courage
8704 during the battle, and feeling reassured he dozed off.... The dark
8705 starry night was followed by a bright cheerful morning. The snow was
8706 thawing in the sunshine, the horses galloped quickly, and on both sides
8707 of the road were forests of different kinds, fields, and villages.
8709 At one of the post stations he overtook a convoy of Russian wounded. The
8710 Russian officer in charge of the transport lolled back in the front
8711 cart, shouting and scolding a soldier with coarse abuse. In each of the
8712 long German carts six or more pale, dirty, bandaged men were being
8713 jolted over the stony road. Some of them were talking (he heard Russian
8714 words), others were eating bread; the more severely wounded looked
8715 silently, with the languid interest of sick children, at the envoy
8718 Prince Andrew told his driver to stop, and asked a soldier in what
8719 action they had been wounded. "Day before yesterday, on the Danube,"
8720 answered the soldier. Prince Andrew took out his purse and gave the
8721 soldier three gold pieces.
8723 "That's for them all," he said to the officer who came up.
8725 "Get well soon, lads!" he continued, turning to the soldiers. "There's
8726 plenty to do still."
8728 "What news, sir?" asked the officer, evidently anxious to start a
8731 "Good news!... Go on!" he shouted to the driver, and they galloped on.
8733 It was already quite dark when Prince Andrew rattled over the paved
8734 streets of Brunn and found himself surrounded by high buildings, the
8735 lights of shops, houses, and street lamps, fine carriages, and all that
8736 atmosphere of a large and active town which is always so attractive to a
8737 soldier after camp life. Despite his rapid journey and sleepless night,
8738 Prince Andrew when he drove up to the palace felt even more vigorous and
8739 alert than he had done the day before. Only his eyes gleamed feverishly
8740 and his thoughts followed one another with extraordinary clearness and
8741 rapidity. He again vividly recalled the details of the battle, no longer
8742 dim, but definite and in the concise form in which he imagined himself
8743 stating them to the Emperor Francis. He vividly imagined the casual
8744 questions that might be put to him and the answers he would give. He
8745 expected to be at once presented to the Emperor. At the chief entrance
8746 to the palace, however, an official came running out to meet him, and
8747 learning that he was a special messenger led him to another entrance.
8749 "To the right from the corridor, Euer Hochgeboren! There you will find
8750 the adjutant on duty," said the official. "He will conduct you to the
8753 The adjutant on duty, meeting Prince Andrew, asked him to wait, and went
8754 in to the Minister of War. Five minutes later he returned and bowing
8755 with particular courtesy ushered Prince Andrew before him along a
8756 corridor to the cabinet where the Minister of War was at work. The
8757 adjutant by his elaborate courtesy appeared to wish to ward off any
8758 attempt at familiarity on the part of the Russian messenger.
8760 Prince Andrew's joyous feeling was considerably weakened as he
8761 approached the door of the minister's room. He felt offended, and
8762 without his noticing it the feeling of offense immediately turned into
8763 one of disdain which was quite uncalled for. His fertile mind instantly
8764 suggested to him a point of view which gave him a right to despise the
8765 adjutant and the minister. "Away from the smell of powder, they probably
8766 think it easy to gain victories!" he thought. His eyes narrowed
8767 disdainfully, he entered the room of the Minister of War with peculiarly
8768 deliberate steps. This feeling of disdain was heightened when he saw the
8769 minister seated at a large table reading some papers and making pencil
8770 notes on them, and for the first two or three minutes taking no notice
8771 of his arrival. A wax candle stood at each side of the minister's bent
8772 bald head with its gray temples. He went on reading to the end, without
8773 raising his eyes at the opening of the door and the sound of footsteps.
8775 "Take this and deliver it," said he to his adjutant, handing him the
8776 papers and still taking no notice of the special messenger.
8778 Prince Andrew felt that either the actions of Kutuzov's army interested
8779 the Minister of War less than any of the other matters he was concerned
8780 with, or he wanted to give the Russian special messenger that
8781 impression. "But that is a matter of perfect indifference to me," he
8782 thought. The minister drew the remaining papers together, arranged them
8783 evenly, and then raised his head. He had an intellectual and distinctive
8784 head, but the instant he turned to Prince Andrew the firm, intelligent
8785 expression on his face changed in a way evidently deliberate and
8786 habitual to him. His face took on the stupid artificial smile (which
8787 does not even attempt to hide its artificiality) of a man who is
8788 continually receiving many petitioners one after another.
8790 "From General Field Marshal Kutuzov?" he asked. "I hope it is good news?
8791 There has been an encounter with Mortier? A victory? It was high time!"
8793 He took the dispatch which was addressed to him and began to read it
8794 with a mournful expression.
8796 "Oh, my God! My God! Schmidt!" he exclaimed in German. "What a calamity!
8799 Having glanced through the dispatch he laid it on the table and looked
8800 at Prince Andrew, evidently considering something.
8802 "Ah what a calamity! You say the affair was decisive? But Mortier is not
8803 captured." Again he pondered. "I am very glad you have brought good
8804 news, though Schmidt's death is a heavy price to pay for the victory.
8805 His Majesty will no doubt wish to see you, but not today. I thank you!
8806 You must have a rest. Be at the levee tomorrow after the parade.
8807 However, I will let you know."
8809 The stupid smile, which had left his face while he was speaking,
8812 "Au revoir! Thank you very much. His Majesty will probably desire to see
8813 you," he added, bowing his head.
8815 When Prince Andrew left the palace he felt that all the interest and
8816 happiness the victory had afforded him had been now left in the
8817 indifferent hands of the Minister of War and the polite adjutant. The
8818 whole tenor of his thoughts instantaneously changed; the battle seemed
8819 the memory of a remote event long past.
8826 Prince Andrew stayed at Brunn with Bilibin, a Russian acquaintance of
8827 his in the diplomatic service.
8829 "Ah, my dear prince! I could not have a more welcome visitor," said
8830 Bilibin as he came out to meet Prince Andrew. "Franz, put the prince's
8831 things in my bedroom," said he to the servant who was ushering Bolkonski
8832 in. "So you're a messenger of victory, eh? Splendid! And I am sitting
8833 here ill, as you see."
8835 After washing and dressing, Prince Andrew came into the diplomat's
8836 luxurious study and sat down to the dinner prepared for him. Bilibin
8837 settled down comfortably beside the fire.
8839 After his journey and the campaign during which he had been deprived of
8840 all the comforts of cleanliness and all the refinements of life, Prince
8841 Andrew felt a pleasant sense of repose among luxurious surroundings such
8842 as he had been accustomed to from childhood. Besides it was pleasant,
8843 after his reception by the Austrians, to speak if not in Russian (for
8844 they were speaking French) at least with a Russian who would, he
8845 supposed, share the general Russian antipathy to the Austrians which was
8846 then particularly strong.
8848 Bilibin was a man of thirty-five, a bachelor, and of the same circle as
8849 Prince Andrew. They had known each other previously in Petersburg, but
8850 had become more intimate when Prince Andrew was in Vienna with Kutuzov.
8851 Just as Prince Andrew was a young man who gave promise of rising high in
8852 the military profession, so to an even greater extent Bilibin gave
8853 promise of rising in his diplomatic career. He still a young man but no
8854 longer a young diplomat, as he had entered the service at the age of
8855 sixteen, had been in Paris and Copenhagen, and now held a rather
8856 important post in Vienna. Both the foreign minister and our ambassador
8857 in Vienna knew him and valued him. He was not one of those many
8858 diplomats who are esteemed because they have certain negative qualities,
8859 avoid doing certain things, and speak French. He was one of those, who,
8860 liking work, knew how to do it, and despite his indolence would
8861 sometimes spend a whole night at his writing table. He worked well
8862 whatever the import of his work. It was not the question "What for?" but
8863 the question "How?" that interested him. What the diplomatic matter
8864 might be he did not care, but it gave him great pleasure to prepare a
8865 circular, memorandum, or report, skillfully, pointedly, and elegantly.
8866 Bilibin's services were valued not only for what he wrote, but also for
8867 his skill in dealing and conversing with those in the highest spheres.
8869 Bilibin liked conversation as he liked work, only when it could be made
8870 elegantly witty. In society he always awaited an opportunity to say
8871 something striking and took part in a conversation only when that was
8872 possible. His conversation was always sprinkled with wittily original,
8873 finished phrases of general interest. These sayings were prepared in the
8874 inner laboratory of his mind in a portable form as if intentionally, so
8875 that insignificant society people might carry them from drawing room to
8876 drawing room. And, in fact, Bilibin's witticisms were hawked about in
8877 the Viennese drawing rooms and often had an influence on matters
8878 considered important.
8880 His thin, worn, sallow face was covered with deep wrinkles, which always
8881 looked as clean and well washed as the tips of one's fingers after a
8882 Russian bath. The movement of these wrinkles formed the principal play
8883 of expression on his face. Now his forehead would pucker into deep folds
8884 and his eyebrows were lifted, then his eyebrows would descend and deep
8885 wrinkles would crease his cheeks. His small, deep-set eyes always
8886 twinkled and looked out straight.
8888 "Well, now tell me about your exploits," said he.
8890 Bolkonski, very modestly without once mentioning himself, described the
8891 engagement and his reception by the Minister of War.
8893 "They received me and my news as one receives a dog in a game of
8894 skittles," said he in conclusion.
8896 Bilibin smiled and the wrinkles on his face disappeared.
8898 "Cependant, mon cher," he remarked, examining his nails from a distance
8899 and puckering the skin above his left eye, "malgre la haute estime que
8900 je professe pour the Orthodox Russian army, j'avoue que votre victoire
8901 n'est pas des plus victorieuses." *
8904 * "But my dear fellow, with all my respect for the Orthodox Russian
8905 army, I must say that your victory was not particularly victorious."
8907 He went on talking in this way in French, uttering only those words in
8908 Russian on which he wished to put a contemptuous emphasis.
8910 "Come now! You with all your forces fall on the unfortunate Mortier and
8911 his one division, and even then Mortier slips through your fingers!
8912 Where's the victory?"
8914 "But seriously," said Prince Andrew, "we can at any rate say without
8915 boasting that it was a little better than at Ulm..."
8917 "Why didn't you capture one, just one, marshal for us?"
8919 "Because not everything happens as one expects or with the smoothness of
8920 a parade. We had expected, as I told you, to get at their rear by seven
8921 in the morning but had not reached it by five in the afternoon."
8923 "And why didn't you do it at seven in the morning? You ought to have
8924 been there at seven in the morning," returned Bilibin with a smile. "You
8925 ought to have been there at seven in the morning."
8927 "Why did you not succeed in impressing on Bonaparte by diplomatic
8928 methods that he had better leave Genoa alone?" retorted Prince Andrew in
8931 "I know," interrupted Bilibin, "you're thinking it's very easy to take
8932 marshals, sitting on a sofa by the fire! That is true, but still why
8933 didn't you capture him? So don't be surprised if not only the Minister
8934 of War but also his Most August Majesty the Emperor and King Francis is
8935 not much delighted by your victory. Even I, a poor secretary of the
8936 Russian Embassy, do not feel any need in token of my joy to give my
8937 Franz a thaler, or let him go with his Liebchen to the Prater... True,
8938 we have no Prater here..."
8940 He looked straight at Prince Andrew and suddenly unwrinkled his
8943 "It is now my turn to ask you 'why?' mon cher," said Bolkonski. "I
8944 confess I do not understand: perhaps there are diplomatic subtleties
8945 here beyond my feeble intelligence, but I can't make it out. Mack loses
8946 a whole army, the Archduke Ferdinand and the Archduke Karl give no signs
8947 of life and make blunder after blunder. Kutuzov alone at last gains a
8948 real victory, destroying the spell of the invincibility of the French,
8949 and the Minister of War does not even care to hear the details."
8951 "That's just it, my dear fellow. You see it's hurrah for the Tsar, for
8952 Russia, for the Orthodox Greek faith! All that is beautiful, but what do
8953 we, I mean the Austrian court, care for your victories? Bring us nice
8954 news of a victory by the Archduke Karl or Ferdinand (one archduke's as
8955 good as another, as you know) and even if it is only over a fire brigade
8956 of Bonaparte's, that will be another story and we'll fire off some
8957 cannon! But this sort of thing seems done on purpose to vex us. The
8958 Archduke Karl does nothing, the Archduke Ferdinand disgraces himself.
8959 You abandon Vienna, give up its defense--as much as to say: 'Heaven is
8960 with us, but heaven help you and your capital!' The one general whom we
8961 all loved, Schmidt, you expose to a bullet, and then you congratulate us
8962 on the victory! Admit that more irritating news than yours could not
8963 have been conceived. It's as if it had been done on purpose, on purpose.
8964 Besides, suppose you did gain a brilliant victory, if even the Archduke
8965 Karl gained a victory, what effect would that have on the general course
8966 of events? It's too late now when Vienna is occupied by the French
8969 "What? Occupied? Vienna occupied?"
8971 "Not only occupied, but Bonaparte is at Schonbrunn, and the count, our
8972 dear Count Vrbna, goes to him for orders."
8974 After the fatigues and impressions of the journey, his reception, and
8975 especially after having dined, Bolkonski felt that he could not take in
8976 the full significance of the words he heard.
8978 "Count Lichtenfels was here this morning," Bilibin continued, "and
8979 showed me a letter in which the parade of the French in Vienna was fully
8980 described: Prince Murat et tout le tremblement... You see that your
8981 victory is not a matter for great rejoicing and that you can't be
8982 received as a savior."
8984 "Really I don't care about that, I don't care at all," said Prince
8985 Andrew, beginning to understand that his news of the battle before Krems
8986 was really of small importance in view of such events as the fall of
8987 Austria's capital. "How is it Vienna was taken? What of the bridge and
8988 its celebrated bridgehead and Prince Auersperg? We heard reports that
8989 Prince Auersperg was defending Vienna?" he said.
8991 "Prince Auersperg is on this, on our side of the river, and is defending
8992 us--doing it very badly, I think, but still he is defending us. But
8993 Vienna is on the other side. No, the bridge has not yet been taken and I
8994 hope it will not be, for it is mined and orders have been given to blow
8995 it up. Otherwise we should long ago have been in the mountains of
8996 Bohemia, and you and your army would have spent a bad quarter of an hour
8999 "But still this does not mean that the campaign is over," said Prince
9002 "Well, I think it is. The bigwigs here think so too, but they daren't
9003 say so. It will be as I said at the beginning of the campaign, it won't
9004 be your skirmishing at Durrenstein, or gunpowder at all, that will
9005 decide the matter, but those who devised it," said Bilibin quoting one
9006 of his own mots, releasing the wrinkles on his forehead, and pausing.
9007 "The only question is what will come of the meeting between the Emperor
9008 Alexander and the King of Prussia in Berlin? If Prussia joins the
9009 Allies, Austria's hand will be forced and there will be war. If not it
9010 is merely a question of settling where the preliminaries of the new
9011 Campo Formio are to be drawn up."
9013 "What an extraordinary genius!" Prince Andrew suddenly exclaimed,
9014 clenching his small hand and striking the table with it, "and what luck
9017 "Buonaparte?" said Bilibin inquiringly, puckering up his forehead to
9018 indicate that he was about to say something witty. "Buonaparte?" he
9019 repeated, accentuating the u: "I think, however, now that he lays down
9020 laws for Austria at Schonbrunn, il faut lui faire grace de l'u! * I
9021 shall certainly adopt an innovation and call him simply Bonaparte!"
9024 * "We must let him off the u!"
9026 "But joking apart," said Prince Andrew, "do you really think the
9029 "This is what I think. Austria has been made a fool of, and she is not
9030 used to it. She will retaliate. And she has been fooled in the first
9031 place because her provinces have been pillaged--they say the Holy
9032 Russian army loots terribly--her army is destroyed, her capital taken,
9033 and all this for the beaux yeux * of His Sardinian Majesty. And
9034 therefore--this is between ourselves--I instinctively feel that we are
9035 being deceived, my instinct tells me of negotiations with France and
9036 projects for peace, a secret peace concluded separately."
9041 "Impossible!" cried Prince Andrew. "That would be too base."
9043 "If we live we shall see," replied Bilibin, his face again becoming
9044 smooth as a sign that the conversation was at an end.
9046 When Prince Andrew reached the room prepared for him and lay down in a
9047 clean shirt on the feather bed with its warmed and fragrant pillows, he
9048 felt that the battle of which he had brought tidings was far, far away
9049 from him. The alliance with Prussia, Austria's treachery, Bonaparte's
9050 new triumph, tomorrow's levee and parade, and the audience with the
9051 Emperor Francis occupied his thoughts.
9053 He closed his eyes, and immediately a sound of cannonading, of musketry
9054 and the rattling of carriage wheels seemed to fill his ears, and now
9055 again drawn out in a thin line the musketeers were descending the hill,
9056 the French were firing, and he felt his heart palpitating as he rode
9057 forward beside Schmidt with the bullets merrily whistling all around,
9058 and he experienced tenfold the joy of living, as he had not done since
9063 "Yes, that all happened!" he said, and, smiling happily to himself like
9064 a child, he fell into a deep, youthful slumber.
9071 Next day he woke late. Recalling his recent impressions, the first
9072 thought that came into his mind was that today he had to be presented to
9073 the Emperor Francis; he remembered the Minister of War, the polite
9074 Austrian adjutant, Bilibin, and last night's conversation. Having
9075 dressed for his attendance at court in full parade uniform, which he had
9076 not worn for a long time, he went into Bilibin's study fresh, animated,
9077 and handsome, with his hand bandaged. In the study were four gentlemen
9078 of the diplomatic corps. With Prince Hippolyte Kuragin, who was a
9079 secretary to the embassy, Bolkonski was already acquainted. Bilibin
9080 introduced him to the others.
9082 The gentlemen assembled at Bilibin's were young, wealthy, gay society
9083 men, who here, as in Vienna, formed a special set which Bilibin, their
9084 leader, called les notres. * This set, consisting almost exclusively of
9085 diplomats, evidently had its own interests which had nothing to do with
9086 war or politics but related to high society, to certain women, and to
9087 the official side of the service. These gentlemen received Prince Andrew
9088 as one of themselves, an honor they did not extend to many. From
9089 politeness and to start conversation, they asked him a few questions
9090 about the army and the battle, and then the talk went off into merry
9096 "But the best of it was," said one, telling of the misfortune of a
9097 fellow diplomat, "that the Chancellor told him flatly that his
9098 appointment to London was a promotion and that he was so to regard it.
9099 Can you fancy the figure he cut?..."
9101 "But the worst of it, gentlemen--I am giving Kuragin away to you--is
9102 that that man suffers, and this Don Juan, wicked fellow, is taking
9105 Prince Hippolyte was lolling in a lounge chair with his legs over its
9106 arm. He began to laugh.
9108 "Tell me about that!" he said.
9110 "Oh, you Don Juan! You serpent!" cried several voices.
9112 "You, Bolkonski, don't know," said Bilibin turning to Prince Andrew,
9113 "that all the atrocities of the French army (I nearly said of the
9114 Russian army) are nothing compared to what this man has been doing among
9117 "La femme est la compagne de l'homme," * announced Prince Hippolyte, and
9118 began looking through a lorgnette at his elevated legs.
9121 * "Woman is man's companion."
9123 Bilibin and the rest of "ours" burst out laughing in Hippolyte's face,
9124 and Prince Andrew saw that Hippolyte, of whom--he had to admit--he had
9125 almost been jealous on his wife's account, was the butt of this set.
9127 "Oh, I must give you a treat," Bilibin whispered to Bolkonski. "Kuragin
9128 is exquisite when he discusses politics--you should see his gravity!"
9130 He sat down beside Hippolyte and wrinkling his forehead began talking to
9131 him about politics. Prince Andrew and the others gathered round these
9134 "The Berlin cabinet cannot express a feeling of alliance," began
9135 Hippolyte gazing round with importance at the others, "without
9136 expressing... as in its last note... you understand... Besides, unless
9137 His Majesty the Emperor derogates from the principle of our alliance...
9139 "Wait, I have not finished..." he said to Prince Andrew, seizing him by
9140 the arm, "I believe that intervention will be stronger than
9141 nonintervention. And..." he paused. "Finally one cannot impute the
9142 nonreceipt of our dispatch of November 18. That is how it will end." And
9143 he released Bolkonski's arm to indicate that he had now quite finished.
9145 "Demosthenes, I know thee by the pebble thou secretest in thy golden
9146 mouth!" said Bilibin, and the mop of hair on his head moved with
9149 Everybody laughed, and Hippolyte louder than anyone. He was evidently
9150 distressed, and breathed painfully, but could not restrain the wild
9151 laughter that convulsed his usually impassive features.
9153 "Well now, gentlemen," said Bilibin, "Bolkonski is my guest in this
9154 house and in Brunn itself. I want to entertain him as far as I can, with
9155 all the pleasures of life here. If we were in Vienna it would be easy,
9156 but here, in this wretched Moravian hole, it is more difficult, and I
9157 beg you all to help me. Brunn's attractions must be shown him. You can
9158 undertake the theater, I society, and you, Hippolyte, of course the
9161 "We must let him see Amelie, she's exquisite!" said one of "ours,"
9162 kissing his finger tips.
9164 "In general we must turn this bloodthirsty soldier to more humane
9165 interests," said Bilibin.
9167 "I shall scarcely be able to avail myself of your hospitality,
9168 gentlemen, it is already time for me to go," replied Prince Andrew
9169 looking at his watch.
9175 "Oh! Oh! Oh! Well, au revoir, Bolkonski! Au revoir, Prince! Come back
9176 early to dinner," cried several voices. "We'll take you in hand."
9178 "When speaking to the Emperor, try as far as you can to praise the way
9179 that provisions are supplied and the routes indicated," said Bilibin,
9180 accompanying him to the hall.
9182 "I should like to speak well of them, but as far as I know the facts, I
9183 can't," replied Bolkonski, smiling.
9185 "Well, talk as much as you can, anyway. He has a passion for giving
9186 audiences, but he does not like talking himself and can't do it, as you
9194 At the levee Prince Andrew stood among the Austrian officers as he had
9195 been told to, and the Emperor Francis merely looked fixedly into his
9196 face and just nodded to him with his long head. But after it was over,
9197 the adjutant he had seen the previous day ceremoniously informed
9198 Bolkonski that the Emperor desired to give him an audience. The Emperor
9199 Francis received him standing in the middle of the room. Before the
9200 conversation began Prince Andrew was struck by the fact that the Emperor
9201 seemed confused and blushed as if not knowing what to say.
9203 "Tell me, when did the battle begin?" he asked hurriedly.
9205 Prince Andrew replied. Then followed other questions just as simple:
9206 "Was Kutuzov well? When had he left Krems?" and so on. The Emperor spoke
9207 as if his sole aim were to put a given number of questions--the answers
9208 to these questions, as was only too evident, did not interest him.
9210 "At what o'clock did the battle begin?" asked the Emperor.
9212 "I cannot inform Your Majesty at what o'clock the battle began at the
9213 front, but at Durrenstein, where I was, our attack began after five in
9214 the afternoon," replied Bolkonski growing more animated and expecting
9215 that he would have a chance to give a reliable account, which he had
9216 ready in his mind, of all he knew and had seen. But the Emperor smiled
9217 and interrupted him.
9221 "From where to where, Your Majesty?"
9223 "From Durrenstein to Krems."
9225 "Three and a half miles, Your Majesty."
9227 "The French have abandoned the left bank?"
9229 "According to the scouts the last of them crossed on rafts during the
9232 "Is there sufficient forage in Krems?"
9234 "Forage has not been supplied to the extent..."
9236 The Emperor interrupted him.
9238 "At what o'clock was General Schmidt killed?"
9240 "At seven o'clock, I believe."
9242 "At seven o'clock? It's very sad, very sad!"
9244 The Emperor thanked Prince Andrew and bowed. Prince Andrew withdrew and
9245 was immediately surrounded by courtiers on all sides. Everywhere he saw
9246 friendly looks and heard friendly words. Yesterday's adjutant reproached
9247 him for not having stayed at the palace, and offered him his own house.
9248 The Minister of War came up and congratulated him on the Maria Theresa
9249 Order of the third grade, which the Emperor was conferring on him. The
9250 Empress' chamberlain invited him to see Her Majesty. The archduchess
9251 also wished to see him. He did not know whom to answer, and for a few
9252 seconds collected his thoughts. Then the Russian ambassador took him by
9253 the shoulder, led him to the window, and began to talk to him.
9255 Contrary to Bilibin's forecast the news he had brought was joyfully
9256 received. A thanksgiving service was arranged, Kutuzov was awarded the
9257 Grand Cross of Maria Theresa, and the whole army received rewards.
9258 Bolkonski was invited everywhere, and had to spend the whole morning
9259 calling on the principal Austrian dignitaries. Between four and five in
9260 the afternoon, having made all his calls, he was returning to Bilibin's
9261 house thinking out a letter to his father about the battle and his visit
9262 to Brunn. At the door he found a vehicle half full of luggage. Franz,
9263 Bilibin's man, was dragging a portmanteau with some difficulty out of
9266 Before returning to Bilibin's Prince Andrew had gone to a bookshop to
9267 provide himself with some books for the campaign, and had spent some
9270 "What is it?" he asked.
9272 "Oh, your excellency!" said Franz, with difficulty rolling the
9273 portmanteau into the vehicle, "we are to move on still farther. The
9274 scoundrel is again at our heels!"
9276 "Eh? What?" asked Prince Andrew.
9278 Bilibin came out to meet him. His usually calm face showed excitement.
9280 "There now! Confess that this is delightful," said he. "This affair of
9281 the Thabor Bridge, at Vienna.... They have crossed without striking a
9284 Prince Andrew could not understand.
9286 "But where do you come from not to know what every coachman in the town
9289 "I come from the archduchess'. I heard nothing there."
9291 "And you didn't see that everybody is packing up?"
9293 "I did not... What is it all about?" inquired Prince Andrew impatiently.
9295 "What's it all about? Why, the French have crossed the bridge that
9296 Auersperg was defending, and the bridge was not blown up: so Murat is
9297 now rushing along the road to Brunn and will be here in a day or two."
9299 "What? Here? But why did they not blow up the bridge, if it was mined?"
9301 "That is what I ask you. No one, not even Bonaparte, knows why."
9303 Bolkonski shrugged his shoulders.
9305 "But if the bridge is crossed it means that the army too is lost? It
9306 will be cut off," said he.
9308 "That's just it," answered Bilibin. "Listen! The French entered Vienna
9309 as I told you. Very well. Next day, which was yesterday, those
9310 gentlemen, messieurs les marechaux, * Murat, Lannes, and Belliard, mount
9311 and ride to the bridge. (Observe that all three are Gascons.)
9312 'Gentlemen,' says one of them, 'you know the Thabor Bridge is mined and
9313 doubly mined and that there are menacing fortifications at its head and
9314 an army of fifteen thousand men has been ordered to blow up the bridge
9315 and not let us cross? But it will please our sovereign the Emperor
9316 Napoleon if we take this bridge, so let us three go and take it!' 'Yes,
9317 let's!' say the others. And off they go and take the bridge, cross it,
9318 and now with their whole army are on this side of the Danube, marching
9319 on us, you, and your lines of communication."
9324 "Stop jesting," said Prince Andrew sadly and seriously. This news
9325 grieved him and yet he was pleased.
9327 As soon as he learned that the Russian army was in such a hopeless
9328 situation it occurred to him that it was he who was destined to lead it
9329 out of this position; that here was the Toulon that would lift him from
9330 the ranks of obscure officers and offer him the first step to fame!
9331 Listening to Bilibin he was already imagining how on reaching the army
9332 he would give an opinion at the war council which would be the only one
9333 that could save the army, and how he alone would be entrusted with the
9334 executing of the plan.
9336 "Stop this jesting," he said
9338 "I am not jesting," Bilibin went on. "Nothing is truer or sadder. These
9339 gentlemen ride onto the bridge alone and wave white handkerchiefs; they
9340 assure the officer on duty that they, the marshals, are on their way to
9341 negotiate with Prince Auersperg. He lets them enter the tête-de-pont. *
9342 They spin him a thousand gasconades, saying that the war is over, that
9343 the Emperor Francis is arranging a meeting with Bonaparte, that they
9344 desire to see Prince Auersperg, and so on. The officer sends for
9345 Auersperg; these gentlemen embrace the officers, crack jokes, sit on the
9346 cannon, and meanwhile a French battalion gets to the bridge unobserved,
9347 flings the bags of incendiary material into the water, and approaches
9348 the tête-de-pont. At length appears the lieutenant general, our dear
9349 Prince Auersperg von Mautern himself. 'Dearest foe! Flower of the
9350 Austrian army, hero of the Turkish wars Hostilities are ended, we can
9351 shake one another's hand.... The Emperor Napoleon burns with impatience
9352 to make Prince Auersperg's acquaintance.' In a word, those gentlemen,
9353 Gascons indeed, so bewildered him with fine words, and he is so
9354 flattered by his rapidly established intimacy with the French marshals,
9355 and so dazzled by the sight of Murat's mantle and ostrich plumes, qu'il
9356 n'y voit que du feu, et oublie celui qu'il devait faire faire sur
9357 l'ennemi!" *(2) In spite of the animation of his speech, Bilibin did not
9358 forget to pause after this mot to give time for its due appreciation.
9359 "The French battalion rushes to the bridgehead, spikes the guns, and the
9360 bridge is taken! But what is best of all," he went on, his excitement
9361 subsiding under the delightful interest of his own story, "is that the
9362 sergeant in charge of the cannon which was to give the signal to fire
9363 the mines and blow up the bridge, this sergeant, seeing that the French
9364 troops were running onto the bridge, was about to fire, but Lannes
9365 stayed his hand. The sergeant, who was evidently wiser than his general,
9366 goes up to Auersperg and says: 'Prince, you are being deceived, here are
9367 the French!' Murat, seeing that all is lost if the sergeant is allowed
9368 to speak, turns to Auersperg with feigned astonishment (he is a true
9369 Gascon) and says: 'I don't recognize the world-famous Austrian
9370 discipline, if you allow a subordinate to address you like that!' It was
9371 a stroke of genius. Prince Auersperg feels his dignity at stake and
9372 orders the sergeant to be arrested. Come, you must own that this affair
9373 of the Thabor Bridge is delightful! It is not exactly stupidity, nor
9379 * (2) That their fire gets into his eyes and he forgets that he ought to
9380 be firing at the enemy.
9382 "It may be treachery," said Prince Andrew, vividly imagining the gray
9383 overcoats, wounds, the smoke of gunpowder, the sounds of firing, and the
9384 glory that awaited him.
9386 "Not that either. That puts the court in too bad a light," replied
9387 Bilibin. "It's not treachery nor rascality nor stupidity: it is just as
9388 at Ulm... it is..."--he seemed to be trying to find the right
9389 expression. "C'est... c'est du Mack. Nous sommes mackes (It is... it is
9390 a bit of Mack. We are Macked)," he concluded, feeling that he had
9391 produced a good epigram, a fresh one that would be repeated. His
9392 hitherto puckered brow became smooth as a sign of pleasure, and with a
9393 slight smile he began to examine his nails.
9395 "Where are you off to?" he said suddenly to Prince Andrew who had risen
9396 and was going toward his room.
9404 "But you meant to stay another two days?"
9406 "But now I am off at once."
9408 And Prince Andrew after giving directions about his departure went to
9411 "Do you know, mon cher," said Bilibin following him, "I have been
9412 thinking about you. Why are you going?"
9414 And in proof of the conclusiveness of his opinion all the wrinkles
9415 vanished from his face.
9417 Prince Andrew looked inquiringly at him and gave no reply.
9419 "Why are you going? I know you think it your duty to gallop back to the
9420 army now that it is in danger. I understand that. Mon cher, it is
9423 "Not at all," said Prince Andrew.
9425 "But as you are a philosopher, be a consistent one, look at the other
9426 side of the question and you will see that your duty, on the contrary,
9427 is to take care of yourself. Leave it to those who are no longer fit for
9428 anything else.... You have not been ordered to return and have not been
9429 dismissed from here; therefore, you can stay and go with us wherever our
9430 ill luck takes us. They say we are going to Olmutz, and Olmutz is a very
9431 decent town. You and I will travel comfortably in my caleche."
9433 "Do stop joking, Bilibin," cried Bolkonski.
9435 "I am speaking sincerely as a friend! Consider! Where and why are you
9436 going, when you might remain here? You are faced by one of two things,"
9437 and the skin over his left temple puckered, "either you will not reach
9438 your regiment before peace is concluded, or you will share defeat and
9439 disgrace with Kutuzov's whole army."
9441 And Bilibin unwrinkled his temple, feeling that the dilemma was
9444 "I cannot argue about it," replied Prince Andrew coldly, but he thought:
9445 "I am going to save the army."
9447 "My dear fellow, you are a hero!" said Bilibin.
9454 That same night, having taken leave of the Minister of War, Bolkonski
9455 set off to rejoin the army, not knowing where he would find it and
9456 fearing to be captured by the French on the way to Krems.
9458 In Brunn everybody attached to the court was packing up, and the heavy
9459 baggage was already being dispatched to Olmutz. Near Hetzelsdorf Prince
9460 Andrew struck the high road along which the Russian army was moving with
9461 great haste and in the greatest disorder. The road was so obstructed
9462 with carts that it was impossible to get by in a carriage. Prince Andrew
9463 took a horse and a Cossack from a Cossack commander, and hungry and
9464 weary, making his way past the baggage wagons, rode in search of the
9465 commander-in-chief and of his own luggage. Very sinister reports of the
9466 position of the army reached him as he went along, and the appearance of
9467 the troops in their disorderly flight confirmed these rumors.
9469 "Cette armee russe que l'or de l'Angleterre a transportee des extremites
9470 de l'univers, nous allons lui faire eprouver le meme sort--(le sort de
9471 l'armee d'Ulm)." * He remembered these words in Bonaparte's address to
9472 his army at the beginning of the campaign, and they awoke in him
9473 astonishment at the genius of his hero, a feeling of wounded pride, and
9474 a hope of glory. "And should there be nothing left but to die?" he
9475 thought. "Well, if need be, I shall do it no worse than others."
9478 * "That Russian army which has been brought from the ends of the earth
9479 by English gold, we shall cause to share the same fate--(the fate of the
9482 He looked with disdain at the endless confused mass of detachments,
9483 carts, guns, artillery, and again baggage wagons and vehicles of all
9484 kinds overtaking one another and blocking the muddy road, three and
9485 sometimes four abreast. From all sides, behind and before, as far as ear
9486 could reach, there were the rattle of wheels, the creaking of carts and
9487 gun carriages, the tramp of horses, the crack of whips, shouts, the
9488 urging of horses, and the swearing of soldiers, orderlies, and officers.
9489 All along the sides of the road fallen horses were to be seen, some
9490 flayed, some not, and broken-down carts beside which solitary soldiers
9491 sat waiting for something, and again soldiers straggling from their
9492 companies, crowds of whom set off to the neighboring villages, or
9493 returned from them dragging sheep, fowls, hay, and bulging sacks. At
9494 each ascent or descent of the road the crowds were yet denser and the
9495 din of shouting more incessant. Soldiers floundering knee-deep in mud
9496 pushed the guns and wagons themselves. Whips cracked, hoofs slipped,
9497 traces broke, and lungs were strained with shouting. The officers
9498 directing the march rode backward and forward between the carts. Their
9499 voices were but feebly heard amid the uproar and one saw by their faces
9500 that they despaired of the possibility of checking this disorder.
9502 "Here is our dear Orthodox Russian army," thought Bolkonski, recalling
9505 Wishing to find out where the commander-in-chief was, he rode up to a
9506 convoy. Directly opposite to him came a strange one-horse vehicle,
9507 evidently rigged up by soldiers out of any available materials and
9508 looking like something between a cart, a cabriolet, and a caleche. A
9509 soldier was driving, and a woman enveloped in shawls sat behind the
9510 apron under the leather hood of the vehicle. Prince Andrew rode up and
9511 was just putting his question to a soldier when his attention was
9512 diverted by the desperate shrieks of the woman in the vehicle. An
9513 officer in charge of transport was beating the soldier who was driving
9514 the woman's vehicle for trying to get ahead of others, and the strokes
9515 of his whip fell on the apron of the equipage. The woman screamed
9516 piercingly. Seeing Prince Andrew she leaned out from behind the apron
9517 and, waving her thin arms from under the woolen shawl, cried:
9519 "Mr. Aide-de-camp! Mr. Aide-de-camp!... For heaven's sake... Protect me!
9520 What will become of us? I am the wife of the doctor of the Seventh
9521 Chasseurs.... They won't let us pass, we are left behind and have lost
9524 "I'll flatten you into a pancake!" shouted the angry officer to the
9525 soldier. "Turn back with your slut!"
9527 "Mr. Aide-de-camp! Help me!... What does it all mean?" screamed the
9530 "Kindly let this cart pass. Don't you see it's a woman?" said Prince
9531 Andrew riding up to the officer.
9533 The officer glanced at him, and without replying turned again to the
9534 soldier. "I'll teach you to push on!... Back!"
9536 "Let them pass, I tell you!" repeated Prince Andrew, compressing his
9539 "And who are you?" cried the officer, turning on him with tipsy rage,
9540 "who are you? Are you in command here? Eh? I am commander here, not you!
9541 Go back or I'll flatten you into a pancake," repeated he. This
9542 expression evidently pleased him.
9544 "That was a nice snub for the little aide-de-camp," came a voice from
9547 Prince Andrew saw that the officer was in that state of senseless, tipsy
9548 rage when a man does not know what he is saying. He saw that his
9549 championship of the doctor's wife in her queer trap might expose him to
9550 what he dreaded more than anything in the world--to ridicule; but his
9551 instinct urged him on. Before the officer finished his sentence Prince
9552 Andrew, his face distorted with fury, rode up to him and raised his
9555 "Kind...ly let--them--pass!"
9557 The officer flourished his arm and hastily rode away.
9559 "It's all the fault of these fellows on the staff that there's this
9560 disorder," he muttered. "Do as you like."
9562 Prince Andrew without lifting his eyes rode hastily away from the
9563 doctor's wife, who was calling him her deliverer, and recalling with a
9564 sense of disgust the minutest details of this humiliating scene he
9565 galloped on to the village where he was told that the commander-in-chief
9568 On reaching the village he dismounted and went to the nearest house,
9569 intending to rest if but for a moment, eat something, and try to sort
9570 out the stinging and tormenting thoughts that confused his mind. "This
9571 is a mob of scoundrels and not an army," he was thinking as he went up
9572 to the window of the first house, when a familiar voice called him by
9575 He turned round. Nesvitski's handsome face looked out of the little
9576 window. Nesvitski, moving his moist lips as he chewed something, and
9577 flourishing his arm, called him to enter.
9579 "Bolkonski! Bolkonski!... Don't you hear? Eh? Come quick..." he shouted.
9581 Entering the house, Prince Andrew saw Nesvitski and another adjutant
9582 having something to eat. They hastily turned round to him asking if he
9583 had any news. On their familiar faces he read agitation and alarm. This
9584 was particularly noticeable on Nesvitski's usually laughing countenance.
9586 "Where is the commander-in-chief?" asked Bolkonski.
9588 "Here, in that house," answered the adjutant.
9590 "Well, is it true that it's peace and capitulation?" asked Nesvitski.
9592 "I was going to ask you. I know nothing except that it was all I could
9595 "And we, my dear boy! It's terrible! I was wrong to laugh at Mack, we're
9596 getting it still worse," said Nesvitski. "But sit down and have
9599 "You won't be able to find either your baggage or anything else now,
9600 Prince. And God only knows where your man Peter is," said the other
9603 "Where are headquarters?"
9605 "We are to spend the night in Znaim."
9607 "Well, I have got all I need into packs for two horses," said Nesvitski.
9608 "They've made up splendid packs for me--fit to cross the Bohemian
9609 mountains with. It's a bad lookout, old fellow! But what's the matter
9610 with you? You must be ill to shiver like that," he added, noticing that
9611 Prince Andrew winced as at an electric shock.
9613 "It's nothing," replied Prince Andrew.
9615 He had just remembered his recent encounter with the doctor's wife and
9618 "What is the commander-in-chief doing here?" he asked.
9620 "I can't make out at all," said Nesvitski.
9622 "Well, all I can make out is that everything is abominable, abominable,
9623 quite abominable!" said Prince Andrew, and he went off to the house
9624 where the commander-in-chief was.
9626 Passing by Kutuzov's carriage and the exhausted saddle horses of his
9627 suite, with their Cossacks who were talking loudly together, Prince
9628 Andrew entered the passage. Kutuzov himself, he was told, was in the
9629 house with Prince Bagration and Weyrother. Weyrother was the Austrian
9630 general who had succeeded Schmidt. In the passage little Kozlovski was
9631 squatting on his heels in front of a clerk. The clerk, with cuffs turned
9632 up, was hastily writing at a tub turned bottom upwards. Kozlovski's face
9633 looked worn--he too had evidently not slept all night. He glanced at
9634 Prince Andrew and did not even nod to him.
9636 "Second line... have you written it?" he continued dictating to the
9637 clerk. "The Kiev Grenadiers, Podolian..."
9639 "One can't write so fast, your honor," said the clerk, glancing angrily
9640 and disrespectfully at Kozlovski.
9642 Through the door came the sounds of Kutuzov's voice, excited and
9643 dissatisfied, interrupted by another, an unfamiliar voice. From the
9644 sound of these voices, the inattentive way Kozlovski looked at him, the
9645 disrespectful manner of the exhausted clerk, the fact that the clerk and
9646 Kozlovski were squatting on the floor by a tub so near to the commander
9647 in chief, and from the noisy laughter of the Cossacks holding the horses
9648 near the window, Prince Andrew felt that something important and
9649 disastrous was about to happen.
9651 He turned to Kozlovski with urgent questions.
9653 "Immediately, Prince," said Kozlovski. "Dispositions for Bagration."
9655 "What about capitulation?"
9657 "Nothing of the sort. Orders are issued for a battle."
9659 Prince Andrew moved toward the door from whence voices were heard. Just
9660 as he was going to open it the sounds ceased, the door opened, and
9661 Kutuzov with his eagle nose and puffy face appeared in the doorway.
9662 Prince Andrew stood right in front of Kutuzov but the expression of the
9663 commander in chief's one sound eye showed him to be so preoccupied with
9664 thoughts and anxieties as to be oblivious of his presence. He looked
9665 straight at his adjutant's face without recognizing him.
9667 "Well, have you finished?" said he to Kozlovski.
9669 "One moment, your excellency."
9671 Bagration, a gaunt middle-aged man of medium height with a firm,
9672 impassive face of Oriental type, came out after the commander-in-chief.
9674 "I have the honor to present myself," repeated Prince Andrew rather
9675 loudly, handing Kutuzov an envelope.
9677 "Ah, from Vienna? Very good. Later, later!"
9679 Kutuzov went out into the porch with Bagration.
9681 "Well, good-by, Prince," said he to Bagration. "My blessing, and may
9682 Christ be with you in your great endeavor!"
9684 His face suddenly softened and tears came into his eyes. With his left
9685 hand he drew Bagration toward him, and with his right, on which he wore
9686 a ring, he made the sign of the cross over him with a gesture evidently
9687 habitual, offering his puffy cheek, but Bagration kissed him on the neck
9690 "Christ be with you!" Kutuzov repeated and went toward his carriage.
9691 "Get in with me," said he to Bolkonski.
9693 "Your excellency, I should like to be of use here. Allow me to remain
9694 with Prince Bagration's detachment."
9696 "Get in," said Kutuzov, and noticing that Bolkonski still delayed, he
9697 added: "I need good officers myself, need them myself!"
9699 They got into the carriage and drove for a few minutes in silence.
9701 "There is still much, much before us," he said, as if with an old man's
9702 penetration he understood all that was passing in Bolkonski's mind. "If
9703 a tenth part of his detachment returns I shall thank God," he added as
9704 if speaking to himself.
9706 Prince Andrew glanced at Kutuzov's face only a foot distant from him and
9707 involuntarily noticed the carefully washed seams of the scar near his
9708 temple, where an Ismail bullet had pierced his skull, and the empty eye
9709 socket. "Yes, he has a right to speak so calmly of those men's death,"
9712 "That is why I beg to be sent to that detachment," he said.
9714 Kutuzov did not reply. He seemed to have forgotten what he had been
9715 saying, and sat plunged in thought. Five minutes later, gently swaying
9716 on the soft springs of the carriage, he turned to Prince Andrew. There
9717 was not a trace of agitation on his face. With delicate irony he
9718 questioned Prince Andrew about the details of his interview with the
9719 Emperor, about the remarks he had heard at court concerning the Krems
9720 affair, and about some ladies they both knew.
9727 On November 1 Kutuzov had received, through a spy, news that the army he
9728 commanded was in an almost hopeless position. The spy reported that the
9729 French, after crossing the bridge at Vienna, were advancing in immense
9730 force upon Kutuzov's line of communication with the troops that were
9731 arriving from Russia. If Kutuzov decided to remain at Krems, Napoleon's
9732 army of one hundred and fifty thousand men would cut him off completely
9733 and surround his exhausted army of forty thousand, and he would find
9734 himself in the position of Mack at Ulm. If Kutuzov decided to abandon
9735 the road connecting him with the troops arriving from Russia, he would
9736 have to march with no road into unknown parts of the Bohemian mountains,
9737 defending himself against superior forces of the enemy and abandoning
9738 all hope of a junction with Buxhowden. If Kutuzov decided to retreat
9739 along the road from Krems to Olmutz, to unite with the troops arriving
9740 from Russia, he risked being forestalled on that road by the French who
9741 had crossed the Vienna bridge, and encumbered by his baggage and
9742 transport, having to accept battle on the march against an enemy three
9743 times as strong, who would hem him in from two sides.
9745 Kutuzov chose this latter course.
9747 The French, the spy reported, having crossed the Vienna bridge, were
9748 advancing by forced marches toward Znaim, which lay sixty-six miles off
9749 on the line of Kutuzov's retreat. If he reached Znaim before the French,
9750 there would be great hope of saving the army; to let the French
9751 forestall him at Znaim meant the exposure of his whole army to a
9752 disgrace such as that of Ulm, or to utter destruction. But to forestall
9753 the French with his whole army was impossible. The road for the French
9754 from Vienna to Znaim was shorter and better than the road for the
9755 Russians from Krems to Znaim.
9757 The night he received the news, Kutuzov sent Bagration's vanguard, four
9758 thousand strong, to the right across the hills from the Krems-Znaim to
9759 the Vienna-Znaim road. Bagration was to make this march without resting,
9760 and to halt facing Vienna with Znaim to his rear, and if he succeeded in
9761 forestalling the French he was to delay them as long as possible.
9762 Kutuzov himself with all his transport took the road to Znaim.
9764 Marching thirty miles that stormy night across roadless hills, with his
9765 hungry, ill-shod soldiers, and losing a third of his men as stragglers
9766 by the way, Bagration came out on the Vienna-Znaim road at Hollabrunn a
9767 few hours ahead of the French who were approaching Hollabrunn from
9768 Vienna. Kutuzov with his transport had still to march for some days
9769 before he could reach Znaim. Hence Bagration with his four thousand
9770 hungry, exhausted men would have to detain for days the whole enemy army
9771 that came upon him at Hollabrunn, which was clearly impossible. But a
9772 freak of fate made the impossible possible. The success of the trick
9773 that had placed the Vienna bridge in the hands of the French without a
9774 fight led Murat to try to deceive Kutuzov in a similar way. Meeting
9775 Bagration's weak detachment on the Znaim road he supposed it to be
9776 Kutuzov's whole army. To be able to crush it absolutely he awaited the
9777 arrival of the rest of the troops who were on their way from Vienna, and
9778 with this object offered a three days' truce on condition that both
9779 armies should remain in position without moving. Murat declared that
9780 negotiations for peace were already proceeding, and that he therefore
9781 offered this truce to avoid unnecessary bloodshed. Count Nostitz, the
9782 Austrian general occupying the advanced posts, believed Murat's emissary
9783 and retired, leaving Bagration's division exposed. Another emissary rode
9784 to the Russian line to announce the peace negotiations and to offer the
9785 Russian army the three days' truce. Bagration replied that he was not
9786 authorized either to accept or refuse a truce and sent his adjutant to
9787 Kutuzov to report the offer he had received.
9789 A truce was Kutuzov's sole chance of gaining time, giving Bagration's
9790 exhausted troops some rest, and letting the transport and heavy convoys
9791 (whose movements were concealed from the French) advance if but one
9792 stage nearer Znaim. The offer of a truce gave the only, and a quite
9793 unexpected, chance of saving the army. On receiving the news he
9794 immediately dispatched Adjutant General Wintzingerode, who was in
9795 attendance on him, to the enemy camp. Wintzingerode was not merely to
9796 agree to the truce but also to offer terms of capitulation, and
9797 meanwhile Kutuzov sent his adjutants back to hasten to the utmost the
9798 movements of the baggage trains of the entire army along the Krems-Znaim
9799 road. Bagration's exhausted and hungry detachment, which alone covered
9800 this movement of the transport and of the whole army, had to remain
9801 stationary in face of an enemy eight times as strong as itself.
9803 Kutuzov's expectations that the proposals of capitulation (which were in
9804 no way binding) might give time for part of the transport to pass, and
9805 also that Murat's mistake would very soon be discovered, proved correct.
9806 As soon as Bonaparte (who was at Schonbrunn, sixteen miles from
9807 Hollabrunn) received Murat's dispatch with the proposal of a truce and a
9808 capitulation, he detected a ruse and wrote the following letter to
9811 Schonbrunn, 25th Brumaire, 1805,
9813 at eight o'clock in the morning
9817 I cannot find words to express to you my displeasure. You command only
9818 my advance guard, and have no right to arrange an armistice without my
9819 order. You are causing me to lose the fruits of a campaign. Break the
9820 armistice immediately and march on the enemy. Inform him that the
9821 general who signed that capitulation had no right to do so, and that no
9822 one but the Emperor of Russia has that right.
9824 If, however, the Emperor of Russia ratifies that convention, I will
9825 ratify it; but it is only a trick. March on, destroy the Russian
9826 army.... You are in a position to seize its baggage and artillery.
9828 The Russian Emperor's aide-de-camp is an impostor. Officers are nothing
9829 when they have no powers; this one had none.... The Austrians let
9830 themselves be tricked at the crossing of the Vienna bridge, you are
9831 letting yourself be tricked by an aide-de-camp of the Emperor.
9835 Bonaparte's adjutant rode full gallop with this menacing letter to
9836 Murat. Bonaparte himself, not trusting to his generals, moved with all
9837 the Guards to the field of battle, afraid of letting a ready victim
9838 escape, and Bagration's four thousand men merrily lighted campfires,
9839 dried and warmed themselves, cooked their porridge for the first time
9840 for three days, and not one of them knew or imagined what was in store
9848 Between three and four o'clock in the afternoon Prince Andrew, who had
9849 persisted in his request to Kutuzov, arrived at Grunth and reported
9850 himself to Bagration. Bonaparte's adjutant had not yet reached Murat's
9851 detachment and the battle had not yet begun. In Bagration's detachment
9852 no one knew anything of the general position of affairs. They talked of
9853 peace but did not believe in its possibility; others talked of a battle
9854 but also disbelieved in the nearness of an engagement. Bagration,
9855 knowing Bolkonski to be a favorite and trusted adjutant, received him
9856 with distinction and special marks of favor, explaining to him that
9857 there would probably be an engagement that day or the next, and giving
9858 him full liberty to remain with him during the battle or to join the
9859 rearguard and have an eye on the order of retreat, "which is also very
9862 "However, there will hardly be an engagement today," said Bagration as
9863 if to reassure Prince Andrew.
9865 "If he is one of the ordinary little staff dandies sent to earn a medal
9866 he can get his reward just as well in the rearguard, but if he wishes to
9867 stay with me, let him... he'll be of use here if he's a brave officer,"
9868 thought Bagration. Prince Andrew, without replying, asked the prince's
9869 permission to ride round the position to see the disposition of the
9870 forces, so as to know his bearings should he be sent to execute an
9871 order. The officer on duty, a handsome, elegantly dressed man with a
9872 diamond ring on his forefinger, who was fond of speaking French though
9873 he spoke it badly, offered to conduct Prince Andrew.
9875 On all sides they saw rain-soaked officers with dejected faces who
9876 seemed to be seeking something, and soldiers dragging doors, benches,
9877 and fencing from the village.
9879 "There now, Prince! We can't stop those fellows," said the staff officer
9880 pointing to the soldiers. "The officers don't keep them in hand. And
9881 there," he pointed to a sutler's tent, "they crowd in and sit. This
9882 morning I turned them all out and now look, it's full again. I must go
9883 there, Prince, and scare them a bit. It won't take a moment."
9885 "Yes, let's go in and I will get myself a roll and some cheese," said
9886 Prince Andrew who had not yet had time to eat anything.
9888 "Why didn't you mention it, Prince? I would have offered you something."
9890 They dismounted and entered the tent. Several officers, with flushed and
9891 weary faces, were sitting at the table eating and drinking.
9893 "Now what does this mean, gentlemen?" said the staff officer, in the
9894 reproachful tone of a man who has repeated the same thing more than
9895 once. "You know it won't do to leave your posts like this. The prince
9896 gave orders that no one should leave his post. Now you, Captain," and he
9897 turned to a thin, dirty little artillery officer who without his boots
9898 (he had given them to the canteen keeper to dry), in only his stockings,
9899 rose when they entered, smiling not altogether comfortably.
9901 "Well, aren't you ashamed of yourself, Captain Tushin?" he continued.
9902 "One would think that as an artillery officer you would set a good
9903 example, yet here you are without your boots! The alarm will be sounded
9904 and you'll be in a pretty position without your boots!" (The staff
9905 officer smiled.) "Kindly return to your posts, gentlemen, all of you,
9906 all!" he added in a tone of command.
9908 Prince Andrew smiled involuntarily as he looked at the artillery officer
9909 Tushin, who silent and smiling, shifting from one stockinged foot to the
9910 other, glanced inquiringly with his large, intelligent, kindly eyes from
9911 Prince Andrew to the staff officer.
9913 "The soldiers say it feels easier without boots," said Captain Tushin
9914 smiling shyly in his uncomfortable position, evidently wishing to adopt
9915 a jocular tone. But before he had finished he felt that his jest was
9916 unacceptable and had not come off. He grew confused.
9918 "Kindly return to your posts," said the staff officer trying to preserve
9921 Prince Andrew glanced again at the artillery officer's small figure.
9922 There was something peculiar about it, quite unsoldierly, rather comic,
9923 but extremely attractive.
9925 The staff officer and Prince Andrew mounted their horses and rode on.
9927 Having ridden beyond the village, continually meeting and overtaking
9928 soldiers and officers of various regiments, they saw on their left some
9929 entrenchments being thrown up, the freshly dug clay of which showed up
9930 red. Several battalions of soldiers, in their shirt sleeves despite the
9931 cold wind, swarmed in these earthworks like a host of white ants;
9932 spadefuls of red clay were continually being thrown up from behind the
9933 bank by unseen hands. Prince Andrew and the officer rode up, looked at
9934 the entrenchment, and went on again. Just behind it they came upon some
9935 dozens of soldiers, continually replaced by others, who ran from the
9936 entrenchment. They had to hold their noses and put their horses to a
9937 trot to escape from the poisoned atmosphere of these latrines.
9939 "Voila l'agrement des camps, monsieur le Prince," * said the staff
9943 * "This is a pleasure one gets in camp, Prince."
9945 They rode up the opposite hill. From there the French could already be
9946 seen. Prince Andrew stopped and began examining the position.
9948 "That's our battery," said the staff officer indicating the highest
9949 point. "It's in charge of the queer fellow we saw without his boots. You
9950 can see everything from there; let's go there, Prince."
9952 "Thank you very much, I will go on alone," said Prince Andrew, wishing
9953 to rid himself of this staff officer's company, "please don't trouble
9956 The staff officer remained behind and Prince Andrew rode on alone.
9958 The farther forward and nearer the enemy he went, the more orderly and
9959 cheerful were the troops. The greatest disorder and depression had been
9960 in the baggage train he had passed that morning on the Znaim road seven
9961 miles away from the French. At Grunth also some apprehension and alarm
9962 could be felt, but the nearer Prince Andrew came to the French lines the
9963 more confident was the appearance of our troops. The soldiers in their
9964 greatcoats were ranged in lines, the sergeants major and company
9965 officers were counting the men, poking the last man in each section in
9966 the ribs and telling him to hold his hand up. Soldiers scattered over
9967 the whole place were dragging logs and brushwood and were building
9968 shelters with merry chatter and laughter; around the fires sat others,
9969 dressed and undressed, drying their shirts and leg bands or mending
9970 boots or overcoats and crowding round the boilers and porridge cookers.
9971 In one company dinner was ready, and the soldiers were gazing eagerly at
9972 the steaming boiler, waiting till the sample, which a quartermaster
9973 sergeant was carrying in a wooden bowl to an officer who sat on a log
9974 before his shelter, had been tasted.
9976 Another company, a lucky one for not all the companies had vodka,
9977 crowded round a pockmarked, broad-shouldered sergeant major who, tilting
9978 a keg, filled one after another the canteen lids held out to him. The
9979 soldiers lifted the canteen lids to their lips with reverential faces,
9980 emptied them, rolling the vodka in their mouths, and walked away from
9981 the sergeant major with brightened expressions, licking their lips and
9982 wiping them on the sleeves of their greatcoats. All their faces were as
9983 serene as if all this were happening at home awaiting peaceful
9984 encampment, and not within sight of the enemy before an action in which
9985 at least half of them would be left on the field. After passing a
9986 chasseur regiment and in the lines of the Kiev grenadiers--fine fellows
9987 busy with similar peaceful affairs--near the shelter of the regimental
9988 commander, higher than and different from the others, Prince Andrew came
9989 out in front of a platoon of grenadiers before whom lay a naked man. Two
9990 soldiers held him while two others were flourishing their switches and
9991 striking him regularly on his bare back. The man shrieked unnaturally. A
9992 stout major was pacing up and down the line, and regardless of the
9993 screams kept repeating:
9995 "It's a shame for a soldier to steal; a soldier must be honest,
9996 honorable, and brave, but if he robs his fellows there is no honor in
9997 him, he's a scoundrel. Go on! Go on!"
9999 So the swishing sound of the strokes, and the desperate but unnatural
10000 screams, continued.
10002 "Go on, go on!" said the major.
10004 A young officer with a bewildered and pained expression on his face
10005 stepped away from the man and looked round inquiringly at the adjutant
10008 Prince Andrew, having reached the front line, rode along it. Our front
10009 line and that of the enemy were far apart on the right and left flanks,
10010 but in the center where the men with a flag of truce had passed that
10011 morning, the lines were so near together that the men could see one
10012 another's faces and speak to one another. Besides the soldiers who
10013 formed the picket line on either side, there were many curious onlookers
10014 who, jesting and laughing, stared at their strange foreign enemies.
10016 Since early morning--despite an injunction not to approach the picket
10017 line--the officers had been unable to keep sight-seers away. The
10018 soldiers forming the picket line, like showmen exhibiting a curiosity,
10019 no longer looked at the French but paid attention to the sight-seers and
10020 grew weary waiting to be relieved. Prince Andrew halted to have a look
10023 "Look! Look there!" one soldier was saying to another, pointing to a
10024 Russian musketeer who had gone up to the picket line with an officer and
10025 was rapidly and excitedly talking to a French grenadier. "Hark to him
10026 jabbering! Fine, isn't it? It's all the Frenchy can do to keep up with
10027 him. There now, Sidorov!"
10029 "Wait a bit and listen. It's fine!" answered Sidorov, who was considered
10030 an adept at French.
10032 The soldier to whom the laughers referred was Dolokhov. Prince Andrew
10033 recognized him and stopped to listen to what he was saying. Dolokhov had
10034 come from the left flank where their regiment was stationed, with his
10037 "Now then, go on, go on!" incited the officer, bending forward and
10038 trying not to lose a word of the speech which was incomprehensible to
10039 him. "More, please: more! What's he saying?"
10041 Dolokhov did not answer the captain; he had been drawn into a hot
10042 dispute with the French grenadier. They were naturally talking about the
10043 campaign. The Frenchman, confusing the Austrians with the Russians, was
10044 trying to prove that the Russians had surrendered and had fled all the
10045 way from Ulm, while Dolokhov maintained that the Russians had not
10046 surrendered but had beaten the French.
10048 "We have orders to drive you off here, and we shall drive you off," said
10051 "Only take care you and your Cossacks are not all captured!" said the
10054 The French onlookers and listeners laughed.
10056 "We'll make you dance as we did under Suvorov...," * said Dolokhov.
10059 * "On vous fera danser."
10061 "Qu' est-ce qu'il chante?" * asked a Frenchman.
10064 * "What's he singing about?"
10066 "It's ancient history," said another, guessing that it referred to a
10067 former war. "The Emperor will teach your Suvara as he has taught the
10070 "Bonaparte..." began Dolokhov, but the Frenchman interrupted him.
10072 "Not Bonaparte. He is the Emperor! Sacre nom...!" cried he angrily.
10074 "The devil skin your Emperor."
10076 And Dolokhov swore at him in coarse soldier's Russian and shouldering
10077 his musket walked away.
10079 "Let us go, Ivan Lukich," he said to the captain.
10081 "Ah, that's the way to talk French," said the picket soldiers. "Now,
10082 Sidorov, you have a try!"
10084 Sidorov, turning to the French, winked, and began to jabber meaningless
10085 sounds very fast: "Kari, mala, tafa, safi, muter, Kaska," he said,
10086 trying to give an expressive intonation to his voice.
10088 "Ho! ho! ho! Ha! ha! ha! ha! Ouh! ouh!" came peals of such healthy and
10089 good-humored laughter from the soldiers that it infected the French
10090 involuntarily, so much so that the only thing left to do seemed to be to
10091 unload the muskets, explode the ammunition, and all return home as
10092 quickly as possible.
10094 But the guns remained loaded, the loopholes in blockhouses and
10095 entrenchments looked out just as menacingly, and the unlimbered cannon
10096 confronted one another as before.
10103 Having ridden round the whole line from right flank to left, Prince
10104 Andrew made his way up to the battery from which the staff officer had
10105 told him the whole field could be seen. Here he dismounted, and stopped
10106 beside the farthest of the four unlimbered cannon. Before the guns an
10107 artillery sentry was pacing up and down; he stood at attention when the
10108 officer arrived, but at a sign resumed his measured, monotonous pacing.
10109 Behind the guns were their limbers and still farther back picket ropes
10110 and artillerymen's bonfires. To the left, not far from the farthest
10111 cannon, was a small, newly constructed wattle shed from which came the
10112 sound of officers' voices in eager conversation.
10114 It was true that a view over nearly the whole Russian position and the
10115 greater part of the enemy's opened out from this battery. Just facing
10116 it, on the crest of the opposite hill, the village of Schon Grabern
10117 could be seen, and in three places to left and right the French troops
10118 amid the smoke of their campfires, the greater part of whom were
10119 evidently in the village itself and behind the hill. To the left from
10120 that village, amid the smoke, was something resembling a battery, but it
10121 was impossible to see it clearly with the naked eye. Our right flank was
10122 posted on a rather steep incline which dominated the French position.
10123 Our infantry were stationed there, and at the farthest point the
10124 dragoons. In the center, where Tushin's battery stood and from which
10125 Prince Andrew was surveying the position, was the easiest and most
10126 direct descent and ascent to the brook separating us from Schon Grabern.
10127 On the left our troops were close to a copse, in which smoked the
10128 bonfires of our infantry who were felling wood. The French line was
10129 wider than ours, and it was plain that they could easily outflank us on
10130 both sides. Behind our position was a steep and deep dip, making it
10131 difficult for artillery and cavalry to retire. Prince Andrew took out
10132 his notebook and, leaning on the cannon, sketched a plan of the
10133 position. He made some notes on two points, intending to mention them to
10134 Bagration. His idea was, first, to concentrate all the artillery in the
10135 center, and secondly, to withdraw the cavalry to the other side of the
10136 dip. Prince Andrew, being always near the commander in chief, closely
10137 following the mass movements and general orders, and constantly studying
10138 historical accounts of battles, involuntarily pictured to himself the
10139 course of events in the forthcoming action in broad outline. He imagined
10140 only important possibilities: "If the enemy attacks the right flank," he
10141 said to himself, "the Kiev grenadiers and the Podolsk chasseurs must
10142 hold their position till reserves from the center come up. In that case
10143 the dragoons could successfully make a flank counterattack. If they
10144 attack our center we, having the center battery on this high ground,
10145 shall withdraw the left flank under its cover, and retreat to the dip by
10146 echelons." So he reasoned.... All the time he had been beside the gun,
10147 he had heard the voices of the officers distinctly, but as often happens
10148 had not understood a word of what they were saying. Suddenly, however,
10149 he was struck by a voice coming from the shed, and its tone was so
10150 sincere that he could not but listen.
10152 "No, friend," said a pleasant and, as it seemed to Prince Andrew, a
10153 familiar voice, "what I say is that if it were possible to know what is
10154 beyond death, none of us would be afraid of it. That's so, friend."
10156 Another, a younger voice, interrupted him: "Afraid or not, you can't
10159 "All the same, one is afraid! Oh, you clever people," said a third manly
10160 voice interrupting them both. "Of course you artillery men are very
10161 wise, because you can take everything along with you--vodka and snacks."
10163 And the owner of the manly voice, evidently an infantry officer,
10166 "Yes, one is afraid," continued the first speaker, he of the familiar
10167 voice. "One is afraid of the unknown, that's what it is. Whatever we may
10168 say about the soul going to the sky... we know there is no sky but only
10171 The manly voice again interrupted the artillery officer.
10173 "Well, stand us some of your herb vodka, Tushin," it said.
10175 "Why," thought Prince Andrew, "that's the captain who stood up in the
10176 sutler's hut without his boots." He recognized the agreeable,
10177 philosophizing voice with pleasure.
10179 "Some herb vodka? Certainly!" said Tushin. "But still, to conceive a
10182 He did not finish. Just then there was a whistle in the air; nearer and
10183 nearer, faster and louder, louder and faster, a cannon ball, as if it
10184 had not finished saying what was necessary, thudded into the ground near
10185 the shed with super human force, throwing up a mass of earth. The ground
10186 seemed to groan at the terrible impact.
10188 And immediately Tushin, with a short pipe in the corner of his mouth and
10189 his kind, intelligent face rather pale, rushed out of the shed followed
10190 by the owner of the manly voice, a dashing infantry officer who hurried
10191 off to his company, buttoning up his coat as he ran.
10198 Mounting his horse again Prince Andrew lingered with the battery,
10199 looking at the puff from the gun that had sent the ball. His eyes ran
10200 rapidly over the wide space, but he only saw that the hitherto
10201 motionless masses of the French now swayed and that there really was a
10202 battery to their left. The smoke above it had not yet dispersed. Two
10203 mounted Frenchmen, probably adjutants, were galloping up the hill. A
10204 small but distinctly visible enemy column was moving down the hill,
10205 probably to strengthen the front line. The smoke of the first shot had
10206 not yet dispersed before another puff appeared, followed by a report.
10207 The battle had begun! Prince Andrew turned his horse and galloped back
10208 to Grunth to find Prince Bagration. He heard the cannonade behind him
10209 growing louder and more frequent. Evidently our guns had begun to reply.
10210 From the bottom of the slope, where the parleys had taken place, came
10211 the report of musketry.
10213 Lemarrois had just arrived at a gallop with Bonaparte's stern letter,
10214 and Murat, humiliated and anxious to expiate his fault, had at once
10215 moved his forces to attack the center and outflank both the Russian
10216 wings, hoping before evening and before the arrival of the Emperor to
10217 crush the contemptible detachment that stood before him.
10219 "It has begun. Here it is!" thought Prince Andrew, feeling the blood
10220 rush to his heart. "But where and how will my Toulon present itself?"
10222 Passing between the companies that had been eating porridge and drinking
10223 vodka a quarter of an hour before, he saw everywhere the same rapid
10224 movement of soldiers forming ranks and getting their muskets ready, and
10225 on all their faces he recognized the same eagerness that filled his
10226 heart. "It has begun! Here it is, dreadful but enjoyable!" was what the
10227 face of each soldier and each officer seemed to say.
10229 Before he had reached the embankments that were being thrown up, he saw,
10230 in the light of the dull autumn evening, mounted men coming toward him.
10231 The foremost, wearing a Cossack cloak and lambskin cap and riding a
10232 white horse, was Prince Bagration. Prince Andrew stopped, waiting for
10233 him to come up; Prince Bagration reined in his horse and recognizing
10234 Prince Andrew nodded to him. He still looked ahead while Prince Andrew
10235 told him what he had seen.
10237 The feeling, "It has begun! Here it is!" was seen even on Prince
10238 Bagration's hard brown face with its half-closed, dull, sleepy eyes.
10239 Prince Andrew gazed with anxious curiosity at that impassive face and
10240 wished he could tell what, if anything, this man was thinking and
10241 feeling at that moment. "Is there anything at all behind that impassive
10242 face?" Prince Andrew asked himself as he looked. Prince Bagration bent
10243 his head in sign of agreement with what Prince Andrew told him, and
10244 said, "Very good!" in a tone that seemed to imply that everything that
10245 took place and was reported to him was exactly what he had foreseen.
10246 Prince Andrew, out of breath with his rapid ride, spoke quickly. Prince
10247 Bagration, uttering his words with an Oriental accent, spoke
10248 particularly slowly, as if to impress the fact that there was no need to
10249 hurry. However, he put his horse to a trot in the direction of Tushin's
10250 battery. Prince Andrew followed with the suite. Behind Prince Bagration
10251 rode an officer of the suite, the prince's personal adjutant, Zherkov,
10252 an orderly officer, the staff officer on duty, riding a fine bobtailed
10253 horse, and a civilian--an accountant who had asked permission to be
10254 present at the battle out of curiosity. The accountant, a stout, full-
10255 faced man, looked around him with a naive smile of satisfaction and
10256 presented a strange appearance among the hussars, Cossacks, and
10257 adjutants, in his camlet coat, as he jolted on his horse with a convoy
10260 "He wants to see a battle," said Zherkov to Bolkonski, pointing to the
10261 accountant, "but he feels a pain in the pit of his stomach already."
10263 "Oh, leave off!" said the accountant with a beaming but rather cunning
10264 smile, as if flattered at being made the subject of Zherkov's joke, and
10265 purposely trying to appear stupider than he really was.
10267 "It is very strange, mon Monsieur Prince," said the staff officer. (He
10268 remembered that in French there is some peculiar way of addressing a
10269 prince, but could not get it quite right.)
10271 By this time they were all approaching Tushin's battery, and a ball
10272 struck the ground in front of them.
10274 "What's that that has fallen?" asked the accountant with a naive smile.
10276 "A French pancake," answered Zherkov.
10278 "So that's what they hit with?" asked the accountant. "How awful!"
10280 He seemed to swell with satisfaction. He had hardly finished speaking
10281 when they again heard an unexpectedly violent whistling which suddenly
10282 ended with a thud into something soft... f-f-flop! and a Cossack, riding
10283 a little to their right and behind the accountant, crashed to earth with
10284 his horse. Zherkov and the staff officer bent over their saddles and
10285 turned their horses away. The accountant stopped, facing the Cossack,
10286 and examined him with attentive curiosity. The Cossack was dead, but the
10287 horse still struggled.
10289 Prince Bagration screwed up his eyes, looked round, and, seeing the
10290 cause of the confusion, turned away with indifference, as if to say, "Is
10291 it worth while noticing trifles?" He reined in his horse with the care
10292 of a skillful rider and, slightly bending over, disengaged his saber
10293 which had caught in his cloak. It was an old-fashioned saber of a kind
10294 no longer in general use. Prince Andrew remembered the story of Suvorov
10295 giving his saber to Bagration in Italy, and the recollection was
10296 particularly pleasant at that moment. They had reached the battery at
10297 which Prince Andrew had been when he examined the battlefield.
10299 "Whose company?" asked Prince Bagration of an artilleryman standing by
10300 the ammunition wagon.
10302 He asked, "Whose company?" but he really meant, "Are you frightened
10303 here?" and the artilleryman understood him.
10305 "Captain Tushin's, your excellency!" shouted the red-haired, freckled
10306 gunner in a merry voice, standing to attention.
10308 "Yes, yes," muttered Bagration as if considering something, and he rode
10309 past the limbers to the farthest cannon.
10311 As he approached, a ringing shot issued from it deafening him and his
10312 suite, and in the smoke that suddenly surrounded the gun they could see
10313 the gunners who had seized it straining to roll it quickly back to its
10314 former position. A huge, broad-shouldered gunner, Number One, holding a
10315 mop, his legs far apart, sprang to the wheel; while Number Two with a
10316 trembling hand placed a charge in the cannon's mouth. The short, round-
10317 shouldered Captain Tushin, stumbling over the tail of the gun carriage,
10318 moved forward and, not noticing the general, looked out shading his eyes
10319 with his small hand.
10321 "Lift it two lines more and it will be just right," cried he in a feeble
10322 voice to which he tried to impart a dashing note, ill-suited to his weak
10323 figure. "Number Two!" he squeaked. "Fire, Medvedev!"
10325 Bagration called to him, and Tushin, raising three fingers to his cap
10326 with a bashful and awkward gesture not at all like a military salute but
10327 like a priest's benediction, approached the general. Though Tushin's
10328 guns had been intended to cannonade the valley, he was firing incendiary
10329 balls at the village of Schon Grabern visible just opposite, in front of
10330 which large masses of French were advancing.
10332 No one had given Tushin orders where and at what to fire, but after
10333 consulting his sergeant major, Zakharchenko, for whom he had great
10334 respect, he had decided that it would be a good thing to set fire to the
10335 village. "Very good!" said Bagration in reply to the officer's report,
10336 and began deliberately to examine the whole battlefield extended before
10337 him. The French had advanced nearest on our right. Below the height on
10338 which the Kiev regiment was stationed, in the hollow where the rivulet
10339 flowed, the soul-stirring rolling and crackling of musketry was heard,
10340 and much farther to the right beyond the dragoons, the officer of the
10341 suite pointed out to Bagration a French column that was outflanking us.
10342 To the left the horizon bounded by the adjacent wood. Prince Bagration
10343 ordered two battalions from the center to be sent to reinforce the right
10344 flank. The officer of the suite ventured to remark to the prince that if
10345 these battalions went away, the guns would remain without support.
10346 Prince Bagration turned to the officer and with his dull eyes looked at
10347 him in silence. It seemed to Prince Andrew that the officer's remark was
10348 just and that really no answer could be made to it. But at that moment
10349 an adjutant galloped up with a message from the commander of the
10350 regiment in the hollow and news that immense masses of the French were
10351 coming down upon them and that his regiment was in disorder and was
10352 retreating upon the Kiev grenadiers. Prince Bagration bowed his head in
10353 sign of assent and approval. He rode off at a walk to the right and sent
10354 an adjutant to the dragoons with orders to attack the French. But this
10355 adjutant returned half an hour later with the news that the commander of
10356 the dragoons had already retreated beyond the dip in the ground, as a
10357 heavy fire had been opened on him and he was losing men uselessly, and
10358 so had hastened to throw some sharpshooters into the wood.
10360 "Very good!" said Bagration.
10362 As he was leaving the battery, firing was heard on the left also, and as
10363 it was too far to the left flank for him to have time to go there
10364 himself, Prince Bagration sent Zherkov to tell the general in command
10365 (the one who had paraded his regiment before Kutuzov at Braunau) that he
10366 must retreat as quickly as possible behind the hollow in the rear, as
10367 the right flank would probably not be able to withstand the enemy's
10368 attack very long. About Tushin and the battalion that had been in
10369 support of his battery all was forgotten. Prince Andrew listened
10370 attentively to Bagration's colloquies with the commanding officers and
10371 the orders he gave them and, to his surprise, found that no orders were
10372 really given, but that Prince Bagration tried to make it appear that
10373 everything done by necessity, by accident, or by the will of subordinate
10374 commanders was done, if not by his direct command, at least in accord
10375 with his intentions. Prince Andrew noticed, however, that though what
10376 happened was due to chance and was independent of the commander's will,
10377 owing to the tact Bagration showed, his presence was very valuable.
10378 Officers who approached him with disturbed countenances became calm;
10379 soldiers and officers greeted him gaily, grew more cheerful in his
10380 presence, and were evidently anxious to display their courage before
10388 Prince Bagration, having reached the highest point of our right flank,
10389 began riding downhill to where the roll of musketry was heard but where
10390 on account of the smoke nothing could be seen. The nearer they got to
10391 the hollow the less they could see but the more they felt the nearness
10392 of the actual battlefield. They began to meet wounded men. One with a
10393 bleeding head and no cap was being dragged along by two soldiers who
10394 supported him under the arms. There was a gurgle in his throat and he
10395 was spitting blood. A bullet had evidently hit him in the throat or
10396 mouth. Another was walking sturdily by himself but without his musket,
10397 groaning aloud and swinging his arm which had just been hurt, while
10398 blood from it was streaming over his greatcoat as from a bottle. He had
10399 that moment been wounded and his face showed fear rather than suffering.
10400 Crossing a road they descended a steep incline and saw several men lying
10401 on the ground; they also met a crowd of soldiers some of whom were
10402 unwounded. The soldiers were ascending the hill breathing heavily, and
10403 despite the general's presence were talking loudly and gesticulating. In
10404 front of them rows of gray cloaks were already visible through the
10405 smoke, and an officer catching sight of Bagration rushed shouting after
10406 the crowd of retreating soldiers, ordering them back. Bagration rode up
10407 to the ranks along which shots crackled now here and now there, drowning
10408 the sound of voices and the shouts of command. The whole air reeked with
10409 smoke. The excited faces of the soldiers were blackened with it. Some
10410 were using their ramrods, others putting powder on the touchpans or
10411 taking charges from their pouches, while others were firing, though who
10412 they were firing at could not be seen for the smoke which there was no
10413 wind to carry away. A pleasant humming and whistling of bullets were
10414 often heard. "What is this?" thought Prince Andrew approaching the crowd
10415 of soldiers. "It can't be an attack, for they are not moving; it can't
10416 be a square--for they are not drawn up for that."
10418 The commander of the regiment, a thin, feeble-looking old man with a
10419 pleasant smile--his eyelids drooping more than half over his old eyes,
10420 giving him a mild expression, rode up to Bagration and welcomed him as a
10421 host welcomes an honored guest. He reported that his regiment had been
10422 attacked by French cavalry and that, though the attack had been
10423 repulsed, he had lost more than half his men. He said the attack had
10424 been repulsed, employing this military term to describe what had
10425 occurred to his regiment, but in reality he did not himself know what
10426 had happened during that half-hour to the troops entrusted to him, and
10427 could not say with certainty whether the attack had been repulsed or his
10428 regiment had been broken up. All he knew was that at the commencement of
10429 the action balls and shells began flying all over his regiment and
10430 hitting men and that afterwards someone had shouted "Cavalry!" and our
10431 men had begun firing. They were still firing, not at the cavalry which
10432 had disappeared, but at French infantry who had come into the hollow and
10433 were firing at our men. Prince Bagration bowed his head as a sign that
10434 this was exactly what he had desired and expected. Turning to his
10435 adjutant he ordered him to bring down the two battalions of the Sixth
10436 Chasseurs whom they had just passed. Prince Andrew was struck by the
10437 changed expression on Prince Bagration's face at this moment. It
10438 expressed the concentrated and happy resolution you see on the face of a
10439 man who on a hot day takes a final run before plunging into the water.
10440 The dull, sleepy expression was no longer there, nor the affectation of
10441 profound thought. The round, steady, hawk's eyes looked before him
10442 eagerly and rather disdainfully, not resting on anything although his
10443 movements were still slow and measured.
10445 The commander of the regiment turned to Prince Bagration, entreating him
10446 to go back as it was too dangerous to remain where they were. "Please,
10447 your excellency, for God's sake!" he kept saying, glancing for support
10448 at an officer of the suite who turned away from him. "There, you see!"
10449 and he drew attention to the bullets whistling, singing, and hissing
10450 continually around them. He spoke in the tone of entreaty and reproach
10451 that a carpenter uses to a gentleman who has picked up an ax: "We are
10452 used to it, but you, sir, will blister your hands." He spoke as if those
10453 bullets could not kill him, and his half-closed eyes gave still more
10454 persuasiveness to his words. The staff officer joined in the colonel's
10455 appeals, but Bagration did not reply; he only gave an order to cease
10456 firing and re-form, so as to give room for the two approaching
10457 battalions. While he was speaking, the curtain of smoke that had
10458 concealed the hollow, driven by a rising wind, began to move from right
10459 to left as if drawn by an invisible hand, and the hill opposite, with
10460 the French moving about on it, opened out before them. All eyes fastened
10461 involuntarily on this French column advancing against them and winding
10462 down over the uneven ground. One could already see the soldiers' shaggy
10463 caps, distinguish the officers from the men, and see the standard
10464 flapping against its staff.
10466 "They march splendidly," remarked someone in Bagration's suite.
10468 The head of the column had already descended into the hollow. The clash
10469 would take place on this side of it...
10471 The remains of our regiment which had been in action rapidly formed up
10472 and moved to the right; from behind it, dispersing the laggards, came
10473 two battalions of the Sixth Chasseurs in fine order. Before they had
10474 reached Bagration, the weighty tread of the mass of men marching in step
10475 could be heard. On their left flank, nearest to Bagration, marched a
10476 company commander, a fine round-faced man, with a stupid and happy
10477 expression--the same man who had rushed out of the wattle shed. At that
10478 moment he was clearly thinking of nothing but how dashing a fellow he
10479 would appear as he passed the commander.
10481 With the self-satisfaction of a man on parade, he stepped lightly with
10482 his muscular legs as if sailing along, stretching himself to his full
10483 height without the smallest effort, his ease contrasting with the heavy
10484 tread of the soldiers who were keeping step with him. He carried close
10485 to his leg a narrow unsheathed sword (small, curved, and not like a real
10486 weapon) and looked now at the superior officers and now back at the men
10487 without losing step, his whole powerful body turning flexibly. It was as
10488 if all the powers of his soul were concentrated on passing the commander
10489 in the best possible manner, and feeling that he was doing it well he
10490 was happy. "Left... left... left..." he seemed to repeat to himself at
10491 each alternate step; and in time to this, with stern but varied faces,
10492 the wall of soldiers burdened with knapsacks and muskets marched in
10493 step, and each one of these hundreds of soldiers seemed to be repeating
10494 to himself at each alternate step, "Left... left... left..." A fat major
10495 skirted a bush, puffing and falling out of step; a soldier who had
10496 fallen behind, his face showing alarm at his defection, ran at a trot,
10497 panting to catch up with his company. A cannon ball, cleaving the air,
10498 flew over the heads of Bagration and his suite, and fell into the column
10499 to the measure of "Left... left!" "Close up!" came the company
10500 commander's voice in jaunty tones. The soldiers passed in a semicircle
10501 round something where the ball had fallen, and an old trooper on the
10502 flank, a noncommissioned officer who had stopped beside the dead men,
10503 ran to catch up his line and, falling into step with a hop, looked back
10504 angrily, and through the ominous silence and the regular tramp of feet
10505 beating the ground in unison, one seemed to hear left... left... left.
10507 "Well done, lads!" said Prince Bagration.
10509 "Glad to do our best, your ex'len-lency!" came a confused shout from the
10510 ranks. A morose soldier marching on the left turned his eyes on
10511 Bagration as he shouted, with an expression that seemed to say: "We know
10512 that ourselves!" Another, without looking round, as though fearing to
10513 relax, shouted with his mouth wide open and passed on.
10515 The order was given to halt and down knapsacks.
10517 Bagration rode round the ranks that had marched past him and dismounted.
10518 He gave the reins to a Cossack, took off and handed over his felt coat,
10519 stretched his legs, and set his cap straight. The head of the French
10520 column, with its officers leading, appeared from below the hill.
10522 "Forward, with God!" said Bagration, in a resolute, sonorous voice,
10523 turning for a moment to the front line, and slightly swinging his arms,
10524 he went forward uneasily over the rough field with the awkward gait of a
10525 cavalryman. Prince Andrew felt that an invisible power was leading him
10526 forward, and experienced great happiness.
10528 The French were already near. Prince Andrew, walking beside Bagration,
10529 could clearly distinguish their bandoliers, red epaulets, and even their
10530 faces. (He distinctly saw an old French officer who, with gaitered legs
10531 and turned-out toes, climbed the hill with difficulty.) Prince Bagration
10532 gave no further orders and silently continued to walk on in front of the
10533 ranks. Suddenly one shot after another rang out from the French, smoke
10534 appeared all along their uneven ranks, and musket shots sounded. Several
10535 of our men fell, among them the round-faced officer who had marched so
10536 gaily and complacently. But at the moment the first report was heard,
10537 Bagration looked round and shouted, "Hurrah!"
10539 "Hurrah--ah!--ah!" rang a long-drawn shout from our ranks, and passing
10540 Bagration and racing one another they rushed in an irregular but joyous
10541 and eager crowd down the hill at their disordered foe.
10548 The attack of the Sixth Chasseurs secured the retreat of our right
10549 flank. In the center Tushin's forgotten battery, which had managed to
10550 set fire to the Schon Grabern village, delayed the French advance. The
10551 French were putting out the fire which the wind was spreading, and thus
10552 gave us time to retreat. The retirement of the center to the other side
10553 of the dip in the ground at the rear was hurried and noisy, but the
10554 different companies did not get mixed. But our left--which consisted of
10555 the Azov and Podolsk infantry and the Pavlograd hussars--was
10556 simultaneously attacked and outflanked by superior French forces under
10557 Lannes and was thrown into confusion. Bagration had sent Zherkov to the
10558 general commanding that left flank with orders to retreat immediately.
10560 Zherkov, not removing his hand from his cap, turned his horse about and
10561 galloped off. But no sooner had he left Bagration than his courage
10562 failed him. He was seized by panic and could not go where it was
10565 Having reached the left flank, instead of going to the front where the
10566 firing was, he began to look for the general and his staff where they
10567 could not possibly be, and so did not deliver the order.
10569 The command of the left flank belonged by seniority to the commander of
10570 the regiment Kutuzov had reviewed at Braunau and in which Dolokhov was
10571 serving as a private. But the command of the extreme left flank had been
10572 assigned to the commander of the Pavlograd regiment in which Rostov was
10573 serving, and a misunderstanding arose. The two commanders were much
10574 exasperated with one another and, long after the action had begun on the
10575 right flank and the French were already advancing, were engaged in
10576 discussion with the sole object of offending one another. But the
10577 regiments, both cavalry and infantry, were by no means ready for the
10578 impending action. From privates to general they were not expecting a
10579 battle and were engaged in peaceful occupations, the cavalry feeding the
10580 horses and the infantry collecting wood.
10582 "He higher iss dan I in rank," said the German colonel of the hussars,
10583 flushing and addressing an adjutant who had ridden up, "so let him do
10584 what he vill, but I cannot sacrifice my hussars... Bugler, sount ze
10587 But haste was becoming imperative. Cannon and musketry, mingling
10588 together, thundered on the right and in the center, while the capotes of
10589 Lannes' sharpshooters were already seen crossing the milldam and forming
10590 up within twice the range of a musket shot. The general in command of
10591 the infantry went toward his horse with jerky steps, and having mounted
10592 drew himself up very straight and tall and rode to the Pavlograd
10593 commander. The commanders met with polite bows but with secret
10594 malevolence in their hearts.
10596 "Once again, Colonel," said the general, "I can't leave half my men in
10597 the wood. I beg of you, I beg of you," he repeated, "to occupy the
10598 position and prepare for an attack."
10600 "I peg of you yourself not to mix in vot is not your business!" suddenly
10601 replied the irate colonel. "If you vere in the cavalry..."
10603 "I am not in the cavalry, Colonel, but I am a Russian general and if you
10604 are not aware of the fact..."
10606 "Quite avare, your excellency," suddenly shouted the colonel, touching
10607 his horse and turning purple in the face. "Vill you be so goot to come
10608 to ze front and see dat zis position iss no goot? I don't vish to
10609 destroy my men for your pleasure!"
10611 "You forget yourself, Colonel. I am not considering my own pleasure and
10612 I won't allow it to be said!"
10614 Taking the colonel's outburst as a challenge to his courage, the general
10615 expanded his chest and rode, frowning, beside him to the front line, as
10616 if their differences would be settled there amongst the bullets. They
10617 reached the front, several bullets sped over them, and they halted in
10618 silence. There was nothing fresh to be seen from the line, for from
10619 where they had been before it had been evident that it was impossible
10620 for cavalry to act among the bushes and broken ground, as well as that
10621 the French were outflanking our left. The general and colonel looked
10622 sternly and significantly at one another like two fighting cocks
10623 preparing for battle, each vainly trying to detect signs of cowardice in
10624 the other. Both passed the examination successfully. As there was
10625 nothing to be said, and neither wished to give occasion for it to be
10626 alleged that he had been the first to leave the range of fire, they
10627 would have remained there for a long time testing each other's courage
10628 had it not been that just then they heard the rattle of musketry and a
10629 muffled shout almost behind them in the wood. The French had attacked
10630 the men collecting wood in the copse. It was no longer possible for the
10631 hussars to retreat with the infantry. They were cut off from the line of
10632 retreat on the left by the French. However inconvenient the position, it
10633 was now necessary to attack in order to cut a way through for
10636 The squadron in which Rostov was serving had scarcely time to mount
10637 before it was halted facing the enemy. Again, as at the Enns bridge,
10638 there was nothing between the squadron and the enemy, and again that
10639 terrible dividing line of uncertainty and fear--resembling the line
10640 separating the living from the dead--lay between them. All were
10641 conscious of this unseen line, and the question whether they would cross
10642 it or not, and how they would cross it, agitated them all.
10644 The colonel rode to the front, angrily gave some reply to questions put
10645 to him by the officers, and, like a man desperately insisting on having
10646 his own way, gave an order. No one said anything definite, but the rumor
10647 of an attack spread through the squadron. The command to form up rang
10648 out and the sabers whizzed as they were drawn from their scabbards.
10649 Still no one moved. The troops of the left flank, infantry and hussars
10650 alike, felt that the commander did not himself know what to do, and this
10651 irresolution communicated itself to the men.
10653 "If only they would be quick!" thought Rostov, feeling that at last the
10654 time had come to experience the joy of an attack of which he had so
10655 often heard from his fellow hussars.
10657 "Fo'ward, with God, lads!" rang out Denisov's voice. "At a twot
10660 The horses' croups began to sway in the front line. Rook pulled at the
10661 reins and started of his own accord.
10663 Before him, on the right, Rostov saw the front lines of his hussars and
10664 still farther ahead a dark line which he could not see distinctly but
10665 took to be the enemy. Shots could be heard, but some way off.
10667 "Faster!" came the word of command, and Rostov felt Rook's flanks
10668 drooping as he broke into a gallop.
10670 Rostov anticipated his horse's movements and became more and more
10671 elated. He had noticed a solitary tree ahead of him. This tree had been
10672 in the middle of the line that had seemed so terrible--and now he had
10673 crossed that line and not only was there nothing terrible, but
10674 everything was becoming more and more happy and animated. "Oh, how I
10675 will slash at him!" thought Rostov, gripping the hilt of his saber.
10677 "Hur-a-a-a-ah!" came a roar of voices. "Let anyone come my way now,"
10678 thought Rostov driving his spurs into Rook and letting him go at a full
10679 gallop so that he outstripped the others. Ahead, the enemy was already
10680 visible. Suddenly something like a birch broom seemed to sweep over the
10681 squadron. Rostov raised his saber, ready to strike, but at that instant
10682 the trooper Nikitenko, who was galloping ahead, shot away from him, and
10683 Rostov felt as in a dream that he continued to be carried forward with
10684 unnatural speed but yet stayed on the same spot. From behind him
10685 Bondarchuk, an hussar he knew, jolted against him and looked angrily at
10686 him. Bondarchuk's horse swerved and galloped past.
10688 "How is it I am not moving? I have fallen, I am killed!" Rostov asked
10689 and answered at the same instant. He was alone in the middle of a field.
10690 Instead of the moving horses and hussars' backs, he saw nothing before
10691 him but the motionless earth and the stubble around him. There was warm
10692 blood under his arm. "No, I am wounded and the horse is killed." Rook
10693 tried to rise on his forelegs but fell back, pinning his rider's leg.
10694 Blood was flowing from his head; he struggled but could not rise. Rostov
10695 also tried to rise but fell back, his sabretache having become entangled
10696 in the saddle. Where our men were, and where the French, he did not
10697 know. There was no one near.
10699 Having disentangled his leg, he rose. "Where, on which side, was now the
10700 line that had so sharply divided the two armies?" he asked himself and
10701 could not answer. "Can something bad have happened to me?" he wondered
10702 as he got up: and at that moment he felt that something superfluous was
10703 hanging on his benumbed left arm. The wrist felt as if it were not his.
10704 He examined his hand carefully, vainly trying to find blood on it. "Ah,
10705 here are people coming," he thought joyfully, seeing some men running
10706 toward him. "They will help me!" In front came a man wearing a strange
10707 shako and a blue cloak, swarthy, sunburned, and with a hooked nose. Then
10708 came two more, and many more running behind. One of them said something
10709 strange, not in Russian. In among the hindmost of these men wearing
10710 similar shakos was a Russian hussar. He was being held by the arms and
10711 his horse was being led behind him.
10713 "It must be one of ours, a prisoner. Yes. Can it be that they will take
10714 me too? Who are these men?" thought Rostov, scarcely believing his eyes.
10715 "Can they be French?" He looked at the approaching Frenchmen, and though
10716 but a moment before he had been galloping to get at them and hack them
10717 to pieces, their proximity now seemed so awful that he could not believe
10718 his eyes. "Who are they? Why are they running? Can they be coming at me?
10719 And why? To kill me? Me whom everyone is so fond of?" He remembered his
10720 mother's love for him, and his family's, and his friends', and the
10721 enemy's intention to kill him seemed impossible. "But perhaps they may
10722 do it!" For more than ten seconds he stood not moving from the spot or
10723 realizing the situation. The foremost Frenchman, the one with the hooked
10724 nose, was already so close that the expression of his face could be
10725 seen. And the excited, alien face of that man, his bayonet hanging down,
10726 holding his breath, and running so lightly, frightened Rostov. He seized
10727 his pistol and, instead of firing it, flung it at the Frenchman and ran
10728 with all his might toward the bushes. He did not now run with the
10729 feeling of doubt and conflict with which he had trodden the Enns bridge,
10730 but with the feeling of a hare fleeing from the hounds. One single
10731 sentiment, that of fear for his young and happy life, possessed his
10732 whole being. Rapidly leaping the furrows, he fled across the field with
10733 the impetuosity he used to show at catchplay, now and then turning his
10734 good-natured, pale, young face to look back. A shudder of terror went
10735 through him: "No, better not look," he thought, but having reached the
10736 bushes he glanced round once more. The French had fallen behind, and
10737 just as he looked round the first man changed his run to a walk and,
10738 turning, shouted something loudly to a comrade farther back. Rostov
10739 paused. "No, there's some mistake," thought he. "They can't have wanted
10740 to kill me." But at the same time, his left arm felt as heavy as if a
10741 seventy-pound weight were tied to it. He could run no more. The
10742 Frenchman also stopped and took aim. Rostov closed his eyes and stooped
10743 down. One bullet and then another whistled past him. He mustered his
10744 last remaining strength, took hold of his left hand with his right, and
10745 reached the bushes. Behind these were some Russian sharpshooters.
10752 The infantry regiments that had been caught unawares in the outskirts of
10753 the wood ran out of it, the different companies getting mixed, and
10754 retreated as a disorderly crowd. One soldier, in his fear, uttered the
10755 senseless cry, "Cut off!" that is so terrible in battle, and that word
10756 infected the whole crowd with a feeling of panic.
10758 "Surrounded! Cut off? We're lost!" shouted the fugitives.
10760 The moment he heard the firing and the cry from behind, the general
10761 realized that something dreadful had happened to his regiment, and the
10762 thought that he, an exemplary officer of many years' service who had
10763 never been to blame, might be held responsible at headquarters for
10764 negligence or inefficiency so staggered him that, forgetting the
10765 recalcitrant cavalry colonel, his own dignity as a general, and above
10766 all quite forgetting the danger and all regard for self-preservation, he
10767 clutched the crupper of his saddle and, spurring his horse, galloped to
10768 the regiment under a hail of bullets which fell around, but fortunately
10769 missed him. His one desire was to know what was happening and at any
10770 cost correct, or remedy, the mistake if he had made one, so that he, an
10771 exemplary officer of twenty-two years' service, who had never been
10772 censured, should not be held to blame.
10774 Having galloped safely through the French, he reached a field behind the
10775 copse across which our men, regardless of orders, were running and
10776 descending the valley. That moment of moral hesitation which decides the
10777 fate of battles had arrived. Would this disorderly crowd of soldiers
10778 attend to the voice of their commander, or would they, disregarding him,
10779 continue their flight? Despite his desperate shouts that used to seem so
10780 terrible to the soldiers, despite his furious purple countenance
10781 distorted out of all likeness to his former self, and the flourishing of
10782 his saber, the soldiers all continued to run, talking, firing into the
10783 air, and disobeying orders. The moral hesitation which decided the fate
10784 of battles was evidently culminating in a panic.
10786 The general had a fit of coughing as a result of shouting and of the
10787 powder smoke and stopped in despair. Everything seemed lost. But at that
10788 moment the French who were attacking, suddenly and without any apparent
10789 reason, ran back and disappeared from the outskirts, and Russian
10790 sharpshooters showed themselves in the copse. It was Timokhin's company,
10791 which alone had maintained its order in the wood and, having lain in
10792 ambush in a ditch, now attacked the French unexpectedly. Timokhin, armed
10793 only with a sword, had rushed at the enemy with such a desperate cry and
10794 such mad, drunken determination that, taken by surprise, the French had
10795 thrown down their muskets and run. Dolokhov, running beside Timokhin,
10796 killed a Frenchman at close quarters and was the first to seize the
10797 surrendering French officer by his collar. Our fugitives returned, the
10798 battalions re-formed, and the French who had nearly cut our left flank
10799 in half were for the moment repulsed. Our reserve units were able to
10800 join up, and the fight was at an end. The regimental commander and Major
10801 Ekonomov had stopped beside a bridge, letting the retreating companies
10802 pass by them, when a soldier came up and took hold of the commander's
10803 stirrup, almost leaning against him. The man was wearing a bluish coat
10804 of broadcloth, he had no knapsack or cap, his head was bandaged, and
10805 over his shoulder a French munition pouch was slung. He had an officer's
10806 sword in his hand. The soldier was pale, his blue eyes looked impudently
10807 into the commander's face, and his lips were smiling. Though the
10808 commander was occupied in giving instructions to Major Ekonomov, he
10809 could not help taking notice of the soldier.
10811 "Your excellency, here are two trophies," said Dolokhov, pointing to the
10812 French sword and pouch. "I have taken an officer prisoner. I stopped the
10813 company." Dolokhov breathed heavily from weariness and spoke in abrupt
10814 sentences. "The whole company can bear witness. I beg you will remember
10815 this, your excellency!"
10817 "All right, all right," replied the commander, and turned to Major
10820 But Dolokhov did not go away; he untied the handkerchief around his
10821 head, pulled it off, and showed the blood congealed on his hair.
10823 "A bayonet wound. I remained at the front. Remember, your excellency!"
10825 Tushin's battery had been forgotten and only at the very end of the
10826 action did Prince Bagration, still hearing the cannonade in the center,
10827 send his orderly staff officer, and later Prince Andrew also, to order
10828 the battery to retire as quickly as possible. When the supports attached
10829 to Tushin's battery had been moved away in the middle of the action by
10830 someone's order, the battery had continued firing and was only not
10831 captured by the French because the enemy could not surmise that anyone
10832 could have the effrontery to continue firing from four quite undefended
10833 guns. On the contrary, the energetic action of that battery led the
10834 French to suppose that here--in the center--the main Russian forces were
10835 concentrated. Twice they had attempted to attack this point, but on each
10836 occasion had been driven back by grapeshot from the four isolated guns
10839 Soon after Prince Bagration had left him, Tushin had succeeded in
10840 setting fire to Schon Grabern.
10842 "Look at them scurrying! It's burning! Just see the smoke! Fine! Grand!
10843 Look at the smoke, the smoke!" exclaimed the artillerymen, brightening
10846 All the guns, without waiting for orders, were being fired in the
10847 direction of the conflagration. As if urging each other on, the soldiers
10848 cried at each shot: "Fine! That's good! Look at it... Grand!" The fire,
10849 fanned by the breeze, was rapidly spreading. The French columns that had
10850 advanced beyond the village went back; but as though in revenge for this
10851 failure, the enemy placed ten guns to the right of the village and began
10852 firing them at Tushin's battery.
10854 In their childlike glee, aroused by the fire and their luck in
10855 successfully cannonading the French, our artillerymen only noticed this
10856 battery when two balls, and then four more, fell among our guns, one
10857 knocking over two horses and another tearing off a munition-wagon
10858 driver's leg. Their spirits once roused were, however, not diminished,
10859 but only changed character. The horses were replaced by others from a
10860 reserve gun carriage, the wounded were carried away, and the four guns
10861 were turned against the ten-gun battery. Tushin's companion officer had
10862 been killed at the beginning of the engagement and within an hour
10863 seventeen of the forty men of the guns' crews had been disabled, but the
10864 artillerymen were still as merry and lively as ever. Twice they noticed
10865 the French appearing below them, and then they fired grapeshot at them.
10867 Little Tushin, moving feebly and awkwardly, kept telling his orderly to
10868 "refill my pipe for that one!" and then, scattering sparks from it, ran
10869 forward shading his eyes with his small hand to look at the French.
10871 "Smack at 'em, lads!" he kept saying, seizing the guns by the wheels and
10872 working the screws himself.
10874 Amid the smoke, deafened by the incessant reports which always made him
10875 jump, Tushin not taking his pipe from his mouth ran from gun to gun, now
10876 aiming, now counting the charges, now giving orders about replacing dead
10877 or wounded horses and harnessing fresh ones, and shouting in his feeble
10878 voice, so high pitched and irresolute. His face grew more and more
10879 animated. Only when a man was killed or wounded did he frown and turn
10880 away from the sight, shouting angrily at the men who, as is always the
10881 case, hesitated about lifting the injured or dead. The soldiers, for the
10882 most part handsome fellows and, as is always the case in an artillery
10883 company, a head and shoulders taller and twice as broad as their
10884 officer--all looked at their commander like children in an embarrassing
10885 situation, and the expression on his face was invariably reflected on
10888 Owing to the terrible uproar and the necessity for concentration and
10889 activity, Tushin did not experience the slightest unpleasant sense of
10890 fear, and the thought that he might be killed or badly wounded never
10891 occurred to him. On the contrary, he became more and more elated. It
10892 seemed to him that it was a very long time ago, almost a day, since he
10893 had first seen the enemy and fired the first shot, and that the corner
10894 of the field he stood on was well-known and familiar ground. Though he
10895 thought of everything, considered everything, and did everything the
10896 best of officers could do in his position, he was in a state akin to
10897 feverish delirium or drunkenness.
10899 From the deafening sounds of his own guns around him, the whistle and
10900 thud of the enemy's cannon balls, from the flushed and perspiring faces
10901 of the crew bustling round the guns, from the sight of the blood of men
10902 and horses, from the little puffs of smoke on the enemy's side (always
10903 followed by a ball flying past and striking the earth, a man, a gun, a
10904 horse), from the sight of all these things a fantastic world of his own
10905 had taken possession of his brain and at that moment afforded him
10906 pleasure. The enemy's guns were in his fancy not guns but pipes from
10907 which occasional puffs were blown by an invisible smoker.
10909 "There... he's puffing again," muttered Tushin to himself, as a small
10910 cloud rose from the hill and was borne in a streak to the left by the
10913 "Now look out for the ball... we'll throw it back."
10915 "What do you want, your honor?" asked an artilleryman, standing close
10916 by, who heard him muttering.
10918 "Nothing... only a shell..." he answered.
10920 "Come along, our Matvevna!" he said to himself. "Matvevna" * was the
10921 name his fancy gave to the farthest gun of the battery, which was large
10922 and of an old pattern. The French swarming round their guns seemed to
10923 him like ants. In that world, the handsome drunkard Number One of the
10924 second gun's crew was "uncle"; Tushin looked at him more often than at
10925 anyone else and took delight in his every movement. The sound of
10926 musketry at the foot of the hill, now diminishing, now increasing,
10927 seemed like someone's breathing. He listened intently to the ebb and
10928 flow of these sounds.
10931 * Daughter of Matthew.
10933 "Ah! Breathing again, breathing!" he muttered to himself.
10935 He imagined himself as an enormously tall, powerful man who was throwing
10936 cannon balls at the French with both hands.
10938 "Now then, Matvevna, dear old lady, don't let me down!" he was saying as
10939 he moved from the gun, when a strange, unfamiliar voice called above his
10940 head: "Captain Tushin! Captain!"
10942 Tushin turned round in dismay. It was the staff officer who had turned
10943 him out of the booth at Grunth. He was shouting in a gasping voice:
10945 "Are you mad? You have twice been ordered to retreat, and you..."
10947 "Why are they down on me?" thought Tushin, looking in alarm at his
10950 "I... don't..." he muttered, holding up two fingers to his cap. "I..."
10952 But the staff officer did not finish what he wanted to say. A cannon
10953 ball, flying close to him, caused him to duck and bend over his horse.
10954 He paused, and just as he was about to say something more, another ball
10955 stopped him. He turned his horse and galloped off.
10957 "Retire! All to retire!" he shouted from a distance.
10959 The soldiers laughed. A moment later, an adjutant arrived with the same
10962 It was Prince Andrew. The first thing he saw on riding up to the space
10963 where Tushin's guns were stationed was an unharnessed horse with a
10964 broken leg, that lay screaming piteously beside the harnessed horses.
10965 Blood was gushing from its leg as from a spring. Among the limbers lay
10966 several dead men. One ball after another passed over as he approached
10967 and he felt a nervous shudder run down his spine. But the mere thought
10968 of being afraid roused him again. "I cannot be afraid," thought he, and
10969 dismounted slowly among the guns. He delivered the order and did not
10970 leave the battery. He decided to have the guns removed from their
10971 positions and withdrawn in his presence. Together with Tushin, stepping
10972 across the bodies and under a terrible fire from the French, he attended
10973 to the removal of the guns.
10975 "A staff officer was here a minute ago, but skipped off," said an
10976 artilleryman to Prince Andrew. "Not like your honor!"
10978 Prince Andrew said nothing to Tushin. They were both so busy as to seem
10979 not to notice one another. When having limbered up the only two cannon
10980 that remained uninjured out of the four, they began moving down the hill
10981 (one shattered gun and one unicorn were left behind), Prince Andrew rode
10984 "Well, till we meet again..." he said, holding out his hand to Tushin.
10986 "Good-bye, my dear fellow," said Tushin. "Dear soul! Good-bye, my dear
10987 fellow!" and for some unknown reason tears suddenly filled his eyes.
10994 The wind had fallen and black clouds, merging with the powder smoke,
10995 hung low over the field of battle on the horizon. It was growing dark
10996 and the glow of two conflagrations was the more conspicuous. The
10997 cannonade was dying down, but the rattle of musketry behind and on the
10998 right sounded oftener and nearer. As soon as Tushin with his guns,
10999 continually driving round or coming upon wounded men, was out of range
11000 of fire and had descended into the dip, he was met by some of the staff,
11001 among them the staff officer and Zherkov, who had been twice sent to
11002 Tushin's battery but had never reached it. Interrupting one another,
11003 they all gave, and transmitted, orders as to how to proceed,
11004 reprimanding and reproaching him. Tushin gave no orders, and, silently--
11005 fearing to speak because at every word he felt ready to weep without
11006 knowing why--rode behind on his artillery nag. Though the orders were to
11007 abandon the wounded, many of them dragged themselves after troops and
11008 begged for seats on the gun carriages. The jaunty infantry officer who
11009 just before the battle had rushed out of Tushin's wattle shed was laid,
11010 with a bullet in his stomach, on "Matvevna's" carriage. At the foot of
11011 the hill, a pale hussar cadet, supporting one hand with the other, came
11012 up to Tushin and asked for a seat.
11014 "Captain, for God's sake! I've hurt my arm," he said timidly. "For God's
11015 sake... I can't walk. For God's sake!"
11017 It was plain that this cadet had already repeatedly asked for a lift and
11018 been refused. He asked in a hesitating, piteous voice.
11020 "Tell them to give me a seat, for God's sake!"
11022 "Give him a seat," said Tushin. "Lay a cloak for him to sit on, lad," he
11023 said, addressing his favorite soldier. "And where is the wounded
11026 "He has been set down. He died," replied someone.
11028 "Help him up. Sit down, dear fellow, sit down! Spread out the cloak,
11031 The cadet was Rostov. With one hand he supported the other; he was pale
11032 and his jaw trembled, shivering feverishly. He was placed on "Matvevna,"
11033 the gun from which they had removed the dead officer. The cloak they
11034 spread under him was wet with blood which stained his breeches and arm.
11036 "What, are you wounded, my lad?" said Tushin, approaching the gun on
11039 "No, it's a sprain."
11041 "Then what is this blood on the gun carriage?" inquired Tushin.
11043 "It was the officer, your honor, stained it," answered the artilleryman,
11044 wiping away the blood with his coat sleeve, as if apologizing for the
11047 It was all that they could do to get the guns up the rise aided by the
11048 infantry, and having reached the village of Gruntersdorf they halted. It
11049 had grown so dark that one could not distinguish the uniforms ten paces
11050 off, and the firing had begun to subside. Suddenly, near by on the
11051 right, shouting and firing were again heard. Flashes of shot gleamed in
11052 the darkness. This was the last French attack and was met by soldiers
11053 who had sheltered in the village houses. They all rushed out of the
11054 village again, but Tushin's guns could not move, and the artillerymen,
11055 Tushin, and the cadet exchanged silent glances as they awaited their
11056 fate. The firing died down and soldiers, talking eagerly, streamed out
11059 "Not hurt, Petrov?" asked one.
11061 "We've given it 'em hot, mate! They won't make another push now," said
11064 "You couldn't see a thing. How they shot at their own fellows! Nothing
11065 could be seen. Pitch-dark, brother! Isn't there something to drink?"
11067 The French had been repulsed for the last time. And again and again in
11068 the complete darkness Tushin's guns moved forward, surrounded by the
11069 humming infantry as by a frame.
11071 In the darkness, it seemed as though a gloomy unseen river was flowing
11072 always in one direction, humming with whispers and talk and the sound of
11073 hoofs and wheels. Amid the general rumble, the groans and voices of the
11074 wounded were more distinctly heard than any other sound in the darkness
11075 of the night. The gloom that enveloped the army was filled with their
11076 groans, which seemed to melt into one with the darkness of the night.
11077 After a while the moving mass became agitated, someone rode past on a
11078 white horse followed by his suite, and said something in passing: "What
11079 did he say? Where to, now? Halt, is it? Did he thank us?" came eager
11080 questions from all sides. The whole moving mass began pressing closer
11081 together and a report spread that they were ordered to halt: evidently
11082 those in front had halted. All remained where they were in the middle of
11085 Fires were lighted and the talk became more audible. Captain Tushin,
11086 having given orders to his company, sent a soldier to find a dressing
11087 station or a doctor for the cadet, and sat down by a bonfire the
11088 soldiers had kindled on the road. Rostov, too, dragged himself to the
11089 fire. From pain, cold, and damp, a feverish shivering shook his whole
11090 body. Drowsiness was irresistibly mastering him, but he kept awake by an
11091 excruciating pain in his arm, for which he could find no satisfactory
11092 position. He kept closing his eyes and then again looking at the fire,
11093 which seemed to him dazzlingly red, and at the feeble, round-shouldered
11094 figure of Tushin who was sitting cross-legged like a Turk beside him.
11095 Tushin's large, kind, intelligent eyes were fixed with sympathy and
11096 commiseration on Rostov, who saw that Tushin with his whole heart wished
11097 to help him but could not.
11099 From all sides were heard the footsteps and talk of the infantry, who
11100 were walking, driving past, and settling down all around. The sound of
11101 voices, the tramping feet, the horses' hoofs moving in mud, the
11102 crackling of wood fires near and afar, merged into one tremulous rumble.
11104 It was no longer, as before, a dark, unseen river flowing through the
11105 gloom, but a dark sea swelling and gradually subsiding after a storm.
11106 Rostov looked at and listened listlessly to what passed before and
11107 around him. An infantryman came to the fire, squatted on his heels, held
11108 his hands to the blaze, and turned away his face.
11110 "You don't mind your honor?" he asked Tushin. "I've lost my company,
11111 your honor. I don't know where... such bad luck!"
11113 With the soldier, an infantry officer with a bandaged cheek came up to
11114 the bonfire, and addressing Tushin asked him to have the guns moved a
11115 trifle to let a wagon go past. After he had gone, two soldiers rushed to
11116 the campfire. They were quarreling and fighting desperately, each trying
11117 to snatch from the other a boot they were both holding on to.
11119 "You picked it up?... I dare say! You're very smart!" one of them
11122 Then a thin, pale soldier, his neck bandaged with a bloodstained leg
11123 band, came up and in angry tones asked the artillerymen for water.
11125 "Must one die like a dog?" said he.
11127 Tushin told them to give the man some water. Then a cheerful soldier ran
11128 up, begging a little fire for the infantry.
11130 "A nice little hot torch for the infantry! Good luck to you, fellow
11131 countrymen. Thanks for the fire--we'll return it with interest," said
11132 he, carrying away into the darkness a glowing stick.
11134 Next came four soldiers, carrying something heavy on a cloak, and passed
11135 by the fire. One of them stumbled.
11137 "Who the devil has put the logs on the road?" snarled he.
11139 "He's dead--why carry him?" said another.
11143 And they disappeared into the darkness with their load.
11145 "Still aching?" Tushin asked Rostov in a whisper.
11149 "Your honor, you're wanted by the general. He is in the hut here," said
11150 a gunner, coming up to Tushin.
11154 Tushin rose and, buttoning his greatcoat and pulling it straight, walked
11155 away from the fire.
11157 Not far from the artillery campfire, in a hut that had been prepared for
11158 him, Prince Bagration sat at dinner, talking with some commanding
11159 officers who had gathered at his quarters. The little old man with the
11160 half-closed eyes was there greedily gnawing a mutton bone, and the
11161 general who had served blamelessly for twenty-two years, flushed by a
11162 glass of vodka and the dinner; and the staff officer with the signet
11163 ring, and Zherkov, uneasily glancing at them all, and Prince Andrew,
11164 pale, with compressed lips and feverishly glittering eyes.
11166 In a corner of the hut stood a standard captured from the French, and
11167 the accountant with the naive face was feeling its texture, shaking his
11168 head in perplexity--perhaps because the banner really interested him,
11169 perhaps because it was hard for him, hungry as he was, to look on at a
11170 dinner where there was no place for him. In the next hut there was a
11171 French colonel who had been taken prisoner by our dragoons. Our officers
11172 were flocking in to look at him. Prince Bagration was thanking the
11173 individual commanders and inquiring into details of the action and our
11174 losses. The general whose regiment had been inspected at Braunau was
11175 informing the prince that as soon as the action began he had withdrawn
11176 from the wood, mustered the men who were woodcutting, and, allowing the
11177 French to pass him, had made a bayonet charge with two battalions and
11178 had broken up the French troops.
11180 "When I saw, your excellency, that their first battalion was
11181 disorganized, I stopped in the road and thought: 'I'll let them come on
11182 and will meet them with the fire of the whole battalion'--and that's
11185 The general had so wished to do this and was so sorry he had not managed
11186 to do it that it seemed to him as if it had really happened. Perhaps it
11187 might really have been so? Could one possibly make out amid all that
11188 confusion what did or did not happen?
11190 "By the way, your excellency, I should inform you," he continued--
11191 remembering Dolokhov's conversation with Kutuzov and his last interview
11192 with the gentleman-ranker--"that Private Dolokhov, who was reduced to
11193 the ranks, took a French officer prisoner in my presence and
11194 particularly distinguished himself."
11196 "I saw the Pavlograd hussars attack there, your excellency," chimed in
11197 Zherkov, looking uneasily around. He had not seen the hussars all that
11198 day, but had heard about them from an infantry officer. "They broke up
11199 two squares, your excellency."
11201 Several of those present smiled at Zherkov's words, expecting one of his
11202 usual jokes, but noticing that what he was saying redounded to the glory
11203 of our arms and of the day's work, they assumed a serious expression,
11204 though many of them knew that what he was saying was a lie devoid of any
11205 foundation. Prince Bagration turned to the old colonel:
11207 "Gentlemen, I thank you all; all arms have behaved heroically: infantry,
11208 cavalry, and artillery. How was it that two guns were abandoned in the
11209 center?" he inquired, searching with his eyes for someone. (Prince
11210 Bagration did not ask about the guns on the left flank; he knew that all
11211 the guns there had been abandoned at the very beginning of the action.)
11212 "I think I sent you?" he added, turning to the staff officer on duty.
11214 "One was damaged," answered the staff officer, "and the other I can't
11215 understand. I was there all the time giving orders and had only just
11216 left.... It is true that it was hot there," he added, modestly.
11218 Someone mentioned that Captain Tushin was bivouacking close to the
11219 village and had already been sent for.
11221 "Oh, but you were there?" said Prince Bagration, addressing Prince
11224 "Of course, we only just missed one another," said the staff officer,
11225 with a smile to Bolkonski.
11227 "I had not the pleasure of seeing you," said Prince Andrew, coldly and
11230 All were silent. Tushin appeared at the threshold and made his way
11231 timidly from behind the backs of the generals. As he stepped past the
11232 generals in the crowded hut, feeling embarrassed as he always was by the
11233 sight of his superiors, he did not notice the staff of the banner and
11234 stumbled over it. Several of those present laughed.
11236 "How was it a gun was abandoned?" asked Bagration, frowning, not so much
11237 at the captain as at those who were laughing, among whom Zherkov laughed
11240 Only now, when he was confronted by the stern authorities, did his guilt
11241 and the disgrace of having lost two guns and yet remaining alive present
11242 themselves to Tushin in all their horror. He had been so excited that he
11243 had not thought about it until that moment. The officers' laughter
11244 confused him still more. He stood before Bagration with his lower jaw
11245 trembling and was hardly able to mutter: "I don't know... your
11246 excellency... I had no men... your excellency."
11248 "You might have taken some from the covering troops."
11250 Tushin did not say that there were no covering troops, though that was
11251 perfectly true. He was afraid of getting some other officer into
11252 trouble, and silently fixed his eyes on Bagration as a schoolboy who has
11253 blundered looks at an examiner.
11255 The silence lasted some time. Prince Bagration, apparently not wishing
11256 to be severe, found nothing to say; the others did not venture to
11257 intervene. Prince Andrew looked at Tushin from under his brows and his
11258 fingers twitched nervously.
11260 "Your excellency!" Prince Andrew broke the silence with his abrupt
11261 voice, "you were pleased to send me to Captain Tushin's battery. I went
11262 there and found two thirds of the men and horses knocked out, two guns
11263 smashed, and no supports at all."
11265 Prince Bagration and Tushin looked with equal intentness at Bolkonski,
11266 who spoke with suppressed agitation.
11268 "And, if your excellency will allow me to express my opinion," he
11269 continued, "we owe today's success chiefly to the action of that battery
11270 and the heroic endurance of Captain Tushin and his company," and without
11271 awaiting a reply, Prince Andrew rose and left the table.
11273 Prince Bagration looked at Tushin, evidently reluctant to show distrust
11274 in Bolkonski's emphatic opinion yet not feeling able fully to credit it,
11275 bent his head, and told Tushin that he could go. Prince Andrew went out
11278 "Thank you; you saved me, my dear fellow!" said Tushin.
11280 Prince Andrew gave him a look, but said nothing and went away. He felt
11281 sad and depressed. It was all so strange, so unlike what he had hoped.
11283 "Who are they? Why are they here? What do they want? And when will all
11284 this end?" thought Rostov, looking at the changing shadows before him.
11285 The pain in his arm became more and more intense. Irresistible
11286 drowsiness overpowered him, red rings danced before his eyes, and the
11287 impression of those voices and faces and a sense of loneliness merged
11288 with the physical pain. It was they, these soldiers--wounded and
11289 unwounded--it was they who were crushing, weighing down, and twisting
11290 the sinews and scorching the flesh of his sprained arm and shoulder. To
11291 rid himself of them he closed his eyes.
11293 For a moment he dozed, but in that short interval innumerable things
11294 appeared to him in a dream: his mother and her large white hand, Sonya's
11295 thin little shoulders, Natasha's eyes and laughter, Denisov with his
11296 voice and mustache, and Telyanin and all that affair with Telyanin and
11297 Bogdanich. That affair was the same thing as this soldier with the harsh
11298 voice, and it was that affair and this soldier that were so agonizingly,
11299 incessantly pulling and pressing his arm and always dragging it in one
11300 direction. He tried to get away from them, but they would not for an
11301 instant let his shoulder move a hair's breadth. It would not ache--it
11302 would be well--if only they did not pull it, but it was impossible to
11305 He opened his eyes and looked up. The black canopy of night hung less
11306 than a yard above the glow of the charcoal. Flakes of falling snow were
11307 fluttering in that light. Tushin had not returned, the doctor had not
11308 come. He was alone now, except for a soldier who was sitting naked at
11309 the other side of the fire, warming his thin yellow body.
11311 "Nobody wants me!" thought Rostov. "There is no one to help me or pity
11312 me. Yet I was once at home, strong, happy, and loved." He sighed and,
11313 doing so, groaned involuntarily.
11315 "Eh, is anything hurting you?" asked the soldier, shaking his shirt out
11316 over the fire, and not waiting for an answer he gave a grunt and added:
11317 "What a lot of men have been crippled today--frightful!"
11319 Rostov did not listen to the soldier. He looked at the snowflakes
11320 fluttering above the fire and remembered a Russian winter at his warm,
11321 bright home, his fluffy fur coat, his quickly gliding sleigh, his
11322 healthy body, and all the affection and care of his family. "And why did
11323 I come here?" he wondered.
11325 Next day the French army did not renew their attack, and the remnant of
11326 Bagration's detachment was reunited to Kutuzov's army.
11335 Prince Vasili was not a man who deliberately thought out his plans.
11336 Still less did he think of injuring anyone for his own advantage. He was
11337 merely a man of the world who had got on and to whom getting on had
11338 become a habit. Schemes and devices for which he never rightly accounted
11339 to himself, but which formed the whole interest of his life, were
11340 constantly shaping themselves in his mind, arising from the
11341 circumstances and persons he met. Of these plans he had not merely one
11342 or two in his head but dozens, some only beginning to form themselves,
11343 some approaching achievement, and some in course of disintegration. He
11344 did not, for instance, say to himself: "This man now has influence, I
11345 must gain his confidence and friendship and through him obtain a special
11346 grant." Nor did he say to himself: "Pierre is a rich man, I must entice
11347 him to marry my daughter and lend me the forty thousand rubles I need."
11348 But when he came across a man of position his instinct immediately told
11349 him that this man could be useful, and without any premeditation Prince
11350 Vasili took the first opportunity to gain his confidence, flatter him,
11351 become intimate with him, and finally make his request.
11353 He had Pierre at hand in Moscow and procured for him an appointment as
11354 Gentleman of the Bedchamber, which at that time conferred the status of
11355 Councilor of State, and insisted on the young man accompanying him to
11356 Petersburg and staying at his house. With apparent absent-mindedness,
11357 yet with unhesitating assurance that he was doing the right thing,
11358 Prince Vasili did everything to get Pierre to marry his daughter. Had he
11359 thought out his plans beforehand he could not have been so natural and
11360 shown such unaffected familiarity in intercourse with everybody both
11361 above and below him in social standing. Something always drew him toward
11362 those richer and more powerful than himself and he had rare skill in
11363 seizing the most opportune moment for making use of people.
11365 Pierre, on unexpectedly becoming Count Bezukhov and a rich man, felt
11366 himself after his recent loneliness and freedom from cares so beset and
11367 preoccupied that only in bed was he able to be by himself. He had to
11368 sign papers, to present himself at government offices, the purpose of
11369 which was not clear to him, to question his chief steward, to visit his
11370 estate near Moscow, and to receive many people who formerly did not even
11371 wish to know of his existence but would now have been offended and
11372 grieved had he chosen not to see them. These different people--
11373 businessmen, relations, and acquaintances alike--were all disposed to
11374 treat the young heir in the most friendly and flattering manner: they
11375 were all evidently firmly convinced of Pierre's noble qualities. He was
11376 always hearing such words as: "With your remarkable kindness," or, "With
11377 your excellent heart," "You are yourself so honorable Count," or, "Were
11378 he as clever as you," and so on, till he began sincerely to believe in
11379 his own exceptional kindness and extraordinary intelligence, the more so
11380 as in the depth of his heart it had always seemed to him that he really
11381 was very kind and intelligent. Even people who had formerly been
11382 spiteful toward him and evidently unfriendly now became gentle and
11383 affectionate. The angry eldest princess, with the long waist and hair
11384 plastered down like a doll's, had come into Pierre's room after the
11385 funeral. With drooping eyes and frequent blushes she told him she was
11386 very sorry about their past misunderstandings and did not now feel she
11387 had a right to ask him for anything, except only for permission, after
11388 the blow she had received, to remain for a few weeks longer in the house
11389 she so loved and where she had sacrificed so much. She could not refrain
11390 from weeping at these words. Touched that this statuesque princess could
11391 so change, Pierre took her hand and begged her forgiveness, without
11392 knowing what for. From that day the eldest princess quite changed toward
11393 Pierre and began knitting a striped scarf for him.
11395 "Do this for my sake, mon cher; after all, she had to put up with a
11396 great deal from the deceased," said Prince Vasili to him, handing him a
11397 deed to sign for the princess' benefit.
11399 Prince Vasili had come to the conclusion that it was necessary to throw
11400 this bone--a bill for thirty thousand rubles--to the poor princess that
11401 it might not occur to her to speak of his share in the affair of the
11402 inlaid portfolio. Pierre signed the deed and after that the princess
11403 grew still kinder. The younger sisters also became affectionate to him,
11404 especially the youngest, the pretty one with the mole, who often made
11405 him feel confused by her smiles and her own confusion when meeting him.
11407 It seemed so natural to Pierre that everyone should like him, and it
11408 would have seemed so unnatural had anyone disliked him, that he could
11409 not but believe in the sincerity of those around him. Besides, he had no
11410 time to ask himself whether these people were sincere or not. He was
11411 always busy and always felt in a state of mild and cheerful
11412 intoxication. He felt as though he were the center of some important and
11413 general movement; that something was constantly expected of him, that if
11414 he did not do it he would grieve and disappoint many people, but if he
11415 did this and that, all would be well; and he did what was demanded of
11416 him, but still that happy result always remained in the future.
11418 More than anyone else, Prince Vasili took possession of Pierre's affairs
11419 and of Pierre himself in those early days. From the death of Count
11420 Bezukhov he did not let go his hold of the lad. He had the air of a man
11421 oppressed by business, weary and suffering, who yet would not, for
11422 pity's sake, leave this helpless youth who, after all, was the son of
11423 his old friend and the possessor of such enormous wealth, to the caprice
11424 of fate and the designs of rogues. During the few days he spent in
11425 Moscow after the death of Count Bezukhov, he would call Pierre, or go to
11426 him himself, and tell him what ought to be done in a tone of weariness
11427 and assurance, as if he were adding every time: "You know I am
11428 overwhelmed with business and it is purely out of charity that I trouble
11429 myself about you, and you also know quite well that what I propose is
11430 the only thing possible."
11432 "Well, my dear fellow, tomorrow we are off at last," said Prince Vasili
11433 one day, closing his eyes and fingering Pierre's elbow, speaking as if
11434 he were saying something which had long since been agreed upon and could
11435 not now be altered. "We start tomorrow and I'm giving you a place in my
11436 carriage. I am very glad. All our important business here is now
11437 settled, and I ought to have been off long ago. Here is something I have
11438 received from the chancellor. I asked him for you, and you have been
11439 entered in the diplomatic corps and made a Gentleman of the Bedchamber.
11440 The diplomatic career now lies open before you."
11442 Notwithstanding the tone of wearied assurance with which these words
11443 were pronounced, Pierre, who had so long been considering his career,
11444 wished to make some suggestion. But Prince Vasili interrupted him in the
11445 special deep cooing tone, precluding the possibility of interrupting his
11446 speech, which he used in extreme cases when special persuasion was
11449 "Mais, mon cher, I did this for my own sake, to satisfy my conscience,
11450 and there is nothing to thank me for. No one has ever complained yet of
11451 being too much loved; and besides, you are free, you could throw it up
11452 tomorrow. But you will see everything for yourself when you get to
11453 Petersburg. It is high time for you to get away from these terrible
11454 recollections." Prince Vasili sighed. "Yes, yes, my boy. And my valet
11455 can go in your carriage. Ah! I was nearly forgetting," he added. "You
11456 know, mon cher, your father and I had some accounts to settle, so I have
11457 received what was due from the Ryazan estate and will keep it; you won't
11458 require it. We'll go into the accounts later."
11460 By "what was due from the Ryazan estate" Prince Vasili meant several
11461 thousand rubles quitrent received from Pierre's peasants, which the
11462 prince had retained for himself.
11464 In Petersburg, as in Moscow, Pierre found the same atmosphere of
11465 gentleness and affection. He could not refuse the post, or rather the
11466 rank (for he did nothing), that Prince Vasili had procured for him, and
11467 acquaintances, invitations, and social occupations were so numerous
11468 that, even more than in Moscow, he felt a sense of bewilderment, bustle,
11469 and continual expectation of some good, always in front of him but never
11472 Of his former bachelor acquaintances many were no longer in Petersburg.
11473 The Guards had gone to the front; Dolokhov had been reduced to the
11474 ranks; Anatole was in the army somewhere in the provinces; Prince Andrew
11475 was abroad; so Pierre had not the opportunity to spend his nights as he
11476 used to like to spend them, or to open his mind by intimate talks with a
11477 friend older than himself and whom he respected. His whole time was
11478 taken up with dinners and balls and was spent chiefly at Prince Vasili's
11479 house in the company of the stout princess, his wife, and his beautiful
11482 Like the others, Anna Pavlovna Scherer showed Pierre the change of
11483 attitude toward him that had taken place in society.
11485 Formerly in Anna Pavlovna's presence, Pierre had always felt that what
11486 he was saying was out of place, tactless and unsuitable, that remarks
11487 which seemed to him clever while they formed in his mind became foolish
11488 as soon as he uttered them, while on the contrary Hippolyte's stupidest
11489 remarks came out clever and apt. Now everything Pierre said was
11490 charmant. Even if Anna Pavlovna did not say so, he could see that she
11491 wished to and only refrained out of regard for his modesty.
11493 In the beginning of the winter of 1805-6 Pierre received one of Anna
11494 Pavlovna's usual pink notes with an invitation to which was added: "You
11495 will find the beautiful Helene here, whom it is always delightful to
11498 When he read that sentence, Pierre felt for the first time that some
11499 link which other people recognized had grown up between himself and
11500 Helene, and that thought both alarmed him, as if some obligation were
11501 being imposed on him which he could not fulfill, and pleased him as an
11502 entertaining supposition.
11504 Anna Pavlovna's "At Home" was like the former one, only the novelty she
11505 offered her guests this time was not Mortemart, but a diplomatist fresh
11506 from Berlin with the very latest details of the Emperor Alexander's
11507 visit to Potsdam, and of how the two august friends had pledged
11508 themselves in an indissoluble alliance to uphold the cause of justice
11509 against the enemy of the human race. Anna Pavlovna received Pierre with
11510 a shade of melancholy, evidently relating to the young man's recent loss
11511 by the death of Count Bezukhov (everyone constantly considered it a duty
11512 to assure Pierre that he was greatly afflicted by the death of the
11513 father he had hardly known), and her melancholy was just like the august
11514 melancholy she showed at the mention of her most august Majesty the
11515 Empress Marya Fedorovna. Pierre felt flattered by this. Anna Pavlovna
11516 arranged the different groups in her drawing room with her habitual
11517 skill. The large group, in which were Prince Vasili and the generals,
11518 had the benefit of the diplomat. Another group was at the tea table.
11519 Pierre wished to join the former, but Anna Pavlovna--who was in the
11520 excited condition of a commander on a battlefield to whom thousands of
11521 new and brilliant ideas occur which there is hardly time to put in
11522 action--seeing Pierre, touched his sleeve with her finger, saying:
11524 "Wait a bit, I have something in view for you this evening." (She
11525 glanced at Helene and smiled at her.) "My dear Helene, be charitable to
11526 my poor aunt who adores you. Go and keep her company for ten minutes.
11527 And that it will not be too dull, here is the dear count who will not
11528 refuse to accompany you."
11530 The beauty went to the aunt, but Anna Pavlovna detained Pierre, looking
11531 as if she had to give some final necessary instructions.
11533 "Isn't she exquisite?" she said to Pierre, pointing to the stately
11534 beauty as she glided away. "And how she carries herself! For so young a
11535 girl, such tact, such masterly perfection of manner! It comes from her
11536 heart. Happy the man who wins her! With her the least worldly of men
11537 would occupy a most brilliant position in society. Don't you think so? I
11538 only wanted to know your opinion," and Anna Pavlovna let Pierre go.
11540 Pierre, in reply, sincerely agreed with her as to Helene's perfection of
11541 manner. If he ever thought of Helene, it was just of her beauty and her
11542 remarkable skill in appearing silently dignified in society.
11544 The old aunt received the two young people in her corner, but seemed
11545 desirous of hiding her adoration for Helene and inclined rather to show
11546 her fear of Anna Pavlovna. She looked at her niece, as if inquiring what
11547 she was to do with these people. On leaving them, Anna Pavlovna again
11548 touched Pierre's sleeve, saying: "I hope you won't say that it is dull
11549 in my house again," and she glanced at Helene.
11551 Helene smiled, with a look implying that she did not admit the
11552 possibility of anyone seeing her without being enchanted. The aunt
11553 coughed, swallowed, and said in French that she was very pleased to see
11554 Helene, then she turned to Pierre with the same words of welcome and the
11555 same look. In the middle of a dull and halting conversation, Helene
11556 turned to Pierre with the beautiful bright smile that she gave to
11557 everyone. Pierre was so used to that smile, and it had so little meaning
11558 for him, that he paid no attention to it. The aunt was just speaking of
11559 a collection of snuffboxes that had belonged to Pierre's father, Count
11560 Bezukhov, and showed them her own box. Princess Helene asked to see the
11561 portrait of the aunt's husband on the box lid.
11563 "That is probably the work of Vinesse," said Pierre, mentioning a
11564 celebrated miniaturist, and he leaned over the table to take the
11565 snuffbox while trying to hear what was being said at the other table.
11567 He half rose, meaning to go round, but the aunt handed him the snuffbox,
11568 passing it across Helene's back. Helene stooped forward to make room,
11569 and looked round with a smile. She was, as always at evening parties,
11570 wearing a dress such as was then fashionable, cut very low at front and
11571 back. Her bust, which had always seemed like marble to Pierre, was so
11572 close to him that his shortsighted eyes could not but perceive the
11573 living charm of her neck and shoulders, so near to his lips that he need
11574 only have bent his head a little to have touched them. He was conscious
11575 of the warmth of her body, the scent of perfume, and the creaking of her
11576 corset as she moved. He did not see her marble beauty forming a complete
11577 whole with her dress, but all the charm of her body only covered by her
11578 garments. And having once seen this he could not help being aware of it,
11579 just as we cannot renew an illusion we have once seen through.
11581 "So you have never noticed before how beautiful I am?" Helene seemed to
11582 say. "You had not noticed that I am a woman? Yes, I am a woman who may
11583 belong to anyone--to you too," said her glance. And at that moment
11584 Pierre felt that Helene not only could, but must, be his wife, and that
11585 it could not be otherwise.
11587 He knew this at that moment as surely as if he had been standing at the
11588 altar with her. How and when this would be he did not know, he did not
11589 even know if it would be a good thing (he even felt, he knew not why,
11590 that it would be a bad thing), but he knew it would happen.
11592 Pierre dropped his eyes, lifted them again, and wished once more to see
11593 her as a distant beauty far removed from him, as he had seen her every
11594 day until then, but he could no longer do it. He could not, any more
11595 than a man who has been looking at a tuft of steppe grass through the
11596 mist and taking it for a tree can again take it for a tree after he has
11597 once recognized it to be a tuft of grass. She was terribly close to him.
11598 She already had power over him, and between them there was no longer any
11599 barrier except the barrier of his own will.
11601 "Well, I will leave you in your little corner," came Anna Pavlovna's
11602 voice, "I see you are all right there."
11604 And Pierre, anxiously trying to remember whether he had done anything
11605 reprehensible, looked round with a blush. It seemed to him that everyone
11606 knew what had happened to him as he knew it himself.
11608 A little later when he went up to the large circle, Anna Pavlovna said
11609 to him: "I hear you are refitting your Petersburg house?"
11611 This was true. The architect had told him that it was necessary, and
11612 Pierre, without knowing why, was having his enormous Petersburg house
11615 "That's a good thing, but don't move from Prince Vasili's. It is good to
11616 have a friend like the prince," she said, smiling at Prince Vasili. "I
11617 know something about that. Don't I? And you are still so young. You need
11618 advice. Don't be angry with me for exercising an old woman's privilege."
11620 She paused, as women always do, expecting something after they have
11621 mentioned their age. "If you marry it will be a different thing," she
11622 continued, uniting them both in one glance. Pierre did not look at
11623 Helene nor she at him. But she was just as terribly close to him. He
11624 muttered something and colored.
11626 When he got home he could not sleep for a long time for thinking of what
11627 had happened. What had happened? Nothing. He had merely understood that
11628 the woman he had known as a child, of whom when her beauty was mentioned
11629 he had said absent-mindedly: "Yes, she's good looking," he had
11630 understood that this woman might belong to him.
11632 "But she's stupid. I have myself said she is stupid," he thought. "There
11633 is something nasty, something wrong, in the feeling she excites in me. I
11634 have been told that her brother Anatole was in love with her and she
11635 with him, that there was quite a scandal and that that's why he was sent
11636 away. Hippolyte is her brother... Prince Vasili is her father... It's
11637 bad...." he reflected, but while he was thinking this (the reflection
11638 was still incomplete), he caught himself smiling and was conscious that
11639 another line of thought had sprung up, and while thinking of her
11640 worthlessness he was also dreaming of how she would be his wife, how she
11641 would love him become quite different, and how all he had thought and
11642 heard of her might be false. And he again saw her not as the daughter of
11643 Prince Vasili, but visualized her whole body only veiled by its gray
11644 dress. "But no! Why did this thought never occur to me before?" and
11645 again he told himself that it was impossible, that there would be
11646 something unnatural, and as it seemed to him dishonorable, in this
11647 marriage. He recalled her former words and looks and the words and looks
11648 of those who had seen them together. He recalled Anna Pavlovna's words
11649 and looks when she spoke to him about his house, recalled thousands of
11650 such hints from Prince Vasili and others, and was seized by terror lest
11651 he had already, in some way, bound himself to do something that was
11652 evidently wrong and that he ought not to do. But at the very time he was
11653 expressing this conviction to himself, in another part of his mind her
11654 image rose in all its womanly beauty.
11661 In November, 1805, Prince Vasili had to go on a tour of inspection in
11662 four different provinces. He had arranged this for himself so as to
11663 visit his neglected estates at the same time and pick up his son Anatole
11664 where his regiment was stationed, and take him to visit Prince Nicholas
11665 Bolkonski in order to arrange a match for him with the daughter of that
11666 rich old man. But before leaving home and undertaking these new affairs,
11667 Prince Vasili had to settle matters with Pierre, who, it is true, had
11668 latterly spent whole days at home, that is, in Prince Vasili's house
11669 where he was staying, and had been absurd, excited, and foolish in
11670 Helene's presence (as a lover should be), but had not yet proposed to
11673 "This is all very fine, but things must be settled," said Prince Vasili
11674 to himself, with a sorrowful sigh, one morning, feeling that Pierre who
11675 was under such obligations to him ("But never mind that") was not
11676 behaving very well in this matter. "Youth, frivolity... well, God be
11677 with him," thought he, relishing his own goodness of heart, "but it must
11678 be brought to a head. The day after tomorrow will be Lelya's name day. I
11679 will invite two or three people, and if he does not understand what he
11680 ought to do then it will be my affair--yes, my affair. I am her father."
11682 Six weeks after Anna Pavlovna's "At Home" and after the sleepless night
11683 when he had decided that to marry Helene would be a calamity and that he
11684 ought to avoid her and go away, Pierre, despite that decision, had not
11685 left Prince Vasili's and felt with terror that in people's eyes he was
11686 every day more and more connected with her, that it was impossible for
11687 him to return to his former conception of her, that he could not break
11688 away from her, and that though it would be a terrible thing he would
11689 have to unite his fate with hers. He might perhaps have been able to
11690 free himself but that Prince Vasili (who had rarely before given
11691 receptions) now hardly let a day go by without having an evening party
11692 at which Pierre had to be present unless he wished to spoil the general
11693 pleasure and disappoint everyone's expectation. Prince Vasili, in the
11694 rare moments when he was at home, would take Pierre's hand in passing
11695 and draw it downwards, or absent-mindedly hold out his wrinkled, clean-
11696 shaven cheek for Pierre to kiss and would say: "Till tomorrow," or, "Be
11697 in to dinner or I shall not see you," or, "I am staying in for your
11698 sake," and so on. And though Prince Vasili, when he stayed in (as he
11699 said) for Pierre's sake, hardly exchanged a couple of words with him,
11700 Pierre felt unable to disappoint him. Every day he said to himself one
11701 and the same thing: "It is time I understood her and made up my mind
11702 what she really is. Was I mistaken before, or am I mistaken now? No, she
11703 is not stupid, she is an excellent girl," he sometimes said to himself
11704 "she never makes a mistake, never says anything stupid. She says little,
11705 but what she does say is always clear and simple, so she is not stupid.
11706 She never was abashed and is not abashed now, so she cannot be a bad
11707 woman!" He had often begun to make reflections or think aloud in her
11708 company, and she had always answered him either by a brief but
11709 appropriate remark--showing that it did not interest her--or by a silent
11710 look and smile which more palpably than anything else showed Pierre her
11711 superiority. She was right in regarding all arguments as nonsense in
11712 comparison with that smile.
11714 She always addressed him with a radiantly confiding smile meant for him
11715 alone, in which there was something more significant than in the general
11716 smile that usually brightened her face. Pierre knew that everyone was
11717 waiting for him to say a word and cross a certain line, and he knew that
11718 sooner or later he would step across it, but an incomprehensible terror
11719 seized him at the thought of that dreadful step. A thousand times during
11720 that month and a half while he felt himself drawn nearer and nearer to
11721 that dreadful abyss, Pierre said to himself: "What am I doing? I need
11722 resolution. Can it be that I have none?"
11724 He wished to take a decision, but felt with dismay that in this matter
11725 he lacked that strength of will which he had known in himself and really
11726 possessed. Pierre was one of those who are only strong when they feel
11727 themselves quite innocent, and since that day when he was overpowered by
11728 a feeling of desire while stooping over the snuffbox at Anna Pavlovna's,
11729 an unacknowledged sense of the guilt of that desire paralyzed his will.
11731 On Helene's name day, a small party of just their own people--as his
11732 wife said--met for supper at Prince Vasili's. All these friends and
11733 relations had been given to understand that the fate of the young girl
11734 would be decided that evening. The visitors were seated at supper.
11735 Princess Kuragina, a portly imposing woman who had once been handsome,
11736 was sitting at the head of the table. On either side of her sat the more
11737 important guests--an old general and his wife, and Anna Pavlovna
11738 Scherer. At the other end sat the younger and less important guests, and
11739 there too sat the members of the family, and Pierre and Helene, side by
11740 side. Prince Vasili was not having any supper: he went round the table
11741 in a merry mood, sitting down now by one, now by another, of the guests.
11742 To each of them he made some careless and agreeable remark except to
11743 Pierre and Helene, whose presence he seemed not to notice. He enlivened
11744 the whole party. The wax candles burned brightly, the silver and crystal
11745 gleamed, so did the ladies' toilets and the gold and silver of the men's
11746 epaulets; servants in scarlet liveries moved round the table, the
11747 clatter of plates, knives, and glasses mingled with the animated hum of
11748 several conversations. At one end of the table, the old chamberlain was
11749 heard assuring an old baroness that he loved her passionately, at which
11750 she laughed; at the other could be heard the story of the misfortunes of
11751 some Mary Viktorovna or other. At the center of the table, Prince Vasili
11752 attracted everybody's attention. With a facetious smile on his face, he
11753 was telling the ladies about last Wednesday's meeting of the Imperial
11754 Council, at which Sergey Kuzmich Vyazmitinov, the new military governor
11755 general of Petersburg, had received and read the then famous rescript of
11756 the Emperor Alexander from the army to Sergey Kuzmich, in which the
11757 Emperor said that he was receiving from all sides declarations of the
11758 people's loyalty, that the declaration from Petersburg gave him
11759 particular pleasure, and that he was proud to be at the head of such a
11760 nation and would endeavor to be worthy of it. This rescript began with
11761 the words: "Sergey Kuzmich, From all sides reports reach me," etc.
11763 "Well, and so he never got farther than: 'Sergey Kuzmich'?" asked one of
11766 "Exactly, not a hair's breadth farther," answered Prince Vasili,
11767 laughing, "'Sergey Kuzmich... From all sides... From all sides... Sergey
11768 Kuzmich...' Poor Vyazmitinov could not get any farther! He began the
11769 rescript again and again, but as soon as he uttered 'Sergey' he sobbed,
11770 'Kuz-mi-ch,' tears, and 'From all sides' was smothered in sobs and he
11771 could get no farther. And again his handkerchief, and again: 'Sergey
11772 Kuzmich, From all sides,'... and tears, till at last somebody else was
11775 "Kuzmich... From all sides... and then tears," someone repeated
11778 "Don't be unkind," cried Anna Pavlovna from her end of the table holding
11779 up a threatening finger. "He is such a worthy and excellent man, our
11780 dear Vyazmitinov...."
11782 Everybody laughed a great deal. At the head of the table, where the
11783 honored guests sat, everyone seemed to be in high spirits and under the
11784 influence of a variety of exciting sensations. Only Pierre and Helene
11785 sat silently side by side almost at the bottom of the table, a
11786 suppressed smile brightening both their faces, a smile that had nothing
11787 to do with Sergey Kuzmich--a smile of bashfulness at their own feelings.
11788 But much as all the rest laughed, talked, and joked, much as they
11789 enjoyed their Rhine wine, saute, and ices, and however they avoided
11790 looking at the young couple, and heedless and unobservant as they seemed
11791 of them, one could feel by the occasional glances they gave that the
11792 story about Sergey Kuzmich, the laughter, and the food were all a
11793 pretense, and that the whole attention of that company was directed to--
11794 Pierre and Helene. Prince Vasili mimicked the sobbing of Sergey Kuzmich
11795 and at the same time his eyes glanced toward his daughter, and while he
11796 laughed the expression on his face clearly said: "Yes... it's getting
11797 on, it will all be settled today." Anna Pavlovna threatened him on
11798 behalf of "our dear Vyazmitinov," and in her eyes, which, for an
11799 instant, glanced at Pierre, Prince Vasili read a congratulation on his
11800 future son-in-law and on his daughter's happiness. The old princess
11801 sighed sadly as she offered some wine to the old lady next to her and
11802 glanced angrily at her daughter, and her sigh seemed to say: "Yes,
11803 there's nothing left for you and me but to sip sweet wine, my dear, now
11804 that the time has come for these young ones to be thus boldly,
11805 provocatively happy." "And what nonsense all this is that I am saying!"
11806 thought a diplomatist, glancing at the happy faces of the lovers.
11807 "That's happiness!"
11809 Into the insignificant, trifling, and artificial interests uniting that
11810 society had entered the simple feeling of the attraction of a healthy
11811 and handsome young man and woman for one another. And this human feeling
11812 dominated everything else and soared above all their affected chatter.
11813 Jests fell flat, news was not interesting, and the animation was
11814 evidently forced. Not only the guests but even the footmen waiting at
11815 table seemed to feel this, and they forgot their duties as they looked
11816 at the beautiful Helene with her radiant face and at the red, broad, and
11817 happy though uneasy face of Pierre. It seemed as if the very light of
11818 the candles was focused on those two happy faces alone.
11820 Pierre felt that he was the center of it all, and this both pleased and
11821 embarrassed him. He was like a man entirely absorbed in some occupation.
11822 He did not see, hear, or understand anything clearly. Only now and then
11823 detached ideas and impressions from the world of reality shot
11824 unexpectedly through his mind.
11826 "So it is all finished!" he thought. "And how has it all happened? How
11827 quickly! Now I know that not because of her alone, nor of myself alone,
11828 but because of everyone, it must inevitably come about. They are all
11829 expecting it, they are so sure that it will happen that I cannot, I
11830 cannot, disappoint them. But how will it be? I do not know, but it will
11831 certainly happen!" thought Pierre, glancing at those dazzling shoulders
11834 Or he would suddenly feel ashamed of he knew not what. He felt it
11835 awkward to attract everyone's attention and to be considered a lucky man
11836 and, with his plain face, to be looked on as a sort of Paris possessed
11837 of a Helen. "But no doubt it always is and must be so!" he consoled
11838 himself. "And besides, what have I done to bring it about? How did it
11839 begin? I traveled from Moscow with Prince Vasili. Then there was
11840 nothing. So why should I not stay at his house? Then I played cards with
11841 her and picked up her reticule and drove out with her. How did it begin,
11842 when did it all come about?" And here he was sitting by her side as her
11843 betrothed, seeing, hearing, feeling her nearness, her breathing, her
11844 movements, her beauty. Then it would suddenly seem to him that it was
11845 not she but he was so unusually beautiful, and that that was why they
11846 all looked so at him, and flattered by this general admiration he would
11847 expand his chest, raise his head, and rejoice at his good fortune.
11848 Suddenly he heard a familiar voice repeating something to him a second
11849 time. But Pierre was so absorbed that he did not understand what was
11852 "I am asking you when you last heard from Bolkonski," repeated Prince
11853 Vasili a third time. "How absent-minded you are, my dear fellow."
11855 Prince Vasili smiled, and Pierre noticed that everyone was smiling at
11856 him and Helene. "Well, what of it, if you all know it?" thought Pierre.
11857 "What of it? It's the truth!" and he himself smiled his gentle childlike
11858 smile, and Helene smiled too.
11860 "When did you get the letter? Was it from Olmutz?" repeated Prince
11861 Vasili, who pretended to want to know this in order to settle a dispute.
11863 "How can one talk or think of such trifles?" thought Pierre.
11865 "Yes, from Olmutz," he answered, with a sigh.
11867 After supper Pierre with his partner followed the others into the
11868 drawing room. The guests began to disperse, some without taking leave of
11869 Helene. Some, as if unwilling to distract her from an important
11870 occupation, came up to her for a moment and made haste to go away,
11871 refusing to let her see them off. The diplomatist preserved a mournful
11872 silence as he left the drawing room. He pictured the vanity of his
11873 diplomatic career in comparison with Pierre's happiness. The old general
11874 grumbled at his wife when she asked how his leg was. "Oh, the old fool,"
11875 he thought. "That Princess Helene will be beautiful still when she's
11878 "I think I may congratulate you," whispered Anna Pavlovna to the old
11879 princess, kissing her soundly. "If I hadn't this headache I'd have
11882 The old princess did not reply, she was tormented by jealousy of her
11883 daughter's happiness.
11885 While the guests were taking their leave Pierre remained for a long time
11886 alone with Helene in the little drawing room where they were sitting. He
11887 had often before, during the last six weeks, remained alone with her,
11888 but had never spoken to her of love. Now he felt that it was inevitable,
11889 but he could not make up his mind to take the final step. He felt
11890 ashamed; he felt that he was occupying someone else's place here beside
11891 Helene. "This happiness is not for you," some inner voice whispered to
11892 him. "This happiness is for those who have not in them what there is in
11895 But, as he had to say something, he began by asking her whether she was
11896 satisfied with the party. She replied in her usual simple manner that
11897 this name day of hers had been one of the pleasantest she had ever had.
11899 Some of the nearest relatives had not yet left. They were sitting in the
11900 large drawing room. Prince Vasili came up to Pierre with languid
11901 footsteps. Pierre rose and said it was getting late. Prince Vasili gave
11902 him a look of stern inquiry, as though what Pierre had just said was so
11903 strange that one could not take it in. But then the expression of
11904 severity changed, and he drew Pierre's hand downwards, made him sit
11905 down, and smiled affectionately.
11907 "Well, Lelya?" he asked, turning instantly to his daughter and
11908 addressing her with the careless tone of habitual tenderness natural to
11909 parents who have petted their children from babyhood, but which Prince
11910 Vasili had only acquired by imitating other parents.
11912 And he again turned to Pierre.
11914 "Sergey Kuzmich--From all sides-" he said, unbuttoning the top button of
11917 Pierre smiled, but his smile showed that he knew it was not the story
11918 about Sergey Kuzmich that interested Prince Vasili just then, and Prince
11919 Vasili saw that Pierre knew this. He suddenly muttered something and
11920 went away. It seemed to Pierre that even the prince was disconcerted.
11921 The sight of the discomposure of that old man of the world touched
11922 Pierre: he looked at Helene and she too seemed disconcerted, and her
11923 look seemed to say: "Well, it is your own fault."
11925 "The step must be taken but I cannot, I cannot!" thought Pierre, and he
11926 again began speaking about indifferent matters, about Sergey Kuzmich,
11927 asking what the point of the story was as he had not heard it properly.
11928 Helene answered with a smile that she too had missed it.
11930 When Prince Vasili returned to the drawing room, the princess, his wife,
11931 was talking in low tones to the elderly lady about Pierre.
11933 "Of course, it is a very brilliant match, but happiness, my dear..."
11935 "Marriages are made in heaven," replied the elderly lady.
11937 Prince Vasili passed by, seeming not to hear the ladies, and sat down on
11938 a sofa in a far corner of the room. He closed his eyes and seemed to be
11939 dozing. His head sank forward and then he roused himself.
11941 "Aline," he said to his wife, "go and see what they are about."
11943 The princess went up to the door, passed by it with a dignified and
11944 indifferent air, and glanced into the little drawing room. Pierre and
11945 Helene still sat talking just as before.
11947 "Still the same," she said to her husband.
11949 Prince Vasili frowned, twisting his mouth, his cheeks quivered and his
11950 face assumed the coarse, unpleasant expression peculiar to him. Shaking
11951 himself, he rose, threw back his head, and with resolute steps went past
11952 the ladies into the little drawing room. With quick steps he went
11953 joyfully up to Pierre. His face was so unusually triumphant that Pierre
11954 rose in alarm on seeing it.
11956 "Thank God!" said Prince Vasili. "My wife has told me everything!" (He
11957 put one arm around Pierre and the other around his daughter.)--"My dear
11958 boy... Lelya... I am very pleased." (His voice trembled.) "I loved your
11959 father... and she will make you a good wife... God bless you!..."
11961 He embraced his daughter, and then again Pierre, and kissed him with his
11962 malodorous mouth. Tears actually moistened his cheeks.
11964 "Princess, come here!" he shouted.
11966 The old princess came in and also wept. The elderly lady was using her
11967 handkerchief too. Pierre was kissed, and he kissed the beautiful
11968 Helene's hand several times. After a while they were left alone again.
11970 "All this had to be and could not be otherwise," thought Pierre, "so it
11971 is useless to ask whether it is good or bad. It is good because it's
11972 definite and one is rid of the old tormenting doubt." Pierre held the
11973 hand of his betrothed in silence, looking at her beautiful bosom as it
11976 "Helene!" he said aloud and paused.
11978 "Something special is always said in such cases," he thought, but could
11979 not remember what it was that people say. He looked at her face. She
11980 drew nearer to him. Her face flushed.
11982 "Oh, take those off... those..." she said, pointing to his spectacles.
11984 Pierre took them off, and his eyes, besides the strange look eyes have
11985 from which spectacles have just been removed, had also a frightened and
11986 inquiring look. He was about to stoop over her hand and kiss it, but
11987 with a rapid, almost brutal movement of her head, she intercepted his
11988 lips and met them with her own. Her face struck Pierre, by its altered,
11989 unpleasantly excited expression.
11991 "It is too late now, it's done; besides I love her," thought Pierre.
11993 "Je vous aime!" * he said, remembering what has to be said at such
11994 moments: but his words sounded so weak that he felt ashamed of himself.
11999 Six weeks later he was married, and settled in Count Bezukhov's large,
12000 newly furnished Petersburg house, the happy possessor, as people said,
12001 of a wife who was a celebrated beauty and of millions of money.
12008 Old Prince Nicholas Bolkonski received a letter from Prince Vasili in
12009 November, 1805, announcing that he and his son would be paying him a
12010 visit. "I am starting on a journey of inspection, and of course I shall
12011 think nothing of an extra seventy miles to come and see you at the same
12012 time, my honored benefactor," wrote Prince Vasili. "My son Anatole is
12013 accompanying me on his way to the army, so I hope you will allow him
12014 personally to express the deep respect that, emulating his father, he
12017 "It seems that there will be no need to bring Mary out, suitors are
12018 coming to us of their own accord," incautiously remarked the little
12019 princess on hearing the news.
12021 Prince Nicholas frowned, but said nothing.
12023 A fortnight after the letter Prince Vasili's servants came one evening
12024 in advance of him, and he and his son arrived next day.
12026 Old Bolkonski had always had a poor opinion of Prince Vasili's
12027 character, but more so recently, since in the new reigns of Paul and
12028 Alexander Prince Vasili had risen to high position and honors. And now,
12029 from the hints contained in his letter and given by the little princess,
12030 he saw which way the wind was blowing, and his low opinion changed into
12031 a feeling of contemptuous ill will. He snorted whenever he mentioned
12032 him. On the day of Prince Vasili's arrival, Prince Bolkonski was
12033 particularly discontented and out of temper. Whether he was in a bad
12034 temper because Prince Vasili was coming, or whether his being in a bad
12035 temper made him specially annoyed at Prince Vasili's visit, he was in a
12036 bad temper, and in the morning Tikhon had already advised the architect
12037 not to go to the prince with his report.
12039 "Do you hear how he's walking?" said Tikhon, drawing the architect's
12040 attention to the sound of the prince's footsteps. "Stepping flat on his
12041 heels--we know what that means...."
12043 However, at nine o'clock the prince, in his velvet coat with a sable
12044 collar and cap, went out for his usual walk. It had snowed the day
12045 before and the path to the hothouse, along which the prince was in the
12046 habit of walking, had been swept: the marks of the broom were still
12047 visible in the snow and a shovel had been left sticking in one of the
12048 soft snowbanks that bordered both sides of the path. The prince went
12049 through the conservatories, the serfs' quarters, and the outbuildings,
12050 frowning and silent.
12052 "Can a sleigh pass?" he asked his overseer, a venerable man, resembling
12053 his master in manners and looks, who was accompanying him back to the
12056 "The snow is deep. I am having the avenue swept, your honor."
12058 The prince bowed his head and went up to the porch. "God be thanked,"
12059 thought the overseer, "the storm has blown over!"
12061 "It would have been hard to drive up, your honor," he added. "I heard,
12062 your honor, that a minister is coming to visit your honor."
12064 The prince turned round to the overseer and fixed his eyes on him,
12067 "What? A minister? What minister? Who gave orders?" he said in his
12068 shrill, harsh voice. "The road is not swept for the princess my
12069 daughter, but for a minister! For me, there are no ministers!"
12071 "Your honor, I thought..."
12073 "You thought!" shouted the prince, his words coming more and more
12074 rapidly and indistinctly. "You thought!... Rascals! Blackguards!... I'll
12075 teach you to think!" and lifting his stick he swung it and would have
12076 hit Alpatych, the overseer, had not the latter instinctively avoided the
12077 blow. "Thought... Blackguards..." shouted the prince rapidly.
12079 But although Alpatych, frightened at his own temerity in avoiding the
12080 stroke, came up to the prince, bowing his bald head resignedly before
12081 him, or perhaps for that very reason, the prince, though he continued to
12082 shout: "Blackguards!... Throw the snow back on the road!" did not lift
12083 his stick again but hurried into the house.
12085 Before dinner, Princess Mary and Mademoiselle Bourienne, who knew that
12086 the prince was in a bad humor, stood awaiting him; Mademoiselle
12087 Bourienne with a radiant face that said: "I know nothing, I am the same
12088 as usual," and Princess Mary pale, frightened, and with downcast eyes.
12089 What she found hardest to bear was to know that on such occasions she
12090 ought to behave like Mademoiselle Bourienne, but could not. She thought:
12091 "If I seem not to notice he will think that I do not sympathize with
12092 him; if I seem sad and out of spirits myself, he will say (as he has
12093 done before) that I'm in the dumps."
12095 The prince looked at his daughter's frightened face and snorted.
12097 "Fool... or dummy!" he muttered.
12099 "And the other one is not here. They've been telling tales," he thought-
12100 -referring to the little princess who was not in the dining room.
12102 "Where is the princess?" he asked. "Hiding?"
12104 "She is not very well," answered Mademoiselle Bourienne with a bright
12105 smile, "so she won't come down. It is natural in her state."
12107 "Hm! Hm!" muttered the prince, sitting down.
12109 His plate seemed to him not quite clean, and pointing to a spot he flung
12110 it away. Tikhon caught it and handed it to a footman. The little
12111 princess was not unwell, but had such an overpowering fear of the prince
12112 that, hearing he was in a bad humor, she had decided not to appear.
12114 "I am afraid for the baby," she said to Mademoiselle Bourienne: "Heaven
12115 knows what a fright might do."
12117 In general at Bald Hills the little princess lived in constant fear, and
12118 with a sense of antipathy to the old prince which she did not realize
12119 because the fear was so much the stronger feeling. The prince
12120 reciprocated this antipathy, but it was overpowered by his contempt for
12121 her. When the little princess had grown accustomed to life at Bald
12122 Hills, she took a special fancy to Mademoiselle Bourienne, spent whole
12123 days with her, asked her to sleep in her room, and often talked with her
12124 about the old prince and criticized him.
12126 "So we are to have visitors, mon prince?" remarked Mademoiselle
12127 Bourienne, unfolding her white napkin with her rosy fingers. "His
12128 Excellency Prince Vasili Kuragin and his son, I understand?" she said
12131 "Hm!--his excellency is a puppy.... I got him his appointment in the
12132 service," said the prince disdainfully. "Why his son is coming I don't
12133 understand. Perhaps Princess Elizabeth and Princess Mary know. I don't
12134 want him." (He looked at his blushing daughter.) "Are you unwell today?
12135 Eh? Afraid of the 'minister' as that idiot Alpatych called him this
12140 Though Mademoiselle Bourienne had been so unsuccessful in her choice of
12141 a subject, she did not stop talking, but chattered about the
12142 conservatories and the beauty of a flower that had just opened, and
12143 after the soup the prince became more genial.
12145 After dinner, he went to see his daughter-in-law. The little princess
12146 was sitting at a small table, chattering with Masha, her maid. She grew
12147 pale on seeing her father-in-law.
12149 She was much altered. She was now plain rather than pretty. Her cheeks
12150 had sunk, her lip was drawn up, and her eyes drawn down.
12152 "Yes, I feel a kind of oppression," she said in reply to the prince's
12153 question as to how she felt.
12155 "Do you want anything?"
12157 "No, merci, mon pere."
12159 "Well, all right, all right."
12161 He left the room and went to the waiting room where Alpatych stood with
12164 "Has the snow been shoveled back?"
12166 "Yes, your excellency. Forgive me for heaven's sake... It was only my
12169 "All right, all right," interrupted the prince, and laughing his
12170 unnatural way, he stretched out his hand for Alpatych to kiss, and then
12171 proceeded to his study.
12173 Prince Vasili arrived that evening. He was met in the avenue by coachmen
12174 and footmen, who, with loud shouts, dragged his sleighs up to one of the
12175 lodges over the road purposely laden with snow.
12177 Prince Vasili and Anatole had separate rooms assigned to them.
12179 Anatole, having taken off his overcoat, sat with arms akimbo before a
12180 table on a corner of which he smilingly and absent-mindedly fixed his
12181 large and handsome eyes. He regarded his whole life as a continual round
12182 of amusement which someone for some reason had to provide for him. And
12183 he looked on this visit to a churlish old man and a rich and ugly
12184 heiress in the same way. All this might, he thought, turn out very well
12185 and amusingly. "And why not marry her if she really has so much money?
12186 That never does any harm," thought Anatole.
12188 He shaved and scented himself with the care and elegance which had
12189 become habitual to him and, his handsome head held high, entered his
12190 father's room with the good-humored and victorious air natural to him.
12191 Prince Vasili's two valets were busy dressing him, and he looked round
12192 with much animation and cheerfully nodded to his son as the latter
12193 entered, as if to say: "Yes, that's how I want you to look."
12195 "I say, Father, joking apart, is she very hideous?" Anatole asked, as if
12196 continuing a conversation the subject of which had often been mentioned
12197 during the journey.
12199 "Enough! What nonsense! Above all, try to be respectful and cautious
12200 with the old prince."
12202 "If he starts a row I'll go away," said Prince Anatole. "I can't bear
12203 those old men! Eh?"
12205 "Remember, for you everything depends on this."
12207 In the meantime, not only was it known in the maidservants' rooms that
12208 the minister and his son had arrived, but the appearance of both had
12209 been minutely described. Princess Mary was sitting alone in her room,
12210 vainly trying to master her agitation.
12212 "Why did they write, why did Lise tell me about it? It can never
12213 happen!" she said, looking at herself in the glass. "How shall I enter
12214 the drawing room? Even if I like him I can't now be myself with him."
12215 The mere thought of her father's look filled her with terror. The little
12216 princess and Mademoiselle Bourienne had already received from Masha, the
12217 lady's maid, the necessary report of how handsome the minister's son
12218 was, with his rosy cheeks and dark eyebrows, and with what difficulty
12219 the father had dragged his legs upstairs while the son had followed him
12220 like an eagle, three steps at a time. Having received this information,
12221 the little princess and Mademoiselle Bourienne, whose chattering voices
12222 had reached her from the corridor, went into Princess Mary's room.
12224 "You know they've come, Marie?" said the little princess, waddling in,
12225 and sinking heavily into an armchair.
12227 She was no longer in the loose gown she generally wore in the morning,
12228 but had on one of her best dresses. Her hair was carefully done and her
12229 face was animated, which, however, did not conceal its sunken and faded
12230 outlines. Dressed as she used to be in Petersburg society, it was still
12231 more noticeable how much plainer she had become. Some unobtrusive touch
12232 had been added to Mademoiselle Bourienne's toilet which rendered her
12233 fresh and pretty face yet more attractive.
12235 "What! Are you going to remain as you are, dear princess?" she began.
12236 "They'll be announcing that the gentlemen are in the drawing room and we
12237 shall have to go down, and you have not smartened yourself up at all!"
12239 The little princess got up, rang for the maid, and hurriedly and merrily
12240 began to devise and carry out a plan of how Princess Mary should be
12241 dressed. Princess Mary's self-esteem was wounded by the fact that the
12242 arrival of a suitor agitated her, and still more so by both her
12243 companions' not having the least conception that it could be otherwise.
12244 To tell them that she felt ashamed for herself and for them would be to
12245 betray her agitation, while to decline their offers to dress her would
12246 prolong their banter and insistence. She flushed, her beautiful eyes
12247 grew dim, red blotches came on her face, and it took on the unattractive
12248 martyrlike expression it so often wore, as she submitted herself to
12249 Mademoiselle Bourienne and Lise. Both these women quite sincerely tried
12250 to make her look pretty. She was so plain that neither of them could
12251 think of her as a rival, so they began dressing her with perfect
12252 sincerity, and with the naive and firm conviction women have that dress
12253 can make a face pretty.
12255 "No really, my dear, this dress is not pretty," said Lise, looking
12256 sideways at Princess Mary from a little distance. "You have a maroon
12257 dress, have it fetched. Really! You know the fate of your whole life may
12258 be at stake. But this one is too light, it's not becoming!"
12260 It was not the dress, but the face and whole figure of Princess Mary
12261 that was not pretty, but neither Mademoiselle Bourienne nor the little
12262 princess felt this; they still thought that if a blue ribbon were placed
12263 in the hair, the hair combed up, and the blue scarf arranged lower on
12264 the best maroon dress, and so on, all would be well. They forgot that
12265 the frightened face and the figure could not be altered, and that
12266 however they might change the setting and adornment of that face, it
12267 would still remain piteous and plain. After two or three changes to
12268 which Princess Mary meekly submitted, just as her hair had been arranged
12269 on the top of her head (a style that quite altered and spoiled her
12270 looks) and she had put on a maroon dress with a pale-blue scarf, the
12271 little princess walked twice round her, now adjusting a fold of the
12272 dress with her little hand, now arranging the scarf and looking at her
12273 with her head bent first on one side and then on the other.
12275 "No, it will not do," she said decidedly, clasping her hands. "No, Mary,
12276 really this dress does not suit you. I prefer you in your little gray
12277 everyday dress. Now please, do it for my sake. Katie," she said to the
12278 maid, "bring the princess her gray dress, and you'll see, Mademoiselle
12279 Bourienne, how I shall arrange it," she added, smiling with a foretaste
12280 of artistic pleasure.
12282 But when Katie brought the required dress, Princess Mary remained
12283 sitting motionless before the glass, looking at her face, and saw in the
12284 mirror her eyes full of tears and her mouth quivering, ready to burst
12287 "Come, dear princess," said Mademoiselle Bourienne, "just one more
12290 The little princess, taking the dress from the maid, came up to Princess
12293 "Well, now we'll arrange something quite simple and becoming," she said.
12295 The three voices, hers, Mademoiselle Bourienne's, and Katie's, who was
12296 laughing at something, mingled in a merry sound, like the chirping of
12299 "No, leave me alone," said Princess Mary.
12301 Her voice sounded so serious and so sad that the chirping of the birds
12302 was silenced at once. They looked at the beautiful, large, thoughtful
12303 eyes full of tears and of thoughts, gazing shiningly and imploringly at
12304 them, and understood that it was useless and even cruel to insist.
12306 "At least, change your coiffure," said the little princess. "Didn't I
12307 tell you," she went on, turning reproachfully to Mademoiselle Bourienne,
12308 "Mary's is a face which such a coiffure does not suit in the least. Not
12309 in the least! Please change it."
12311 "Leave me alone, please leave me alone! It is all quite the same to me,"
12312 answered a voice struggling with tears.
12314 Mademoiselle Bourienne and the little princess had to own to themselves
12315 that Princess Mary in this guise looked very plain, worse than usual,
12316 but it was too late. She was looking at them with an expression they
12317 both knew, an expression thoughtful and sad. This expression in Princess
12318 Mary did not frighten them (she never inspired fear in anyone), but they
12319 knew that when it appeared on her face, she became mute and was not to
12320 be shaken in her determination.
12322 "You will change it, won't you?" said Lise. And as Princess Mary gave no
12323 answer, she left the room.
12325 Princess Mary was left alone. She did not comply with Lise's request,
12326 she not only left her hair as it was, but did not even look in her
12327 glass. Letting her arms fall helplessly, she sat with downcast eyes and
12328 pondered. A husband, a man, a strong dominant and strangely attractive
12329 being rose in her imagination, and carried her into a totally different
12330 happy world of his own. She fancied a child, her own--such as she had
12331 seen the day before in the arms of her nurse's daughter--at her own
12332 breast, the husband standing by and gazing tenderly at her and the
12333 child. "But no, it is impossible, I am too ugly," she thought.
12335 "Please come to tea. The prince will be out in a moment," came the
12336 maid's voice at the door.
12338 She roused herself, and felt appalled at what she had been thinking, and
12339 before going down she went into the room where the icons hung and, her
12340 eyes fixed on the dark face of a large icon of the Saviour lit by a
12341 lamp, she stood before it with folded hands for a few moments. A painful
12342 doubt filled her soul. Could the joy of love, of earthly love for a man,
12343 be for her? In her thoughts of marriage Princess Mary dreamed of
12344 happiness and of children, but her strongest, most deeply hidden longing
12345 was for earthly love. The more she tried to hide this feeling from
12346 others and even from herself, the stronger it grew. "O God," she said,
12347 "how am I to stifle in my heart these temptations of the devil? How am I
12348 to renounce forever these vile fancies, so as peacefully to fulfill Thy
12349 will?" And scarcely had she put that question than God gave her the
12350 answer in her own heart. "Desire nothing for thyself, seek nothing, be
12351 not anxious or envious. Man's future and thy own fate must remain hidden
12352 from thee, but live so that thou mayest be ready for anything. If it be
12353 God's will to prove thee in the duties of marriage, be ready to fulfill
12354 His will." With this consoling thought (but yet with a hope for the
12355 fulfillment of her forbidden earthly longing) Princess Mary sighed, and
12356 having crossed herself went down, thinking neither of her gown and
12357 coiffure nor of how she would go in nor of what she would say. What
12358 could all that matter in comparison with the will of God, without Whose
12359 care not a hair of man's head can fall?
12366 When Princess Mary came down, Prince Vasili and his son were already in
12367 the drawing room, talking to the little princess and Mademoiselle
12368 Bourienne. When she entered with her heavy step, treading on her heels,
12369 the gentlemen and Mademoiselle Bourienne rose and the little princess,
12370 indicating her to the gentlemen, said: "Voila Marie!" Princess Mary saw
12371 them all and saw them in detail. She saw Prince Vasili's face, serious
12372 for an instant at the sight of her, but immediately smiling again, and
12373 the little princess curiously noting the impression "Marie" produced on
12374 the visitors. And she saw Mademoiselle Bourienne, with her ribbon and
12375 pretty face, and her unusually animated look which was fixed on him, but
12376 him she could not see, she only saw something large, brilliant, and
12377 handsome moving toward her as she entered the room. Prince Vasili
12378 approached first, and she kissed the bold forehead that bent over her
12379 hand and answered his question by saying that, on the contrary, she
12380 remembered him quite well. Then Anatole came up to her. She still could
12381 not see him. She only felt a soft hand taking hers firmly, and she
12382 touched with her lips a white forehead, over which was beautiful light-
12383 brown hair smelling of pomade. When she looked up at him she was struck
12384 by his beauty. Anatole stood with his right thumb under a button of his
12385 uniform, his chest expanded and his back drawn in, slightly swinging one
12386 foot, and, with his head a little bent, looked with beaming face at the
12387 princess without speaking and evidently not thinking about her at all.
12388 Anatole was not quick-witted, nor ready or eloquent in conversation, but
12389 he had the faculty, so invaluable in society, of composure and
12390 imperturbable self-possession. If a man lacking in self-confidence
12391 remains dumb on a first introduction and betrays a consciousness of the
12392 impropriety of such silence and an anxiety to find something to say, the
12393 effect is bad. But Anatole was dumb, swung his foot, and smilingly
12394 examined the princess' hair. It was evident that he could be silent in
12395 this way for a very long time. "If anyone finds this silence
12396 inconvenient, let him talk, but I don't want to," he seemed to say.
12397 Besides this, in his behavior to women Anatole had a manner which
12398 particularly inspires in them curiosity, awe, and even love--a
12399 supercilious consciousness of his own superiority. It was as if he said
12400 to them: "I know you, I know you, but why should I bother about you?
12401 You'd be only too glad, of course." Perhaps he did not really think this
12402 when he met women--even probably he did not, for in general he thought
12403 very little--but his looks and manner gave that impression. The princess
12404 felt this, and as if wishing to show him that she did not even dare
12405 expect to interest him, she turned to his father. The conversation was
12406 general and animated, thanks to Princess Lise's voice and little downy
12407 lip that lifted over her white teeth. She met Prince Vasili with that
12408 playful manner often employed by lively chatty people, and consisting in
12409 the assumption that between the person they so address and themselves
12410 there are some semi-private, long-established jokes and amusing
12411 reminiscences, though no such reminiscences really exist--just as none
12412 existed in this case. Prince Vasili readily adopted her tone and the
12413 little princess also drew Anatole, whom she hardly knew, into these
12414 amusing recollections of things that had never occurred. Mademoiselle
12415 Bourienne also shared them and even Princess Mary felt herself
12416 pleasantly made to share in these merry reminiscences.
12418 "Here at least we shall have the benefit of your company all to
12419 ourselves, dear prince," said the little princess (of course, in French)
12420 to Prince Vasili. "It's not as at Annette's * receptions where you
12421 always ran away; you remember cette chere Annette!"
12426 "Ah, but you won't talk politics to me like Annette!"
12428 "And our little tea table?"
12432 "Why is it you were never at Annette's?" the little princess asked
12433 Anatole. "Ah, I know, I know," she said with a sly glance, "your brother
12434 Hippolyte told me about your goings on. Oh!" and she shook her finger at
12435 him, "I have even heard of your doings in Paris!"
12437 "And didn't Hippolyte tell you?" asked Prince Vasili, turning to his son
12438 and seizing the little princess' arm as if she would have run away and
12439 he had just managed to catch her, "didn't he tell you how he himself was
12440 pining for the dear princess, and how she showed him the door? Oh, she
12441 is a pearl among women, Princess," he added, turning to Princess Mary.
12443 When Paris was mentioned, Mademoiselle Bourienne for her part seized the
12444 opportunity of joining in the general current of recollections.
12446 She took the liberty of inquiring whether it was long since Anatole had
12447 left Paris and how he had liked that city. Anatole answered the
12448 Frenchwoman very readily and, looking at her with a smile, talked to her
12449 about her native land. When he saw the pretty little Bourienne, Anatole
12450 came to the conclusion that he would not find Bald Hills dull either.
12451 "Not at all bad!" he thought, examining her, "not at all bad, that
12452 little companion! I hope she will bring her along with her when we're
12453 married, la petite est gentille." *
12456 * The little one is charming.
12458 The old prince dressed leisurely in his study, frowning and considering
12459 what he was to do. The coming of these visitors annoyed him. "What are
12460 Prince Vasili and that son of his to me? Prince Vasili is a shallow
12461 braggart and his son, no doubt, is a fine specimen," he grumbled to
12462 himself. What angered him was that the coming of these visitors revived
12463 in his mind an unsettled question he always tried to stifle, one about
12464 which he always deceived himself. The question was whether he could ever
12465 bring himself to part from his daughter and give her to a husband. The
12466 prince never directly asked himself that question, knowing beforehand
12467 that he would have to answer it justly, and justice clashed not only
12468 with his feelings but with the very possibility of life. Life without
12469 Princess Mary, little as he seemed to value her, was unthinkable to him.
12470 "And why should she marry?" he thought. "To be unhappy for certain.
12471 There's Lise, married to Andrew--a better husband one would think could
12472 hardly be found nowadays--but is she contented with her lot? And who
12473 would marry Marie for love? Plain and awkward! They'll take her for her
12474 connections and wealth. Are there no women living unmarried, and even
12475 the happier for it?" So thought Prince Bolkonski while dressing, and yet
12476 the question he was always putting off demanded an immediate answer.
12477 Prince Vasili had brought his son with the evident intention of
12478 proposing, and today or tomorrow he would probably ask for an answer.
12479 His birth and position in society were not bad. "Well, I've nothing
12480 against it," the prince said to himself, "but he must be worthy of her.
12481 And that is what we shall see."
12483 "That is what we shall see! That is what we shall see!" he added aloud.
12485 He entered the drawing room with his usual alert step, glancing rapidly
12486 round the company. He noticed the change in the little princess' dress,
12487 Mademoiselle Bourienne's ribbon, Princess Mary's unbecoming coiffure,
12488 Mademoiselle Bourienne's and Anatole's smiles, and the loneliness of his
12489 daughter amid the general conversation. "Got herself up like a fool!" he
12490 thought, looking irritably at her. "She is shameless, and he ignores
12493 He went straight up to Prince Vasili.
12495 "Well! How d'ye do? How d'ye do? Glad to see you!"
12497 "Friendship laughs at distance," began Prince Vasili in his usual rapid,
12498 self-confident, familiar tone. "Here is my second son; please love and
12501 Prince Bolkonski surveyed Anatole.
12503 "Fine young fellow! Fine young fellow!" he said. "Well, come and kiss
12504 me," and he offered his cheek.
12506 Anatole kissed the old man, and looked at him with curiosity and perfect
12507 composure, waiting for a display of the eccentricities his father had
12508 told him to expect.
12510 Prince Bolkonski sat down in his usual place in the corner of the sofa
12511 and, drawing up an armchair for Prince Vasili, pointed to it and began
12512 questioning him about political affairs and news. He seemed to listen
12513 attentively to what Prince Vasili said, but kept glancing at Princess
12516 "And so they are writing from Potsdam already?" he said, repeating
12517 Prince Vasili's last words. Then rising, he suddenly went up to his
12520 "Is it for visitors you've got yourself up like that, eh?" said he.
12521 "Fine, very fine! You have done up your hair in this new way for the
12522 visitors, and before the visitors I tell you that in future you are
12523 never to dare to change your way of dress without my consent."
12525 "It was my fault, mon pere," interceded the little princess, with a
12528 "You must do as you please," said Prince Bolkonski, bowing to his
12529 daughter-in-law, "but she need not make a fool of herself, she's plain
12532 And he sat down again, paying no more attention to his daughter, who was
12535 "On the contrary, that coiffure suits the princess very well," said
12538 "Now you, young prince, what's your name?" said Prince Bolkonski,
12539 turning to Anatole, "come here, let us talk and get acquainted."
12541 "Now the fun begins," thought Anatole, sitting down with a smile beside
12544 "Well, my dear boy, I hear you've been educated abroad, not taught to
12545 read and write by the deacon, like your father and me. Now tell me, my
12546 dear boy, are you serving in the Horse Guards?" asked the old man,
12547 scrutinizing Anatole closely and intently.
12549 "No, I have been transferred to the line," said Anatole, hardly able to
12550 restrain his laughter.
12552 "Ah! That's a good thing. So, my dear boy, you wish to serve the Tsar
12553 and the country? It is wartime. Such a fine fellow must serve. Well, are
12554 you off to the front?"
12556 "No, Prince, our regiment has gone to the front, but I am attached...
12557 what is it I am attached to, Papa?" said Anatole, turning to his father
12560 "A splendid soldier, splendid! 'What am I attached to!' Ha, ha, ha!"
12561 laughed Prince Bolkonski, and Anatole laughed still louder. Suddenly
12562 Prince Bolkonski frowned.
12564 "You may go," he said to Anatole.
12566 Anatole returned smiling to the ladies.
12568 "And so you've had him educated abroad, Prince Vasili, haven't you?"
12569 said the old prince to Prince Vasili.
12571 "I have done my best for him, and I can assure you the education there
12572 is much better than ours."
12574 "Yes, everything is different nowadays, everything is changed. The lad's
12575 a fine fellow, a fine fellow! Well, come with me now." He took Prince
12576 Vasili's arm and led him to his study. As soon as they were alone
12577 together, Prince Vasili announced his hopes and wishes to the old
12580 "Well, do you think I shall prevent her, that I can't part from her?"
12581 said the old prince angrily. "What an idea! I'm ready for it tomorrow!
12582 Only let me tell you, I want to know my son-in-law better. You know my
12583 principles--everything aboveboard? I will ask her tomorrow in your
12584 presence; if she is willing, then he can stay on. He can stay and I'll
12585 see." The old prince snorted. "Let her marry, it's all the same to me!"
12586 he screamed in the same piercing tone as when parting from his son.
12588 "I will tell you frankly," said Prince Vasili in the tone of a crafty
12589 man convinced of the futility of being cunning with so keen-sighted a
12590 companion. "You know, you see right through people. Anatole is no
12591 genius, but he is an honest, goodhearted lad; an excellent son or
12594 "All right, all right, we'll see!"
12596 As always happens when women lead lonely lives for any length of time
12597 without male society, on Anatole's appearance all the three women of
12598 Prince Bolkonski's household felt that their life had not been real till
12599 then. Their powers of reasoning, feeling, and observing immediately
12600 increased tenfold, and their life, which seemed to have been passed in
12601 darkness, was suddenly lit up by a new brightness, full of significance.
12603 Princess Mary grew quite unconscious of her face and coiffure. The
12604 handsome open face of the man who might perhaps be her husband absorbed
12605 all her attention. He seemed to her kind, brave, determined, manly, and
12606 magnanimous. She felt convinced of that. Thousands of dreams of a future
12607 family life continually rose in her imagination. She drove them away and
12608 tried to conceal them.
12610 "But am I not too cold with him?" thought the princess. "I try to be
12611 reserved because in the depth of my soul I feel too near to him already,
12612 but then he cannot know what I think of him and may imagine that I do
12615 And Princess Mary tried, but could not manage, to be cordial to her new
12616 guest. "Poor girl, she's devilish ugly!" thought Anatole.
12618 Mademoiselle Bourienne, also roused to great excitement by Anatole's
12619 arrival, thought in another way. Of course, she, a handsome young woman
12620 without any definite position, without relations or even a country, did
12621 not intend to devote her life to serving Prince Bolkonski, to reading
12622 aloud to him and being friends with Princess Mary. Mademoiselle
12623 Bourienne had long been waiting for a Russian prince who, able to
12624 appreciate at a glance her superiority to the plain, badly dressed,
12625 ungainly Russian princesses, would fall in love with her and carry her
12626 off; and here at last was a Russian prince. Mademoiselle Bourienne knew
12627 a story, heard from her aunt but finished in her own way, which she
12628 liked to repeat to herself. It was the story of a girl who had been
12629 seduced, and to whom her poor mother (sa pauvre mere) appeared, and
12630 reproached her for yielding to a man without being married. Mademoiselle
12631 Bourienne was often touched to tears as in imagination she told this
12632 story to him, her seducer. And now he, a real Russian prince, had
12633 appeared. He would carry her away and then sa pauvre mere would appear
12634 and he would marry her. So her future shaped itself in Mademoiselle
12635 Bourienne's head at the very time she was talking to Anatole about
12636 Paris. It was not calculation that guided her (she did not even for a
12637 moment consider what she should do), but all this had long been familiar
12638 to her, and now that Anatole had appeared it just grouped itself around
12639 him and she wished and tried to please him as much as possible.
12641 The little princess, like an old war horse that hears the trumpet,
12642 unconsciously and quite forgetting her condition, prepared for the
12643 familiar gallop of coquetry, without any ulterior motive or any
12644 struggle, but with naive and lighthearted gaiety.
12646 Although in female society Anatole usually assumed the role of a man
12647 tired of being run after by women, his vanity was flattered by the
12648 spectacle of his power over these three women. Besides that, he was
12649 beginning to feel for the pretty and provocative Mademoiselle Bourienne
12650 that passionate animal feeling which was apt to master him with great
12651 suddenness and prompt him to the coarsest and most reckless actions.
12653 After tea, the company went into the sitting room and Princess Mary was
12654 asked to play on the clavichord. Anatole, laughing and in high spirits,
12655 came and leaned on his elbows, facing her and beside Mademoiselle
12656 Bourienne. Princess Mary felt his look with a painfully joyous emotion.
12657 Her favorite sonata bore her into a most intimately poetic world and the
12658 look she felt upon her made that world still more poetic. But Anatole's
12659 expression, though his eyes were fixed on her, referred not to her but
12660 to the movements of Mademoiselle Bourienne's little foot, which he was
12661 then touching with his own under the clavichord. Mademoiselle Bourienne
12662 was also looking at Princess Mary, and in her lovely eyes there was a
12663 look of fearful joy and hope that was also new to the princess.
12665 "How she loves me!" thought Princess Mary. "How happy I am now, and how
12666 happy I may be with such a friend and such a husband! Husband? Can it be
12667 possible?" she thought, not daring to look at his face, but still
12668 feeling his eyes gazing at her.
12670 In the evening, after supper, when all were about to retire, Anatole
12671 kissed Princess Mary's hand. She did not know how she found the courage,
12672 but she looked straight into his handsome face as it came near to her
12673 shortsighted eyes. Turning from Princess Mary he went up and kissed
12674 Mademoiselle Bourienne's hand. (This was not etiquette, but then he did
12675 everything so simply and with such assurance!) Mademoiselle Bourienne
12676 flushed, and gave the princess a frightened look.
12678 "What delicacy!" thought the princess. "Is it possible that Amelie"
12679 (Mademoiselle Bourienne) "thinks I could be jealous of her, and not
12680 value her pure affection and devotion to me?" She went up to her and
12681 kissed her warmly. Anatole went up to kiss the little princess' hand.
12683 "No! No! No! When your father writes to tell me that you are behaving
12684 well I will give you my hand to kiss. Not till then!" she said. And
12685 smilingly raising a finger at him, she left the room.
12692 They all separated, but, except Anatole who fell asleep as soon as he
12693 got into bed, all kept awake a long time that night.
12695 "Is he really to be my husband, this stranger who is so kind--yes, kind,
12696 that is the chief thing," thought Princess Mary; and fear, which she had
12697 seldom experienced, came upon her. She feared to look round, it seemed
12698 to her that someone was there standing behind the screen in the dark
12699 corner. And this someone was he--the devil--and he was also this man
12700 with the white forehead, black eyebrows, and red lips.
12702 She rang for her maid and asked her to sleep in her room.
12704 Mademoiselle Bourienne walked up and down the conservatory for a long
12705 time that evening, vainly expecting someone, now smiling at someone, now
12706 working herself up to tears with the imaginary words of her pauvre mere
12707 rebuking her for her fall.
12709 The little princess grumbled to her maid that her bed was badly made.
12710 She could not lie either on her face or on her side. Every position was
12711 awkward and uncomfortable, and her burden oppressed her now more than
12712 ever because Anatole's presence had vividly recalled to her the time
12713 when she was not like that and when everything was light and gay. She
12714 sat in an armchair in her dressing jacket and nightcap and Katie, sleepy
12715 and disheveled, beat and turned the heavy feather bed for the third
12716 time, muttering to herself.
12718 "I told you it was all lumps and holes!" the little princess repeated.
12719 "I should be glad enough to fall asleep, so it's not my fault!" and her
12720 voice quivered like that of a child about to cry.
12722 The old prince did not sleep either. Tikhon, half asleep, heard him
12723 pacing angrily about and snorting. The old prince felt as though he had
12724 been insulted through his daughter. The insult was the more pointed
12725 because it concerned not himself but another, his daughter, whom he
12726 loved more than himself. He kept telling himself that he would consider
12727 the whole matter and decide what was right and how he should act, but
12728 instead of that he only excited himself more and more.
12730 "The first man that turns up--she forgets her father and everything
12731 else, runs upstairs and does up her hair and wags her tail and is unlike
12732 herself! Glad to throw her father over! And she knew I should notice it.
12733 Fr... fr... fr! And don't I see that that idiot had eyes only for
12734 Bourienne--I shall have to get rid of her. And how is it she has not
12735 pride enough to see it? If she has no pride for herself she might at
12736 least have some for my sake! She must be shown that the blockhead thinks
12737 nothing of her and looks only at Bourienne. No, she has no pride... but
12738 I'll let her see...."
12740 The old prince knew that if he told his daughter she was making a
12741 mistake and that Anatole meant to flirt with Mademoiselle Bourienne,
12742 Princess Mary's self-esteem would be wounded and his point (not to be
12743 parted from her) would be gained, so pacifying himself with this
12744 thought, he called Tikhon and began to undress.
12746 "What devil brought them here?" thought he, while Tikhon was putting the
12747 nightshirt over his dried-up old body and gray-haired chest. "I never
12748 invited them. They came to disturb my life--and there is not much of it
12751 "Devil take 'em!" he muttered, while his head was still covered by the
12754 Tikhon knew his master's habit of sometimes thinking aloud, and
12755 therefore met with unaltered looks the angrily inquisitive expression of
12756 the face that emerged from the shirt.
12758 "Gone to bed?" asked the prince.
12760 Tikhon, like all good valets, instinctively knew the direction of his
12761 master's thoughts. He guessed that the question referred to Prince
12762 Vasili and his son.
12764 "They have gone to bed and put out their lights, your excellency."
12766 "No good... no good..." said the prince rapidly, and thrusting his feet
12767 into his slippers and his arms into the sleeves of his dressing gown, he
12768 went to the couch on which he slept.
12770 Though no words had passed between Anatole and Mademoiselle Bourienne,
12771 they quite understood one another as to the first part of their romance,
12772 up to the appearance of the pauvre mere; they understood that they had
12773 much to say to one another in private and so they had been seeking an
12774 opportunity since morning to meet one another alone. When Princess Mary
12775 went to her father's room at the usual hour, Mademoiselle Bourienne and
12776 Anatole met in the conservatory.
12778 Princess Mary went to the door of the study with special trepidation. It
12779 seemed to her that not only did everybody know that her fate would be
12780 decided that day, but that they also knew what she thought about it. She
12781 read this in Tikhon's face and in that of Prince Vasili's valet, who
12782 made her a low bow when she met him in the corridor carrying hot water.
12784 The old prince was very affectionate and careful in his treatment of his
12785 daughter that morning. Princess Mary well knew this painstaking
12786 expression of her father's. His face wore that expression when his dry
12787 hands clenched with vexation at her not understanding a sum in
12788 arithmetic, when rising from his chair he would walk away from her,
12789 repeating in a low voice the same words several times over.
12791 He came to the point at once, treating her ceremoniously.
12793 "I have had a proposition made me concerning you," he said with an
12794 unnatural smile. "I expect you have guessed that Prince Vasili has not
12795 come and brought his pupil with him" (for some reason Prince Bolkonski
12796 referred to Anatole as a "pupil") "for the sake of my beautiful eyes.
12797 Last night a proposition was made me on your account and, as you know my
12798 principles, I refer it to you."
12800 "How am I to understand you, mon pere?" said the princess, growing pale
12803 "How understand me!" cried her father angrily. "Prince Vasili finds you
12804 to his taste as a daughter-in-law and makes a proposal to you on his
12805 pupil's behalf. That's how it's to be understood! 'How understand
12806 it'!... And I ask you!"
12808 "I do not know what you think, Father," whispered the princess.
12810 "I? I? What of me? Leave me out of the question. I'm not going to get
12811 married. What about you? That's what I want to know."
12813 The princess saw that her father regarded the matter with disapproval,
12814 but at that moment the thought occurred to her that her fate would be
12815 decided now or never. She lowered her eyes so as not to see the gaze
12816 under which she felt that she could not think, but would only be able to
12817 submit from habit, and she said: "I wish only to do your will, but if I
12818 had to express my own desire..." She had no time to finish. The old
12819 prince interrupted her.
12821 "That's admirable!" he shouted. "He will take you with your dowry and
12822 take Mademoiselle Bourienne into the bargain. She'll be the wife, while
12825 The prince stopped. He saw the effect these words had produced on his
12826 daughter. She lowered her head and was ready to burst into tears.
12828 "Now then, now then, I'm only joking!" he said. "Remember this,
12829 Princess, I hold to the principle that a maiden has a full right to
12830 choose. I give you freedom. Only remember that your life's happiness
12831 depends on your decision. Never mind me!"
12833 "But I do not know, Father!"
12835 "There's no need to talk! He receives his orders and will marry you or
12836 anybody; but you are free to choose.... Go to your room, think it over,
12837 and come back in an hour and tell me in his presence: yes or no. I know
12838 you will pray over it. Well, pray if you like, but you had better think
12839 it over. Go! Yes or no, yes or no, yes or no!" he still shouted when the
12840 princess, as if lost in a fog, had already staggered out of the study.
12842 Her fate was decided and happily decided. But what her father had said
12843 about Mademoiselle Bourienne was dreadful. It was untrue to be sure, but
12844 still it was terrible, and she could not help thinking of it. She was
12845 going straight on through the conservatory, neither seeing nor hearing
12846 anything, when suddenly the well-known whispering of Mademoiselle
12847 Bourienne aroused her. She raised her eyes, and two steps away saw
12848 Anatole embracing the Frenchwoman and whispering something to her. With
12849 a horrified expression on his handsome face, Anatole looked at Princess
12850 Mary, but did not at once take his arm from the waist of Mademoiselle
12851 Bourienne who had not yet seen her.
12853 "Who's that? Why? Wait a moment!" Anatole's face seemed to say. Princess
12854 Mary looked at them in silence. She could not understand it. At last
12855 Mademoiselle Bourienne gave a scream and ran away. Anatole bowed to
12856 Princess Mary with a gay smile, as if inviting her to join in a laugh at
12857 this strange incident, and then shrugging his shoulders went to the door
12858 that led to his own apartments.
12860 An hour later, Tikhon came to call Princess Mary to the old prince; he
12861 added that Prince Vasili was also there. When Tikhon came to her
12862 Princess Mary was sitting on the sofa in her room, holding the weeping
12863 Mademoiselle Bourienne in her arms and gently stroking her hair. The
12864 princess' beautiful eyes with all their former calm radiance were
12865 looking with tender affection and pity at Mademoiselle Bourienne's
12868 "No, Princess, I have lost your affection forever!" said Mademoiselle
12871 "Why? I love you more than ever," said Princess Mary, "and I will try to
12872 do all I can for your happiness."
12874 "But you despise me. You who are so pure can never understand being so
12875 carried away by passion. Oh, only my poor mother..."
12877 "I quite understand," answered Princess Mary, with a sad smile. "Calm
12878 yourself, my dear. I will go to my father," she said, and went out.
12880 Prince Vasili, with one leg thrown high over the other and a snuffbox in
12881 his hand, was sitting there with a smile of deep emotion on his face, as
12882 if stirred to his heart's core and himself regretting and laughing at
12883 his own sensibility, when Princess Mary entered. He hurriedly took a
12886 "Ah, my dear, my dear!" he began, rising and taking her by both hands.
12887 Then, sighing, he added: "My son's fate is in your hands. Decide, my
12888 dear, good, gentle Marie, whom I have always loved as a daughter!"
12890 He drew back and a real tear appeared in his eye.
12892 "Fr... fr..." snorted Prince Bolkonski. "The prince is making a
12893 proposition to you in his pupil's--I mean, his son's--name. Do you wish
12894 or not to be Prince Anatole Kuragin's wife? Reply: yes or no," he
12895 shouted, "and then I shall reserve the right to state my opinion also.
12896 Yes, my opinion, and only my opinion," added Prince Bolkonski, turning
12897 to Prince Vasili and answering his imploring look. "Yes, or no?"
12899 "My desire is never to leave you, Father, never to separate my life from
12900 yours. I don't wish to marry," she answered positively, glancing at
12901 Prince Vasili and at her father with her beautiful eyes.
12903 "Humbug! Nonsense! Humbug, humbug, humbug!" cried Prince Bolkonski,
12904 frowning and taking his daughter's hand; he did not kiss her, but only
12905 bending his forehead to hers just touched it, and pressed her hand so
12906 that she winced and uttered a cry.
12908 Prince Vasili rose.
12910 "My dear, I must tell you that this is a moment I shall never, never
12911 forget. But, my dear, will you not give us a little hope of touching
12912 this heart, so kind and generous? Say 'perhaps'... The future is so
12913 long. Say 'perhaps.'"
12915 "Prince, what I have said is all there is in my heart. I thank you for
12916 the honor, but I shall never be your son's wife."
12918 "Well, so that's finished, my dear fellow! I am very glad to have seen
12919 you. Very glad! Go back to your rooms, Princess. Go!" said the old
12920 prince. "Very, very glad to have seen you," repeated he, embracing
12923 "My vocation is a different one," thought Princess Mary. "My vocation is
12924 to be happy with another kind of happiness, the happiness of love and
12925 self-sacrifice. And cost what it may, I will arrange poor Amelie's
12926 happiness, she loves him so passionately, and so passionately repents. I
12927 will do all I can to arrange the match between them. If he is not rich I
12928 will give her the means; I will ask my father and Andrew. I shall be so
12929 happy when she is his wife. She is so unfortunate, a stranger, alone,
12930 helpless! And, oh God, how passionately she must love him if she could
12931 so far forget herself! Perhaps I might have done the same!..." thought
12939 It was long since the Rostovs had news of Nicholas. Not till midwinter
12940 was the count at last handed a letter addressed in his son's
12941 handwriting. On receiving it, he ran on tiptoe to his study in alarm and
12942 haste, trying to escape notice, closed the door, and began to read the
12945 Anna Mikhaylovna, who always knew everything that passed in the house,
12946 on hearing of the arrival of the letter went softly into the room and
12947 found the count with it in his hand, sobbing and laughing at the same
12950 Anna Mikhaylovna, though her circumstances had improved, was still
12951 living with the Rostovs.
12953 "My dear friend?" said she, in a tone of pathetic inquiry, prepared to
12954 sympathize in any way.
12956 The count sobbed yet more.
12958 "Nikolenka... a letter... wa... a... s... wounded... my darling boy...
12959 the countess... promoted to be an officer... thank God... How tell the
12962 Anna Mikhaylovna sat down beside him, with her own handkerchief wiped
12963 the tears from his eyes and from the letter, then having dried her own
12964 eyes she comforted the count, and decided that at dinner and till
12965 teatime she would prepare the countess, and after tea, with God's help,
12968 At dinner Anna Mikhaylovna talked the whole time about the war news and
12969 about Nikolenka, twice asked when the last letter had been received from
12970 him, though she knew that already, and remarked that they might very
12971 likely be getting a letter from him that day. Each time that these hints
12972 began to make the countess anxious and she glanced uneasily at the count
12973 and at Anna Mikhaylovna, the latter very adroitly turned the
12974 conversation to insignificant matters. Natasha, who, of the whole
12975 family, was the most gifted with a capacity to feel any shades of
12976 intonation, look, and expression, pricked up her ears from the beginning
12977 of the meal and was certain that there was some secret between her
12978 father and Anna Mikhaylovna, that it had something to do with her
12979 brother, and that Anna Mikhaylovna was preparing them for it. Bold as
12980 she was, Natasha, who knew how sensitive her mother was to anything
12981 relating to Nikolenka, did not venture to ask any questions at dinner,
12982 but she was too excited to eat anything and kept wriggling about on her
12983 chair regardless of her governess' remarks. After dinner, she rushed
12984 head long after Anna Mikhaylovna and, dashing at her, flung herself on
12985 her neck as soon as she overtook her in the sitting room.
12987 "Auntie, darling, do tell me what it is!"
12989 "Nothing, my dear."
12991 "No, dearest, sweet one, honey, I won't give up--I know you know
12994 Anna Mikhaylovna shook her head.
12996 "You are a little slyboots," she said.
12998 "A letter from Nikolenka! I'm sure of it!" exclaimed Natasha, reading
12999 confirmation in Anna Mikhaylovna's face.
13001 "But for God's sake, be careful, you know how it may affect your mamma."
13003 "I will, I will, only tell me! You won't? Then I will go and tell at
13006 Anna Mikhaylovna, in a few words, told her the contents of the letter,
13007 on condition that she should tell no one.
13009 "No, on my true word of honor," said Natasha, crossing herself, "I won't
13010 tell anyone!" and she ran off at once to Sonya.
13012 "Nikolenka... wounded... a letter," she announced in gleeful triumph.
13014 "Nicholas!" was all Sonya said, instantly turning white.
13016 Natasha, seeing the impression the news of her brother's wound produced
13017 on Sonya, felt for the first time the sorrowful side of the news.
13019 She rushed to Sonya, hugged her, and began to cry.
13021 "A little wound, but he has been made an officer; he is well now, he
13022 wrote himself," said she through her tears.
13024 "There now! It's true that all you women are crybabies," remarked Petya,
13025 pacing the room with large, resolute strides. "Now I'm very glad, very
13026 glad indeed, that my brother has distinguished himself so. You are all
13027 blubberers and understand nothing."
13029 Natasha smiled through her tears.
13031 "You haven't read the letter?" asked Sonya.
13033 "No, but she said that it was all over and that he's now an officer."
13035 "Thank God!" said Sonya, crossing herself. "But perhaps she deceived
13036 you. Let us go to Mamma."
13038 Petya paced the room in silence for a time.
13040 "If I'd been in Nikolenka's place I would have killed even more of those
13041 Frenchmen," he said. "What nasty brutes they are! I'd have killed so
13042 many that there'd have been a heap of them."
13044 "Hold your tongue, Petya, what a goose you are!"
13046 "I'm not a goose, but they are who cry about trifles," said Petya.
13048 "Do you remember him?" Natasha suddenly asked, after a moment's silence.
13052 "Do I remember Nicholas?"
13054 "No, Sonya, but do you remember so that you remember him perfectly,
13055 remember everything?" said Natasha, with an expressive gesture,
13056 evidently wishing to give her words a very definite meaning. "I remember
13057 Nikolenka too, I remember him well," she said. "But I don't remember
13058 Boris. I don't remember him a bit."
13060 "What! You don't remember Boris?" asked Sonya in surprise.
13062 "It's not that I don't remember--I know what he is like, but not as I
13063 remember Nikolenka. Him--I just shut my eyes and remember, but Boris...
13064 No!" (She shut her eyes.) "No! there's nothing at all."
13066 "Oh, Natasha!" said Sonya, looking ecstatically and earnestly at her
13067 friend as if she did not consider her worthy to hear what she meant to
13068 say and as if she were saying it to someone else, with whom joking was
13069 out of the question, "I am in love with your brother once for all and,
13070 whatever may happen to him or to me, shall never cease to love him as
13073 Natasha looked at Sonya with wondering and inquisitive eyes, and said
13074 nothing. She felt that Sonya was speaking the truth, that there was such
13075 love as Sonya was speaking of. But Natasha had not yet felt anything
13076 like it. She believed it could be, but did not understand it.
13078 "Shall you write to him?" she asked.
13080 Sonya became thoughtful. The question of how to write to Nicholas, and
13081 whether she ought to write, tormented her. Now that he was already an
13082 officer and a wounded hero, would it be right to remind him of herself
13083 and, as it might seem, of the obligations to her he had taken on
13086 "I don't know. I think if he writes, I will write too," she said,
13089 "And you won't feel ashamed to write to him?"
13095 "And I should be ashamed to write to Boris. I'm not going to."
13097 "Why should you be ashamed?"
13099 "Well, I don't know. It's awkward and would make me ashamed."
13101 "And I know why she'd be ashamed," said Petya, offended by Natasha's
13102 previous remark. "It's because she was in love with that fat one in
13103 spectacles" (that was how Petya described his namesake, the new Count
13104 Bezukhov) "and now she's in love with that singer" (he meant Natasha's
13105 Italian singing master), "that's why she's ashamed!"
13107 "Petya, you're a stupid!" said Natasha.
13109 "Not more stupid than you, madam," said the nine-year-old Petya, with
13110 the air of an old brigadier.
13112 The countess had been prepared by Anna Mikhaylovna's hints at dinner. On
13113 retiring to her own room, she sat in an armchair, her eyes fixed on a
13114 miniature portrait of her son on the lid of a snuffbox, while the tears
13115 kept coming into her eyes. Anna Mikhaylovna, with the letter, came on
13116 tiptoe to the countess' door and paused.
13118 "Don't come in," she said to the old count who was following her. "Come
13119 later." And she went in, closing the door behind her.
13121 The count put his ear to the keyhole and listened.
13123 At first he heard the sound of indifferent voices, then Anna
13124 Mikhaylovna's voice alone in a long speech, then a cry, then silence,
13125 then both voices together with glad intonations, and then footsteps.
13126 Anna Mikhaylovna opened the door. Her face wore the proud expression of
13127 a surgeon who has just performed a difficult operation and admits the
13128 public to appreciate his skill.
13130 "It is done!" she said to the count, pointing triumphantly to the
13131 countess, who sat holding in one hand the snuffbox with its portrait and
13132 in the other the letter, and pressing them alternately to her lips.
13134 When she saw the count, she stretched out her arms to him, embraced his
13135 bald head, over which she again looked at the letter and the portrait,
13136 and in order to press them again to her lips, she slightly pushed away
13137 the bald head. Vera, Natasha, Sonya, and Petya now entered the room, and
13138 the reading of the letter began. After a brief description of the
13139 campaign and the two battles in which he had taken part, and his
13140 promotion, Nicholas said that he kissed his father's and mother's hands
13141 asking for their blessing, and that he kissed Vera, Natasha, and Petya.
13142 Besides that, he sent greetings to Monsieur Schelling, Madame Schoss,
13143 and his old nurse, and asked them to kiss for him "dear Sonya, whom he
13144 loved and thought of just the same as ever." When she heard this Sonya
13145 blushed so that tears came into her eyes and, unable to bear the looks
13146 turned upon her, ran away into the dancing hall, whirled round it at
13147 full speed with her dress puffed out like a balloon, and, flushed and
13148 smiling, plumped down on the floor. The countess was crying.
13150 "Why are you crying, Mamma?" asked Vera. "From all he says one should be
13153 This was quite true, but the count, the countess, and Natasha looked at
13154 her reproachfully. "And who is it she takes after?" thought the
13157 Nicholas' letter was read over hundreds of times, and those who were
13158 considered worthy to hear it had to come to the countess, for she did
13159 not let it out of her hands. The tutors came, and the nurses, and
13160 Dmitri, and several acquaintances, and the countess reread the letter
13161 each time with fresh pleasure and each time discovered in it fresh
13162 proofs of Nikolenka's virtues. How strange, how extraordinary, how
13163 joyful it seemed, that her son, the scarcely perceptible motion of whose
13164 tiny limbs she had felt twenty years ago within her, that son about whom
13165 she used to have quarrels with the too indulgent count, that son who had
13166 first learned to say "pear" and then "granny," that this son should now
13167 be away in a foreign land amid strange surroundings, a manly warrior
13168 doing some kind of man's work of his own, without help or guidance. The
13169 universal experience of ages, showing that children do grow
13170 imperceptibly from the cradle to manhood, did not exist for the
13171 countess. Her son's growth toward manhood, at each of its stages, had
13172 seemed as extraordinary to her as if there had never existed the
13173 millions of human beings who grew up in the same way. As twenty years
13174 before, it seemed impossible that the little creature who lived
13175 somewhere under her heart would ever cry, suck her breast, and begin to
13176 speak, so now she could not believe that that little creature could be
13177 this strong, brave man, this model son and officer that, judging by this
13178 letter, he now was.
13180 "What a style! How charmingly he describes!" said she, reading the
13181 descriptive part of the letter. "And what a soul! Not a word about
13182 himself.... Not a word! About some Denisov or other, though he himself,
13183 I dare say, is braver than any of them. He says nothing about his
13184 sufferings. What a heart! How like him it is! And how he has remembered
13185 everybody! Not forgetting anyone. I always said when he was only so
13186 high--I always said...."
13188 For more than a week preparations were being made, rough drafts of
13189 letters to Nicholas from all the household were written and copied out,
13190 while under the supervision of the countess and the solicitude of the
13191 count, money and all things necessary for the uniform and equipment of
13192 the newly commissioned officer were collected. Anna Mikhaylovna,
13193 practical woman that she was, had even managed by favor with army
13194 authorities to secure advantageous means of communication for herself
13195 and her son. She had opportunities of sending her letters to the Grand
13196 Duke Constantine Pavlovich, who commanded the Guards. The Rostovs
13197 supposed that The Russian Guards, Abroad, was quite a definite address,
13198 and that if a letter reached the Grand Duke in command of the Guards
13199 there was no reason why it should not reach the Pavlograd regiment,
13200 which was presumably somewhere in the same neighborhood. And so it was
13201 decided to send the letters and money by the Grand Duke's courier to
13202 Boris and Boris was to forward them to Nicholas. The letters were from
13203 the old count, the countess, Petya, Vera, Natasha, and Sonya, and
13204 finally there were six thousand rubles for his outfit and various other
13205 things the old count sent to his son.
13212 On the twelfth of November, Kutuzov's active army, in camp before
13213 Olmutz, was preparing to be reviewed next day by the two Emperors--the
13214 Russian and the Austrian. The Guards, just arrived from Russia, spent
13215 the night ten miles from Olmutz and next morning were to come straight
13216 to the review, reaching the field at Olmutz by ten o'clock.
13218 That day Nicholas Rostov received a letter from Boris, telling him that
13219 the Ismaylov regiment was quartered for the night ten miles from Olmutz
13220 and that he wanted to see him as he had a letter and money for him.
13221 Rostov was particularly in need of money now that the troops, after
13222 their active service, were stationed near Olmutz and the camp swarmed
13223 with well-provisioned sutlers and Austrian Jews offering all sorts of
13224 tempting wares. The Pavlograds held feast after feast, celebrating
13225 awards they had received for the campaign, and made expeditions to
13226 Olmutz to visit a certain Caroline the Hungarian, who had recently
13227 opened a restaurant there with girls as waitresses. Rostov, who had just
13228 celebrated his promotion to a cornetcy and bought Denisov's horse,
13229 Bedouin, was in debt all round, to his comrades and the sutlers. On
13230 receiving Boris' letter he rode with a fellow officer to Olmutz, dined
13231 there, drank a bottle of wine, and then set off alone to the Guards'
13232 camp to find his old playmate. Rostov had not yet had time to get his
13233 uniform. He had on a shabby cadet jacket, decorated with a soldier's
13234 cross, equally shabby cadet's riding breeches lined with worn leather,
13235 and an officer's saber with a sword knot. The Don horse he was riding
13236 was one he had bought from a Cossack during the campaign, and he wore a
13237 crumpled hussar cap stuck jauntily back on one side of his head. As he
13238 rode up to the camp he thought how he would impress Boris and all his
13239 comrades of the Guards by his appearance--that of a fighting hussar who
13240 had been under fire.
13242 The Guards had made their whole march as if on a pleasure trip, parading
13243 their cleanliness and discipline. They had come by easy stages, their
13244 knapsacks conveyed on carts, and the Austrian authorities had provided
13245 excellent dinners for the officers at every halting place. The regiments
13246 had entered and left the town with their bands playing, and by the Grand
13247 Duke's orders the men had marched all the way in step (a practice on
13248 which the Guards prided themselves), the officers on foot and at their
13249 proper posts. Boris had been quartered, and had marched all the way,
13250 with Berg who was already in command of a company. Berg, who had
13251 obtained his captaincy during the campaign, had gained the confidence of
13252 his superiors by his promptitude and accuracy and had arranged his money
13253 matters very satisfactorily. Boris, during the campaign, had made the
13254 acquaintance of many persons who might prove useful to him, and by a
13255 letter of recommendation he had brought from Pierre had become
13256 acquainted with Prince Andrew Bolkonski, through whom he hoped to obtain
13257 a post on the commander-in-chief's staff. Berg and Boris, having rested
13258 after yesterday's march, were sitting, clean and neatly dressed, at a
13259 round table in the clean quarters allotted to them, playing chess. Berg
13260 held a smoking pipe between his knees. Boris, in the accurate way
13261 characteristic of him, was building a little pyramid of chessmen with
13262 his delicate white fingers while awaiting Berg's move, and watched his
13263 opponent's face, evidently thinking about the game as he always thought
13264 only of whatever he was engaged on.
13266 "Well, how are you going to get out of that?" he remarked.
13268 "We'll try to," replied Berg, touching a pawn and then removing his
13271 At that moment the door opened.
13273 "Here he is at last!" shouted Rostov. "And Berg too! Oh, you
13274 petisenfans, allay cushay dormir!" he exclaimed, imitating his Russian
13275 nurse's French, at which he and Boris used to laugh long ago.
13277 "Dear me, how you have changed!"
13279 Boris rose to meet Rostov, but in doing so did not omit to steady and
13280 replace some chessmen that were falling. He was about to embrace his
13281 friend, but Nicholas avoided him. With that peculiar feeling of youth,
13282 that dread of beaten tracks, and wish to express itself in a manner
13283 different from that of its elders which is often insincere, Nicholas
13284 wished to do something special on meeting his friend. He wanted to pinch
13285 him, push him, do anything but kiss him--a thing everybody did. But
13286 notwithstanding this, Boris embraced him in a quiet, friendly way and
13287 kissed him three times.
13289 They had not met for nearly half a year and, being at the age when young
13290 men take their first steps on life's road, each saw immense changes in
13291 the other, quite a new reflection of the society in which they had taken
13292 those first steps. Both had changed greatly since they last met and both
13293 were in a hurry to show the changes that had taken place in them.
13295 "Oh, you damned dandies! Clean and fresh as if you'd been to a fete, not
13296 like us sinners of the line," cried Rostov, with martial swagger and
13297 with baritone notes in his voice, new to Boris, pointing to his own mud-
13298 bespattered breeches. The German landlady, hearing Rostov's loud voice,
13299 popped her head in at the door.
13301 "Eh, is she pretty?" he asked with a wink.
13303 "Why do you shout so? You'll frighten them!" said Boris. "I did not
13304 expect you today," he added. "I only sent you the note yesterday by
13305 Bolkonski--an adjutant of Kutuzov's, who's a friend of mine. I did not
13306 think he would get it to you so quickly.... Well, how are you? Been
13307 under fire already?" asked Boris.
13309 Without answering, Rostov shook the soldier's Cross of St. George
13310 fastened to the cording of his uniform and, indicating a bandaged arm,
13311 glanced at Berg with a smile.
13313 "As you see," he said.
13315 "Indeed? Yes, yes!" said Boris, with a smile. "And we too have had a
13316 splendid march. You know, of course, that His Imperial Highness rode
13317 with our regiment all the time, so that we had every comfort and every
13318 advantage. What receptions we had in Poland! What dinners and balls! I
13319 can't tell you. And the Tsarevich was very gracious to all our
13322 And the two friends told each other of their doings, the one of his
13323 hussar revels and life in the fighting line, the other of the pleasures
13324 and advantages of service under members of the Imperial family.
13326 "Oh, you Guards!" said Rostov. "I say, send for some wine."
13328 Boris made a grimace.
13330 "If you really want it," said he.
13332 He went to his bed, drew a purse from under the clean pillow, and sent
13335 "Yes, and I have some money and a letter to give you," he added.
13337 Rostov took the letter and, throwing the money on the sofa, put both
13338 arms on the table and began to read. After reading a few lines, he
13339 glanced angrily at Berg, then, meeting his eyes, hid his face behind the
13342 "Well, they've sent you a tidy sum," said Berg, eying the heavy purse
13343 that sank into the sofa. "As for us, Count, we get along on our pay. I
13344 can tell you for myself..."
13346 "I say, Berg, my dear fellow," said Rostov, "when you get a letter from
13347 home and meet one of your own people whom you want to talk everything
13348 over with, and I happen to be there, I'll go at once, to be out of your
13349 way! Do go somewhere, anywhere... to the devil!" he exclaimed, and
13350 immediately seizing him by the shoulder and looking amiably into his
13351 face, evidently wishing to soften the rudeness of his words, he added,
13352 "Don't be hurt, my dear fellow; you know I speak from my heart as to an
13355 "Oh, don't mention it, Count! I quite understand," said Berg, getting up
13356 and speaking in a muffled and guttural voice.
13358 "Go across to our hosts: they invited you," added Boris.
13360 Berg put on the cleanest of coats, without a spot or speck of dust,
13361 stood before a looking glass and brushed the hair on his temples
13362 upwards, in the way affected by the Emperor Alexander, and, having
13363 assured himself from the way Rostov looked at it that his coat had been
13364 noticed, left the room with a pleasant smile.
13366 "Oh dear, what a beast I am!" muttered Rostov, as he read the letter.
13370 "Oh, what a pig I am, not to have written and to have given them such a
13371 fright! Oh, what a pig I am!" he repeated, flushing suddenly. "Well,
13372 have you sent Gabriel for some wine? All right let's have some!"
13374 In the letter from his parents was enclosed a letter of recommendation
13375 to Bagration which the old countess at Anna Mikhaylovna's advice had
13376 obtained through an acquaintance and sent to her son, asking him to take
13377 it to its destination and make use of it.
13379 "What nonsense! Much I need it!" said Rostov, throwing the letter under
13382 "Why have you thrown that away?" asked Boris.
13384 "It is some letter of recommendation... what the devil do I want it
13387 "Why 'What the devil'?" said Boris, picking it up and reading the
13388 address. "This letter would be of great use to you."
13390 "I want nothing, and I won't be anyone's adjutant."
13392 "Why not?" inquired Boris.
13394 "It's a lackey's job!"
13396 "You are still the same dreamer, I see," remarked Boris, shaking his
13399 "And you're still the same diplomatist! But that's not the point...
13400 Come, how are you?" asked Rostov.
13402 "Well, as you see. So far everything's all right, but I confess I should
13403 much like to be an adjutant and not remain at the front."
13407 "Because when once a man starts on military service, he should try to
13408 make as successful a career of it as possible."
13410 "Oh, that's it!" said Rostov, evidently thinking of something else.
13412 He looked intently and inquiringly into his friend's eyes, evidently
13413 trying in vain to find the answer to some question.
13415 Old Gabriel brought in the wine.
13417 "Shouldn't we now send for Berg?" asked Boris. "He would drink with you.
13420 "Well, send for him... and how do you get on with that German?" asked
13421 Rostov, with a contemptuous smile.
13423 "He is a very, very nice, honest, and pleasant fellow," answered Boris.
13425 Again Rostov looked intently into Boris' eyes and sighed. Berg returned,
13426 and over the bottle of wine conversation between the three officers
13427 became animated. The Guardsmen told Rostov of their march and how they
13428 had been made much of in Russia, Poland, and abroad. They spoke of the
13429 sayings and doings of their commander, the Grand Duke, and told stories
13430 of his kindness and irascibility. Berg, as usual, kept silent when the
13431 subject did not relate to himself, but in connection with the stories of
13432 the Grand Duke's quick temper he related with gusto how in Galicia he
13433 had managed to deal with the Grand Duke when the latter made a tour of
13434 the regiments and was annoyed at the irregularity of a movement. With a
13435 pleasant smile Berg related how the Grand Duke had ridden up to him in a
13436 violent passion, shouting: "Arnauts!" ("Arnauts" was the Tsarevich's
13437 favorite expression when he was in a rage) and called for the company
13440 "Would you believe it, Count, I was not at all alarmed, because I knew I
13441 was right. Without boasting, you know, I may say that I know the Army
13442 Orders by heart and know the Regulations as well as I do the Lord's
13443 Prayer. So, Count, there never is any negligence in my company, and so
13444 my conscience was at ease. I came forward...." (Berg stood up and showed
13445 how he presented himself, with his hand to his cap, and really it would
13446 have been difficult for a face to express greater respect and self-
13447 complacency than his did.) "Well, he stormed at me, as the saying is,
13448 stormed and stormed and stormed! It was not a matter of life but rather
13449 of death, as the saying is. 'Albanians!' and 'devils!' and 'To
13450 Siberia!'" said Berg with a sagacious smile. "I knew I was in the right
13451 so I kept silent; was not that best, Count?... 'Hey, are you dumb?' he
13452 shouted. Still I remained silent. And what do you think, Count? The next
13453 day it was not even mentioned in the Orders of the Day. That's what
13454 keeping one's head means. That's the way, Count," said Berg, lighting
13455 his pipe and emitting rings of smoke.
13457 "Yes, that was fine," said Rostov, smiling.
13459 But Boris noticed that he was preparing to make fun of Berg, and
13460 skillfully changed the subject. He asked him to tell them how and where
13461 he got his wound. This pleased Rostov and he began talking about it, and
13462 as he went on became more and more animated. He told them of his Schon
13463 Grabern affair, just as those who have taken part in a battle generally
13464 do describe it, that is, as they would like it to have been, as they
13465 have heard it described by others, and as sounds well, but not at all as
13466 it really was. Rostov was a truthful young man and would on no account
13467 have told a deliberate lie. He began his story meaning to tell
13468 everything just as it happened, but imperceptibly, involuntarily, and
13469 inevitably he lapsed into falsehood. If he had told the truth to his
13470 hearers--who like himself had often heard stories of attacks and had
13471 formed a definite idea of what an attack was and were expecting to hear
13472 just such a story--they would either not have believed him or, still
13473 worse, would have thought that Rostov was himself to blame since what
13474 generally happens to the narrators of cavalry attacks had not happened
13475 to him. He could not tell them simply that everyone went at a trot and
13476 that he fell off his horse and sprained his arm and then ran as hard as
13477 he could from a Frenchman into the wood. Besides, to tell everything as
13478 it really happened, it would have been necessary to make an effort of
13479 will to tell only what happened. It is very difficult to tell the truth,
13480 and young people are rarely capable of it. His hearers expected a story
13481 of how beside himself and all aflame with excitement, he had flown like
13482 a storm at the square, cut his way in, slashed right and left, how his
13483 saber had tasted flesh and he had fallen exhausted, and so on. And so he
13484 told them all that.
13486 In the middle of his story, just as he was saying: "You cannot imagine
13487 what a strange frenzy one experiences during an attack," Prince Andrew,
13488 whom Boris was expecting, entered the room. Prince Andrew, who liked to
13489 help young men, was flattered by being asked for his assistance and
13490 being well disposed toward Boris, who had managed to please him the day
13491 before, he wished to do what the young man wanted. Having been sent with
13492 papers from Kutuzov to the Tsarevich, he looked in on Boris, hoping to
13493 find him alone. When he came in and saw an hussar of the line recounting
13494 his military exploits (Prince Andrew could not endure that sort of man),
13495 he gave Boris a pleasant smile, frowned as with half-closed eyes he
13496 looked at Rostov, bowed slightly and wearily, and sat down languidly on
13497 the sofa: he felt it unpleasant to have dropped in on bad company.
13498 Rostov flushed up on noticing this, but he did not care, this was a mere
13499 stranger. Glancing, however, at Boris, he saw that he too seemed ashamed
13500 of the hussar of the line.
13502 In spite of Prince Andrew's disagreeable, ironical tone, in spite of the
13503 contempt with which Rostov, from his fighting army point of view,
13504 regarded all these little adjutants on the staff of whom the newcomer
13505 was evidently one, Rostov felt confused, blushed, and became silent.
13506 Boris inquired what news there might be on the staff, and what, without
13507 indiscretion, one might ask about our plans.
13509 "We shall probably advance," replied Bolkonski, evidently reluctant to
13510 say more in the presence of a stranger.
13512 Berg took the opportunity to ask, with great politeness, whether, as was
13513 rumored, the allowance of forage money to captains of companies would be
13514 doubled. To this Prince Andrew answered with a smile that he could give
13515 no opinion on such an important government order, and Berg laughed
13518 "As to your business," Prince Andrew continued, addressing Boris, "we
13519 will talk of it later" (and he looked round at Rostov). "Come to me
13520 after the review and we will do what is possible."
13522 And, having glanced round the room, Prince Andrew turned to Rostov,
13523 whose state of unconquerable childish embarrassment now changing to
13524 anger he did not condescend to notice, and said: "I think you were
13525 talking of the Schon Grabern affair? Were you there?"
13527 "I was there," said Rostov angrily, as if intending to insult the aide-
13530 Bolkonski noticed the hussar's state of mind, and it amused him. With a
13531 slightly contemptuous smile, he said: "Yes, there are many stories now
13532 told about that affair!"
13534 "Yes, stories!" repeated Rostov loudly, looking with eyes suddenly grown
13535 furious, now at Boris, now at Bolkonski. "Yes, many stories! But our
13536 stories are the stories of men who have been under the enemy's fire! Our
13537 stories have some weight, not like the stories of those fellows on the
13538 staff who get rewards without doing anything!"
13540 "Of whom you imagine me to be one?" said Prince Andrew, with a quiet and
13541 particularly amiable smile.
13543 A strange feeling of exasperation and yet of respect for this man's
13544 self-possession mingled at that moment in Rostov's soul.
13546 "I am not talking about you," he said, "I don't know you and, frankly, I
13547 don't want to. I am speaking of the staff in general."
13549 "And I will tell you this," Prince Andrew interrupted in a tone of quiet
13550 authority, "you wish to insult me, and I am ready to agree with you that
13551 it would be very easy to do so if you haven't sufficient self-respect,
13552 but admit that the time and place are very badly chosen. In a day or two
13553 we shall all have to take part in a greater and more serious duel, and
13554 besides, Drubetskoy, who says he is an old friend of yours, is not at
13555 all to blame that my face has the misfortune to displease you. However,"
13556 he added rising, "you know my name and where to find me, but don't
13557 forget that I do not regard either myself or you as having been at all
13558 insulted, and as a man older than you, my advice is to let the matter
13559 drop. Well then, on Friday after the review I shall expect you,
13560 Drubetskoy. Au revoir!" exclaimed Prince Andrew, and with a bow to them
13563 Only when Prince Andrew was gone did Rostov think of what he ought to
13564 have said. And he was still more angry at having omitted to say it. He
13565 ordered his horse at once and, coldly taking leave of Boris, rode home.
13566 Should he go to headquarters next day and challenge that affected
13567 adjutant, or really let the matter drop, was the question that worried
13568 him all the way. He thought angrily of the pleasure he would have at
13569 seeing the fright of that small and frail but proud man when covered by
13570 his pistol, and then he felt with surprise that of all the men he knew
13571 there was none he would so much like to have for a friend as that very
13572 adjutant whom he so hated.
13579 The day after Rostov had been to see Boris, a review was held of the
13580 Austrian and Russian troops, both those freshly arrived from Russia and
13581 those who had been campaigning under Kutuzov. The two Emperors, the
13582 Russian with his heir the Tsarevich, and the Austrian with the Archduke,
13583 inspected the allied army of eighty thousand men.
13585 From early morning the smart clean troops were on the move, forming up
13586 on the field before the fortress. Now thousands of feet and bayonets
13587 moved and halted at the officers' command, turned with banners flying,
13588 formed up at intervals, and wheeled round other similar masses of
13589 infantry in different uniforms; now was heard the rhythmic beat of hoofs
13590 and the jingling of showy cavalry in blue, red, and green braided
13591 uniforms, with smartly dressed bandsmen in front mounted on black, roan,
13592 or gray horses; then again, spreading out with the brazen clatter of the
13593 polished shining cannon that quivered on the gun carriages and with the
13594 smell of linstocks, came the artillery which crawled between the
13595 infantry and cavalry and took up its appointed position. Not only the
13596 generals in full parade uniforms, with their thin or thick waists drawn
13597 in to the utmost, their red necks squeezed into their stiff collars, and
13598 wearing scarves and all their decorations, not only the elegant, pomaded
13599 officers, but every soldier with his freshly washed and shaven face and
13600 his weapons clean and polished to the utmost, and every horse groomed
13601 till its coat shone like satin and every hair of its wetted mane lay
13602 smooth--felt that no small matter was happening, but an important and
13603 solemn affair. Every general and every soldier was conscious of his own
13604 insignificance, aware of being but a drop in that ocean of men, and yet
13605 at the same time was conscious of his strength as a part of that
13608 From early morning strenuous activities and efforts had begun and by ten
13609 o'clock all had been brought into due order. The ranks were drawn up on
13610 the vast field. The whole army was extended in three lines: the cavalry
13611 in front, behind it the artillery, and behind that again the infantry.
13613 A space like a street was left between each two lines of troops. The
13614 three parts of that army were sharply distinguished: Kutuzov's fighting
13615 army (with the Pavlograds on the right flank of the front); those
13616 recently arrived from Russia, both Guards and regiments of the line; and
13617 the Austrian troops. But they all stood in the same lines, under one
13618 command, and in a like order.
13620 Like wind over leaves ran an excited whisper: "They're coming! They're
13621 coming!" Alarmed voices were heard, and a stir of final preparation
13622 swept over all the troops.
13624 From the direction of Olmutz in front of them, a group was seen
13625 approaching. And at that moment, though the day was still, a light gust
13626 of wind blowing over the army slightly stirred the streamers on the
13627 lances and the unfolded standards fluttered against their staffs. It
13628 looked as if by that slight motion the army itself was expressing its
13629 joy at the approach of the Emperors. One voice was heard shouting: "Eyes
13630 front!" Then, like the crowing of cocks at sunrise, this was repeated by
13631 others from various sides and all became silent.
13633 In the deathlike stillness only the tramp of horses was heard. This was
13634 the Emperors' suites. The Emperors rode up to the flank, and the
13635 trumpets of the first cavalry regiment played the general march. It
13636 seemed as though not the trumpeters were playing, but as if the army
13637 itself, rejoicing at the Emperors' approach, had naturally burst into
13638 music. Amid these sounds, only the youthful kindly voice of the Emperor
13639 Alexander was clearly heard. He gave the words of greeting, and the
13640 first regiment roared "Hurrah!" so deafeningly, continuously, and
13641 joyfully that the men themselves were awed by their multitude and the
13642 immensity of the power they constituted.
13644 Rostov, standing in the front lines of Kutuzov's army which the Tsar
13645 approached first, experienced the same feeling as every other man in
13646 that army: a feeling of self-forgetfulness, a proud consciousness of
13647 might, and a passionate attraction to him who was the cause of this
13650 He felt that at a single word from that man all this vast mass (and he
13651 himself an insignificant atom in it) would go through fire and water,
13652 commit crime, die, or perform deeds of highest heroism, and so he could
13653 not but tremble and his heart stand still at the imminence of that word.
13655 "Hurrah! Hurrah! Hurrah!" thundered from all sides, one regiment after
13656 another greeting the Tsar with the strains of the march, and then
13657 "Hurrah!"... Then the general march, and again "Hurrah! Hurrah!" growing
13658 ever stronger and fuller and merging into a deafening roar.
13660 Till the Tsar reached it, each regiment in its silence and immobility
13661 seemed like a lifeless body, but as soon as he came up it became alive,
13662 its thunder joining the roar of the whole line along which he had
13663 already passed. Through the terrible and deafening roar of those voices,
13664 amid the square masses of troops standing motionless as if turned to
13665 stone, hundreds of riders composing the suites moved carelessly but
13666 symmetrically and above all freely, and in front of them two men--the
13667 Emperors. Upon them the undivided, tensely passionate attention of that
13668 whole mass of men was concentrated.
13670 The handsome young Emperor Alexander, in the uniform of the Horse
13671 Guards, wearing a cocked hat with its peaks front and back, with his
13672 pleasant face and resonant though not loud voice, attracted everyone's
13675 Rostov was not far from the trumpeters, and with his keen sight had
13676 recognized the Tsar and watched his approach. When he was within twenty
13677 paces, and Nicholas could clearly distinguish every detail of his
13678 handsome, happy young face, he experienced a feeling of tenderness and
13679 ecstasy such as he had never before known. Every trait and every
13680 movement of the Tsar's seemed to him enchanting.
13682 Stopping in front of the Pavlograds, the Tsar said something in French
13683 to the Austrian Emperor and smiled.
13685 Seeing that smile, Rostov involuntarily smiled himself and felt a still
13686 stronger flow of love for his sovereign. He longed to show that love in
13687 some way and knowing that this was impossible was ready to cry. The Tsar
13688 called the colonel of the regiment and said a few words to him.
13690 "Oh God, what would happen to me if the Emperor spoke to me?" thought
13691 Rostov. "I should die of happiness!"
13693 The Tsar addressed the officers also: "I thank you all, gentlemen, I
13694 thank you with my whole heart." To Rostov every word sounded like a
13695 voice from heaven. How gladly would he have died at once for his Tsar!
13697 "You have earned the St. George's standards and will be worthy of them."
13699 "Oh, to die, to die for him," thought Rostov.
13701 The Tsar said something more which Rostov did not hear, and the
13702 soldiers, straining their lungs, shouted "Hurrah!"
13704 Rostov too, bending over his saddle, shouted "Hurrah!" with all his
13705 might, feeling that he would like to injure himself by that shout, if
13706 only to express his rapture fully.
13708 The Tsar stopped a few minutes in front of the hussars as if undecided.
13710 "How can the Emperor be undecided?" thought Rostov, but then even this
13711 indecision appeared to him majestic and enchanting, like everything else
13714 That hesitation lasted only an instant. The Tsar's foot, in the narrow
13715 pointed boot then fashionable, touched the groin of the bobtailed bay
13716 mare he rode, his hand in a white glove gathered up the reins, and he
13717 moved off accompanied by an irregularly swaying sea of aides-de-camp.
13718 Farther and farther he rode away, stopping at other regiments, till at
13719 last only his white plumes were visible to Rostov from amid the suites
13720 that surrounded the Emperors.
13722 Among the gentlemen of the suite, Rostov noticed Bolkonski, sitting his
13723 horse indolently and carelessly. Rostov recalled their quarrel of
13724 yesterday and the question presented itself whether he ought or ought
13725 not to challenge Bolkonski. "Of course not!" he now thought. "Is it
13726 worth thinking or speaking of it at such a moment? At a time of such
13727 love, such rapture, and such self-sacrifice, what do any of our quarrels
13728 and affronts matter? I love and forgive everybody now."
13730 When the Emperor had passed nearly all the regiments, the troops began a
13731 ceremonial march past him, and Rostov on Bedouin, recently purchased
13732 from Denisov, rode past too, at the rear of his squadron--that is, alone
13733 and in full view of the Emperor.
13735 Before he reached him, Rostov, who was a splendid horseman, spurred
13736 Bedouin twice and successfully put him to the showy trot in which the
13737 animal went when excited. Bending his foaming muzzle to his chest, his
13738 tail extended, Bedouin, as if also conscious of the Emperor's eye upon
13739 him, passed splendidly, lifting his feet with a high and graceful
13740 action, as if flying through the air without touching the ground.
13742 Rostov himself, his legs well back and his stomach drawn in and feeling
13743 himself one with his horse, rode past the Emperor with a frowning but
13744 blissful face "like a vewy devil," as Denisov expressed it.
13746 "Fine fellows, the Pavlograds!" remarked the Emperor.
13748 "My God, how happy I should be if he ordered me to leap into the fire
13749 this instant!" thought Rostov.
13751 When the review was over, the newly arrived officers, and also
13752 Kutuzov's, collected in groups and began to talk about the awards, about
13753 the Austrians and their uniforms, about their lines, about Bonaparte,
13754 and how badly the latter would fare now, especially if the Essen corps
13755 arrived and Prussia took our side.
13757 But the talk in every group was chiefly about the Emperor Alexander. His
13758 every word and movement was described with ecstasy.
13760 They all had but one wish: to advance as soon as possible against the
13761 enemy under the Emperor's command. Commanded by the Emperor himself they
13762 could not fail to vanquish anyone, be it whom it might: so thought
13763 Rostov and most of the officers after the review.
13765 All were then more confident of victory than the winning of two battles
13766 would have made them.
13773 The day after the review, Boris, in his best uniform and with his
13774 comrade Berg's best wishes for success, rode to Olmutz to see Bolkonski,
13775 wishing to profit by his friendliness and obtain for himself the best
13776 post he could--preferably that of adjutant to some important personage,
13777 a position in the army which seemed to him most attractive. "It is all
13778 very well for Rostov, whose father sends him ten thousand rubles at a
13779 time, to talk about not wishing to cringe to anybody and not be anyone's
13780 lackey, but I who have nothing but my brains have to make a career and
13781 must not miss opportunities, but must avail myself of them!" he
13784 He did not find Prince Andrew in Olmutz that day, but the appearance of
13785 the town where the headquarters and the diplomatic corps were stationed
13786 and the two Emperors were living with their suites, households, and
13787 courts only strengthened his desire to belong to that higher world.
13789 He knew no one, and despite his smart Guardsman's uniform, all these
13790 exalted personages passing in the streets in their elegant carriages
13791 with their plumes, ribbons, and medals, both courtiers and military men,
13792 seemed so immeasurably above him, an insignificant officer of the
13793 Guards, that they not only did not wish to, but simply could not, be
13794 aware of his existence. At the quarters of the commander-in-chief,
13795 Kutuzov, where he inquired for Bolkonski, all the adjutants and even the
13796 orderlies looked at him as if they wished to impress on him that a great
13797 many officers like him were always coming there and that everybody was
13798 heartily sick of them. In spite of this, or rather because of it, next
13799 day, November 15, after dinner he again went to Olmutz and, entering the
13800 house occupied by Kutuzov, asked for Bolkonski. Prince Andrew was in and
13801 Boris was shown into a large hall probably formerly used for dancing,
13802 but in which five beds now stood, and furniture of various kinds: a
13803 table, chairs, and a clavichord. One adjutant, nearest the door, was
13804 sitting at the table in a Persian dressing gown, writing. Another, the
13805 red, stout Nesvitski, lay on a bed with his arms under his head,
13806 laughing with an officer who had sat down beside him. A third was
13807 playing a Viennese waltz on the clavichord, while a fourth, lying on the
13808 clavichord, sang the tune. Bolkonski was not there. None of these
13809 gentlemen changed his position on seeing Boris. The one who was writing
13810 and whom Boris addressed turned round crossly and told him Bolkonski was
13811 on duty and that he should go through the door on the left into the
13812 reception room if he wished to see him. Boris thanked him and went to
13813 the reception room, where he found some ten officers and generals.
13815 When he entered, Prince Andrew, his eyes drooping contemptuously (with
13816 that peculiar expression of polite weariness which plainly says, "If it
13817 were not my duty I would not talk to you for a moment"), was listening
13818 to an old Russian general with decorations, who stood very erect, almost
13819 on tiptoe, with a soldier's obsequious expression on his purple face,
13820 reporting something.
13822 "Very well, then, be so good as to wait," said Prince Andrew to the
13823 general, in Russian, speaking with the French intonation he affected
13824 when he wished to speak contemptuously, and noticing Boris, Prince
13825 Andrew, paying no more heed to the general who ran after him imploring
13826 him to hear something more, nodded and turned to him with a cheerful
13829 At that moment Boris clearly realized what he had before surmised, that
13830 in the army, besides the subordination and discipline prescribed in the
13831 military code, which he and the others knew in the regiment, there was
13832 another, more important, subordination, which made this tight-laced,
13833 purple-faced general wait respectfully while Captain Prince Andrew, for
13834 his own pleasure, chose to chat with Lieutenant Drubetskoy. More than
13835 ever was Boris resolved to serve in future not according to the written
13836 code, but under this unwritten law. He felt now that merely by having
13837 been recommended to Prince Andrew he had already risen above the general
13838 who at the front had the power to annihilate him, a lieutenant of the
13839 Guards. Prince Andrew came up to him and took his hand.
13841 "I am very sorry you did not find me in yesterday. I was fussing about
13842 with Germans all day. We went with Weyrother to survey the dispositions.
13843 When Germans start being accurate, there's no end to it!"
13845 Boris smiled, as if he understood what Prince Andrew was alluding to as
13846 something generally known. But it was the first time he had heard
13847 Weyrother's name, or even the term "dispositions."
13849 "Well, my dear fellow, so you still want to be an adjutant? I have been
13850 thinking about you."
13852 "Yes, I was thinking"--for some reason Boris could not help blushing--
13853 "of asking the commander-in-chief. He has had a letter from Prince
13854 Kuragin about me. I only wanted to ask because I fear the Guards won't
13855 be in action," he added as if in apology.
13857 "All right, all right. We'll talk it over," replied Prince Andrew. "Only
13858 let me report this gentleman's business, and I shall be at your
13861 While Prince Andrew went to report about the purple-faced general, that
13862 gentleman--evidently not sharing Boris' conception of the advantages of
13863 the unwritten code of subordination--looked so fixedly at the
13864 presumptuous lieutenant who had prevented his finishing what he had to
13865 say to the adjutant that Boris felt uncomfortable. He turned away and
13866 waited impatiently for Prince Andrew's return from the commander-in-
13869 "You see, my dear fellow, I have been thinking about you," said Prince
13870 Andrew when they had gone into the large room where the clavichord was.
13871 "It's no use your going to the commander-in-chief. He would say a lot of
13872 pleasant things, ask you to dinner" ("That would not be bad as regards
13873 the unwritten code," thought Boris), "but nothing more would come of it.
13874 There will soon be a battalion of us aides-de-camp and adjutants! But
13875 this is what we'll do: I have a good friend, an adjutant general and an
13876 excellent fellow, Prince Dolgorukov; and though you may not know it, the
13877 fact is that now Kutuzov with his staff and all of us count for nothing.
13878 Everything is now centered round the Emperor. So we will go to
13879 Dolgorukov; I have to go there anyhow and I have already spoken to him
13880 about you. We shall see whether he cannot attach you to himself or find
13881 a place for you somewhere nearer the sun."
13883 Prince Andrew always became specially keen when he had to guide a young
13884 man and help him to worldly success. Under cover of obtaining help of
13885 this kind for another, which from pride he would never accept for
13886 himself, he kept in touch with the circle which confers success and
13887 which attracted him. He very readily took up Boris' cause and went with
13890 It was late in the evening when they entered the palace at Olmutz
13891 occupied by the Emperors and their retinues.
13893 That same day a council of war had been held in which all the members of
13894 the Hofkriegsrath and both Emperors took part. At that council, contrary
13895 to the views of the old generals Kutuzov and Prince Schwartzenberg, it
13896 had been decided to advance immediately and give battle to Bonaparte.
13897 The council of war was just over when Prince Andrew accompanied by Boris
13898 arrived at the palace to find Dolgorukov. Everyone at headquarters was
13899 still under the spell of the day's council, at which the party of the
13900 young had triumphed. The voices of those who counseled delay and advised
13901 waiting for something else before advancing had been so completely
13902 silenced and their arguments confuted by such conclusive evidence of the
13903 advantages of attacking that what had been discussed at the council--the
13904 coming battle and the victory that would certainly result from it--no
13905 longer seemed to be in the future but in the past. All the advantages
13906 were on our side. Our enormous forces, undoubtedly superior to
13907 Napoleon's, were concentrated in one place, the troops inspired by the
13908 Emperors' presence were eager for action. The strategic position where
13909 the operations would take place was familiar in all its details to the
13910 Austrian General Weyrother: a lucky accident had ordained that the
13911 Austrian army should maneuver the previous year on the very fields where
13912 the French had now to be fought; the adjacent locality was known and
13913 shown in every detail on the maps, and Bonaparte, evidently weakened,
13914 was undertaking nothing.
13916 Dolgorukov, one of the warmest advocates of an attack, had just returned
13917 from the council, tired and exhausted but eager and proud of the victory
13918 that had been gained. Prince Andrew introduced his protege, but Prince
13919 Dolgorukov politely and firmly pressing his hand said nothing to Boris
13920 and, evidently unable to suppress the thoughts which were uppermost in
13921 his mind at that moment, addressed Prince Andrew in French.
13923 "Ah, my dear fellow, what a battle we have gained! God grant that the
13924 one that will result from it will be as victorious! However, dear
13925 fellow," he said abruptly and eagerly, "I must confess to having been
13926 unjust to the Austrians and especially to Weyrother. What exactitude,
13927 what minuteness, what knowledge of the locality, what foresight for
13928 every eventuality, every possibility even to the smallest detail! No, my
13929 dear fellow, no conditions better than our present ones could have been
13930 devised. This combination of Austrian precision with Russian valor--what
13931 more could be wished for?"
13933 "So the attack is definitely resolved on?" asked Bolkonski.
13935 "And do you know, my dear fellow, it seems to me that Bonaparte has
13936 decidedly lost bearings, you know that a letter was received from him
13937 today for the Emperor." Dolgorukov smiled significantly.
13939 "Is that so? And what did he say?" inquired Bolkonski.
13941 "What can he say? Tra-di-ri-di-ra and so on... merely to gain time. I
13942 tell you he is in our hands, that's certain! But what was most amusing,"
13943 he continued, with a sudden, good-natured laugh, "was that we could not
13944 think how to address the reply! If not as 'Consul' and of course not as
13945 'Emperor,' it seemed to me it should be to 'General Bonaparte.'"
13947 "But between not recognizing him as Emperor and calling him General
13948 Bonaparte, there is a difference," remarked Bolkonski.
13950 "That's just it," interrupted Dolgorukov quickly, laughing. "You know
13951 Bilibin--he's a very clever fellow. He suggested addressing him as
13952 'Usurper and Enemy of Mankind.'"
13954 Dolgorukov laughed merrily.
13956 "Only that?" said Bolkonski.
13958 "All the same, it was Bilibin who found a suitable form for the address.
13959 He is a wise and clever fellow."
13963 "To the Head of the French Government... Au chef du gouvernement
13964 francais," said Dolgorukov, with grave satisfaction. "Good, wasn't it?"
13966 "Yes, but he will dislike it extremely," said Bolkonski.
13968 "Oh yes, very much! My brother knows him, he's dined with him--the
13969 present Emperor--more than once in Paris, and tells me he never met a
13970 more cunning or subtle diplomatist--you know, a combination of French
13971 adroitness and Italian play-acting! Do you know the tale about him and
13972 Count Markov? Count Markov was the only man who knew how to handle him.
13973 You know the story of the handkerchief? It is delightful!"
13975 And the talkative Dolgorukov, turning now to Boris, now to Prince
13976 Andrew, told how Bonaparte wishing to test Markov, our ambassador,
13977 purposely dropped a handkerchief in front of him and stood looking at
13978 Markov, probably expecting Markov to pick it up for him, and how Markov
13979 immediately dropped his own beside it and picked it up without touching
13982 "Delightful!" said Bolkonski. "But I have come to you, Prince, as a
13983 petitioner on behalf of this young man. You see..." but before Prince
13984 Andrew could finish, an aide-de-camp came in to summon Dolgorukov to the
13987 "Oh, what a nuisance," said Dolgorukov, getting up hurriedly and
13988 pressing the hands of Prince Andrew and Boris. "You know I should be
13989 very glad to do all in my power both for you and for this dear young
13990 man." Again he pressed the hand of the latter with an expression of
13991 good-natured, sincere, and animated levity. "But you see... another
13994 Boris was excited by the thought of being so close to the higher powers
13995 as he felt himself to be at that moment. He was conscious that here he
13996 was in contact with the springs that set in motion the enormous
13997 movements of the mass of which in his regiment he felt himself a tiny,
13998 obedient, and insignificant atom. They followed Prince Dolgorukov out
13999 into the corridor and met--coming out of the door of the Emperor's room
14000 by which Dolgorukov had entered--a short man in civilian clothes with a
14001 clever face and sharply projecting jaw which, without spoiling his face,
14002 gave him a peculiar vivacity and shiftiness of expression. This short
14003 man nodded to Dolgorukov as to an intimate friend and stared at Prince
14004 Andrew with cool intensity, walking straight toward him and evidently
14005 expecting him to bow or to step out of his way. Prince Andrew did
14006 neither: a look of animosity appeared on his face and the other turned
14007 away and went down the side of the corridor.
14009 "Who was that?" asked Boris.
14011 "He is one of the most remarkable, but to me most unpleasant of men--the
14012 Minister of Foreign Affairs, Prince Adam Czartoryski.... It is such men
14013 as he who decide the fate of nations," added Bolkonski with a sigh he
14014 could not suppress, as they passed out of the palace.
14016 Next day, the army began its campaign, and up to the very battle of
14017 Austerlitz, Boris was unable to see either Prince Andrew or Dolgorukov
14018 again and remained for a while with the Ismaylov regiment.
14025 At dawn on the sixteenth of November, Denisov's squadron, in which
14026 Nicholas Rostov served and which was in Prince Bagration's detachment,
14027 moved from the place where it had spent the night, advancing into action
14028 as arranged, and after going behind other columns for about two thirds
14029 of a mile was stopped on the highroad. Rostov saw the Cossacks and then
14030 the first and second squadrons of hussars and infantry battalions and
14031 artillery pass by and go forward and then Generals Bagration and
14032 Dolgorukov ride past with their adjutants. All the fear before action
14033 which he had experienced as previously, all the inner struggle to
14034 conquer that fear, all his dreams of distinguishing himself as a true
14035 hussar in this battle, had been wasted. Their squadron remained in
14036 reserve and Nicholas Rostov spent that day in a dull and wretched mood.
14037 At nine in the morning, he heard firing in front and shouts of hurrah,
14038 and saw wounded being brought back (there were not many of them), and at
14039 last he saw how a whole detachment of French cavalry was brought in,
14040 convoyed by a sotnya of Cossacks. Evidently the affair was over and,
14041 though not big, had been a successful engagement. The men and officers
14042 returning spoke of a brilliant victory, of the occupation of the town of
14043 Wischau and the capture of a whole French squadron. The day was bright
14044 and sunny after a sharp night frost, and the cheerful glitter of that
14045 autumn day was in keeping with the news of victory which was conveyed,
14046 not only by the tales of those who had taken part in it, but also by the
14047 joyful expression on the faces of soldiers, officers, generals, and
14048 adjutants, as they passed Rostov going or coming. And Nicholas, who had
14049 vainly suffered all the dread that precedes a battle and had spent that
14050 happy day in inactivity, was all the more depressed.
14052 "Come here, Wostov. Let's dwink to dwown our gwief!" shouted Denisov,
14053 who had settled down by the roadside with a flask and some food.
14055 The officers gathered round Denisov's canteen, eating and talking.
14057 "There! They are bringing another!" cried one of the officers,
14058 indicating a captive French dragoon who was being brought in on foot by
14061 One of them was leading by the bridle a fine large French horse he had
14062 taken from the prisoner.
14064 "Sell us that horse!" Denisov called out to the Cossacks.
14066 "If you like, your honor!"
14068 The officers got up and stood round the Cossacks and their prisoner. The
14069 French dragoon was a young Alsatian who spoke French with a German
14070 accent. He was breathless with agitation, his face was red, and when he
14071 heard some French spoken he at once began speaking to the officers,
14072 addressing first one, then another. He said he would not have been
14073 taken, it was not his fault but the corporal's who had sent him to seize
14074 some horsecloths, though he had told him the Russians were there. And at
14075 every word he added: "But don't hurt my little horse!" and stroked the
14076 animal. It was plain that he did not quite grasp where he was. Now he
14077 excused himself for having been taken prisoner and now, imagining
14078 himself before his own officers, insisted on his soldierly discipline
14079 and zeal in the service. He brought with him into our rearguard all the
14080 freshness of atmosphere of the French army, which was so alien to us.
14082 The Cossacks sold the horse for two gold pieces, and Rostov, being the
14083 richest of the officers now that he had received his money, bought it.
14085 "But don't hurt my little horse!" said the Alsatian good-naturedly to
14086 Rostov when the animal was handed over to the hussar.
14088 Rostov smilingly reassured the dragoon and gave him money.
14090 "Alley! Alley!" said the Cossack, touching the prisoner's arm to make
14093 "The Emperor! The Emperor!" was suddenly heard among the hussars.
14095 All began to run and bustle, and Rostov saw coming up the road behind
14096 him several riders with white plumes in their hats. In a moment everyone
14097 was in his place, waiting.
14099 Rostov did not know or remember how he ran to his place and mounted.
14100 Instantly his regret at not having been in action and his dejected mood
14101 amid people of whom he was weary had gone, instantly every thought of
14102 himself had vanished. He was filled with happiness at his nearness to
14103 the Emperor. He felt that this nearness by itself made up to him for the
14104 day he had lost. He was happy as a lover when the longed-for moment of
14105 meeting arrives. Not daring to look round and without looking round, he
14106 was ecstatically conscious of his approach. He felt it not only from the
14107 sound of the hoofs of the approaching cavalcade, but because as he drew
14108 near everything grew brighter, more joyful, more significant, and more
14109 festive around him. Nearer and nearer to Rostov came that sun shedding
14110 beams of mild and majestic light around, and already he felt himself
14111 enveloped in those beams, he heard his voice, that kindly, calm, and
14112 majestic voice that was yet so simple! And as if in accord with Rostov's
14113 feeling, there was a deathly stillness amid which was heard the
14116 "The Pavlograd hussars?" he inquired.
14118 "The reserves, sire!" replied a voice, a very human one compared to that
14119 which had said: "The Pavlograd hussars?"
14121 The Emperor drew level with Rostov and halted. Alexander's face was even
14122 more beautiful than it had been three days before at the review. It
14123 shone with such gaiety and youth, such innocent youth, that it suggested
14124 the liveliness of a fourteen-year-old boy, and yet it was the face of
14125 the majestic Emperor. Casually, while surveying the squadron, the
14126 Emperor's eyes met Rostov's and rested on them for not more than two
14127 seconds. Whether or no the Emperor understood what was going on in
14128 Rostov's soul (it seemed to Rostov that he understood everything), at
14129 any rate his light-blue eyes gazed for about two seconds into Rostov's
14130 face. A gentle, mild light poured from them. Then all at once he raised
14131 his eyebrows, abruptly touched his horse with his left foot, and
14134 The younger Emperor could not restrain his wish to be present at the
14135 battle and, in spite of the remonstrances of his courtiers, at twelve
14136 o'clock left the third column with which he had been and galloped toward
14137 the vanguard. Before he came up with the hussars, several adjutants met
14138 him with news of the successful result of the action.
14140 This battle, which consisted in the capture of a French squadron, was
14141 represented as a brilliant victory over the French, and so the Emperor
14142 and the whole army, especially while the smoke hung over the
14143 battlefield, believed that the French had been defeated and were
14144 retreating against their will. A few minutes after the Emperor had
14145 passed, the Pavlograd division was ordered to advance. In Wischau
14146 itself, a petty German town, Rostov saw the Emperor again. In the market
14147 place, where there had been some rather heavy firing before the
14148 Emperor's arrival, lay several killed and wounded soldiers whom there
14149 had not been time to move. The Emperor, surrounded by his suite of
14150 officers and courtiers, was riding a bobtailed chestnut mare, a
14151 different one from that which he had ridden at the review, and bending
14152 to one side he gracefully held a gold lorgnette to his eyes and looked
14153 at a soldier who lay prone, with blood on his uncovered head. The
14154 wounded soldier was so dirty, coarse, and revolting that his proximity
14155 to the Emperor shocked Rostov. Rostov saw how the Emperor's rather round
14156 shoulders shuddered as if a cold shiver had run down them, how his left
14157 foot began convulsively tapping the horse's side with the spur, and how
14158 the well-trained horse looked round unconcerned and did not stir. An
14159 adjutant, dismounting, lifted the soldier under the arms to place him on
14160 a stretcher that had been brought. The soldier groaned.
14162 "Gently, gently! Can't you do it more gently?" said the Emperor
14163 apparently suffering more than the dying soldier, and he rode away.
14165 Rostov saw tears filling the Emperor's eyes and heard him, as he was
14166 riding away, say to Czartoryski: "What a terrible thing war is: what a
14167 terrible thing! Quelle terrible chose que la guerre!"
14169 The troops of the vanguard were stationed before Wischau, within sight
14170 of the enemy's lines, which all day long had yielded ground to us at the
14171 least firing. The Emperor's gratitude was announced to the vanguard,
14172 rewards were promised, and the men received a double ration of vodka.
14173 The campfires crackled and the soldiers' songs resounded even more
14174 merrily than on the previous night. Denisov celebrated his promotion to
14175 the rank of major, and Rostov, who had already drunk enough, at the end
14176 of the feast proposed the Emperor's health. "Not 'our Sovereign, the
14177 Emperor,' as they say at official dinners," said he, "but the health of
14178 our Sovereign, that good, enchanting, and great man! Let us drink to his
14179 health and to the certain defeat of the French!"
14181 "If we fought before," he said, "not letting the French pass, as at
14182 Schon Grabern, what shall we not do now when he is at the front? We will
14183 all die for him gladly! Is it not so, gentlemen? Perhaps I am not saying
14184 it right, I have drunk a good deal--but that is how I feel, and so do
14185 you too! To the health of Alexander the First! Hurrah!"
14187 "Hurrah!" rang the enthusiastic voices of the officers.
14189 And the old cavalry captain, Kirsten, shouted enthusiastically and no
14190 less sincerely than the twenty-year-old Rostov.
14192 When the officers had emptied and smashed their glasses, Kirsten filled
14193 others and, in shirt sleeves and breeches, went glass in hand to the
14194 soldiers' bonfires and with his long gray mustache, his white chest
14195 showing under his open shirt, he stood in a majestic pose in the light
14196 of the campfire, waving his uplifted arm.
14198 "Lads! here's to our Sovereign, the Emperor, and victory over our
14199 enemies! Hurrah!" he exclaimed in his dashing, old, hussar's baritone.
14201 The hussars crowded round and responded heartily with loud shouts.
14203 Late that night, when all had separated, Denisov with his short hand
14204 patted his favorite, Rostov, on the shoulder.
14206 "As there's no one to fall in love with on campaign, he's fallen in love
14207 with the Tsar," he said.
14209 "Denisov, don't make fun of it!" cried Rostov. "It is such a lofty,
14210 beautiful feeling, such a..."
14212 "I believe it, I believe it, fwiend, and I share and appwove..."
14214 "No, you don't understand!"
14216 And Rostov got up and went wandering among the campfires, dreaming of
14217 what happiness it would be to die--not in saving the Emperor's life (he
14218 did not even dare to dream of that), but simply to die before his eyes.
14219 He really was in love with the Tsar and the glory of the Russian arms
14220 and the hope of future triumph. And he was not the only man to
14221 experience that feeling during those memorable days preceding the battle
14222 of Austerlitz: nine tenths of the men in the Russian army were then in
14223 love, though less ecstatically, with their Tsar and the glory of the
14231 The next day the Emperor stopped at Wischau, and Villier, his physician,
14232 was repeatedly summoned to see him. At headquarters and among the troops
14233 near by the news spread that the Emperor was unwell. He ate nothing and
14234 had slept badly that night, those around him reported. The cause of this
14235 indisposition was the strong impression made on his sensitive mind by
14236 the sight of the killed and wounded.
14238 At daybreak on the seventeenth, a French officer who had come with a
14239 flag of truce, demanding an audience with the Russian Emperor, was
14240 brought into Wischau from our outposts. This officer was Savary. The
14241 Emperor had only just fallen asleep and so Savary had to wait. At midday
14242 he was admitted to the Emperor, and an hour later he rode off with
14243 Prince Dolgorukov to the advanced post of the French army.
14245 It was rumored that Savary had been sent to propose to Alexander a
14246 meeting with Napoleon. To the joy and pride of the whole army, a
14247 personal interview was refused, and instead of the Sovereign, Prince
14248 Dolgorukov, the victor at Wischau, was sent with Savary to negotiate
14249 with Napoleon if, contrary to expectations, these negotiations were
14250 actuated by a real desire for peace.
14252 Toward evening Dolgorukov came back, went straight to the Tsar, and
14253 remained alone with him for a long time.
14255 On the eighteenth and nineteenth of November, the army advanced two
14256 days' march and the enemy's outposts after a brief interchange of shots
14257 retreated. In the highest army circles from midday on the nineteenth, a
14258 great, excitedly bustling activity began which lasted till the morning
14259 of the twentieth, when the memorable battle of Austerlitz was fought.
14261 Till midday on the nineteenth, the activity--the eager talk, running to
14262 and fro, and dispatching of adjutants--was confined to the Emperor's
14263 headquarters. But on the afternoon of that day, this activity reached
14264 Kutuzov's headquarters and the staffs of the commanders of columns. By
14265 evening, the adjutants had spread it to all ends and parts of the army,
14266 and in the night from the nineteenth to the twentieth, the whole eighty
14267 thousand allied troops rose from their bivouacs to the hum of voices,
14268 and the army swayed and started in one enormous mass six miles long.
14270 The concentrated activity which had begun at the Emperor's headquarters
14271 in the morning and had started the whole movement that followed was like
14272 the first movement of the main wheel of a large tower clock. One wheel
14273 slowly moved, another was set in motion, and a third, and wheels began
14274 to revolve faster and faster, levers and cogwheels to work, chimes to
14275 play, figures to pop out, and the hands to advance with regular motion
14276 as a result of all that activity.
14278 Just as in the mechanism of a clock, so in the mechanism of the military
14279 machine, an impulse once given leads to the final result; and just as
14280 indifferently quiescent till the moment when motion is transmitted to
14281 them are the parts of the mechanism which the impulse has not yet
14282 reached. Wheels creak on their axles as the cogs engage one another and
14283 the revolving pulleys whirr with the rapidity of their movement, but a
14284 neighboring wheel is as quiet and motionless as though it were prepared
14285 to remain so for a hundred years; but the moment comes when the lever
14286 catches it and obeying the impulse that wheel begins to creak and joins
14287 in the common motion the result and aim of which are beyond its ken.
14289 Just as in a clock, the result of the complicated motion of innumerable
14290 wheels and pulleys is merely a slow and regular movement of the hands
14291 which show the time, so the result of all the complicated human
14292 activities of 160,000 Russians and French--all their passions, desires,
14293 remorse, humiliations, sufferings, outbursts of pride, fear, and
14294 enthusiasm--was only the loss of the battle of Austerlitz, the so-called
14295 battle of the three Emperors--that is to say, a slow movement of the
14296 hand on the dial of human history.
14298 Prince Andrew was on duty that day and in constant attendance on the
14299 commander-in-chief.
14301 At six in the evening, Kutuzov went to the Emperor's headquarters and
14302 after staying but a short time with the Tsar went to see the grand
14303 marshal of the court, Count Tolstoy.
14305 Bolkonski took the opportunity to go in to get some details of the
14306 coming action from Dolgorukov. He felt that Kutuzov was upset and
14307 dissatisfied about something and that at headquarters they were
14308 dissatisfied with him, and also that at the Emperor's headquarters
14309 everyone adopted toward him the tone of men who know something others do
14310 not know: he therefore wished to speak to Dolgorukov.
14312 "Well, how d'you do, my dear fellow?" said Dolgorukov, who was sitting
14313 at tea with Bilibin. "The fete is for tomorrow. How is your old fellow?
14316 "I won't say he is out of sorts, but I fancy he would like to be heard."
14318 "But they heard him at the council of war and will hear him when he
14319 talks sense, but to temporize and wait for something now when Bonaparte
14320 fears nothing so much as a general battle is impossible."
14322 "Yes, you have seen him?" said Prince Andrew. "Well, what is Bonaparte
14323 like? How did he impress you?"
14325 "Yes, I saw him, and am convinced that he fears nothing so much as a
14326 general engagement," repeated Dolgorukov, evidently prizing this general
14327 conclusion which he had arrived at from his interview with Napoleon. "If
14328 he weren't afraid of a battle why did he ask for that interview? Why
14329 negotiate, and above all why retreat, when to retreat is so contrary to
14330 his method of conducting war? Believe me, he is afraid, afraid of a
14331 general battle. His hour has come! Mark my words!"
14333 "But tell me, what is he like, eh?" said Prince Andrew again.
14335 "He is a man in a gray overcoat, very anxious that I should call him
14336 'Your Majesty,' but who, to his chagrin, got no title from me! That's
14337 the sort of man he is, and nothing more," replied Dolgorukov, looking
14338 round at Bilibin with a smile.
14340 "Despite my great respect for old Kutuzov," he continued, "we should be
14341 a nice set of fellows if we were to wait about and so give him a chance
14342 to escape, or to trick us, now that we certainly have him in our hands!
14343 No, we mustn't forget Suvorov and his rule--not to put yourself in a
14344 position to be attacked, but yourself to attack. Believe me in war the
14345 energy of young men often shows the way better than all the experience
14346 of old Cunctators."
14348 "But in what position are we going to attack him? I have been at the
14349 outposts today and it is impossible to say where his chief forces are
14350 situated," said Prince Andrew.
14352 He wished to explain to Dolgorukov a plan of attack he had himself
14355 "Oh, that is all the same," Dolgorukov said quickly, and getting up he
14356 spread a map on the table. "All eventualities have been foreseen. If he
14357 is standing before Brunn..."
14359 And Prince Dolgorukov rapidly but indistinctly explained Weyrother's
14360 plan of a flanking movement.
14362 Prince Andrew began to reply and to state his own plan, which might have
14363 been as good as Weyrother's, but for the disadvantage that Weyrother's
14364 had already been approved. As soon as Prince Andrew began to demonstrate
14365 the defects of the latter and the merits of his own plan, Prince
14366 Dolgorukov ceased to listen to him and gazed absent-mindedly not at the
14367 map, but at Prince Andrew's face.
14369 "There will be a council of war at Kutuzov's tonight, though; you can
14370 say all this there," remarked Dolgorukov.
14372 "I will do so," said Prince Andrew, moving away from the map.
14374 "Whatever are you bothering about, gentlemen?" said Bilibin, who, till
14375 then, had listened with an amused smile to their conversation and now
14376 was evidently ready with a joke. "Whether tomorrow brings victory or
14377 defeat, the glory of our Russian arms is secure. Except your Kutuzov,
14378 there is not a single Russian in command of a column! The commanders
14379 are: Herr General Wimpfen, le Comte de Langeron, le Prince de
14380 Lichtenstein, le Prince, de Hohenlohe, and finally Prishprish, and so on
14381 like all those Polish names."
14383 "Be quiet, backbiter!" said Dolgorukov. "It is not true; there are now
14384 two Russians, Miloradovich, and Dokhturov, and there would be a third,
14385 Count Arakcheev, if his nerves were not too weak."
14387 "However, I think General Kutuzov has come out," said Prince Andrew. "I
14388 wish you good luck and success, gentlemen!" he added and went out after
14389 shaking hands with Dolgorukov and Bilibin.
14391 On the way home, Prince Andrew could not refrain from asking Kutuzov,
14392 who was sitting silently beside him, what he thought of tomorrow's
14395 Kutuzov looked sternly at his adjutant and, after a pause, replied: "I
14396 think the battle will be lost, and so I told Count Tolstoy and asked him
14397 to tell the Emperor. What do you think he replied? 'But, my dear
14398 general, I am engaged with rice and cutlets, look after military matters
14399 yourself!' Yes... That was the answer I got!"
14406 Shortly after nine o'clock that evening, Weyrother drove with his plans
14407 to Kutuzov's quarters where the council of war was to be held. All the
14408 commanders of columns were summoned to the commander-in-chief's and with
14409 the exception of Prince Bagration, who declined to come, were all there
14410 at the appointed time.
14412 Weyrother, who was in full control of the proposed battle, by his
14413 eagerness and briskness presented a marked contrast to the dissatisfied
14414 and drowsy Kutuzov, who reluctantly played the part of chairman and
14415 president of the council of war. Weyrother evidently felt himself to be
14416 at the head of a movement that had already become unrestrainable. He was
14417 like a horse running downhill harnessed to a heavy cart. Whether he was
14418 pulling it or being pushed by it he did not know, but rushed along at
14419 headlong speed with no time to consider what this movement might lead
14420 to. Weyrother had been twice that evening to the enemy's picket line to
14421 reconnoiter personally, and twice to the Emperors, Russian and Austrian,
14422 to report and explain, and to his headquarters where he had dictated the
14423 dispositions in German, and now, much exhausted, he arrived at
14426 He was evidently so busy that he even forgot to be polite to the
14427 commander in chief. He interrupted him, talked rapidly and indistinctly,
14428 without looking at the man he was addressing, and did not reply to
14429 questions put to him. He was bespattered with mud and had a pitiful,
14430 weary, and distracted air, though at the same time he was haughty and
14433 Kutuzov was occupying a nobleman's castle of modest dimensions near
14434 Ostralitz. In the large drawing room which had become the commander in
14435 chief's office were gathered Kutuzov himself, Weyrother, and the members
14436 of the council of war. They were drinking tea, and only awaited Prince
14437 Bagration to begin the council. At last Bagration's orderly came with
14438 the news that the prince could not attend. Prince Andrew came in to
14439 inform the commander-in-chief of this and, availing himself of
14440 permission previously given him by Kutuzov to be present at the council,
14441 he remained in the room.
14443 "Since Prince Bagration is not coming, we may begin," said Weyrother,
14444 hurriedly rising from his seat and going up to the table on which an
14445 enormous map of the environs of Brunn was spread out.
14447 Kutuzov, with his uniform unbuttoned so that his fat neck bulged over
14448 his collar as if escaping, was sitting almost asleep in a low chair,
14449 with his podgy old hands resting symmetrically on its arms. At the sound
14450 of Weyrother's voice, he opened his one eye with an effort.
14452 "Yes, yes, if you please! It is already late," said he, and nodding his
14453 head he let it droop and again closed his eye.
14455 If at first the members of the council thought that Kutuzov was
14456 pretending to sleep, the sounds his nose emitted during the reading that
14457 followed proved that the commander-in-chief at that moment was absorbed
14458 by a far more serious matter than a desire to show his contempt for the
14459 dispositions or anything else--he was engaged in satisfying the
14460 irresistible human need for sleep. He really was asleep. Weyrother, with
14461 the gesture of a man too busy to lose a moment, glanced at Kutuzov and,
14462 having convinced himself that he was asleep, took up a paper and in a
14463 loud, monotonous voice began to read out the dispositions for the
14464 impending battle, under a heading which he also read out:
14466 "Dispositions for an attack on the enemy position behind Kobelnitz and
14467 Sokolnitz, November 30, 1805."
14469 The dispositions were very complicated and difficult. They began as
14472 "As the enemy's left wing rests on wooded hills and his right extends
14473 along Kobelnitz and Sokolnitz behind the ponds that are there, while we,
14474 on the other hand, with our left wing by far outflank his right, it is
14475 advantageous to attack the enemy's latter wing especially if we occupy
14476 the villages of Sokolnitz and Kobelnitz, whereby we can both fall on his
14477 flank and pursue him over the plain between Schlappanitz and the
14478 Thuerassa forest, avoiding the defiles of Schlappanitz and Bellowitz
14479 which cover the enemy's front. For this object it is necessary that...
14480 The first column marches... The second column marches... The third
14481 column marches..." and so on, read Weyrother.
14483 The generals seemed to listen reluctantly to the difficult dispositions.
14484 The tall, fair-haired General Buxhowden stood, leaning his back against
14485 the wall, his eyes fixed on a burning candle, and seemed not to listen
14486 or even to wish to be thought to listen. Exactly opposite Weyrother,
14487 with his glistening wide-open eyes fixed upon him and his mustache
14488 twisted upwards, sat the ruddy Miloradovich in a military pose, his
14489 elbows turned outwards, his hands on his knees, and his shoulders
14490 raised. He remained stubbornly silent, gazing at Weyrother's face, and
14491 only turned away his eyes when the Austrian chief of staff finished
14492 reading. Then Miloradovich looked round significantly at the other
14493 generals. But one could not tell from that significant look whether he
14494 agreed or disagreed and was satisfied or not with the arrangements. Next
14495 to Weyrother sat Count Langeron who, with a subtle smile that never left
14496 his typically southern French face during the whole time of the reading,
14497 gazed at his delicate fingers which rapidly twirled by its corners a
14498 gold snuffbox on which was a portrait. In the middle of one of the
14499 longest sentences, he stopped the rotary motion of the snuffbox, raised
14500 his head, and with inimical politeness lurking in the corners of his
14501 thin lips interrupted Weyrother, wishing to say something. But the
14502 Austrian general, continuing to read, frowned angrily and jerked his
14503 elbows, as if to say: "You can tell me your views later, but now be so
14504 good as to look at the map and listen." Langeron lifted his eyes with an
14505 expression of perplexity, turned round to Miloradovich as if seeking an
14506 explanation, but meeting the latter's impressive but meaningless gaze
14507 drooped his eyes sadly and again took to twirling his snuffbox.
14509 "A geography lesson!" he muttered as if to himself, but loud enough to
14512 Przebyszewski, with respectful but dignified politeness, held his hand
14513 to his ear toward Weyrother, with the air of a man absorbed in
14514 attention. Dohkturov, a little man, sat opposite Weyrother, with an
14515 assiduous and modest mien, and stooping over the outspread map
14516 conscientiously studied the dispositions and the unfamiliar locality. He
14517 asked Weyrother several times to repeat words he had not clearly heard
14518 and the difficult names of villages. Weyrother complied and Dohkturov
14521 When the reading which lasted more than an hour was over, Langeron again
14522 brought his snuffbox to rest and, without looking at Weyrother or at
14523 anyone in particular, began to say how difficult it was to carry out
14524 such a plan in which the enemy's position was assumed to be known,
14525 whereas it was perhaps not known, since the enemy was in movement.
14526 Langeron's objections were valid but it was obvious that their chief aim
14527 was to show General Weyrother--who had read his dispositions with as
14528 much self-confidence as if he were addressing school children--that he
14529 had to do, not with fools, but with men who could teach him something in
14532 When the monotonous sound of Weyrother's voice ceased, Kutuzov opened
14533 his eye as a miller wakes up when the soporific drone of the mill wheel
14534 is interrupted. He listened to what Langeron said, as if remarking, "So
14535 you are still at that silly business!" quickly closed his eye again, and
14536 let his head sink still lower.
14538 Langeron, trying as virulently as possible to sting Weyrother's vanity
14539 as author of the military plan, argued that Bonaparte might easily
14540 attack instead of being attacked, and so render the whole of this plan
14541 perfectly worthless. Weyrother met all objections with a firm and
14542 contemptuous smile, evidently prepared beforehand to meet all objections
14543 be they what they might.
14545 "If he could attack us, he would have done so today," said he.
14547 "So you think he is powerless?" said Langeron.
14549 "He has forty thousand men at most," replied Weyrother, with the smile
14550 of a doctor to whom an old wife wishes to explain the treatment of a
14553 "In that case he is inviting his doom by awaiting our attack," said
14554 Langeron, with a subtly ironical smile, again glancing round for support
14555 to Miloradovich who was near him.
14557 But Miloradovich was at that moment evidently thinking of anything
14558 rather than of what the generals were disputing about.
14560 "Ma foi!" said he, "tomorrow we shall see all that on the battlefield."
14562 Weyrother again gave that smile which seemed to say that to him it was
14563 strange and ridiculous to meet objections from Russian generals and to
14564 have to prove to them what he had not merely convinced himself of, but
14565 had also convinced the sovereign Emperors of.
14567 "The enemy has quenched his fires and a continual noise is heard from
14568 his camp," said he. "What does that mean? Either he is retreating, which
14569 is the only thing we need fear, or he is changing his position." (He
14570 smiled ironically.) "But even if he also took up a position in the
14571 Thuerassa, he merely saves us a great deal of trouble and all our
14572 arrangements to the minutest detail remain the same."
14574 "How is that?..." began Prince Andrew, who had for long been waiting an
14575 opportunity to express his doubts.
14577 Kutuzov here woke up, coughed heavily, and looked round at the generals.
14579 "Gentlemen, the dispositions for tomorrow--or rather for today, for it
14580 is past midnight--cannot now be altered," said he. "You have heard them,
14581 and we shall all do our duty. But before a battle, there is nothing more
14582 important..." he paused, "than to have a good sleep."
14584 He moved as if to rise. The generals bowed and retired. It was past
14585 midnight. Prince Andrew went out.
14587 The council of war, at which Prince Andrew had not been able to express
14588 his opinion as he had hoped to, left on him a vague and uneasy
14589 impression. Whether Dolgorukov and Weyrother, or Kutuzov, Langeron, and
14590 the others who did not approve of the plan of attack, were right--he did
14591 not know. "But was it really not possible for Kutuzov to state his views
14592 plainly to the Emperor? Is it possible that on account of court and
14593 personal considerations tens of thousands of lives, and my life, my
14594 life," he thought, "must be risked?"
14596 "Yes, it is very likely that I shall be killed tomorrow," he thought.
14597 And suddenly, at this thought of death, a whole series of most distant,
14598 most intimate, memories rose in his imagination: he remembered his last
14599 parting from his father and his wife; he remembered the days when he
14600 first loved her. He thought of her pregnancy and felt sorry for her and
14601 for himself, and in a nervously emotional and softened mood he went out
14602 of the hut in which he was billeted with Nesvitski and began to walk up
14603 and down before it.
14605 The night was foggy and through the fog the moonlight gleamed
14606 mysteriously. "Yes, tomorrow, tomorrow!" he thought. "Tomorrow
14607 everything may be over for me! All these memories will be no more, none
14608 of them will have any meaning for me. Tomorrow perhaps, even certainly,
14609 I have a presentiment that for the first time I shall have to show all I
14610 can do." And his fancy pictured the battle, its loss, the concentration
14611 of fighting at one point, and the hesitation of all the commanders. And
14612 then that happy moment, that Toulon for which he had so long waited,
14613 presents itself to him at last. He firmly and clearly expresses his
14614 opinion to Kutuzov, to Weyrother, and to the Emperors. All are struck by
14615 the justness of his views, but no one undertakes to carry them out, so
14616 he takes a regiment, a division-stipulates that no one is to interfere
14617 with his arrangements--leads his division to the decisive point, and
14618 gains the victory alone. "But death and suffering?" suggested another
14619 voice. Prince Andrew, however, did not answer that voice and went on
14620 dreaming of his triumphs. The dispositions for the next battle are
14621 planned by him alone. Nominally he is only an adjutant on Kutuzov's
14622 staff, but he does everything alone. The next battle is won by him
14623 alone. Kutuzov is removed and he is appointed... "Well and then?" asked
14624 the other voice. "If before that you are not ten times wounded, killed,
14625 or betrayed, well... what then?..." "Well then," Prince Andrew answered
14626 himself, "I don't know what will happen and don't want to know, and
14627 can't, but if I want this--want glory, want to be known to men, want to
14628 be loved by them, it is not my fault that I want it and want nothing but
14629 that and live only for that. Yes, for that alone! I shall never tell
14630 anyone, but, oh God! what am I to do if I love nothing but fame and
14631 men's esteem? Death, wounds, the loss of family--I fear nothing. And
14632 precious and dear as many persons are to me--father, sister, wife--those
14633 dearest to me--yet dreadful and unnatural as it seems, I would give them
14634 all at once for a moment of glory, of triumph over men, of love from men
14635 I don't know and never shall know, for the love of these men here," he
14636 thought, as he listened to voices in Kutuzov's courtyard. The voices
14637 were those of the orderlies who were packing up; one voice, probably a
14638 coachman's, was teasing Kutuzov's old cook whom Prince Andrew knew, and
14639 who was called Tit. He was saying, "Tit, I say, Tit!"
14641 "Well?" returned the old man.
14643 "Go, Tit, thresh a bit!" said the wag.
14645 "Oh, go to the devil!" called out a voice, drowned by the laughter of
14646 the orderlies and servants.
14648 "All the same, I love and value nothing but triumph over them all, I
14649 value this mystic power and glory that is floating here above me in this
14657 That same night, Rostov was with a platoon on skirmishing duty in front
14658 of Bagration's detachment. His hussars were placed along the line in
14659 couples and he himself rode along the line trying to master the
14660 sleepiness that kept coming over him. An enormous space, with our army's
14661 campfires dimly glowing in the fog, could be seen behind him; in front
14662 of him was misty darkness. Rostov could see nothing, peer as he would
14663 into that foggy distance: now something gleamed gray, now there was
14664 something black, now little lights seemed to glimmer where the enemy
14665 ought to be, now he fancied it was only something in his own eyes. His
14666 eyes kept closing, and in his fancy appeared--now the Emperor, now
14667 Denisov, and now Moscow memories--and he again hurriedly opened his eyes
14668 and saw close before him the head and ears of the horse he was riding,
14669 and sometimes, when he came within six paces of them, the black figures
14670 of hussars, but in the distance was still the same misty darkness. "Why
14671 not?... It might easily happen," thought Rostov, "that the Emperor will
14672 meet me and give me an order as he would to any other officer; he'll
14673 say: 'Go and find out what's there.' There are many stories of his
14674 getting to know an officer in just such a chance way and attaching him
14675 to himself! What if he gave me a place near him? Oh, how I would guard
14676 him, how I would tell him the truth, how I would unmask his deceivers!"
14677 And in order to realize vividly his love devotion to the sovereign,
14678 Rostov pictured to himself an enemy or a deceitful German, whom he would
14679 not only kill with pleasure but whom he would slap in the face before
14680 the Emperor. Suddenly a distant shout aroused him. He started and opened
14683 "Where am I? Oh yes, in the skirmishing line... pass and watchword--
14684 shaft, Olmutz. What a nuisance that our squadron will be in reserve
14685 tomorrow," he thought. "I'll ask leave to go to the front, this may be
14686 my only chance of seeing the Emperor. It won't be long now before I am
14687 off duty. I'll take another turn and when I get back I'll go to the
14688 general and ask him." He readjusted himself in the saddle and touched up
14689 his horse to ride once more round his hussars. It seemed to him that it
14690 was getting lighter. To the left he saw a sloping descent lit up, and
14691 facing it a black knoll that seemed as steep as a wall. On this knoll
14692 there was a white patch that Rostov could not at all make out: was it a
14693 glade in the wood lit up by the moon, or some unmelted snow, or some
14694 white houses? He even thought something moved on that white spot. "I
14695 expect it's snow... that spot... a spot--une tache," he thought. "There
14696 now... it's not a tache... Natasha... sister, black eyes... Na...
14697 tasha... (Won't she be surprised when I tell her how I've seen the
14698 Emperor?) Natasha... take my sabretache..."--"Keep to the right, your
14699 honor, there are bushes here," came the voice of an hussar, past whom
14700 Rostov was riding in the act of falling asleep. Rostov lifted his head
14701 that had sunk almost to his horse's mane and pulled up beside the
14702 hussar. He was succumbing to irresistible, youthful, childish
14703 drowsiness. "But what was I thinking? I mustn't forget. How shall I
14704 speak to the Emperor? No, that's not it--that's tomorrow. Oh yes!
14705 Natasha... sabretache... saber them... Whom? The hussars... Ah, the
14706 hussars with mustaches. Along the Tverskaya Street rode the hussar with
14707 mustaches... I thought about him too, just opposite Guryev's house...
14708 Old Guryev.... Oh, but Denisov's a fine fellow. But that's all nonsense.
14709 The chief thing is that the Emperor is here. How he looked at me and
14710 wished to say something, but dared not.... No, it was I who dared not.
14711 But that's nonsense, the chief thing is not to forget the important
14712 thing I was thinking of. Yes, Na-tasha, sabretache, oh, yes, yes! That's
14713 right!" And his head once more sank to his horse's neck. All at once it
14714 seemed to him that he was being fired at. "What? What? What?... Cut them
14715 down! What?..." said Rostov, waking up. At the moment he opened his eyes
14716 he heard in front of him, where the enemy was, the long-drawn shouts of
14717 thousands of voices. His horse and the horse of the hussar near him
14718 pricked their ears at these shouts. Over there, where the shouting came
14719 from, a fire flared up and went out again, then another, and all along
14720 the French line on the hill fires flared up and the shouting grew louder
14721 and louder. Rostov could hear the sound of French words but could not
14722 distinguish them. The din of many voices was too great; all he could
14723 hear was: "ahahah!" and "rrrr!"
14725 "What's that? What do you make of it?" said Rostov to the hussar beside
14726 him. "That must be the enemy's camp!"
14728 The hussar did not reply.
14730 "Why, don't you hear it?" Rostov asked again, after waiting for a reply.
14732 "Who can tell, your honor?" replied the hussar reluctantly.
14734 "From the direction, it must be the enemy," repeated Rostov.
14736 "It may be he or it may be nothing," muttered the hussar. "It's dark...
14737 Steady!" he cried to his fidgeting horse.
14739 Rostov's horse was also getting restive: it pawed the frozen ground,
14740 pricking its ears at the noise and looking at the lights. The shouting
14741 grew still louder and merged into a general roar that only an army of
14742 several thousand men could produce. The lights spread farther and
14743 farther, probably along the line of the French camp. Rostov no longer
14744 wanted to sleep. The gay triumphant shouting of the enemy army had a
14745 stimulating effect on him. "Vive l'Empereur! L'Empereur!" he now heard
14748 "They can't be far off, probably just beyond the stream," he said to the
14751 The hussar only sighed without replying and coughed angrily. The sound
14752 of horse's hoofs approaching at a trot along the line of hussars was
14753 heard, and out of the foggy darkness the figure of a sergeant of hussars
14754 suddenly appeared, looming huge as an elephant.
14756 "Your honor, the generals!" said the sergeant, riding up to Rostov.
14758 Rostov, still looking round toward the fires and the shouts, rode with
14759 the sergeant to meet some mounted men who were riding along the line.
14760 One was on a white horse. Prince Bagration and Prince Dolgorukov with
14761 their adjutants had come to witness the curious phenomenon of the lights
14762 and shouts in the enemy's camp. Rostov rode up to Bagration, reported to
14763 him, and then joined the adjutants listening to what the generals were
14766 "Believe me," said Prince Dolgorukov, addressing Bagration, "it is
14767 nothing but a trick! He has retreated and ordered the rearguard to
14768 kindle fires and make a noise to deceive us."
14770 "Hardly," said Bagration. "I saw them this evening on that knoll; if
14771 they had retreated they would have withdrawn from that too.... Officer!"
14772 said Bagration to Rostov, "are the enemy's skirmishers still there?"
14774 "They were there this evening, but now I don't know, your excellency.
14775 Shall I go with some of my hussars to see?" replied Rostov.
14777 Bagration stopped and, before replying, tried to see Rostov's face in
14780 "Well, go and see," he said, after a pause.
14784 Rostov spurred his horse, called to Sergeant Fedchenko and two other
14785 hussars, told them to follow him, and trotted downhill in the direction
14786 from which the shouting came. He felt both frightened and pleased to be
14787 riding alone with three hussars into that mysterious and dangerous misty
14788 distance where no one had been before him. Bagration called to him from
14789 the hill not to go beyond the stream, but Rostov pretended not to hear
14790 him and did not stop but rode on and on, continually mistaking bushes
14791 for trees and gullies for men and continually discovering his mistakes.
14792 Having descended the hill at a trot, he no longer saw either our own or
14793 the enemy's fires, but heard the shouting of the French more loudly and
14794 distinctly. In the valley he saw before him something like a river, but
14795 when he reached it he found it was a road. Having come out onto the road
14796 he reined in his horse, hesitating whether to ride along it or cross it
14797 and ride over the black field up the hillside. To keep to the road which
14798 gleamed white in the mist would have been safer because it would be
14799 easier to see people coming along it. "Follow me!" said he, crossed the
14800 road, and began riding up the hill at a gallop toward the point where
14801 the French pickets had been standing that evening.
14803 "Your honor, there he is!" cried one of the hussars behind him. And
14804 before Rostov had time to make out what the black thing was that had
14805 suddenly appeared in the fog, there was a flash, followed by a report,
14806 and a bullet whizzing high up in the mist with a plaintive sound passed
14807 out of hearing. Another musket missed fire but flashed in the pan.
14808 Rostov turned his horse and galloped back. Four more reports followed at
14809 intervals, and the bullets passed somewhere in the fog singing in
14810 different tones. Rostov reined in his horse, whose spirits had risen,
14811 like his own, at the firing, and went back at a footpace. "Well, some
14812 more! Some more!" a merry voice was saying in his soul. But no more
14815 Only when approaching Bagration did Rostov let his horse gallop again,
14816 and with his hand at the salute rode up to the general.
14818 Dolgorukov was still insisting that the French had retreated and had
14819 only lit fires to deceive us.
14821 "What does that prove?" he was saying as Rostov rode up. "They might
14822 retreat and leave the pickets."
14824 "It's plain that they have not all gone yet, Prince," said Bagration.
14825 "Wait till tomorrow morning, we'll find out everything tomorrow."
14827 "The picket is still on the hill, your excellency, just where it was in
14828 the evening," reported Rostov, stooping forward with his hand at the
14829 salute and unable to repress the smile of delight induced by his ride
14830 and especially by the sound of the bullets.
14832 "Very good, very good," said Bagration. "Thank you, officer."
14834 "Your excellency," said Rostov, "may I ask a favor?"
14838 "Tomorrow our squadron is to be in reserve. May I ask to be attached to
14839 the first squadron?"
14841 "What's your name?"
14845 "Oh, very well, you may stay in attendance on me."
14847 "Count Ilya Rostov's son?" asked Dolgorukov.
14849 But Rostov did not reply.
14851 "Then I may reckon on it, your excellency?"
14853 "I will give the order."
14855 "Tomorrow very likely I may be sent with some message to the Emperor,"
14860 The fires and shouting in the enemy's army were occasioned by the fact
14861 that while Napoleon's proclamation was being read to the troops the
14862 Emperor himself rode round his bivouacs. The soldiers, on seeing him,
14863 lit wisps of straw and ran after him, shouting, "Vive l'Empereur!"
14864 Napoleon's proclamation was as follows:
14866 Soldiers! The Russian army is advancing against you to avenge the
14867 Austrian army of Ulm. They are the same battalions you broke at
14868 Hollabrunn and have pursued ever since to this place. The position we
14869 occupy is a strong one, and while they are marching to go round me on
14870 the right they will expose a flank to me. Soldiers! I will myself direct
14871 your battalions. I will keep out of fire if you with your habitual valor
14872 carry disorder and confusion into the enemy's ranks, but should victory
14873 be in doubt, even for a moment, you will see your Emperor exposing
14874 himself to the first blows of the enemy, for there must be no doubt of
14875 victory, especially on this day when what is at stake is the honor of
14876 the French infantry, so necessary to the honor of our nation.
14878 Do not break your ranks on the plea of removing the wounded! Let every
14879 man be fully imbued with the thought that we must defeat these hirelings
14880 of England, inspired by such hatred of our nation! This victory will
14881 conclude our campaign and we can return to winter quarters, where fresh
14882 French troops who are being raised in France will join us, and the peace
14883 I shall conclude will be worthy of my people, of you, and of myself.
14892 At five in the morning it was still quite dark. The troops of the
14893 center, the reserves, and Bagration's right flank had not yet moved, but
14894 on the left flank the columns of infantry, cavalry, and artillery, which
14895 were to be the first to descend the heights to attack the French right
14896 flank and drive it into the Bohemian mountains according to plan, were
14897 already up and astir. The smoke of the campfires, into which they were
14898 throwing everything superfluous, made the eyes smart. It was cold and
14899 dark. The officers were hurriedly drinking tea and breakfasting, the
14900 soldiers, munching biscuit and beating a tattoo with their feet to warm
14901 themselves, gathering round the fires throwing into the flames the
14902 remains of sheds, chairs, tables, wheels, tubs, and everything that they
14903 did not want or could not carry away with them. Austrian column guides
14904 were moving in and out among the Russian troops and served as heralds of
14905 the advance. As soon as an Austrian officer showed himself near a
14906 commanding officer's quarters, the regiment began to move: the soldiers
14907 ran from the fires, thrust their pipes into their boots, their bags into
14908 the carts, got their muskets ready, and formed rank. The officers
14909 buttoned up their coats, buckled on their swords and pouches, and moved
14910 along the ranks shouting. The train drivers and orderlies harnessed and
14911 packed the wagons and tied on the loads. The adjutants and battalion and
14912 regimental commanders mounted, crossed themselves, gave final
14913 instructions, orders, and commissions to the baggage men who remained
14914 behind, and the monotonous tramp of thousands of feet resounded. The
14915 column moved forward without knowing where and unable, from the masses
14916 around them, the smoke and the increasing fog, to see either the place
14917 they were leaving or that to which they were going.
14919 A soldier on the march is hemmed in and borne along by his regiment as
14920 much as a sailor is by his ship. However far he has walked, whatever
14921 strange, unknown, and dangerous places he reaches, just as a sailor is
14922 always surrounded by the same decks, masts, and rigging of his ship, so
14923 the soldier always has around him the same comrades, the same ranks, the
14924 same sergeant major Ivan Mitrich, the same company dog Jack, and the
14925 same commanders. The sailor rarely cares to know the latitude in which
14926 his ship is sailing, but on the day of battle--heaven knows how and
14927 whence--a stern note of which all are conscious sounds in the moral
14928 atmosphere of an army, announcing the approach of something decisive and
14929 solemn, and awakening in the men an unusual curiosity. On the day of
14930 battle the soldiers excitedly try to get beyond the interests of their
14931 regiment, they listen intently, look about, and eagerly ask concerning
14932 what is going on around them.
14934 The fog had grown so dense that though it was growing light they could
14935 not see ten paces ahead. Bushes looked like gigantic trees and level
14936 ground like cliffs and slopes. Anywhere, on any side, one might
14937 encounter an enemy invisible ten paces off. But the columns advanced for
14938 a long time, always in the same fog, descending and ascending hills,
14939 avoiding gardens and enclosures, going over new and unknown ground, and
14940 nowhere encountering the enemy. On the contrary, the soldiers became
14941 aware that in front, behind, and on all sides, other Russian columns
14942 were moving in the same direction. Every soldier felt glad to know that
14943 to the unknown place where he was going, many more of our men were going
14946 "There now, the Kurskies have also gone past," was being said in the
14949 "It's wonderful what a lot of our troops have gathered, lads! Last night
14950 I looked at the campfires and there was no end of them. A regular
14953 Though none of the column commanders rode up to the ranks or talked to
14954 the men (the commanders, as we saw at the council of war, were out of
14955 humor and dissatisfied with the affair, and so did not exert themselves
14956 to cheer the men but merely carried out the orders), yet the troops
14957 marched gaily, as they always do when going into action, especially to
14958 an attack. But when they had marched for about an hour in the dense fog,
14959 the greater part of the men had to halt and an unpleasant consciousness
14960 of some dislocation and blunder spread through the ranks. How such a
14961 consciousness is communicated is very difficult to define, but it
14962 certainly is communicated very surely, and flows rapidly, imperceptibly,
14963 and irrepressibly, as water does in a creek. Had the Russian army been
14964 alone without any allies, it might perhaps have been a long time before
14965 this consciousness of mismanagement became a general conviction, but as
14966 it was, the disorder was readily and naturally attributed to the stupid
14967 Germans, and everyone was convinced that a dangerous muddle had been
14968 occasioned by the sausage eaters.
14970 "Why have we stopped? Is the way blocked? Or have we already come up
14971 against the French?"
14973 "No, one can't hear them. They'd be firing if we had."
14975 "They were in a hurry enough to start us, and now here we stand in the
14976 middle of a field without rhyme or reason. It's all those damned
14977 Germans' muddling! What stupid devils!"
14979 "Yes, I'd send them on in front, but no fear, they're crowding up
14980 behind. And now here we stand hungry."
14982 "I say, shall we soon be clear? They say the cavalry are blocking the
14983 way," said an officer.
14985 "Ah, those damned Germans! They don't know their own country!" said
14988 "What division are you?" shouted an adjutant, riding up.
14992 "Then why are you here? You should have gone on long ago, now you won't
14993 get there till evening."
14995 "What stupid orders! They don't themselves know what they are doing!"
14996 said the officer and rode off.
14998 Then a general rode past shouting something angrily, not in Russian.
15000 "Tafa-lafa! But what he's jabbering no one can make out," said a
15001 soldier, mimicking the general who had ridden away. "I'd shoot them, the
15004 "We were ordered to be at the place before nine, but we haven't got
15005 halfway. Fine orders!" was being repeated on different sides.
15007 And the feeling of energy with which the troops had started began to
15008 turn into vexation and anger at the stupid arrangements and at the
15011 The cause of the confusion was that while the Austrian cavalry was
15012 moving toward our left flank, the higher command found that our center
15013 was too far separated from our right flank and the cavalry were all
15014 ordered to turn back to the right. Several thousand cavalry crossed in
15015 front of the infantry, who had to wait.
15017 At the front an altercation occurred between an Austrian guide and a
15018 Russian general. The general shouted a demand that the cavalry should be
15019 halted, the Austrian argued that not he, but the higher command, was to
15020 blame. The troops meanwhile stood growing listless and dispirited. After
15021 an hour's delay they at last moved on, descending the hill. The fog that
15022 was dispersing on the hill lay still more densely below, where they were
15023 descending. In front in the fog a shot was heard and then another, at
15024 first irregularly at varying intervals--trata... tat--and then more and
15025 more regularly and rapidly, and the action at the Goldbach Stream began.
15027 Not expecting to come on the enemy down by the stream, and having
15028 stumbled on him in the fog, hearing no encouraging word from their
15029 commanders, and with a consciousness of being too late spreading through
15030 the ranks, and above all being unable to see anything in front or around
15031 them in the thick fog, the Russians exchanged shots with the enemy
15032 lazily and advanced and again halted, receiving no timely orders from
15033 the officers or adjutants who wandered about in the fog in those unknown
15034 surroundings unable to find their own regiments. In this way the action
15035 began for the first, second, and third columns, which had gone down into
15036 the valley. The fourth column, with which Kutuzov was, stood on the
15039 Below, where the fight was beginning, there was still thick fog; on the
15040 higher ground it was clearing, but nothing could be seen of what was
15041 going on in front. Whether all the enemy forces were, as we supposed,
15042 six miles away, or whether they were near by in that sea of mist, no one
15043 knew till after eight o'clock.
15045 It was nine o'clock in the morning. The fog lay unbroken like a sea down
15046 below, but higher up at the village of Schlappanitz where Napoleon stood
15047 with his marshals around him, it was quite light. Above him was a clear
15048 blue sky, and the sun's vast orb quivered like a huge hollow, crimson
15049 float on the surface of that milky sea of mist. The whole French army,
15050 and even Napoleon himself with his staff, were not on the far side of
15051 the streams and hollows of Sokolnitz and Schlappanitz beyond which we
15052 intended to take up our position and begin the action, but were on this
15053 side, so close to our own forces that Napoleon with the naked eye could
15054 distinguish a mounted man from one on foot. Napoleon, in the blue cloak
15055 which he had worn on his Italian campaign, sat on his small gray Arab
15056 horse a little in front of his marshals. He gazed silently at the hills
15057 which seemed to rise out of the sea of mist and on which the Russian
15058 troops were moving in the distance, and he listened to the sounds of
15059 firing in the valley. Not a single muscle of his face--which in those
15060 days was still thin--moved. His gleaming eyes were fixed intently on one
15061 spot. His predictions were being justified. Part of the Russian force
15062 had already descended into the valley toward the ponds and lakes and
15063 part were leaving these Pratzen Heights which he intended to attack and
15064 regarded as the key to the position. He saw over the mist that in a
15065 hollow between two hills near the village of Pratzen, the Russian
15066 columns, their bayonets glittering, were moving continuously in one
15067 direction toward the valley and disappearing one after another into the
15068 mist. From information he had received the evening before, from the
15069 sound of wheels and footsteps heard by the outposts during the night, by
15070 the disorderly movement of the Russian columns, and from all
15071 indications, he saw clearly that the allies believed him to be far away
15072 in front of them, and that the columns moving near Pratzen constituted
15073 the center of the Russian army, and that that center was already
15074 sufficiently weakened to be successfully attacked. But still he did not
15075 begin the engagement.
15077 Today was a great day for him--the anniversary of his coronation. Before
15078 dawn he had slept for a few hours, and refreshed, vigorous, and in good
15079 spirits, he mounted his horse and rode out into the field in that happy
15080 mood in which everything seems possible and everything succeeds. He sat
15081 motionless, looking at the heights visible above the mist, and his cold
15082 face wore that special look of confident, self-complacent happiness that
15083 one sees on the face of a boy happily in love. The marshals stood behind
15084 him not venturing to distract his attention. He looked now at the
15085 Pratzen Heights, now at the sun floating up out of the mist.
15087 When the sun had entirely emerged from the fog, and fields and mist were
15088 aglow with dazzling light--as if he had only awaited this to begin the
15089 action--he drew the glove from his shapely white hand, made a sign with
15090 it to the marshals, and ordered the action to begin. The marshals,
15091 accompanied by adjutants, galloped off in different directions, and a
15092 few minutes later the chief forces of the French army moved rapidly
15093 toward those Pratzen Heights which were being more and more denuded by
15094 Russian troops moving down the valley to their left.
15101 At eight o'clock Kutuzov rode to Pratzen at the head of the fourth
15102 column, Miloradovich's, the one that was to take the place of
15103 Przebyszewski's and Langeron's columns which had already gone down into
15104 the valley. He greeted the men of the foremost regiment and gave them
15105 the order to march, thereby indicating that he intended to lead that
15106 column himself. When he had reached the village of Pratzen he halted.
15107 Prince Andrew was behind, among the immense number forming the
15108 commander-in-chief's suite. He was in a state of suppressed excitement
15109 and irritation, though controlledly calm as a man is at the approach of
15110 a long-awaited moment. He was firmly convinced that this was the day of
15111 his Toulon, or his bridge of Arcola. How it would come about he did not
15112 know, but he felt sure it would do so. The locality and the position of
15113 our troops were known to him as far as they could be known to anyone in
15114 our army. His own strategic plan, which obviously could not now be
15115 carried out, was forgotten. Now, entering into Weyrother's plan, Prince
15116 Andrew considered possible contingencies and formed new projects such as
15117 might call for his rapidity of perception and decision.
15119 To the left down below in the mist, the musketry fire of unseen forces
15120 could be heard. It was there Prince Andrew thought the fight would
15121 concentrate. "There we shall encounter difficulties, and there," thought
15122 he, "I shall be sent with a brigade or division, and there, standard in
15123 hand, I shall go forward and break whatever is in front of me."
15125 He could not look calmly at the standards of the passing battalions.
15126 Seeing them he kept thinking, "That may be the very standard with which
15127 I shall lead the army."
15129 In the morning all that was left of the night mist on the heights was a
15130 hoar frost now turning to dew, but in the valleys it still lay like a
15131 milk-white sea. Nothing was visible in the valley to the left into which
15132 our troops had descended and from whence came the sounds of firing.
15133 Above the heights was the dark clear sky, and to the right the vast orb
15134 of the sun. In front, far off on the farther shore of that sea of mist,
15135 some wooded hills were discernible, and it was there the enemy probably
15136 was, for something could be descried. On the right the Guards were
15137 entering the misty region with a sound of hoofs and wheels and now and
15138 then a gleam of bayonets; to the left beyond the village similar masses
15139 of cavalry came up and disappeared in the sea of mist. In front and
15140 behind moved infantry. The commander-in-chief was standing at the end of
15141 the village letting the troops pass by him. That morning Kutuzov seemed
15142 worn and irritable. The infantry passing before him came to a halt
15143 without any command being given, apparently obstructed by something in
15146 "Do order them to form into battalion columns and go round the village!"
15147 he said angrily to a general who had ridden up. "Don't you understand,
15148 your excellency, my dear sir, that you must not defile through narrow
15149 village streets when we are marching against the enemy?"
15151 "I intended to re-form them beyond the village, your excellency,"
15152 answered the general.
15154 Kutuzov laughed bitterly.
15156 "You'll make a fine thing of it, deploying in sight of the enemy! Very
15159 "The enemy is still far away, your excellency. According to the
15162 "The dispositions!" exclaimed Kutuzov bitterly. "Who told you that?...
15163 Kindly do as you are ordered."
15167 "My dear fellow," Nesvitski whispered to Prince Andrew, "the old man is
15168 as surly as a dog."
15170 An Austrian officer in a white uniform with green plumes in his hat
15171 galloped up to Kutuzov and asked in the Emperor's name had the fourth
15172 column advanced into action.
15174 Kutuzov turned round without answering and his eye happened to fall upon
15175 Prince Andrew, who was beside him. Seeing him, Kutuzov's malevolent and
15176 caustic expression softened, as if admitting that what was being done
15177 was not his adjutant's fault, and still not answering the Austrian
15178 adjutant, he addressed Bolkonski.
15180 "Go, my dear fellow, and see whether the third division has passed the
15181 village. Tell it to stop and await my orders."
15183 Hardly had Prince Andrew started than he stopped him.
15185 "And ask whether sharpshooters have been posted," he added. "What are
15186 they doing? What are they doing?" he murmured to himself, still not
15187 replying to the Austrian.
15189 Prince Andrew galloped off to execute the order.
15191 Overtaking the battalions that continued to advance, he stopped the
15192 third division and convinced himself that there really were no
15193 sharpshooters in front of our columns. The colonel at the head of the
15194 regiment was much surprised at the commander-in-chief's order to throw
15195 out skirmishers. He had felt perfectly sure that there were other troops
15196 in front of him and that the enemy must be at least six miles away.
15197 There was really nothing to be seen in front except a barren descent
15198 hidden by dense mist. Having given orders in the commander-in-chief's
15199 name to rectify this omission, Prince Andrew galloped back. Kutuzov
15200 still in the same place, his stout body resting heavily in the saddle
15201 with the lassitude of age, sat yawning wearily with closed eyes. The
15202 troops were no longer moving, but stood with the butts of their muskets
15205 "All right, all right!" he said to Prince Andrew, and turned to a
15206 general who, watch in hand, was saying it was time they started as all
15207 the left-flank columns had already descended.
15209 "Plenty of time, your excellency," muttered Kutuzov in the midst of a
15210 yawn. "Plenty of time," he repeated.
15212 Just then at a distance behind Kutuzov was heard the sound of regiments
15213 saluting, and this sound rapidly came nearer along the whole extended
15214 line of the advancing Russian columns. Evidently the person they were
15215 greeting was riding quickly. When the soldiers of the regiment in front
15216 of which Kutuzov was standing began to shout, he rode a little to one
15217 side and looked round with a frown. Along the road from Pratzen galloped
15218 what looked like a squadron of horsemen in various uniforms. Two of them
15219 rode side by side in front, at full gallop. One in a black uniform with
15220 white plumes in his hat rode a bobtailed chestnut horse, the other who
15221 was in a white uniform rode a black one. These were the two Emperors
15222 followed by their suites. Kutuzov, affecting the manners of an old
15223 soldier at the front, gave the command "Attention!" and rode up to the
15224 Emperors with a salute. His whole appearance and manner were suddenly
15225 transformed. He put on the air of a subordinate who obeys without
15226 reasoning. With an affectation of respect which evidently struck
15227 Alexander unpleasantly, he rode up and saluted.
15229 This unpleasant impression merely flitted over the young and happy face
15230 of the Emperor like a cloud of haze across a clear sky and vanished.
15231 After his illness he looked rather thinner that day than on the field of
15232 Olmutz where Bolkonski had seen him for the first time abroad, but there
15233 was still the same bewitching combination of majesty and mildness in his
15234 fine gray eyes, and on his delicate lips the same capacity for varying
15235 expression and the same prevalent appearance of goodhearted innocent
15238 At the Olmutz review he had seemed more majestic; here he seemed
15239 brighter and more energetic. He was slightly flushed after galloping two
15240 miles, and reining in his horse he sighed restfully and looked round at
15241 the faces of his suite, young and animated as his own. Czartoryski,
15242 Novosiltsev, Prince Volkonsky, Strogonov, and the others, all richly
15243 dressed gay young men on splendid, well-groomed, fresh, only slightly
15244 heated horses, exchanging remarks and smiling, had stopped behind the
15245 Emperor. The Emperor Francis, a rosy, long faced young man, sat very
15246 erect on his handsome black horse, looking about him in a leisurely and
15247 preoccupied manner. He beckoned to one of his white adjutants and asked
15248 some question--"Most likely he is asking at what o'clock they started,"
15249 thought Prince Andrew, watching his old acquaintance with a smile he
15250 could not repress as he recalled his reception at Brunn. In the
15251 Emperors' suite were the picked young orderly officers of the Guard and
15252 line regiments, Russian and Austrian. Among them were grooms leading the
15253 Tsar's beautiful relay horses covered with embroidered cloths.
15255 As when a window is opened a whiff of fresh air from the fields enters a
15256 stuffy room, so a whiff of youthfulness, energy, and confidence of
15257 success reached Kutuzov's cheerless staff with the galloping advent of
15258 all these brilliant young men.
15260 "Why aren't you beginning, Michael Ilarionovich?" said the Emperor
15261 Alexander hurriedly to Kutuzov, glancing courteously at the same time at
15262 the Emperor Francis.
15264 "I am waiting, Your Majesty," answered Kutuzov, bending forward
15267 The Emperor, frowning slightly, bent his ear forward as if he had not
15270 "Waiting, Your Majesty," repeated Kutuzov. (Prince Andrew noted that
15271 Kutuzov's upper lip twitched unnaturally as he said the word "waiting.")
15272 "Not all the columns have formed up yet, Your Majesty."
15274 The Tsar heard but obviously did not like the reply; he shrugged his
15275 rather round shoulders and glanced at Novosiltsev who was near him, as
15276 if complaining of Kutuzov.
15278 "You know, Michael Ilarionovich, we are not on the Empress' Field where
15279 a parade does not begin till all the troops are assembled," said the
15280 Tsar with another glance at the Emperor Francis, as if inviting him if
15281 not to join in at least to listen to what he was saying. But the Emperor
15282 Francis continued to look about him and did not listen.
15284 "That is just why I do not begin, sire," said Kutuzov in a resounding
15285 voice, apparently to preclude the possibility of not being heard, and
15286 again something in his face twitched--"That is just why I do not begin,
15287 sire, because we are not on parade and not on the Empress' Field," said
15288 clearly and distinctly.
15290 In the Emperor's suite all exchanged rapid looks that expressed
15291 dissatisfaction and reproach. "Old though he may be, he should not, he
15292 certainly should not, speak like that," their glances seemed to say.
15294 The Tsar looked intently and observantly into Kutuzov's eye waiting to
15295 hear whether he would say anything more. But Kutuzov, with respectfully
15296 bowed head, seemed also to be waiting. The silence lasted for about a
15299 "However, if you command it, Your Majesty," said Kutuzov, lifting his
15300 head and again assuming his former tone of a dull, unreasoning, but
15301 submissive general.
15303 He touched his horse and having called Miloradovich, the commander of
15304 the column, gave him the order to advance.
15306 The troops again began to move, and two battalions of the Novgorod and
15307 one of the Apsheron regiment went forward past the Emperor.
15309 As this Apsheron battalion marched by, the red-faced Miloradovich,
15310 without his greatcoat, with his Orders on his breast and an enormous
15311 tuft of plumes in his cocked hat worn on one side with its corners front
15312 and back, galloped strenuously forward, and with a dashing salute reined
15313 in his horse before the Emperor.
15315 "God be with you, general!" said the Emperor.
15317 "Ma foi, sire, nous ferons ce qui sera dans notre possibilite, sire," *
15318 he answered gaily, raising nevertheless ironic smiles among the
15319 gentlemen of the Tsar's suite by his poor French.
15322 * "Indeed, Sire, we shall do everything it is possible to do, Sire."
15324 Miloradovich wheeled his horse sharply and stationed himself a little
15325 behind the Emperor. The Apsheron men, excited by the Tsar's presence,
15326 passed in step before the Emperors and their suites at a bold, brisk
15329 "Lads!" shouted Miloradovich in a loud, self-confident, and cheery
15330 voice, obviously so elated by the sound of firing, by the prospect of
15331 battle, and by the sight of the gallant Apsherons, his comrades in
15332 Suvorov's time, now passing so gallantly before the Emperors, that he
15333 forgot the sovereigns' presence. "Lads, it's not the first village
15334 you've had to take," cried he.
15336 "Glad to do our best!" shouted the soldiers.
15338 The Emperor's horse started at the sudden cry. This horse that had
15339 carried the sovereign at reviews in Russia bore him also here on the
15340 field of Austerlitz, enduring the heedless blows of his left foot and
15341 pricking its ears at the sound of shots just as it had done on the
15342 Empress' Field, not understanding the significance of the firing, nor of
15343 the nearness of the Emperor Francis' black cob, nor of all that was
15344 being said, thought, and felt that day by its rider.
15346 The Emperor turned with a smile to one of his followers and made a
15347 remark to him, pointing to the gallant Apsherons.
15354 Kutuzov accompanied by his adjutants rode at a walking pace behind the
15357 When he had gone less than half a mile in the rear of the column he
15358 stopped at a solitary, deserted house that had probably once been an
15359 inn, where two roads parted. Both of them led downhill and troops were
15360 marching along both.
15362 The fog had begun to clear and enemy troops were already dimly visible
15363 about a mile and a half off on the opposite heights. Down below, on the
15364 left, the firing became more distinct. Kutuzov had stopped and was
15365 speaking to an Austrian general. Prince Andrew, who was a little behind
15366 looking at them, turned to an adjutant to ask him for a field glass.
15368 "Look, look!" said this adjutant, looking not at the troops in the
15369 distance, but down the hill before him. "It's the French!"
15371 The two generals and the adjutant took hold of the field glass, trying
15372 to snatch it from one another. The expression on all their faces
15373 suddenly changed to one of horror. The French were supposed to be a mile
15374 and a half away, but had suddenly and unexpectedly appeared just in
15377 "It's the enemy?... No!... Yes, see it is!... for certain.... But how is
15378 that?" said different voices.
15380 With the naked eye Prince Andrew saw below them to the right, not more
15381 than five hundred paces from where Kutuzov was standing, a dense French
15382 column coming up to meet the Apsherons.
15384 "Here it is! The decisive moment has arrived. My turn has come," thought
15385 Prince Andrew, and striking his horse he rode up to Kutuzov.
15387 "The Apsherons must be stopped, your excellency," cried he. But at that
15388 very instant a cloud of smoke spread all round, firing was heard quite
15389 close at hand, and a voice of naive terror barely two steps from Prince
15390 Andrew shouted, "Brothers! All's lost!" And at this as if at a command,
15391 everyone began to run.
15393 Confused and ever-increasing crowds were running back to where five
15394 minutes before the troops had passed the Emperors. Not only would it
15395 have been difficult to stop that crowd, it was even impossible not to be
15396 carried back with it oneself. Bolkonski only tried not to lose touch
15397 with it, and looked around bewildered and unable to grasp what was
15398 happening in front of him. Nesvitski with an angry face, red and unlike
15399 himself, was shouting to Kutuzov that if he did not ride away at once he
15400 would certainly be taken prisoner. Kutuzov remained in the same place
15401 and without answering drew out a handkerchief. Blood was flowing from
15402 his cheek. Prince Andrew forced his way to him.
15404 "You are wounded?" he asked, hardly able to master the trembling of his
15407 "The wound is not here, it is there!" said Kutuzov, pressing the
15408 handkerchief to his wounded cheek and pointing to the fleeing soldiers.
15409 "Stop them!" he shouted, and at the same moment, probably realizing that
15410 it was impossible to stop them, spurred his horse and rode to the right.
15412 A fresh wave of the flying mob caught him and bore him back with it.
15414 The troops were running in such a dense mass that once surrounded by
15415 them it was difficult to get out again. One was shouting, "Get on! Why
15416 are you hindering us?" Another in the same place turned round and fired
15417 in the air; a third was striking the horse Kutuzov himself rode. Having
15418 by a great effort got away to the left from that flood of men, Kutuzov,
15419 with his suite diminished by more than half, rode toward a sound of
15420 artillery fire near by. Having forced his way out of the crowd of
15421 fugitives, Prince Andrew, trying to keep near Kutuzov, saw on the slope
15422 of the hill amid the smoke a Russian battery that was still firing and
15423 Frenchmen running toward it. Higher up stood some Russian infantry,
15424 neither moving forward to protect the battery nor backward with the
15425 fleeing crowd. A mounted general separated himself from the infantry and
15426 approached Kutuzov. Of Kutuzov's suite only four remained. They were all
15427 pale and exchanged looks in silence.
15429 "Stop those wretches!" gasped Kutuzov to the regimental commander,
15430 pointing to the flying soldiers; but at that instant, as if to punish
15431 him for those words, bullets flew hissing across the regiment and across
15432 Kutuzov's suite like a flock of little birds.
15434 The French had attacked the battery and, seeing Kutuzov, were firing at
15435 him. After this volley the regimental commander clutched at his leg;
15436 several soldiers fell, and a second lieutenant who was holding the flag
15437 let it fall from his hands. It swayed and fell, but caught on the
15438 muskets of the nearest soldiers. The soldiers started firing without
15441 "Oh! Oh! Oh!" groaned Kutuzov despairingly and looked around....
15442 "Bolkonski!" he whispered, his voice trembling from a consciousness of
15443 the feebleness of age, "Bolkonski!" he whispered, pointing to the
15444 disordered battalion and at the enemy, "what's that?"
15446 But before he had finished speaking, Prince Andrew, feeling tears of
15447 shame and anger choking him, had already leapt from his horse and run to
15450 "Forward, lads!" he shouted in a voice piercing as a child's.
15452 "Here it is!" thought he, seizing the staff of the standard and hearing
15453 with pleasure the whistle of bullets evidently aimed at him. Several
15456 "Hurrah!" shouted Prince Andrew, and, scarcely able to hold up the heavy
15457 standard, he ran forward with full confidence that the whole battalion
15460 And really he only ran a few steps alone. One soldier moved and then
15461 another and soon the whole battalion ran forward shouting "Hurrah!" and
15462 overtook him. A sergeant of the battalion ran up and took the flag that
15463 was swaying from its weight in Prince Andrew's hands, but he was
15464 immediately killed. Prince Andrew again seized the standard and,
15465 dragging it by the staff, ran on with the battalion. In front he saw our
15466 artillerymen, some of whom were fighting, while others, having abandoned
15467 their guns, were running toward him. He also saw French infantry
15468 soldiers who were seizing the artillery horses and turning the guns
15469 round. Prince Andrew and the battalion were already within twenty paces
15470 of the cannon. He heard the whistle of bullets above him unceasingly and
15471 to right and left of him soldiers continually groaned and dropped. But
15472 he did not look at them: he looked only at what was going on in front of
15473 him--at the battery. He now saw clearly the figure of a red-haired
15474 gunner with his shako knocked awry, pulling one end of a mop while a
15475 French soldier tugged at the other. He could distinctly see the
15476 distraught yet angry expression on the faces of these two men, who
15477 evidently did not realize what they were doing.
15479 "What are they about?" thought Prince Andrew as he gazed at them. "Why
15480 doesn't the red-haired gunner run away as he is unarmed? Why doesn't the
15481 Frenchman stab him? He will not get away before the Frenchman remembers
15482 his bayonet and stabs him...."
15484 And really another French soldier, trailing his musket, ran up to the
15485 struggling men, and the fate of the red-haired gunner, who had
15486 triumphantly secured the mop and still did not realize what awaited him,
15487 was about to be decided. But Prince Andrew did not see how it ended. It
15488 seemed to him as though one of the soldiers near him hit him on the head
15489 with the full swing of a bludgeon. It hurt a little, but the worst of it
15490 was that the pain distracted him and prevented his seeing what he had
15493 "What's this? Am I falling? My legs are giving way," thought he, and
15494 fell on his back. He opened his eyes, hoping to see how the struggle of
15495 the Frenchmen with the gunners ended, whether the red-haired gunner had
15496 been killed or not and whether the cannon had been captured or saved.
15497 But he saw nothing. Above him there was now nothing but the sky--the
15498 lofty sky, not clear yet still immeasurably lofty, with gray clouds
15499 gliding slowly across it. "How quiet, peaceful, and solemn; not at all
15500 as I ran," thought Prince Andrew--"not as we ran, shouting and fighting,
15501 not at all as the gunner and the Frenchman with frightened and angry
15502 faces struggled for the mop: how differently do those clouds glide
15503 across that lofty infinite sky! How was it I did not see that lofty sky
15504 before? And how happy I am to have found it at last! Yes! All is vanity,
15505 all falsehood, except that infinite sky. There is nothing, nothing, but
15506 that. But even it does not exist, there is nothing but quiet and peace.
15514 On our right flank commanded by Bagration, at nine o'clock the battle
15515 had not yet begun. Not wishing to agree to Dolgorukov's demand to
15516 commence the action, and wishing to avert responsibility from himself,
15517 Prince Bagration proposed to Dolgorukov to send to inquire of the
15518 commander-in-chief. Bagration knew that as the distance between the two
15519 flanks was more than six miles, even if the messenger were not killed
15520 (which he very likely would be), and found the commander-in-chief (which
15521 would be very difficult), he would not be able to get back before
15524 Bagration cast his large, expressionless, sleepy eyes round his suite,
15525 and the boyish face Rostov, breathless with excitement and hope, was the
15526 first to catch his eye. He sent him.
15528 "And if I should meet His Majesty before I meet the commander-in-chief,
15529 your excellency?" said Rostov, with his hand to his cap.
15531 "You can give the message to His Majesty," said Dolgorukov, hurriedly
15532 interrupting Bagration.
15534 On being relieved from picket duty Rostov had managed to get a few
15535 hours' sleep before morning and felt cheerful, bold, and resolute, with
15536 elasticity of movement, faith in his good fortune, and generally in that
15537 state of mind which makes everything seem possible, pleasant, and easy.
15539 All his wishes were being fulfilled that morning: there was to be a
15540 general engagement in which he was taking part, more than that, he was
15541 orderly to the bravest general, and still more, he was going with a
15542 message to Kutuzov, perhaps even to the sovereign himself. The morning
15543 was bright, he had a good horse under him, and his heart was full of joy
15544 and happiness. On receiving the order he gave his horse the rein and
15545 galloped along the line. At first he rode along the line of Bagration's
15546 troops, which had not yet advanced into action but were standing
15547 motionless; then he came to the region occupied by Uvarov's cavalry and
15548 here he noticed a stir and signs of preparation for battle; having
15549 passed Uvarov's cavalry he clearly heard the sound of cannon and
15550 musketry ahead of him. The firing grew louder and louder.
15552 In the fresh morning air were now heard, not two or three musket shots
15553 at irregular intervals as before, followed by one or two cannon shots,
15554 but a roll of volleys of musketry from the slopes of the hill before
15555 Pratzen, interrupted by such frequent reports of cannon that sometimes
15556 several of them were not separated from one another but merged into a
15559 He could see puffs of musketry smoke that seemed to chase one another
15560 down the hillsides, and clouds of cannon smoke rolling, spreading, and
15561 mingling with one another. He could also, by the gleam of bayonets
15562 visible through the smoke, make out moving masses of infantry and narrow
15563 lines of artillery with green caissons.
15565 Rostov stopped his horse for a moment on a hillock to see what was going
15566 on, but strain his attention as he would he could not understand or make
15567 out anything of what was happening: there in the smoke men of some sort
15568 were moving about, in front and behind moved lines of troops; but why,
15569 whither, and who they were, it was impossible to make out. These sights
15570 and sounds had no depressing or intimidating effect on him; on the
15571 contrary, they stimulated his energy and determination.
15573 "Go on! Go on! Give it them!" he mentally exclaimed at these sounds, and
15574 again proceeded to gallop along the line, penetrating farther and
15575 farther into the region where the army was already in action.
15577 "How it will be there I don't know, but all will be well!" thought
15580 After passing some Austrian troops he noticed that the next part of the
15581 line (the Guards) was already in action.
15583 "So much the better! I shall see it close," he thought.
15585 He was riding almost along the front line. A handful of men came
15586 galloping toward him. They were our uhlans who with disordered ranks
15587 were returning from the attack. Rostov got out of their way,
15588 involuntarily noticed that one of them was bleeding, and galloped on.
15590 "That is no business of mine," he thought. He had not ridden many
15591 hundred yards after that before he saw to his left, across the whole
15592 width of the field, an enormous mass of cavalry in brilliant white
15593 uniforms, mounted on black horses, trotting straight toward him and
15594 across his path. Rostov put his horse to full gallop to get out of the
15595 way of these men, and he would have got clear had they continued at the
15596 same speed, but they kept increasing their pace, so that some of the
15597 horses were already galloping. Rostov heard the thud of their hoofs and
15598 the jingle of their weapons and saw their horses, their figures, and
15599 even their faces, more and more distinctly. They were our Horse Guards,
15600 advancing to attack the French cavalry that was coming to meet them.
15602 The Horse Guards were galloping, but still holding in their horses.
15603 Rostov could already see their faces and heard the command: "Charge!"
15604 shouted by an officer who was urging his thoroughbred to full speed.
15605 Rostov, fearing to be crushed or swept into the attack on the French,
15606 galloped along the front as hard as his horse could go, but still was
15607 not in time to avoid them.
15609 The last of the Horse Guards, a huge pockmarked fellow, frowned angrily
15610 on seeing Rostov before him, with whom he would inevitably collide. This
15611 Guardsman would certainly have bowled Rostov and his Bedouin over
15612 (Rostov felt himself quite tiny and weak compared to these gigantic men
15613 and horses) had it not occurred to Rostov to flourish his whip before
15614 the eyes of the Guardsman's horse. The heavy black horse, sixteen hands
15615 high, shied, throwing back its ears; but the pockmarked Guardsman drove
15616 his huge spurs in violently, and the horse, flourishing its tail and
15617 extending its neck, galloped on yet faster. Hardly had the Horse Guards
15618 passed Rostov before he heard them shout, "Hurrah!" and looking back saw
15619 that their foremost ranks were mixed up with some foreign cavalry with
15620 red epaulets, probably French. He could see nothing more, for
15621 immediately afterwards cannon began firing from somewhere and smoke
15622 enveloped everything.
15624 At that moment, as the Horse Guards, having passed him, disappeared in
15625 the smoke, Rostov hesitated whether to gallop after them or to go where
15626 he was sent. This was the brilliant charge of the Horse Guards that
15627 amazed the French themselves. Rostov was horrified to hear later that of
15628 all that mass of huge and handsome men, of all those brilliant, rich
15629 youths, officers and cadets, who had galloped past him on their
15630 thousand-ruble horses, only eighteen were left after the charge.
15632 "Why should I envy them? My chance is not lost, and maybe I shall see
15633 the Emperor immediately!" thought Rostov and galloped on.
15635 When he came level with the Foot Guards he noticed that about them and
15636 around them cannon balls were flying, of which he was aware not so much
15637 because he heard their sound as because he saw uneasiness on the
15638 soldiers' faces and unnatural warlike solemnity on those of the
15641 Passing behind one of the lines of a regiment of Foot Guards he heard a
15642 voice calling him by name.
15646 "What?" he answered, not recognizing Boris.
15648 "I say, we've been in the front line! Our regiment attacked!" said Boris
15649 with the happy smile seen on the faces of young men who have been under
15650 fire for the first time.
15654 "Have you?" he said. "Well, how did it go?"
15656 "We drove them back!" said Boris with animation, growing talkative. "Can
15657 you imagine it?" and he began describing how the Guards, having taken up
15658 their position and seeing troops before them, thought they were
15659 Austrians, and all at once discovered from the cannon balls discharged
15660 by those troops that they were themselves in the front line and had
15661 unexpectedly to go into action. Rostov without hearing Boris to the end
15664 "Where are you off to?" asked Boris.
15666 "With a message to His Majesty."
15668 "There he is!" said Boris, thinking Rostov had said "His Highness," and
15669 pointing to the Grand Duke who with his high shoulders and frowning
15670 brows stood a hundred paces away from them in his helmet and Horse
15671 Guards' jacket, shouting something to a pale, white uniformed Austrian
15674 "But that's the Grand Duke, and I want the commander-in-chief or the
15675 Emperor," said Rostov, and was about to spur his horse.
15677 "Count! Count!" shouted Berg who ran up from the other side as eager as
15678 Boris. "Count! I am wounded in my right hand" (and he showed his
15679 bleeding hand with a handkerchief tied round it) "and I remained at the
15680 front. I held my sword in my left hand, Count. All our family--the von
15681 Bergs--have been knights!"
15683 He said something more, but Rostov did not wait to hear it and rode
15686 Having passed the Guards and traversed an empty space, Rostov, to avoid
15687 again getting in front of the first line as he had done when the Horse
15688 Guards charged, followed the line of reserves, going far round the place
15689 where the hottest musket fire and cannonade were heard. Suddenly he
15690 heard musket fire quite close in front of him and behind our troops,
15691 where he could never have expected the enemy to be.
15693 "What can it be?" he thought. "The enemy in the rear of our army?
15694 Impossible!" And suddenly he was seized by a panic of fear for himself
15695 and for the issue of the whole battle. "But be that what it may," he
15696 reflected, "there is no riding round it now. I must look for the
15697 commander in chief here, and if all is lost it is for me to perish with
15700 The foreboding of evil that had suddenly come over Rostov was more and
15701 more confirmed the farther he rode into the region behind the village of
15702 Pratzen, which was full of troops of all kinds.
15704 "What does it mean? What is it? Whom are they firing at? Who is firing?"
15705 Rostov kept asking as he came up to Russian and Austrian soldiers
15706 running in confused crowds across his path.
15708 "The devil knows! They've killed everybody! It's all up now!" he was
15709 told in Russian, German, and Czech by the crowd of fugitives who
15710 understood what was happening as little as he did.
15712 "Kill the Germans!" shouted one.
15714 "May the devil take them--the traitors!"
15716 "Zum Henker diese Russen!" * muttered a German.
15719 * "Hang these Russians!"
15721 Several wounded men passed along the road, and words of abuse, screams,
15722 and groans mingled in a general hubbub, then the firing died down.
15723 Rostov learned later that Russian and Austrian soldiers had been firing
15726 "My God! What does it all mean?" thought he. "And here, where at any
15727 moment the Emperor may see them.... But no, these must be only a handful
15728 of scoundrels. It will soon be over, it can't be that, it can't be! Only
15729 to get past them quicker, quicker!"
15731 The idea of defeat and flight could not enter Rostov's head. Though he
15732 saw French cannon and French troops on the Pratzen Heights just where he
15733 had been ordered to look for the commander-in-chief, he could not, did
15734 not wish to, believe that.
15741 Rostov had been ordered to look for Kutuzov and the Emperor near the
15742 village of Pratzen. But neither they nor a single commanding officer
15743 were there, only disorganized crowds of troops of various kinds. He
15744 urged on his already weary horse to get quickly past these crowds, but
15745 the farther he went the more disorganized they were. The highroad on
15746 which he had come out was thronged with caleches, carriages of all
15747 sorts, and Russian and Austrian soldiers of all arms, some wounded and
15748 some not. This whole mass droned and jostled in confusion under the
15749 dismal influence of cannon balls flying from the French batteries
15750 stationed on the Pratzen Heights.
15752 "Where is the Emperor? Where is Kutuzov?" Rostov kept asking everyone he
15753 could stop, but got no answer from anyone.
15755 At last seizing a soldier by his collar he forced him to answer.
15757 "Eh, brother! They've all bolted long ago!" said the soldier, laughing
15758 for some reason and shaking himself free.
15760 Having left that soldier who was evidently drunk, Rostov stopped the
15761 horse of a batman or groom of some important personage and began to
15762 question him. The man announced that the Tsar had been driven in a
15763 carriage at full speed about an hour before along that very road and
15764 that he was dangerously wounded.
15766 "It can't be!" said Rostov. "It must have been someone else."
15768 "I saw him myself," replied the man with a self-confident smile of
15769 derision. "I ought to know the Emperor by now, after the times I've seen
15770 him in Petersburg. I saw him just as I see you.... There he sat in the
15771 carriage as pale as anything. How they made the four black horses fly!
15772 Gracious me, they did rattle past! It's time I knew the Imperial horses
15773 and Ilya Ivanych. I don't think Ilya drives anyone except the Tsar!"
15775 Rostov let go of the horse and was about to ride on, when a wounded
15776 officer passing by addressed him:
15778 "Who is it you want?" he asked. "The commander-in-chief? He was killed
15779 by a cannon ball--struck in the breast before our regiment."
15781 "Not killed--wounded!" another officer corrected him.
15783 "Who? Kutuzov?" asked Rostov.
15785 "Not Kutuzov, but what's his name--well, never mind... there are not
15786 many left alive. Go that way, to that village, all the commanders are
15787 there," said the officer, pointing to the village of Hosjeradek, and he
15790 Rostov rode on at a footpace not knowing why or to whom he was now
15791 going. The Emperor was wounded, the battle lost. It was impossible to
15792 doubt it now. Rostov rode in the direction pointed out to him, in which
15793 he saw turrets and a church. What need to hurry? What was he now to say
15794 to the Tsar or to Kutuzov, even if they were alive and unwounded?
15796 "Take this road, your honor, that way you will be killed at once!" a
15797 soldier shouted to him. "They'd kill you there!"
15799 "Oh, what are you talking about?" said another. "Where is he to go? That
15802 Rostov considered, and then went in the direction where they said he
15805 "It's all the same now. If the Emperor is wounded, am I to try to save
15806 myself?" he thought. He rode on to the region where the greatest number
15807 of men had perished in fleeing from Pratzen. The French had not yet
15808 occupied that region, and the Russians--the uninjured and slightly
15809 wounded--had left it long ago. All about the field, like heaps of manure
15810 on well-kept plowland, lay from ten to fifteen dead and wounded to each
15811 couple of acres. The wounded crept together in twos and threes and one
15812 could hear their distressing screams and groans, sometimes feigned--or
15813 so it seemed to Rostov. He put his horse to a trot to avoid seeing all
15814 these suffering men, and he felt afraid--afraid not for his life, but
15815 for the courage he needed and which he knew would not stand the sight of
15816 these unfortunates.
15818 The French, who had ceased firing at this field strewn with dead and
15819 wounded where there was no one left to fire at, on seeing an adjutant
15820 riding over it trained a gun on him and fired several shots. The
15821 sensation of those terrible whistling sounds and of the corpses around
15822 him merged in Rostov's mind into a single feeling of terror and pity for
15823 himself. He remembered his mother's last letter. "What would she feel,"
15824 thought he, "if she saw me here now on this field with the cannon aimed
15827 In the village of Hosjeradek there were Russian troops retiring from the
15828 field of battle, who though still in some confusion were less
15829 disordered. The French cannon did not reach there and the musketry fire
15830 sounded far away. Here everyone clearly saw and said that the battle was
15831 lost. No one whom Rostov asked could tell him where the Emperor or
15832 Kutuzov was. Some said the report that the Emperor was wounded was
15833 correct, others that it was not, and explained the false rumor that had
15834 spread by the fact that the Emperor's carriage had really galloped from
15835 the field of battle with the pale and terrified Ober-Hofmarschal Count
15836 Tolstoy, who had ridden out to the battlefield with others in the
15837 Emperor's suite. One officer told Rostov that he had seen someone from
15838 headquarters behind the village to the left, and thither Rostov rode,
15839 not hoping to find anyone but merely to ease his conscience. When he had
15840 ridden about two miles and had passed the last of the Russian troops, he
15841 saw, near a kitchen garden with a ditch round it, two men on horseback
15842 facing the ditch. One with a white plume in his hat seemed familiar to
15843 Rostov; the other on a beautiful chestnut horse (which Rostov fancied he
15844 had seen before) rode up to the ditch, struck his horse with his spurs,
15845 and giving it the rein leaped lightly over. Only a little earth crumbled
15846 from the bank under the horse's hind hoofs. Turning the horse sharply,
15847 he again jumped the ditch, and deferentially addressed the horseman with
15848 the white plumes, evidently suggesting that he should do the same. The
15849 rider, whose figure seemed familiar to Rostov and involuntarily riveted
15850 his attention, made a gesture of refusal with his head and hand and by
15851 that gesture Rostov instantly recognized his lamented and adored
15854 "But it can't be he, alone in the midst of this empty field!" thought
15855 Rostov. At that moment Alexander turned his head and Rostov saw the
15856 beloved features that were so deeply engraved on his memory. The Emperor
15857 was pale, his cheeks sunken and his eyes hollow, but the charm, the
15858 mildness of his features, was all the greater. Rostov was happy in the
15859 assurance that the rumors about the Emperor being wounded were false. He
15860 was happy to be seeing him. He knew that he might and even ought to go
15861 straight to him and give the message Dolgorukov had ordered him to
15864 But as a youth in love trembles, is unnerved, and dares not utter the
15865 thoughts he has dreamed of for nights, but looks around for help or a
15866 chance of delay and flight when the longed-for moment comes and he is
15867 alone with her, so Rostov, now that he had attained what he had longed
15868 for more than anything else in the world, did not know how to approach
15869 the Emperor, and a thousand reasons occurred to him why it would be
15870 inconvenient, unseemly, and impossible to do so.
15872 "What! It is as if I were glad of a chance to take advantage of his
15873 being alone and despondent! A strange face may seem unpleasant or
15874 painful to him at this moment of sorrow; besides, what can I say to him
15875 now, when my heart fails me and my mouth feels dry at the mere sight of
15876 him?" Not one of the innumerable speeches addressed to the Emperor that
15877 he had composed in his imagination could he now recall. Those speeches
15878 were intended for quite other conditions, they were for the most part to
15879 be spoken at a moment of victory and triumph, generally when he was
15880 dying of wounds and the sovereign had thanked him for heroic deeds, and
15881 while dying he expressed the love his actions had proved.
15883 "Besides how can I ask the Emperor for his instructions for the right
15884 flank now that it is nearly four o'clock and the battle is lost? No,
15885 certainly I must not approach him, I must not intrude on his
15886 reflections. Better die a thousand times than risk receiving an unkind
15887 look or bad opinion from him," Rostov decided; and sorrowfully and with
15888 a heart full despair he rode away, continually looking back at the Tsar,
15889 who still remained in the same attitude of indecision.
15891 While Rostov was thus arguing with himself and riding sadly away,
15892 Captain von Toll chanced to ride to the same spot, and seeing the
15893 Emperor at once rode up to him, offered his services, and assisted him
15894 to cross the ditch on foot. The Emperor, wishing to rest and feeling
15895 unwell, sat down under an apple tree and von Toll remained beside him.
15896 Rostov from a distance saw with envy and remorse how von Toll spoke long
15897 and warmly to the Emperor and how the Emperor, evidently weeping,
15898 covered his eyes with his hand and pressed von Toll's hand.
15900 "And I might have been in his place!" thought Rostov, and hardly
15901 restraining his tears of pity for the Emperor, he rode on in utter
15902 despair, not knowing where to or why he was now riding.
15904 His despair was all the greater from feeling that his own weakness was
15905 the cause of his grief.
15907 He might... not only might but should, have gone up to the sovereign. It
15908 was a unique chance to show his devotion to the Emperor and he had not
15909 made use of it.... "What have I done?" thought he. And he turned round
15910 and galloped back to the place where he had seen the Emperor, but there
15911 was no one beyond the ditch now. Only some carts and carriages were
15912 passing by. From one of the drivers he learned that Kutuzov's staff were
15913 not far off, in the village the vehicles were going to. Rostov followed
15914 them. In front of him walked Kutuzov's groom leading horses in
15915 horsecloths. Then came a cart, and behind that walked an old, bandy-
15916 legged domestic serf in a peaked cap and sheepskin coat.
15918 "Tit! I say, Tit!" said the groom.
15920 "What?" answered the old man absent-mindedly.
15922 "Go, Tit! Thresh a bit!"
15924 "Oh, you fool!" said the old man, spitting angrily. Some time passed in
15925 silence, and then the same joke was repeated.
15927 Before five in the evening the battle had been lost at all points. More
15928 than a hundred cannon were already in the hands of the French.
15930 Przebyszewski and his corps had laid down their arms. Other columns
15931 after losing half their men were retreating in disorderly confused
15934 The remains of Langeron's and Dokhturov's mingled forces were crowding
15935 around the dams and banks of the ponds near the village of Augesd.
15937 After five o'clock it was only at the Augesd Dam that a hot cannonade
15938 (delivered by the French alone) was still to be heard from numerous
15939 batteries ranged on the slopes of the Pratzen Heights, directed at our
15942 In the rearguard, Dokhturov and others rallying some battalions kept up
15943 a musketry fire at the French cavalry that was pursuing our troops. It
15944 was growing dusk. On the narrow Augesd Dam where for so many years the
15945 old miller had been accustomed to sit in his tasseled cap peacefully
15946 angling, while his grandson, with shirt sleeves rolled up, handled the
15947 floundering silvery fish in the watering can, on that dam over which for
15948 so many years Moravians in shaggy caps and blue jackets had peacefully
15949 driven their two-horse carts loaded with wheat and had returned dusty
15950 with flour whitening their carts--on that narrow dam amid the wagons and
15951 the cannon, under the horses' hoofs and between the wagon wheels, men
15952 disfigured by fear of death now crowded together, crushing one another,
15953 dying, stepping over the dying and killing one another, only to move on
15954 a few steps and be killed themselves in the same way.
15956 Every ten seconds a cannon ball flew compressing the air around, or a
15957 shell burst in the midst of that dense throng, killing some and
15958 splashing with blood those near them.
15960 Dolokhov--now an officer--wounded in the arm, and on foot, with the
15961 regimental commander on horseback and some ten men of his company,
15962 represented all that was left of that whole regiment. Impelled by the
15963 crowd, they had got wedged in at the approach to the dam and, jammed in
15964 on all sides, had stopped because a horse in front had fallen under a
15965 cannon and the crowd were dragging it out. A cannon ball killed someone
15966 behind them, another fell in front and splashed Dolokhov with blood. The
15967 crowd, pushing forward desperately, squeezed together, moved a few
15968 steps, and again stopped.
15970 "Move on a hundred yards and we are certainly saved, remain here another
15971 two minutes and it is certain death," thought each one.
15973 Dolokhov who was in the midst of the crowd forced his way to the edge of
15974 the dam, throwing two soldiers off their feet, and ran onto the slippery
15975 ice that covered the millpool.
15977 "Turn this way!" he shouted, jumping over the ice which creaked under
15978 him; "turn this way!" he shouted to those with the gun. "It bears!..."
15980 The ice bore him but it swayed and creaked, and it was plain that it
15981 would give way not only under a cannon or a crowd, but very soon even
15982 under his weight alone. The men looked at him and pressed to the bank,
15983 hesitating to step onto the ice. The general on horseback at the
15984 entrance to the dam raised his hand and opened his mouth to address
15985 Dolokhov. Suddenly a cannon ball hissed so low above the crowd that
15986 everyone ducked. It flopped into something moist, and the general fell
15987 from his horse in a pool of blood. Nobody gave him a look or thought of
15990 "Get onto the ice, over the ice! Go on! Turn! Don't you hear? Go on!"
15991 innumerable voices suddenly shouted after the ball had struck the
15992 general, the men themselves not knowing what, or why, they were
15995 One of the hindmost guns that was going onto the dam turned off onto the
15996 ice. Crowds of soldiers from the dam began running onto the frozen pond.
15997 The ice gave way under one of the foremost soldiers, and one leg slipped
15998 into the water. He tried to right himself but fell in up to his waist.
15999 The nearest soldiers shrank back, the gun driver stopped his horse, but
16000 from behind still came the shouts: "Onto the ice, why do you stop? Go
16001 on! Go on!" And cries of horror were heard in the crowd. The soldiers
16002 near the gun waved their arms and beat the horses to make them turn and
16003 move on. The horses moved off the bank. The ice, that had held under
16004 those on foot, collapsed in a great mass, and some forty men who were on
16005 it dashed, some forward and some back, drowning one another.
16007 Still the cannon balls continued regularly to whistle and flop onto the
16008 ice and into the water and oftenest of all among the crowd that covered
16009 the dam, the pond, and the bank.
16016 On the Pratzen Heights, where he had fallen with the flagstaff in his
16017 hand, lay Prince Andrew Bolkonski bleeding profusely and unconsciously
16018 uttering a gentle, piteous, and childlike moan.
16020 Toward evening he ceased moaning and became quite still. He did not know
16021 how long his unconsciousness lasted. Suddenly he again felt that he was
16022 alive and suffering from a burning, lacerating pain in his head.
16024 "Where is it, that lofty sky that I did not know till now, but saw
16025 today?" was his first thought. "And I did not know this suffering
16026 either," he thought. "Yes, I did not know anything, anything at all till
16027 now. But where am I?"
16029 He listened and heard the sound of approaching horses, and voices
16030 speaking French. He opened his eyes. Above him again was the same lofty
16031 sky with clouds that had risen and were floating still higher, and
16032 between them gleamed blue infinity. He did not turn his head and did not
16033 see those who, judging by the sound of hoofs and voices, had ridden up
16034 and stopped near him.
16036 It was Napoleon accompanied by two aides-de-camp. Bonaparte riding over
16037 the battlefield had given final orders to strengthen the batteries
16038 firing at the Augesd Dam and was looking at the killed and wounded left
16041 "Fine men!" remarked Napoleon, looking at a dead Russian grenadier, who,
16042 with his face buried in the ground and a blackened nape, lay on his
16043 stomach with an already stiffened arm flung wide.
16045 "The ammunition for the guns in position is exhausted, Your Majesty,"
16046 said an adjutant who had come from the batteries that were firing at
16049 "Have some brought from the reserve," said Napoleon, and having gone on
16050 a few steps he stopped before Prince Andrew, who lay on his back with
16051 the flagstaff that had been dropped beside him. (The flag had already
16052 been taken by the French as a trophy.)
16054 "That's a fine death!" said Napoleon as he gazed at Bolkonski.
16056 Prince Andrew understood that this was said of him and that it was
16057 Napoleon who said it. He heard the speaker addressed as Sire. But he
16058 heard the words as he might have heard the buzzing of a fly. Not only
16059 did they not interest him, but he took no notice of them and at once
16060 forgot them. His head was burning, he felt himself bleeding to death,
16061 and he saw above him the remote, lofty, and everlasting sky. He knew it
16062 was Napoleon--his hero--but at that moment Napoleon seemed to him such a
16063 small, insignificant creature compared with what was passing now between
16064 himself and that lofty infinite sky with the clouds flying over it. At
16065 that moment it meant nothing to him who might be standing over him, or
16066 what was said of him; he was only glad that people were standing near
16067 him and only wished that they would help him and bring him back to life,
16068 which seemed to him so beautiful now that he had today learned to
16069 understand it so differently. He collected all his strength, to stir and
16070 utter a sound. He feebly moved his leg and uttered a weak, sickly groan
16071 which aroused his own pity.
16073 "Ah! He is alive," said Napoleon. "Lift this young man up and carry him
16074 to the dressing station."
16076 Having said this, Napoleon rode on to meet Marshal Lannes, who, hat in
16077 hand, rode up smiling to the Emperor to congratulate him on the victory.
16079 Prince Andrew remembered nothing more: he lost consciousness from the
16080 terrible pain of being lifted onto the stretcher, the jolting while
16081 being moved, and the probing of his wound at the dressing station. He
16082 did not regain consciousness till late in the day, when with other
16083 wounded and captured Russian officers he was carried to the hospital.
16084 During this transfer he felt a little stronger and was able to look
16085 about him and even speak.
16087 The first words he heard on coming to his senses were those of a French
16088 convoy officer, who said rapidly: "We must halt here: the Emperor will
16089 pass here immediately; it will please him to see these gentlemen
16092 "There are so many prisoners today, nearly the whole Russian army, that
16093 he is probably tired of them," said another officer.
16095 "All the same! They say this one is the commander of all the Emperor
16096 Alexander's Guards," said the first one, indicating a Russian officer in
16097 the white uniform of the Horse Guards.
16099 Bolkonski recognized Prince Repnin whom he had met in Petersburg
16100 society. Beside him stood a lad of nineteen, also a wounded officer of
16103 Bonaparte, having come up at a gallop, stopped his horse.
16105 "Which is the senior?" he asked, on seeing the prisoners.
16107 They named the colonel, Prince Repnin.
16109 "You are the commander of the Emperor Alexander's regiment of Horse
16110 Guards?" asked Napoleon.
16112 "I commanded a squadron," replied Repnin.
16114 "Your regiment fulfilled its duty honorably," said Napoleon.
16116 "The praise of a great commander is a soldier's highest reward," said
16119 "I bestow it with pleasure," said Napoleon. "And who is that young man
16122 Prince Repnin named Lieutenant Sukhtelen.
16124 After looking at him Napoleon smiled.
16126 "He's very young to come to meddle with us."
16128 "Youth is no hindrance to courage," muttered Sukhtelen in a failing
16131 "A splendid reply!" said Napoleon. "Young man, you will go far!"
16133 Prince Andrew, who had also been brought forward before the Emperor's
16134 eyes to complete the show of prisoners, could not fail to attract his
16135 attention. Napoleon apparently remembered seeing him on the battlefield
16136 and, addressing him, again used the epithet "young man" that was
16137 connected in his memory with Prince Andrew.
16139 "Well, and you, young man," said he. "How do you feel, mon brave?"
16141 Though five minutes before, Prince Andrew had been able to say a few
16142 words to the soldiers who were carrying him, now with his eyes fixed
16143 straight on Napoleon, he was silent.... So insignificant at that moment
16144 seemed to him all the interests that engrossed Napoleon, so mean did his
16145 hero himself with his paltry vanity and joy in victory appear, compared
16146 to the lofty, equitable, and kindly sky which he had seen and
16147 understood, that he could not answer him.
16149 Everything seemed so futile and insignificant in comparison with the
16150 stern and solemn train of thought that weakness from loss of blood,
16151 suffering, and the nearness of death aroused in him. Looking into
16152 Napoleon's eyes Prince Andrew thought of the insignificance of
16153 greatness, the unimportance of life which no one could understand, and
16154 the still greater unimportance of death, the meaning of which no one
16155 alive could understand or explain.
16157 The Emperor without waiting for an answer turned away and said to one of
16158 the officers as he went: "Have these gentlemen attended to and taken to
16159 my bivouac; let my doctor, Larrey, examine their wounds. Au revoir,
16160 Prince Repnin!" and he spurred his horse and galloped away.
16162 His face shone with self-satisfaction and pleasure.
16164 The soldiers who had carried Prince Andrew had noticed and taken the
16165 little gold icon Princess Mary had hung round her brother's neck, but
16166 seeing the favor the Emperor showed the prisoners, they now hastened to
16167 return the holy image.
16169 Prince Andrew did not see how and by whom it was replaced, but the
16170 little icon with its thin gold chain suddenly appeared upon his chest
16171 outside his uniform.
16173 "It would be good," thought Prince Andrew, glancing at the icon his
16174 sister had hung round his neck with such emotion and reverence, "it
16175 would be good if everything were as clear and simple as it seems to
16176 Mary. How good it would be to know where to seek for help in this life,
16177 and what to expect after it beyond the grave! How happy and calm I
16178 should be if I could now say: 'Lord, have mercy on me!'... But to whom
16179 should I say that? Either to a Power indefinable, incomprehensible,
16180 which I not only cannot address but which I cannot even express in
16181 words--the Great All or Nothing-" said he to himself, "or to that God
16182 who has been sewn into this amulet by Mary! There is nothing certain,
16183 nothing at all except the unimportance of everything I understand, and
16184 the greatness of something incomprehensible but all-important."
16186 The stretchers moved on. At every jolt he again felt unendurable pain;
16187 his feverishness increased and he grew delirious. Visions of his father,
16188 wife, sister, and future son, and the tenderness he had felt the night
16189 before the battle, the figure of the insignificant little Napoleon, and
16190 above all this the lofty sky, formed the chief subjects of his delirious
16193 The quiet home life and peaceful happiness of Bald Hills presented
16194 itself to him. He was already enjoying that happiness when that little
16195 Napoleon had suddenly appeared with his unsympathizing look of
16196 shortsighted delight at the misery of others, and doubts and torments
16197 had followed, and only the heavens promised peace. Toward morning all
16198 these dreams melted and merged into the chaos and darkness of
16199 unconciousness and oblivion which in the opinion of Napoleon's doctor,
16200 Larrey, was much more likely to end in death than in convalescence.
16202 "He is a nervous, bilious subject," said Larrey, "and will not recover."
16204 And Prince Andrew, with others fatally wounded, was left to the care of
16205 the inhabitants of the district.
16214 Early in the year 1806 Nicholas Rostov returned home on leave. Denisov
16215 was going home to Voronezh and Rostov persuaded him to travel with him
16216 as far as Moscow and to stay with him there. Meeting a comrade at the
16217 last post station but one before Moscow, Denisov had drunk three bottles
16218 of wine with him and, despite the jolting ruts across the snow-covered
16219 road, did not once wake up on the way to Moscow, but lay at the bottom
16220 of the sleigh beside Rostov, who grew more and more impatient the nearer
16221 they got to Moscow.
16223 "How much longer? How much longer? Oh, these insufferable streets,
16224 shops, bakers' signboards, street lamps, and sleighs!" thought Rostov,
16225 when their leave permits had been passed at the town gate and they had
16228 "Denisov! We're here! He's asleep," he added, leaning forward with his
16229 whole body as if in that position he hoped to hasten the speed of the
16232 Denisov gave no answer.
16234 "There's the corner at the crossroads, where the cabman, Zakhar, has his
16235 stand, and there's Zakhar himself and still the same horse! And here's
16236 the little shop where we used to buy gingerbread! Can't you hurry up?
16239 "Which house is it?" asked the driver.
16241 "Why, that one, right at the end, the big one. Don't you see? That's our
16242 house," said Rostov. "Of course, it's our house! Denisov, Denisov! We're
16245 Denisov raised his head, coughed, and made no answer.
16247 "Dmitri," said Rostov to his valet on the box, "those lights are in our
16248 house, aren't they?"
16250 "Yes, sir, and there's a light in your father's study."
16252 "Then they've not gone to bed yet? What do you think? Mind now, don't
16253 forget to put out my new coat," added Rostov, fingering his new
16254 mustache. "Now then, get on," he shouted to the driver. "Do wake up,
16255 Vaska!" he went on, turning to Denisov, whose head was again nodding.
16256 "Come, get on! You shall have three rubles for vodka--get on!" Rostov
16257 shouted, when the sleigh was only three houses from his door. It seemed
16258 to him the horses were not moving at all. At last the sleigh bore to the
16259 right, drew up at an entrance, and Rostov saw overhead the old familiar
16260 cornice with a bit of plaster broken off, the porch, and the post by the
16261 side of the pavement. He sprang out before the sleigh stopped, and ran
16262 into the hall. The house stood cold and silent, as if quite regardless
16263 of who had come to it. There was no one in the hall. "Oh God! Is
16264 everyone all right?" he thought, stopping for a moment with a sinking
16265 heart, and then immediately starting to run along the hall and up the
16266 warped steps of the familiar staircase. The well-known old door handle,
16267 which always angered the countess when it was not properly cleaned,
16268 turned as loosely as ever. A solitary tallow candle burned in the
16271 Old Michael was asleep on the chest. Prokofy, the footman, who was so
16272 strong that he could lift the back of the carriage from behind, sat
16273 plaiting slippers out of cloth selvedges. He looked up at the opening
16274 door and his expression of sleepy indifference suddenly changed to one
16275 of delighted amazement.
16277 "Gracious heavens! The young count!" he cried, recognizing his young
16278 master. "Can it be? My treasure!" and Prokofy, trembling with
16279 excitement, rushed toward the drawing-room door, probably in order to
16280 announce him, but, changing his mind, came back and stooped to kiss the
16281 young man's shoulder.
16283 "All well?" asked Rostov, drawing away his arm.
16285 "Yes, God be thanked! Yes! They've just finished supper. Let me have a
16286 look at you, your excellency."
16288 "Is everything quite all right?"
16290 "The Lord be thanked, yes!"
16292 Rostov, who had completely forgotten Denisov, not wishing anyone to
16293 forestall him, threw off his fur coat and ran on tiptoe through the
16294 large dark ballroom. All was the same: there were the same old card
16295 tables and the same chandelier with a cover over it; but someone had
16296 already seen the young master, and, before he had reached the drawing
16297 room, something flew out from a side door like a tornado and began
16298 hugging and kissing him. Another and yet another creature of the same
16299 kind sprang from a second door and a third; more hugging, more kissing,
16300 more outcries, and tears of joy. He could not distinguish which was
16301 Papa, which Natasha, and which Petya. Everyone shouted, talked, and
16302 kissed him at the same time. Only his mother was not there, he noticed
16305 "And I did not know... Nicholas... My darling!..."
16307 "Here he is... our own... Kolya, * dear fellow... How he has changed!...
16308 Where are the candles?... Tea!..."
16315 "Dearest... and me!"
16317 Sonya, Natasha, Petya, Anna Mikhaylovna, Vera, and the old count were
16318 all hugging him, and the serfs, men and maids, flocked into the room,
16319 exclaiming and oh-ing and ah-ing.
16321 Petya, clinging to his legs, kept shouting, "And me too!"
16323 Natasha, after she had pulled him down toward her and covered his face
16324 with kisses, holding him tight by the skirt of his coat, sprang away and
16325 pranced up and down in one place like a goat and shrieked piercingly.
16327 All around were loving eyes glistening with tears of joy, and all around
16328 were lips seeking a kiss.
16330 Sonya too, all rosy red, clung to his arm and, radiant with bliss,
16331 looked eagerly toward his eyes, waiting for the look for which she
16332 longed. Sonya now was sixteen and she was very pretty, especially at
16333 this moment of happy, rapturous excitement. She gazed at him, not taking
16334 her eyes off him, and smiling and holding her breath. He gave her a
16335 grateful look, but was still expectant and looking for someone. The old
16336 countess had not yet come. But now steps were heard at the door, steps
16337 so rapid that they could hardly be his mother's.
16339 Yet it was she, dressed in a new gown which he did not know, made since
16340 he had left. All the others let him go, and he ran to her. When they
16341 met, she fell on his breast, sobbing. She could not lift her face, but
16342 only pressed it to the cold braiding of his hussar's jacket. Denisov,
16343 who had come into the room unnoticed by anyone, stood there and wiped
16344 his eyes at the sight.
16346 "Vasili Denisov, your son's friend," he said, introducing himself to the
16347 count, who was looking inquiringly at him.
16349 "You are most welcome! I know, I know," said the count, kissing and
16350 embracing Denisov. "Nicholas wrote us... Natasha, Vera, look! Here is
16353 The same happy, rapturous faces turned to the shaggy figure of Denisov.
16355 "Darling Denisov!" screamed Natasha, beside herself with rapture,
16356 springing to him, putting her arms round him, and kissing him. This
16357 escapade made everybody feel confused. Denisov blushed too, but smiled
16358 and, taking Natasha's hand, kissed it.
16360 Denisov was shown to the room prepared for him, and the Rostovs all
16361 gathered round Nicholas in the sitting room.
16363 The old countess, not letting go of his hand and kissing it every
16364 moment, sat beside him: the rest, crowding round him, watched every
16365 movement, word, or look of his, never taking their blissfully adoring
16366 eyes off him. His brother and sisters struggled for the places nearest
16367 to him and disputed with one another who should bring him his tea,
16368 handkerchief, and pipe.
16370 Rostov was very happy in the love they showed him; but the first moment
16371 of meeting had been so beatific that his present joy seemed
16372 insufficient, and he kept expecting something more, more and yet more.
16374 Next morning, after the fatigues of their journey, the travelers slept
16377 In the room next their bedroom there was a confusion of sabers,
16378 satchels, sabretaches, open portmanteaus, and dirty boots. Two freshly
16379 cleaned pairs with spurs had just been placed by the wall. The servants
16380 were bringing in jugs and basins, hot water for shaving, and their well-
16381 brushed clothes. There was a masculine odor and a smell of tobacco.
16383 "Hallo, Gwiska--my pipe!" came Vasili Denisov's husky voice. "Wostov,
16386 Rostov, rubbing his eyes that seemed glued together, raised his
16387 disheveled head from the hot pillow.
16391 "Late! It's nearly ten o'clock," answered Natasha's voice. A rustle of
16392 starched petticoats and the whispering and laughter of girls' voices
16393 came from the adjoining room. The door was opened a crack and there was
16394 a glimpse of something blue, of ribbons, black hair, and merry faces. It
16395 was Natasha, Sonya, and Petya, who had come to see whether they were
16398 "Nicholas! Get up!" Natasha's voice was again heard at the door.
16402 Meanwhile, Petya, having found and seized the sabers in the outer room,
16403 with the delight boys feel at the sight of a military elder brother, and
16404 forgetting that it was unbecoming for the girls to see men undressed,
16405 opened the bedroom door.
16407 "Is this your saber?" he shouted.
16409 The girls sprang aside. Denisov hid his hairy legs under the blanket,
16410 looking with a scared face at his comrade for help. The door, having let
16411 Petya in, closed again. A sound of laughter came from behind it.
16413 "Nicholas! Come out in your dressing gown!" said Natasha's voice.
16415 "Is this your saber?" asked Petya. "Or is it yours?" he said, addressing
16416 the black-mustached Denisov with servile deference.
16418 Rostov hurriedly put something on his feet, drew on his dressing gown,
16419 and went out. Natasha had put on one spurred boot and was just getting
16420 her foot into the other. Sonya, when he came in, was twirling round and
16421 was about to expand her dresses into a balloon and sit down. They were
16422 dressed alike, in new pale-blue frocks, and were both fresh, rosy, and
16423 bright. Sonya ran away, but Natasha, taking her brother's arm, led him
16424 into the sitting room, where they began talking. They hardly gave one
16425 another time to ask questions and give replies concerning a thousand
16426 little matters which could not interest anyone but themselves. Natasha
16427 laughed at every word he said or that she said herself, not because what
16428 they were saying was amusing, but because she felt happy and was unable
16429 to control her joy which expressed itself by laughter.
16431 "Oh, how nice, how splendid!" she said to everything.
16433 Rostov felt that, under the influence of the warm rays of love, that
16434 childlike smile which had not once appeared on his face since he left
16435 home now for the first time after eighteen months again brightened his
16438 "No, but listen," she said, "now you are quite a man, aren't you? I'm
16439 awfully glad you're my brother." She touched his mustache. "I want to
16440 know what you men are like. Are you the same as we? No?"
16442 "Why did Sonya run away?" asked Rostov.
16444 "Ah, yes! That's a whole long story! How are you going to speak to her--
16447 "As may happen," said Rostov.
16449 "No, call her you, please! I'll tell you all about it some other time.
16450 No, I'll tell you now. You know Sonya's my dearest friend. Such a friend
16451 that I burned my arm for her sake. Look here!"
16453 She pulled up her muslin sleeve and showed him a red scar on her long,
16454 slender, delicate arm, high above the elbow on that part that is covered
16455 even by a ball dress.
16457 "I burned this to prove my love for her. I just heated a ruler in the
16458 fire and pressed it there!"
16460 Sitting on the sofa with the little cushions on its arms, in what used
16461 to be his old schoolroom, and looking into Natasha's wildly bright eyes,
16462 Rostov re-entered that world of home and childhood which had no meaning
16463 for anyone else, but gave him some of the best joys of his life; and the
16464 burning of an arm with a ruler as a proof of love did not seem to him
16465 senseless, he understood and was not surprised at it.
16467 "Well, and is that all?" he asked.
16469 "We are such friends, such friends! All that ruler business was just
16470 nonsense, but we are friends forever. She, if she loves anyone, does it
16471 for life, but I don't understand that, I forget quickly."
16475 "Well, she loves me and you like that."
16477 Natasha suddenly flushed.
16479 "Why, you remember before you went away?... Well, she says you are to
16480 forget all that.... She says: 'I shall love him always, but let him be
16481 free.' Isn't that lovely and noble! Yes, very noble? Isn't it?" asked
16482 Natasha, so seriously and excitedly that it was evident that what she
16483 was now saying she had talked of before, with tears.
16485 Rostov became thoughtful.
16487 "I never go back on my word," he said. "Besides, Sonya is so charming
16488 that only a fool would renounce such happiness."
16490 "No, no!" cried Natasha, "she and I have already talked it over. We knew
16491 you'd say so. But it won't do, because you see, if you say that--if you
16492 consider yourself bound by your promise--it will seem as if she had not
16493 meant it seriously. It makes it as if you were marrying her because you
16494 must, and that wouldn't do at all."
16496 Rostov saw that it had been well considered by them. Sonya had already
16497 struck him by her beauty on the preceding day. Today, when he had caught
16498 a glimpse of her, she seemed still more lovely. She was a charming girl
16499 of sixteen, evidently passionately in love with him (he did not doubt
16500 that for an instant). Why should he not love her now, and even marry
16501 her, Rostov thought, but just now there were so many other pleasures and
16502 interests before him! "Yes, they have taken a wise decision," he
16503 thought, "I must remain free."
16505 "Well then, that's excellent," said he. "We'll talk it over later on.
16506 Oh, how glad I am to have you!"
16508 "Well, and are you still true to Boris?" he continued.
16510 "Oh, what nonsense!" cried Natasha, laughing. "I don't think about him
16511 or anyone else, and I don't want anything of the kind."
16513 "Dear me! Then what are you up to now?"
16515 "Now?" repeated Natasha, and a happy smile lit up her face. "Have you
16520 "Not seen Duport--the famous dancer? Well then, you won't understand.
16521 That's what I'm up to."
16523 Curving her arms, Natasha held out her skirts as dancers do, ran back a
16524 few steps, turned, cut a caper, brought her little feet sharply
16525 together, and made some steps on the very tips of her toes.
16527 "See, I'm standing! See!" she said, but could not maintain herself on
16528 her toes any longer. "So that's what I'm up to! I'll never marry anyone,
16529 but will be a dancer. Only don't tell anyone."
16531 Rostov laughed so loud and merrily that Denisov, in his bedroom, felt
16532 envious and Natasha could not help joining in.
16534 "No, but don't you think it's nice?" she kept repeating.
16536 "Nice! And so you no longer wish to marry Boris?"
16538 Natasha flared up. "I don't want to marry anyone. And I'll tell him so
16541 "Dear me!" said Rostov.
16543 "But that's all rubbish," Natasha chattered on. "And is Denisov nice?"
16548 "Oh, well then, good-by: go and dress. Is he very terrible, Denisov?"
16550 "Why terrible?" asked Nicholas. "No, Vaska is a splendid fellow."
16552 "You call him Vaska? That's funny! And is he very nice?"
16556 "Well then, be quick. We'll all have breakfast together."
16558 And Natasha rose and went out of the room on tiptoe, like a ballet
16559 dancer, but smiling as only happy girls of fifteen can smile. When
16560 Rostov met Sonya in the drawing room, he reddened. He did not know how
16561 to behave with her. The evening before, in the first happy moment of
16562 meeting, they had kissed each other, but today they felt it could not be
16563 done; he felt that everybody, including his mother and sisters, was
16564 looking inquiringly at him and watching to see how he would behave with
16565 her. He kissed her hand and addressed her not as thou but as you--Sonya.
16566 But their eyes met and said thou, and exchanged tender kisses. Her looks
16567 asked him to forgive her for having dared, by Natasha's intermediacy, to
16568 remind him of his promise, and then thanked him for his love. His looks
16569 thanked her for offering him his freedom and told her that one way or
16570 another he would never cease to love her, for that would be impossible.
16572 "How strange it is," said Vera, selecting a moment when all were silent,
16573 "that Sonya and Nicholas now say you to one another and meet like
16576 Vera's remark was correct, as her remarks always were, but, like most of
16577 her observations, it made everyone feel uncomfortable, not only Sonya,
16578 Nicholas, and Natasha, but even the old countess, who--dreading this
16579 love affair which might hinder Nicholas from making a brilliant match--
16580 blushed like a girl.
16582 Denisov, to Rostov's surprise, appeared in the drawing room with pomaded
16583 hair, perfumed, and in a new uniform, looking just as smart as he made
16584 himself when going into battle, and he was more amiable to the ladies
16585 and gentlemen than Rostov had ever expected to see him.
16592 On his return to Moscow from the army, Nicholas Rostov was welcomed by
16593 his home circle as the best of sons, a hero, and their darling
16594 Nikolenka; by his relations as a charming, attractive, and polite young
16595 man; by his acquaintances as a handsome lieutenant of hussars, a good
16596 dancer, and one of the best matches in the city.
16598 The Rostovs knew everybody in Moscow. The old count had money enough
16599 that year, as all his estates had been remortgaged, and so Nicholas,
16600 acquiring a trotter of his own, very stylish riding breeches of the
16601 latest cut, such as no one else yet had in Moscow, and boots of the
16602 latest fashion, with extremely pointed toes and small silver spurs,
16603 passed his time very gaily. After a short period of adapting himself to
16604 the old conditions of life, Nicholas found it very pleasant to be at
16605 home again. He felt that he had grown up and matured very much. His
16606 despair at failing in a Scripture examination, his borrowing money from
16607 Gavril to pay a sleigh driver, his kissing Sonya on the sly--he now
16608 recalled all this as childishness he had left immeasurably behind. Now
16609 he was a lieutenant of hussars, in a jacket laced with silver, and
16610 wearing the Cross of St. George, awarded to soldiers for bravery in
16611 action, and in the company of well-known, elderly, and respected racing
16612 men was training a trotter of his own for a race. He knew a lady on one
16613 of the boulevards whom he visited of an evening. He led the mazurka at
16614 the Arkharovs' ball, talked about the war with Field Marshal Kamenski,
16615 visited the English Club, and was on intimate terms with a colonel of
16616 forty to whom Denisov had introduced him.
16618 His passion for the Emperor had cooled somewhat in Moscow. But still, as
16619 he did not see him and had no opportunity of seeing him, he often spoke
16620 about him and about his love for him, letting it be understood that he
16621 had not told all and that there was something in his feelings for the
16622 Emperor not everyone could understand, and with his whole soul he shared
16623 the adoration then common in Moscow for the Emperor, who was spoken of
16624 as the "angel incarnate."
16626 During Rostov's short stay in Moscow, before rejoining the army, he did
16627 not draw closer to Sonya, but rather drifted away from her. She was very
16628 pretty and sweet, and evidently deeply in love with him, but he was at
16629 the period of youth when there seems so much to do that there is no time
16630 for that sort of thing and a young man fears to bind himself and prizes
16631 his freedom which he needs for so many other things. When he thought of
16632 Sonya, during this stay in Moscow, he said to himself, "Ah, there will
16633 be, and there are, many more such girls somewhere whom I do not yet
16634 know. There will be time enough to think about love when I want to, but
16635 now I have no time." Besides, it seemed to him that the society of women
16636 was rather derogatory to his manhood. He went to balls and into ladies'
16637 society with an affectation of doing so against his will. The races, the
16638 English Club, sprees with Denisov, and visits to a certain house--that
16639 was another matter and quite the thing for a dashing young hussar!
16641 At the beginning of March, old Count Ilya Rostov was very busy arranging
16642 a dinner in honor of Prince Bagration at the English Club.
16644 The count walked up and down the hall in his dressing gown, giving
16645 orders to the club steward and to the famous Feoktist, the club's head
16646 cook, about asparagus, fresh cucumbers, strawberries, veal, and fish for
16647 this dinner. The count had been a member and on the committee of the
16648 club from the day it was founded. To him the club entrusted the
16649 arrangement of the festival in honor of Bagration, for few men knew so
16650 well how to arrange a feast on an open-handed, hospitable scale, and
16651 still fewer men would be so well able and willing to make up out of
16652 their own resources what might be needed for the success of the fete.
16653 The club cook and the steward listened to the count's orders with
16654 pleased faces, for they knew that under no other management could they
16655 so easily extract a good profit for themselves from a dinner costing
16656 several thousand rubles.
16658 "Well then, mind and have cocks' comb in the turtle soup, you know!"
16660 "Shall we have three cold dishes then?" asked the cook.
16662 The count considered.
16664 "We can't have less--yes, three... the mayonnaise, that's one," said he,
16665 bending down a finger.
16667 "Then am I to order those large sterlets?" asked the steward.
16669 "Yes, it can't be helped if they won't take less. Ah, dear me! I was
16670 forgetting. We must have another entree. Ah, goodness gracious!" he
16671 clutched at his head. "Who is going to get me the flowers? Dmitri! Eh,
16672 Dmitri! Gallop off to our Moscow estate," he said to the factotum who
16673 appeared at his call. "Hurry off and tell Maksim, the gardener, to set
16674 the serfs to work. Say that everything out of the hothouses must be
16675 brought here well wrapped up in felt. I must have two hundred pots here
16678 Having given several more orders, he was about to go to his "little
16679 countess" to have a rest, but remembering something else of importance,
16680 he returned again, called back the cook and the club steward, and again
16681 began giving orders. A light footstep and the clinking of spurs were
16682 heard at the door, and the young count, handsome, rosy, with a dark
16683 little mustache, evidently rested and made sleeker by his easy life in
16684 Moscow, entered the room.
16686 "Ah, my boy, my head's in a whirl!" said the old man with a smile, as if
16687 he felt a little confused before his son. "Now, if you would only help a
16688 bit! I must have singers too. I shall have my own orchestra, but
16689 shouldn't we get the gypsy singers as well? You military men like that
16692 "Really, Papa, I believe Prince Bagration worried himself less before
16693 the battle of Schon Grabern than you do now," said his son with a smile.
16695 The old count pretended to be angry.
16697 "Yes, you talk, but try it yourself!"
16699 And the count turned to the cook, who, with a shrewd and respectful
16700 expression, looked observantly and sympathetically at the father and
16703 "What have the young people come to nowadays, eh, Feoktist?" said he.
16704 "Laughing at us old fellows!"
16706 "That's so, your excellency, all they have to do is to eat a good
16707 dinner, but providing it and serving it all up, that's not their
16710 "That's it, that's it!" exclaimed the count, and gaily seizing his son
16711 by both hands, he cried, "Now I've got you, so take the sleigh and pair
16712 at once, and go to Bezukhov's, and tell him 'Count Ilya has sent you to
16713 ask for strawberries and fresh pineapples.' We can't get them from
16714 anyone else. He's not there himself, so you'll have to go in and ask the
16715 princesses; and from there go on to the Rasgulyay--the coachman Ipatka
16716 knows--and look up the gypsy Ilyushka, the one who danced at Count
16717 Orlov's, you remember, in a white Cossack coat, and bring him along to
16720 "And am I to bring the gypsy girls along with him?" asked Nicholas,
16721 laughing. "Dear, dear!..."
16723 At that moment, with noiseless footsteps and with the businesslike,
16724 preoccupied, yet meekly Christian look which never left her face, Anna
16725 Mikhaylovna entered the hall. Though she came upon the count in his
16726 dressing gown every day, he invariably became confused and begged her to
16727 excuse his costume.
16729 "No matter at all, my dear count," she said, meekly closing her eyes.
16730 "But I'll go to Bezukhov's myself. Pierre has arrived, and now we shall
16731 get anything we want from his hothouses. I have to see him in any case.
16732 He has forwarded me a letter from Boris. Thank God, Boris is now on the
16735 The count was delighted at Anna Mikhaylovna's taking upon herself one of
16736 his commissions and ordered the small closed carriage for her.
16738 "Tell Bezukhov to come. I'll put his name down. Is his wife with him?"
16741 Anna Mikhaylovna turned up her eyes, and profound sadness was depicted
16744 "Ah, my dear friend, he is very unfortunate," she said. "If what we hear
16745 is true, it is dreadful. How little we dreamed of such a thing when we
16746 were rejoicing at his happiness! And such a lofty angelic soul as young
16747 Bezukhov! Yes, I pity him from my heart, and shall try to give him what
16748 consolation I can."
16750 "Wh-what is the matter?" asked both the young and old Rostov.
16752 Anna Mikhaylovna sighed deeply.
16754 "Dolokhov, Mary Ivanovna's son," she said in a mysterious whisper, "has
16755 compromised her completely, they say. Pierre took him up, invited him to
16756 his house in Petersburg, and now... she has come here and that daredevil
16757 after her!" said Anna Mikhaylovna, wishing to show her sympathy for
16758 Pierre, but by involuntary intonations and a half smile betraying her
16759 sympathy for the "daredevil," as she called Dolokhov. "They say Pierre
16760 is quite broken by his misfortune."
16762 "Dear, dear! But still tell him to come to the club--it will all blow
16763 over. It will be a tremendous banquet."
16765 Next day, the third of March, soon after one o'clock, two hundred and
16766 fifty members of the English Club and fifty guests were awaiting the
16767 guest of honor and hero of the Austrian campaign, Prince Bagration, to
16770 On the first arrival of the news of the battle of Austerlitz, Moscow had
16771 been bewildered. At that time, the Russians were so used to victories
16772 that on receiving news of the defeat some would simply not believe it,
16773 while others sought some extraordinary explanation of so strange an
16774 event. In the English Club, where all who were distinguished, important,
16775 and well informed foregathered when the news began to arrive in
16776 December, nothing was said about the war and the last battle, as though
16777 all were in a conspiracy of silence. The men who set the tone in
16778 conversation--Count Rostopchin, Prince Yuri Dolgorukov, Valuev, Count
16779 Markov, and Prince Vyazemski--did not show themselves at the club, but
16780 met in private houses in intimate circles, and the Moscovites who took
16781 their opinions from others--Ilya Rostov among them--remained for a while
16782 without any definite opinion on the subject of the war and without
16783 leaders. The Moscovites felt that something was wrong and that to
16784 discuss the bad news was difficult, and so it was best to be silent. But
16785 after a while, just as a jury comes out of its room, the bigwigs who
16786 guided the club's opinion reappeared, and everybody began speaking
16787 clearly and definitely. Reasons were found for the incredible, unheard-
16788 of, and impossible event of a Russian defeat, everything became clear,
16789 and in all corners of Moscow the same things began to be said. These
16790 reasons were the treachery of the Austrians, a defective commissariat,
16791 the treachery of the Pole Przebyszewski and of the Frenchman Langeron,
16792 Kutuzov's incapacity, and (it was whispered) the youth and inexperience
16793 of the sovereign, who had trusted worthless and insignificant people.
16794 But the army, the Russian army, everyone declared, was extraordinary and
16795 had achieved miracles of valor. The soldiers, officers, and generals
16796 were heroes. But the hero of heroes was Prince Bagration, distinguished
16797 by his Schon Grabern affair and by the retreat from Austerlitz, where he
16798 alone had withdrawn his column unbroken and had all day beaten back an
16799 enemy force twice as numerous as his own. What also conduced to
16800 Bagration's being selected as Moscow's hero was the fact that he had no
16801 connections in the city and was a stranger there. In his person, honor
16802 was shown to a simple fighting Russian soldier without connections and
16803 intrigues, and to one who was associated by memories of the Italian
16804 campaign with the name of Suvorov. Moreover, paying such honor to
16805 Bagration was the best way of expressing disapproval and dislike of
16808 "Had there been no Bagration, it would have been necessary to invent
16809 him," said the wit Shinshin, parodying the words of Voltaire. Kutuzov no
16810 one spoke of, except some who abused him in whispers, calling him a
16811 court weathercock and an old satyr.
16813 All Moscow repeated Prince Dolgorukov's saying: "If you go on modeling
16814 and modeling you must get smeared with clay," suggesting consolation for
16815 our defeat by the memory of former victories; and the words of
16816 Rostopchin, that French soldiers have to be incited to battle by
16817 highfalutin words, and Germans by logical arguments to show them that it
16818 is more dangerous to run away than to advance, but that Russian soldiers
16819 only need to be restrained and held back! On all sides, new and fresh
16820 anecdotes were heard of individual examples of heroism shown by our
16821 officers and men at Austerlitz. One had saved a standard, another had
16822 killed five Frenchmen, a third had loaded five cannon singlehanded. Berg
16823 was mentioned, by those who did not know him, as having, when wounded in
16824 the right hand, taken his sword in the left, and gone forward. Of
16825 Bolkonski, nothing was said, and only those who knew him intimately
16826 regretted that he had died so young, leaving a pregnant wife with his
16834 On that third of March, all the rooms in the English Club were filled
16835 with a hum of conversation, like the hum of bees swarming in springtime.
16836 The members and guests of the club wandered hither and thither, sat,
16837 stood, met, and separated, some in uniform and some in evening dress,
16838 and a few here and there with powdered hair and in Russian kaftans.
16839 Powdered footmen, in livery with buckled shoes and smart stockings,
16840 stood at every door anxiously noting visitors' every movement in order
16841 to offer their services. Most of those present were elderly, respected
16842 men with broad, self-confident faces, fat fingers, and resolute gestures
16843 and voices. This class of guests and members sat in certain habitual
16844 places and met in certain habitual groups. A minority of those present
16845 were casual guests--chiefly young men, among whom were Denisov, Rostov,
16846 and Dolokhov--who was now again an officer in the Semenov regiment. The
16847 faces of these young people, especially those who were military men,
16848 bore that expression of condescending respect for their elders which
16849 seems to say to the older generation, "We are prepared to respect and
16850 honor you, but all the same remember that the future belongs to us."
16852 Nesvitski was there as an old member of the club. Pierre, who at his
16853 wife's command had let his hair grow and abandoned his spectacles, went
16854 about the rooms fashionably dressed but looking sad and dull. Here, as
16855 elsewhere, he was surrounded by an atmosphere of subservience to his
16856 wealth, and being in the habit of lording it over these people, he
16857 treated them with absent-minded contempt.
16859 By his age he should have belonged to the younger men, but by his wealth
16860 and connections he belonged to the groups of old and honored guests, and
16861 so he went from one group to another. Some of the most important old men
16862 were the center of groups which even strangers approached respectfully
16863 to hear the voices of well-known men. The largest circles formed round
16864 Count Rostopchin, Valuev, and Naryshkin. Rostopchin was describing how
16865 the Russians had been overwhelmed by flying Austrians and had had to
16866 force their way through them with bayonets.
16868 Valuev was confidentially telling that Uvarov had been sent from
16869 Petersburg to ascertain what Moscow was thinking about Austerlitz.
16871 In the third circle, Naryshkin was speaking of the meeting of the
16872 Austrian Council of War at which Suvorov crowed like a cock in reply to
16873 the nonsense talked by the Austrian generals. Shinshin, standing close
16874 by, tried to make a joke, saying that Kutuzov had evidently failed to
16875 learn from Suvorov even so simple a thing as the art of crowing like a
16876 cock, but the elder members glanced severely at the wit, making him feel
16877 that in that place and on that day, it was improper to speak so of
16880 Count Ilya Rostov, hurried and preoccupied, went about in his soft boots
16881 between the dining and drawing rooms, hastily greeting the important and
16882 unimportant, all of whom he knew, as if they were all equals, while his
16883 eyes occasionally sought out his fine well-set-up young son, resting on
16884 him and winking joyfully at him. Young Rostov stood at a window with
16885 Dolokhov, whose acquaintance he had lately made and highly valued. The
16886 old count came up to them and pressed Dolokhov's hand.
16888 "Please come and visit us... you know my brave boy... been together out
16889 there... both playing the hero... Ah, Vasili Ignatovich... How d'ye do,
16890 old fellow?" he said, turning to an old man who was passing, but before
16891 he had finished his greeting there was a general stir, and a footman who
16892 had run in announced, with a frightened face: "He's arrived!"
16894 Bells rang, the stewards rushed forward, and--like rye shaken together
16895 in a shovel--the guests who had been scattered about in different rooms
16896 came together and crowded in the large drawing room by the door of the
16899 Bagration appeared in the doorway of the anteroom without hat or sword,
16900 which, in accord with the club custom, he had given up to the hall
16901 porter. He had no lambskin cap on his head, nor had he a loaded whip
16902 over his shoulder, as when Rostov had seen him on the eve of the battle
16903 of Austerlitz, but wore a tight new uniform with Russian and foreign
16904 Orders, and the Star of St. George on his left breast. Evidently just
16905 before coming to the dinner he had had his hair and whiskers trimmed,
16906 which changed his appearance for the worse. There was something naively
16907 festive in his air, which, in conjunction with his firm and virile
16908 features, gave him a rather comical expression. Bekleshev and Theodore
16909 Uvarov, who had arrived with him, paused at the doorway to allow him, as
16910 the guest of honor, to enter first. Bagration was embarrassed, not
16911 wishing to avail himself of their courtesy, and this caused some delay
16912 at the doors, but after all he did at last enter first. He walked shyly
16913 and awkwardly over the parquet floor of the reception room, not knowing
16914 what to do with his hands; he was more accustomed to walk over a plowed
16915 field under fire, as he had done at the head of the Kursk regiment at
16916 Schon Grabern--and he would have found that easier. The committeemen met
16917 him at the first door and, expressing their delight at seeing such a
16918 highly honored guest, took possession of him as it were, without waiting
16919 for his reply, surrounded him, and led him to the drawing room. It was
16920 at first impossible to enter the drawing-room door for the crowd of
16921 members and guests jostling one another and trying to get a good look at
16922 Bagration over each other's shoulders, as if he were some rare animal.
16923 Count Ilya Rostov, laughing and repeating the words, "Make way, dear
16924 boy! Make way, make way!" pushed through the crowd more energetically
16925 than anyone, led the guests into the drawing room, and seated them on
16926 the center sofa. The bigwigs, the most respected members of the club,
16927 beset the new arrivals. Count Ilya, again thrusting his way through the
16928 crowd, went out of the drawing room and reappeared a minute later with
16929 another committeeman, carrying a large silver salver which he presented
16930 to Prince Bagration. On the salver lay some verses composed and printed
16931 in the hero's honor. Bagration, on seeing the salver, glanced around in
16932 dismay, as though seeking help. But all eyes demanded that he should
16933 submit. Feeling himself in their power, he resolutely took the salver
16934 with both hands and looked sternly and reproachfully at the count who
16935 had presented it to him. Someone obligingly took the dish from Bagration
16936 (or he would, it seemed, have held it till evening and have gone in to
16937 dinner with it) and drew his attention to the verses.
16939 "Well, I will read them, then!" Bagration seemed to say, and, fixing his
16940 weary eyes on the paper, began to read them with a fixed and serious
16941 expression. But the author himself took the verses and began reading
16942 them aloud. Bagration bowed his head and listened:
16945 Bring glory then to Alexander's reign And on the throne our Titus
16946 shield. A dreaded foe be thou, kindhearted as a man, A Rhipheus at home,
16947 a Caesar in the field! E'en fortunate Napoleon Knows by experience, now,
16948 Bagration, And dare not Herculean Russians trouble...
16950 But before he had finished reading, a stentorian major-domo announced
16951 that dinner was ready! The door opened, and from the dining room came
16952 the resounding strains of the polonaise:
16955 Conquest's joyful thunder waken, Triumph, valiant Russians, now!...
16957 and Count Rostov, glancing angrily at the author who went on reading his
16958 verses, bowed to Bagration. Everyone rose, feeling that dinner was more
16959 important than verses, and Bagration, again preceding all the rest, went
16960 in to dinner. He was seated in the place of honor between two
16961 Alexanders--Bekleshev and Naryshkin--which was a significant allusion to
16962 the name of the sovereign. Three hundred persons took their seats in the
16963 dining room, according to their rank and importance: the more important
16964 nearer to the honored guest, as naturally as water flows deepest where
16965 the land lies lowest.
16967 Just before dinner, Count Ilya Rostov presented his son to Bagration,
16968 who recognized him and said a few words to him, disjointed and awkward,
16969 as were all the words he spoke that day, and Count Ilya looked joyfully
16970 and proudly around while Bagration spoke to his son.
16972 Nicholas Rostov, with Denisov and his new acquaintance, Dolokhov, sat
16973 almost at the middle of the table. Facing them sat Pierre, beside Prince
16974 Nesvitski. Count Ilya Rostov with the other members of the committee sat
16975 facing Bagration and, as the very personification of Moscow hospitality,
16976 did the honors to the prince.
16978 His efforts had not been in vain. The dinner, both the Lenten and the
16979 other fare, was splendid, yet he could not feel quite at ease till the
16980 end of the meal. He winked at the butler, whispered directions to the
16981 footmen, and awaited each expected dish with some anxiety. Everything
16982 was excellent. With the second course, a gigantic sterlet (at sight of
16983 which Ilya Rostov blushed with self-conscious pleasure), the footmen
16984 began popping corks and filling the champagne glasses. After the fish,
16985 which made a certain sensation, the count exchanged glances with the
16986 other committeemen. "There will be many toasts, it's time to begin," he
16987 whispered, and taking up his glass, he rose. All were silent, waiting
16988 for what he would say.
16990 "To the health of our Sovereign, the Emperor!" he cried, and at the same
16991 moment his kindly eyes grew moist with tears of joy and enthusiasm. The
16992 band immediately struck up "Conquest's joyful thunder waken..." All rose
16993 and cried "Hurrah!" Bagration also rose and shouted "Hurrah!" in exactly
16994 the same voice in which he had shouted it on the field at Schon Grabern.
16995 Young Rostov's ecstatic voice could be heard above the three hundred
16996 others. He nearly wept. "To the health of our Sovereign, the Emperor!"
16997 he roared, "Hurrah!" and emptying his glass at one gulp he dashed it to
16998 the floor. Many followed his example, and the loud shouting continued
16999 for a long time. When the voices subsided, the footmen cleared away the
17000 broken glass and everybody sat down again, smiling at the noise they had
17001 made and exchanging remarks. The old count rose once more, glanced at a
17002 note lying beside his plate, and proposed a toast, "To the health of the
17003 hero of our last campaign, Prince Peter Ivanovich Bagration!" and again
17004 his blue eyes grew moist. "Hurrah!" cried the three hundred voices
17005 again, but instead of the band a choir began singing a cantata composed
17006 by Paul Ivanovich Kutuzov:
17009 Russians! O'er all barriers on! Courage conquest guarantees; Have we not
17010 Bagration? He brings foe men to their knees,... etc.
17012 As soon as the singing was over, another and another toast was proposed
17013 and Count Ilya Rostov became more and more moved, more glass was
17014 smashed, and the shouting grew louder. They drank to Bekleshev,
17015 Naryshkin, Uvarov, Dolgorukov, Apraksin, Valuev, to the committee, to
17016 all the club members and to all the club guests, and finally to Count
17017 Ilya Rostov separately, as the organizer of the banquet. At that toast,
17018 the count took out his handkerchief and, covering his face, wept
17026 Pierre sat opposite Dolokhov and Nicholas Rostov. As usual, he ate and
17027 drank much, and eagerly. But those who knew him intimately noticed that
17028 some great change had come over him that day. He was silent all through
17029 dinner and looked about, blinking and scowling, or, with fixed eyes and
17030 a look of complete absent-mindedness, kept rubbing the bridge of his
17031 nose. His face was depressed and gloomy. He seemed to see and hear
17032 nothing of what was going on around him and to be absorbed by some
17033 depressing and unsolved problem.
17035 The unsolved problem that tormented him was caused by hints given by the
17036 princess, his cousin, at Moscow, concerning Dolokhov's intimacy with his
17037 wife, and by an anonymous letter he had received that morning, which in
17038 the mean jocular way common to anonymous letters said that he saw badly
17039 through his spectacles, but that his wife's connection with Dolokhov was
17040 a secret to no one but himself. Pierre absolutely disbelieved both the
17041 princess' hints and the letter, but he feared now to look at Dolokhov,
17042 who was sitting opposite him. Every time he chanced to meet Dolokhov's
17043 handsome insolent eyes, Pierre felt something terrible and monstrous
17044 rising in his soul and turned quickly away. Involuntarily recalling his
17045 wife's past and her relations with Dolokhov, Pierre saw clearly that
17046 what was said in the letter might be true, or might at least seem to be
17047 true had it not referred to his wife. He involuntarily remembered how
17048 Dolokhov, who had fully recovered his former position after the
17049 campaign, had returned to Petersburg and come to him. Availing himself
17050 of his friendly relations with Pierre as a boon companion, Dolokhov had
17051 come straight to his house, and Pierre had put him up and lent him
17052 money. Pierre recalled how Helene had smilingly expressed disapproval of
17053 Dolokhov's living at their house, and how cynically Dolokhov had praised
17054 his wife's beauty to him and from that time till they came to Moscow had
17055 not left them for a day.
17057 "Yes, he is very handsome," thought Pierre, "and I know him. It would be
17058 particularly pleasant to him to dishonor my name and ridicule me, just
17059 because I have exerted myself on his behalf, befriended him, and helped
17060 him. I know and understand what a spice that would add to the pleasure
17061 of deceiving me, if it really were true. Yes, if it were true, but I do
17062 not believe it. I have no right to, and can't, believe it." He
17063 remembered the expression Dolokhov's face assumed in his moments of
17064 cruelty, as when tying the policeman to the bear and dropping them into
17065 the water, or when he challenged a man to a duel without any reason, or
17066 shot a post-boy's horse with a pistol. That expression was often on
17067 Dolokhov's face when looking at him. "Yes, he is a bully," thought
17068 Pierre, "to kill a man means nothing to him. It must seem to him that
17069 everyone is afraid of him, and that must please him. He must think that
17070 I, too, am afraid of him--and in fact I am afraid of him," he thought,
17071 and again he felt something terrible and monstrous rising in his soul.
17072 Dolokhov, Denisov, and Rostov were now sitting opposite Pierre and
17073 seemed very gay. Rostov was talking merrily to his two friends, one of
17074 whom was a dashing hussar and the other a notorious duelist and rake,
17075 and every now and then he glanced ironically at Pierre, whose
17076 preoccupied, absent-minded, and massive figure was a very noticeable one
17077 at the dinner. Rostov looked inimically at Pierre, first because Pierre
17078 appeared to his hussar eyes as a rich civilian, the husband of a beauty,
17079 and in a word--an old woman; and secondly because Pierre in his
17080 preoccupation and absent-mindedness had not recognized Rostov and had
17081 not responded to his greeting. When the Emperor's health was drunk,
17082 Pierre, lost in thought, did not rise or lift his glass.
17084 "What are you about?" shouted Rostov, looking at him in an ecstasy of
17085 exasperation. "Don't you hear it's His Majesty the Emperor's health?"
17087 Pierre sighed, rose submissively, emptied his glass, and, waiting till
17088 all were seated again, turned with his kindly smile to Rostov.
17090 "Why, I didn't recognize you!" he said. But Rostov was otherwise
17091 engaged; he was shouting "Hurrah!"
17093 "Why don't you renew the acquaintance?" said Dolokhov to Rostov.
17095 "Confound him, he's a fool!" said Rostov.
17097 "One should make up to the husbands of pretty women," said Denisov.
17099 Pierre did not catch what they were saying, but knew they were talking
17100 about him. He reddened and turned away.
17102 "Well, now to the health of handsome women!" said Dolokhov, and with a
17103 serious expression, but with a smile lurking at the corners of his
17104 mouth, he turned with his glass to Pierre.
17106 "Here's to the health of lovely women, Peterkin--and their lovers!" he
17109 Pierre, with downcast eyes, drank out of his glass without looking at
17110 Dolokhov or answering him. The footman, who was distributing leaflets
17111 with Kutuzov's cantata, laid one before Pierre as one of the principal
17112 guests. He was just going to take it when Dolokhov, leaning across,
17113 snatched it from his hand and began reading it. Pierre looked at
17114 Dolokhov and his eyes dropped, the something terrible and monstrous that
17115 had tormented him all dinnertime rose and took possession of him. He
17116 leaned his whole massive body across the table.
17118 "How dare you take it?" he shouted.
17120 Hearing that cry and seeing to whom it was addressed, Nesvitski and the
17121 neighbor on his right quickly turned in alarm to Bezukhov.
17123 "Don't! Don't! What are you about?" whispered their frightened voices.
17125 Dolokhov looked at Pierre with clear, mirthful, cruel eyes, and that
17126 smile of his which seemed to say, "Ah! This is what I like!"
17128 "You shan't have it!" he said distinctly.
17130 Pale, with quivering lips, Pierre snatched the copy.
17132 "You...! you... scoundrel! I challenge you!" he ejaculated, and, pushing
17133 back his chair, he rose from the table.
17135 At the very instant he did this and uttered those words, Pierre felt
17136 that the question of his wife's guilt which had been tormenting him the
17137 whole day was finally and indubitably answered in the affirmative. He
17138 hated her and was forever sundered from her. Despite Denisov's request
17139 that he would take no part in the matter, Rostov agreed to be Dolokhov's
17140 second, and after dinner he discussed the arrangements for the duel with
17141 Nesvitski, Bezukhov's second. Pierre went home, but Rostov with Dolokhov
17142 and Denisov stayed on at the club till late, listening to the gypsies
17145 "Well then, till tomorrow at Sokolniki," said Dolokhov, as he took leave
17146 of Rostov in the club porch.
17148 "And do you feel quite calm?" Rostov asked.
17152 "Well, you see, I'll tell you the whole secret of dueling in two words.
17153 If you are going to fight a duel, and you make a will and write
17154 affectionate letters to your parents, and if you think you may be
17155 killed, you are a fool and are lost for certain. But go with the firm
17156 intention of killing your man as quickly and surely as possible, and
17157 then all will be right, as our bear huntsman at Kostroma used to tell
17158 me. 'Everyone fears a bear,' he says, 'but when you see one your fear's
17159 all gone, and your only thought is not to let him get away!' And that's
17160 how it is with me. A demain, mon cher." *
17163 * Till tomorrow, my dear fellow.
17165 Next day, at eight in the morning, Pierre and Nesvitski drove to the
17166 Sokolniki forest and found Dolokhov, Denisov, and Rostov already there.
17167 Pierre had the air of a man preoccupied with considerations which had no
17168 connection with the matter in hand. His haggard face was yellow. He had
17169 evidently not slept that night. He looked about distractedly and screwed
17170 up his eyes as if dazzled by the sun. He was entirely absorbed by two
17171 considerations: his wife's guilt, of which after his sleepless night he
17172 had not the slightest doubt, and the guiltlessness of Dolokhov, who had
17173 no reason to preserve the honor of a man who was nothing to him.... "I
17174 should perhaps have done the same thing in his place," thought Pierre.
17175 "It's even certain that I should have done the same, then why this duel,
17176 this murder? Either I shall kill him, or he will hit me in the head, or
17177 elbow, or knee. Can't I go away from here, run away, bury myself
17178 somewhere?" passed through his mind. But just at moments when such
17179 thoughts occurred to him, he would ask in a particularly calm and
17180 absent-minded way, which inspired the respect of the onlookers, "Will it
17181 be long? Are things ready?"
17183 When all was ready, the sabers stuck in the snow to mark the barriers,
17184 and the pistols loaded, Nesvitski went up to Pierre.
17186 "I should not be doing my duty, Count," he said in timid tones, "and
17187 should not justify your confidence and the honor you have done me in
17188 choosing me for your second, if at this grave, this very grave, moment I
17189 did not tell you the whole truth. I think there is no sufficient ground
17190 for this affair, or for blood to be shed over it.... You were not right,
17191 not quite in the right, you were impetuous..."
17193 "Oh yes, it is horribly stupid," said Pierre.
17195 "Then allow me to express your regrets, and I am sure your opponent will
17196 accept them," said Nesvitski (who like the others concerned in the
17197 affair, and like everyone in similar cases, did not yet believe that the
17198 affair had come to an actual duel). "You know, Count, it is much more
17199 honorable to admit one's mistake than to let matters become irreparable.
17200 There was no insult on either side. Allow me to convey...."
17202 "No! What is there to talk about?" said Pierre. "It's all the same....
17203 Is everything ready?" he added. "Only tell me where to go and where to
17204 shoot," he said with an unnaturally gentle smile.
17206 He took the pistol in his hand and began asking about the working of the
17207 trigger, as he had not before held a pistol in his hand--a fact that he
17208 did not wish to confess.
17210 "Oh yes, like that, I know, I only forgot," said he.
17212 "No apologies, none whatever," said Dolokhov to Denisov (who on his side
17213 had been attempting a reconciliation), and he also went up to the
17216 The spot chosen for the duel was some eighty paces from the road, where
17217 the sleighs had been left, in a small clearing in the pine forest
17218 covered with melting snow, the frost having begun to break up during the
17219 last few days. The antagonists stood forty paces apart at the farther
17220 edge of the clearing. The seconds, measuring the paces, left tracks in
17221 the deep wet snow between the place where they had been standing and
17222 Nesvitski's and Dolokhov's sabers, which were stuck into the ground ten
17223 paces apart to mark the barrier. It was thawing and misty; at forty
17224 paces' distance nothing could be seen. For three minutes all had been
17225 ready, but they still delayed and all were silent.
17232 "Well begin!" said Dolokhov.
17234 "All right," said Pierre, still smiling in the same way. A feeling of
17235 dread was in the air. It was evident that the affair so lightly begun
17236 could no longer be averted but was taking its course independently of
17239 Denisov first went to the barrier and announced: "As the adve'sawies
17240 have wefused a weconciliation, please pwoceed. Take your pistols, and at
17241 the word thwee begin to advance.
17243 "O-ne! T-wo! Thwee!" he shouted angrily and stepped aside.
17245 The combatants advanced along the trodden tracks, nearer and nearer to
17246 one another, beginning to see one another through the mist. They had the
17247 right to fire when they liked as they approached the barrier. Dolokhov
17248 walked slowly without raising his pistol, looking intently with his
17249 bright, sparkling blue eyes into his antagonist's face. His mouth wore
17250 its usual semblance of a smile.
17252 "So I can fire when I like!" said Pierre, and at the word "three," he
17253 went quickly forward, missing the trodden path and stepping into the
17254 deep snow. He held the pistol in his right hand at arm's length,
17255 apparently afraid of shooting himself with it. His left hand he held
17256 carefully back, because he wished to support his right hand with it and
17257 knew he must not do so. Having advanced six paces and strayed off the
17258 track into the snow, Pierre looked down at his feet, then quickly
17259 glanced at Dolokhov and, bending his finger as he had been shown, fired.
17260 Not at all expecting so loud a report, Pierre shuddered at the sound and
17261 then, smiling at his own sensations, stood still. The smoke, rendered
17262 denser by the mist, prevented him from seeing anything for an instant,
17263 but there was no second report as he had expected. He only heard
17264 Dolokhov's hurried steps, and his figure came in view through the smoke.
17265 He was pressing one hand to his left side, while the other clutched his
17266 drooping pistol. His face was pale. Rostov ran toward him and said
17269 "No-o-o!" muttered Dolokhov through his teeth, "no, it's not over." And
17270 after stumbling a few staggering steps right up to the saber, he sank on
17271 the snow beside it. His left hand was bloody; he wiped it on his coat
17272 and supported himself with it. His frowning face was pallid and
17275 "Plea..." began Dolokhov, but could not at first pronounce the word.
17277 "Please," he uttered with an effort.
17279 Pierre, hardly restraining his sobs, began running toward Dolokhov and
17280 was about to cross the space between the barriers, when Dolokhov cried:
17282 "To your barrier!" and Pierre, grasping what was meant, stopped by his
17283 saber. Only ten paces divided them. Dolokhov lowered his head to the
17284 snow, greedily bit at it, again raised his head, adjusted himself, drew
17285 in his legs and sat up, seeking a firm center of gravity. He sucked and
17286 swallowed the cold snow, his lips quivered but his eyes, still smiling,
17287 glittered with effort and exasperation as he mustered his remaining
17288 strength. He raised his pistol and aimed.
17290 "Sideways! Cover yourself with your pistol!" ejaculated Nesvitski.
17292 "Cover yourself!" even Denisov cried to his adversary.
17294 Pierre, with a gentle smile of pity and remorse, his arms and legs
17295 helplessly spread out, stood with his broad chest directly facing
17296 Dolokhov looked sorrowfully at him. Denisov, Rostov, and Nesvitski
17297 closed their eyes. At the same instant they heard a report and
17298 Dolokhov's angry cry.
17300 "Missed!" shouted Dolokhov, and he lay helplessly, face downwards on the
17303 Pierre clutched his temples, and turning round went into the forest,
17304 trampling through the deep snow, and muttering incoherent words:
17306 "Folly... folly! Death... lies..." he repeated, puckering his face.
17308 Nesvitski stopped him and took him home.
17310 Rostov and Denisov drove away with the wounded Dolokhov.
17312 The latter lay silent in the sleigh with closed eyes and did not answer
17313 a word to the questions addressed to him. But on entering Moscow he
17314 suddenly came to and, lifting his head with an effort, took Rostov, who
17315 was sitting beside him, by the hand. Rostov was struck by the totally
17316 altered and unexpectedly rapturous and tender expression on Dolokhov's
17319 "Well? How do you feel?" he asked.
17321 "Bad! But it's not that, my friend-" said Dolokhov with a gasping voice.
17322 "Where are we? In Moscow, I know. I don't matter, but I have killed her,
17323 killed... She won't get over it! She won't survive...."
17325 "Who?" asked Rostov.
17327 "My mother! My mother, my angel, my adored angel mother," and Dolokhov
17328 pressed Rostov's hand and burst into tears.
17330 When he had become a little quieter, he explained to Rostov that he was
17331 living with his mother, who, if she saw him dying, would not survive it.
17332 He implored Rostov to go on and prepare her.
17334 Rostov went on ahead to do what was asked, and to his great surprise
17335 learned that Dolokhov the brawler, Dolokhov the bully, lived in Moscow
17336 with an old mother and a hunchback sister, and was the most affectionate
17337 of sons and brothers.
17344 Pierre had of late rarely seen his wife alone. Both in Petersburg and in
17345 Moscow their house was always full of visitors. The night after the duel
17346 he did not go to his bedroom but, as he often did, remained in his
17347 father's room, that huge room in which Count Bezukhov had died.
17349 He lay down on the sofa meaning to fall asleep and forget all that had
17350 happened to him, but could not do so. Such a storm of feelings,
17351 thoughts, and memories suddenly arose within him that he could not fall
17352 asleep, nor even remain in one place, but had to jump up and pace the
17353 room with rapid steps. Now he seemed to see her in the early days of
17354 their marriage, with bare shoulders and a languid, passionate look on
17355 her face, and then immediately he saw beside her Dolokhov's handsome,
17356 insolent, hard, and mocking face as he had seen it at the banquet, and
17357 then that same face pale, quivering, and suffering, as it had been when
17358 he reeled and sank on the snow.
17360 "What has happened?" he asked himself. "I have killed her lover, yes,
17361 killed my wife's lover. Yes, that was it! And why? How did I come to do
17362 it?"--"Because you married her," answered an inner voice.
17364 "But in what was I to blame?" he asked. "In marrying her without loving
17365 her; in deceiving yourself and her." And he vividly recalled that moment
17366 after supper at Prince Vasili's, when he spoke those words he had found
17367 so difficult to utter: "I love you." "It all comes from that! Even then
17368 I felt it," he thought. "I felt then that it was not so, that I had no
17369 right to do it. And so it turns out."
17371 He remembered his honeymoon and blushed at the recollection.
17372 Particularly vivid, humiliating, and shameful was the recollection of
17373 how one day soon after his marriage he came out of the bedroom into his
17374 study a little before noon in his silk dressing gown and found his head
17375 steward there, who, bowing respectfully, looked into his face and at his
17376 dressing gown and smiled slightly, as if expressing respectful
17377 understanding of his employer's happiness.
17379 "But how often I have felt proud of her, proud of her majestic beauty
17380 and social tact," thought he; "been proud of my house, in which she
17381 received all Petersburg, proud of her unapproachability and beauty. So
17382 this is what I was proud of! I then thought that I did not understand
17383 her. How often when considering her character I have told myself that I
17384 was to blame for not understanding her, for not understanding that
17385 constant composure and complacency and lack of all interests or desires,
17386 and the whole secret lies in the terrible truth that she is a depraved
17387 woman. Now I have spoken that terrible word to myself all has become
17390 "Anatole used to come to borrow money from her and used to kiss her
17391 naked shoulders. She did not give him the money, but let herself be
17392 kissed. Her father in jest tried to rouse her jealousy, and she replied
17393 with a calm smile that she was not so stupid as to be jealous: 'Let him
17394 do what he pleases,' she used to say of me. One day I asked her if she
17395 felt any symptoms of pregnancy. She laughed contemptuously and said she
17396 was not a fool to want to have children, and that she was not going to
17397 have any children by me."
17399 Then he recalled the coarseness and bluntness of her thoughts and the
17400 vulgarity of the expressions that were natural to her, though she had
17401 been brought up in the most aristocratic circles.
17403 "I'm not such a fool.... Just you try it on.... Allez-vous promener," *
17404 she used to say. Often seeing the success she had with young and old men
17405 and women Pierre could not understand why he did not love her.
17408 * "You clear out of this."
17410 "Yes, I never loved her," said he to himself; "I knew she was a depraved
17411 woman," he repeated, "but dared not admit it to myself. And now there's
17412 Dolokhov sitting in the snow with a forced smile and perhaps dying,
17413 while meeting my remorse with some forced bravado!"
17415 Pierre was one of those people who, in spite of an appearance of what is
17416 called weak character, do not seek a confidant in their troubles. He
17417 digested his sufferings alone.
17419 "It is all, all her fault," he said to himself; "but what of that? Why
17420 did I bind myself to her? Why did I say 'Je vous aime' * to her, which
17421 was a lie, and worse than a lie? I am guilty and must endure... what? A
17422 slur on my name? A misfortune for life? Oh, that's nonsense," he
17423 thought. "The slur on my name and honor--that's all apart from myself."
17428 "Louis XVI was executed because they said he was dishonorable and a
17429 criminal," came into Pierre's head, "and from their point of view they
17430 were right, as were those too who canonized him and died a martyr's
17431 death for his sake. Then Robespierre was beheaded for being a despot.
17432 Who is right and who is wrong? No one! But if you are alive--live:
17433 tomorrow you'll die as I might have died an hour ago. And is it worth
17434 tormenting oneself, when one has only a moment of life in comparison
17437 But at the moment when he imagined himself calmed by such reflections,
17438 she suddenly came into his mind as she was at the moments when he had
17439 most strongly expressed his insincere love for her, and he felt the
17440 blood rush to his heart and had again to get up and move about and break
17441 and tear whatever came to his hand. "Why did I tell her that 'Je vous
17442 aime'?" he kept repeating to himself. And when he had said it for the
17443 tenth time, Moliere's words: "Mais que diable allait-il faire dans cette
17444 galere?"* occurred to him, and he began to laugh at himself.
17447 * "But what the devil was he doing in that galley?"
17449 In the night he called his valet and told him to pack up to go to
17450 Petersburg. He could not imagine how he could speak to her now. He
17451 resolved to go away next day and leave a letter informing her of his
17452 intention to part from her forever.
17454 Next morning when the valet came into the room with his coffee, Pierre
17455 was lying asleep on the ottoman with an open book in his hand.
17457 He woke up and looked round for a while with a startled expression,
17458 unable to realize where he was.
17460 "The countess told me to inquire whether your excellency was at home,"
17463 But before Pierre could decide what answer he would send, the countess
17464 herself in a white satin dressing gown embroidered with silver and with
17465 simply dressed hair (two immense plaits twice round her lovely head like
17466 a coronet) entered the room, calm and majestic, except that there was a
17467 wrathful wrinkle on her rather prominent marble brow. With her
17468 imperturbable calm she did not begin to speak in front of the valet. She
17469 knew of the duel and had come to speak about it. She waited till the
17470 valet had set down the coffee things and left the room. Pierre looked at
17471 her timidly over his spectacles, and like a hare surrounded by hounds
17472 who lays back her ears and continues to crouch motionless before her
17473 enemies, he tried to continue reading. But feeling this to be senseless
17474 and impossible, he again glanced timidly at her. She did not sit down
17475 but looked at him with a contemptuous smile, waiting for the valet to
17478 "Well, what's this now? What have you been up to now, I should like to
17479 know?" she asked sternly.
17481 "I? What have I...?" stammered Pierre.
17483 "So it seems you're a hero, eh? Come now, what was this duel about? What
17484 is it meant to prove? What? I ask you."
17486 Pierre turned over heavily on the ottoman and opened his mouth, but
17489 "If you won't answer, I'll tell you..." Helene went on. "You believe
17490 everything you're told. You were told..." Helene laughed, "that Dolokhov
17491 was my lover," she said in French with her coarse plainness of speech,
17492 uttering the word amant as casually as any other word, "and you believed
17493 it! Well, what have you proved? What does this duel prove? That you're a
17494 fool, que vous etes un sot, but everybody knew that. What will be the
17495 result? That I shall be the laughingstock of all Moscow, that everyone
17496 will say that you, drunk and not knowing what you were about, challenged
17497 a man you are jealous of without cause." Helene raised her voice and
17498 became more and more excited, "A man who's a better man than you in
17501 "Hm... Hm...!" growled Pierre, frowning without looking at her, and not
17504 "And how could you believe he was my lover? Why? Because I like his
17505 company? If you were cleverer and more agreeable, I should prefer
17508 "Don't speak to me... I beg you," muttered Pierre hoarsely.
17510 "Why shouldn't I speak? I can speak as I like, and I tell you plainly
17511 that there are not many wives with husbands such as you who would not
17512 have taken lovers (des amants), but I have not done so," said she.
17514 Pierre wished to say something, looked at her with eyes whose strange
17515 expression she did not understand, and lay down again. He was suffering
17516 physically at that moment, there was a weight on his chest and he could
17517 not breathe. He knew that he must do something to put an end to this
17518 suffering, but what he wanted to do was too terrible.
17520 "We had better separate," he muttered in a broken voice.
17522 "Separate? Very well, but only if you give me a fortune," said Helene.
17523 "Separate! That's a thing to frighten me with!"
17525 Pierre leaped up from the sofa and rushed staggering toward her.
17527 "I'll kill you!" he shouted, and seizing the marble top of a table with
17528 a strength he had never before felt, he made a step toward her
17529 brandishing the slab.
17531 Helene's face became terrible, she shrieked and sprang aside. His
17532 father's nature showed itself in Pierre. He felt the fascination and
17533 delight of frenzy. He flung down the slab, broke it, and swooping down
17534 on her with outstretched hands shouted, "Get out!" in such a terrible
17535 voice that the whole house heard it with horror. God knows what he would
17536 have done at that moment had Helene not fled from the room.
17538 A week later Pierre gave his wife full power to control all his estates
17539 in Great Russia, which formed the larger part of his property, and left
17540 for Petersburg alone.
17547 Two months had elapsed since the news of the battle of Austerlitz and
17548 the loss of Prince Andrew had reached Bald Hills, and in spite of the
17549 letters sent through the embassy and all the searches made, his body had
17550 not been found nor was he on the list of prisoners. What was worst of
17551 all for his relations was the fact that there was still a possibility of
17552 his having been picked up on the battlefield by the people of the place
17553 and that he might now be lying, recovering or dying, alone among
17554 strangers and unable to send news of himself. The gazettes from which
17555 the old prince first heard of the defeat at Austerlitz stated, as usual
17556 very briefly and vaguely, that after brilliant engagements the Russians
17557 had had to retreat and had made their withdrawal in perfect order. The
17558 old prince understood from this official report that our army had been
17559 defeated. A week after the gazette report of the battle of Austerlitz
17560 came a letter from Kutuzov informing the prince of the fate that had
17563 "Your son," wrote Kutuzov, "fell before my eyes, a standard in his hand
17564 and at the head of a regiment--he fell as a hero, worthy of his father
17565 and his fatherland. To the great regret of myself and of the whole army
17566 it is still uncertain whether he is alive or not. I comfort myself and
17567 you with the hope that your son is alive, for otherwise he would have
17568 been mentioned among the officers found on the field of battle, a list
17569 of whom has been sent me under flag of truce."
17571 After receiving this news late in the evening, when he was alone in his
17572 study, the old prince went for his walk as usual next morning, but he
17573 was silent with his steward, the gardener, and the architect, and though
17574 he looked very grim he said nothing to anyone.
17576 When Princess Mary went to him at the usual hour he was working at his
17577 lathe and, as usual, did not look round at her.
17579 "Ah, Princess Mary!" he said suddenly in an unnatural voice, throwing
17580 down his chisel. (The wheel continued to revolve by its own impetus, and
17581 Princess Mary long remembered the dying creak of that wheel, which
17582 merged in her memory with what followed.)
17584 She approached him, saw his face, and something gave way within her. Her
17585 eyes grew dim. By the expression of her father's face, not sad, not
17586 crushed, but angry and working unnaturally, she saw that hanging over
17587 her and about to crush her was some terrible misfortune, the worst in
17588 life, one she had not yet experienced, irreparable and incomprehensible-
17589 -the death of one she loved.
17591 "Father! Andrew!"--said the ungraceful, awkward princess with such an
17592 indescribable charm of sorrow and self-forgetfulness that her father
17593 could not bear her look but turned away with a sob.
17595 "Bad news! He's not among the prisoners nor among the killed! Kutuzov
17596 writes..." and he screamed as piercingly as if he wished to drive the
17597 princess away by that scream... "Killed!"
17599 The princess did not fall down or faint. She was already pale, but on
17600 hearing these words her face changed and something brightened in her
17601 beautiful, radiant eyes. It was as if joy--a supreme joy apart from the
17602 joys and sorrows of this world--overflowed the great grief within her.
17603 She forgot all fear of her father, went up to him, took his hand, and
17604 drawing him down put her arm round his thin, scraggy neck.
17606 "Father," she said, "do not turn away from me, let us weep together."
17608 "Scoundrels! Blackguards!" shrieked the old man, turning his face away
17609 from her. "Destroying the army, destroying the men! And why? Go, go and
17612 The princess sank helplessly into an armchair beside her father and
17613 wept. She saw her brother now as he had been at the moment when he took
17614 leave of her and of Lise, his look tender yet proud. She saw him tender
17615 and amused as he was when he put on the little icon. "Did he believe?
17616 Had he repented of his unbelief? Was he now there? There in the realms
17617 of eternal peace and blessedness?" she thought.
17619 "Father, tell me how it happened," she asked through her tears.
17621 "Go! Go! Killed in battle, where the best of Russian men and Russia's
17622 glory were led to destruction. Go, Princess Mary. Go and tell Lise. I
17625 When Princess Mary returned from her father, the little princess sat
17626 working and looked up with that curious expression of inner, happy calm
17627 peculiar to pregnant women. It was evident that her eyes did not see
17628 Princess Mary but were looking within... into herself... at something
17629 joyful and mysterious taking place within her.
17631 "Mary," she said, moving away from the embroidery frame and lying back,
17632 "give me your hand." She took her sister-in-law's hand and held it below
17635 Her eyes were smiling expectantly, her downy lip rose and remained
17636 lifted in childlike happiness.
17638 Princess Mary knelt down before her and hid her face in the folds of her
17639 sister-in-law's dress.
17641 "There, there! Do you feel it? I feel so strange. And do you know, Mary,
17642 I am going to love him very much," said Lise, looking with bright and
17643 happy eyes at her sister-in-law.
17645 Princess Mary could not lift her head, she was weeping.
17647 "What is the matter, Mary?"
17649 "Nothing... only I feel sad... sad about Andrew," she said, wiping away
17650 her tears on her sister-in-law's knee.
17652 Several times in the course of the morning Princess Mary began trying to
17653 prepare her sister-in-law, and every time began to cry. Unobservant as
17654 was the little princess, these tears, the cause of which she did not
17655 understand, agitated her. She said nothing but looked about uneasily as
17656 if in search of something. Before dinner the old prince, of whom she was
17657 always afraid, came into her room with a peculiarly restless and malign
17658 expression and went out again without saying a word. She looked at
17659 Princess Mary, then sat thinking for a while with that expression of
17660 attention to something within her that is only seen in pregnant women,
17661 and suddenly began to cry.
17663 "Has anything come from Andrew?" she asked.
17665 "No, you know it's too soon for news. But my father is anxious and I
17668 "So there's nothing?"
17670 "Nothing," answered Princess Mary, looking firmly with her radiant eyes
17671 at her sister-in-law.
17673 She had determined not to tell her and persuaded her father to hide the
17674 terrible news from her till after her confinement, which was expected
17675 within a few days. Princess Mary and the old prince each bore and hid
17676 their grief in their own way. The old prince would not cherish any hope:
17677 he made up his mind that Prince Andrew had been killed, and though he
17678 sent an official to Austria to seek for traces of his son, he ordered a
17679 monument from Moscow which he intended to erect in his own garden to his
17680 memory, and he told everybody that his son had been killed. He tried not
17681 to change his former way of life, but his strength failed him. He walked
17682 less, ate less, slept less, and became weaker every day. Princess Mary
17683 hoped. She prayed for her brother as living and was always awaiting news
17691 "Dearest," said the little princess after breakfast on the morning of
17692 the nineteenth March, and her downy little lip rose from old habit, but
17693 as sorrow was manifest in every smile, the sound of every word, and even
17694 every footstep in that house since the terrible news had come, so now
17695 the smile of the little princess--influenced by the general mood though
17696 without knowing its cause--was such as to remind one still more of the
17699 "Dearest, I'm afraid this morning's fruschtique *--as Foka the cook
17700 calls it--has disagreed with me."
17703 * Fruhstuck: breakfast.
17705 "What is the matter with you, my darling? You look pale. Oh, you are
17706 very pale!" said Princess Mary in alarm, running with her soft,
17707 ponderous steps up to her sister-in-law.
17709 "Your excellency, should not Mary Bogdanovna be sent for?" said one of
17710 the maids who was present. (Mary Bogdanovna was a midwife from the
17711 neighboring town, who had been at Bald Hills for the last fortnight.)
17713 "Oh yes," assented Princess Mary, "perhaps that's it. I'll go. Courage,
17714 my angel." She kissed Lise and was about to leave the room.
17716 "Oh, no, no!" And besides the pallor and the physical suffering on the
17717 little princess' face, an expression of childish fear of inevitable pain
17720 "No, it's only indigestion?... Say it's only indigestion, say so, Mary!
17721 Say..." And the little princess began to cry capriciously like a
17722 suffering child and to wring her little hands even with some
17723 affectation. Princess Mary ran out of the room to fetch Mary Bogdanovna.
17725 "Mon Dieu! Mon Dieu! Oh!" she heard as she left the room.
17727 The midwife was already on her way to meet her, rubbing her small, plump
17728 white hands with an air of calm importance.
17730 "Mary Bogdanovna, I think it's beginning!" said Princess Mary looking at
17731 the midwife with wide-open eyes of alarm.
17733 "Well, the Lord be thanked, Princess," said Mary Bogdanovna, not
17734 hastening her steps. "You young ladies should not know anything about
17737 "But how is it the doctor from Moscow is not here yet?" said the
17738 princess. (In accordance with Lise's and Prince Andrew's wishes they had
17739 sent in good time to Moscow for a doctor and were expecting him at any
17742 "No matter, Princess, don't be alarmed," said Mary Bogdanovna. "We'll
17743 manage very well without a doctor."
17745 Five minutes later Princess Mary from her room heard something heavy
17746 being carried by. She looked out. The men servants were carrying the
17747 large leather sofa from Prince Andrew's study into the bedroom. On their
17748 faces was a quiet and solemn look.
17750 Princess Mary sat alone in her room listening to the sounds in the
17751 house, now and then opening her door when someone passed and watching
17752 what was going on in the passage. Some women passing with quiet steps in
17753 and out of the bedroom glanced at the princess and turned away. She did
17754 not venture to ask any questions, and shut the door again, now sitting
17755 down in her easy chair, now taking her prayer book, now kneeling before
17756 the icon stand. To her surprise and distress she found that her prayers
17757 did not calm her excitement. Suddenly her door opened softly and her old
17758 nurse, Praskovya Savishna, who hardly ever came to that room as the old
17759 prince had forbidden it, appeared on the threshold with a shawl round
17762 "I've come to sit with you a bit, Masha," said the nurse, "and here I've
17763 brought the prince's wedding candles to light before his saint, my
17764 angel," she said with a sigh.
17766 "Oh, nurse, I'm so glad!"
17768 "God is merciful, birdie."
17770 The nurse lit the gilt candles before the icons and sat down by the door
17771 with her knitting. Princess Mary took a book and began reading. Only
17772 when footsteps or voices were heard did they look at one another, the
17773 princess anxious and inquiring, the nurse encouraging. Everyone in the
17774 house was dominated by the same feeling that Princess Mary experienced
17775 as she sat in her room. But owing to the superstition that the fewer the
17776 people who know of it the less a woman in travail suffers, everyone
17777 tried to pretend not to know; no one spoke of it, but apart from the
17778 ordinary staid and respectful good manners habitual in the prince's
17779 household, a common anxiety, a softening of the heart, and a
17780 consciousness that something great and mysterious was being accomplished
17781 at that moment made itself felt.
17783 There was no laughter in the maids' large hall. In the men servants'
17784 hall all sat waiting, silently and alert. In the outlying serfs'
17785 quarters torches and candles were burning and no one slept. The old
17786 prince, stepping on his heels, paced up and down his study and sent
17787 Tikhon to ask Mary Bogdanovna what news.--"Say only that 'the prince
17788 told me to ask,' and come and tell me her answer."
17790 "Inform the prince that labor has begun," said Mary Bogdanovna, giving
17791 the messenger a significant look.
17793 Tikhon went and told the prince.
17795 "Very good!" said the prince closing the door behind him, and Tikhon did
17796 not hear the slightest sound from the study after that.
17798 After a while he re-entered it as if to snuff the candles, and, seeing
17799 the prince was lying on the sofa, looked at him, noticed his perturbed
17800 face, shook his head, and going up to him silently kissed him on the
17801 shoulder and left the room without snuffing the candles or saying why he
17802 had entered. The most solemn mystery in the world continued its course.
17803 Evening passed, night came, and the feeling of suspense and softening of
17804 heart in the presence of the unfathomable did not lessen but increased.
17807 It was one of those March nights when winter seems to wish to resume its
17808 sway and scatters its last snows and storms with desperate fury. A relay
17809 of horses had been sent up the highroad to meet the German doctor from
17810 Moscow who was expected every moment, and men on horseback with lanterns
17811 were sent to the crossroads to guide him over the country road with its
17812 hollows and snow-covered pools of water.
17814 Princess Mary had long since put aside her book: she sat silent, her
17815 luminous eyes fixed on her nurse's wrinkled face (every line of which
17816 she knew so well), on the lock of gray hair that escaped from under the
17817 kerchief, and the loose skin that hung under her chin.
17819 Nurse Savishna, knitting in hand, was telling in low tones, scarcely
17820 hearing or understanding her own words, what she had told hundreds of
17821 times before: how the late princess had given birth to Princess Mary in
17822 Kishenev with only a Moldavian peasant woman to help instead of a
17825 "God is merciful, doctors are never needed," she said.
17827 Suddenly a gust of wind beat violently against the casement of the
17828 window, from which the double frame had been removed (by order of the
17829 prince, one window frame was removed in each room as soon as the larks
17830 returned), and, forcing open a loosely closed latch, set the damask
17831 curtain flapping and blew out the candle with its chill, snowy draft.
17832 Princess Mary shuddered; her nurse, putting down the stocking she was
17833 knitting, went to the window and leaning out tried to catch the open
17834 casement. The cold wind flapped the ends of her kerchief and her loose
17835 locks of gray hair.
17837 "Princess, my dear, there's someone driving up the avenue!" she said,
17838 holding the casement and not closing it. "With lanterns. Most likely the
17841 "Oh, my God! thank God!" said Princess Mary. "I must go and meet him, he
17842 does not know Russian."
17844 Princess Mary threw a shawl over her head and ran to meet the newcomer.
17845 As she was crossing the anteroom she saw through the window a carriage
17846 with lanterns, standing at the entrance. She went out on the stairs. On
17847 a banister post stood a tallow candle which guttered in the draft. On
17848 the landing below, Philip, the footman, stood looking scared and holding
17849 another candle. Still lower, beyond the turn of the staircase, one could
17850 hear the footstep of someone in thick felt boots, and a voice that
17851 seemed familiar to Princess Mary was saying something.
17853 "Thank God!" said the voice. "And Father?"
17855 "Gone to bed," replied the voice of Demyan the house steward, who was
17858 Then the voice said something more, Demyan replied, and the steps in the
17859 felt boots approached the unseen bend of the staircase more rapidly.
17861 "It's Andrew!" thought Princess Mary. "No it can't be, that would be too
17862 extraordinary," and at the very moment she thought this, the face and
17863 figure of Prince Andrew, in a fur cloak the deep collar of which covered
17864 with snow, appeared on the landing where the footman stood with the
17865 candle. Yes, it was he, pale, thin, with a changed and strangely
17866 softened but agitated expression on his face. He came up the stairs and
17867 embraced his sister.
17869 "You did not get my letter?" he asked, and not waiting for a reply--
17870 which he would not have received, for the princess was unable to speak--
17871 he turned back, rapidly mounted the stairs again with the doctor who had
17872 entered the hall after him (they had met at the last post station), and
17873 again embraced his sister.
17875 "What a strange fate, Masha darling!" And having taken off his cloak and
17876 felt boots, he went to the little princess' apartment.
17883 The little princess lay supported by pillows, with a white cap on her
17884 head (the pains had just left her). Strands of her black hair lay round
17885 her inflamed and perspiring cheeks, her charming rosy mouth with its
17886 downy lip was open and she was smiling joyfully. Prince Andrew entered
17887 and paused facing her at the foot of the sofa on which she was lying.
17888 Her glittering eyes, filled with childlike fear and excitement, rested
17889 on him without changing their expression. "I love you all and have done
17890 no harm to anyone; why must I suffer so? Help me!" her look seemed to
17891 say. She saw her husband, but did not realize the significance of his
17892 appearance before her now. Prince Andrew went round the sofa and kissed
17895 "My darling!" he said--a word he had never used to her before. "God is
17898 She looked at him inquiringly and with childlike reproach.
17900 "I expected help from you and I get none, none from you either!" said
17901 her eyes. She was not surprised at his having come; she did not realize
17902 that he had come. His coming had nothing to do with her sufferings or
17903 with their relief. The pangs began again and Mary Bogdanovna advised
17904 Prince Andrew to leave the room.
17906 The doctor entered. Prince Andrew went out and, meeting Princess Mary,
17907 again joined her. They began talking in whispers, but their talk broke
17908 off at every moment. They waited and listened.
17910 "Go, dear," said Princess Mary.
17912 Prince Andrew went again to his wife and sat waiting in the room next to
17913 hers. A woman came from the bedroom with a frightened face and became
17914 confused when she saw Prince Andrew. He covered his face with his hands
17915 and remained so for some minutes. Piteous, helpless, animal moans came
17916 through the door. Prince Andrew got up, went to the door, and tried to
17917 open it. Someone was holding it shut.
17919 "You can't come in! You can't!" said a terrified voice from within.
17921 He began pacing the room. The screaming ceased, and a few more seconds
17922 went by. Then suddenly a terrible shriek--it could not be hers, she
17923 could not scream like that--came from the bedroom. Prince Andrew ran to
17924 the door; the scream ceased and he heard the wail of an infant.
17926 "What have they taken a baby in there for?" thought Prince Andrew in the
17927 first second. "A baby? What baby...? Why is there a baby there? Or is
17930 Then suddenly he realized the joyful significance of that wail; tears
17931 choked him, and leaning his elbows on the window sill be began to cry,
17932 sobbing like a child. The door opened. The doctor with his shirt sleeves
17933 tucked up, without a coat, pale and with a trembling jaw, came out of
17934 the room. Prince Andrew turned to him, but the doctor gave him a
17935 bewildered look and passed by without a word. A woman rushed out and
17936 seeing Prince Andrew stopped, hesitating on the threshold. He went into
17937 his wife's room. She was lying dead, in the same position he had seen
17938 her in five minutes before and, despite the fixed eyes and the pallor of
17939 the cheeks, the same expression was on her charming childlike face with
17940 its upper lip covered with tiny black hair.
17942 "I love you all, and have done no harm to anyone; and what have you done
17943 to me?"--said her charming, pathetic, dead face.
17945 In a corner of the room something red and tiny gave a grunt and squealed
17946 in Mary Bogdanovna's trembling white hands.
17948 Two hours later Prince Andrew, stepping softly, went into his father's
17949 room. The old man already knew everything. He was standing close to the
17950 door and as soon as it opened his rough old arms closed like a vise
17951 round his son's neck, and without a word he began to sob like a child.
17953 Three days later the little princess was buried, and Prince Andrew went
17954 up the steps to where the coffin stood, to give her the farewell kiss.
17955 And there in the coffin was the same face, though with closed eyes. "Ah,
17956 what have you done to me?" it still seemed to say, and Prince Andrew
17957 felt that something gave way in his soul and that he was guilty of a sin
17958 he could neither remedy nor forget. He could not weep. The old man too
17959 came up and kissed the waxen little hands that lay quietly crossed one
17960 on the other on her breast, and to him, too, her face seemed to say:
17961 "Ah, what have you done to me, and why?" And at the sight the old man
17962 turned angrily away.
17964 Another five days passed, and then the young Prince Nicholas Andreevich
17965 was baptized. The wet nurse supported the coverlet with her chin, while
17966 the priest with a goose feather anointed the boy's little red and
17967 wrinkled soles and palms.
17969 His grandfather, who was his godfather, trembling and afraid of dropping
17970 him, carried the infant round the battered tin font and handed him over
17971 to the godmother, Princess Mary. Prince Andrew sat in another room,
17972 faint with fear lest the baby should be drowned in the font, and awaited
17973 the termination of the ceremony. He looked up joyfully at the baby when
17974 the nurse brought it to him and nodded approval when she told him that
17975 the wax with the baby's hair had not sunk in the font but had floated.
17982 Rostov's share in Dolokhov's duel with Bezukhov was hushed up by the
17983 efforts of the old count, and instead of being degraded to the ranks as
17984 he expected he was appointed an adjutant to the governor general of
17985 Moscow. As a result he could not go to the country with the rest of the
17986 family, but was kept all summer in Moscow by his new duties. Dolokhov
17987 recovered, and Rostov became very friendly with him during his
17988 convalescence. Dolokhov lay ill at his mother's who loved him
17989 passionately and tenderly, and old Mary Ivanovna, who had grown fond of
17990 Rostov for his friendship to her Fedya, often talked to him about her
17993 "Yes, Count," she would say, "he is too noble and pure-souled for our
17994 present, depraved world. No one now loves virtue; it seems like a
17995 reproach to everyone. Now tell me, Count, was it right, was it
17996 honorable, of Bezukhov? And Fedya, with his noble spirit, loved him and
17997 even now never says a word against him. Those pranks in Petersburg when
17998 they played some tricks on a policeman, didn't they do it together? And
17999 there! Bezukhov got off scotfree, while Fedya had to bear the whole
18000 burden on his shoulders. Fancy what he had to go through! It's true he
18001 has been reinstated, but how could they fail to do that? I think there
18002 were not many such gallant sons of the fatherland out there as he. And
18003 now--this duel! Have these people no feeling, or honor? Knowing him to
18004 be an only son, to challenge him and shoot so straight! It's well God
18005 had mercy on us. And what was it for? Who doesn't have intrigues
18006 nowadays? Why, if he was so jealous, as I see things he should have
18007 shown it sooner, but he lets it go on for months. And then to call him
18008 out, reckoning on Fedya not fighting because he owed him money! What
18009 baseness! What meanness! I know you understand Fedya, my dear count;
18010 that, believe me, is why I am so fond of you. Few people do understand
18011 him. He is such a lofty, heavenly soul!"
18013 Dolokhov himself during his convalescence spoke to Rostov in a way no
18014 one would have expected of him.
18016 "I know people consider me a bad man!" he said. "Let them! I don't care
18017 a straw about anyone but those I love; but those I love, I love so that
18018 I would give my life for them, and the others I'd throttle if they stood
18019 in my way. I have an adored, a priceless mother, and two or three
18020 friends--you among them--and as for the rest I only care about them in
18021 so far as they are harmful or useful. And most of them are harmful,
18022 especially the women. Yes, dear boy," he continued, "I have met loving,
18023 noble, high-minded men, but I have not yet met any women--countesses or
18024 cooks--who were not venal. I have not yet met that divine purity and
18025 devotion I look for in women. If I found such a one I'd give my life for
18026 her! But those!..." and he made a gesture of contempt. "And believe me,
18027 if I still value my life it is only because I still hope to meet such a
18028 divine creature, who will regenerate, purify, and elevate me. But you
18029 don't understand it."
18031 "Oh, yes, I quite understand," answered Rostov, who was under his new
18032 friend's influence.
18034 In the autumn the Rostovs returned to Moscow. Early in the winter
18035 Denisov also came back and stayed with them. The first half of the
18036 winter of 1806, which Nicholas Rostov spent in Moscow, was one of the
18037 happiest, merriest times for him and the whole family. Nicholas brought
18038 many young men to his parents' house. Vera was a handsome girl of
18039 twenty; Sonya a girl of sixteen with all the charm of an opening flower;
18040 Natasha, half grown up and half child, was now childishly amusing, now
18041 girlishly enchanting.
18043 At that time in the Rostovs' house there prevailed an amorous atmosphere
18044 characteristic of homes where there are very young and very charming
18045 girls. Every young man who came to the house--seeing those
18046 impressionable, smiling young faces (smiling probably at their own
18047 happiness), feeling the eager bustle around him, and hearing the fitful
18048 bursts of song and music and the inconsequent but friendly prattle of
18049 young girls ready for anything and full of hope--experienced the same
18050 feeling; sharing with the young folk of the Rostovs' household a
18051 readiness to fall in love and an expectation of happiness.
18053 Among the young men introduced by Rostov one of the first was Dolokhov,
18054 whom everyone in the house liked except Natasha. She almost quarreled
18055 with her brother about him. She insisted that he was a bad man, and that
18056 in the duel with Bezukhov, Pierre was right and Dolokhov wrong, and
18057 further that he was disagreeable and unnatural.
18059 "There's nothing for me to understand," she cried out with resolute
18060 self-will, "he is wicked and heartless. There now, I like your Denisov
18061 though he is a rake and all that, still I like him; so you see I do
18062 understand. I don't know how to put it... with this one everything is
18063 calculated, and I don't like that. But Denisov..."
18065 "Oh, Denisov is quite different," replied Nicholas, implying that even
18066 Denisov was nothing compared to Dolokhov--"you must understand what a
18067 soul there is in Dolokhov, you should see him with his mother. What a
18070 "Well, I don't know about that, but I am uncomfortable with him. And do
18071 you know he has fallen in love with Sonya?"
18075 "I'm certain of it; you'll see."
18077 Natasha's prediction proved true. Dolokhov, who did not usually care for
18078 the society of ladies, began to come often to the house, and the
18079 question for whose sake he came (though no one spoke of it) was soon
18080 settled. He came because of Sonya. And Sonya, though she would never
18081 have dared to say so, knew it and blushed scarlet every time Dolokhov
18084 Dolokhov often dined at the Rostovs', never missed a performance at
18085 which they were present, and went to Iogel's balls for young people
18086 which the Rostovs always attended. He was pointedly attentive to Sonya
18087 and looked at her in such a way that not only could she not bear his
18088 glances without coloring, but even the old countess and Natasha blushed
18089 when they saw his looks.
18091 It was evident that this strange, strong man was under the irresistible
18092 influence of the dark, graceful girl who loved another.
18094 Rostov noticed something new in Dolokhov's relations with Sonya, but he
18095 did not explain to himself what these new relations were. "They're
18096 always in love with someone," he thought of Sonya and Natasha. But he
18097 was not as much at ease with Sonya and Dolokhov as before and was less
18098 frequently at home.
18100 In the autumn of 1806 everybody had again begun talking of the war with
18101 Napoleon with even greater warmth than the year before. Orders were
18102 given to raise recruits, ten men in every thousand for the regular army,
18103 and besides this, nine men in every thousand for the militia. Everywhere
18104 Bonaparte was anathematized and in Moscow nothing but the coming war was
18105 talked of. For the Rostov family the whole interest of these
18106 preparations for war lay in the fact that Nicholas would not hear of
18107 remaining in Moscow, and only awaited the termination of Denisov's
18108 furlough after Christmas to return with him to their regiment. His
18109 approaching departure did not prevent his amusing himself, but rather
18110 gave zest to his pleasures. He spent the greater part of his time away
18111 from home, at dinners, parties, and balls.
18118 On the third day after Christmas Nicholas dined at home, a thing he had
18119 rarely done of late. It was a grand farewell dinner, as he and Denisov
18120 were leaving to join their regiment after Epiphany. About twenty people
18121 were present, including Dolokhov and Denisov.
18123 Never had love been so much in the air, and never had the amorous
18124 atmosphere made itself so strongly felt in the Rostovs' house as at this
18125 holiday time. "Seize the moments of happiness, love and be loved! That
18126 is the only reality in the world, all else is folly. It is the one thing
18127 we are interested in here," said the spirit of the place.
18129 Nicholas, having as usual exhausted two pairs of horses, without
18130 visiting all the places he meant to go to and where he had been invited,
18131 returned home just before dinner. As soon as he entered he noticed and
18132 felt the tension of the amorous air in the house, and also noticed a
18133 curious embarrassment among some of those present. Sonya, Dolokhov, and
18134 the old countess were especially disturbed, and to a lesser degree
18135 Natasha. Nicholas understood that something must have happened between
18136 Sonya and Dolokhov before dinner, and with the kindly sensitiveness
18137 natural to him was very gentle and wary with them both at dinner. On
18138 that same evening there was to be one of the balls that Iogel (the
18139 dancing master) gave for his pupils during the holidays.
18141 "Nicholas, will you come to Iogel's? Please do!" said Natasha. "He asked
18142 you, and Vasili Dmitrich * is also going."
18147 "Where would I not go at the countess' command!" said Denisov, who at
18148 the Rostovs' had jocularly assumed the role of Natasha's knight. "I'm
18149 even weady to dance the pas de chale."
18151 "If I have time," answered Nicholas. "But I promised the Arkharovs; they
18154 "And you?" he asked Dolokhov, but as soon as he had asked the question
18155 he noticed that it should not have been put.
18157 "Perhaps," coldly and angrily replied Dolokhov, glancing at Sonya, and,
18158 scowling, he gave Nicholas just such a look as he had given Pierre at
18161 "There is something up," thought Nicholas, and he was further confirmed
18162 in this conclusion by the fact that Dolokhov left immediately after
18163 dinner. He called Natasha and asked her what was the matter.
18165 "And I was looking for you," said Natasha running out to him. "I told
18166 you, but you would not believe it," she said triumphantly. "He has
18167 proposed to Sonya!"
18169 Little as Nicholas had occupied himself with Sonya of late, something
18170 seemed to give way within him at this news. Dolokhov was a suitable and
18171 in some respects a brilliant match for the dowerless, orphan girl. From
18172 the point of view of the old countess and of society it was out of the
18173 question for her to refuse him. And therefore Nicholas' first feeling on
18174 hearing the news was one of anger with Sonya.... He tried to say,
18175 "That's capital; of course she'll forget her childish promises and
18176 accept the offer," but before he had time to say it Natasha began again.
18178 "And fancy! she refused him quite definitely!" adding, after a pause,
18179 "she told him she loved another."
18181 "Yes, my Sonya could not have done otherwise!" thought Nicholas.
18183 "Much as Mamma pressed her, she refused, and I know she won't change
18184 once she has said..."
18186 "And Mamma pressed her!" said Nicholas reproachfully.
18188 "Yes," said Natasha. "Do you know, Nicholas--don't be angry--but I know
18189 you will not marry her. I know, heaven knows how, but I know for certain
18190 that you won't marry her."
18192 "Now you don't know that at all!" said Nicholas. "But I must talk to
18193 her. What a darling Sonya is!" he added with a smile.
18195 "Ah, she is indeed a darling! I'll send her to you."
18197 And Natasha kissed her brother and ran away.
18199 A minute later Sonya came in with a frightened, guilty, and scared look.
18200 Nicholas went up to her and kissed her hand. This was the first time
18201 since his return that they had talked alone and about their love.
18203 "Sophie," he began, timidly at first and then more and more boldly, "if
18204 you wish to refuse one who is not only a brilliant and advantageous
18205 match but a splendid, noble fellow... he is my friend..."
18207 Sonya interrupted him.
18209 "I have already refused," she said hurriedly.
18211 "If you are refusing for my sake, I am afraid that I..."
18213 Sonya again interrupted. She gave him an imploring, frightened look.
18215 "Nicholas, don't tell me that!" she said.
18217 "No, but I must. It may be arrogant of me, but still it is best to say
18218 it. If you refuse him on my account, I must tell you the whole truth. I
18219 love you, and I think I love you more than anyone else...."
18221 "That is enough for me," said Sonya, blushing.
18223 "No, but I have been in love a thousand times and shall fall in love
18224 again, though for no one have I such a feeling of friendship,
18225 confidence, and love as I have for you. Then I am young. Mamma does not
18226 wish it. In a word, I make no promise. And I beg you to consider
18227 Dolokhov's offer," he said, articulating his friend's name with
18230 "Don't say that to me! I want nothing. I love you as a brother and
18231 always shall, and I want nothing more."
18233 "You are an angel: I am not worthy of you, but I am afraid of misleading
18236 And Nicholas again kissed her hand.
18243 Iogel's were the most enjoyable balls in Moscow. So said the mothers as
18244 they watched their young people executing their newly learned steps, and
18245 so said the youths and maidens themselves as they danced till they were
18246 ready to drop, and so said the grown-up young men and women who came to
18247 these balls with an air of condescension and found them most enjoyable.
18248 That year two marriages had come of these balls. The two pretty young
18249 Princesses Gorchakov met suitors there and were married and so further
18250 increased the fame of these dances. What distinguished them from others
18251 was the absence of host or hostess and the presence of the good-natured
18252 Iogel, flying about like a feather and bowing according to the rules of
18253 his art, as he collected the tickets from all his visitors. There was
18254 the fact that only those came who wished to dance and amuse themselves
18255 as girls of thirteen and fourteen do who are wearing long dresses for
18256 the first time. With scarcely any exceptions they all were, or seemed to
18257 be, pretty--so rapturous were their smiles and so sparkling their eyes.
18258 Sometimes the best of the pupils, of whom Natasha, who was exceptionally
18259 graceful, was first, even danced the pas de chale, but at this last ball
18260 only the ecossaise, the anglaise, and the mazurka, which was just coming
18261 into fashion, were danced. Iogel had taken a ballroom in Bezukhov's
18262 house, and the ball, as everyone said, was a great success. There were
18263 many pretty girls and the Rostov girls were among the prettiest. They
18264 were both particularly happy and gay. That evening, proud of Dolokhov's
18265 proposal, her refusal, and her explanation with Nicholas, Sonya twirled
18266 about before she left home so that the maid could hardly get her hair
18267 plaited, and she was transparently radiant with impulsive joy.
18269 Natasha no less proud of her first long dress and of being at a real
18270 ball was even happier. They were both dressed in white muslin with pink
18273 Natasha fell in love the very moment she entered the ballroom. She was
18274 not in love with anyone in particular, but with everyone. Whatever
18275 person she happened to look at she was in love with for that moment.
18277 "Oh, how delightful it is!" she kept saying, running up to Sonya.
18279 Nicholas and Denisov were walking up and down, looking with kindly
18280 patronage at the dancers.
18282 "How sweet she is--she will be a weal beauty!" said Denisov.
18286 "Countess Natasha," answered Denisov.
18288 "And how she dances! What gwace!" he said again after a pause.
18290 "Who are you talking about?"
18292 "About your sister," ejaculated Denisov testily.
18296 "My dear count, you were one of my best pupils--you must dance," said
18297 little Iogel coming up to Nicholas. "Look how many charming young
18298 ladies-" He turned with the same request to Denisov who was also a
18299 former pupil of his.
18301 "No, my dear fellow, I'll be a wallflower," said Denisov. "Don't you
18302 wecollect what bad use I made of your lessons?"
18305 "Oh no!" said Iogel, hastening to reassure him. "You were only
18306 inattentive, but you had talent--oh yes, you had talent!"
18308 The band struck up the newly introduced mazurka. Nicholas could not
18309 refuse Iogel and asked Sonya to dance. Denisov sat down by the old
18310 ladies and, leaning on his saber and beating time with his foot, told
18311 them something funny and kept them amused, while he watched the young
18312 people dancing, Iogel with Natasha, his pride and his best pupil, were
18313 the first couple. Noiselessly, skillfully stepping with his little feet
18314 in low shoes, Iogel flew first across the hall with Natasha, who, though
18315 shy, went on carefully executing her steps. Denisov did not take his
18316 eyes off her and beat time with his saber in a way that clearly
18317 indicated that if he was not dancing it was because he would not and not
18318 because he could not. In the middle of a figure he beckoned to Rostov
18321 "This is not at all the thing," he said. "What sort of Polish mazuwka is
18322 this? But she does dance splendidly."
18324 Knowing that Denisov had a reputation even in Poland for the masterly
18325 way in which he danced the mazurka, Nicholas ran up to Natasha:
18327 "Go and choose Denisov. He is a real dancer, a wonder!" he said.
18329 When it came to Natasha's turn to choose a partner, she rose and,
18330 tripping rapidly across in her little shoes trimmed with bows, ran
18331 timidly to the corner where Denisov sat. She saw that everybody was
18332 looking at her and waiting. Nicholas saw that Denisov was refusing
18333 though he smiled delightedly. He ran up to them.
18335 "Please, Vasili Dmitrich," Natasha was saying, "do come!"
18337 "Oh no, let me off, Countess," Denisov replied.
18339 "Now then, Vaska," said Nicholas.
18341 "They coax me as if I were Vaska the cat!" said Denisov jokingly.
18343 "I'll sing for you a whole evening," said Natasha.
18345 "Oh, the faiwy! She can do anything with me!" said Denisov, and he
18346 unhooked his saber. He came out from behind the chairs, clasped his
18347 partner's hand firmly, threw back his head, and advanced his foot,
18348 waiting for the beat. Only on horse back and in the mazurka was
18349 Denisov's short stature not noticeable and he looked the fine fellow he
18350 felt himself to be. At the right beat of the music he looked sideways at
18351 his partner with a merry and triumphant air, suddenly stamped with one
18352 foot, bounded from the floor like a ball, and flew round the room taking
18353 his partner with him. He glided silently on one foot half across the
18354 room, and seeming not to notice the chairs was dashing straight at them,
18355 when suddenly, clinking his spurs and spreading out his legs, he stopped
18356 short on his heels, stood so a second, stamped on the spot clanking his
18357 spurs, whirled rapidly round, and, striking his left heel against his
18358 right, flew round again in a circle. Natasha guessed what he meant to
18359 do, and abandoning herself to him followed his lead hardly knowing how.
18360 First he spun her round, holding her now with his left, now with his
18361 right hand, then falling on one knee he twirled her round him, and again
18362 jumping up, dashed so impetuously forward that it seemed as if he would
18363 rush through the whole suite of rooms without drawing breath, and then
18364 he suddenly stopped and performed some new and unexpected steps. When at
18365 last, smartly whirling his partner round in front of her chair, he drew
18366 up with a click of his spurs and bowed to her, Natasha did not even make
18367 him a curtsy. She fixed her eyes on him in amazement, smiling as if she
18368 did not recognize him.
18370 "What does this mean?" she brought out.
18372 Although Iogel did not acknowledge this to be the real mazurka, everyone
18373 was delighted with Denisov's skill, he was asked again and again as a
18374 partner, and the old men began smilingly to talk about Poland and the
18375 good old days. Denisov, flushed after the mazurka and mopping himself
18376 with his handkerchief, sat down by Natasha and did not leave her for the
18377 rest of the evening.
18384 For two days after that Rostov did not see Dolokhov at his own or at
18385 Dolokhov's home: on the third day he received a note from him:
18387 As I do not intend to be at your house again for reasons you know of,
18388 and am going to rejoin my regiment, I am giving a farewell supper
18389 tonight to my friends--come to the English Hotel.
18391 About ten o'clock Rostov went to the English Hotel straight from the
18392 theater, where he had been with his family and Denisov. He was at once
18393 shown to the best room, which Dolokhov had taken for that evening. Some
18394 twenty men were gathered round a table at which Dolokhov sat between two
18395 candles. On the table was a pile of gold and paper money, and he was
18396 keeping the bank. Rostov had not seen him since his proposal and Sonya's
18397 refusal and felt uncomfortable at the thought of how they would meet.
18399 Dolokhov's clear, cold glance met Rostov as soon as he entered the door,
18400 as though he had long expected him.
18402 "It's a long time since we met," he said. "Thanks for coming. I'll just
18403 finish dealing, and then Ilyushka will come with his chorus."
18405 "I called once or twice at your house," said Rostov, reddening.
18407 Dolokhov made no reply.
18409 "You may punt," he said.
18411 Rostov recalled at that moment a strange conversation he had once had
18412 with Dolokhov. "None but fools trust to luck in play," Dolokhov had then
18415 "Or are you afraid to play with me?" Dolokhov now asked as if guessing
18418 Beneath his smile Rostov saw in him the mood he had shown at the club
18419 dinner and at other times, when as if tired of everyday life he had felt
18420 a need to escape from it by some strange, and usually cruel, action.
18422 Rostov felt ill at ease. He tried, but failed, to find some joke with
18423 which to reply to Dolokhov's words. But before he had thought of
18424 anything, Dolokhov, looking straight in his face, said slowly and
18425 deliberately so that everyone could hear:
18427 "Do you remember we had a talk about cards... 'He's a fool who trusts to
18428 luck, one should make certain,' and I want to try."
18430 "To try his luck or the certainty?" Rostov asked himself.
18432 "Well, you'd better not play," Dolokhov added, and springing a new pack
18433 of cards said: "Bank, gentlemen!"
18435 Moving the money forward he prepared to deal. Rostov sat down by his
18436 side and at first did not play. Dolokhov kept glancing at him.
18438 "Why don't you play?" he asked.
18440 And strange to say Nicholas felt that he could not help taking up a
18441 card, putting a small stake on it, and beginning to play.
18443 "I have no money with me," he said.
18447 Rostov staked five rubles on a card and lost, staked again, and again
18448 lost. Dolokhov "killed," that is, beat, ten cards of Rostov's running.
18450 "Gentlemen," said Dolokhov after he had dealt for some time. "Please
18451 place your money on the cards or I may get muddled in the reckoning."
18453 One of the players said he hoped he might be trusted.
18455 "Yes, you might, but I am afraid of getting the accounts mixed. So I ask
18456 you to put the money on your cards," replied Dolokhov. "Don't stint
18457 yourself, we'll settle afterwards," he added, turning to Rostov.
18459 The game continued; a waiter kept handing round champagne.
18461 All Rostov's cards were beaten and he had eight hundred rubles scored up
18462 against him. He wrote "800 rubles" on a card, but while the waiter
18463 filled his glass he changed his mind and altered it to his usual stake
18466 "Leave it," said Dolokhov, though he did not seem to be even looking at
18467 Rostov, "you'll win it back all the sooner. I lose to the others but win
18468 from you. Or are you afraid of me?" he asked again.
18470 Rostov submitted. He let the eight hundred remain and laid down a seven
18471 of hearts with a torn corner, which he had picked up from the floor. He
18472 well remembered that seven afterwards. He laid down the seven of hearts,
18473 on which with a broken bit of chalk he had written "800 rubles" in clear
18474 upright figures; he emptied the glass of warm champagne that was handed
18475 him, smiled at Dolokhov's words, and with a sinking heart, waiting for a
18476 seven to turn up, gazed at Dolokhov's hands which held the pack. Much
18477 depended on Rostov's winning or losing on that seven of hearts. On the
18478 previous Sunday the old count had given his son two thousand rubles, and
18479 though he always disliked speaking of money difficulties had told
18480 Nicholas that this was all he could let him have till May, and asked him
18481 to be more economical this time. Nicholas had replied that it would be
18482 more than enough for him and that he gave his word of honor not to take
18483 anything more till the spring. Now only twelve hundred rubles was left
18484 of that money, so that this seven of hearts meant for him not only the
18485 loss of sixteen hundred rubles, but the necessity of going back on his
18486 word. With a sinking heart he watched Dolokhov's hands and thought, "Now
18487 then, make haste and let me have this card and I'll take my cap and
18488 drive home to supper with Denisov, Natasha, and Sonya, and will
18489 certainly never touch a card again." At that moment his home life, jokes
18490 with Petya, talks with Sonya, duets with Natasha, piquet with his
18491 father, and even his comfortable bed in the house on the Povarskaya rose
18492 before him with such vividness, clearness, and charm that it seemed as
18493 if it were all a lost and unappreciated bliss, long past. He could not
18494 conceive that a stupid chance, letting the seven be dealt to the right
18495 rather than to the left, might deprive him of all this happiness, newly
18496 appreciated and newly illumined, and plunge him into the depths of
18497 unknown and undefined misery. That could not be, yet he awaited with a
18498 sinking heart the movement of Dolokhov's hands. Those broad, reddish
18499 hands, with hairy wrists visible from under the shirt cuffs, laid down
18500 the pack and took up a glass and a pipe that were handed him.
18502 "So you are not afraid to play with me?" repeated Dolokhov, and as if
18503 about to tell a good story he put down the cards, leaned back in his
18504 chair, and began deliberately with a smile:
18506 "Yes, gentlemen, I've been told there's a rumor going about Moscow that
18507 I'm a sharper, so I advise you to be careful."
18509 "Come now, deal!" exclaimed Rostov.
18511 "Oh, those Moscow gossips!" said Dolokhov, and he took up the cards with
18514 "Aah!" Rostov almost screamed lifting both hands to his head. The seven
18515 he needed was lying uppermost, the first card in the pack. He had lost
18516 more than he could pay.
18518 "Still, don't ruin yourself!" said Dolokhov with a side glance at Rostov
18519 as he continued to deal.
18526 An hour and a half later most of the players were but little interested
18529 The whole interest was concentrated on Rostov. Instead of sixteen
18530 hundred rubles he had a long column of figures scored against him, which
18531 he had reckoned up to ten thousand, but that now, as he vaguely
18532 supposed, must have risen to fifteen thousand. In reality it already
18533 exceeded twenty thousand rubles. Dolokhov was no longer listening to
18534 stories or telling them, but followed every movement of Rostov's hands
18535 and occasionally ran his eyes over the score against him. He had decided
18536 to play until that score reached forty-three thousand. He had fixed on
18537 that number because forty-three was the sum of his and Sonya's joint
18538 ages. Rostov, leaning his head on both hands, sat at the table which was
18539 scrawled over with figures, wet with spilled wine, and littered with
18540 cards. One tormenting impression did not leave him: that those broad-
18541 boned reddish hands with hairy wrists visible from under the shirt
18542 sleeves, those hands which he loved and hated, held him in their power.
18544 "Six hundred rubles, ace, a corner, a nine... winning it back's
18545 impossible... Oh, how pleasant it was at home!... The knave, double or
18546 quits... it can't be!... And why is he doing this to me?" Rostov
18547 pondered. Sometimes he staked a large sum, but Dolokhov refused to
18548 accept it and fixed the stake himself. Nicholas submitted to him, and at
18549 one moment prayed to God as he had done on the battlefield at the bridge
18550 over the Enns, and then guessed that the card that came first to hand
18551 from the crumpled heap under the table would save him, now counted the
18552 cords on his coat and took a card with that number and tried staking the
18553 total of his losses on it, then he looked round for aid from the other
18554 players, or peered at the now cold face of Dolokhov and tried to read
18555 what was passing in his mind.
18557 "He knows of course what this loss means to me. He can't want my ruin.
18558 Wasn't he my friend? Wasn't I fond of him? But it's not his fault.
18559 What's he to do if he has such luck?... And it's not my fault either,"
18560 he thought to himself, "I have done nothing wrong. Have I killed anyone,
18561 or insulted or wished harm to anyone? Why such a terrible misfortune?
18562 And when did it begin? Such a little while ago I came to this table with
18563 the thought of winning a hundred rubles to buy that casket for Mamma's
18564 name day and then going home. I was so happy, so free, so lighthearted!
18565 And I did not realize how happy I was! When did that end and when did
18566 this new, terrible state of things begin? What marked the change? I sat
18567 all the time in this same place at this table, chose and placed cards,
18568 and watched those broad-boned agile hands in the same way. When did it
18569 happen and what has happened? I am well and strong and still the same
18570 and in the same place. No, it can't be! Surely it will all end in
18573 He was flushed and bathed in perspiration, though the room was not hot.
18574 His face was terrible and piteous to see, especially from its helpless
18575 efforts to seem calm.
18577 The score against him reached the fateful sum of forty-three thousand.
18578 Rostov had just prepared a card, by bending the corner of which he meant
18579 to double the three thousand just put down to his score, when Dolokhov,
18580 slamming down the pack of cards, put it aside and began rapidly adding
18581 up the total of Rostov's debt, breaking the chalk as he marked the
18582 figures in his clear, bold hand.
18584 "Supper, it's time for supper! And here are the gypsies!"
18586 Some swarthy men and women were really entering from the cold outside
18587 and saying something in their gypsy accents. Nicholas understood that it
18588 was all over; but he said in an indifferent tone:
18590 "Well, won't you go on? I had a splendid card all ready," as if it were
18591 the fun of the game which interested him most.
18593 "It's all up! I'm lost!" thought he. "Now a bullet through my brain--
18594 that's all that's left me!" And at the same time he said in a cheerful
18597 "Come now, just this one more little card!"
18599 "All right!" said Dolokhov, having finished the addition. "All right!
18600 Twenty-one rubles," he said, pointing to the figure twenty-one by which
18601 the total exceeded the round sum of forty-three thousand; and taking up
18602 a pack he prepared to deal. Rostov submissively unbent the corner of his
18603 card and, instead of the six thousand he had intended, carefully wrote
18606 "It's all the same to me," he said. "I only want to see whether you will
18607 let me win this ten, or beat it."
18609 Dolokhov began to deal seriously. Oh, how Rostov detested at that moment
18610 those hands with their short reddish fingers and hairy wrists, which
18611 held him in their power.... The ten fell to him.
18613 "You owe forty-three thousand, Count," said Dolokhov, and stretching
18614 himself he rose from the table. "One does get tired sitting so long," he
18617 "Yes, I'm tired too," said Rostov.
18619 Dolokhov cut him short, as if to remind him that it was not for him to
18622 "When am I to receive the money, Count?"
18624 Rostov, flushing, drew Dolokhov into the next room.
18626 "I cannot pay it all immediately. Will you take an I.O.U.?" he said.
18628 "I say, Rostov," said Dolokhov clearly, smiling and looking Nicholas
18629 straight in the eyes, "you know the saying, 'Lucky in love, unlucky at
18630 cards.' Your cousin is in love with you, I know."
18632 "Oh, it's terrible to feel oneself so in this man's power," thought
18633 Rostov. He knew what a shock he would inflict on his father and mother
18634 by the news of this loss, he knew what a relief it would be to escape it
18635 all, and felt that Dolokhov knew that he could save him from all this
18636 shame and sorrow, but wanted now to play with him as a cat does with a
18639 "Your cousin..." Dolokhov started to say, but Nicholas interrupted him.
18641 "My cousin has nothing to do with this and it's not necessary to mention
18642 her!" he exclaimed fiercely.
18644 "Then when am I to have it?"
18646 "Tomorrow," replied Rostov and left the room.
18653 To say "tomorrow" and keep up a dignified tone was not difficult, but to
18654 go home alone, see his sisters, brother, mother, and father, confess and
18655 ask for money he had no right to after giving his word of honor, was
18658 At home, they had not yet gone to bed. The young people, after returning
18659 from the theater, had had supper and were grouped round the clavichord.
18660 As soon as Nicholas entered, he was enfolded in that poetic atmosphere
18661 of love which pervaded the Rostov household that winter and, now after
18662 Dolokhov's proposal and Iogel's ball, seemed to have grown thicker round
18663 Sonya and Natasha as the air does before a thunderstorm. Sonya and
18664 Natasha, in the light-blue dresses they had worn at the theater, looking
18665 pretty and conscious of it, were standing by the clavichord, happy and
18666 smiling. Vera was playing chess with Shinshin in the drawing room. The
18667 old countess, waiting for the return of her husband and son, sat playing
18668 patience with the old gentlewoman who lived in their house. Denisov,
18669 with sparkling eyes and ruffled hair, sat at the clavichord striking
18670 chords with his short fingers, his legs thrown back and his eyes rolling
18671 as he sang, with his small, husky, but true voice, some verses called
18672 "Enchantress," which he had composed, and to which he was trying to fit
18676 Enchantress, say, to my forsaken lyre What magic power is this recalls
18677 me still? What spark has set my inmost soul on fire, What is this bliss
18678 that makes my fingers thrill?
18680 He was singing in passionate tones, gazing with his sparkling black-
18681 agate eyes at the frightened and happy Natasha.
18683 "Splendid! Excellent!" exclaimed Natasha. "Another verse," she said,
18684 without noticing Nicholas.
18686 "Everything's still the same with them," thought Nicholas, glancing into
18687 the drawing room, where he saw Vera and his mother with the old lady.
18689 "Ah, and here's Nicholas!" cried Natasha, running up to him.
18691 "Is Papa at home?" he asked.
18693 "I am so glad you've come!" said Natasha, without answering him. "We are
18694 enjoying ourselves! Vasili Dmitrich is staying a day longer for my sake!
18697 "No, Papa is not back yet," said Sonya.
18699 "Nicholas, have you come? Come here, dear!" called the old countess from
18702 Nicholas went to her, kissed her hand, and sitting down silently at her
18703 table began to watch her hands arranging the cards. From the dancing
18704 room, they still heard the laughter and merry voices trying to persuade
18707 "All wight! All wight!" shouted Denisov. "It's no good making excuses
18708 now! It's your turn to sing the ba'cawolla--I entweat you!"
18710 The countess glanced at her silent son.
18712 "What is the matter?" she asked.
18714 "Oh, nothing," said he, as if weary of being continually asked the same
18715 question. "Will Papa be back soon?"
18719 "Everything's the same with them. They know nothing about it! Where am I
18720 to go?" thought Nicholas, and went again into the dancing room where the
18723 Sonya was sitting at the clavichord, playing the prelude to Denisov's
18724 favorite barcarolle. Natasha was preparing to sing. Denisov was looking
18725 at her with enraptured eyes.
18727 Nicholas began pacing up and down the room.
18729 "Why do they want to make her sing? How can she sing? There's nothing to
18730 be happy about!" thought he.
18732 Sonya struck the first chord of the prelude.
18734 "My God, I'm a ruined and dishonored man! A bullet through my brain is
18735 the only thing left me--not singing!" his thoughts ran on. "Go away? But
18736 where to? It's one--let them sing!"
18738 He continued to pace the room, looking gloomily at Denisov and the girls
18739 and avoiding their eyes.
18741 "Nikolenka, what is the matter?" Sonya's eyes fixed on him seemed to
18742 ask. She noticed at once that something had happened to him.
18744 Nicholas turned away from her. Natasha too, with her quick instinct, had
18745 instantly noticed her brother's condition. But, though she noticed it,
18746 she was herself in such high spirits at that moment, so far from sorrow,
18747 sadness, or self-reproach, that she purposely deceived herself as young
18748 people often do. "No, I am too happy now to spoil my enjoyment by
18749 sympathy with anyone's sorrow," she felt, and she said to herself: "No,
18750 I must be mistaken, he must be feeling happy, just as I am."
18752 "Now, Sonya!" she said, going to the very middle of the room, where she
18753 considered the resonance was best.
18755 Having lifted her head and let her arms droop lifelessly, as ballet
18756 dancers do, Natasha, rising energetically from her heels to her toes,
18757 stepped to the middle of the room and stood still.
18759 "Yes, that's me!" she seemed to say, answering the rapt gaze with which
18760 Denisov followed her.
18762 "And what is she so pleased about?" thought Nicholas, looking at his
18763 sister. "Why isn't she dull and ashamed?"
18765 Natasha took the first note, her throat swelled, her chest rose, her
18766 eyes became serious. At that moment she was oblivious of her
18767 surroundings, and from her smiling lips flowed sounds which anyone may
18768 produce at the same intervals and hold for the same time, but which
18769 leave you cold a thousand times and the thousand and first time thrill
18770 you and make you weep.
18772 Natasha, that winter, had for the first time begun to sing seriously,
18773 mainly because Denisov so delighted in her singing. She no longer sang
18774 as a child, there was no longer in her singing that comical, childish,
18775 painstaking effect that had been in it before; but she did not yet sing
18776 well, as all the connoisseurs who heard her said: "It is not trained,
18777 but it is a beautiful voice that must be trained." Only they generally
18778 said this some time after she had finished singing. While that untrained
18779 voice, with its incorrect breathing and labored transitions, was
18780 sounding, even the connoisseurs said nothing, but only delighted in it
18781 and wished to hear it again. In her voice there was a virginal
18782 freshness, an unconsciousness of her own powers, and an as yet untrained
18783 velvety softness, which so mingled with her lack of art in singing that
18784 it seemed as if nothing in that voice could be altered without spoiling
18787 "What is this?" thought Nicholas, listening to her with widely opened
18788 eyes. "What has happened to her? How she is singing today!" And suddenly
18789 the whole world centered for him on anticipation of the next note, the
18790 next phrase, and everything in the world was divided into three beats:
18791 "Oh mio crudele affetto."... One, two, three... one, two, three...
18792 One... "Oh mio crudele affetto."... One, two, three... One. "Oh, this
18793 senseless life of ours!" thought Nicholas. "All this misery, and money,
18794 and Dolokhov, and anger, and honor--it's all nonsense... but this is
18795 real.... Now then, Natasha, now then, dearest! Now then, darling! How
18796 will she take that si? She's taken it! Thank God!" And without noticing
18797 that he was singing, to strengthen the si he sung a second, a third
18798 below the high note. "Ah, God! How fine! Did I really take it? How
18799 fortunate!" he thought.
18801 Oh, how that chord vibrated, and how moved was something that was finest
18802 in Rostov's soul! And this something was apart from everything else in
18803 the world and above everything in the world. "What were losses, and
18804 Dolokhov, and words of honor?... All nonsense! One might kill and rob
18805 and yet be happy..."
18812 It was long since Rostov had felt such enjoyment from music as he did
18813 that day. But no sooner had Natasha finished her barcarolle than reality
18814 again presented itself. He got up without saying a word and went
18815 downstairs to his own room. A quarter of an hour later the old count
18816 came in from his club, cheerful and contented. Nicholas, hearing him
18817 drive up, went to meet him.
18819 "Well--had a good time?" said the old count, smiling gaily and proudly
18822 Nicholas tried to say "Yes," but could not: and he nearly burst into
18823 sobs. The count was lighting his pipe and did not notice his son's
18826 "Ah, it can't be avoided!" thought Nicholas, for the first and last
18827 time. And suddenly, in the most casual tone, which made him feel ashamed
18828 of himself, he said, as if merely asking his father to let him have the
18829 carriage to drive to town:
18831 "Papa, I have come on a matter of business. I was nearly forgetting. I
18834 "Dear me!" said his father, who was in a specially good humor. "I told
18835 you it would not be enough. How much?"
18837 "Very much," said Nicholas flushing, and with a stupid careless smile,
18838 for which he was long unable to forgive himself, "I have lost a little,
18839 I mean a good deal, a great deal--forty three thousand."
18841 "What! To whom?... Nonsense!" cried the count, suddenly reddening with
18842 an apoplectic flush over neck and nape as old people do.
18844 "I promised to pay tomorrow," said Nicholas.
18846 "Well!..." said the old count, spreading out his arms and sinking
18847 helplessly on the sofa.
18849 "It can't be helped It happens to everyone!" said the son, with a bold,
18850 free, and easy tone, while in his soul he regarded himself as a
18851 worthless scoundrel whose whole life could not atone for his crime. He
18852 longed to kiss his father's hands and kneel to beg his forgiveness, but
18853 said, in a careless and even rude voice, that it happens to everyone!
18855 The old count cast down his eyes on hearing his son's words and began
18856 bustlingly searching for something.
18858 "Yes, yes," he muttered, "it will be difficult, I fear, difficult to
18859 raise... happens to everybody! Yes, who has not done it?"
18861 And with a furtive glance at his son's face, the count went out of the
18862 room.... Nicholas had been prepared for resistance, but had not at all
18865 "Papa! Pa-pa!" he called after him, sobbing, "forgive me!" And seizing
18866 his father's hand, he pressed it to his lips and burst into tears.
18868 While father and son were having their explanation, the mother and
18869 daughter were having one not less important. Natasha came running to her
18870 mother, quite excited.
18872 "Mamma!... Mamma!... He has made me..."
18876 "Made, made me an offer, Mamma! Mamma!" she exclaimed.
18878 The countess did not believe her ears. Denisov had proposed. To whom? To
18879 this chit of a girl, Natasha, who not so long ago was playing with dolls
18880 and who was still having lessons.
18882 "Don't, Natasha! What nonsense!" she said, hoping it was a joke.
18884 "Nonsense, indeed! I am telling you the fact," said Natasha indignantly.
18885 "I come to ask you what to do, and you call it 'nonsense!'"
18887 The countess shrugged her shoulders.
18889 "If it is true that Monsieur Denisov has made you a proposal, tell him
18890 he is a fool, that's all!"
18892 "No, he's not a fool!" replied Natasha indignantly and seriously.
18894 "Well then, what do you want? You're all in love nowadays. Well, if you
18895 are in love, marry him!" said the countess, with a laugh of annoyance.
18896 "Good luck to you!"
18898 "No, Mamma, I'm not in love with him, I suppose I'm not in love with
18901 "Well then, tell him so."
18903 "Mamma, are you cross? Don't be cross, dear! Is it my fault?"
18905 "No, but what is it, my dear? Do you want me to go and tell him?" said
18906 the countess smiling.
18908 "No, I will do it myself, only tell me what to say. It's all very well
18909 for you," said Natasha, with a responsive smile. "You should have seen
18910 how he said it! I know he did not mean to say it, but it came out
18913 "Well, all the same, you must refuse him."
18915 "No, I mustn't. I am so sorry for him! He's so nice."
18917 "Well then, accept his offer. It's high time for you to be married,"
18918 answered the countess sharply and sarcastically.
18920 "No, Mamma, but I'm so sorry for him. I don't know how I'm to say it."
18922 "And there's nothing for you to say. I shall speak to him myself," said
18923 the countess, indignant that they should have dared to treat this little
18924 Natasha as grown up.
18926 "No, not on any account! I will tell him myself, and you'll listen at
18927 the door," and Natasha ran across the drawing room to the dancing hall,
18928 where Denisov was sitting on the same chair by the clavichord with his
18931 He jumped up at the sound of her light step.
18933 "Nataly," he said, moving with rapid steps toward her, "decide my fate.
18934 It is in your hands."
18936 "Vasili Dmitrich, I'm so sorry for you!... No, but you are so nice...
18937 but it won't do...not that... but as a friend, I shall always love you."
18939 Denisov bent over her hand and she heard strange sounds she did not
18940 understand. She kissed his rough curly black head. At this instant, they
18941 heard the quick rustle of the countess' dress. She came up to them.
18943 "Vasili Dmitrich, I thank you for the honor," she said, with an
18944 embarrassed voice, though it sounded severe to Denisov--"but my daughter
18945 is so young, and I thought that, as my son's friend, you would have
18946 addressed yourself first to me. In that case you would not have obliged
18947 me to give this refusal."
18949 "Countess..." said Denisov, with downcast eyes and a guilty face. He
18950 tried to say more, but faltered.
18952 Natasha could not remain calm, seeing him in such a plight. She began to
18955 "Countess, I have done w'ong," Denisov went on in an unsteady voice,
18956 "but believe me, I so adore your daughter and all your family that I
18957 would give my life twice over..." He looked at the countess, and seeing
18958 her severe face said: "Well, good-by, Countess," and kissing her hand,
18959 he left the room with quick resolute strides, without looking at
18962 Next day Rostov saw Denisov off. He did not wish to stay another day in
18963 Moscow. All Denisov's Moscow friends gave him a farewell entertainment
18964 at the gypsies', with the result that he had no recollection of how he
18965 was put in the sleigh or of the first three stages of his journey.
18967 After Denisov's departure, Rostov spent another fortnight in Moscow,
18968 without going out of the house, waiting for the money his father could
18969 not at once raise, and he spent most of his time in the girls' room.
18971 Sonya was more tender and devoted to him than ever. It was as if she
18972 wanted to show him that his losses were an achievement that made her
18973 love him all the more, but Nicholas now considered himself unworthy of
18976 He filled the girls' albums with verses and music, and having at last
18977 sent Dolokhov the whole forty-three thousand rubles and received his
18978 receipt, he left at the end of November, without taking leave of any of
18979 his acquaintances, to overtake his regiment which was already in Poland.
18981 BOOK FIVE: 1806 - 07
18988 After his interview with his wife Pierre left for Petersburg. At the
18989 Torzhok post station, either there were no horses or the postmaster
18990 would not supply them. Pierre was obliged to wait. Without undressing,
18991 he lay down on the leather sofa in front of a round table, put his big
18992 feet in their overboots on the table, and began to reflect.
18994 "Will you have the portmanteaus brought in? And a bed got ready, and
18995 tea?" asked his valet.
18997 Pierre gave no answer, for he neither heard nor saw anything. He had
18998 begun to think of the last station and was still pondering on the same
18999 question--one so important that he took no notice of what went on around
19000 him. Not only was he indifferent as to whether he got to Petersburg
19001 earlier or later, or whether he secured accommodation at this station,
19002 but compared to the thoughts that now occupied him it was a matter of
19003 indifference whether he remained there for a few hours or for the rest
19006 The postmaster, his wife, the valet, and a peasant woman selling Torzhok
19007 embroidery came into the room offering their services. Without changing
19008 his careless attitude, Pierre looked at them over his spectacles unable
19009 to understand what they wanted or how they could go on living without
19010 having solved the problems that so absorbed him. He had been engrossed
19011 by the same thoughts ever since the day he returned from Sokolniki after
19012 the duel and had spent that first agonizing, sleepless night. But now,
19013 in the solitude of the journey, they seized him with special force. No
19014 matter what he thought about, he always returned to these same questions
19015 which he could not solve and yet could not cease to ask himself. It was
19016 as if the thread of the chief screw which held his life together were
19017 stripped, so that the screw could not get in or out, but went on turning
19018 uselessly in the same place.
19020 The postmaster came in and began obsequiously to beg his excellency to
19021 wait only two hours, when, come what might, he would let his excellency
19022 have the courier horses. It was plain that he was lying and only wanted
19023 to get more money from the traveler.
19025 "Is this good or bad?" Pierre asked himself. "It is good for me, bad for
19026 another traveler, and for himself it's unavoidable, because he needs
19027 money for food; the man said an officer had once given him a thrashing
19028 for letting a private traveler have the courier horses. But the officer
19029 thrashed him because he had to get on as quickly as possible. And I,"
19030 continued Pierre, "shot Dolokhov because I considered myself injured,
19031 and Louis XVI was executed because they considered him a criminal, and a
19032 year later they executed those who executed him--also for some reason.
19033 What is bad? What is good? What should one love and what hate? What does
19034 one live for? And what am I? What is life, and what is death? What power
19037 There was no answer to any of these questions, except one, and that not
19038 a logical answer and not at all a reply to them. The answer was: "You'll
19039 die and all will end. You'll die and know all, or cease asking." But
19040 dying was also dreadful.
19042 The Torzhok peddler woman, in a whining voice, went on offering her
19043 wares, especially a pair of goatskin slippers. "I have hundreds of
19044 rubles I don't know what to do with, and she stands in her tattered
19045 cloak looking timidly at me," he thought. "And what does she want the
19046 money for? As if that money could add a hair's breadth to happiness or
19047 peace of mind. Can anything in the world make her or me less a prey to
19048 evil and death?--death which ends all and must come today or tomorrow--
19049 at any rate, in an instant as compared with eternity." And again he
19050 twisted the screw with the stripped thread, and again it turned
19051 uselessly in the same place.
19053 His servant handed him a half-cut novel, in the form of letters, by
19054 Madame de Souza. He began reading about the sufferings and virtuous
19055 struggles of a certain Emilie de Mansfeld. "And why did she resist her
19056 seducer when she loved him?" he thought. "God could not have put into
19057 her heart an impulse that was against His will. My wife--as she once
19058 was--did not struggle, and perhaps she was right. Nothing has been found
19059 out, nothing discovered," Pierre again said to himself. "All we can know
19060 is that we know nothing. And that's the height of human wisdom."
19062 Everything within and around him seemed confused, senseless, and
19063 repellent. Yet in this very repugnance to all his circumstances Pierre
19064 found a kind of tantalizing satisfaction.
19066 "I make bold to ask your excellency to move a little for this
19067 gentleman," said the postmaster, entering the room followed by another
19068 traveler, also detained for lack of horses.
19070 The newcomer was a short, large-boned, yellow-faced, wrinkled old man,
19071 with gray bushy eyebrows overhanging bright eyes of an indefinite
19074 Pierre took his feet off the table, stood up, and lay down on a bed that
19075 had been got ready for him, glancing now and then at the newcomer, who,
19076 with a gloomy and tired face, was wearily taking off his wraps with the
19077 aid of his servant, and not looking at Pierre. With a pair of felt boots
19078 on his thin bony legs, and keeping on a worn, nankeen-covered, sheepskin
19079 coat, the traveler sat down on the sofa, leaned back his big head with
19080 its broad temples and close-cropped hair, and looked at Bezukhov. The
19081 stern, shrewd, and penetrating expression of that look struck Pierre. He
19082 felt a wish to speak to the stranger, but by the time he had made up his
19083 mind to ask him a question about the roads, the traveler had closed his
19084 eyes. His shriveled old hands were folded and on the finger of one of
19085 them Pierre noticed a large cast iron ring with a seal representing a
19086 death's head. The stranger sat without stirring, either resting or, as
19087 it seemed to Pierre, sunk in profound and calm meditation. His servant
19088 was also a yellow, wrinkled old man, without beard or mustache,
19089 evidently not because he was shaven but because they had never grown.
19090 This active old servant was unpacking the traveler's canteen and
19091 preparing tea. He brought in a boiling samovar. When everything was
19092 ready, the stranger opened his eyes, moved to the table, filled a
19093 tumbler with tea for himself and one for the beardless old man to whom
19094 he passed it. Pierre began to feel a sense of uneasiness, and the need,
19095 even the inevitability, of entering into conversation with this
19098 The servant brought back his tumbler turned upside down, * with an
19099 unfinished bit of nibbled sugar, and asked if anything more would be
19103 * To indicate he did not want more tea.
19105 "No. Give me the book," said the stranger.
19107 The servant handed him a book which Pierre took to be a devotional work,
19108 and the traveler became absorbed in it. Pierre looked at him. All at
19109 once the stranger closed the book, putting in a marker, and again,
19110 leaning with his arms on the back of the sofa, sat in his former
19111 position with his eyes shut. Pierre looked at him and had not time to
19112 turn away when the old man, opening his eyes, fixed his steady and
19113 severe gaze straight on Pierre's face.
19115 Pierre felt confused and wished to avoid that look, but the bright old
19116 eyes attracted him irresistibly.
19123 "I have the pleasure of addressing Count Bezukhov, if I am not
19124 mistaken," said the stranger in a deliberate and loud voice.
19126 Pierre looked silently and inquiringly at him over his spectacles.
19128 "I have heard of you, my dear sir," continued the stranger, "and of your
19129 misfortune." He seemed to emphasize the last word, as if to say--"Yes,
19130 misfortune! Call it what you please, I know that what happened to you in
19131 Moscow was a misfortune."--"I regret it very much, my dear sir."
19133 Pierre flushed and, hurriedly putting his legs down from the bed, bent
19134 forward toward the old man with a forced and timid smile.
19136 "I have not referred to this out of curiosity, my dear sir, but for
19139 He paused, his gaze still on Pierre, and moved aside on the sofa by way
19140 of inviting the other to take a seat beside him. Pierre felt reluctant
19141 to enter into conversation with this old man, but, submitting to him
19142 involuntarily, came up and sat down beside him.
19144 "You are unhappy, my dear sir," the stranger continued. "You are young
19145 and I am old. I should like to help you as far as lies in my power."
19147 "Oh, yes!" said Pierre, with a forced smile. "I am very grateful to you.
19148 Where are you traveling from?"
19150 The stranger's face was not genial, it was even cold and severe, but in
19151 spite of this, both the face and words of his new acquaintance were
19152 irresistibly attractive to Pierre.
19154 "But if for reason you don't feel inclined to talk to me," said the old
19155 man, "say so, my dear sir." And he suddenly smiled, in an unexpected and
19156 tenderly paternal way.
19158 "Oh no, not at all! On the contrary, I am very glad to make your
19159 acquaintance," said Pierre. And again, glancing at the stranger's hands,
19160 he looked more closely at the ring, with its skull--a masonic sign.
19162 "Allow me to ask," he said, "are you a Mason?"
19164 "Yes, I belong to the Brotherhood of the Freemasons," said the stranger,
19165 looking deeper and deeper into Pierre's eyes. "And in their name and my
19166 own I hold out a brotherly hand to you."
19168 "I am afraid," said Pierre, smiling, and wavering between the confidence
19169 the personality of the Freemason inspired in him and his own habit of
19170 ridiculing the masonic beliefs--"I am afraid I am very far from
19171 understanding--how am I to put it?--I am afraid my way of looking at the
19172 world is so opposed to yours that we shall not understand one another."
19174 "I know your outlook," said the Mason, "and the view of life you
19175 mention, and which you think is the result of your own mental efforts,
19176 is the one held by the majority of people, and is the invariable fruit
19177 of pride, indolence, and ignorance. Forgive me, my dear sir, but if I
19178 had not known it I should not have addressed you. Your view of life is a
19179 regrettable delusion."
19181 "Just as I may suppose you to be deluded," said Pierre, with a faint
19184 "I should never dare to say that I know the truth," said the Mason,
19185 whose words struck Pierre more and more by their precision and firmness.
19186 "No one can attain to truth by himself. Only by laying stone on stone
19187 with the cooperation of all, by the millions of generations from our
19188 forefather Adam to our own times, is that temple reared which is to be a
19189 worthy dwelling place of the Great God," he added, and closed his eyes.
19191 "I ought to tell you that I do not believe... do not believe in God,"
19192 said Pierre, regretfully and with an effort, feeling it essential to
19193 speak the whole truth.
19195 The Mason looked intently at Pierre and smiled as a rich man with
19196 millions in hand might smile at a poor fellow who told him that he, poor
19197 man, had not the five rubles that would make him happy.
19199 "Yes, you do not know Him, my dear sir," said the Mason. "You cannot
19200 know Him. You do not know Him and that is why you are unhappy."
19202 "Yes, yes, I am unhappy," assented Pierre. "But what am I to do?"
19204 "You know Him not, my dear sir, and so you are very unhappy. You do not
19205 know Him, but He is here, He is in me, He is in my words, He is in thee,
19206 and even in those blasphemous words thou hast just uttered!" pronounced
19207 the Mason in a stern and tremulous voice.
19209 He paused and sighed, evidently trying to calm himself.
19211 "If He were not," he said quietly, "you and I would not be speaking of
19212 Him, my dear sir. Of what, of whom, are we speaking? Whom hast thou
19213 denied?" he suddenly asked with exulting austerity and authority in his
19214 voice. "Who invented Him, if He did not exist? Whence came thy
19215 conception of the existence of such an incomprehensible Being? didst
19216 thou, and why did the whole world, conceive the idea of the existence of
19217 such an incomprehensible Being, a Being all-powerful, eternal, and
19218 infinite in all His attributes?..."
19220 He stopped and remained silent for a long time.
19222 Pierre could not and did not wish to break this silence.
19224 "He exists, but to understand Him is hard," the Mason began again,
19225 looking not at Pierre but straight before him, and turning the leaves of
19226 his book with his old hands which from excitement he could not keep
19227 still. "If it were a man whose existence thou didst doubt I could bring
19228 him to thee, could take him by the hand and show him to thee. But how
19229 can I, an insignificant mortal, show His omnipotence, His infinity, and
19230 all His mercy to one who is blind, or who shuts his eyes that he may not
19231 see or understand Him and may not see or understand his own vileness and
19232 sinfulness?" He paused again. "Who art thou? Thou dreamest that thou art
19233 wise because thou couldst utter those blasphemous words," he went on,
19234 with a somber and scornful smile. "And thou art more foolish and
19235 unreasonable than a little child, who, playing with the parts of a
19236 skillfully made watch, dares to say that, as he does not understand its
19237 use, he does not believe in the master who made it. To know Him is
19238 hard.... For ages, from our forefather Adam to our own day, we labor to
19239 attain that knowledge and are still infinitely far from our aim; but in
19240 our lack of understanding we see only our weakness and His
19243 Pierre listened with swelling heart, gazing into the Mason's face with
19244 shining eyes, not interrupting or questioning him, but believing with
19245 his whole soul what the stranger said. Whether he accepted the wise
19246 reasoning contained in the Mason's words, or believed as a child
19247 believes, in the speaker's tone of conviction and earnestness, or the
19248 tremor of the speaker's voice--which sometimes almost broke--or those
19249 brilliant aged eyes grown old in this conviction, or the calm firmness
19250 and certainty of his vocation, which radiated from his whole being (and
19251 which struck Pierre especially by contrast with his own dejection and
19252 hopelessness)--at any rate, Pierre longed with his whole soul to believe
19253 and he did believe, and felt a joyful sense of comfort, regeneration,
19254 and return to life.
19256 "He is not to be apprehended by reason, but by life," said the Mason.
19258 "I do not understand," said Pierre, feeling with dismay doubts
19259 reawakening. He was afraid of any want of clearness, any weakness, in
19260 the Mason's arguments; he dreaded not to be able to believe in him. "I
19261 don't understand," he said, "how it is that the mind of man cannot
19262 attain the knowledge of which you speak."
19264 The Mason smiled with his gentle fatherly smile.
19266 "The highest wisdom and truth are like the purest liquid we may wish to
19267 imbibe," he said. "Can I receive that pure liquid into an impure vessel
19268 and judge of its purity? Only by the inner purification of myself can I
19269 retain in some degree of purity the liquid I receive."
19271 "Yes, yes, that is so," said Pierre joyfully.
19273 "The highest wisdom is not founded on reason alone, not on those worldly
19274 sciences of physics, history, chemistry, and the like, into which
19275 intellectual knowledge is divided. The highest wisdom is one. The
19276 highest wisdom has but one science--the science of the whole--the
19277 science explaining the whole creation and man's place in it. To receive
19278 that science it is necessary to purify and renew one's inner self, and
19279 so before one can know, it is necessary to believe and to perfect one's
19280 self. And to attain this end, we have the light called conscience that
19281 God has implanted in our souls."
19283 "Yes, yes," assented Pierre.
19285 "Look then at thy inner self with the eyes of the spirit, and ask
19286 thyself whether thou art content with thyself. What hast thou attained
19287 relying on reason only? What art thou? You are young, you are rich, you
19288 are clever, you are well educated. And what have you done with all these
19289 good gifts? Are you content with yourself and with your life?"
19291 "No, I hate my life," Pierre muttered, wincing.
19293 "Thou hatest it. Then change it, purify thyself; and as thou art
19294 purified, thou wilt gain wisdom. Look at your life, my dear sir. How
19295 have you spent it? In riotous orgies and debauchery, receiving
19296 everything from society and giving nothing in return. You have become
19297 the possessor of wealth. How have you used it? What have you done for
19298 your neighbor? Have you ever thought of your tens of thousands of
19299 slaves? Have you helped them physically and morally? No! You have
19300 profited by their toil to lead a profligate life. That is what you have
19301 done. Have you chosen a post in which you might be of service to your
19302 neighbor? No! You have spent your life in idleness. Then you married, my
19303 dear sir--took on yourself responsibility for the guidance of a young
19304 woman; and what have you done? You have not helped her to find the way
19305 of truth, my dear sir, but have thrust her into an abyss of deceit and
19306 misery. A man offended you and you shot him, and you say you do not know
19307 God and hate your life. There is nothing strange in that, my dear sir!"
19309 After these words, the Mason, as if tired by his long discourse, again
19310 leaned his arms on the back of the sofa and closed his eyes. Pierre
19311 looked at that aged, stern, motionless, almost lifeless face and moved
19312 his lips without uttering a sound. He wished to say, "Yes, a vile, idle,
19313 vicious life!" but dared not break the silence.
19315 The Mason cleared his throat huskily, as old men do, and called his
19318 "How about the horses?" he asked, without looking at Pierre.
19320 "The exchange horses have just come," answered the servant. "Will you
19323 "No, tell them to harness."
19325 "Can he really be going away leaving me alone without having told me
19326 all, and without promising to help me?" thought Pierre, rising with
19327 downcast head; and he began to pace the room, glancing occasionally at
19328 the Mason. "Yes, I never thought of it, but I have led a contemptible
19329 and profligate life, though I did not like it and did not want to,"
19330 thought Pierre. "But this man knows the truth and, if he wished to,
19331 could disclose it to me."
19333 Pierre wished to say this to the Mason, but did not dare to. The
19334 traveler, having packed his things with his practiced hands, began
19335 fastening his coat. When he had finished, he turned to Bezukhov, and
19336 said in a tone of indifferent politeness:
19338 "Where are you going to now, my dear sir?"
19340 "I?... I'm going to Petersburg," answered Pierre, in a childlike,
19341 hesitating voice. "I thank you. I agree with all you have said. But do
19342 not suppose me to be so bad. With my whole soul I wish to be what you
19343 would have me be, but I have never had help from anyone.... But it is I,
19344 above all, who am to blame for everything. Help me, teach me, and
19347 Pierre could not go on. He gulped and turned away.
19349 The Mason remained silent for a long time, evidently considering.
19351 "Help comes from God alone," he said, "but such measure of help as our
19352 Order can bestow it will render you, my dear sir. You are going to
19353 Petersburg. Hand this to Count Willarski" (he took out his notebook and
19354 wrote a few words on a large sheet of paper folded in four). "Allow me
19355 to give you a piece of advice. When you reach the capital, first of all
19356 devote some time to solitude and self-examination and do not resume your
19357 former way of life. And now I wish you a good journey, my dear sir," he
19358 added, seeing that his servant had entered... "and success."
19360 The traveler was Joseph Alexeevich Bazdeev, as Pierre saw from the
19361 postmaster's book. Bazdeev had been one of the best-known Freemasons and
19362 Martinists, even in Novikov's time. For a long while after he had gone,
19363 Pierre did not go to bed or order horses but paced up and down the room,
19364 pondering over his vicious past, and with a rapturous sense of beginning
19365 anew pictured to himself the blissful, irreproachable, virtuous future
19366 that seemed to him so easy. It seemed to him that he had been vicious
19367 only because he had somehow forgotten how good it is to be virtuous. Not
19368 a trace of his former doubts remained in his soul. He firmly believed in
19369 the possibility of the brotherhood of men united in the aim of
19370 supporting one another in the path of virtue, and that is how
19371 Freemasonry presented itself to him.
19378 On reaching Petersburg Pierre did not let anyone know of his arrival, he
19379 went nowhere and spent whole days in reading Thomas a Kempis, whose book
19380 had been sent him by someone unknown. One thing he continually realized
19381 as he read that book: the joy, hitherto unknown to him, of believing in
19382 the possibility of attaining perfection, and in the possibility of
19383 active brotherly love among men, which Joseph Alexeevich had revealed to
19384 him. A week after his arrival, the young Polish count, Willarski, whom
19385 Pierre had known slightly in Petersburg society, came into his room one
19386 evening in the official and ceremonious manner in which Dolokhov's
19387 second had called on him, and, having closed the door behind him and
19388 satisfied himself that there was nobody else in the room, addressed
19391 "I have come to you with a message and an offer, Count," he said without
19392 sitting down. "A person of very high standing in our Brotherhood has
19393 made application for you to be received into our Order before the usual
19394 term and has proposed to me to be your sponsor. I consider it a sacred
19395 duty to fulfill that person's wishes. Do you wish to enter the
19396 Brotherhood of Freemasons under my sponsorship?"
19398 The cold, austere tone of this man, whom he had almost always before met
19399 at balls, amiably smiling in the society of the most brilliant women,
19402 "Yes, I do wish it," said he.
19404 Willarski bowed his head.
19406 "One more question, Count," he said, "which I beg you to answer in all
19407 sincerity--not as a future Mason but as an honest man: have you
19408 renounced your former convictions--do you believe in God?"
19412 "Yes... yes, I believe in God," he said.
19414 "In that case..." began Willarski, but Pierre interrupted him.
19416 "Yes, I do believe in God," he repeated.
19418 "In that case we can go," said Willarski. "My carriage is at your
19421 Willarski was silent throughout the drive. To Pierre's inquiries as to
19422 what he must do and how he should answer, Willarski only replied that
19423 brothers more worthy than he would test him and that Pierre had only to
19426 Having entered the courtyard of a large house where the Lodge had its
19427 headquarters, and having ascended a dark staircase, they entered a small
19428 well-lit anteroom where they took off their cloaks without the aid of a
19429 servant. From there they passed into another room. A man in strange
19430 attire appeared at the door. Willarski, stepping toward him, said
19431 something to him in French in an undertone and then went up to a small
19432 wardrobe in which Pierre noticed garments such as he had never seen
19433 before. Having taken a kerchief from the cupboard, Willarski bound
19434 Pierre's eyes with it and tied it in a knot behind, catching some hairs
19435 painfully in the knot. Then he drew his face down, kissed him, and
19436 taking him by the hand led him forward. The hairs tied in the knot hurt
19437 Pierre and there were lines of pain on his face and a shamefaced smile.
19438 His huge figure, with arms hanging down and with a puckered, though
19439 smiling face, moved after Willarski with uncertain, timid steps.
19441 Having led him about ten paces, Willarski stopped.
19443 "Whatever happens to you," he said, "you must bear it all manfully if
19444 you have firmly resolved to join our Brotherhood." (Pierre nodded
19445 affirmatively.) "When you hear a knock at the door, you will uncover
19446 your eyes," added Willarski. "I wish you courage and success," and,
19447 pressing Pierre's hand, he went out.
19449 Left alone, Pierre went on smiling in the same way. Once or twice he
19450 shrugged his shoulders and raised his hand to the kerchief, as if
19451 wishing to take it off, but let it drop again. The five minutes spent
19452 with his eyes bandaged seemed to him an hour. His arms felt numb, his
19453 legs almost gave way, it seemed to him that he was tired out. He
19454 experienced a variety of most complex sensations. He felt afraid of what
19455 would happen to him and still more afraid of showing his fear. He felt
19456 curious to know what was going to happen and what would be revealed to
19457 him; but most of all, he felt joyful that the moment had come when he
19458 would at last start on that path of regeneration and on the actively
19459 virtuous life of which he had been dreaming since he met Joseph
19460 Alexeevich. Loud knocks were heard at the door. Pierre took the bandage
19461 off his eyes and glanced around him. The room was in black darkness,
19462 only a small lamp was burning inside something white. Pierre went nearer
19463 and saw that the lamp stood on a black table on which lay an open book.
19464 The book was the Gospel, and the white thing with the lamp inside was a
19465 human skull with its cavities and teeth. After reading the first words
19466 of the Gospel: "In the beginning was the Word and the Word was with
19467 God," Pierre went round the table and saw a large open box filled with
19468 something. It was a coffin with bones inside. He was not at all
19469 surprised by what he saw. Hoping to enter on an entirely new life quite
19470 unlike the old one, he expected everything to be unusual, even more
19471 unusual than what he was seeing. A skull, a coffin, the Gospel--it
19472 seemed to him that he had expected all this and even more. Trying to
19473 stimulate his emotions he looked around. "God, death, love, the
19474 brotherhood of man," he kept saying to himself, associating these words
19475 with vague yet joyful ideas. The door opened and someone came in.
19477 By the dim light, to which Pierre had already become accustomed, he saw
19478 a rather a short man. Having evidently come from the light into the
19479 darkness, the man paused, then moved with cautious steps toward the
19480 table and placed on it his small leather-gloved hands.
19482 This short man had on a white leather apron which covered his chest and
19483 part of his legs; he had on a kind of necklace above which rose a high
19484 white ruffle, outlining his rather long face which was lit up from
19487 "For what have you come hither?" asked the newcomer, turning in Pierre's
19488 direction at a slight rustle made by the latter. "Why have you, who do
19489 not believe in the truth of the light and who have not seen the light,
19490 come here? What do you seek from us? Wisdom, virtue, enlightenment?"
19492 At the moment the door opened and the stranger came in, Pierre felt a
19493 sense of awe and veneration such as he had experienced in his boyhood at
19494 confession; he felt himself in the presence of one socially a complete
19495 stranger, yet nearer to him through the brotherhood of man. With bated
19496 breath and beating heart he moved toward the Rhetor (by which name the
19497 brother who prepared a seeker for entrance into the Brotherhood was
19498 known). Drawing nearer, he recognized in the Rhetor a man he knew,
19499 Smolyaninov, and it mortified him to think that the newcomer was an
19500 acquaintance--he wished him simply a brother and a virtuous instructor.
19501 For a long time he could not utter a word, so that the Rhetor had to
19502 repeat his question.
19504 "Yes... I... I... desire regeneration," Pierre uttered with difficulty.
19506 "Very well," said Smolyaninov, and went on at once: "Have you any idea
19507 of the means by which our holy Order will help you to reach your aim?"
19508 said he quietly and quickly.
19510 "I... hope... for guidance... help... in regeneration," said Pierre,
19511 with a trembling voice and some difficulty in utterance due to his
19512 excitement and to being unaccustomed to speak of abstract matters in
19515 "What is your conception of Freemasonry?"
19517 "I imagine that Freemasonry is the fraternity and equality of men who
19518 have virtuous aims," said Pierre, feeling ashamed of the inadequacy of
19519 his words for the solemnity of the moment, as he spoke. "I imagine..."
19521 "Good!" said the Rhetor quickly, apparently satisfied with this answer.
19522 "Have you sought for means of attaining your aim in religion?"
19524 "No, I considered it erroneous and did not follow it," said Pierre, so
19525 softly that the Rhetor did not hear him and asked him what he was
19526 saying. "I have been an atheist," answered Pierre.
19528 "You are seeking for truth in order to follow its laws in your life,
19529 therefore you seek wisdom and virtue. Is that not so?" said the Rhetor,
19530 after a moment's pause.
19532 "Yes, yes," assented Pierre.
19534 The Rhetor cleared his throat, crossed his gloved hands on his breast,
19535 and began to speak.
19537 "Now I must disclose to you the chief aim of our Order," he said, "and
19538 if this aim coincides with yours, you may enter our Brotherhood with
19539 profit. The first and chief object of our Order, the foundation on which
19540 it rests and which no human power can destroy, is the preservation and
19541 handing on to posterity of a certain important mystery... which has come
19542 down to us from the remotest ages, even from the first man--a mystery on
19543 which perhaps the fate of mankind depends. But since this mystery is of
19544 such a nature that nobody can know or use it unless he be prepared by
19545 long and diligent self-purification, not everyone can hope to attain it
19546 quickly. Hence we have a secondary aim, that of preparing our members as
19547 much as possible to reform their hearts, to purify and enlighten their
19548 minds, by means handed on to us by tradition from those who have striven
19549 to attain this mystery, and thereby to render them capable of receiving
19552 "By purifying and regenerating our members we try, thirdly, to improve
19553 the whole human race, offering it in our members an example of piety and
19554 virtue, and thereby try with all our might to combat the evil which
19555 sways the world. Think this over and I will come to you again."
19557 "To combat the evil which sways the world..." Pierre repeated, and a
19558 mental image of his future activity in this direction rose in his mind.
19559 He imagined men such as he had himself been a fortnight ago, and he
19560 addressed an edifying exhortation to them. He imagined to himself
19561 vicious and unfortunate people whom he would assist by word and deed,
19562 imagined oppressors whose victims he would rescue. Of the three objects
19563 mentioned by the Rhetor, this last, that of improving mankind,
19564 especially appealed to Pierre. The important mystery mentioned by the
19565 Rhetor, though it aroused his curiosity, did not seem to him essential,
19566 and the second aim, that of purifying and regenerating himself, did not
19567 much interest him because at that moment he felt with delight that he
19568 was already perfectly cured of his former faults and was ready for all
19571 Half an hour later, the Rhetor returned to inform the seeker of the
19572 seven virtues, corresponding to the seven steps of Solomon's temple,
19573 which every Freemason should cultivate in himself. These virtues were:
19574 1. Discretion, the keeping of the secrets of the Order. 2. Obedience to
19575 those of higher ranks in the Order. 3. Morality. 4. Love of mankind. 5.
19576 Courage. 6. Generosity. 7. The love of death.
19578 "In the seventh place, try, by the frequent thought of death," the
19579 Rhetor said, "to bring yourself to regard it not as a dreaded foe, but
19580 as a friend that frees the soul grown weary in the labors of virtue from
19581 this distressful life, and leads it to its place of recompense and
19584 "Yes, that must be so," thought Pierre, when after these words the
19585 Rhetor went away, leaving him to solitary meditation. "It must be so,
19586 but I am still so weak that I love my life, the meaning of which is only
19587 now gradually opening before me." But five of the other virtues which
19588 Pierre recalled, counting them on his fingers, he felt already in his
19589 soul: courage, generosity, morality, love of mankind, and especially
19590 obedience--which did not even seem to him a virtue, but a joy. (He now
19591 felt so glad to be free from his own lawlessness and to submit his will
19592 to those who knew the indubitable truth.) He forgot what the seventh
19593 virtue was and could not recall it.
19595 The third time the Rhetor came back more quickly and asked Pierre
19596 whether he was still firm in his intention and determined to submit to
19597 all that would be required of him.
19599 "I am ready for everything," said Pierre.
19601 "I must also inform you," said the Rhetor, "that our Order delivers its
19602 teaching not in words only but also by other means, which may perhaps
19603 have a stronger effect on the sincere seeker after wisdom and virtue
19604 than mere words. This chamber with what you see therein should already
19605 have suggested to your heart, if it is sincere, more than words could
19606 do. You will perhaps also see in your further initiation a like method
19607 of enlightenment. Our Order imitates the ancient societies that
19608 explained their teaching by hieroglyphics. A hieroglyph," said the
19609 Rhetor, "is an emblem of something not cognizable by the senses but
19610 which possesses qualities resembling those of the symbol."
19612 Pierre knew very well what a hieroglyph was, but dared not speak. He
19613 listened to the Rhetor in silence, feeling from all he said that his
19614 ordeal was about to begin.
19616 "If you are resolved, I must begin your initiation," said the Rhetor
19617 coming closer to Pierre. "In token of generosity I ask you to give me
19618 all your valuables."
19620 "But I have nothing here," replied Pierre, supposing that he was asked
19621 to give up all he possessed.
19623 "What you have with you: watch, money, rings...."
19625 Pierre quickly took out his purse and watch, but could not manage for
19626 some time to get the wedding ring off his fat finger. When that had been
19627 done, the Rhetor said:
19629 "In token of obedience, I ask you to undress."
19631 Pierre took off his coat, waistcoat, and left boot according to the
19632 Rhetor's instructions. The Mason drew the shirt back from Pierre's left
19633 breast, and stooping down pulled up the left leg of his trousers to
19634 above the knee. Pierre hurriedly began taking off his right boot also
19635 and was going to tuck up the other trouser leg to save this stranger the
19636 trouble, but the Mason told him that was not necessary and gave him a
19637 slipper for his left foot. With a childlike smile of embarrassment,
19638 doubt, and self-derision, which appeared on his face against his will,
19639 Pierre stood with his arms hanging down and legs apart, before his
19640 brother Rhetor, and awaited his further commands.
19642 "And now, in token of candor, I ask you to reveal to me your chief
19643 passion," said the latter.
19645 "My passion! I have had so many," replied Pierre.
19647 "That passion which more than all others caused you to waver on the path
19648 of virtue," said the Mason.
19650 Pierre paused, seeking a reply.
19652 "Wine? Gluttony? Idleness? Laziness? Irritability? Anger? Women?" He
19653 went over his vices in his mind, not knowing to which of them to give
19656 "Women," he said in a low, scarcely audible voice.
19658 The Mason did not move and for a long time said nothing after this
19659 answer. At last he moved up to Pierre and, taking the kerchief that lay
19660 on the table, again bound his eyes.
19662 "For the last time I say to you--turn all your attention upon yourself,
19663 put a bridle on your senses, and seek blessedness, not in passion but in
19664 your own heart. The source of blessedness is not without us but
19667 Pierre had already long been feeling in himself that refreshing source
19668 of blessedness which now flooded his heart with glad emotion.
19675 Soon after this there came into the dark chamber to fetch Pierre, not
19676 the Rhetor but Pierre's sponsor, Willarski, whom he recognized by his
19677 voice. To fresh questions as to the firmness of his resolution Pierre
19678 replied: "Yes, yes, I agree," and with a beaming, childlike smile, his
19679 fat chest uncovered, stepping unevenly and timidly in one slippered and
19680 one booted foot, he advanced, while Willarski held a sword to his bare
19681 chest. He was conducted from that room along passages that turned
19682 backwards and forwards and was at last brought to the doors of the
19683 Lodge. Willarski coughed, he was answered by the masonic knock with
19684 mallets, the doors opened before them. A bass voice (Pierre was still
19685 blindfolded) questioned him as to who he was, when and where he was
19686 born, and so on. Then he was again led somewhere still blindfolded, and
19687 as they went along he was told allegories of the toils of his
19688 pilgrimage, of holy friendship, of the Eternal Architect of the
19689 universe, and of the courage with which he should endure toils and
19690 dangers. During these wanderings, Pierre noticed that he was spoken of
19691 now as the "Seeker," now as the "Sufferer," and now as the "Postulant,"
19692 to the accompaniment of various knockings with mallets and swords. As he
19693 was being led up to some object he noticed a hesitation and uncertainty
19694 among his conductors. He heard those around him disputing in whispers
19695 and one of them insisting that he should be led along a certain carpet.
19696 After that they took his right hand, placed it on something, and told
19697 him to hold a pair of compasses to his left breast with the other hand
19698 and to repeat after someone who read aloud an oath of fidelity to the
19699 laws of the Order. The candles were then extinguished and some spirit
19700 lighted, as Pierre knew by the smell, and he was told that he would now
19701 see the lesser light. The bandage was taken off his eyes and, by the
19702 faint light of the burning spirit, Pierre, as in a dream, saw several
19703 men standing before him, wearing aprons like the Rhetor's and holding
19704 swords in their hands pointed at his breast. Among them stood a man
19705 whose white shirt was stained with blood. On seeing this, Pierre moved
19706 forward with his breast toward the swords, meaning them to pierce it.
19707 But the swords were drawn back from him and he was at once blindfolded
19710 "Now thou hast seen the lesser light," uttered a voice. Then the candles
19711 were relit and he was told that he would see the full light; the bandage
19712 was again removed and more than ten voices said together: "Sic transit
19715 Pierre gradually began to recover himself and looked about at the room
19716 and at the people in it. Round a long table covered with black sat some
19717 twelve men in garments like those he had already seen. Some of them
19718 Pierre had met in Petersburg society. In the President's chair sat a
19719 young man he did not know, with a peculiar cross hanging from his neck.
19720 On his right sat the Italian abbe whom Pierre had met at Anna Pavlovna's
19721 two years before. There were also present a very distinguished dignitary
19722 and a Swiss who had formerly been tutor at the Kuragins'. All maintained
19723 a solemn silence, listening to the words of the President, who held a
19724 mallet in his hand. Let into the wall was a star-shaped light. At one
19725 side of the table was a small carpet with various figures worked upon
19726 it, at the other was something resembling an altar on which lay a
19727 Testament and a skull. Round it stood seven large candlesticks like
19728 those used in churches. Two of the brothers led Pierre up to the altar,
19729 placed his feet at right angles, and bade him lie down, saying that he
19730 must prostrate himself at the Gates of the Temple.
19732 "He must first receive the trowel," whispered one of the brothers.
19734 "Oh, hush, please!" said another.
19736 Pierre, perplexed, looked round with his shortsighted eyes without
19737 obeying, and suddenly doubts arose in his mind. "Where am I? What am I
19738 doing? Aren't they laughing at me? Shan't I be ashamed to remember
19739 this?" But these doubts only lasted a moment. Pierre glanced at the
19740 serious faces of those around, remembered all he had already gone
19741 through, and realized that he could not stop halfway. He was aghast at
19742 his hesitation and, trying to arouse his former devotional feeling,
19743 prostrated himself before the Gates of the Temple. And really, the
19744 feeling of devotion returned to him even more strongly than before. When
19745 he had lain there some time, he was told to get up, and a white leather
19746 apron, such as the others wore, was put on him: he was given a trowel
19747 and three pairs of gloves, and then the Grand Master addressed him. He
19748 told him that he should try to do nothing to stain the whiteness of that
19749 apron, which symbolized strength and purity; then of the unexplained
19750 trowel, he told him to toil with it to cleanse his own heart from vice,
19751 and indulgently to smooth with it the heart of his neighbor. As to the
19752 first pair of gloves, a man's, he said that Pierre could not know their
19753 meaning but must keep them. The second pair of man's gloves he was to
19754 wear at the meetings, and finally of the third, a pair of women's
19755 gloves, he said: "Dear brother, these woman's gloves are intended for
19756 you too. Give them to the woman whom you shall honor most of all. This
19757 gift will be a pledge of your purity of heart to her whom you select to
19758 be your worthy helpmeet in Masonry." And after a pause, he added: "But
19759 beware, dear brother, that these gloves do not deck hands that are
19760 unclean." While the Grand Master said these last words it seemed to
19761 Pierre that he grew embarrassed. Pierre himself grew still more
19762 confused, blushed like a child till tears came to his eyes, began
19763 looking about him uneasily, and an awkward pause followed.
19765 This silence was broken by one of the brethren, who led Pierre up to the
19766 rug and began reading to him from a manuscript book an explanation of
19767 all the figures on it: the sun, the moon, a hammer, a plumb line, a
19768 trowel, a rough stone and a squared stone, a pillar, three windows, and
19769 so on. Then a place was assigned to Pierre, he was shown the signs of
19770 the Lodge, told the password, and at last was permitted to sit down. The
19771 Grand Master began reading the statutes. They were very long, and
19772 Pierre, from joy, agitation, and embarrassment, was not in a state to
19773 understand what was being read. He managed to follow only the last words
19774 of the statutes and these remained in his mind.
19776 "In our temples we recognize no other distinctions," read the Grand
19777 Master, "but those between virtue and vice. Beware of making any
19778 distinctions which may infringe equality. Fly to a brother's aid whoever
19779 he may be, exhort him who goeth astray, raise him that falleth, never
19780 bear malice or enmity toward thy brother. Be kindly and courteous.
19781 Kindle in all hearts the flame of virtue. Share thy happiness with thy
19782 neighbor, and may envy never dim the purity of that bliss. Forgive thy
19783 enemy, do not avenge thyself except by doing him good. Thus fulfilling
19784 the highest law thou shalt regain traces of the ancient dignity which
19787 He finished and, getting up, embraced and kissed Pierre, who, with tears
19788 of joy in his eyes, looked round him, not knowing how to answer the
19789 congratulations and greetings from acquaintances that met him on all
19790 sides. He acknowledged no acquaintances but saw in all these men only
19791 brothers, and burned with impatience to set to work with them.
19793 The Grand Master rapped with his mallet. All the Masons sat down in
19794 their places, and one of them read an exhortation on the necessity of
19797 The Grand Master proposed that the last duty should be performed, and
19798 the distinguished dignitary who bore the title of "Collector of Alms"
19799 went round to all the brothers. Pierre would have liked to subscribe all
19800 he had, but fearing that it might look like pride subscribed the same
19801 amount as the others.
19803 The meeting was at an end, and on reaching home Pierre felt as if he had
19804 returned from a long journey on which he had spent dozens of years, had
19805 become completely changed, and had quite left behind his former habits
19813 The day after he had been received into the Lodge, Pierre was sitting at
19814 home reading a book and trying to fathom the significance of the Square,
19815 one side of which symbolized God, another moral things, a third physical
19816 things, and the fourth a combination of these. Now and then his
19817 attention wandered from the book and the Square and he formed in
19818 imagination a new plan of life. On the previous evening at the Lodge, he
19819 had heard that a rumor of his duel had reached the Emperor and that it
19820 would be wiser for him to leave Petersburg. Pierre proposed going to his
19821 estates in the south and there attending to the welfare of his serfs. He
19822 was joyfully planning this new life, when Prince Vasili suddenly entered
19825 "My dear fellow, what have you been up to in Moscow? Why have you
19826 quarreled with Helene, mon cher? You are under a delusion," said Prince
19827 Vasili, as he entered. "I know all about it, and I can tell you
19828 positively that Helene is as innocent before you as Christ was before
19831 Pierre was about to reply, but Prince Vasili interrupted him.
19833 "And why didn't you simply come straight to me as to a friend? I know
19834 all about it and understand it all," he said. "You behaved as becomes a
19835 man who values his honor, perhaps too hastily, but we won't go into
19836 that. But consider the position in which you are placing her and me in
19837 the eyes of society, and even of the court," he added, lowering his
19838 voice. "She is living in Moscow and you are here. Remember, dear boy,"
19839 and he drew Pierre's arm downwards, "it is simply a misunderstanding. I
19840 expect you feel it so yourself. Let us write her a letter at once, and
19841 she'll come here and all will be explained, or else, my dear boy, let me
19842 tell you it's quite likely you'll have to suffer for it."
19844 Prince Vasili gave Pierre a significant look.
19846 "I know from reliable sources that the Dowager Empress is taking a keen
19847 interest in the whole affair. You know she is very gracious to Helene."
19849 Pierre tried several times to speak, but, on one hand, Prince Vasili did
19850 not let him and, on the other, Pierre himself feared to begin to speak
19851 in the tone of decided refusal and disagreement in which he had firmly
19852 resolved to answer his father-in-law. Moreover, the words of the masonic
19853 statutes, "be kindly and courteous," recurred to him. He blinked, went
19854 red, got up and sat down again, struggling with himself to do what was
19855 for him the most difficult thing in life--to say an unpleasant thing to
19856 a man's face, to say what the other, whoever he might be, did not
19857 expect. He was so used to submitting to Prince Vasili's tone of careless
19858 self-assurance that he felt he would be unable to withstand it now, but
19859 he also felt that on what he said now his future depended--whether he
19860 would follow the same old road, or that new path so attractively shown
19861 him by the Masons, on which he firmly believed he would be reborn to a
19864 "Now, dear boy," said Prince Vasili playfully, "say 'yes,' and I'll
19865 write to her myself, and we will kill the fatted calf."
19867 But before Prince Vasili had finished his playful speech, Pierre,
19868 without looking at him, and with a kind of fury that made him like his
19869 father, muttered in a whisper:
19871 "Prince, I did not ask you here. Go, please go!" And he jumped up and
19872 opened the door for him.
19874 "Go!" he repeated, amazed at himself and glad to see the look of
19875 confusion and fear that showed itself on Prince Vasili's face.
19877 "What's the matter with you? Are you ill?"
19879 "Go!" the quivering voice repeated. And Prince Vasili had to go without
19880 receiving any explanation.
19882 A week later, Pierre, having taken leave of his new friends, the Masons,
19883 and leaving large sums of money with them for alms, went away to his
19884 estates. His new brethren gave him letters to the Kiev and Odessa Masons
19885 and promised to write to him and guide him in his new activity.
19892 The duel between Pierre and Dolokhov was hushed up and, in spite of the
19893 Emperor's severity regarding duels at that time, neither the principals
19894 nor their seconds suffered for it. But the story of the duel, confirmed
19895 by Pierre's rupture with his wife, was the talk of society. Pierre who
19896 had been regarded with patronizing condescension when he was an
19897 illegitimate son, and petted and extolled when he was the best match in
19898 Russia, had sunk greatly in the esteem of society after his marriage--
19899 when the marriageable daughters and their mothers had nothing to hope
19900 from him--especially as he did not know how, and did not wish, to court
19901 society's favor. Now he alone was blamed for what had happened, he was
19902 said to be insanely jealous and subject like his father to fits of
19903 bloodthirsty rage. And when after Pierre's departure Helene returned to
19904 Petersburg, she was received by all her acquaintances not only
19905 cordially, but even with a shade of deference due to her misfortune.
19906 When conversation turned on her husband Helene assumed a dignified
19907 expression, which with characteristic tact she had acquired though she
19908 did not understand its significance. This expression suggested that she
19909 had resolved to endure her troubles uncomplainingly and that her husband
19910 was a cross laid upon her by God. Prince Vasili expressed his opinion
19911 more openly. He shrugged his shoulders when Pierre was mentioned and,
19912 pointing to his forehead, remarked:
19914 "A bit touched--I always said so."
19916 "I said from the first," declared Anna Pavlovna referring to Pierre, "I
19917 said at the time and before anyone else" (she insisted on her priority)
19918 "that that senseless young man was spoiled by the depraved ideas of
19919 these days. I said so even at the time when everybody was in raptures
19920 about him, when he had just returned from abroad, and when, if you
19921 remember, he posed as a sort of Marat at one of my soirees. And how has
19922 it ended? I was against this marriage even then and foretold all that
19925 Anna Pavlovna continued to give on free evenings the same kind of
19926 soirees as before--such as she alone had the gift of arranging--at which
19927 was to be found "the cream of really good society, the bloom of the
19928 intellectual essence of Petersburg," as she herself put it. Besides this
19929 refined selection of society Anna Pavlovna's receptions were also
19930 distinguished by the fact that she always presented some new and
19931 interesting person to the visitors and that nowhere else was the state
19932 of the political thermometer of legitimate Petersburg court society so
19933 dearly and distinctly indicated.
19935 Toward the end of 1806, when all the sad details of Napoleon's
19936 destruction of the Prussian army at Jena and Auerstadt and the surrender
19937 of most of the Prussian fortresses had been received, when our troops
19938 had already entered Prussia and our second war with Napoleon was
19939 beginning, Anna Pavlovna gave one of her soirees. The "cream of really
19940 good society" consisted of the fascinating Helene, forsaken by her
19941 husband, Mortemart, the delightful Prince Hippolyte who had just
19942 returned from Vienna, two diplomatists, the old aunt, a young man
19943 referred to in that drawing room as "a man of great merit" (un homme de
19944 beaucoup de merite), a newly appointed maid of honor and her mother, and
19945 several other less noteworthy persons.
19947 The novelty Anna Pavlovna was setting before her guests that evening was
19948 Boris Drubetskoy, who had just arrived as a special messenger from the
19949 Prussian army and was aide-de-camp to a very important personage.
19951 The temperature shown by the political thermometer to the company that
19954 "Whatever the European sovereigns and commanders may do to countenance
19955 Bonaparte, and to cause me, and us in general, annoyance and
19956 mortification, our opinion of Bonaparte cannot alter. We shall not cease
19957 to express our sincere views on that subject, and can only say to the
19958 King of Prussia and others: 'So much the worse for you. Tu l'as voulu,
19959 George Dandin,' that's all we have to say about it!"
19961 When Boris, who was to be served up to the guests, entered the drawing
19962 room, almost all the company had assembled, and the conversation, guided
19963 by Anna Pavlovna, was about our diplomatic relations with Austria and
19964 the hope of an alliance with her.
19966 Boris, grown more manly and looking fresh, rosy and self-possessed,
19967 entered the drawing room elegantly dressed in the uniform of an aide-de-
19968 camp and was duly conducted to pay his respects to the aunt and then
19969 brought back to the general circle.
19971 Anna Pavlovna gave him her shriveled hand to kiss and introduced him to
19972 several persons whom he did not know, giving him a whispered description
19975 "Prince Hippolyte Kuragin, M. Krug, the charge d'affaires from
19976 Copenhagen--a profound intellect," and simply, "Mr. Shitov--a man of
19977 great merit"--this of the man usually so described.
19979 Thanks to Anna Mikhaylovna's efforts, his own tastes, and the
19980 peculiarities of his reserved nature, Boris had managed during his
19981 service to place himself very advantageously. He was aide-de-camp to a
19982 very important personage, had been sent on a very important mission to
19983 Prussia, and had just returned from there as a special messenger. He had
19984 become thoroughly conversant with that unwritten code with which he had
19985 been so pleased at Olmutz and according to which an ensign might rank
19986 incomparably higher than a general, and according to which what was
19987 needed for success in the service was not effort or work, or courage, or
19988 perseverance, but only the knowledge of how to get on with those who can
19989 grant rewards, and he was himself often surprised at the rapidity of his
19990 success and at the inability of others to understand these things. In
19991 consequence of this discovery his whole manner of life, all his
19992 relations with old friends, all his plans for his future, were
19993 completely altered. He was not rich, but would spend his last groat to
19994 be better dressed than others, and would rather deprive himself of many
19995 pleasures than allow himself to be seen in a shabby equipage or appear
19996 in the streets of Petersburg in an old uniform. He made friends with and
19997 sought the acquaintance of only those above him in position and who
19998 could therefore be of use to him. He liked Petersburg and despised
19999 Moscow. The remembrance of the Rostovs' house and of his childish love
20000 for Natasha was unpleasant to him and he had not once been to see the
20001 Rostovs since the day of his departure for the army. To be in Anna
20002 Pavlovna's drawing room he considered an important step up in the
20003 service, and he at once understood his role, letting his hostess make
20004 use of whatever interest he had to offer. He himself carefully scanned
20005 each face, appraising the possibilities of establishing intimacy with
20006 each of those present, and the advantages that might accrue. He took the
20007 seat indicated to him beside the fair Helene and listened to the general
20010 "Vienna considers the bases of the proposed treaty so unattainable that
20011 not even a continuity of most brilliant successes would secure them, and
20012 she doubts the means we have of gaining them. That is the actual phrase
20013 used by the Vienna cabinet," said the Danish charge d'affaires.
20015 "The doubt is flattering," said "the man of profound intellect," with a
20018 "We must distinguish between the Vienna cabinet and the Emperor of
20019 Austria," said Mortemart. "The Emperor of Austria can never have thought
20020 of such a thing, it is only the cabinet that says it."
20022 "Ah, my dear vicomte," put in Anna Pavlovna, "L'Urope" (for some reason
20023 she called it Urope as if that were a specially refined French
20024 pronunciation which she could allow herself when conversing with a
20025 Frenchman), "L'Urope ne sera jamais notre alliee sincere." *
20028 * "Europe will never be our sincere ally."
20030 After that Anna Pavlovna led up to the courage and firmness of the King
20031 of Prussia, in order to draw Boris into the conversation.
20033 Boris listened attentively to each of the speakers, awaiting his turn,
20034 but managed meanwhile to look round repeatedly at his neighbor, the
20035 beautiful Helene, whose eyes several times met those of the handsome
20036 young aide-de-camp with a smile.
20038 Speaking of the position of Prussia, Anna Pavlovna very naturally asked
20039 Boris to tell them about his journey to Glogau and in what state he
20040 found the Prussian army. Boris, speaking with deliberation, told them in
20041 pure, correct French many interesting details about the armies and the
20042 court, carefully abstaining from expressing an opinion of his own about
20043 the facts he was recounting. For some time he engrossed the general
20044 attention, and Anna Pavlovna felt that the novelty she had served up was
20045 received with pleasure by all her visitors. The greatest attention of
20046 all to Boris' narrative was shown by Helene. She asked him several
20047 questions about his journey and seemed greatly interested in the state
20048 of the Prussian army. As soon as he had finished she turned to him with
20051 "You absolutely must come and see me," she said in a tone that implied
20052 that, for certain considerations he could not know of, this was
20053 absolutely necessary.
20055 "On Tuesday between eight and nine. It will give me great pleasure."
20057 Boris promised to fulfill her wish and was about to begin a conversation
20058 with her, when Anna Pavlovna called him away on the pretext that her
20059 aunt wished to hear him.
20061 "You know her husband, of course?" said Anna Pavlovna, closing her eyes
20062 and indicating Helene with a sorrowful gesture. "Ah, she is such an
20063 unfortunate and charming woman! Don't mention him before her--please
20064 don't! It is too painful for her!"
20071 When Boris and Anna Pavlovna returned to the others Prince Hippolyte had
20072 the ear of the company.
20074 Bending forward in his armchair he said: "Le Roi de Prusse!" and having
20075 said this laughed. Everyone turned toward him.
20077 "Le Roi de Prusse?" Hippolyte said interrogatively, again laughing, and
20078 then calmly and seriously sat back in his chair. Anna Pavlovna waited
20079 for him to go on, but as he seemed quite decided to say no more she
20080 began to tell of how at Potsdam the impious Bonaparte had stolen the
20081 sword of Frederick the Great.
20083 "It is the sword of Frederick the Great which I..." she began, but
20084 Hippolyte interrupted her with the words: "Le Roi de Prusse..." and
20085 again, as soon as all turned toward him, excused himself and said no
20088 Anna Pavlovna frowned. Mortemart, Hippolyte's friend, addressed him
20091 "Come now, what about your Roi de Prusse?"
20093 Hippolyte laughed as if ashamed of laughing.
20095 "Oh, it's nothing. I only wished to say..." (he wanted to repeat a joke
20096 he had heard in Vienna and which he had been trying all that evening to
20097 get in) "I only wished to say that we are wrong to fight pour le Roi de
20100 Boris smiled circumspectly, so that it might be taken as ironical or
20101 appreciative according to the way the joke was received. Everybody
20104 "Your joke is too bad, it's witty but unjust," said Anna Pavlovna,
20105 shaking her little shriveled finger at him.
20107 "We are not fighting pour le Roi de Prusse, but for right principles.
20108 Oh, that wicked Prince Hippolyte!" she said.
20110 The conversation did not flag all evening and turned chiefly on the
20111 political news. It became particularly animated toward the end of the
20112 evening when the rewards bestowed by the Emperor were mentioned.
20114 "You know N-- N-- received a snuffbox with the portrait last year?" said
20115 "the man of profound intellect." "Why shouldn't S-- S-- get the same
20118 "Pardon me! A snuffbox with the Emperor's portrait is a reward but not a
20119 distinction," said the diplomatist--"a gift, rather."
20121 "There are precedents, I may mention Schwarzenberg."
20123 "It's impossible," replied another.
20125 "Will you bet? The ribbon of the order is a different matter...."
20127 When everybody rose to go, Helene who had spoken very little all the
20128 evening again turned to Boris, asking him in a tone of caressing
20129 significant command to come to her on Tuesday.
20131 "It is of great importance to me," she said, turning with a smile toward
20132 Anna Pavlovna, and Anna Pavlovna, with the same sad smile with which she
20133 spoke of her exalted patroness, supported Helene's wish.
20135 It seemed as if from some words Boris had spoken that evening about the
20136 Prussian army, Helene had suddenly found it necessary to see him. She
20137 seemed to promise to explain that necessity to him when he came on
20140 But on Tuesday evening, having come to Helene's splendid salon, Boris
20141 received no clear explanation of why it had been necessary for him to
20142 come. There were other guests and the countess talked little to him, and
20143 only as he kissed her hand on taking leave said unexpectedly and in a
20144 whisper, with a strangely unsmiling face: "Come to dinner tomorrow... in
20145 the evening. You must come.... Come!"
20147 During that stay in Petersburg, Boris became an intimate in the
20155 The war was flaming up and nearing the Russian frontier. Everywhere one
20156 heard curses on Bonaparte, "the enemy of mankind." Militiamen and
20157 recruits were being enrolled in the villages, and from the seat of war
20158 came contradictory news, false as usual and therefore variously
20159 interpreted. The life of old Prince Bolkonski, Prince Andrew, and
20160 Princess Mary had greatly changed since 1805.
20162 In 1806 the old prince was made one of the eight commanders in chief
20163 then appointed to supervise the enrollment decreed throughout Russia.
20164 Despite the weakness of age, which had become particularly noticeable
20165 since the time when he thought his son had been killed, he did not think
20166 it right to refuse a duty to which he had been appointed by the Emperor
20167 himself, and this fresh opportunity for action gave him new energy and
20168 strength. He was continually traveling through the three provinces
20169 entrusted to him, was pedantic in the fulfillment of his duties, severe
20170 to cruel with his subordinates, and went into everything down to the
20171 minutest details himself. Princess Mary had ceased taking lessons in
20172 mathematics from her father, and when the old prince was at home went to
20173 his study with the wet nurse and little Prince Nicholas (as his
20174 grandfather called him). The baby Prince Nicholas lived with his wet
20175 nurse and nurse Savishna in the late princess' rooms and Princess Mary
20176 spent most of the day in the nursery, taking a mother's place to her
20177 little nephew as best she could. Mademoiselle Bourienne, too, seemed
20178 passionately fond of the boy, and Princess Mary often deprived herself
20179 to give her friend the pleasure of dandling the little angel--as she
20180 called her nephew--and playing with him.
20182 Near the altar of the church at Bald Hills there was a chapel over the
20183 tomb of the little princess, and in this chapel was a marble monument
20184 brought from Italy, representing an angel with outspread wings ready to
20185 fly upwards. The angel's upper lip was slightly raised as though about
20186 to smile, and once on coming out of the chapel Prince Andrew and
20187 Princess Mary admitted to one another that the angel's face reminded
20188 them strangely of the little princess. But what was still stranger,
20189 though of this Prince Andrew said nothing to his sister, was that in the
20190 expression the sculptor had happened to give the angel's face, Prince
20191 Andrew read the same mild reproach he had read on the face of his dead
20192 wife: "Ah, why have you done this to me?"
20194 Soon after Prince Andrew's return the old prince made over to him a
20195 large estate, Bogucharovo, about twenty-five miles from Bald Hills.
20196 Partly because of the depressing memories associated with Bald Hills,
20197 partly because Prince Andrew did not always feel equal to bearing with
20198 his father's peculiarities, and partly because he needed solitude,
20199 Prince Andrew made use of Bogucharovo, began building and spent most of
20202 After the Austerlitz campaign Prince Andrew had firmly resolved not to
20203 continue his military service, and when the war recommenced and
20204 everybody had to serve, he took a post under his father in the
20205 recruitment so as to avoid active service. The old prince and his son
20206 seemed to have changed roles since the campaign of 1805. The old man,
20207 roused by activity, expected the best results from the new campaign,
20208 while Prince Andrew on the contrary, taking no part in the war and
20209 secretly regretting this, saw only the dark side.
20211 On February 26, 1807, the old prince set off on one of his circuits.
20212 Prince Andrew remained at Bald Hills as usual during his father's
20213 absence. Little Nicholas had been unwell for four days. The coachman who
20214 had driven the old prince to town returned bringing papers and letters
20217 Not finding the young prince in his study the valet went with the
20218 letters to Princess Mary's apartments, but did not find him there. He
20219 was told that the prince had gone to the nursery.
20221 "If you please, your excellency, Petrusha has brought some papers," said
20222 one of the nursemaids to Prince Andrew who was sitting on a child's
20223 little chair while, frowning and with trembling hands, he poured drops
20224 from a medicine bottle into a wineglass half full of water.
20226 "What is it?" he said crossly, and, his hand shaking unintentionally, he
20227 poured too many drops into the glass. He threw the mixture onto the
20228 floor and asked for some more water. The maid brought it.
20230 There were in the room a child's cot, two boxes, two armchairs, a table,
20231 a child's table, and the little chair on which Prince Andrew was
20232 sitting. The curtains were drawn, and a single candle was burning on the
20233 table, screened by a bound music book so that the light did not fall on
20236 "My dear," said Princess Mary, addressing her brother from beside the
20237 cot where she was standing, "better wait a bit... later..."
20239 "Oh, leave off, you always talk nonsense and keep putting things off--
20240 and this is what comes of it!" said Prince Andrew in an exasperated
20241 whisper, evidently meaning to wound his sister.
20243 "My dear, really... it's better not to wake him... he's asleep," said
20244 the princess in a tone of entreaty.
20246 Prince Andrew got up and went on tiptoe up to the little bed, wineglass
20249 "Perhaps we'd really better not wake him," he said hesitating.
20251 "As you please... really... I think so... but as you please," said
20252 Princess Mary, evidently intimidated and confused that her opinion had
20253 prevailed. She drew her brother's attention to the maid who was calling
20256 It was the second night that neither of them had slept, watching the boy
20257 who was in a high fever. These last days, mistrusting their household
20258 doctor and expecting another for whom they had sent to town, they had
20259 been trying first one remedy and then another. Worn out by sleeplessness
20260 and anxiety they threw their burden of sorrow on one another and
20261 reproached and disputed with each other.
20263 "Petrusha has come with papers from your father," whispered the maid.
20265 Prince Andrew went out.
20267 "Devil take them!" he muttered, and after listening to the verbal
20268 instructions his father had sent and taking the correspondence and his
20269 father's letter, he returned to the nursery.
20273 "Still the same. Wait, for heaven's sake. Karl Ivanich always says that
20274 sleep is more important than anything," whispered Princess Mary with a
20277 Prince Andrew went up to the child and felt him. He was burning hot.
20279 "Confound you and your Karl Ivanich!" He took the glass with the drops
20280 and again went up to the cot.
20282 "Andrew, don't!" said Princess Mary.
20284 But he scowled at her angrily though also with suffering in his eyes,
20285 and stooped glass in hand over the infant.
20287 "But I wish it," he said. "I beg you--give it him!"
20289 Princess Mary shrugged her shoulders but took the glass submissively and
20290 calling the nurse began giving the medicine. The child screamed
20291 hoarsely. Prince Andrew winced and, clutching his head, went out and sat
20292 down on a sofa in the next room.
20294 He still had all the letters in his hand. Opening them mechanically he
20295 began reading. The old prince, now and then using abbreviations, wrote
20296 in his large elongated hand on blue paper as follows:
20298 Have just this moment received by special messenger very joyful news--if
20299 it's not false. Bennigsen seems to have obtained a complete victory over
20300 Buonaparte at Eylau. In Petersburg everyone is rejoicing, and the
20301 rewards sent to the army are innumerable. Though he is a German--I
20302 congratulate him! I can't make out what the commander at Korchevo--a
20303 certain Khandrikov--is up to; till now the additional men and provisions
20304 have not arrived. Gallop off to him at once and say I'll have his head
20305 off if everything is not here in a week. Have received another letter
20306 about the Preussisch-Eylau battle from Petenka--he took part in it--and
20307 it's all true. When mischief-makers don't meddle even a German beats
20308 Buonaparte. He is said to be fleeing in great disorder. Mind you gallop
20309 off to Korchevo without delay and carry out instructions!
20311 Prince Andrew sighed and broke the seal of another envelope. It was a
20312 closely written letter of two sheets from Bilibin. He folded it up
20313 without reading it and reread his father's letter, ending with the
20314 words: "Gallop off to Korchevo and carry out instructions!"
20316 "No, pardon me, I won't go now till the child is better," thought he,
20317 going to the door and looking into the nursery.
20319 Princess Mary was still standing by the cot, gently rocking the baby.
20321 "Ah yes, and what else did he say that's unpleasant?" thought Prince
20322 Andrew, recalling his father's letter. "Yes, we have gained a victory
20323 over Bonaparte, just when I'm not serving. Yes, yes, he's always poking
20324 fun at me.... Ah, well! Let him!" And he began reading Bilibin's letter
20325 which was written in French. He read without understanding half of it,
20326 read only to forget, if but for a moment, what he had too long been
20327 thinking of so painfully to the exclusion of all else.
20334 Bilibin was now at army headquarters in a diplomatic capacity, and
20335 though he wrote in French and used French jests and French idioms, he
20336 described the whole campaign with a fearless self-censure and self-
20337 derision genuinely Russian. Bilibin wrote that the obligation of
20338 diplomatic discretion tormented him, and he was happy to have in Prince
20339 Andrew a reliable correspondent to whom he could pour out the bile he
20340 had accumulated at the sight of all that was being done in the army. The
20341 letter was old, having been written before the battle at Preussisch-
20344 "Since the day of our brilliant success at Austerlitz," wrote Bilibin,
20345 "as you know, my dear prince, I never leave headquarters. I have
20346 certainly acquired a taste for war, and it is just as well for me; what
20347 I have seen during these last three months is incredible.
20349 "I begin ab ovo. 'The enemy of the human race,' as you know, attacks the
20350 Prussians. The Prussians are our faithful allies who have only betrayed
20351 us three times in three years. We take up their cause, but it turns out
20352 that 'the enemy of the human race' pays no heed to our fine speeches and
20353 in his rude and savage way throws himself on the Prussians without
20354 giving them time to finish the parade they had begun, and in two twists
20355 of the hand he breaks them to smithereens and installs himself in the
20358 "'I most ardently desire,' writes the King of Prussia to Bonaparte,
20359 'that Your Majesty should be received and treated in my palace in a
20360 manner agreeable to yourself, and in so far as circumstances allowed, I
20361 have hastened to take all steps to that end. May I have succeeded!' The
20362 Prussian generals pride themselves on being polite to the French and lay
20363 down their arms at the first demand.
20365 "The head of the garrison at Glogau, with ten thousand men, asks the
20366 King of Prussia what he is to do if he is summoned to surrender.... All
20367 this is absolutely true.
20369 "In short, hoping to settle matters by taking up a warlike attitude, it
20370 turns out that we have landed ourselves in war, and what is more, in war
20371 on our own frontiers, with and for the King of Prussia. We have
20372 everything in perfect order, only one little thing is lacking, namely, a
20373 commander in chief. As it was considered that the Austerlitz success
20374 might have been more decisive had the commander-in-chief not been so
20375 young, all our octogenarians were reviewed, and of Prozorovski and
20376 Kamenski the latter was preferred. The general comes to us, Suvorov-
20377 like, in a kibitka, and is received with acclamations of joy and
20380 "On the 4th, the first courier arrives from Petersburg. The mails are
20381 taken to the field marshal's room, for he likes to do everything
20382 himself. I am called in to help sort the letters and take those meant
20383 for us. The field marshal looks on and waits for letters addressed to
20384 him. We search, but none are to be found. The field marshal grows
20385 impatient and sets to work himself and finds letters from the Emperor to
20386 Count T., Prince V., and others. Then he bursts into one of his wild
20387 furies and rages at everyone and everything, seizes the letters, opens
20388 them, and reads those from the Emperor addressed to others. 'Ah! So
20389 that's the way they treat me! No confidence in me! Ah, ordered to keep
20390 an eye on me! Very well then! Get along with you!' So he writes the
20391 famous order of the day to General Bennigsen:
20393 'I am wounded and cannot ride and consequently cannot command the army.
20394 You have brought your army corps to Pultusk, routed: here it is exposed,
20395 and without fuel or forage, so something must be done, and, as you
20396 yourself reported to Count Buxhowden yesterday, you must think of
20397 retreating to our frontier--which do today.'
20399 "'From all my riding,' he writes to the Emperor, 'I have got a saddle
20400 sore which, coming after all my previous journeys, quite prevents my
20401 riding and commanding so vast an army, so I have passed on the command
20402 to the general next in seniority, Count Buxhowden, having sent him my
20403 whole staff and all that belongs to it, advising him if there is a lack
20404 of bread, to move farther into the interior of Prussia, for only one
20405 day's ration of bread remains, and in some regiments none at all, as
20406 reported by the division commanders, Ostermann and Sedmoretzki, and all
20407 that the peasants had has been eaten up. I myself will remain in
20408 hospital at Ostrolenka till I recover. In regard to which I humbly
20409 submit my report, with the information that if the army remains in its
20410 present bivouac another fortnight there will not be a healthy man left
20413 "'Grant leave to retire to his country seat to an old man who is already
20414 in any case dishonored by being unable to fulfill the great and glorious
20415 task for which he was chosen. I shall await your most gracious
20416 permission here in hospital, that I may not have to play the part of a
20417 secretary rather than commander in the army. My removal from the army
20418 does not produce the slightest stir--a blind man has left it. There are
20419 thousands such as I in Russia.'
20421 "The field marshal is angry with the Emperor and he punishes us all,
20424 "This is the first act. Those that follow are naturally increasingly
20425 interesting and entertaining. After the field marshal's departure it
20426 appears that we are within sight of the enemy and must give battle.
20427 Buxhowden is commander-in-chief by seniority, but General Bennigsen does
20428 not quite see it; more particularly as it is he and his corps who are
20429 within sight of the enemy and he wishes to profit by the opportunity to
20430 fight a battle 'on his own hand' as the Germans say. He does so. This is
20431 the battle of Pultusk, which is considered a great victory but in my
20432 opinion was nothing of the kind. We civilians, as you know, have a very
20433 bad way of deciding whether a battle was won or lost. Those who retreat
20434 after a battle have lost it is what we say; and according to that it is
20435 we who lost the battle of Pultusk. In short, we retreat after the battle
20436 but send a courier to Petersburg with news of a victory, and General
20437 Bennigsen, hoping to receive from Petersburg the post of commander in
20438 chief as a reward for his victory, does not give up the command of the
20439 army to General Buxhowden. During this interregnum we begin a very
20440 original and interesting series of maneuvers. Our aim is no longer, as
20441 it should be, to avoid or attack the enemy, but solely to avoid General
20442 Buxhowden who by right of seniority should be our chief. So
20443 energetically do we pursue this aim that after crossing an unfordable
20444 river we burn the bridges to separate ourselves from our enemy, who at
20445 the moment is not Bonaparte but Buxhowden. General Buxhowden was all but
20446 attacked and captured by a superior enemy force as a result of one of
20447 these maneuvers that enabled us to escape him. Buxhowden pursues us--we
20448 scuttle. He hardly crosses the river to our side before we recross to
20449 the other. At last our enemy, Buxhowden, catches us and attacks. Both
20450 generals are angry, and the result is a challenge on Buxhowden's part
20451 and an epileptic fit on Bennigsen's. But at the critical moment the
20452 courier who carried the news of our victory at Pultusk to Petersburg
20453 returns bringing our appointment as commander-in-chief, and our first
20454 foe, Buxhowden, is vanquished; we can now turn our thoughts to the
20455 second, Bonaparte. But as it turns out, just at that moment a third
20456 enemy rises before us--namely the Orthodox Russian soldiers, loudly
20457 demanding bread, meat, biscuits, fodder, and whatnot! The stores are
20458 empty, the roads impassable. The Orthodox begin looting, and in a way of
20459 which our last campaign can give you no idea. Half the regiments form
20460 bands and scour the countryside and put everything to fire and sword.
20461 The inhabitants are totally ruined, the hospitals overflow with sick,
20462 and famine is everywhere. Twice the marauders even attack our
20463 headquarters, and the commander-in-chief has to ask for a battalion to
20464 disperse them. During one of these attacks they carried off my empty
20465 portmanteau and my dressing gown. The Emperor proposes to give all
20466 commanders of divisions the right to shoot marauders, but I much fear
20467 this will oblige one half the army to shoot the other."
20469 At first Prince Andrew read with his eyes only, but after a while, in
20470 spite of himself (although he knew how far it was safe to trust
20471 Bilibin), what he had read began to interest him more and more. When he
20472 had read thus far, he crumpled the letter up and threw it away. It was
20473 not what he had read that vexed him, but the fact that the life out
20474 there in which he had now no part could perturb him. He shut his eyes,
20475 rubbed his forehead as if to rid himself of all interest in what he had
20476 read, and listened to what was passing in the nursery. Suddenly he
20477 thought he heard a strange noise through the door. He was seized with
20478 alarm lest something should have happened to the child while he was
20479 reading the letter. He went on tiptoe to the nursery door and opened it.
20481 Just as he went in he saw that the nurse was hiding something from him
20482 with a scared look and that Princess Mary was no longer by the cot.
20484 "My dear," he heard what seemed to him her despairing whisper behind
20487 As often happens after long sleeplessness and long anxiety, he was
20488 seized by an unreasoning panic--it occurred to him that the child was
20489 dead. All that he saw and heard seemed to confirm this terror.
20491 "All is over," he thought, and a cold sweat broke out on his forehead.
20492 He went to the cot in confusion, sure that he would find it empty and
20493 that the nurse had been hiding the dead baby. He drew the curtain aside
20494 and for some time his frightened, restless eyes could not find the baby.
20495 At last he saw him: the rosy boy had tossed about till he lay across the
20496 bed with his head lower than the pillow, and was smacking his lips in
20497 his sleep and breathing evenly.
20499 Prince Andrew was as glad to find the boy like that, as if he had
20500 already lost him. He bent over him and, as his sister had taught him,
20501 tried with his lips whether the child was still feverish. The soft
20502 forehead was moist. Prince Andrew touched the head with his hand; even
20503 the hair was wet, so profusely had the child perspired. He was not dead,
20504 but evidently the crisis was over and he was convalescent. Prince Andrew
20505 longed to snatch up, to squeeze, to hold to his heart, this helpless
20506 little creature, but dared not do so. He stood over him, gazing at his
20507 head and at the little arms and legs which showed under the blanket. He
20508 heard a rustle behind him and a shadow appeared under the curtain of the
20509 cot. He did not look round, but still gazing at the infant's face
20510 listened to his regular breathing. The dark shadow was Princess Mary,
20511 who had come up to the cot with noiseless steps, lifted the curtain, and
20512 dropped it again behind her. Prince Andrew recognized her without
20513 looking and held out his hand to her. She pressed it.
20515 "He has perspired," said Prince Andrew.
20517 "I was coming to tell you so."
20519 The child moved slightly in his sleep, smiled, and rubbed his forehead
20520 against the pillow.
20522 Prince Andrew looked at his sister. In the dim shadow of the curtain her
20523 luminous eyes shone more brightly than usual from the tears of joy that
20524 were in them. She leaned over to her brother and kissed him, slightly
20525 catching the curtain of the cot. Each made the other a warning gesture
20526 and stood still in the dim light beneath the curtain as if not wishing
20527 to leave that seclusion where they three were shut off from all the
20528 world. Prince Andrew was the first to move away, ruffling his hair
20529 against the muslin of the curtain.
20531 "Yes, this is the one thing left me now," he said with a sigh.
20538 Soon after his admission to the masonic Brotherhood, Pierre went to the
20539 Kiev province, where he had the greatest number of serfs, taking with
20540 him full directions which he had written down for his own guidance as to
20541 what he should do on his estates.
20543 When he reached Kiev he sent for all his stewards to the head office and
20544 explained to them his intentions and wishes. He told them that steps
20545 would be taken immediately to free his serfs--and that till then they
20546 were not to be overburdened with labor, women while nursing their babies
20547 were not to be sent to work, assistance was to be given to the serfs,
20548 punishments were to be admonitory and not corporal, and hospitals,
20549 asylums, and schools were to be established on all the estates. Some of
20550 the stewards (there were semiliterate foremen among them) listened with
20551 alarm, supposing these words to mean that the young count was displeased
20552 with their management and embezzlement of money, some after their first
20553 fright were amused by Pierre's lisp and the new words they had not heard
20554 before, others simply enjoyed hearing how the master talked, while the
20555 cleverest among them, including the chief steward, understood from this
20556 speech how they could best handle the master for their own ends.
20558 The chief steward expressed great sympathy with Pierre's intentions, but
20559 remarked that besides these changes it would be necessary to go into the
20560 general state of affairs which was far from satisfactory.
20562 Despite Count Bezukhov's enormous wealth, since he had come into an
20563 income which was said to amount to five hundred thousand rubles a year,
20564 Pierre felt himself far poorer than when his father had made him an
20565 allowance of ten thousand rubles. He had a dim perception of the
20568 About 80,000 went in payments on all the estates to the Land Bank, about
20569 30,000 went for the upkeep of the estate near Moscow, the town house,
20570 and the allowance to the three princesses; about 15,000 was given in
20571 pensions and the same amount for asylums; 150,000 alimony was sent to
20572 the countess; about 70,000 went for interest on debts. The building of a
20573 new church, previously begun, had cost about 10,000 in each of the last
20574 two years, and he did not know how the rest, about 100,000 rubles, was
20575 spent, and almost every year he was obliged to borrow. Besides this the
20576 chief steward wrote every year telling him of fires and bad harvests, or
20577 of the necessity of rebuilding factories and workshops. So the first
20578 task Pierre had to face was one for which he had very little aptitude or
20579 inclination--practical business.
20581 He discussed estate affairs every day with his chief steward. But he
20582 felt that this did not forward matters at all. He felt that these
20583 consultations were detached from real affairs and did not link up with
20584 them or make them move. On the one hand, the chief steward put the state
20585 of things to him in the very worst light, pointing out the necessity of
20586 paying off the debts and undertaking new activities with serf labor, to
20587 which Pierre did not agree. On the other hand, Pierre demanded that
20588 steps should be taken to liberate the serfs, which the steward met by
20589 showing the necessity of first paying off the loans from the Land Bank,
20590 and the consequent impossibility of a speedy emancipation.
20592 The steward did not say it was quite impossible, but suggested selling
20593 the forests in the province of Kostroma, the land lower down the river,
20594 and the Crimean estate, in order to make it possible: all of which
20595 operations according to him were connected with such complicated
20596 measures--the removal of injunctions, petitions, permits, and so on--
20597 that Pierre became quite bewildered and only replied:
20601 Pierre had none of the practical persistence that would have enabled him
20602 to attend to the business himself and so he disliked it and only tried
20603 to pretend to the steward that he was attending to it. The steward for
20604 his part tried to pretend to the count that he considered these
20605 consultations very valuable for the proprietor and troublesome to
20608 In Kiev Pierre found some people he knew, and strangers hastened to make
20609 his acquaintance and joyfully welcomed the rich newcomer, the largest
20610 landowner of the province. Temptations to Pierre's greatest weakness--
20611 the one to which he had confessed when admitted to the Lodge--were so
20612 strong that he could not resist them. Again whole days, weeks, and
20613 months of his life passed in as great a rush and were as much occupied
20614 with evening parties, dinners, lunches, and balls, giving him no time
20615 for reflection, as in Petersburg. Instead of the new life he had hoped
20616 to lead he still lived the old life, only in new surroundings.
20618 Of the three precepts of Freemasonry Pierre realized that he did not
20619 fulfill the one which enjoined every Mason to set an example of moral
20620 life, and that of the seven virtues he lacked two--morality and the love
20621 of death. He consoled himself with the thought that he fulfilled another
20622 of the precepts--that of reforming the human race--and had other
20623 virtues--love of his neighbor, and especially generosity.
20625 In the spring of 1807 he decided to return to Petersburg. On the way he
20626 intended to visit all his estates and see for himself how far his orders
20627 had been carried out and in what state were the serfs whom God had
20628 entrusted to his care and whom he intended to benefit.
20630 The chief steward, who considered the young count's attempts almost
20631 insane--unprofitable to himself, to the count, and to the serfs--made
20632 some concessions. Continuing to represent the liberation of the serfs as
20633 impracticable, he arranged for the erection of large buildings--schools,
20634 hospitals, and asylums--on all the estates before the master arrived.
20635 Everywhere preparations were made not for ceremonious welcomes (which he
20636 knew Pierre would not like), but for just such gratefully religious
20637 ones, with offerings of icons and the bread and salt of hospitality, as,
20638 according to his understanding of his master, would touch and delude
20641 The southern spring, the comfortable rapid traveling in a Vienna
20642 carriage, and the solitude of the road, all had a gladdening effect on
20643 Pierre. The estates he had not before visited were each more picturesque
20644 than the other; the serfs everywhere seemed thriving and touchingly
20645 grateful for the benefits conferred on them. Everywhere were receptions,
20646 which though they embarrassed Pierre awakened a joyful feeling in the
20647 depth of his heart. In one place the peasants presented him with bread
20648 and salt and an icon of Saint Peter and Saint Paul, asking permission,
20649 as a mark of their gratitude for the benefits he had conferred on them,
20650 to build a new chantry to the church at their own expense in honor of
20651 Peter and Paul, his patron saints. In another place the women with
20652 infants in arms met him to thank him for releasing them from hard work.
20653 On a third estate the priest, bearing a cross, came to meet him
20654 surrounded by children whom, by the count's generosity, he was
20655 instructing in reading, writing, and religion. On all his estates Pierre
20656 saw with his own eyes brick buildings erected or in course of erection,
20657 all on one plan, for hospitals, schools, and almshouses, which were soon
20658 to be opened. Everywhere he saw the stewards' accounts, according to
20659 which the serfs' manorial labor had been diminished, and heard the
20660 touching thanks of deputations of serfs in their full-skirted blue
20663 What Pierre did not know was that the place where they presented him
20664 with bread and salt and wished to build a chantry in honor of Peter and
20665 Paul was a market village where a fair was held on St. Peter's day, and
20666 that the richest peasants (who formed the deputation) had begun the
20667 chantry long before, but that nine tenths of the peasants in that
20668 villages were in a state of the greatest poverty. He did not know that
20669 since the nursing mothers were no longer sent to work on his land, they
20670 did still harder work on their own land. He did not know that the priest
20671 who met him with the cross oppressed the peasants by his exactions, and
20672 that the pupils' parents wept at having to let him take their children
20673 and secured their release by heavy payments. He did not know that the
20674 brick buildings, built to plan, were being built by serfs whose manorial
20675 labor was thus increased, though lessened on paper. He did not know that
20676 where the steward had shown him in the accounts that the serfs' payments
20677 had been diminished by a third, their obligatory manorial work had been
20678 increased by a half. And so Pierre was delighted with his visit to his
20679 estates and quite recovered the philanthropic mood in which he had left
20680 Petersburg, and wrote enthusiastic letters to his "brother-instructor"
20681 as he called the Grand Master.
20683 "How easy it is, how little effort it needs, to do so much good,"
20684 thought Pierre, "and how little attention we pay to it!"
20686 He was pleased at the gratitude he received, but felt abashed at
20687 receiving it. This gratitude reminded him of how much more he might do
20688 for these simple, kindly people.
20690 The chief steward, a very stupid but cunning man who saw perfectly
20691 through the naive and intelligent count and played with him as with a
20692 toy, seeing the effect these prearranged receptions had on Pierre,
20693 pressed him still harder with proofs of the impossibility and above all
20694 the uselessness of freeing the serfs, who were quite happy as it was.
20696 Pierre in his secret soul agreed with the steward that it would be
20697 difficult to imagine happier people, and that God only knew what would
20698 happen to them when they were free, but he insisted, though reluctantly,
20699 on what he thought right. The steward promised to do all in his power to
20700 carry out the count's wishes, seeing clearly that not only would the
20701 count never be able to find out whether all measures had been taken for
20702 the sale of the land and forests and to release them from the Land Bank,
20703 but would probably never even inquire and would never know that the
20704 newly erected buildings were standing empty and that the serfs continued
20705 to give in money and work all that other people's serfs gave--that is to
20706 say, all that could be got out of them.
20713 Returning from his journey through South Russia in the happiest state of
20714 mind, Pierre carried out an intention he had long had of visiting his
20715 friend Bolkonski, whom he had not seen for two years.
20717 Bogucharovo lay in a flat uninteresting part of the country among fields
20718 and forests of fir and birch, which were partly cut down. The house lay
20719 behind a newly dug pond filled with water to the brink and with banks
20720 still bare of grass. It was at the end of a village that stretched along
20721 the highroad in the midst of a young copse in which were a few fir
20724 The homestead consisted of a threshing floor, outhouses, stables, a
20725 bathhouse, a lodge, and a large brick house with semicircular facade
20726 still in course of construction. Round the house was a garden newly laid
20727 out. The fences and gates were new and solid; two fire pumps and a water
20728 cart, painted green, stood in a shed; the paths were straight, the
20729 bridges were strong and had handrails. Everything bore an impress of
20730 tidiness and good management. Some domestic serfs Pierre met, in reply
20731 to inquiries as to where the prince lived, pointed out a small newly
20732 built lodge close to the pond. Anton, a man who had looked after Prince
20733 Andrew in his boyhood, helped Pierre out of his carriage, said that the
20734 prince was at home, and showed him into a clean little anteroom.
20736 Pierre was struck by the modesty of the small though clean house after
20737 the brilliant surroundings in which he had last met his friend in
20740 He quickly entered the small reception room with its still-unplastered
20741 wooden walls redolent of pine, and would have gone farther, but Anton
20742 ran ahead on tiptoe and knocked at a door.
20744 "Well, what is it?" came a sharp, unpleasant voice.
20746 "A visitor," answered Anton.
20748 "Ask him to wait," and the sound was heard of a chair being pushed back.
20750 Pierre went with rapid steps to the door and suddenly came face to face
20751 with Prince Andrew, who came out frowning and looking old. Pierre
20752 embraced him and lifting his spectacles kissed his friend on the cheek
20753 and looked at him closely.
20755 "Well, I did not expect you, I am very glad," said Prince Andrew.
20757 Pierre said nothing; he looked fixedly at his friend with surprise. He
20758 was struck by the change in him. His words were kindly and there was a
20759 smile on his lips and face, but his eyes were dull and lifeless and in
20760 spite of his evident wish to do so he could not give them a joyous and
20761 glad sparkle. Prince Andrew had grown thinner, paler, and more manly-
20762 looking, but what amazed and estranged Pierre till he got used to it
20763 were his inertia and a wrinkle on his brow indicating prolonged
20764 concentration on some one thought.
20766 As is usually the case with people meeting after a prolonged separation,
20767 it was long before their conversation could settle on anything. They put
20768 questions and gave brief replies about things they knew ought to be
20769 talked over at length. At last the conversation gradually settled on
20770 some of the topics at first lightly touched on: their past life, plans
20771 for the future, Pierre's journeys and occupations, the war, and so on.
20772 The preoccupation and despondency which Pierre had noticed in his
20773 friend's look was now still more clearly expressed in the smile with
20774 which he listened to Pierre, especially when he spoke with joyful
20775 animation of the past or the future. It was as if Prince Andrew would
20776 have liked to sympathize with what Pierre was saying, but could not. The
20777 latter began to feel that it was in bad taste to speak of his
20778 enthusiasms, dreams, and hopes of happiness or goodness, in Prince
20779 Andrew's presence. He was ashamed to express his new masonic views,
20780 which had been particularly revived and strengthened by his late tour.
20781 He checked himself, fearing to seem naive, yet he felt an irresistible
20782 desire to show his friend as soon as possible that he was now a quite
20783 different, and better, Pierre than he had been in Petersburg.
20785 "I can't tell you how much I have lived through since then. I hardly
20786 know myself again."
20788 "Yes, we have altered much, very much, since then," said Prince Andrew.
20790 "Well, and you? What are your plans?"
20792 "Plans!" repeated Prince Andrew ironically. "My plans?" he said, as if
20793 astonished at the word. "Well, you see, I'm building. I mean to settle
20794 here altogether next year...."
20796 Pierre looked silently and searchingly into Prince Andrew's face, which
20797 had grown much older.
20799 "No, I meant to ask..." Pierre began, but Prince Andrew interrupted him.
20801 "But why talk of me?... Talk to me, yes, tell me about your travels and
20802 all you have been doing on your estates."
20804 Pierre began describing what he had done on his estates, trying as far
20805 as possible to conceal his own part in the improvements that had been
20806 made. Prince Andrew several times prompted Pierre's story of what he had
20807 been doing, as though it were all an old-time story, and he listened not
20808 only without interest but even as if ashamed of what Pierre was telling
20811 Pierre felt uncomfortable and even depressed in his friend's company and
20812 at last became silent.
20814 "I'll tell you what, my dear fellow," said Prince Andrew, who evidently
20815 also felt depressed and constrained with his visitor, "I am only
20816 bivouacking here and have just come to look round. I am going back to my
20817 sister today. I will introduce you to her. But of course you know her
20818 already," he said, evidently trying to entertain a visitor with whom he
20819 now found nothing in common. "We will go after dinner. And would you now
20820 like to look round my place?"
20822 They went out and walked about till dinnertime, talking of the political
20823 news and common acquaintances like people who do not know each other
20824 intimately. Prince Andrew spoke with some animation and interest only of
20825 the new homestead he was constructing and its buildings, but even here,
20826 while on the scaffolding, in the midst of a talk explaining the future
20827 arrangements of the house, he interrupted himself:
20829 "However, this is not at all interesting. Let us have dinner, and then
20832 At dinner, conversation turned on Pierre's marriage.
20834 "I was very much surprised when I heard of it," said Prince Andrew.
20836 Pierre blushed, as he always did when it was mentioned, and said
20837 hurriedly: "I will tell you some time how it all happened. But you know
20838 it is all over, and forever."
20840 "Forever?" said Prince Andrew. "Nothing's forever."
20842 "But you know how it all ended, don't you? You heard of the duel?"
20844 "And so you had to go through that too!"
20846 "One thing I thank God for is that I did not kill that man," said
20849 "Why so?" asked Prince Andrew. "To kill a vicious dog is a very good
20852 "No, to kill a man is bad--wrong."
20854 "Why is it wrong?" urged Prince Andrew. "It is not given to man to know
20855 what is right and what is wrong. Men always did and always will err, and
20856 in nothing more than in what they consider right and wrong."
20858 "What does harm to another is wrong," said Pierre, feeling with pleasure
20859 that for the first time since his arrival Prince Andrew was roused, had
20860 begun to talk, and wanted to express what had brought him to his present
20863 "And who has told you what is bad for another man?" he asked.
20865 "Bad! Bad!" exclaimed Pierre. "We all know what is bad for ourselves."
20867 "Yes, we know that, but the harm I am conscious of in myself is
20868 something I cannot inflict on others," said Prince Andrew, growing more
20869 and more animated and evidently wishing to express his new outlook to
20870 Pierre. He spoke in French. "I only know two very real evils in life:
20871 remorse and illness. The only good is the absence of those evils. To
20872 live for myself avoiding those two evils is my whole philosophy now."
20874 "And love of one's neighbor, and self-sacrifice?" began Pierre. "No, I
20875 can't agree with you! To live only so as not to do evil and not to have
20876 to repent is not enough. I lived like that, I lived for myself and
20877 ruined my life. And only now when I am living, or at least trying"
20878 (Pierre's modesty made him correct himself) "to live for others, only
20879 now have I understood all the happiness of life. No, I shall not agree
20880 with you, and you do not really believe what you are saying." Prince
20881 Andrew looked silently at Pierre with an ironic smile.
20883 "When you see my sister, Princess Mary, you'll get on with her," he
20884 said. "Perhaps you are right for yourself," he added after a short
20885 pause, "but everyone lives in his own way. You lived for yourself and
20886 say you nearly ruined your life and only found happiness when you began
20887 living for others. I experienced just the reverse. I lived for glory.--
20888 And after all what is glory? The same love of others, a desire to do
20889 something for them, a desire for their approval.--So I lived for others,
20890 and not almost, but quite, ruined my life. And I have become calmer
20891 since I began to live only for myself."
20893 "But what do you mean by living only for yourself?" asked Pierre,
20894 growing excited. "What about your son, your sister, and your father?"
20896 "But that's just the same as myself--they are not others," explained
20897 Prince Andrew. "The others, one's neighbors, le prochain, as you and
20898 Princess Mary call it, are the chief source of all error and evil. Le
20899 prochain--your Kiev peasants to whom you want to do good."
20901 And he looked at Pierre with a mocking, challenging expression. He
20902 evidently wished to draw him on.
20904 "You are joking," replied Pierre, growing more and more excited. "What
20905 error or evil can there be in my wishing to do good, and even doing a
20906 little--though I did very little and did it very badly? What evil can
20907 there be in it if unfortunate people, our serfs, people like ourselves,
20908 were growing up and dying with no idea of God and truth beyond
20909 ceremonies and meaningless prayers and are now instructed in a
20910 comforting belief in future life, retribution, recompense, and
20911 consolation? What evil and error are there in it, if people were dying
20912 of disease without help while material assistance could so easily be
20913 rendered, and I supplied them with a doctor, a hospital, and an asylum
20914 for the aged? And is it not a palpable, unquestionable good if a
20915 peasant, or a woman with a baby, has no rest day or night and I give
20916 them rest and leisure?" said Pierre, hurrying and lisping. "And I have
20917 done that though badly and to a small extent; but I have done something
20918 toward it and you cannot persuade me that it was not a good action, and
20919 more than that, you can't make me believe that you do not think so
20920 yourself. And the main thing is," he continued, "that I know, and know
20921 for certain, that the enjoyment of doing this good is the only sure
20922 happiness in life."
20924 "Yes, if you put it like that it's quite a different matter," said
20925 Prince Andrew. "I build a house and lay out a garden, and you build
20926 hospitals. The one and the other may serve as a pastime. But what's
20927 right and what's good must be judged by one who knows all, but not by
20928 us. Well, you want an argument," he added, "come on then."
20930 They rose from the table and sat down in the entrance porch which served
20933 "Come, let's argue then," said Prince Andrew, "You talk of schools," he
20934 went on, crooking a finger, "education and so forth; that is, you want
20935 to raise him" (pointing to a peasant who passed by them taking off his
20936 cap) "from his animal condition and awaken in him spiritual needs, while
20937 it seems to me that animal happiness is the only happiness possible, and
20938 that is just what you want to deprive him of. I envy him, but you want
20939 to make him what I am, without giving him my means. Then you say,
20940 'lighten his toil.' But as I see it, physical labor is as essential to
20941 him, as much a condition of his existence, as mental activity is to you
20942 or me. You can't help thinking. I go to bed after two in the morning,
20943 thoughts come and I can't sleep but toss about till dawn, because I
20944 think and can't help thinking, just as he can't help plowing and mowing;
20945 if he didn't, he would go to the drink shop or fall ill. Just as I could
20946 not stand his terrible physical labor but should die of it in a week, so
20947 he could not stand my physical idleness, but would grow fat and die. The
20948 third thing--what else was it you talked about?" and Prince Andrew
20949 crooked a third finger. "Ah, yes, hospitals, medicine. He has a fit, he
20950 is dying, and you come and bleed him and patch him up. He will drag
20951 about as a cripple, a burden to everybody, for another ten years. It
20952 would be far easier and simpler for him to die. Others are being born
20953 and there are plenty of them as it is. It would be different if you
20954 grudged losing a laborer--that's how I regard him--but you want to cure
20955 him from love of him. And he does not want that. And besides, what a
20956 notion that medicine ever cured anyone! Killed them, yes!" said he,
20957 frowning angrily and turning away from Pierre.
20959 Prince Andrew expressed his ideas so clearly and distinctly that it was
20960 evident he had reflected on this subject more than once, and he spoke
20961 readily and rapidly like a man who has not talked for a long time. His
20962 glance became more animated as his conclusions became more hopeless.
20964 "Oh, that is dreadful, dreadful!" said Pierre. "I don't understand how
20965 one can live with such ideas. I had such moments myself not long ago, in
20966 Moscow and when traveling, but at such times I collapsed so that I don't
20967 live at all--everything seems hateful to me... myself most of all. Then
20968 I don't eat, don't wash... and how is it with you?..."
20970 "Why not wash? That is not cleanly," said Prince Andrew; "on the
20971 contrary one must try to make one's life as pleasant as possible. I'm
20972 alive, that is not my fault, so I must live out my life as best I can
20973 without hurting others."
20975 "But with such ideas what motive have you for living? One would sit
20976 without moving, undertaking nothing...."
20978 "Life as it is leaves one no peace. I should be thankful to do nothing,
20979 but here on the one hand the local nobility have done me the honor to
20980 choose me to be their marshal; it was all I could do to get out of it.
20981 They could not understand that I have not the necessary qualifications
20982 for it--the kind of good-natured, fussy shallowness necessary for the
20983 position. Then there's this house, which must be built in order to have
20984 a nook of one's own in which to be quiet. And now there's this
20987 "Why aren't you serving in the army?"
20989 "After Austerlitz!" said Prince Andrew gloomily. "No, thank you very
20990 much! I have promised myself not to serve again in the active Russian
20991 army. And I won't--not even if Bonaparte were here at Smolensk
20992 threatening Bald Hills--even then I wouldn't serve in the Russian army!
20993 Well, as I was saying," he continued, recovering his composure, "now
20994 there's this recruiting. My father is chief in command of the Third
20995 District, and my only way of avoiding active service is to serve under
20998 "Then you are serving?"
21002 He paused a little while.
21004 "And why do you serve?"
21006 "Why, for this reason! My father is one of the most remarkable men of
21007 his time. But he is growing old, and though not exactly cruel he has too
21008 energetic a character. He is so accustomed to unlimited power that he is
21009 terrible, and now he has this authority of a commander-in-chief of the
21010 recruiting, granted by the Emperor. If I had been two hours late a
21011 fortnight ago he would have had a paymaster's clerk at Yukhnovna
21012 hanged," said Prince Andrew with a smile. "So I am serving because I
21013 alone have any influence with my father, and now and then can save him
21014 from actions which would torment him afterwards."
21016 "Well, there you see!"
21018 "Yes, but it is not as you imagine," Prince Andrew continued. "I did
21019 not, and do not, in the least care about that scoundrel of a clerk who
21020 had stolen some boots from the recruits; I should even have been very
21021 glad to see him hanged, but I was sorry for my father--that again is for
21024 Prince Andrew grew more and more animated. His eyes glittered feverishly
21025 while he tried to prove to Pierre that in his actions there was no
21026 desire to do good to his neighbor.
21028 "There now, you wish to liberate your serfs," he continued; "that is a
21029 very good thing, but not for you--I don't suppose you ever had anyone
21030 flogged or sent to Siberia--and still less for your serfs. If they are
21031 beaten, flogged, or sent to Siberia, I don't suppose they are any the
21032 worse off. In Siberia they lead the same animal life, and the stripes on
21033 their bodies heal, and they are happy as before. But it is a good thing
21034 for proprietors who perish morally, bring remorse upon themselves,
21035 stifle this remorse and grow callous, as a result of being able to
21036 inflict punishments justly and unjustly. It is those people I pity, and
21037 for their sake I should like to liberate the serfs. You may not have
21038 seen, but I have seen, how good men brought up in those traditions of
21039 unlimited power, in time when they grow more irritable, become cruel and
21040 harsh, are conscious of it, but cannot restrain themselves and grow more
21041 and more miserable."
21043 Prince Andrew spoke so earnestly that Pierre could not help thinking
21044 that these thoughts had been suggested to Prince Andrew by his father's
21049 "So that's what I'm sorry for--human dignity, peace of mind, purity, and
21050 not the serfs' backs and foreheads, which, beat and shave as you may,
21051 always remain the same backs and foreheads."
21053 "No, no! A thousand times no! I shall never agree with you," said
21061 In the evening Andrew and Pierre got into the open carriage and drove to
21062 Bald Hills. Prince Andrew, glancing at Pierre, broke the silence now and
21063 then with remarks which showed that he was in a good temper.
21065 Pointing to the fields, he spoke of the improvements he was making in
21068 Pierre remained gloomily silent, answering in monosyllables and
21069 apparently immersed in his own thoughts.
21071 He was thinking that Prince Andrew was unhappy, had gone astray, did not
21072 see the true light, and that he, Pierre, ought to aid, enlighten, and
21073 raise him. But as soon as he thought of what he should say, he felt that
21074 Prince Andrew with one word, one argument, would upset all his teaching,
21075 and he shrank from beginning, afraid of exposing to possible ridicule
21076 what to him was precious and sacred.
21078 "No, but why do you think so?" Pierre suddenly began, lowering his head
21079 and looking like a bull about to charge, "why do you think so? You
21080 should not think so."
21082 "Think? What about?" asked Prince Andrew with surprise.
21084 "About life, about man's destiny. It can't be so. I myself thought like
21085 that, and do you know what saved me? Freemasonry! No, don't smile.
21086 Freemasonry is not a religious ceremonial sect, as I thought it was:
21087 Freemasonry is the best expression of the best, the eternal, aspects of
21090 And he began to explain Freemasonry as he understood it to Prince
21091 Andrew. He said that Freemasonry is the teaching of Christianity freed
21092 from the bonds of State and Church, a teaching of equality, brotherhood,
21095 "Only our holy brotherhood has the real meaning of life, all the rest is
21096 a dream," said Pierre. "Understand, my dear fellow, that outside this
21097 union all is filled with deceit and falsehood and I agree with you that
21098 nothing is left for an intelligent and good man but to live out his
21099 life, like you, merely trying not to harm others. But make our
21100 fundamental convictions your own, join our brotherhood, give yourself up
21101 to us, let yourself be guided, and you will at once feel yourself, as I
21102 have felt myself, a part of that vast invisible chain the beginning of
21103 which is hidden in heaven," said Pierre.
21105 Prince Andrew, looking straight in front of him, listened in silence to
21106 Pierre's words. More than once, when the noise of the wheels prevented
21107 his catching what Pierre said, he asked him to repeat it, and by the
21108 peculiar glow that came into Prince Andrew's eyes and by his silence,
21109 Pierre saw that his words were not in vain and that Prince Andrew would
21110 not interrupt him or laugh at what he said.
21112 They reached a river that had overflowed its banks and which they had to
21113 cross by ferry. While the carriage and horses were being placed on it,
21114 they also stepped on the raft.
21116 Prince Andrew, leaning his arms on the raft railing, gazed silently at
21117 the flooding waters glittering in the setting sun.
21119 "Well, what do you think about it?" Pierre asked. "Why are you silent?"
21121 "What do I think about it? I am listening to you. It's all very well....
21122 You say: join our brotherhood and we will show you the aim of life, the
21123 destiny of man, and the laws which govern the world. But who are we?
21124 Men. How is it you know everything? Why do I alone not see what you see?
21125 You see a reign of goodness and truth on earth, but I don't see it."
21127 Pierre interrupted him.
21129 "Do you believe in a future life?" he asked.
21131 "A future life?" Prince Andrew repeated, but Pierre, giving him no time
21132 to reply, took the repetition for a denial, the more readily as he knew
21133 Prince Andrew's former atheistic convictions.
21135 "You say you can't see a reign of goodness and truth on earth. Nor could
21136 I, and it cannot be seen if one looks on our life here as the end of
21137 everything. On earth, here on this earth" (Pierre pointed to the
21138 fields), "there is no truth, all is false and evil; but in the universe,
21139 in the whole universe there is a kingdom of truth, and we who are now
21140 the children of earth are--eternally--children of the whole universe.
21141 Don't I feel in my soul that I am part of this vast harmonious whole?
21142 Don't I feel that I form one link, one step, between the lower and
21143 higher beings, in this vast harmonious multitude of beings in whom the
21144 Deity--the Supreme Power if you prefer the term--is manifest? If I see,
21145 clearly see, that ladder leading from plant to man, why should I suppose
21146 it breaks off at me and does not go farther and farther? I feel that I
21147 cannot vanish, since nothing vanishes in this world, but that I shall
21148 always exist and always have existed. I feel that beyond me and above me
21149 there are spirits, and that in this world there is truth."
21151 "Yes, that is Herder's theory," said Prince Andrew, "but it is not that
21152 which can convince me, dear friend--life and death are what convince.
21153 What convinces is when one sees a being dear to one, bound up with one's
21154 own life, before whom one was to blame and had hoped to make it right"
21155 (Prince Andrew's voice trembled and he turned away), "and suddenly that
21156 being is seized with pain, suffers, and ceases to exist.... Why? It
21157 cannot be that there is no answer. And I believe there is.... That's
21158 what convinces, that is what has convinced me," said Prince Andrew.
21160 "Yes, yes, of course," said Pierre, "isn't that what I'm saying?"
21162 "No. All I say is that it is not argument that convinces me of the
21163 necessity of a future life, but this: when you go hand in hand with
21164 someone and all at once that person vanishes there, into nowhere, and
21165 you yourself are left facing that abyss, and look in. And I have looked
21168 "Well, that's it then! You know that there is a there and there is a
21169 Someone? There is the future life. The Someone is--God."
21171 Prince Andrew did not reply. The carriage and horses had long since been
21172 taken off, onto the farther bank, and reharnessed. The sun had sunk half
21173 below the horizon and an evening frost was starring the puddles near the
21174 ferry, but Pierre and Andrew, to the astonishment of the footmen,
21175 coachmen, and ferrymen, still stood on the raft and talked.
21177 "If there is a God and future life, there is truth and good, and man's
21178 highest happiness consists in striving to attain them. We must live, we
21179 must love, and we must believe that we live not only today on this scrap
21180 of earth, but have lived and shall live forever, there, in the Whole,"
21181 said Pierre, and he pointed to the sky.
21183 Prince Andrew stood leaning on the railing of the raft listening to
21184 Pierre, and he gazed with his eyes fixed on the red reflection of the
21185 sun gleaming on the blue waters. There was perfect stillness. Pierre
21186 became silent. The raft had long since stopped and only the waves of the
21187 current beat softly against it below. Prince Andrew felt as if the sound
21188 of the waves kept up a refrain to Pierre's words, whispering:
21190 "It is true, believe it."
21192 He sighed, and glanced with a radiant, childlike, tender look at
21193 Pierre's face, flushed and rapturous, but yet shy before his superior
21196 "Yes, if it only were so!" said Prince Andrew. "However, it is time to
21197 get on," he added, and, stepping off the raft, he looked up at the sky
21198 to which Pierre had pointed, and for the first time since Austerlitz saw
21199 that high, everlasting sky he had seen while lying on that battlefield;
21200 and something that had long been slumbering, something that was best
21201 within him, suddenly awoke, joyful and youthful, in his soul. It
21202 vanished as soon as he returned to the customary conditions of his life,
21203 but he knew that this feeling which he did not know how to develop
21204 existed within him. His meeting with Pierre formed an epoch in Prince
21205 Andrew's life. Though outwardly he continued to live in the same old
21206 way, inwardly he began a new life.
21213 It was getting dusk when Prince Andrew and Pierre drove up to the front
21214 entrance of the house at Bald Hills. As they approached the house,
21215 Prince Andrew with a smile drew Pierre's attention to a commotion going
21216 on at the back porch. A woman, bent with age, with a wallet on her back,
21217 and a short, long-haired, young man in a black garment had rushed back
21218 to the gate on seeing the carriage driving up. Two women ran out after
21219 them, and all four, looking round at the carriage, ran in dismay up the
21220 steps of the back porch.
21222 "Those are Mary's 'God's folk,'" said Prince Andrew. "They have mistaken
21223 us for my father. This is the one matter in which she disobeys him. He
21224 orders these pilgrims to be driven away, but she receives them."
21226 "But what are 'God's folk'?" asked Pierre.
21228 Prince Andrew had no time to answer. The servants came out to meet them,
21229 and he asked where the old prince was and whether he was expected back
21232 The old prince had gone to the town and was expected back any minute.
21234 Prince Andrew led Pierre to his own apartments, which were always kept
21235 in perfect order and readiness for him in his father's house; he himself
21236 went to the nursery.
21238 "Let us go and see my sister," he said to Pierre when he returned. "I
21239 have not found her yet, she is hiding now, sitting with her 'God's
21240 folk.' It will serve her right, she will be confused, but you will see
21241 her 'God's folk.' It's really very curious."
21243 "What are 'God's folk'?" asked Pierre.
21245 "Come, and you'll see for yourself."
21247 Princess Mary really was disconcerted and red patches came on her face
21248 when they went in. In her snug room, with lamps burning before the icon
21249 stand, a young lad with a long nose and long hair, wearing a monk's
21250 cassock, sat on the sofa beside her, behind a samovar. Near them, in an
21251 armchair, sat a thin, shriveled, old woman, with a meek expression on
21252 her childlike face.
21254 "Andrew, why didn't you warn me?" said the princess, with mild reproach,
21255 as she stood before her pilgrims like a hen before her chickens.
21257 "Charmee de vous voir. Je suis tres contente de vous voir," * she said
21258 to Pierre as he kissed her hand. She had known him as a child, and now
21259 his friendship with Andrew, his misfortune with his wife, and above all
21260 his kindly, simple face disposed her favorably toward him. She looked at
21261 him with her beautiful radiant eyes and seemed to say, "I like you very
21262 much, but please don't laugh at my people." After exchanging the first
21263 greetings, they sat down.
21266 * "Delighted to see you. I am very glad to see you."
21268 "Ah, and Ivanushka is here too!" said Prince Andrew, glancing with a
21269 smile at the young pilgrim.
21271 "Andrew!" said Princess Mary, imploringly. "Il faut que vous sachiez que
21272 c'est une femme," * said Prince Andrew to Pierre.
21274 "Andrew, au nom de Dieu!" *(2) Princess Mary repeated.
21277 * "You must know that this is a woman."
21279 * (2) "For heaven's sake."
21281 It was evident that Prince Andrew's ironical tone toward the pilgrims
21282 and Princess Mary's helpless attempts to protect them were their
21283 customary long-established relations on the matter.
21285 "Mais, ma bonne amie," said Prince Andrew, "vous devriez au contraire
21286 m'être reconnaissante de ce que j'explique a Pierre votre intimité avec
21290 * "But, my dear, you ought on the contrary to be grateful to me for
21291 explaining to Pierre your intimacy with this young man."
21293 "Really?" said Pierre, gazing over his spectacles with curiosity and
21294 seriousness (for which Princess Mary was specially grateful to him) into
21295 Ivanushka's face, who, seeing that she was being spoken about, looked
21296 round at them all with crafty eyes.
21298 Princess Mary's embarrassment on her people's account was quite
21299 unnecessary. They were not in the least abashed. The old woman, lowering
21300 her eyes but casting side glances at the newcomers, had turned her cup
21301 upside down and placed a nibbled bit of sugar beside it, and sat quietly
21302 in her armchair, though hoping to be offered another cup of tea.
21303 Ivanushka, sipping out of her saucer, looked with sly womanish eyes from
21304 under her brows at the young men.
21306 "Where have you been? To Kiev?" Prince Andrew asked the old woman.
21308 "I have, good sir," she answered garrulously. "Just at Christmastime I
21309 was deemed worthy to partake of the holy and heavenly sacrament at the
21310 shrine of the saint. And now I'm from Kolyazin, master, where a great
21311 and wonderful blessing has been revealed."
21313 "And was Ivanushka with you?"
21315 "I go by myself, benefactor," said Ivanushka, trying to speak in a bass
21316 voice. "I only came across Pelageya in Yukhnovo..."
21318 Pelageya interrupted her companion; she evidently wished to tell what
21321 "In Kolyazin, master, a wonderful blessing has been revealed."
21323 "What is it? Some new relics?" asked Prince Andrew.
21325 "Andrew, do leave off," said Princess Mary. "Don't tell him, Pelageya."
21327 "No... why not, my dear, why shouldn't I? I like him. He is kind, he is
21328 one of God's chosen, he's a benefactor, he once gave me ten rubles, I
21329 remember. When I was in Kiev, Crazy Cyril says to me (he's one of God's
21330 own and goes barefoot summer and winter), he says, 'Why are you not
21331 going to the right place? Go to Kolyazin where a wonder-working icon of
21332 the Holy Mother of God has been revealed.' On hearing those words I said
21333 good-by to the holy folk and went."
21335 All were silent, only the pilgrim woman went on in measured tones,
21336 drawing in her breath.
21338 "So I come, master, and the people say to me: 'A great blessing has been
21339 revealed, holy oil trickles from the cheeks of our blessed Mother, the
21340 Holy Virgin Mother of God'...."
21342 "All right, all right, you can tell us afterwards," said Princess Mary,
21345 "Let me ask her," said Pierre. "Did you see it yourselves?" he inquired.
21347 "Oh, yes, master, I was found worthy. Such a brightness on the face like
21348 the light of heaven, and from the blessed Mother's cheek it drops and
21351 "But, dear me, that must be a fraud!" said Pierre, naively, who had
21352 listened attentively to the pilgrim.
21354 "Oh, master, what are you saying?" exclaimed the horrified Pelageya,
21355 turning to Princess Mary for support.
21357 "They impose on the people," he repeated.
21359 "Lord Jesus Christ!" exclaimed the pilgrim woman, crossing herself. "Oh,
21360 don't speak so, master! There was a general who did not believe, and
21361 said, 'The monks cheat,' and as soon as he'd said it he went blind. And
21362 he dreamed that the Holy Virgin Mother of the Kiev catacombs came to him
21363 and said, 'Believe in me and I will make you whole.' So he begged: 'Take
21364 me to her, take me to her.' It's the real truth I'm telling you, I saw
21365 it myself. So he was brought, quite blind, straight to her, and he goes
21366 up to her and falls down and says, 'Make me whole,' says he, 'and I'll
21367 give thee what the Tsar bestowed on me.' I saw it myself, master, the
21368 star is fixed into the icon. Well, and what do you think? He received
21369 his sight! It's a sin to speak so. God will punish you," she said
21370 admonishingly, turning to Pierre.
21372 "How did the star get into the icon?" Pierre asked.
21374 "And was the Holy Mother promoted to the rank of general?" said Prince
21375 Andrew, with a smile.
21377 Pelageya suddenly grew quite pale and clasped her hands.
21379 "Oh, master, master, what a sin! And you who have a son!" she began, her
21380 pallor suddenly turning to a vivid red. "Master, what have you said? God
21381 forgive you!" And she crossed herself. "Lord forgive him! My dear, what
21382 does it mean?..." she asked, turning to Princess Mary. She got up and,
21383 almost crying, began to arrange her wallet. She evidently felt
21384 frightened and ashamed to have accepted charity in a house where such
21385 things could be said, and was at the same time sorry to have now to
21386 forgo the charity of this house.
21388 "Now, why need you do it?" said Princess Mary. "Why did you come to
21391 "Come, Pelageya, I was joking," said Pierre. "Princesse, ma parole, je
21392 n'ai pas voulu l'offenser. * I did not mean anything, I was only
21393 joking," he said, smiling shyly and trying to efface his offense. "It
21394 was all my fault, and Andrew was only joking."
21397 * "Princess, on my word, I did not wish to offend her."
21399 Pelageya stopped doubtfully, but in Pierre's face there was such a look
21400 of sincere penitence, and Prince Andrew glanced so meekly now at her and
21401 now at Pierre, that she was gradually reassured.
21408 The pilgrim woman was appeased and, being encouraged to talk, gave a
21409 long account of Father Amphilochus, who led so holy a life that his
21410 hands smelled of incense, and how on her last visit to Kiev some monks
21411 she knew let her have the keys of the catacombs, and how she, taking
21412 some dried bread with her, had spent two days in the catacombs with the
21413 saints. "I'd pray awhile to one, ponder awhile, then go on to another.
21414 I'd sleep a bit and then again go and kiss the relics, and there was
21415 such peace all around, such blessedness, that one don't want to come
21416 out, even into the light of heaven again."
21418 Pierre listened to her attentively and seriously. Prince Andrew went out
21419 of the room, and then, leaving "God's folk" to finish their tea,
21420 Princess Mary took Pierre into the drawing room.
21422 "You are very kind," she said to him.
21424 "Oh, I really did not mean to hurt her feelings. I understand them so
21425 well and have the greatest respect for them."
21427 Princess Mary looked at him silently and smiled affectionately.
21429 "I have known you a long time, you see, and am as fond of you as of a
21430 brother," she said. "How do you find Andrew?" she added hurriedly, not
21431 giving him time to reply to her affectionate words. "I am very anxious
21432 about him. His health was better in the winter, but last spring his
21433 wound reopened and the doctor said he ought to go away for a cure. And I
21434 am also very much afraid for him spiritually. He has not a character
21435 like us women who, when we suffer, can weep away our sorrows. He keeps
21436 it all within him. Today he is cheerful and in good spirits, but that is
21437 the effect of your visit--he is not often like that. If you could
21438 persuade him to go abroad. He needs activity, and this quiet regular
21439 life is very bad for him. Others don't notice it, but I see it."
21441 Toward ten o'clock the men servants rushed to the front door, hearing
21442 the bells of the old prince's carriage approaching. Prince Andrew and
21443 Pierre also went out into the porch.
21445 "Who's that?" asked the old prince, noticing Pierre as he got out of the
21448 "Ah! Very glad! Kiss me," he said, having learned who the young stranger
21451 The old prince was in a good temper and very gracious to Pierre.
21453 Before supper, Prince Andrew, coming back to his father's study, found
21454 him disputing hotly with his visitor. Pierre was maintaining that a time
21455 would come when there would be no more wars. The old prince disputed it
21456 chaffingly, but without getting angry.
21458 "Drain the blood from men's veins and put in water instead, then there
21459 will be no more war! Old women's nonsense--old women's nonsense!" he
21460 repeated, but still he patted Pierre affectionately on the shoulder, and
21461 then went up to the table where Prince Andrew, evidently not wishing to
21462 join in the conversation, was looking over the papers his father had
21463 brought from town. The old prince went up to him and began to talk
21466 "The marshal, a Count Rostov, hasn't sent half his contingent. He came
21467 to town and wanted to invite me to dinner--I gave him a pretty
21468 dinner!... And there, look at this.... Well, my boy," the old prince
21469 went on, addressing his son and patting Pierre on the shoulder. "A fine
21470 fellow--your friend--I like him! He stirs me up. Another says clever
21471 things and one doesn't care to listen, but this one talks rubbish yet
21472 stirs an old fellow up. Well, go! Get along! Perhaps I'll come and sit
21473 with you at supper. We'll have another dispute. Make friends with my
21474 little fool, Princess Mary," he shouted after Pierre, through the door.
21476 Only now, on his visit to Bald Hills, did Pierre fully realize the
21477 strength and charm of his friendship with Prince Andrew. That charm was
21478 not expressed so much in his relations with him as with all his family
21479 and with the household. With the stern old prince and the gentle, timid
21480 Princess Mary, though he had scarcely known them, Pierre at once felt
21481 like an old friend. They were all fond of him already. Not only Princess
21482 Mary, who had been won by his gentleness with the pilgrims, gave him her
21483 most radiant looks, but even the one-year-old "Prince Nicholas" (as his
21484 grandfather called him) smiled at Pierre and let himself be taken in his
21485 arms, and Michael Ivanovich and Mademoiselle Bourienne looked at him
21486 with pleasant smiles when he talked to the old prince.
21488 The old prince came in to supper; this was evidently on Pierre's
21489 account. And during the two days of the young man's visit he was
21490 extremely kind to him and told him to visit them again.
21492 When Pierre had gone and the members of the household met together, they
21493 began to express their opinions of him as people always do after a new
21494 acquaintance has left, but as seldom happens, no one said anything but
21495 what was good of him.
21502 When returning from his leave, Rostov felt, for the first time, how
21503 close was the bond that united him to Denisov and the whole regiment.
21505 On approaching it, Rostov felt as he had done when approaching his home
21506 in Moscow. When he saw the first hussar with the unbuttoned uniform of
21507 his regiment, when he recognized red-haired Dementyev and saw the picket
21508 ropes of the roan horses, when Lavrushka gleefully shouted to his
21509 master, "The count has come!" and Denisov, who had been asleep on his
21510 bed, ran all disheveled out of the mud hut to embrace him, and the
21511 officers collected round to greet the new arrival, Rostov experienced
21512 the same feeling as when his mother, his father, and his sister had
21513 embraced him, and tears of joy choked him so that he could not speak.
21514 The regiment was also a home, and as unalterably dear and precious as
21515 his parents' house.
21517 When he had reported himself to the commander of the regiment and had
21518 been reassigned to his former squadron, had been on duty and had gone
21519 out foraging, when he had again entered into all the little interests of
21520 the regiment and felt himself deprived of liberty and bound in one
21521 narrow, unchanging frame, he experienced the same sense of peace, of
21522 moral support, and the same sense of being at home here in his own
21523 place, as he had felt under the parental roof. But here was none of all
21524 that turmoil of the world at large, where he did not know his right
21525 place and took mistaken decisions; here was no Sonya with whom he ought,
21526 or ought not, to have an explanation; here was no possibility of going
21527 there or not going there; here there were not twenty-four hours in the
21528 day which could be spent in such a variety of ways; there was not that
21529 innumerable crowd of people of whom not one was nearer to him or farther
21530 from him than another; there were none of those uncertain and undefined
21531 money relations with his father, and nothing to recall that terrible
21532 loss to Dolokhov. Here, in the regiment, all was clear and simple. The
21533 whole world was divided into two unequal parts: one, our Pavlograd
21534 regiment; the other, all the rest. And the rest was no concern of his.
21535 In the regiment, everything was definite: who was lieutenant, who
21536 captain, who was a good fellow, who a bad one, and most of all, who was
21537 a comrade. The canteenkeeper gave one credit, one's pay came every four
21538 months, there was nothing to think out or decide, you had only to do
21539 nothing that was considered bad in the Pavlograd regiment and, when
21540 given an order, to do what was clearly, distinctly, and definitely
21541 ordered--and all would be well.
21543 Having once more entered into the definite conditions of this regimental
21544 life, Rostov felt the joy and relief a tired man feels on lying down to
21545 rest. Life in the regiment, during this campaign, was all the pleasanter
21546 for him, because, after his loss to Dolokhov (for which, in spite of all
21547 his family's efforts to console him, he could not forgive himself), he
21548 had made up his mind to atone for his fault by serving, not as he had
21549 done before, but really well, and by being a perfectly first-rate
21550 comrade and officer--in a word, a splendid man altogether, a thing which
21551 seemed so difficult out in the world, but so possible in the regiment.
21553 After his losses, he had determined to pay back his debt to his parents
21554 in five years. He received ten thousand rubles a year, but now resolved
21555 to take only two thousand and leave the rest to repay the debt to his
21558 Our army, after repeated retreats and advances and battles at Pultusk
21559 and Preussisch-Eylau, was concentrated near Bartenstein. It was awaiting
21560 the Emperor's arrival and the beginning of a new campaign.
21562 The Pavlograd regiment, belonging to that part of the army which had
21563 served in the 1805 campaign, had been recruiting up to strength in
21564 Russia, and arrived too late to take part in the first actions of the
21565 campaign. It had been neither at Pultusk nor at Preussisch-Eylau and,
21566 when it joined the army in the field in the second half of the campaign,
21567 was attached to Platov's division.
21569 Platov's division was acting independently of the main army. Several
21570 times parts of the Pavlograd regiment had exchanged shots with the
21571 enemy, had taken prisoners, and once had even captured Marshal Oudinot's
21572 carriages. In April the Pavlograds were stationed immovably for some
21573 weeks near a totally ruined and deserted German village.
21575 A thaw had set in, it was muddy and cold, the ice on the river broke,
21576 and the roads became impassable. For days neither provisions for the men
21577 nor fodder for the horses had been issued. As no transports could
21578 arrive, the men dispersed about the abandoned and deserted villages,
21579 searching for potatoes, but found few even of these.
21581 Everything had been eaten up and the inhabitants had all fled--if any
21582 remained, they were worse than beggars and nothing more could be taken
21583 from them; even the soldiers, usually pitiless enough, instead of taking
21584 anything from them, often gave them the last of their rations.
21586 The Pavlograd regiment had had only two men wounded in action, but had
21587 lost nearly half its men from hunger and sickness. In the hospitals,
21588 death was so certain that soldiers suffering from fever, or the swelling
21589 that came from bad food, preferred to remain on duty, and hardly able to
21590 drag their legs went to the front rather than to the hospitals. When
21591 spring came on, the soldiers found a plant just showing out of the
21592 ground that looked like asparagus, which, for some reason, they called
21593 "Mashka's sweet root." It was very bitter, but they wandered about the
21594 fields seeking it and dug it out with their sabers and ate it, though
21595 they were ordered not to do so, as it was a noxious plant. That spring a
21596 new disease broke out among the soldiers, a swelling of the arms, legs,
21597 and face, which the doctors attributed to eating this root. But in spite
21598 of all this, the soldiers of Denisov's squadron fed chiefly on "Mashka's
21599 sweet root," because it was the second week that the last of the
21600 biscuits were being doled out at the rate of half a pound a man and the
21601 last potatoes received had sprouted and frozen.
21603 The horses also had been fed for a fortnight on straw from the thatched
21604 roofs and had become terribly thin, though still covered with tufts of
21607 Despite this destitution, the soldiers and officers went on living just
21608 as usual. Despite their pale swollen faces and tattered uniforms, the
21609 hussars formed line for roll call, kept things in order, groomed their
21610 horses, polished their arms, brought in straw from the thatched roofs in
21611 place of fodder, and sat down to dine round the caldrons from which they
21612 rose up hungry, joking about their nasty food and their hunger. As
21613 usual, in their spare time, they lit bonfires, steamed themselves before
21614 them naked; smoked, picked out and baked sprouting rotten potatoes, told
21615 and listened to stories of Potemkin's and Suvorov's campaigns, or to
21616 legends of Alesha the Sly, or the priest's laborer Mikolka.
21618 The officers, as usual, lived in twos and threes in the roofless, half-
21619 ruined houses. The seniors tried to collect straw and potatoes and, in
21620 general, food for the men. The younger ones occupied themselves as
21621 before, some playing cards (there was plenty of money, though there was
21622 no food), some with more innocent games, such as quoits and skittles.
21623 The general trend of the campaign was rarely spoken of, partly because
21624 nothing certain was known about it, partly because there was a vague
21625 feeling that in the main it was going badly.
21627 Rostov lived, as before, with Denisov, and since their furlough they had
21628 become more friendly than ever. Denisov never spoke of Rostov's family,
21629 but by the tender friendship his commander showed him, Rostov felt that
21630 the elder hussar's luckless love for Natasha played a part in
21631 strengthening their friendship. Denisov evidently tried to expose Rostov
21632 to danger as seldom as possible, and after an action greeted his safe
21633 return with evident joy. On one of his foraging expeditions, in a
21634 deserted and ruined village to which he had come in search of
21635 provisions, Rostov found a family consisting of an old Pole and his
21636 daughter with an infant in arms. They were half clad, hungry, too weak
21637 to get away on foot and had no means of obtaining a conveyance. Rostov
21638 brought them to his quarters, placed them in his own lodging, and kept
21639 them for some weeks while the old man was recovering. One of his
21640 comrades, talking of women, began chaffing Rostov, saying that he was
21641 more wily than any of them and that it would not be a bad thing if he
21642 introduced to them the pretty Polish girl he had saved. Rostov took the
21643 joke as an insult, flared up, and said such unpleasant things to the
21644 officer that it was all Denisov could do to prevent a duel. When the
21645 officer had gone away, Denisov, who did not himself know what Rostov's
21646 relations with the Polish girl might be, began to upbraid him for his
21647 quickness of temper, and Rostov replied:
21649 "Say what you like.... She is like a sister to me, and I can't tell you
21650 how it offended me... because... well, for that reason...."
21652 Denisov patted him on the shoulder and began rapidly pacing the room
21653 without looking at Rostov, as was his way at moments of deep feeling.
21655 "Ah, what a mad bweed you Wostovs are!" he muttered, and Rostov noticed
21663 In April the troops were enlivened by news of the Emperor's arrival, but
21664 Rostov had no chance of being present at the review he held at
21665 Bartenstein, as the Pavlograds were at the outposts far beyond that
21668 They were bivouacking. Denisov and Rostov were living in an earth hut,
21669 dug out for them by the soldiers and roofed with branches and turf. The
21670 hut was made in the following manner, which had then come into vogue. A
21671 trench was dug three and a half feet wide, four feet eight inches deep,
21672 and eight feet long. At one end of the trench, steps were cut out and
21673 these formed the entrance and vestibule. The trench itself was the room,
21674 in which the lucky ones, such as the squadron commander, had a board,
21675 lying on piles at the end opposite the entrance, to serve as a table. On
21676 each side of the trench, the earth was cut out to a breadth of about two
21677 and a half feet, and this did duty for bedsteads and couches. The roof
21678 was so constructed that one could stand up in the middle of the trench
21679 and could even sit up on the beds if one drew close to the table.
21680 Denisov, who was living luxuriously because the soldiers of his squadron
21681 liked him, had also a board in the roof at the farther end, with a piece
21682 of (broken but mended) glass in it for a window. When it was very cold,
21683 embers from the soldiers' campfire were placed on a bent sheet of iron
21684 on the steps in the "reception room"--as Denisov called that part of the
21685 hut--and it was then so warm that the officers, of whom there were
21686 always some with Denisov and Rostov, sat in their shirt sleeves.
21688 In April, Rostov was on orderly duty. One morning, between seven and
21689 eight, returning after a sleepless night, he sent for embers, changed
21690 his rain-soaked underclothes, said his prayers, drank tea, got warm,
21691 then tidied up the things on the table and in his own corner, and, his
21692 face glowing from exposure to the wind and with nothing on but his
21693 shirt, lay down on his back, putting his arms under his head. He was
21694 pleasantly considering the probability of being promoted in a few days
21695 for his last reconnoitering expedition, and was awaiting Denisov, who
21696 had gone out somewhere and with whom he wanted a talk.
21698 Suddenly he heard Denisov shouting in a vibrating voice behind the hut,
21699 evidently much excited. Rostov moved to the window to see whom he was
21700 speaking to, and saw the quartermaster, Topcheenko.
21702 "I ordered you not to let them eat that Mashka woot stuff!" Denisov was
21703 shouting. "And I saw with my own eyes how Lazarchuk bwought some fwom
21706 "I have given the order again and again, your honor, but they don't
21707 obey," answered the quartermaster.
21709 Rostov lay down again on his bed and thought complacently: "Let him fuss
21710 and bustle now, my job's done and I'm lying down--capitally!" He could
21711 hear that Lavrushka--that sly, bold orderly of Denisov's--was talking,
21712 as well as the quartermaster. Lavrushka was saying something about
21713 loaded wagons, biscuits, and oxen he had seen when he had gone out for
21716 Then Denisov's voice was heard shouting farther and farther away.
21717 "Saddle! Second platoon!"
21719 "Where are they off to now?" thought Rostov.
21721 Five minutes later, Denisov came into the hut, climbed with muddy boots
21722 on the bed, lit his pipe, furiously scattered his things about, took his
21723 leaded whip, buckled on his saber, and went out again. In answer to
21724 Rostov's inquiry where he was going, he answered vaguely and crossly
21725 that he had some business.
21727 "Let God and our gweat monarch judge me afterwards!" said Denisov going
21728 out, and Rostov heard the hoofs of several horses splashing through the
21729 mud. He did not even trouble to find out where Denisov had gone. Having
21730 got warm in his corner, he fell asleep and did not leave the hut till
21731 toward evening. Denisov had not yet returned. The weather had cleared
21732 up, and near the next hut two officers and a cadet were playing svayka,
21733 laughing as they threw their missiles which buried themselves in the
21734 soft mud. Rostov joined them. In the middle of the game, the officers
21735 saw some wagons approaching with fifteen hussars on their skinny horses
21736 behind them. The wagons escorted by the hussars drew up to the picket
21737 ropes and a crowd of hussars surrounded them.
21739 "There now, Denisov has been worrying," said Rostov, "and here are the
21742 "So they are!" said the officers. "Won't the soldiers be glad!"
21744 A little behind the hussars came Denisov, accompanied by two infantry
21745 officers with whom he was talking.
21747 Rostov went to meet them.
21749 "I warn you, Captain," one of the officers, a short thin man, evidently
21750 very angry, was saying.
21752 "Haven't I told you I won't give them up?" replied Denisov.
21754 "You will answer for it, Captain. It is mutiny--seizing the transport of
21755 one's own army. Our men have had nothing to eat for two days."
21757 "And mine have had nothing for two weeks," said Denisov.
21759 "It is robbery! You'll answer for it, sir!" said the infantry officer,
21762 "Now, what are you pestewing me for?" cried Denisov, suddenly losing his
21763 temper. "I shall answer for it and not you, and you'd better not buzz
21764 about here till you get hurt. Be off! Go!" he shouted at the officers.
21766 "Very well, then!" shouted the little officer, undaunted and not riding
21767 away. "If you are determined to rob, I'll..."
21769 "Go to the devil! quick ma'ch, while you're safe and sound!" and Denisov
21770 turned his horse on the officer.
21772 "Very well, very well!" muttered the officer, threateningly, and turning
21773 his horse he trotted away, jolting in his saddle.
21775 "A dog astwide a fence! A weal dog astwide a fence!" shouted Denisov
21776 after him (the most insulting expression a cavalryman can address to a
21777 mounted infantryman) and riding up to Rostov, he burst out laughing.
21779 "I've taken twansports from the infantwy by force!" he said. "After all,
21780 can't let our men starve."
21782 The wagons that had reached the hussars had been consigned to an
21783 infantry regiment, but learning from Lavrushka that the transport was
21784 unescorted, Denisov with his hussars had seized it by force. The
21785 soldiers had biscuits dealt out to them freely, and they even shared
21786 them with the other squadrons.
21788 The next day the regimental commander sent for Denisov, and holding his
21789 fingers spread out before his eyes said:
21791 "This is how I look at this affair: I know nothing about it and won't
21792 begin proceedings, but I advise you to ride over to the staff and settle
21793 the business there in the commissariat department and if possible sign a
21794 receipt for such and such stores received. If not, as the demand was
21795 booked against an infantry regiment, there will be a row and the affair
21798 From the regimental commander's, Denisov rode straight to the staff with
21799 a sincere desire to act on this advice. In the evening he came back to
21800 his dugout in a state such as Rostov had never yet seen him in. Denisov
21801 could not speak and gasped for breath. When Rostov asked what was the
21802 matter, he only uttered some incoherent oaths and threats in a hoarse,
21805 Alarmed at Denisov's condition, Rostov suggested that he should undress,
21806 drink some water, and send for the doctor.
21808 "Twy me for wobbewy... oh! Some more water... Let them twy me, but I'll
21809 always thwash scoundwels... and I'll tell the Empewo'... Ice..." he
21812 The regimental doctor, when he came, said it was absolutely necessary to
21813 bleed Denisov. A deep saucer of black blood was taken from his hairy arm
21814 and only then was he able to relate what had happened to him.
21816 "I get there," began Denisov. "'Now then, where's your chief's
21817 quarters?' They were pointed out. 'Please to wait.' 'I've widden twenty
21818 miles and have duties to attend to and no time to wait. Announce me.'
21819 Vewy well, so out comes their head chief--also took it into his head to
21820 lecture me: 'It's wobbewy!'--'Wobbewy,' I say, 'is not done by man who
21821 seizes pwovisions to feed his soldiers, but by him who takes them to
21822 fill his own pockets!' 'Will you please be silent?' 'Vewy good!' Then he
21823 says: 'Go and give a weceipt to the commissioner, but your affair will
21824 be passed on to headquarters.' I go to the commissioner. I enter, and at
21825 the table... who do you think? No, but wait a bit!... Who is it that's
21826 starving us?" shouted Denisov, hitting the table with the fist of his
21827 newly bled arm so violently that the table nearly broke down and the
21828 tumblers on it jumped about. "Telyanin! 'What? So it's you who's
21829 starving us to death! Is it? Take this and this!' and I hit him so pat,
21830 stwaight on his snout... 'Ah, what a... what a...!' and I sta'ted
21831 fwashing him... Well, I've had a bit of fun I can tell you!" cried
21832 Denisov, gleeful and yet angry, his white teeth showing under his black
21833 mustache. "I'd have killed him if they hadn't taken him away!"
21835 "But what are you shouting for? Calm yourself," said Rostov. "You've set
21836 your arm bleeding afresh. Wait, we must tie it up again."
21838 Denisov was bandaged up again and put to bed. Next day he woke calm and
21841 But at noon the adjutant of the regiment came into Rostov's and
21842 Denisov's dugout with a grave and serious face and regretfully showed
21843 them a paper addressed to Major Denisov from the regimental commander in
21844 which inquiries were made about yesterday's occurrence. The adjutant
21845 told them that the affair was likely to take a very bad turn: that a
21846 court-martial had been appointed, and that in view of the severity with
21847 which marauding and insubordination were now regarded, degradation to
21848 the ranks would be the best that could be hoped for.
21850 The case, as represented by the offended parties, was that, after
21851 seizing the transports, Major Denisov, being drunk, went to the chief
21852 quartermaster and without any provocation called him a thief, threatened
21853 to strike him, and on being led out had rushed into the office and given
21854 two officials a thrashing, and dislocated the arm of one of them.
21856 In answer to Rostov's renewed questions, Denisov said, laughing, that he
21857 thought he remembered that some other fellow had got mixed up in it, but
21858 that it was all nonsense and rubbish, and he did not in the least fear
21859 any kind of trial, and that if those scoundrels dared attack him he
21860 would give them an answer that they would not easily forget.
21862 Denisov spoke contemptuously of the whole matter, but Rostov knew him
21863 too well not to detect that (while hiding it from others) at heart he
21864 feared a court-martial and was worried over the affair, which was
21865 evidently taking a bad turn. Every day, letters of inquiry and notices
21866 from the court arrived, and on the first of May, Denisov was ordered to
21867 hand the squadron over to the next in seniority and appear before the
21868 staff of his division to explain his violence at the commissariat
21869 office. On the previous day Platov reconnoitered with two Cossack
21870 regiments and two squadrons of hussars. Denisov, as was his wont, rode
21871 out in front of the outposts, parading his courage. A bullet fired by a
21872 French sharpshooter hit him in the fleshy part of his leg. Perhaps at
21873 another time Denisov would not have left the regiment for so slight a
21874 wound, but now he took advantage of it to excuse himself from appearing
21875 at the staff and went into hospital.
21882 In June the battle of Friedland was fought, in which the Pavlograds did
21883 not take part, and after that an armistice was proclaimed. Rostov, who
21884 felt his friend's absence very much, having no news of him since he left
21885 and feeling very anxious about his wound and the progress of his
21886 affairs, took advantage of the armistice to get leave to visit Denisov
21889 The hospital was in a small Prussian town that had been twice devastated
21890 by Russian and French troops. Because it was summer, when it is so
21891 beautiful out in the fields, the little town presented a particularly
21892 dismal appearance with its broken roofs and fences, its foul streets,
21893 tattered inhabitants, and the sick and drunken soldiers wandering about.
21895 The hospital was in a brick building with some of the window frames and
21896 panes broken and a courtyard surrounded by the remains of a wooden fence
21897 that had been pulled to pieces. Several bandaged soldiers, with pale
21898 swollen faces, were sitting or walking about in the sunshine in the
21901 Directly Rostov entered the door he was enveloped by a smell of
21902 putrefaction and hospital air. On the stairs he met a Russian army
21903 doctor smoking a cigar. The doctor was followed by a Russian assistant.
21905 "I can't tear myself to pieces," the doctor was saying. "Come to Makar
21906 Alexeevich in the evening. I shall be there."
21908 The assistant asked some further questions.
21910 "Oh, do the best you can! Isn't it all the same?" The doctor noticed
21911 Rostov coming upstairs.
21913 "What do you want, sir?" said the doctor. "What do you want? The bullets
21914 having spared you, do you want to try typhus? This is a pesthouse, sir."
21916 "How so?" asked Rostov.
21918 "Typhus, sir. It's death to go in. Only we two, Makeev and I" (he
21919 pointed to the assistant), "keep on here. Some five of us doctors have
21920 died in this place.... When a new one comes he is done for in a week,"
21921 said the doctor with evident satisfaction. "Prussian doctors have been
21922 invited here, but our allies don't like it at all."
21924 Rostov explained that he wanted to see Major Denisov of the hussars, who
21927 "I don't know. I can't tell you, sir. Only think! I am alone in charge
21928 of three hospitals with more than four hundred patients! It's well that
21929 the charitable Prussian ladies send us two pounds of coffee and some
21930 lint each month or we should be lost!" he laughed. "Four hundred, sir,
21931 and they're always sending me fresh ones. There are four hundred? Eh?"
21932 he asked, turning to the assistant.
21934 The assistant looked fagged out. He was evidently vexed and impatient
21935 for the talkative doctor to go.
21937 "Major Denisov," Rostov said again. "He was wounded at Molliten."
21939 "Dead, I fancy. Eh, Makeev?" queried the doctor, in a tone of
21942 The assistant, however, did not confirm the doctor's words.
21944 "Is he tall and with reddish hair?" asked the doctor.
21946 Rostov described Denisov's appearance.
21948 "There was one like that," said the doctor, as if pleased. "That one is
21949 dead, I fancy. However, I'll look up our list. We had a list. Have you
21952 "Makar Alexeevich has the list," answered the assistant. "But if you'll
21953 step into the officers' wards you'll see for yourself," he added,
21956 "Ah, you'd better not go, sir," said the doctor, "or you may have to
21957 stay here yourself."
21959 But Rostov bowed himself away from the doctor and asked the assistant to
21962 "Only don't blame me!" the doctor shouted up after him.
21964 Rostov and the assistant went into the dark corridor. The smell was so
21965 strong there that Rostov held his nose and had to pause and collect his
21966 strength before he could go on. A door opened to the right, and an
21967 emaciated sallow man on crutches, barefoot and in underclothing, limped
21968 out and, leaning against the doorpost, looked with glittering envious
21969 eyes at those who were passing. Glancing in at the door, Rostov saw that
21970 the sick and wounded were lying on the floor on straw and overcoats.
21972 "May I go in and look?"
21974 "What is there to see?" said the assistant.
21976 But, just because the assistant evidently did not want him to go in,
21977 Rostov entered the soldiers' ward. The foul air, to which he had already
21978 begun to get used in the corridor, was still stronger here. It was a
21979 little different, more pungent, and one felt that this was where it
21982 In the long room, brightly lit up by the sun through the large windows,
21983 the sick and wounded lay in two rows with their heads to the walls, and
21984 leaving a passage in the middle. Most of them were unconscious and paid
21985 no attention to the newcomers. Those who were conscious raised
21986 themselves or lifted their thin yellow faces, and all looked intently at
21987 Rostov with the same expression of hope, of relief, reproach, and envy
21988 of another's health. Rostov went to the middle of the room and looking
21989 through the open doors into the two adjoining rooms saw the same thing
21990 there. He stood still, looking silently around. He had not at all
21991 expected such a sight. Just before him, almost across the middle of the
21992 passage on the bare floor, lay a sick man, probably a Cossack to judge
21993 by the cut of his hair. The man lay on his back, his huge arms and legs
21994 outstretched. His face was purple, his eyes were rolled back so that
21995 only the whites were seen, and on his bare legs and arms which were
21996 still red, the veins stood out like cords. He was knocking the back of
21997 his head against the floor, hoarsely uttering some word which he kept
21998 repeating. Rostov listened and made out the word. It was "drink, drink,
21999 a drink!" Rostov glanced round, looking for someone who would put this
22000 man back in his place and bring him water.
22002 "Who looks after the sick here?" he asked the assistant.
22004 Just then a commissariat soldier, a hospital orderly, came in from the
22005 next room, marching stiffly, and drew up in front of Rostov.
22007 "Good day, your honor!" he shouted, rolling his eyes at Rostov and
22008 evidently mistaking him for one of the hospital authorities.
22010 "Get him to his place and give him some water," said Rostov, pointing to
22013 "Yes, your honor," the soldier replied complacently, and rolling his
22014 eyes more than ever he drew himself up still straighter, but did not
22017 "No, it's impossible to do anything here," thought Rostov, lowering his
22018 eyes, and he was going out, but became aware of an intense look fixed on
22019 him on his right, and he turned. Close to the corner, on an overcoat,
22020 sat an old, unshaven, gray-bearded soldier as thin as a skeleton, with a
22021 stern sallow face and eyes intently fixed on Rostov. The man's neighbor
22022 on one side whispered something to him, pointing at Rostov, who noticed
22023 that the old man wanted to speak to him. He drew nearer and saw that the
22024 old man had only one leg bent under him, the other had been amputated
22025 above the knee. His neighbor on the other side, who lay motionless some
22026 distance from him with his head thrown back, was a young soldier with a
22027 snub nose. His pale waxen face was still freckled and his eyes were
22028 rolled back. Rostov looked at the young soldier and a cold chill ran
22031 "Why, this one seems..." he began, turning to the assistant.
22033 "And how we've been begging, your honor," said the old soldier, his jaw
22034 quivering. "He's been dead since morning. After all we're men, not
22037 "I'll send someone at once. He shall be taken away--taken away at once,"
22038 said the assistant hurriedly. "Let us go, your honor."
22040 "Yes, yes, let us go," said Rostov hastily, and lowering his eyes and
22041 shrinking, he tried to pass unnoticed between the rows of reproachful
22042 envious eyes that were fixed upon him, and went out of the room.
22049 Going along the corridor, the assistant led Rostov to the officers'
22050 wards, consisting of three rooms, the doors of which stood open. There
22051 were beds in these rooms and the sick and wounded officers were lying or
22052 sitting on them. Some were walking about the rooms in hospital dressing
22053 gowns. The first person Rostov met in the officers' ward was a thin
22054 little man with one arm, who was walking about the first room in a
22055 nightcap and hospital dressing gown, with a pipe between his teeth.
22056 Rostov looked at him, trying to remember where he had seen him before.
22058 "See where we've met again!" said the little man. "Tushin, Tushin, don't
22059 you remember, who gave you a lift at Schon Grabern? And I've had a bit
22060 cut off, you see..." he went on with a smile, pointing to the empty
22061 sleeve of his dressing gown. "Looking for Vasili Dmitrich Denisov? My
22062 neighbor," he added, when he heard who Rostov wanted. "Here, here," and
22063 Tushin led him into the next room, from whence came sounds of several
22066 "How can they laugh, or even live at all here?" thought Rostov, still
22067 aware of that smell of decomposing flesh that had been so strong in the
22068 soldiers' ward, and still seeming to see fixed on him those envious
22069 looks which had followed him out from both sides, and the face of that
22070 young soldier with eyes rolled back.
22072 Denisov lay asleep on his bed with his head under the blanket, though it
22075 "Ah, Wostov? How are you, how are you?" he called out, still in the same
22076 voice as in the regiment, but Rostov noticed sadly that under this
22077 habitual ease and animation some new, sinister, hidden feeling showed
22078 itself in the expression of Denisov's face and the intonations of his
22081 His wound, though a slight one, had not yet healed even now, six weeks
22082 after he had been hit. His face had the same swollen pallor as the faces
22083 of the other hospital patients, but it was not this that struck Rostov.
22084 What struck him was that Denisov did not seem glad to see him, and
22085 smiled at him unnaturally. He did not ask about the regiment, nor about
22086 the general state of affairs, and when Rostov spoke of these matters did
22089 Rostov even noticed that Denisov did not like to be reminded of the
22090 regiment, or in general of that other free life which was going on
22091 outside the hospital. He seemed to try to forget that old life and was
22092 only interested in the affair with the commissariat officers. On
22093 Rostov's inquiry as to how the matter stood, he at once produced from
22094 under his pillow a paper he had received from the commission and the
22095 rough draft of his answer to it. He became animated when he began
22096 reading his paper and specially drew Rostov's attention to the stinging
22097 rejoinders he made to his enemies. His hospital companions, who had
22098 gathered round Rostov--a fresh arrival from the world outside--gradually
22099 began to disperse as soon as Denisov began reading his answer. Rostov
22100 noticed by their faces that all those gentlemen had already heard that
22101 story more than once and were tired of it. Only the man who had the next
22102 bed, a stout Uhlan, continued to sit on his bed, gloomily frowning and
22103 smoking a pipe, and little one-armed Tushin still listened, shaking his
22104 head disapprovingly. In the middle of the reading, the Uhlan interrupted
22107 "But what I say is," he said, turning to Rostov, "it would be best
22108 simply to petition the Emperor for pardon. They say great rewards will
22109 now be distributed, and surely a pardon would be granted...."
22111 "Me petition the Empewo'!" exclaimed Denisov, in a voice to which he
22112 tried hard to give the old energy and fire, but which sounded like an
22113 expression of irritable impotence. "What for? If I were a wobber I would
22114 ask mercy, but I'm being court-martialed for bwinging wobbers to book.
22115 Let them twy me, I'm not afwaid of anyone. I've served the Tsar and my
22116 countwy honowably and have not stolen! And am I to be degwaded?...
22117 Listen, I'm w'iting to them stwaight. This is what I say: 'If I had
22118 wobbed the Tweasuwy...'"
22120 "It's certainly well written," said Tushin, "but that's not the point,
22121 Vasili Dmitrich," and he also turned to Rostov. "One has to submit, and
22122 Vasili Dmitrich doesn't want to. You know the auditor told you it was a
22125 "Well, let it be bad," said Denisov.
22127 "The auditor wrote out a petition for you," continued Tushin, "and you
22128 ought to sign it and ask this gentleman to take it. No doubt he"
22129 (indicating Rostov) "has connections on the staff. You won't find a
22130 better opportunity."
22132 "Haven't I said I'm not going to gwovel?" Denisov interrupted him, went
22133 on reading his paper.
22135 Rostov had not the courage to persuade Denisov, though he instinctively
22136 felt that the way advised by Tushin and the other officers was the
22137 safest, and though he would have been glad to be of service to Denisov.
22138 He knew his stubborn will and straightforward hasty temper.
22140 When the reading of Denisov's virulent reply, which took more than an
22141 hour, was over, Rostov said nothing, and he spent the rest of the day in
22142 a most dejected state of mind amid Denisov's hospital comrades, who had
22143 gathered round him, telling them what he knew and listening to their
22144 stories. Denisov was moodily silent all the evening.
22146 Late in the evening, when Rostov was about to leave, he asked Denisov
22147 whether he had no commission for him.
22149 "Yes, wait a bit," said Denisov, glancing round at the officers, and
22150 taking his papers from under his pillow he went to the window, where he
22151 had an inkpot, and sat down to write.
22153 "It seems it's no use knocking one's head against a wall!" he said,
22154 coming from the window and giving Rostov a large envelope. In it was the
22155 petition to the Emperor drawn up by the auditor, in which Denisov,
22156 without alluding to the offenses of the commissariat officials, simply
22159 "Hand it in. It seems..."
22161 He did not finish, but gave a painfully unnatural smile.
22168 Having returned to the regiment and told the commander the state of
22169 Denisov's affairs, Rostov rode to Tilsit with the letter to the Emperor.
22171 On the thirteenth of June the French and Russian Emperors arrived in
22172 Tilsit. Boris Drubetskoy had asked the important personage on whom he
22173 was in attendance, to include him in the suite appointed for the stay at
22176 "I should like to see the great man," he said, alluding to Napoleon,
22177 whom hitherto he, like everyone else, had always called Buonaparte.
22179 "You are speaking of Buonaparte?" asked the general, smiling.
22181 Boris looked at his general inquiringly and immediately saw that he was
22184 "I am speaking, Prince, of the Emperor Napoleon," he replied. The
22185 general patted him on the shoulder, with a smile.
22187 "You will go far," he said, and took him to Tilsit with him.
22189 Boris was among the few present at the Niemen on the day the two
22190 Emperors met. He saw the raft, decorated with monograms, saw Napoleon
22191 pass before the French Guards on the farther bank of the river, saw the
22192 pensive face of the Emperor Alexander as he sat in silence in a tavern
22193 on the bank of the Niemen awaiting Napoleon's arrival, saw both Emperors
22194 get into boats, and saw how Napoleon--reaching the raft first--stepped
22195 quickly forward to meet Alexander and held out his hand to him, and how
22196 they both retired into the pavilion. Since he had begun to move in the
22197 highest circles Boris had made it his habit to watch attentively all
22198 that went on around him and to note it down. At the time of the meeting
22199 at Tilsit he asked the names of those who had come with Napoleon and
22200 about the uniforms they wore, and listened attentively to words spoken
22201 by important personages. At the moment the Emperors went into the
22202 pavilion he looked at his watch, and did not forget to look at it again
22203 when Alexander came out. The interview had lasted an hour and fifty-
22204 three minutes. He noted this down that same evening, among other facts
22205 he felt to be of historic importance. As the Emperor's suite was a very
22206 small one, it was a matter of great importance, for a man who valued his
22207 success in the service, to be at Tilsit on the occasion of this
22208 interview between the two Emperors, and having succeeded in this, Boris
22209 felt that henceforth his position was fully assured. He had not only
22210 become known, but people had grown accustomed to him and accepted him.
22211 Twice he had executed commissions to the Emperor himself, so that the
22212 latter knew his face, and all those at court, far from cold-shouldering
22213 him as at first when they considered him a newcomer, would now have been
22214 surprised had he been absent.
22216 Boris lodged with another adjutant, the Polish Count Zhilinski.
22217 Zhilinski, a Pole brought up in Paris, was rich, and passionately fond
22218 of the French, and almost every day of the stay at Tilsit, French
22219 officers of the Guard and from French headquarters were dining and
22220 lunching with him and Boris.
22222 On the evening of the twenty-fourth of June, Count Zhilinski arranged a
22223 supper for his French friends. The guest of honor was an aide-de-camp of
22224 Napoleon's, there were also several French officers of the Guard, and a
22225 page of Napoleon's, a young lad of an old aristocratic French family.
22226 That same day, Rostov, profiting by the darkness to avoid being
22227 recognized in civilian dress, came to Tilsit and went to the lodging
22228 occupied by Boris and Zhilinski.
22230 Rostov, in common with the whole army from which he came, was far from
22231 having experienced the change of feeling toward Napoleon and the French-
22232 -who from being foes had suddenly become friends--that had taken place
22233 at headquarters and in Boris. In the army, Bonaparte and the French were
22234 still regarded with mingled feelings of anger, contempt, and fear. Only
22235 recently, talking with one of Platov's Cossack officers, Rostov had
22236 argued that if Napoleon were taken prisoner he would be treated not as a
22237 sovereign, but as a criminal. Quite lately, happening to meet a wounded
22238 French colonel on the road, Rostov had maintained with heat that peace
22239 was impossible between a legitimate sovereign and the criminal
22240 Bonaparte. Rostov was therefore unpleasantly struck by the presence of
22241 French officers in Boris' lodging, dressed in uniforms he had been
22242 accustomed to see from quite a different point of view from the outposts
22243 of the flank. As soon as he noticed a French officer, who thrust his
22244 head out of the door, that warlike feeling of hostility which he always
22245 experienced at the sight of the enemy suddenly seized him. He stopped at
22246 the threshold and asked in Russian whether Drubetskoy lived there.
22247 Boris, hearing a strange voice in the anteroom, came out to meet him. An
22248 expression of annoyance showed itself for a moment on his face on first
22249 recognizing Rostov.
22251 "Ah, it's you? Very glad, very glad to see you," he said, however,
22252 coming toward him with a smile. But Rostov had noticed his first
22255 "I've come at a bad time I think. I should not have come, but I have
22256 business," he said coldly.
22258 "No, I only wonder how you managed to get away from your regiment. Dans
22259 un moment je suis a vous," * he said, answering someone who called him.
22262 * "In a minute I shall be at your disposal."
22264 "I see I'm intruding," Rostov repeated.
22266 The look of annoyance had already disappeared from Boris' face: having
22267 evidently reflected and decided how to act, he very quietly took both
22268 Rostov's hands and led him into the next room. His eyes, looking
22269 serenely and steadily at Rostov, seemed to be veiled by something, as if
22270 screened by blue spectacles of conventionality. So it seemed to Rostov.
22272 "Oh, come now! As if you could come at a wrong time!" said Boris, and he
22273 led him into the room where the supper table was laid and introduced him
22274 to his guests, explaining that he was not a civilian, but an hussar
22275 officer, and an old friend of his.
22277 "Count Zhilinski--le Comte N. N.--le Capitaine S. S.," said he, naming
22278 his guests. Rostov looked frowningly at the Frenchmen, bowed
22279 reluctantly, and remained silent.
22281 Zhilinski evidently did not receive this new Russian person very
22282 willingly into his circle and did not speak to Rostov. Boris did not
22283 appear to notice the constraint the newcomer produced and, with the same
22284 pleasant composure and the same veiled look in his eyes with which he
22285 had met Rostov, tried to enliven the conversation. One of the Frenchmen,
22286 with the politeness characteristic of his countrymen, addressed the
22287 obstinately taciturn Rostov, saying that the latter had probably come to
22288 Tilsit to see the Emperor.
22290 "No, I came on business," replied Rostov, briefly.
22292 Rostov had been out of humor from the moment he noticed the look of
22293 dissatisfaction on Boris' face, and as always happens to those in a bad
22294 humor, it seemed to him that everyone regarded him with aversion and
22295 that he was in everybody's way. He really was in their way, for he alone
22296 took no part in the conversation which again became general. The looks
22297 the visitors cast on him seemed to say: "And what is he sitting here
22298 for?" He rose and went up to Boris.
22300 "Anyhow, I'm in your way," he said in a low tone. "Come and talk over my
22301 business and I'll go away."
22303 "Oh, no, not at all," said Boris. "But if you are tired, come and lie
22304 down in my room and have a rest."
22308 They went into the little room where Boris slept. Rostov, without
22309 sitting down, began at once, irritably (as if Boris were to blame in
22310 some way) telling him about Denisov's affair, asking him whether,
22311 through his general, he could and would intercede with the Emperor on
22312 Denisov's behalf and get Denisov's petition handed in. When he and Boris
22313 were alone, Rostov felt for the first time that he could not look Boris
22314 in the face without a sense of awkwardness. Boris, with one leg crossed
22315 over the other and stroking his left hand with the slender fingers of
22316 his right, listened to Rostov as a general listens to the report of a
22317 subordinate, now looking aside and now gazing straight into Rostov's
22318 eyes with the same veiled look. Each time this happened Rostov felt
22319 uncomfortable and cast down his eyes.
22321 "I have heard of such cases and know that His Majesty is very severe in
22322 such affairs. I think it would be best not to bring it before the
22323 Emperor, but to apply to the commander of the corps.... But in general,
22326 "So you don't want to do anything? Well then, say so!" Rostov almost
22327 shouted, not looking Boris in the face.
22331 "On the contrary, I will do what I can. Only I thought..."
22333 At that moment Zhilinski's voice was heard calling Boris.
22335 "Well then, go, go, go..." said Rostov, and refusing supper and
22336 remaining alone in the little room, he walked up and down for a long
22337 time, hearing the lighthearted French conversation from the next room.
22344 Rostov had come to Tilsit the day least suitable for a petition on
22345 Denisov's behalf. He could not himself go to the general in attendance
22346 as he was in mufti and had come to Tilsit without permission to do so,
22347 and Boris, even had he wished to, could not have done so on the
22348 following day. On that day, June 27, the preliminaries of peace were
22349 signed. The Emperors exchanged decorations: Alexander received the Cross
22350 of the Legion of Honor and Napoleon the Order of St. Andrew of the First
22351 Degree, and a dinner had been arranged for the evening, given by a
22352 battalion of the French Guards to the Preobrazhensk battalion. The
22353 Emperors were to be present at that banquet.
22355 Rostov felt so ill at ease and uncomfortable with Boris that, when the
22356 latter looked in after supper, he pretended to be asleep, and early next
22357 morning went away, avoiding Boris. In his civilian clothes and a round
22358 hat, he wandered about the town, staring at the French and their
22359 uniforms and at the streets and houses where the Russian and French
22360 Emperors were staying. In a square he saw tables being set up and
22361 preparations made for the dinner; he saw the Russian and French colors
22362 draped from side to side of the streets, with huge monograms A and N. In
22363 the windows of the houses also flags and bunting were displayed.
22365 "Boris doesn't want to help me and I don't want to ask him. That's
22366 settled," thought Nicholas. "All is over between us, but I won't leave
22367 here without having done all I can for Denisov and certainly not without
22368 getting his letter to the Emperor. The Emperor!... He is here!" thought
22369 Rostov, who had unconsciously returned to the house where Alexander
22372 Saddled horses were standing before the house and the suite were
22373 assembling, evidently preparing for the Emperor to come out.
22375 "I may see him at any moment," thought Rostov. "If only I were to hand
22376 the letter direct to him and tell him all... could they really arrest me
22377 for my civilian clothes? Surely not! He would understand on whose side
22378 justice lies. He understands everything, knows everything. Who can be
22379 more just, more magnanimous than he? And even if they did arrest me for
22380 being here, what would it matter?" thought he, looking at an officer who
22381 was entering the house the Emperor occupied. "After all, people do go
22382 in.... It's all nonsense! I'll go in and hand the letter to the Emperor
22383 myself so much the worse for Drubetskoy who drives me to it!" And
22384 suddenly with a determination he himself did not expect, Rostov felt for
22385 the letter in his pocket and went straight to the house.
22387 "No, I won't miss my opportunity now, as I did after Austerlitz," he
22388 thought, expecting every moment to meet the monarch, and conscious of
22389 the blood that rushed to his heart at the thought. "I will fall at his
22390 feet and beseech him. He will lift me up, will listen, and will even
22391 thank me. 'I am happy when I can do good, but to remedy injustice is the
22392 greatest happiness,'" Rostov fancied the sovereign saying. And passing
22393 people who looked after him with curiosity, he entered the porch of the
22396 A broad staircase led straight up from the entry, and to the right he
22397 saw a closed door. Below, under the staircase, was a door leading to the
22400 "Whom do you want?" someone inquired.
22402 "To hand in a letter, a petition, to His Majesty," said Nicholas, with a
22403 tremor in his voice.
22405 "A petition? This way, to the officer on duty" (he was shown the door
22406 leading downstairs), "only it won't be accepted."
22408 On hearing this indifferent voice, Rostov grew frightened at what he was
22409 doing; the thought of meeting the Emperor at any moment was so
22410 fascinating and consequently so alarming that he was ready to run away,
22411 but the official who had questioned him opened the door, and Rostov
22414 A short stout man of about thirty, in white breeches and high boots and
22415 a batiste shirt that he had evidently only just put on, standing in that
22416 room, and his valet was buttoning on to the back of his breeches a new
22417 pair of handsome silk-embroidered braces that, for some reason,
22418 attracted Rostov's attention. This man was speaking to someone in the
22421 "A good figure and in her first bloom," he was saying, but on seeing
22422 Rostov, he stopped short and frowned.
22424 "What is it? A petition?"
22426 "What is it?" asked the person in the other room.
22428 "Another petitioner," answered the man with the braces.
22430 "Tell him to come later. He'll be coming out directly, we must go."
22432 "Later... later! Tomorrow. It's too late..."
22434 Rostov turned and was about to go, but the man in the braces stopped
22437 "Whom have you come from? Who are you?"
22439 "I come from Major Denisov," answered Rostov.
22441 "Are you an officer?"
22443 "Lieutenant Count Rostov."
22445 "What audacity! Hand it in through your commander. And go along with
22446 you... go," and he continued to put on the uniform the valet handed him.
22448 Rostov went back into the hall and noticed that in the porch there were
22449 many officers and generals in full parade uniform, whom he had to pass.
22451 Cursing his temerity, his heart sinking at the thought of finding
22452 himself at any moment face to face with the Emperor and being put to
22453 shame and arrested in his presence, fully alive now to the impropriety
22454 of his conduct and repenting of it, Rostov, with downcast eyes, was
22455 making his way out of the house through the brilliant suite when a
22456 familiar voice called him and a hand detained him.
22458 "What are you doing here, sir, in civilian dress?" asked a deep voice.
22460 It was a cavalry general who had obtained the Emperor's special favor
22461 during this campaign, and who had formerly commanded the division in
22462 which Rostov was serving.
22464 Rostov, in dismay, began justifying himself, but seeing the kindly,
22465 jocular face of the general, he took him aside and in an excited voice
22466 told him the whole affair, asking him to intercede for Denisov, whom the
22467 general knew. Having heard Rostov to the end, the general shook his head
22470 "I'm sorry, sorry for that fine fellow. Give me the letter."
22472 Hardly had Rostov handed him the letter and finished explaining
22473 Denisov's case, when hasty steps and the jingling of spurs were heard on
22474 the stairs, and the general, leaving him, went to the porch. The
22475 gentlemen of the Emperor's suite ran down the stairs and went to their
22476 horses. Hayne, the same groom who had been at Austerlitz, led up the
22477 Emperor's horse, and the faint creak of a footstep Rostov knew at once
22478 was heard on the stairs. Forgetting the danger of being recognized,
22479 Rostov went close to the porch, together with some inquisitive
22480 civilians, and again, after two years, saw those features he adored:
22481 that same face and same look and step, and the same union of majesty and
22482 mildness.... And the feeling of enthusiasm and love for his sovereign
22483 rose again in Rostov's soul in all its old force. In the uniform of the
22484 Preobrazhensk regiment--white chamois-leather breeches and high boots--
22485 and wearing a star Rostov did not know (it was that of the Legion
22486 d'honneur), the monarch came out into the porch, putting on his gloves
22487 and carrying his hat under his arm. He stopped and looked about him,
22488 brightening everything around by his glance. He spoke a few words to
22489 some of the generals, and, recognizing the former commander of Rostov's
22490 division, smiled and beckoned to him.
22492 All the suite drew back and Rostov saw the general talking for some time
22495 The Emperor said a few words to him and took a step toward his horse.
22496 Again the crowd of members of the suite and street gazers (among whom
22497 was Rostov) moved nearer to the Emperor. Stopping beside his horse, with
22498 his hand on the saddle, the Emperor turned to the cavalry general and
22499 said in a loud voice, evidently wishing to be heard by all:
22501 "I cannot do it, General. I cannot, because the law is stronger than I,"
22502 and he raised his foot to the stirrup.
22504 The general bowed his head respectfully, and the monarch mounted and
22505 rode down the street at a gallop. Beside himself with enthusiasm, Rostov
22506 ran after him with the crowd.
22513 The Emperor rode to the square where, facing one another, a battalion of
22514 the Preobrazhensk regiment stood on the right and a battalion of the
22515 French Guards in their bearskin caps on the left.
22517 As the Tsar rode up to one flank of the battalions, which presented
22518 arms, another group of horsemen galloped up to the opposite flank, and
22519 at the head of them Rostov recognized Napoleon. It could be no one else.
22520 He came at a gallop, wearing a small hat, a blue uniform open over a
22521 white vest, and the St. Andrew ribbon over his shoulder. He was riding a
22522 very fine thoroughbred gray Arab horse with a crimson gold-embroidered
22523 saddlecloth. On approaching Alexander he raised his hat, and as he did
22524 so, Rostov, with his cavalryman's eye, could not help noticing that
22525 Napoleon did not sit well or firmly in the saddle. The battalions
22526 shouted "Hurrah!" and "Vive l'Empereur!" Napoleon said something to
22527 Alexander, and both Emperors dismounted and took each other's hands.
22528 Napoleon's face wore an unpleasant and artificial smile. Alexander was
22529 saying something affable to him.
22531 In spite of the trampling of the French gendarmes' horses, which were
22532 pushing back the crowd, Rostov kept his eyes on every movement of
22533 Alexander and Bonaparte. It struck him as a surprise that Alexander
22534 treated Bonaparte as an equal and that the latter was quite at ease with
22535 the Tsar, as if such relations with an Emperor were an everyday matter
22538 Alexander and Napoleon, with the long train of their suites, approached
22539 the right flank of the Preobrazhensk battalion and came straight up to
22540 the crowd standing there. The crowd unexpectedly found itself so close
22541 to the Emperors that Rostov, standing in the front row, was afraid he
22542 might be recognized.
22544 "Sire, I ask your permission to present the Legion of Honor to the
22545 bravest of your soldiers," said a sharp, precise voice, articulating
22548 This was said by the undersized Napoleon, looking up straight into
22549 Alexander's eyes. Alexander listened attentively to what was said to him
22550 and, bending his head, smiled pleasantly.
22552 "To him who has borne himself most bravely in this last war," added
22553 Napoleon, accentuating each syllable, as with a composure and assurance
22554 exasperating to Rostov, he ran his eyes over the Russian ranks drawn up
22555 before him, who all presented arms with their eyes fixed on their
22558 "Will Your Majesty allow me to consult the colonel?" said Alexander and
22559 took a few hasty steps toward Prince Kozlovski, the commander of the
22562 Bonaparte meanwhile began taking the glove off his small white hand,
22563 tore it in doing so, and threw it away. An aide-de-camp behind him
22564 rushed forward and picked it up.
22566 "To whom shall it be given?" the Emperor Alexander asked Koslovski, in
22567 Russian in a low voice.
22569 "To whomever Your Majesty commands."
22571 The Emperor knit his brows with dissatisfaction and, glancing back,
22574 "But we must give him an answer."
22576 Kozlovski scanned the ranks resolutely and included Rostov in his
22579 "Can it be me?" thought Rostov.
22581 "Lazarev!" the colonel called, with a frown, and Lazarev, the first
22582 soldier in the rank, stepped briskly forward.
22584 "Where are you off to? Stop here!" voices whispered to Lazarev who did
22585 not know where to go. Lazarev stopped, casting a sidelong look at his
22586 colonel in alarm. His face twitched, as often happens to soldiers called
22589 Napoleon slightly turned his head, and put his plump little hand out
22590 behind him as if to take something. The members of his suite, guessing
22591 at once what he wanted, moved about and whispered as they passed
22592 something from one to another, and a page--the same one Rostov had seen
22593 the previous evening at Boris'--ran forward and, bowing respectfully
22594 over the outstretched hand and not keeping it waiting a moment, laid in
22595 it an Order on a red ribbon. Napoleon, without looking, pressed two
22596 fingers together and the badge was between them. Then he approached
22597 Lazarev (who rolled his eyes and persistently gazed at his own monarch),
22598 looked round at the Emperor Alexander to imply that what he was now
22599 doing was done for the sake of his ally, and the small white hand
22600 holding the Order touched one of Lazarev's buttons. It was as if
22601 Napoleon knew that it was only necessary for his hand to deign to touch
22602 that soldier's breast for the soldier to be forever happy, rewarded, and
22603 distinguished from everyone else in the world. Napoleon merely laid the
22604 cross on Lazarev's breast and, dropping his hand, turned toward
22605 Alexander as though sure that the cross would adhere there. And it
22608 Officious hands, Russian and French, immediately seized the cross and
22609 fastened it to the uniform. Lazarev glanced morosely at the little man
22610 with white hands who was doing something to him and, still standing
22611 motionless presenting arms, looked again straight into Alexander's eyes,
22612 as if asking whether he should stand there, or go away, or do something
22613 else. But receiving no orders, he remained for some time in that rigid
22616 The Emperors remounted and rode away. The Preobrazhensk battalion,
22617 breaking rank, mingled with the French Guards and sat down at the tables
22620 Lazarev sat in the place of honor. Russian and French officers embraced
22621 him, congratulated him, and pressed his hands. Crowds of officers and
22622 civilians drew near merely to see him. A rumble of Russian and French
22623 voices and laughter filled the air round the tables in the square. Two
22624 officers with flushed faces, looking cheerful and happy, passed by
22627 "What d'you think of the treat? All on silver plate," one of them was
22628 saying. "Have you seen Lazarev?"
22632 "Tomorrow, I hear, the Preobrazhenskis will give them a dinner."
22634 "Yes, but what luck for Lazarev! Twelve hundred francs' pension for
22637 "Here's a cap, lads!" shouted a Preobrazhensk soldier, donning a shaggy
22640 "It's a fine thing! First-rate!"
22642 "Have you heard the password?" asked one Guards' officer of another.
22643 "The day before yesterday it was 'Napoleon, France, bravoure';
22644 yesterday, 'Alexandre, Russie, grandeur.' One day our Emperor gives it
22645 and next day Napoleon. Tomorrow our Emperor will send a St. George's
22646 Cross to the bravest of the French Guards. It has to be done. He must
22649 Boris, too, with his friend Zhilinski, came to see the Preobrazhensk
22650 banquet. On his way back, he noticed Rostov standing by the corner of a
22653 "Rostov! How d'you do? We missed one another," he said, and could not
22654 refrain from asking what was the matter, so strangely dismal and
22655 troubled was Rostov's face.
22657 "Nothing, nothing," replied Rostov.
22659 "You'll call round?"
22663 Rostov stood at that corner for a long time, watching the feast from a
22664 distance. In his mind, a painful process was going on which he could not
22665 bring to a conclusion. Terrible doubts rose in his soul. Now he
22666 remembered Denisov with his changed expression, his submission, and the
22667 whole hospital, with arms and legs torn off and its dirt and disease. So
22668 vividly did he recall that hospital stench of dead flesh that he looked
22669 round to see where the smell came from. Next he thought of that self-
22670 satisfied Bonaparte, with his small white hand, who was now an Emperor,
22671 liked and respected by Alexander. Then why those severed arms and legs
22672 and those dead men?... Then again he thought of Lazarev rewarded and
22673 Denisov punished and unpardoned. He caught himself harboring such
22674 strange thoughts that he was frightened.
22676 The smell of the food the Preobrazhenskis were eating and a sense of
22677 hunger recalled him from these reflections; he had to get something to
22678 eat before going away. He went to a hotel he had noticed that morning.
22679 There he found so many people, among them officers who, like himself,
22680 had come in civilian clothes, that he had difficulty in getting a
22681 dinner. Two officers of his own division joined him. The conversation
22682 naturally turned on the peace. The officers, his comrades, like most of
22683 the army, were dissatisfied with the peace concluded after the battle of
22684 Friedland. They said that had we held out a little longer Napoleon would
22685 have been done for, as his troops had neither provisions nor ammunition.
22686 Nicholas ate and drank (chiefly the latter) in silence. He finished a
22687 couple of bottles of wine by himself. The process in his mind went on
22688 tormenting him without reaching a conclusion. He feared to give way to
22689 his thoughts, yet could not get rid of them. Suddenly, on one of the
22690 officers' saying that it was humiliating to look at the French, Rostov
22691 began shouting with uncalled-for wrath, and therefore much to the
22692 surprise of the officers:
22694 "How can you judge what's best?" he cried, the blood suddenly rushing to
22695 his face. "How can you judge the Emperor's actions? What right have we
22696 to argue? We cannot comprehend either the Emperor's aims or his
22699 "But I never said a word about the Emperor!" said the officer,
22700 justifying himself, and unable to understand Rostov's outburst, except
22701 on the supposition that he was drunk.
22703 But Rostov did not listen to him.
22705 "We are not diplomatic officials, we are soldiers and nothing more," he
22706 went on. "If we are ordered to die, we must die. If we're punished, it
22707 means that we have deserved it, it's not for us to judge. If the Emperor
22708 pleases to recognize Bonaparte as Emperor and to conclude an alliance
22709 with him, it means that that is the right thing to do. If once we begin
22710 judging and arguing about everything, nothing sacred will be left! That
22711 way we shall be saying there is no God--nothing!" shouted Nicholas,
22712 banging the table--very little to the point as it seemed to his
22713 listeners, but quite relevantly to the course of his own thoughts.
22715 "Our business is to do our duty, to fight and not to think! That's
22718 "And to drink," said one of the officers, not wishing to quarrel.
22720 "Yes, and to drink," assented Nicholas. "Hullo there! Another bottle!"
22723 In 1808 the Emperor Alexander went to Erfurt for a fresh interview with
22724 the Emperor Napoleon, and in the upper circles of Petersburg there was
22725 much talk of the grandeur of this important meeting.
22732 In 1809 the intimacy between "the world's two arbiters," as Napoleon and
22733 Alexander were called, was such that when Napoleon declared war on
22734 Austria a Russian corps crossed the frontier to co-operate with our old
22735 enemy Bonaparte against our old ally the Emperor of Austria, and in
22736 court circles the possibility of marriage between Napoleon and one of
22737 Alexander's sisters was spoken of. But besides considerations of foreign
22738 policy, the attention of Russian society was at that time keenly
22739 directed on the internal changes that were being undertaken in all the
22740 departments of government.
22742 Life meanwhile--real life, with its essential interests of health and
22743 sickness, toil and rest, and its intellectual interests in thought,
22744 science, poetry, music, love, friendship, hatred, and passions--went on
22745 as usual, independently of and apart from political friendship or enmity
22746 with Napoleon Bonaparte and from all the schemes of reconstruction.
22748 BOOK SIX: 1808 - 10
22755 Prince Andrew had spent two years continuously in the country.
22757 All the plans Pierre had attempted on his estates--and constantly
22758 changing from one thing to another had never accomplished--were carried
22759 out by Prince Andrew without display and without perceptible difficulty.
22761 He had in the highest degree a practical tenacity which Pierre lacked,
22762 and without fuss or strain on his part this set things going.
22764 On one of his estates the three hundred serfs were liberated and became
22765 free agricultural laborers--this being one of the first examples of the
22766 kind in Russia. On other estates the serfs' compulsory labor was
22767 commuted for a quitrent. A trained midwife was engaged for Bogucharovo
22768 at his expense, and a priest was paid to teach reading and writing to
22769 the children of the peasants and household serfs.
22771 Prince Andrew spent half his time at Bald Hills with his father and his
22772 son, who was still in the care of nurses. The other half he spent in
22773 "Bogucharovo Cloister," as his father called Prince Andrew's estate.
22774 Despite the indifference to the affairs of the world he had expressed to
22775 Pierre, he diligently followed all that went on, received many books,
22776 and to his surprise noticed that when he or his father had visitors from
22777 Petersburg, the very vortex of life, these people lagged behind himself-
22778 -who never left the country--in knowledge of what was happening in home
22779 and foreign affairs.
22781 Besides being occupied with his estates and reading a great variety of
22782 books, Prince Andrew was at this time busy with a critical survey of our
22783 last two unfortunate campaigns, and with drawing up a proposal for a
22784 reform of the army rules and regulations.
22786 In the spring of 1809 he went to visit the Ryazan estates which had been
22787 inherited by his son, whose guardian he was.
22789 Warmed by the spring sunshine he sat in the caleche looking at the new
22790 grass, the first leaves on the birches, and the first puffs of white
22791 spring clouds floating across the clear blue sky. He was not thinking of
22792 anything, but looked absent-mindedly and cheerfully from side to side.
22794 They crossed the ferry where he had talked with Pierre the year before.
22795 They went through the muddy village, past threshing floors and green
22796 fields of winter rye, downhill where snow still lodged near the bridge,
22797 uphill where the clay had been liquefied by the rain, past strips of
22798 stubble land and bushes touched with green here and there, and into a
22799 birch forest growing on both sides of the road. In the forest it was
22800 almost hot, no wind could be felt. The birches with their sticky green
22801 leaves were motionless, and lilac-colored flowers and the first blades
22802 of green grass were pushing up and lifting last year's leaves. The
22803 coarse evergreen color of the small fir trees scattered here and there
22804 among the birches was an unpleasant reminder of winter. On entering the
22805 forest the horses began to snort and sweated visibly.
22807 Peter the footman made some remark to the coachman; the latter assented.
22808 But apparently the coachman's sympathy was not enough for Peter, and he
22809 turned on the box toward his master.
22811 "How pleasant it is, your excellency!" he said with a respectful smile.
22815 "It's pleasant, your excellency!"
22818 "What is he talking about?" thought Prince Andrew. "Oh, the spring, I
22819 suppose," he thought as he turned round. "Yes, really everything is
22820 green already.... How early! The birches and cherry and alders too are
22821 coming out.... But the oaks show no sign yet. Ah, here is one oak!"
22823 At the edge of the road stood an oak. Probably ten times the age of the
22824 birches that formed the forest, it was ten times as thick and twice as
22825 tall as they. It was an enormous tree, its girth twice as great as a man
22826 could embrace, and evidently long ago some of its branches had been
22827 broken off and its bark scarred. With its huge ungainly limbs sprawling
22828 unsymmetrically, and its gnarled hands and fingers, it stood an aged,
22829 stern, and scornful monster among the smiling birch trees. Only the
22830 dead-looking evergreen firs dotted about in the forest, and this oak,
22831 refused to yield to the charm of spring or notice either the spring or
22834 "Spring, love, happiness!" this oak seemed to say. "Are you not weary of
22835 that stupid, meaningless, constantly repeated fraud? Always the same and
22836 always a fraud? There is no spring, no sun, no happiness! Look at those
22837 cramped dead firs, ever the same, and at me too, sticking out my broken
22838 and barked fingers just where they have grown, whether from my back or
22839 my sides: as they have grown so I stand, and I do not believe in your
22840 hopes and your lies."
22842 As he passed through the forest Prince Andrew turned several times to
22843 look at that oak, as if expecting something from it. Under the oak, too,
22844 were flowers and grass, but it stood among them scowling, rigid,
22845 misshapen, and grim as ever.
22847 "Yes, the oak is right, a thousand times right," thought Prince Andrew.
22848 "Let others--the young--yield afresh to that fraud, but we know life,
22849 our life is finished!"
22851 A whole sequence of new thoughts, hopeless but mournfully pleasant, rose
22852 in his soul in connection with that tree. During this journey he, as it
22853 were, considered his life afresh and arrived at his old conclusion,
22854 restful in its hopelessness: that it was not for him to begin anything
22855 anew--but that he must live out his life, content to do no harm, and not
22856 disturbing himself or desiring anything.
22863 Prince Andrew had to see the Marshal of the Nobility for the district in
22864 connection with the affairs of the Ryazan estate of which he was
22865 trustee. This Marshal was Count Ilya Rostov, and in the middle of May
22866 Prince Andrew went to visit him.
22868 It was now hot spring weather. The whole forest was already clothed in
22869 green. It was dusty and so hot that on passing near water one longed to
22872 Prince Andrew, depressed and preoccupied with the business about which
22873 he had to speak to the Marshal, was driving up the avenue in the grounds
22874 of the Rostovs' house at Otradnoe. He heard merry girlish cries behind
22875 some trees on the right and saw a group of girls running to cross the
22876 path of his caleche. Ahead of the rest and nearer to him ran a dark-
22877 haired, remarkably slim, pretty girl in a yellow chintz dress, with a
22878 white handkerchief on her head from under which loose locks of hair
22879 escaped. The girl was shouting something but, seeing that he was a
22880 stranger, ran back laughing without looking at him.
22882 Suddenly, he did not know why, he felt a pang. The day was so beautiful,
22883 the sun so bright, everything around so gay, but that slim pretty girl
22884 did not know, or wish to know, of his existence and was contented and
22885 cheerful in her own separate--probably foolish--but bright and happy
22886 life. "What is she so glad about? What is she thinking of? Not of the
22887 military regulations or of the arrangement of the Ryazan serfs'
22888 quitrents. Of what is she thinking? Why is she so happy?" Prince Andrew
22889 asked himself with instinctive curiosity.
22891 In 1809 Count Ilya Rostov was living at Otradnoe just as he had done in
22892 former years, that is, entertaining almost the whole province with
22893 hunts, theatricals, dinners, and music. He was glad to see Prince
22894 Andrew, as he was to see any new visitor, and insisted on his staying
22897 During the dull day, in the course of which he was entertained by his
22898 elderly hosts and by the more important of the visitors (the old count's
22899 house was crowded on account of an approaching name day), Prince Andrew
22900 repeatedly glanced at Natasha, gay and laughing among the younger
22901 members of the company, and asked himself each time, "What is she
22902 thinking about? Why is she so glad?"
22904 That night, alone in new surroundings, he was long unable to sleep. He
22905 read awhile and then put out his candle, but relit it. It was hot in the
22906 room, the inside shutters of which were closed. He was cross with the
22907 stupid old man (as he called Rostov), who had made him stay by assuring
22908 him that some necessary documents had not yet arrived from town, and he
22909 was vexed with himself for having stayed.
22911 He got up and went to the window to open it. As soon as he opened the
22912 shutters the moonlight, as if it had long been watching for this, burst
22913 into the room. He opened the casement. The night was fresh, bright, and
22914 very still. Just before the window was a row of pollard trees, looking
22915 black on one side and with a silvery light on the other. Beneath the
22916 trees grew some kind of lush, wet, bushy vegetation with silver-lit
22917 leaves and stems here and there. Farther back beyond the dark trees a
22918 roof glittered with dew, to the right was a leafy tree with brilliantly
22919 white trunk and branches, and above it shone the moon, nearly at its
22920 full, in a pale, almost starless, spring sky. Prince Andrew leaned his
22921 elbows on the window ledge and his eyes rested on that sky.
22923 His room was on the first floor. Those in the rooms above were also
22924 awake. He heard female voices overhead.
22926 "Just once more," said a girlish voice above him which Prince Andrew
22927 recognized at once.
22929 "But when are you coming to bed?" replied another voice.
22931 "I won't, I can't sleep, what's the use? Come now for the last time."
22934 Two girlish voices sang a musical passage--the end of some song.
22936 "Oh, how lovely! Now go to sleep, and there's an end of it."
22938 "You go to sleep, but I can't," said the first voice, coming nearer to
22939 the window. She was evidently leaning right out, for the rustle of her
22940 dress and even her breathing could be heard. Everything was stone-still,
22941 like the moon and its light and the shadows. Prince Andrew, too, dared
22942 not stir, for fear of betraying his unintentional presence.
22944 "Sonya! Sonya!" he again heard the first speaker. "Oh, how can you
22945 sleep? Only look how glorious it is! Ah, how glorious! Do wake up,
22946 Sonya!" she said almost with tears in her voice. "There never, never was
22947 such a lovely night before!"
22949 Sonya made some reluctant reply.
22951 "Do just come and see what a moon!... Oh, how lovely! Come here....
22952 Darling, sweetheart, come here! There, you see? I feel like sitting down
22953 on my heels, putting my arms round my knees like this, straining tight,
22954 as tight as possible, and flying away! Like this...."
22956 "Take care, you'll fall out."
22958 He heard the sound of a scuffle and Sonya's disapproving voice: "It's
22961 "Oh, you only spoil things for me. All right, go, go!"
22963 Again all was silent, but Prince Andrew knew she was still sitting
22964 there. From time to time he heard a soft rustle and at times a sigh.
22966 "O God, O God! What does it mean?" she suddenly exclaimed. "To bed then,
22967 if it must be!" and she slammed the casement.
22969 "For her I might as well not exist!" thought Prince Andrew while he
22970 listened to her voice, for some reason expecting yet fearing that she
22971 might say something about him. "There she is again! As if it were on
22972 purpose," thought he.
22974 In his soul there suddenly arose such an unexpected turmoil of youthful
22975 thoughts and hopes, contrary to the whole tenor of his life, that unable
22976 to explain his condition to himself he lay down and fell asleep at once.
22983 Next morning, having taken leave of no one but the count, and not
22984 waiting for the ladies to appear, Prince Andrew set off for home.
22986 It was already the beginning of June when on his return journey he drove
22987 into the birch forest where the gnarled old oak had made so strange and
22988 memorable an impression on him. In the forest the harness bells sounded
22989 yet more muffled than they had done six weeks before, for now all was
22990 thick, shady, and dense, and the young firs dotted about in the forest
22991 did not jar on the general beauty but, lending themselves to the mood
22992 around, were delicately green with fluffy young shoots.
22994 The whole day had been hot. Somewhere a storm was gathering, but only a
22995 small cloud had scattered some raindrops lightly, sprinkling the road
22996 and the sappy leaves. The left side of the forest was dark in the shade,
22997 the right side glittered in the sunlight, wet and shiny and scarcely
22998 swayed by the breeze. Everything was in blossom, the nightingales
22999 trilled, and their voices reverberated now near, now far away.
23001 "Yes, here in this forest was that oak with which I agreed," thought
23002 Prince Andrew. "But where is it?" he again wondered, gazing at the left
23003 side of the road, and without recognizing it he looked with admiration
23004 at the very oak he sought. The old oak, quite transfigured, spreading
23005 out a canopy of sappy dark-green foliage, stood rapt and slightly
23006 trembling in the rays of the evening sun. Neither gnarled fingers nor
23007 old scars nor old doubts and sorrows were any of them in evidence now.
23008 Through the hard century-old bark, even where there were no twigs,
23009 leaves had sprouted such as one could hardly believe the old veteran
23010 could have produced.
23012 "Yes, it is the same oak," thought Prince Andrew, and all at once he was
23013 seized by an unreasoning springtime feeling of joy and renewal. All the
23014 best moments of his life suddenly rose to his memory. Austerlitz with
23015 the lofty heavens, his wife's dead reproachful face, Pierre at the
23016 ferry, that girl thrilled by the beauty of the night, and that night
23017 itself and the moon, and.... all this rushed suddenly to his mind.
23019 "No, life is not over at thirty-one!" Prince Andrew suddenly decided
23020 finally and decisively. "It is not enough for me to know what I have in
23021 me--everyone must know it: Pierre, and that young girl who wanted to fly
23022 away into the sky, everyone must know me, so that my life may not be
23023 lived for myself alone while others live so apart from it, but so that
23024 it may be reflected in them all, and they and I may live in harmony!"
23026 On reaching home Prince Andrew decided to go to Petersburg that autumn
23027 and found all sorts of reasons for this decision. A whole series of
23028 sensible and logical considerations showing it to be essential for him
23029 to go to Petersburg, and even to re-enter the service, kept springing up
23030 in his mind. He could not now understand how he could ever even have
23031 doubted the necessity of taking an active share in life, just as a month
23032 before he had not understood how the idea of leaving the quiet country
23033 could ever enter his head. It now seemed clear to him that all his
23034 experience of life must be senselessly wasted unless he applied it to
23035 some kind of work and again played an active part in life. He did not
23036 even remember how formerly, on the strength of similar wretched logical
23037 arguments, it had seemed obvious that he would be degrading himself if
23038 he now, after the lessons he had had in life, allowed himself to believe
23039 in the possibility of being useful and in the possibility of happiness
23040 or love. Now reason suggested quite the opposite. After that journey to
23041 Ryazan he found the country dull; his former pursuits no longer
23042 interested him, and often when sitting alone in his study he got up,
23043 went to the mirror, and gazed a long time at his own face. Then he would
23044 turn away to the portrait of his dead Lise, who with hair curled a la
23045 grecque looked tenderly and gaily at him out of the gilt frame. She did
23046 not now say those former terrible words to him, but looked simply,
23047 merrily, and inquisitively at him. And Prince Andrew, crossing his arms
23048 behind him, long paced the room, now frowning, now smiling, as he
23049 reflected on those irrational, inexpressible thoughts, secret as a
23050 crime, which altered his whole life and were connected with Pierre, with
23051 fame, with the girl at the window, the oak, and woman's beauty and love.
23052 And if anyone came into his room at such moments he was particularly
23053 cold, stern, and above all unpleasantly logical.
23055 "My dear," Princess Mary entering at such a moment would say, "little
23056 Nicholas can't go out today, it's very cold."
23058 "If it were hot," Prince Andrew would reply at such times very dryly to
23059 his sister, "he could go out in his smock, but as it is cold he must
23060 wear warm clothes, which were designed for that purpose. That is what
23061 follows from the fact that it is cold; and not that a child who needs
23062 fresh air should remain at home," he would add with extreme logic, as if
23063 punishing someone for those secret illogical emotions that stirred
23066 At such moments Princess Mary would think how intellectual work dries
23074 Prince Andrew arrived in Petersburg in August, 1809. It was the time
23075 when the youthful Speranski was at the zenith of his fame and his
23076 reforms were being pushed forward with the greatest energy. That same
23077 August the Emperor was thrown from his caleche, injured his leg, and
23078 remained three weeks at Peterhof, receiving Speranski every day and no
23079 one else. At that time the two famous decrees were being prepared that
23080 so agitated society--abolishing court ranks and introducing examinations
23081 to qualify for the grades of Collegiate Assessor and State Councilor--
23082 and not merely these but a whole state constitution, intended to change
23083 the existing order of government in Russia: legal, administrative, and
23084 financial, from the Council of State down to the district tribunals. Now
23085 those vague liberal dreams with which the Emperor Alexander had ascended
23086 the throne, and which he had tried to put into effect with the aid of
23087 his associates, Czartoryski, Novosiltsev, Kochubey, and Strogonov--whom
23088 he himself in jest had called his Comite de salut public--were taking
23089 shape and being realized.
23091 Now all these men were replaced by Speranski on the civil side, and
23092 Arakcheev on the military. Soon after his arrival Prince Andrew, as a
23093 gentleman of the chamber, presented himself at court and at a levee. The
23094 Emperor, though he met him twice, did not favor him with a single word.
23095 It had always seemed to Prince Andrew before that he was antipathetic to
23096 the Emperor and that the latter disliked his face and personality
23097 generally, and in the cold, repellent glance the Emperor gave him, he
23098 now found further confirmation of this surmise. The courtiers explained
23099 the Emperor's neglect of him by His Majesty's displeasure at Bolkonski's
23100 not having served since 1805.
23102 "I know myself that one cannot help one's sympathies and antipathies,"
23103 thought Prince Andrew, "so it will not do to present my proposal for the
23104 reform of the army regulations to the Emperor personally, but the
23105 project will speak for itself."
23107 He mentioned what he had written to an old field marshal, a friend of
23108 his father's. The field marshal made an appointment to see him, received
23109 him graciously, and promised to inform the Emperor. A few days later
23110 Prince Andrew received notice that he was to go to see the Minister of
23111 War, Count Arakcheev.
23113 On the appointed day Prince Andrew entered Count Arakcheev's waiting
23114 room at nine in the morning.
23116 He did not know Arakcheev personally, had never seen him, and all he had
23117 heard of him inspired him with but little respect for the man.
23119 "He is Minister of War, a man trusted by the Emperor, and I need not
23120 concern myself about his personal qualities: he has been commissioned to
23121 consider my project, so he alone can get it adopted," thought Prince
23122 Andrew as he waited among a number of important and unimportant people
23123 in Count Arakcheev's waiting room.
23125 During his service, chiefly as an adjutant, Prince Andrew had seen the
23126 anterooms of many important men, and the different types of such rooms
23127 were well known to him. Count Arakcheev's anteroom had quite a special
23128 character. The faces of the unimportant people awaiting their turn for
23129 an audience showed embarrassment and servility; the faces of those of
23130 higher rank expressed a common feeling of awkwardness, covered by a mask
23131 of unconcern and ridicule of themselves, their situation, and the person
23132 for whom they were waiting. Some walked thoughtfully up and down, others
23133 whispered and laughed. Prince Andrew heard the nickname "Sila
23134 Andreevich" and the words, "Uncle will give it to us hot," in reference
23135 to Count Arakcheev. One general (an important personage), evidently
23136 feeling offended at having to wait so long, sat crossing and uncrossing
23137 his legs and smiling contemptuously to himself.
23139 But the moment the door opened one feeling alone appeared on all faces--
23140 that of fear. Prince Andrew for the second time asked the adjutant on
23141 duty to take in his name, but received an ironical look and was told
23142 that his turn would come in due course. After some others had been shown
23143 in and out of the minister's room by the adjutant on duty, an officer
23144 who struck Prince Andrew by his humiliated and frightened air was
23145 admitted at that terrible door. This officer's audience lasted a long
23146 time. Then suddenly the grating sound of a harsh voice was heard from
23147 the other side of the door, and the officer--with pale face and
23148 trembling lips--came out and passed through the waiting room, clutching
23151 After this Prince Andrew was conducted to the door and the officer on
23152 duty said in a whisper, "To the right, at the window."
23154 Prince Andrew entered a plain tidy room and saw at the table a man of
23155 forty with a long waist, a long closely cropped head, deep wrinkles,
23156 scowling brows above dull greenish-hazel eyes and an overhanging red
23157 nose. Arakcheev turned his head toward him without looking at him.
23159 "What is your petition?" asked Arakcheev.
23161 "I am not petitioning, your excellency," returned Prince Andrew quietly.
23163 Arakcheev's eyes turned toward him.
23165 "Sit down," said he. "Prince Bolkonski?"
23167 "I am not petitioning about anything. His Majesty the Emperor has
23168 deigned to send your excellency a project submitted by me..."
23170 "You see, my dear sir, I have read your project," interrupted Arakcheev,
23171 uttering only the first words amiably and then--again without looking at
23172 Prince Andrew--relapsing gradually into a tone of grumbling contempt.
23173 "You are proposing new military laws? There are many laws but no one to
23174 carry out the old ones. Nowadays everybody designs laws, it is easier
23175 writing than doing."
23177 "I came at His Majesty the Emperor's wish to learn from your excellency
23178 how you propose to deal with the memorandum I have presented," said
23179 Prince Andrew politely.
23181 "I have endorsed a resolution on your memorandum and sent it to the
23182 committee. I do not approve of it," said Arakcheev, rising and taking a
23183 paper from his writing table. "Here!" and he handed it to Prince Andrew.
23185 Across the paper was scrawled in pencil, without capital letters,
23186 misspelled, and without punctuation: "Unsoundly constructed because
23187 resembles an imitation of the French military code and from the Articles
23188 of War needlessly deviating."
23190 "To what committee has the memorandum been referred?" inquired Prince
23193 "To the Committee on Army Regulations, and I have recommended that your
23194 honor should be appointed a member, but without a salary."
23196 Prince Andrew smiled.
23198 "I don't want one."
23200 "A member without salary," repeated Arakcheev. "I have the honor... Eh!
23201 Call the next one! Who else is there?" he shouted, bowing to Prince
23209 While waiting for the announcement of his appointment to the committee
23210 Prince Andrew looked up his former acquaintances, particularly those he
23211 knew to be in power and whose aid he might need. In Petersburg he now
23212 experienced the same feeling he had had on the eve of a battle, when
23213 troubled by anxious curiosity and irresistibly attracted to the ruling
23214 circles where the future, on which the fate of millions depended, was
23215 being shaped. From the irritation of the older men, the curiosity of the
23216 uninitiated, the reserve of the initiated, the hurry and preoccupation
23217 of everyone, and the innumerable committees and commissions of whose
23218 existence he learned every day, he felt that now, in 1809, here in
23219 Petersburg a vast civil conflict was in preparation, the commander in
23220 chief of which was a mysterious person he did not know, but who was
23221 supposed to be a man of genius--Speranski. And this movement of
23222 reconstruction of which Prince Andrew had a vague idea, and Speranski
23223 its chief promoter, began to interest him so keenly that the question of
23224 the army regulations quickly receded to a secondary place in his
23227 Prince Andrew was most favorably placed to secure good reception in the
23228 highest and most diverse Petersburg circles of the day. The reforming
23229 party cordially welcomed and courted him, in the first place because he
23230 was reputed to be clever and very well read, and secondly because by
23231 liberating his serfs he had obtained the reputation of being a liberal.
23232 The party of the old and dissatisfied, who censured the innovations,
23233 turned to him expecting his sympathy in their disapproval of the
23234 reforms, simply because he was the son of his father. The feminine
23235 society world welcomed him gladly, because he was rich, distinguished, a
23236 good match, and almost a newcomer, with a halo of romance on account of
23237 his supposed death and the tragic loss of his wife. Besides this the
23238 general opinion of all who had known him previously was that he had
23239 greatly improved during these last five years, having softened and grown
23240 more manly, lost his former affectation, pride, and contemptuous irony,
23241 and acquired the serenity that comes with years. People talked about
23242 him, were interested in him, and wanted to meet him.
23244 The day after his interview with Count Arakcheev, Prince Andrew spent
23245 the evening at Count Kochubey's. He told the count of his interview with
23246 Sila Andreevich (Kochubey spoke of Arakcheev by that nickname with the
23247 same vague irony Prince Andrew had noticed in the Minister of War's
23250 "Mon cher, even in this case you can't do without Michael Mikhaylovich
23251 Speranski. He manages everything. I'll speak to him. He has promised to
23252 come this evening."
23254 "What has Speranski to do with the army regulations?" asked Prince
23257 Kochubey shook his head smilingly, as if surprised at Bolkonski's
23260 "We were talking to him about you a few days ago," Kochubey continued,
23261 "and about your freed plowmen."
23263 "Oh, is it you, Prince, who have freed your serfs?" said an old man of
23264 Catherine's day, turning contemptuously toward Bolkonski.
23266 "It was a small estate that brought in no profit," replied Prince
23267 Andrew, trying to extenuate his action so as not to irritate the old man
23270 "Afraid of being late..." said the old man, looking at Kochubey.
23272 "There's one thing I don't understand," he continued. "Who will plow the
23273 land if they are set free? It is easy to write laws, but difficult to
23274 rule.... Just the same as now--I ask you, Count--who will be heads of
23275 the departments when everybody has to pass examinations?"
23277 "Those who pass the examinations, I suppose," replied Kochubey, crossing
23278 his legs and glancing round.
23280 "Well, I have Pryanichnikov serving under me, a splendid man, a
23281 priceless man, but he's sixty. Is he to go up for examination?"
23283 "Yes, that's a difficulty, as education is not at all general, but..."
23285 Count Kochubey did not finish. He rose, took Prince Andrew by the arm,
23286 and went to meet a tall, bald, fair man of about forty with a large open
23287 forehead and a long face of unusual and peculiar whiteness, who was just
23288 entering. The newcomer wore a blue swallow-tail coat with a cross
23289 suspended from his neck and a star on his left breast. It was Speranski.
23290 Prince Andrew recognized him at once, and felt a throb within him, as
23291 happens at critical moments of life. Whether it was from respect, envy,
23292 or anticipation, he did not know. Speranski's whole figure was of a
23293 peculiar type that made him easily recognizable. In the society in which
23294 Prince Andrew lived he had never seen anyone who together with awkward
23295 and clumsy gestures possessed such calmness and self-assurance; he had
23296 never seen so resolute yet gentle an expression as that in those half-
23297 closed, rather humid eyes, or so firm a smile that expressed nothing;
23298 nor had he heard such a refined, smooth, soft voice; above all he had
23299 never seen such delicate whiteness of face or hands--hands which were
23300 broad, but very plump, soft, and white. Such whiteness and softness
23301 Prince Andrew had only seen on the faces of soldiers who had been long
23302 in hospital. This was Speranski, Secretary of State, reporter to the
23303 Emperor and his companion at Erfurt, where he had more than once met and
23304 talked with Napoleon.
23306 Speranski did not shift his eyes from one face to another as people
23307 involuntarily do on entering a large company and was in no hurry to
23308 speak. He spoke slowly, with assurance that he would be listened to, and
23309 he looked only at the person with whom he was conversing.
23311 Prince Andrew followed Speranski's every word and movement with
23312 particular attention. As happens to some people, especially to men who
23313 judge those near to them severely, he always on meeting anyone new--
23314 especially anyone whom, like Speranski, he knew by reputation--expected
23315 to discover in him the perfection of human qualities.
23317 Speranski told Kochubey he was sorry he had been unable to come sooner
23318 as he had been detained at the palace. He did not say that the Emperor
23319 had kept him, and Prince Andrew noticed this affectation of modesty.
23320 When Kochubey introduced Prince Andrew, Speranski slowly turned his eyes
23321 to Bolkonski with his customary smile and looked at him in silence.
23323 "I am very glad to make your acquaintance. I had heard of you, as
23324 everyone has," he said after a pause.
23326 Kochubey said a few words about the reception Arakcheev had given
23327 Bolkonski. Speranski smiled more markedly.
23329 "The chairman of the Committee on Army Regulations is my good friend
23330 Monsieur Magnitski," he said, fully articulating every word and
23331 syllable, "and if you like I can put you in touch with him." He paused
23332 at the full stop. "I hope you will find him sympathetic and ready to co-
23333 operate in promoting all that is reasonable."
23335 A circle soon formed round Speranski, and the old man who had talked
23336 about his subordinate Pryanichnikov addressed a question to him.
23338 Prince Andrew without joining in the conversation watched every movement
23339 of Speranski's: this man, not long since an insignificant divinity
23340 student, who now, Bolkonski thought, held in his hands--those plump
23341 white hands--the fate of Russia. Prince Andrew was struck by the
23342 extraordinarily disdainful composure with which Speranski answered the
23343 old man. He appeared to address condescending words to him from an
23344 immeasurable height. When the old man began to speak too loud, Speranski
23345 smiled and said he could not judge of the advantage or disadvantage of
23346 what pleased the sovereign.
23348 Having talked for a little while in the general circle, Speranski rose
23349 and coming up to Prince Andrew took him along to the other end of the
23350 room. It was clear that he thought it necessary to interest himself in
23353 "I had no chance to talk with you, Prince, during the animated
23354 conversation in which that venerable gentleman involved me," he said
23355 with a mildly contemptuous smile, as if intimating by that smile that he
23356 and Prince Andrew understood the insignificance of the people with whom
23357 he had just been talking. This flattered Prince Andrew. "I have known of
23358 you for a long time: first from your action with regard to your serfs, a
23359 first example, of which it is very desirable that there should be more
23360 imitators; and secondly because you are one of those gentlemen of the
23361 chamber who have not considered themselves offended by the new decree
23362 concerning the ranks allotted to courtiers, which is causing so much
23363 gossip and tittle-tattle."
23365 "No," said Prince Andrew, "my father did not wish me to take advantage
23366 of the privilege. I began the service from the lower grade."
23368 "Your father, a man of the last century, evidently stands above our
23369 contemporaries who so condemn this measure which merely reestablishes
23372 "I think, however, that these condemnations have some ground," returned
23373 Prince Andrew, trying to resist Speranski's influence, of which he began
23374 to be conscious. He did not like to agree with him in everything and
23375 felt a wish to contradict. Though he usually spoke easily and well, he
23376 felt a difficulty in expressing himself now while talking with
23377 Speranski. He was too much absorbed in observing the famous man's
23380 "Grounds of personal ambition maybe," Speranski put in quietly.
23382 "And of state interest to some extent," said Prince Andrew.
23384 "What do you mean?" asked Speranski quietly, lowering his eyes.
23386 "I am an admirer of Montesquieu," replied Prince Andrew, "and his idea
23387 that le principe des monarchies est l'honneur me parait incontestable.
23388 Certains droits et privileges de la noblesse me paraissent etre des
23389 moyens de soutenir ce sentiment." *
23392 * "The principle of monarchies is honor seems to me incontestable.
23393 Certain rights and privileges for the aristocracy appear to me a means
23394 of maintaining that sentiment."
23396 The smile vanished from Speranski's white face, which was much improved
23397 by the change. Probably Prince Andrew's thought interested him.
23399 "Si vous envisagez la question sous ce point de vue," * he began,
23400 pronouncing French with evident difficulty, and speaking even slower
23401 than in Russian but quite calmly.
23404 * "If you regard the question from that point of view."
23406 Speranski went on to say that honor, l'honneur, cannot be upheld by
23407 privileges harmful to the service; that honor, l'honneur, is either a
23408 negative concept of not doing what is blameworthy or it is a source of
23409 emulation in pursuit of commendation and rewards, which recognize it.
23410 His arguments were concise, simple, and clear.
23412 "An institution upholding honor, the source of emulation, is one similar
23413 to the Legion d'honneur of the great Emperor Napoleon, not harmful but
23414 helpful to the success of the service, but not a class or court
23417 "I do not dispute that, but it cannot be denied that court privileges
23418 have attained the same end," returned Prince Andrew. "Every courtier
23419 considers himself bound to maintain his position worthily."
23421 "Yet you do not care to avail yourself of the privilege, Prince," said
23422 Speranski, indicating by a smile that he wished to finish amiably an
23423 argument which was embarrassing for his companion. "If you will do me
23424 the honor of calling on me on Wednesday," he added, "I will, after
23425 talking with Magnitski, let you know what may interest you, and shall
23426 also have the pleasure of a more detailed chat with you."
23428 Closing his eyes, he bowed a la francaise, without taking leave, and
23429 trying to attract as little attention as possible, he left the room.
23436 During the first weeks of his stay in Petersburg Prince Andrew felt the
23437 whole trend of thought he had formed during his life of seclusion quite
23438 overshadowed by the trifling cares that engrossed him in that city.
23440 On returning home in the evening he would jot down in his notebook four
23441 or five necessary calls or appointments for certain hours. The mechanism
23442 of life, the arrangement of the day so as to be in time everywhere,
23443 absorbed the greater part of his vital energy. He did nothing, did not
23444 even think or find time to think, but only talked, and talked
23445 successfully, of what he had thought while in the country.
23447 He sometimes noticed with dissatisfaction that he repeated the same
23448 remark on the same day in different circles. But he was so busy for
23449 whole days together that he had no time to notice that he was thinking
23452 As he had done on their first meeting at Kochubey's, Speranski produced
23453 a strong impression on Prince Andrew on the Wednesday, when he received
23454 him tête-à-tête at his own house and talked to him long and
23457 To Bolkonski so many people appeared contemptible and insignificant
23458 creatures, and he so longed to find in someone the living ideal of that
23459 perfection toward which he strove, that he readily believed that in
23460 Speranski he had found this ideal of a perfectly rational and virtuous
23461 man. Had Speranski sprung from the same class as himself and possessed
23462 the same breeding and traditions, Bolkonski would soon have discovered
23463 his weak, human, unheroic sides; but as it was, Speranski's strange and
23464 logical turn of mind inspired him with respect all the more because he
23465 did not quite understand him. Moreover, Speranski, either because he
23466 appreciated the other's capacity or because he considered it necessary
23467 to win him to his side, showed off his dispassionate calm reasonableness
23468 before Prince Andrew and flattered him with that subtle flattery which
23469 goes hand in hand with self-assurance and consists in a tacit assumption
23470 that one's companion is the only man besides oneself capable of
23471 understanding the folly of the rest of mankind and the reasonableness
23472 and profundity of one's own ideas.
23474 During their long conversation on Wednesday evening, Speranski more than
23475 once remarked: "We regard everything that is above the common level of
23476 rooted custom..." or, with a smile: "But we want the wolves to be fed
23477 and the sheep to be safe..." or: "They cannot understand this..." and
23478 all in a way that seemed to say: "We, you and I, understand what they
23479 are and who we are."
23481 This first long conversation with Speranski only strengthened in Prince
23482 Andrew the feeling he had experienced toward him at their first meeting.
23483 He saw in him a remarkable, clear-thinking man of vast intellect who by
23484 his energy and persistence had attained power, which he was using solely
23485 for the welfare of Russia. In Prince Andrew's eyes Speranski was the man
23486 he would himself have wished to be--one who explained all the facts of
23487 life reasonably, considered important only what was rational, and was
23488 capable of applying the standard of reason to everything. Everything
23489 seemed so simple and clear in Speranski's exposition that Prince Andrew
23490 involuntarily agreed with him about everything. If he replied and
23491 argued, it was only because he wished to maintain his independence and
23492 not submit to Speranski's opinions entirely. Everything was right and
23493 everything was as it should be: only one thing disconcerted Prince
23494 Andrew. This was Speranski's cold, mirrorlike look, which did not allow
23495 one to penetrate to his soul, and his delicate white hands, which Prince
23496 Andrew involuntarily watched as one does watch the hands of those who
23497 possess power. This mirrorlike gaze and those delicate hands irritated
23498 Prince Andrew, he knew not why. He was unpleasantly struck, too, by the
23499 excessive contempt for others that he observed in Speranski, and by the
23500 diversity of lines of argument he used to support his opinions. He made
23501 use of every kind of mental device, except analogy, and passed too
23502 boldly, it seemed to Prince Andrew, from one to another. Now he would
23503 take up the position of a practical man and condemn dreamers; now that
23504 of a satirist, and laugh ironically at his opponents; now grow severely
23505 logical, or suddenly rise to the realm of metaphysics. (This last
23506 resource was one he very frequently employed.) He would transfer a
23507 question to metaphysical heights, pass on to definitions of space, time,
23508 and thought, and, having deduced the refutation he needed, would again
23509 descend to the level of the original discussion.
23511 In general the trait of Speranski's mentality which struck Prince Andrew
23512 most was his absolute and unshakable belief in the power and authority
23513 of reason. It was evident that the thought could never occur to him
23514 which to Prince Andrew seemed so natural, namely, that it is after all
23515 impossible to express all one thinks; and that he had never felt the
23516 doubt, "Is not all I think and believe nonsense?" And it was just this
23517 peculiarity of Speranski's mind that particularly attracted Prince
23520 During the first period of their acquaintance Bolkonski felt a
23521 passionate admiration for him similar to that which he had once felt for
23522 Bonaparte. The fact that Speranski was the son of a village priest, and
23523 that stupid people might meanly despise him on account of his humble
23524 origin (as in fact many did), caused Prince Andrew to cherish his
23525 sentiment for him the more, and unconsciously to strengthen it.
23527 On that first evening Bolkonski spent with him, having mentioned the
23528 Commission for the Revision of the Code of Laws, Speranski told him
23529 sarcastically that the Commission had existed for a hundred and fifty
23530 years, had cost millions, and had done nothing except that Rosenkampf
23531 had stuck labels on the corresponding paragraphs of the different codes.
23533 "And that is all the state has for the millions it has spent," said he.
23534 "We want to give the Senate new juridical powers, but we have no laws.
23535 That is why it is a sin for men like you, Prince, not to serve in these
23538 Prince Andrew said that for that work an education in jurisprudence was
23539 needed which he did not possess.
23541 "But nobody possesses it, so what would you have? It is a vicious circle
23542 from which we must break a way out."
23544 A week later Prince Andrew was a member of the Committee on Army
23545 Regulations and--what he had not at all expected--was chairman of a
23546 section of the committee for the revision of the laws. At Speranski's
23547 request he took the first part of the Civil Code that was being drawn up
23548 and, with the aid of the Code Napoleon and the Institutes of Justinian,
23549 he worked at formulating the section on Personal Rights.
23556 Nearly two years before this, in 1808, Pierre on returning to Petersburg
23557 after visiting his estates had involuntarily found himself in a leading
23558 position among the Petersburg Freemasons. He arranged dining and funeral
23559 lodge meetings, enrolled new members, and busied himself uniting various
23560 lodges and acquiring authentic charters. He gave money for the erection
23561 of temples and supplemented as far as he could the collection of alms,
23562 in regard to which the majority of members were stingy and irregular. He
23563 supported almost singlehanded a poorhouse the order had founded in
23566 His life meanwhile continued as before, with the same infatuations and
23567 dissipations. He liked to dine and drink well, and though he considered
23568 it immoral and humiliating could not resist the temptations of the
23569 bachelor circles in which he moved.
23571 Amid the turmoil of his activities and distractions, however, Pierre at
23572 the end of a year began to feel that the more firmly he tried to rest
23573 upon it, the more masonic ground on which he stood gave way under him.
23574 At the same time he felt that the deeper the ground sank under him the
23575 closer bound he involuntarily became to the order. When he had joined
23576 the Freemasons he had experienced the feeling of one who confidently
23577 steps onto the smooth surface of a bog. When he put his foot down it
23578 sank in. To make quite sure of the firmness of the ground, he put his
23579 other foot down and sank deeper still, became stuck in it, and
23580 involuntarily waded knee-deep in the bog.
23582 Joseph Alexeevich was not in Petersburg--he had of late stood aside from
23583 the affairs of the Petersburg lodges, and lived almost entirely in
23584 Moscow. All the members of the lodges were men Pierre knew in ordinary
23585 life, and it was difficult for him to regard them merely as Brothers in
23586 Freemasonry and not as Prince B. or Ivan Vasilevich D., whom he knew in
23587 society mostly as weak and insignificant men. Under the masonic aprons
23588 and insignia he saw the uniforms and decorations at which they aimed in
23589 ordinary life. Often after collecting alms, and reckoning up twenty to
23590 thirty rubles received for the most part in promises from a dozen
23591 members, of whom half were as well able to pay as himself, Pierre
23592 remembered the masonic vow in which each Brother promised to devote all
23593 his belongings to his neighbor, and doubts on which he tried not to
23594 dwell arose in his soul.
23596 He divided the Brothers he knew into four categories. In the first he
23597 put those who did not take an active part in the affairs of the lodges
23598 or in human affairs, but were exclusively occupied with the mystical
23599 science of the order: with questions of the threefold designation of
23600 God, the three primordial elements--sulphur, mercury, and salt--or the
23601 meaning of the square and all the various figures of the temple of
23602 Solomon. Pierre respected this class of Brothers to which the elder ones
23603 chiefly belonged, including, Pierre thought, Joseph Alexeevich himself,
23604 but he did not share their interests. His heart was not in the mystical
23605 aspect of Freemasonry.
23607 In the second category Pierre reckoned himself and others like him,
23608 seeking and vacillating, who had not yet found in Freemasonry a straight
23609 and comprehensible path, but hoped to do so.
23611 In the third category he included those Brothers (the majority) who saw
23612 nothing in Freemasonry but the external forms and ceremonies, and prized
23613 the strict performance of these forms without troubling about their
23614 purport or significance. Such were Willarski and even the Grand Master
23615 of the principal lodge.
23617 Finally, to the fourth category also a great many Brothers belonged,
23618 particularly those who had lately joined. These according to Pierre's
23619 observations were men who had no belief in anything, nor desire for
23620 anything, but joined the Freemasons merely to associate with the wealthy
23621 young Brothers who were influential through their connections or rank,
23622 and of whom there were very many in the lodge.
23624 Pierre began to feel dissatisfied with what he was doing. Freemasonry,
23625 at any rate as he saw it here, sometimes seemed to him based merely on
23626 externals. He did not think of doubting Freemasonry itself, but
23627 suspected that Russian Masonry had taken a wrong path and deviated from
23628 its original principles. And so toward the end of the year he went
23629 abroad to be initiated into the higher secrets of the order.
23631 In the summer of 1809 Pierre returned to Petersburg. Our Freemasons knew
23632 from correspondence with those abroad that Bezukhov had obtained the
23633 confidence of many highly placed persons, had been initiated into many
23634 mysteries, had been raised to a higher grade, and was bringing back with
23635 him much that might conduce to the advantage of the masonic cause in
23636 Russia. The Petersburg Freemasons all came to see him, tried to
23637 ingratiate themselves with him, and it seemed to them all that he was
23638 preparing something for them and concealing it.
23640 A solemn meeting of the lodge of the second degree was convened, at
23641 which Pierre promised to communicate to the Petersburg Brothers what he
23642 had to deliver to them from the highest leaders of their order. The
23643 meeting was a full one. After the usual ceremonies Pierre rose and began
23646 "Dear Brothers," he began, blushing and stammering, with a written
23647 speech in his hand, "it is not sufficient to observe our mysteries in
23648 the seclusion of our lodge--we must act--act! We are drowsing, but we
23649 must act." Pierre raised his notebook and began to read.
23651 "For the dissemination of pure truth and to secure the triumph of
23652 virtue," he read, "we must cleanse men from prejudice, diffuse
23653 principles in harmony with the spirit of the times, undertake the
23654 education of the young, unite ourselves in indissoluble bonds with the
23655 wisest men, boldly yet prudently overcome superstitions, infidelity, and
23656 folly, and form of those devoted to us a body linked together by unity
23657 of purpose and possessed of authority and power.
23659 "To attain this end we must secure a preponderance of virtue over vice
23660 and must endeavor to secure that the honest man may, even in this world,
23661 receive a lasting reward for his virtue. But in these great endeavors we
23662 are gravely hampered by the political institutions of today. What is to
23663 be done in these circumstances? To favor revolutions, overthrow
23664 everything, repel force by force?... No! We are very far from that.
23665 Every violent reform deserves censure, for it quite fails to remedy evil
23666 while men remain what they are, and also because wisdom needs no
23669 "The whole plan of our order should be based on the idea of preparing
23670 men of firmness and virtue bound together by unity of conviction--aiming
23671 at the punishment of vice and folly, and patronizing talent and virtue:
23672 raising worthy men from the dust and attaching them to our Brotherhood.
23673 Only then will our order have the power unobtrusively to bind the hands
23674 of the protectors of disorder and to control them without their being
23675 aware of it. In a word, we must found a form of government holding
23676 universal sway, which should be diffused over the whole world without
23677 destroying the bonds of citizenship, and beside which all other
23678 governments can continue in their customary course and do everything
23679 except what impedes the great aim of our order, which is to obtain for
23680 virtue the victory over vice. This aim was that of Christianity itself.
23681 It taught men to be wise and good and for their own benefit to follow
23682 the example and instruction of the best and wisest men.
23684 "At that time, when everything was plunged in darkness, preaching alone
23685 was of course sufficient. The novelty of Truth endowed her with special
23686 strength, but now we need much more powerful methods. It is now
23687 necessary that man, governed by his senses, should find in virtue a
23688 charm palpable to those senses. It is impossible to eradicate the
23689 passions; but we must strive to direct them to a noble aim, and it is
23690 therefore necessary that everyone should be able to satisfy his passions
23691 within the limits of virtue. Our order should provide means to that end.
23693 "As soon as we have a certain number of worthy men in every state, each
23694 of them again training two others and all being closely united,
23695 everything will be possible for our order, which has already in secret
23696 accomplished much for the welfare of mankind."
23698 This speech not only made a strong impression, but created excitement in
23699 the lodge. The majority of the Brothers, seeing in it dangerous designs
23700 of Illuminism, * met it with a coldness that surprised Pierre. The Grand
23701 Master began answering him, and Pierre began developing his views with
23702 more and more warmth. It was long since there had been so stormy a
23703 meeting. Parties were formed, some accusing Pierre of Illuminism, others
23704 supporting him. At that meeting he was struck for the first time by the
23705 endless variety of men's minds, which prevents a truth from ever
23706 presenting itself identically to two persons. Even those members who
23707 seemed to be on his side understood him in their own way with
23708 limitations and alterations he could not agree to, as what he always
23709 wanted most was to convey his thought to others just as he himself
23713 * The Illuminati sought to substitute republican for monarchical
23716 At the end of the meeting the Grand Master with irony and ill-will
23717 reproved Bezukhov for his vehemence and said it was not love of virtue
23718 alone, but also a love of strife that had moved him in the dispute.
23719 Pierre did not answer him and asked briefly whether his proposal would
23720 be accepted. He was told that it would not, and without waiting for the
23721 usual formalities he left the lodge and went home.
23728 Again Pierre was overtaken by the depression he so dreaded. For three
23729 days after the delivery of his speech at the lodge he lay on a sofa at
23730 home receiving no one and going nowhere.
23732 It was just then that he received a letter from his wife, who implored
23733 him to see her, telling him how grieved she was about him and how she
23734 wished to devote her whole life to him.
23736 At the end of the letter she informed him that in a few days she would
23737 return to Petersburg from abroad.
23739 Following this letter one of the masonic Brothers whom Pierre respected
23740 less than the others forced his way in to see him and, turning the
23741 conversation upon Pierre's matrimonial affairs, by way of fraternal
23742 advice expressed the opinion that his severity to his wife was wrong and
23743 that he was neglecting one of the first rules of Freemasonry by not
23744 forgiving the penitent.
23746 At the same time his mother-in-law, Prince Vasili's wife, sent to him
23747 imploring him to come if only for a few minutes to discuss a most
23748 important matter. Pierre saw that there was a conspiracy against him and
23749 that they wanted to reunite him with his wife, and in the mood he then
23750 was, this was not even unpleasant to him. Nothing mattered to him.
23751 Nothing in life seemed to him of much importance, and under the
23752 influence of the depression that possessed him he valued neither his
23753 liberty nor his resolution to punish his wife.
23755 "No one is right and no one is to blame; so she too is not to blame," he
23758 If he did not at once give his consent to a reunion with his wife, it
23759 was only because in his state of depression he did not feel able to take
23760 any step. Had his wife come to him, he would not have turned her away.
23761 Compared to what preoccupied him, was it not a matter of indifference
23762 whether he lived with his wife or not?
23764 Without replying either to his wife or his mother-in-law, Pierre late
23765 one night prepared for a journey and started for Moscow to see Joseph
23766 Alexeevich. This is what he noted in his diary:
23768 Moscow, 17th November
23770 I have just returned from my benefactor, and hasten to write down what I
23771 have experienced. Joseph Alexeevich is living poorly and has for three
23772 years been suffering from a painful disease of the bladder. No one has
23773 ever heard him utter a groan or a word of complaint. From morning till
23774 late at night, except when he eats his very plain food, he is working at
23775 science. He received me graciously and made me sit down on the bed on
23776 which he lay. I made the sign of the Knights of the East and of
23777 Jerusalem, and he responded in the same manner, asking me with a mild
23778 smile what I had learned and gained in the Prussian and Scottish lodges.
23779 I told him everything as best I could, and told him what I had proposed
23780 to our Petersburg lodge, of the bad reception I had encountered, and of
23781 my rupture with the Brothers. Joseph Alexeevich, having remained silent
23782 and thoughtful for a good while, told me his view of the matter, which
23783 at once lit up for me my whole past and the future path I should follow.
23784 He surprised me by asking whether I remembered the threefold aim of the
23785 order: (1) The preservation and study of the mystery. (2) The
23786 purification and reformation of oneself for its reception, and (3) The
23787 improvement of the human race by striving for such purification. Which
23788 is the principal aim of these three? Certainly self-reformation and
23789 self-purification. Only to this aim can we always strive independently
23790 of circumstances. But at the same time just this aim demands the
23791 greatest efforts of us; and so, led astray by pride, losing sight of
23792 this aim, we occupy ourselves either with the mystery which in our
23793 impurity we are unworthy to receive, or seek the reformation of the
23794 human race while ourselves setting an example of baseness and
23795 profligacy. Illuminism is not a pure doctrine, just because it is
23796 attracted by social activity and puffed up by pride. On this ground
23797 Joseph Alexeevich condemned my speech and my whole activity, and in the
23798 depth of my soul I agreed with him. Talking of my family affairs he said
23799 to me, "the chief duty of a true Mason, as I have told you, lies in
23800 perfecting himself. We often think that by removing all the difficulties
23801 of our life we shall more quickly reach our aim, but on the contrary, my
23802 dear sir, it is only in the midst of worldly cares that we can attain
23803 our three chief aims: (1) Self-knowledge--for man can only know himself
23804 by comparison, (2) Self-perfecting, which can only be attained by
23805 conflict, and (3) The attainment of the chief virtue--love of death.
23806 Only the vicissitudes of life can show us its vanity and develop our
23807 innate love of death or of rebirth to a new life." These words are all
23808 the more remarkable because, in spite of his great physical sufferings,
23809 Joseph Alexeevich is never weary of life though he loves death, for
23810 which--in spite of the purity and loftiness of his inner man--he does
23811 not yet feel himself sufficiently prepared. My benefactor then explained
23812 to me fully the meaning of the Great Square of creation and pointed out
23813 to me that the numbers three and seven are the basis of everything. He
23814 advised me not to avoid intercourse with the Petersburg Brothers, but to
23815 take up only second-grade posts in the lodge, to try, while diverting
23816 the Brothers from pride, to turn them toward the true path self-
23817 knowledge and self-perfecting. Besides this he advised me for myself
23818 personally above all to keep a watch over myself, and to that end he
23819 gave me a notebook, the one I am now writing in and in which I will in
23820 future note down all my actions.
23822 Petersburg, 23rd November
23824 I am again living with my wife. My mother-in-law came to me in tears and
23825 said that Helene was here and that she implored me to hear her; that she
23826 was innocent and unhappy at my desertion, and much more. I knew that if
23827 I once let myself see her I should not have strength to go on refusing
23828 what she wanted. In my perplexity I did not know whose aid and advice to
23829 seek. Had my benefactor been here he would have told me what to do. I
23830 went to my room and reread Joseph Alexeevich's letters and recalled my
23831 conversations with him, and deduced from it all that I ought not to
23832 refuse a supplicant, and ought to reach a helping hand to everyone--
23833 especially to one so closely bound to me--and that I must bear my cross.
23834 But if I forgive her for the sake of doing right, then let union with
23835 her have only a spiritual aim. That is what I decided, and what I wrote
23836 to Joseph Alexeevich. I told my wife that I begged her to forget the
23837 past, to forgive me whatever wrong I may have done her, and that I had
23838 nothing to forgive. It gave me joy to tell her this. She need not know
23839 how hard it was for me to see her again. I have settled on the upper
23840 floor of this big house and am experiencing a happy feeling of
23848 At that time, as always happens, the highest society that met at court
23849 and at the grand balls was divided into several circles, each with its
23850 own particular tone. The largest of these was the French circle of the
23851 Napoleonic alliance, the circle of Count Rumyantsev and Caulaincourt. In
23852 this group Helene, as soon as she had settled in Petersburg with her
23853 husband, took a very prominent place. She was visited by the members of
23854 the French embassy and by many belonging to that circle and noted for
23855 their intellect and polished manners.
23857 Helene had been at Erfurt during the famous meeting of the Emperors and
23858 had brought from there these connections with the Napoleonic
23859 notabilities. At Erfurt her success had been brilliant. Napoleon himself
23860 had noticed her in the theater and said of her: "C'est un superbe
23861 animal." * Her success as a beautiful and elegant woman did not surprise
23862 Pierre, for she had become even handsomer than before. What did surprise
23863 him was that during these last two years his wife had succeeded in
23864 gaining the reputation "d' une femme charmante, aussi spirituelle que
23865 belle." *(2) The distinguished Prince de Ligne wrote her eight-page
23866 letters. Bilibin saved up his epigrams to produce them in Countess
23867 Bezukhova's presence. To be received in the Countess Bezukhova's salon
23868 was regarded as a diploma of intellect. Young men read books before
23869 attending Helene's evenings, to have something to say in her salon, and
23870 secretaries of the embassy, and even ambassadors, confided diplomatic
23871 secrets to her, so that in a way Helene was a power. Pierre, who knew
23872 she was very stupid, sometimes attended, with a strange feeling of
23873 perplexity and fear, her evenings and dinner parties, where politics,
23874 poetry, and philosophy were discussed. At these parties his feelings
23875 were like those of a conjuror who always expects his trick to be found
23876 out at any moment. But whether because stupidity was just what was
23877 needed to run such a salon, or because those who were deceived found
23878 pleasure in the deception, at any rate it remained unexposed and Helene
23879 Bezukhova's reputation as a lovely and clever woman became so firmly
23880 established that she could say the emptiest and stupidest things and
23881 everybody would go into raptures over every word of hers and look for a
23882 profound meaning in it of which she herself had no conception.
23885 * "That's a superb animal."
23887 * (2) "Of a charming woman, as witty as she is lovely."
23889 Pierre was just the husband needed for a brilliant society woman. He was
23890 that absent-minded crank, a grand seigneur husband who was in no one's
23891 way, and far from spoiling the high tone and general impression of the
23892 drawing room, he served, by the contrast he presented to her, as an
23893 advantageous background to his elegant and tactful wife. Pierre during
23894 the last two years, as a result of his continual absorption in abstract
23895 interests and his sincere contempt for all else, had acquired in his
23896 wife's circle, which did not interest him, that air of unconcern,
23897 indifference, and benevolence toward all, which cannot be acquired
23898 artificially and therefore inspires involuntary respect. He entered his
23899 wife's drawing room as one enters a theater, was acquainted with
23900 everybody, equally pleased to see everyone, and equally indifferent to
23901 them all. Sometimes he joined in a conversation which interested him
23902 and, regardless of whether any "gentlemen of the embassy" were present
23903 or not, lispingly expressed his views, which were sometimes not at all
23904 in accord with the accepted tone of the moment. But the general opinion
23905 concerning the queer husband of "the most distinguished woman in
23906 Petersburg" was so well established that no one took his freaks
23909 Among the many young men who frequented her house every day, Boris
23910 Drubetskoy, who had already achieved great success in the service, was
23911 the most intimate friend of the Bezukhov household since Helene's return
23912 from Erfurt. Helene spoke of him as "mon page" and treated him like a
23913 child. Her smile for him was the same as for everybody, but sometimes
23914 that smile made Pierre uncomfortable. Toward him Boris behaved with a
23915 particularly dignified and sad deference. This shade of deference also
23916 disturbed Pierre. He had suffered so painfully three years before from
23917 the mortification to which his wife had subjected him that he now
23918 protected himself from the danger of its repetition, first by not being
23919 a husband to his wife, and secondly by not allowing himself to suspect.
23921 "No, now that she has become a bluestocking she has finally renounced
23922 her former infatuations," he told himself. "There has never been an
23923 instance of a bluestocking being carried away by affairs of the heart"--
23924 a statement which, though gathered from an unknown source, he believed
23925 implicitly. Yet strange to say Boris' presence in his wife's drawing
23926 room (and he was almost always there) had a physical effect upon Pierre;
23927 it constricted his limbs and destroyed the unconsciousness and freedom
23930 "What a strange antipathy," thought Pierre, "yet I used to like him very
23933 In the eyes of the world Pierre was a great gentleman, the rather blind
23934 and absurd husband of a distinguished wife, a clever crank who did
23935 nothing but harmed nobody and was a first-rate, good-natured fellow. But
23936 a complex and difficult process of internal development was taking place
23937 all this time in Pierre's soul, revealing much to him and causing him
23938 many spiritual doubts and joys.
23945 Pierre went on with his diary, and this is what he wrote in it during
23950 Got up at eight, read the Scriptures, then went to my duties. (By Joseph
23951 Alexeevich's advice Pierre had entered the service of the state and
23952 served on one of the committees.) Returned home for dinner and dined
23953 alone--the countess had many visitors I do not like. I ate and drank
23954 moderately and after dinner copied out some passages for the Brothers.
23955 In the evening I went down to the countess and told a funny story about
23956 B., and only remembered that I ought not to have done so when everybody
23957 laughed loudly at it.
23959 I am going to bed with a happy and tranquil mind. Great God, help me to
23960 walk in Thy paths, (1) to conquer anger by calmness and deliberation,
23961 (2) to vanquish lust by self-restraint and repulsion, (3) to withdraw
23962 from worldliness, but not avoid (a) the service of the state, (b) family
23963 duties, (c) relations with my friends, and the management of my affairs.
23967 I got up late. On waking I lay long in bed yielding to sloth. O God,
23968 help and strengthen me that I may walk in Thy ways! Read the Scriptures,
23969 but without proper feeling. Brother Urusov came and we talked about
23970 worldly vanities. He told me of the Emperor's new projects. I began to
23971 criticize them, but remembered my rules and my benefactor's words--that
23972 a true Freemason should be a zealous worker for the state when his aid
23973 is required and a quiet onlooker when not called on to assist. My tongue
23974 is my enemy. Brothers G. V. and O. visited me and we had a preliminary
23975 talk about the reception of a new Brother. They laid on me the duty of
23976 Rhetor. I feel myself weak and unworthy. Then our talk turned to the
23977 interpretation of the seven pillars and steps of the Temple, the seven
23978 sciences, the seven virtues, the seven vices, and the seven gifts of the
23979 Holy Spirit. Brother O. was very eloquent. In the evening the admission
23980 took place. The new decoration of the Premises contributed much to the
23981 magnificence of the spectacle. It was Boris Drubetskoy who was admitted.
23982 I nominated him and was the Rhetor. A strange feeling agitated me all
23983 the time I was alone with him in the dark chamber. I caught myself
23984 harboring a feeling of hatred toward him which I vainly tried to
23985 overcome. That is why I should really like to save him from evil and
23986 lead him into the path of truth, but evil thoughts of him did not leave
23987 me. It seemed to me that his object in entering the Brotherhood was
23988 merely to be intimate and in favor with members of our lodge. Apart from
23989 the fact that he had asked me several times whether N. and S. were
23990 members of our lodge (a question to which I could not reply) and that
23991 according to my observation he is incapable of feeling respect for our
23992 holy order and is too preoccupied and satisfied with the outer man to
23993 desire spiritual improvement, I had no cause to doubt him, but he seemed
23994 to me insincere, and all the time I stood alone with him in the dark
23995 temple it seemed to me that he was smiling contemptuously at my words,
23996 and I wished really to stab his bare breast with the sword I held to it.
23997 I could not be eloquent, nor could I frankly mention my doubts to the
23998 Brothers and to the Grand Master. Great Architect of Nature, help me to
23999 find the true path out of the labyrinth of lies!
24002 After this, three pages were left blank in the diary, and then the
24003 following was written:
24005 I have had a long and instructive talk alone with Brother V., who
24006 advised me to hold fast by Brother A. Though I am unworthy, much was
24007 revealed to me. Adonai is the name of the creator of the world. Elohim
24008 is the name of the ruler of all. The third name is the name unutterable
24009 which means the All. Talks with Brother V. strengthen, refresh, and
24010 support me in the path of virtue. In his presence doubt has no place.
24011 The distinction between the poor teachings of mundane science and our
24012 sacred all-embracing teaching is clear to me. Human sciences dissect
24013 everything to comprehend it, and kill everything to examine it. In the
24014 holy science of our order all is one, all is known in its entirety and
24015 life. The Trinity--the three elements of matter--are sulphur, mercury,
24016 and salt. Sulphur is of an oily and fiery nature; in combination with
24017 salt by its fiery nature it arouses a desire in the latter by means of
24018 which it attracts mercury, seizes it, holds it, and in combination
24019 produces other bodies. Mercury is a fluid, volatile, spiritual essence.
24020 Christ, the Holy Spirit, Him!...
24024 Awoke late, read the Scriptures but was apathetic. Afterwards went and
24025 paced up and down the large hall. I wished to meditate, but instead my
24026 imagination pictured an occurrence of four years ago, when Dolokhov,
24027 meeting me in Moscow after our duel, said he hoped I was enjoying
24028 perfect peace of mind in spite of my wife's absence. At the time I gave
24029 him no answer. Now I recalled every detail of that meeting and in my
24030 mind gave him the most malevolent and bitter replies. I recollected
24031 myself and drove away that thought only when I found myself glowing with
24032 anger, but I did not sufficiently repent. Afterwards Boris Drubetskoy
24033 came and began relating various adventures. His coming vexed me from the
24034 first, and I said something disagreeable to him. He replied. I flared up
24035 and said much that was unpleasant and even rude to him. He became
24036 silent, and I recollected myself only when it was too late. My God, I
24037 cannot get on with him at all. The cause of this is my egotism. I set
24038 myself above him and so become much worse than he, for he is lenient to
24039 my rudeness while I on the contrary nourish contempt for him. O God,
24040 grant that in his presence I may rather see my own vileness, and behave
24041 so that he too may benefit. After dinner I fell asleep and as I was
24042 drowsing off I clearly heard a voice saying in my left ear, "Thy day!"
24044 I dreamed that I was walking in the dark and was suddenly surrounded by
24045 dogs, but I went on undismayed. Suddenly a smallish dog seized my left
24046 thigh with its teeth and would not let go. I began to throttle it with
24047 my hands. Scarcely had I torn it off before another, a bigger one, began
24048 biting me. I lifted it up, but the higher I lifted it the bigger and
24049 heavier it grew. And suddenly Brother A. came and, taking my arm, led me
24050 to a building to enter which we had to pass along a narrow plank. I
24051 stepped on it, but it bent and gave way and I began to clamber up a
24052 fence which I could scarcely reach with my hands. After much effort I
24053 dragged myself up, so that my leg hung down on one side and my body on
24054 the other. I looked round and saw Brother A. standing on the fence and
24055 pointing me to a broad avenue and garden, and in the garden was a large
24056 and beautiful building. I woke up. O Lord, great Architect of Nature,
24057 help me to tear from myself these dogs--my passions especially the last,
24058 which unites in itself the strength of all the former ones, and aid me
24059 to enter that temple of virtue to a vision of which I attained in my
24064 I dreamed that Joseph Alexeevich was sitting in my house, and that I was
24065 very glad and wished to entertain him. It seemed as if I chattered
24066 incessantly with other people and suddenly remembered that this could
24067 not please him, and I wished to come close to him and embrace him. But
24068 as soon as I drew near I saw that his face had changed and grown young,
24069 and he was quietly telling me something about the teaching of our order,
24070 but so softly that I could not hear it. Then it seemed that we all left
24071 the room and something strange happened. We were sitting or lying on the
24072 floor. He was telling me something, and I wished to show him my
24073 sensibility, and not listening to what he was saying I began picturing
24074 to myself the condition of my inner man and the grace of God sanctifying
24075 me. And tears came into my eyes, and I was glad he noticed this. But he
24076 looked at me with vexation and jumped up, breaking off his remarks. I
24077 felt abashed and asked whether what he had been saying did not concern
24078 me; but he did not reply, gave me a kind look, and then we suddenly
24079 found ourselves in my bedroom where there is a double bed. He lay down
24080 on the edge of it and I burned with longing to caress him and lie down
24081 too. And he said, "Tell me frankly what is your chief temptation? Do you
24082 know it? I think you know it already." Abashed by this question, I
24083 replied that sloth was my chief temptation. He shook his head
24084 incredulously; and even more abashed, I said that though I was living
24085 with my wife as he advised, I was not living with her as her husband. To
24086 this he replied that one should not deprive a wife of one's embraces and
24087 gave me to understand that that was my duty. But I replied that I should
24088 be ashamed to do it, and suddenly everything vanished. And I awoke and
24089 found in my mind the text from the Gospel: "The life was the light of
24090 men. And the light shineth in darkness; and the darkness comprehended it
24091 not." Joseph Alexeevich's face had looked young and bright. That day I
24092 received a letter from my benefactor in which he wrote about "conjugal
24097 I had a dream from which I awoke with a throbbing heart. I saw that I
24098 was in Moscow in my house, in the big sitting room, and Joseph
24099 Alexeevich came in from the drawing room. I seemed to know at once that
24100 the process of regeneration had already taken place in him, and I rushed
24101 to meet him. I embraced him and kissed his hands, and he said, "Hast
24102 thou noticed that my face is different?" I looked at him, still holding
24103 him in my arms, and saw that his face was young, but that he had no hair
24104 on his head and his features were quite changed. And I said, "I should
24105 have known you had I met you by chance," and I thought to myself, "Am I
24106 telling the truth?" And suddenly I saw him lying like a dead body; then
24107 he gradually recovered and went with me into my study carrying a large
24108 book of sheets of drawing paper; I said, "I drew that," and he answered
24109 by bowing his head. I opened the book, and on all the pages there were
24110 excellent drawings. And in my dream I knew that these drawings
24111 represented the love adventures of the soul with its beloved. And on its
24112 pages I saw a beautiful representation of a maiden in transparent
24113 garments and with a transparent body, flying up to the clouds. And I
24114 seemed to know that this maiden was nothing else than a representation
24115 of the Song of Songs. And looking at those drawings I dreamed I felt
24116 that I was doing wrong, but could not tear myself away from them. Lord,
24117 help me! My God, if Thy forsaking me is Thy doing, Thy will be done; but
24118 if I am myself the cause, teach me what I should do! I shall perish of
24119 my debauchery if Thou utterly desertest me!
24126 The Rostovs' monetary affairs had not improved during the two years they
24127 had spent in the country.
24129 Though Nicholas Rostov had kept firmly to his resolution and was still
24130 serving modestly in an obscure regiment, spending comparatively little,
24131 the way of life at Otradnoe--Mitenka's management of affairs, in
24132 particular--was such that the debts inevitably increased every year. The
24133 only resource obviously presenting itself to the old count was to apply
24134 for an official post, so he had come to Petersburg to look for one and
24135 also, as he said, to let the lassies enjoy themselves for the last time.
24137 Soon after their arrival in Petersburg Berg proposed to Vera and was
24140 Though in Moscow the Rostovs belonged to the best society without
24141 themselves giving it a thought, yet in Petersburg their circle of
24142 acquaintances was a mixed and indefinite one. In Petersburg they were
24143 provincials, and the very people they had entertained in Moscow without
24144 inquiring to what set they belonged, here looked down on them.
24146 The Rostovs lived in the same hospitable way in Petersburg as in Moscow,
24147 and the most diverse people met at their suppers. Country neighbors from
24148 Otradnoe, impoverished old squires and their daughters, Peronskaya a
24149 maid of honor, Pierre Bezukhov, and the son of their district postmaster
24150 who had obtained a post in Petersburg. Among the men who very soon
24151 became frequent visitors at the Rostovs' house in Petersburg were Boris,
24152 Pierre whom the count had met in the street and dragged home with him,
24153 and Berg who spent whole days at the Rostovs' and paid the eldest
24154 daughter, Countess Vera, the attentions a young man pays when he intends
24157 Not in vain had Berg shown everybody his right hand wounded at
24158 Austerlitz and held a perfectly unnecessary sword in his left. He
24159 narrated that episode so persistently and with so important an air that
24160 everyone believed in the merit and usefulness of his deed, and he had
24161 obtained two decorations for Austerlitz.
24163 In the Finnish war he also managed to distinguish himself. He had picked
24164 up the scrap of a grenade that had killed an aide-de-camp standing near
24165 the commander-in-chief and had taken it to his commander. Just as he had
24166 done after Austerlitz, he related this occurrence at such length and so
24167 insistently that everyone again believed it had been necessary to do
24168 this, and he received two decorations for the Finnish war also. In 1809
24169 he was a captain in the Guards, wore medals, and held some special
24170 lucrative posts in Petersburg.
24172 Though some skeptics smiled when told of Berg's merits, it could not be
24173 denied that he was a painstaking and brave officer, on excellent terms
24174 with his superiors, and a moral young man with a brilliant career before
24175 him and an assured position in society.
24177 Four years before, meeting a German comrade in the stalls of a Moscow
24178 theater, Berg had pointed out Vera Rostova to him and had said in
24179 German, "das soll mein Weib werden," * and from that moment had made up
24180 his mind to marry her. Now in Petersburg, having considered the Rostovs'
24181 position and his own, he decided that the time had come to propose.
24184 * "That girl shall be my wife."
24186 Berg's proposal was at first received with a perplexity that was not
24187 flattering to him. At first it seemed strange that the son of an obscure
24188 Livonian gentleman should propose marriage to a Countess Rostova; but
24189 Berg's chief characteristic was such a naive and good natured egotism
24190 that the Rostovs involuntarily came to think it would be a good thing,
24191 since he himself was so firmly convinced that it was good, indeed
24192 excellent. Moreover, the Rostovs' affairs were seriously embarrassed, as
24193 the suitor could not but know; and above all, Vera was twenty-four, had
24194 been taken out everywhere, and though she was certainly good-looking and
24195 sensible, no one up to now had proposed to her. So they gave their
24198 "You see," said Berg to his comrade, whom he called "friend" only
24199 because he knew that everyone has friends, "you see, I have considered
24200 it all, and should not marry if I had not thought it all out or if it
24201 were in any way unsuitable. But on the contrary, my papa and mamma are
24202 now provided for--I have arranged that rent for them in the Baltic
24203 Provinces--and I can live in Petersburg on my pay, and with her fortune
24204 and my good management we can get along nicely. I am not marrying for
24205 money--I consider that dishonorable--but a wife should bring her share
24206 and a husband his. I have my position in the service, she has
24207 connections and some means. In our times that is worth something, isn't
24208 it? But above all, she is a handsome, estimable girl, and she loves
24211 Berg blushed and smiled.
24213 "And I love her, because her character is sensible and very good. Now
24214 the other sister, though they are the same family, is quite different--
24215 an unpleasant character and has not the same intelligence. She is so...
24216 you know?... Unpleasant... But my fiancee!... Well, you will be coming,"
24217 he was going to say, "to dine," but changed his mind and said "to take
24218 tea with us," and quickly doubling up his tongue he blew a small round
24219 ring of tobacco smoke, perfectly embodying his dream of happiness.
24221 After the first feeling of perplexity aroused in the parents by Berg's
24222 proposal, the holiday tone of joyousness usual at such times took
24223 possession of the family, but the rejoicing was external and insincere.
24224 In the family's feeling toward this wedding a certain awkwardness and
24225 constraint was evident, as if they were ashamed of not having loved Vera
24226 sufficiently and of being so ready to get her off their hands. The old
24227 count felt this most. He would probably have been unable to state the
24228 cause of his embarrassment, but it resulted from the state of his
24229 affairs. He did not know at all how much he had, what his debts amounted
24230 to, or what dowry he could give Vera. When his daughters were born he
24231 had assigned to each of them, for her dowry, an estate with three
24232 hundred serfs; but one of these estates had already been sold, and the
24233 other was mortgaged and the interest so much in arrears that it would
24234 have to be sold, so that it was impossible to give it to Vera. Nor had
24237 Berg had already been engaged a month, and only a week remained before
24238 the wedding, but the count had not yet decided in his own mind the
24239 question of the dowry, nor spoken to his wife about it. At one time the
24240 count thought of giving her the Ryazan estate or of selling a forest, at
24241 another time of borrowing money on a note of hand. A few days before the
24242 wedding Berg entered the count's study early one morning and, with a
24243 pleasant smile, respectfully asked his future father-in-law to let him
24244 know what Vera's dowry would be. The count was so disconcerted by this
24245 long-foreseen inquiry that without consideration he gave the first reply
24246 that came into his head. "I like your being businesslike about it.... I
24247 like it. You shall be satisfied...."
24249 And patting Berg on the shoulder he got up, wishing to end the
24250 conversation. But Berg, smiling pleasantly, explained that if he did not
24251 know for certain how much Vera would have and did not receive at least
24252 part of the dowry in advance, he would have to break matters off.
24254 "Because, consider, Count--if I allowed myself to marry now without
24255 having definite means to maintain my wife, I should be acting badly...."
24257 The conversation ended by the count, who wished to be generous and to
24258 avoid further importunity, saying that he would give a note of hand for
24259 eighty thousand rubles. Berg smiled meekly, kissed the count on the
24260 shoulder, and said that he was very grateful, but that it was impossible
24261 for him to arrange his new life without receiving thirty thousand in
24262 ready money. "Or at least twenty thousand, Count," he added, "and then a
24263 note of hand for only sixty thousand."
24265 "Yes, yes, all right!" said the count hurriedly. "Only excuse me, my
24266 dear fellow, I'll give you twenty thousand and a note of hand for eighty
24267 thousand as well. Yes, yes! Kiss me."
24274 Natasha was sixteen and it was the year 1809, the very year to which she
24275 had counted on her fingers with Boris after they had kissed four years
24276 ago. Since then she had not seen him. Before Sonya and her mother, if
24277 Boris happened to be mentioned, she spoke quite freely of that episode
24278 as of some childish, long-forgotten matter that was not worth
24279 mentioning. But in the secret depths of her soul the question whether
24280 her engagement to Boris was a jest or an important, binding promise
24283 Since Boris left Moscow in 1805 to join the army he had not seen the
24284 Rostovs. He had been in Moscow several times, and had passed near
24285 Otradnoe, but had never been to see them.
24287 Sometimes it occurred to Natasha that he did not wish to see her, and
24288 this conjecture was confirmed by the sad tone in which her elders spoke
24291 "Nowadays old friends are not remembered," the countess would say when
24292 Boris was mentioned.
24294 Anna Mikhaylovna also had of late visited them less frequently, seemed
24295 to hold herself with particular dignity, and always spoke rapturously
24296 and gratefully of the merits of her son and the brilliant career on
24297 which he had entered. When the Rostovs came to Petersburg Boris called
24300 He drove to their house in some agitation. The memory of Natasha was his
24301 most poetic recollection. But he went with the firm intention of letting
24302 her and her parents feel that the childish relations between himself and
24303 Natasha could not be binding either on her or on him. He had a brilliant
24304 position in society thanks to his intimacy with Countess Bezukhova, a
24305 brilliant position in the service thanks to the patronage of an
24306 important personage whose complete confidence he enjoyed, and he was
24307 beginning to make plans for marrying one of the richest heiresses in
24308 Petersburg, plans which might very easily be realized. When he entered
24309 the Rostovs' drawing room Natasha was in her own room. When she heard of
24310 his arrival she almost ran into the drawing room, flushed and beaming
24311 with a more than cordial smile.
24313 Boris remembered Natasha in a short dress, with dark eyes shining from
24314 under her curls and boisterous, childish laughter, as he had known her
24315 four years before; and so he was taken aback when quite a different
24316 Natasha entered, and his face expressed rapturous astonishment. This
24317 expression on his face pleased Natasha.
24319 "Well, do you recognize your little madcap playmate?" asked the
24322 Boris kissed Natasha's hand and said that he was astonished at the
24325 "How handsome you have grown!"
24327 "I should think so!" replied Natasha's laughing eyes.
24329 "And is Papa older?" she asked.
24331 Natasha sat down and, without joining in Boris' conversation with the
24332 countess, silently and minutely studied her childhood's suitor. He felt
24333 the weight of that resolute and affectionate scrutiny and glanced at her
24336 Boris' uniform, spurs, tie, and the way his hair was brushed were all
24337 comme il faut and in the latest fashion. This Natasha noticed at once.
24338 He sat rather sideways in the armchair next to the countess, arranging
24339 with his right hand the cleanest of gloves that fitted his left hand
24340 like a skin, and he spoke with a particularly refined compression of his
24341 lips about the amusements of the highest Petersburg society, recalling
24342 with mild irony old times in Moscow and Moscow acquaintances. It was not
24343 accidentally, Natasha felt, that he alluded, when speaking of the
24344 highest aristocracy, to an ambassador's ball he had attended, and to
24345 invitations he had received from N.N. and S.S.
24347 All this time Natasha sat silent, glancing up at him from under her
24348 brows. This gaze disturbed and confused Boris more and more. He looked
24349 round more frequently toward her, and broke off in what he was saying.
24350 He did not stay more than ten minutes, then rose and took his leave. The
24351 same inquisitive, challenging, and rather mocking eyes still looked at
24352 him. After his first visit Boris said to himself that Natasha attracted
24353 him just as much as ever, but that he must not yield to that feeling,
24354 because to marry her, a girl almost without fortune, would mean ruin to
24355 his career, while to renew their former relations without intending to
24356 marry her would be dishonorable. Boris made up his mind to avoid meeting
24357 Natasha, but despite that resolution he called again a few days later
24358 and began calling often and spending whole days at the Rostovs'. It
24359 seemed to him that he ought to have an explanation with Natasha and tell
24360 her that the old times must be forgotten, that in spite of everything...
24361 she could not be his wife, that he had no means, and they would never
24362 let her marry him. But he failed to do so and felt awkward about
24363 entering on such an explanation. From day to day he became more and more
24364 entangled. It seemed to her mother and Sonya that Natasha was in love
24365 with Boris as of old. She sang him his favorite songs, showed him her
24366 album, making him write in it, did not allow him to allude to the past,
24367 letting it be understood how delightful was the present; and every day
24368 he went away in a fog, without having said what he meant to, and not
24369 knowing what he was doing or why he came, or how it would all end. He
24370 left off visiting Helene and received reproachful notes from her every
24371 day, and yet he continued to spend whole days with the Rostovs.
24378 One night when the old countess, in nightcap and dressing jacket,
24379 without her false curls, and with her poor little knob of hair showing
24380 under her white cotton cap, knelt sighing and groaning on a rug and
24381 bowing to the ground in prayer, her door creaked and Natasha, also in a
24382 dressing jacket with slippers on her bare feet and her hair in
24383 curlpapers, ran in. The countess--her prayerful mood dispelled--looked
24384 round and frowned. She was finishing her last prayer: "Can it be that
24385 this couch will be my grave?" Natasha, flushed and eager, seeing her
24386 mother in prayer, suddenly checked her rush, half sat down, and
24387 unconsciously put out her tongue as if chiding herself. Seeing that her
24388 mother was still praying she ran on tiptoe to the bed and, rapidly
24389 slipping one little foot against the other, pushed off her slippers and
24390 jumped onto the bed the countess had feared might become her grave. This
24391 couch was high, with a feather bed and five pillows each smaller than
24392 the one below. Natasha jumped on it, sank into the feather bed, rolled
24393 over to the wall, and began snuggling up the bedclothes as she settled
24394 down, raising her knees to her chin, kicking out and laughing almost
24395 inaudibly, now covering herself up head and all, and now peeping at her
24396 mother. The countess finished her prayers and came to the bed with a
24397 stern face, but seeing, that Natasha's head was covered, she smiled in
24398 her kind, weak way.
24400 "Now then, now then!" said she.
24402 "Mamma, can we have a talk? Yes?" said Natasha. "Now, just one on your
24403 throat and another... that'll do!" And seizing her mother round the
24404 neck, she kissed her on the throat. In her behavior to her mother
24405 Natasha seemed rough, but she was so sensitive and tactful that however
24406 she clasped her mother she always managed to do it without hurting her
24407 or making her feel uncomfortable or displeased.
24409 "Well, what is it tonight?" said the mother, having arranged her pillows
24410 and waited until Natasha, after turning over a couple of times, had
24411 settled down beside her under the quilt, spread out her arms, and
24412 assumed a serious expression.
24414 These visits of Natasha's at night before the count returned from his
24415 club were one of the greatest pleasures of both mother, and daughter.
24417 "What is it tonight?--But I have to tell you..."
24419 Natasha put her hand on her mother's mouth.
24421 "About Boris... I know," she said seriously; "that's what I have come
24422 about. Don't say it--I know. No, do tell me!" and she removed her hand.
24423 "Tell me, Mamma! He's nice?"
24425 "Natasha, you are sixteen. At your age I was married. You say Boris is
24426 nice. He is very nice, and I love him like a son. But what then?... What
24427 are you thinking about? You have quite turned his head, I can see
24430 As she said this the countess looked round at her daughter. Natasha was
24431 lying looking steadily straight before her at one of the mahogany
24432 sphinxes carved on the corners of the bedstead, so that the countess
24433 only saw her daughter's face in profile. That face struck her by its
24434 peculiarly serious and concentrated expression.
24436 Natasha was listening and considering.
24438 "Well, what then?" said she.
24440 "You have quite turned his head, and why? What do you want of him? You
24441 know you can't marry him."
24443 "Why not?" said Natasha, without changing her position.
24445 "Because he is young, because he is poor, because he is a relation...
24446 and because you yourself don't love him."
24450 "I know. It is not right, darling!"
24453 "But if I want to..." said Natasha.
24455 "Leave off talking nonsense," said the countess.
24457 "But if I want to..."
24459 "Natasha, I am in earnest..."
24461 Natasha did not let her finish. She drew the countess' large hand to
24462 her, kissed it on the back and then on the palm, then again turned it
24463 over and began kissing first one knuckle, then the space between the
24464 knuckles, then the next knuckle, whispering, "January, February, March,
24465 April, May. Speak, Mamma, why don't you say anything? Speak!" said she,
24466 turning to her mother, who was tenderly gazing at her daughter and in
24467 that contemplation seemed to have forgotten all she had wished to say.
24469 "It won't do, my love! Not everyone will understand this friendship
24470 dating from your childish days, and to see him so intimate with you may
24471 injure you in the eyes of other young men who visit us, and above all it
24472 torments him for nothing. He may already have found a suitable and
24473 wealthy match, and now he's half crazy."
24475 "Crazy?" repeated Natasha.
24477 "I'll tell you some things about myself. I had a cousin..."
24479 "I know! Cyril Matveich... but he is old."
24481 "He was not always old. But this is what I'll do, Natasha, I'll have a
24482 talk with Boris. He need not come so often...."
24484 "Why not, if he likes to?"
24486 "Because I know it will end in nothing...."
24488 "How can you know? No, Mamma, don't speak to him! What nonsense!" said
24489 Natasha in the tone of one being deprived of her property. "Well, I
24490 won't marry, but let him come if he enjoys it and I enjoy it." Natasha
24491 smiled and looked at her mother. "Not to marry, but just so," she added.
24495 "Just so. There's no need for me to marry him. But... just so."
24497 "Just so, just so," repeated the countess, and shaking all over, she
24498 went off into a good humored, unexpected, elderly laugh.
24500 "Don't laugh, stop!" cried Natasha. "You're shaking the whole bed!
24501 You're awfully like me, just such another giggler.... Wait..." and she
24502 seized the countess' hands and kissed a knuckle of the little finger,
24503 saying, "June," and continued, kissing, "July, August," on the other
24504 hand. "But, Mamma, is he very much in love? What do you think? Was
24505 anybody ever so much in love with you? And he's very nice, very, very
24506 nice. Only not quite my taste--he is so narrow, like the dining-room
24507 clock.... Don't you understand? Narrow, you know--gray, light gray..."
24509 "What rubbish you're talking!" said the countess.
24511 Natasha continued: "Don't you really understand? Nicholas would
24512 understand.... Bezukhov, now, is blue, dark-blue and red, and he is
24515 "You flirt with him too," said the countess, laughing.
24517 "No, he is a Freemason, I have found out. He is fine, dark-blue and
24518 red.... How can I explain it to you?"
24520 "Little countess!" the count's voice called from behind the door.
24521 "You're not asleep?" Natasha jumped up, snatched up her slippers, and
24522 ran barefoot to her own room.
24524 It was a long time before she could sleep. She kept thinking that no one
24525 could understand all that she understood and all there was in her.
24527 "Sonya?" she thought, glancing at that curled-up, sleeping little kitten
24528 with her enormous plait of hair. "No, how could she? She's virtuous. She
24529 fell in love with Nicholas and does not wish to know anything more. Even
24530 Mamma does not understand. It is wonderful how clever I am and how...
24531 charming she is," she went on, speaking of herself in the third person,
24532 and imagining it was some very wise man--the wisest and best of men--who
24533 was saying it of her. "There is everything, everything in her,"
24534 continued this man. "She is unusually intelligent, charming... and then
24535 she is pretty, uncommonly pretty, and agile--she swims and rides
24536 splendidly... and her voice! One can really say it's a wonderful voice!"
24538 She hummed a scrap from her favorite opera by Cherubini, threw herself
24539 on her bed, laughed at the pleasant thought that she would immediately
24540 fall asleep, called Dunyasha the maid to put out the candle, and before
24541 Dunyasha had left the room had already passed into yet another happier
24542 world of dreams, where everything was as light and beautiful as in
24543 reality, and even more so because it was different.
24545 Next day the countess called Boris aside and had a talk with him, after
24546 which he ceased coming to the Rostovs'.
24553 On the thirty-first of December, New Year's Eve, 1809 - 10 an old
24554 grandee of Catherine's day was giving a ball and midnight supper. The
24555 diplomatic corps and the Emperor himself were to be present.
24557 The grandee's well-known mansion on the English Quay glittered with
24558 innumerable lights. Police were stationed at the brightly lit entrance
24559 which was carpeted with red baize, and not only gendarmes but dozens of
24560 police officers and even the police master himself stood at the porch.
24561 Carriages kept driving away and fresh ones arriving, with red-liveried
24562 footmen and footmen in plumed hats. From the carriages emerged men
24563 wearing uniforms, stars, and ribbons, while ladies in satin and ermine
24564 cautiously descended the carriage steps which were let down for them
24565 with a clatter, and then walked hurriedly and noiselessly over the baize
24568 Almost every time a new carriage drove up a whisper ran through the
24569 crowd and caps were doffed.
24571 "The Emperor?... No, a minister.... prince... ambassador. Don't you see
24572 the plumes?..." was whispered among the crowd.
24574 One person, better dressed than the rest, seemed to know everyone and
24575 mentioned by name the greatest dignitaries of the day.
24577 A third of the visitors had already arrived, but the Rostovs, who were
24578 to be present, were still hurrying to get dressed.
24580 There had been many discussions and preparations for this ball in the
24581 Rostov family, many fears that the invitation would not arrive, that the
24582 dresses would not be ready, or that something would not be arranged as
24585 Marya Ignatevna Peronskaya, a thin and shallow maid of honor at the
24586 court of the Dowager Empress, who was a friend and relation of the
24587 countess and piloted the provincial Rostovs in Petersburg high society,
24588 was to accompany them to the ball.
24590 They were to call for her at her house in the Taurida Gardens at ten
24591 o'clock, but it was already five minutes to ten, and the girls were not
24594 Natasha was going to her first grand ball. She had got up at eight that
24595 morning and had been in a fever of excitement and activity all day. All
24596 her powers since morning had been concentrated on ensuring that they
24597 all--she herself, Mamma, and Sonya--should be as well dressed as
24598 possible. Sonya and her mother put themselves entirely in her hands. The
24599 countess was to wear a claret-colored velvet dress, and the two girls
24600 white gauze over pink silk slips, with roses on their bodices and their
24601 hair dressed a la grecque.
24603 Everything essential had already been done; feet, hands, necks, and ears
24604 washed, perfumed, and powdered, as befits a ball; the openwork silk
24605 stockings and white satin shoes with ribbons were already on; the
24606 hairdressing was almost done. Sonya was finishing dressing and so was
24607 the countess, but Natasha, who had bustled about helping them all, was
24608 behindhand. She was still sitting before a looking-glass with a dressing
24609 jacket thrown over her slender shoulders. Sonya stood ready dressed in
24610 the middle of the room and, pressing the head of a pin till it hurt her
24611 dainty finger, was fixing on a last ribbon that squeaked as the pin went
24614 "That's not the way, that's not the way, Sonya!" cried Natasha turning
24615 her head and clutching with both hands at her hair which the maid who
24616 was dressing it had not time to release. "That bow is not right. Come
24619 Sonya sat down and Natasha pinned the ribbon on differently.
24621 "Allow me, Miss! I can't do it like that," said the maid who was holding
24624 "Oh, dear! Well then, wait. That's right, Sonya."
24626 "Aren't you ready? It is nearly ten," came the countess' voice.
24628 "Directly! Directly! And you, Mamma?"
24630 "I have only my cap to pin on."
24632 "Don't do it without me!" called Natasha. "You won't do it right."
24634 "But it's already ten."
24636 They had decided to be at the ball by half past ten, and Natasha had
24637 still to get dressed and they had to call at the Taurida Gardens.
24639 When her hair was done, Natasha, in her short petticoat from under which
24640 her dancing shoes showed, and in her mother's dressing jacket, ran up to
24641 Sonya, scrutinized her, and then ran to her mother. Turning her mother's
24642 head this way and that, she fastened on the cap and, hurriedly kissing
24643 her gray hair, ran back to the maids who were turning up the hem of her
24646 The cause of the delay was Natasha's skirt, which was too long. Two
24647 maids were turning up the hem and hurriedly biting off the ends of
24648 thread. A third with pins in her mouth was running about between the
24649 countess and Sonya, and a fourth held the whole of the gossamer garment
24650 up high on one uplifted hand.
24652 "Mavra, quicker, darling!"
24654 "Give me my thimble, Miss, from there..."
24656 "Whenever will you be ready?" asked the count coming to the door. "Here
24657 is some scent. Peronskaya must be tired of waiting."
24659 "It's ready, Miss," said the maid, holding up the shortened gauze dress
24660 with two fingers, and blowing and shaking something off it, as if by
24661 this to express a consciousness of the airiness and purity of what she
24664 Natasha began putting on the dress.
24666 "In a minute! In a minute! Don't come in, Papa!" she cried to her father
24667 as he opened the door--speaking from under the filmy skirt which still
24668 covered her whole face.
24670 Sonya slammed the door to. A minute later they let the count in. He was
24671 wearing a blue swallow-tail coat, shoes and stockings, and was perfumed
24672 and his hair pomaded.
24674 "Oh, Papa! how nice you look! Charming!" cried Natasha, as she stood in
24675 the middle of the room smoothing out the folds of the gauze.
24677 "If you please, Miss! allow me," said the maid, who on her knees was
24678 pulling the skirt straight and shifting the pins from one side of her
24679 mouth to the other with her tongue.
24681 "Say what you like," exclaimed Sonya, in a despairing voice as she
24682 looked at Natasha, "say what you like, it's still too long."
24684 Natasha stepped back to look at herself in the pier glass. The dress was
24687 "Really, madam, it is not at all too long," said Mavra, crawling on her
24688 knees after her young lady.
24690 "Well, if it's too long we'll take it up... we'll tack it up in one
24691 minute," said the resolute Dunyasha taking a needle that was stuck on
24692 the front of her little shawl and, still kneeling on the floor, set to
24695 At that moment, with soft steps, the countess came in shyly, in her cap
24698 "Oo-oo, my beauty!" exclaimed the count, "she looks better than any of
24701 He would have embraced her but, blushing, she stepped aside fearing to
24704 "Mamma, your cap, more to this side," said Natasha. "I'll arrange it,"
24705 and she rushed forward so that the maids who were tacking up her skirt
24706 could not move fast enough and a piece of gauze was torn off.
24708 "Oh goodness! What has happened? Really it was not my fault!"
24710 "Never mind, I'll run it up, it won't show," said Dunyasha.
24712 "What a beauty--a very queen!" said the nurse as she came to the door.
24713 "And Sonya! They are lovely!"
24715 At a quarter past ten they at last got into their carriages and started.
24716 But they had still to call at the Taurida Gardens.
24718 Peronskaya was quite ready. In spite of her age and plainness she had
24719 gone through the same process as the Rostovs, but with less flurry--for
24720 to her it was a matter of routine. Her ugly old body was washed,
24721 perfumed, and powdered in just the same way. She had washed behind her
24722 ears just as carefully, and when she entered her drawing room in her
24723 yellow dress, wearing her badge as maid of honor, her old lady's maid
24724 was as full of rapturous admiration as the Rostovs' servants had been.
24726 She praised the Rostovs' toilets. They praised her taste and toilet, and
24727 at eleven o'clock, careful of their coiffures and dresses, they settled
24728 themselves in their carriages and drove off.
24735 Natasha had not had a moment free since early morning and had not once
24736 had time to think of what lay before her.
24738 In the damp chill air and crowded closeness of the swaying carriage, she
24739 for the first time vividly imagined what was in store for her there at
24740 the ball, in those brightly lighted rooms--with music, flowers, dances,
24741 the Emperor, and all the brilliant young people of Petersburg. The
24742 prospect was so splendid that she hardly believed it would come true, so
24743 out of keeping was it with the chill darkness and closeness of the
24744 carriage. She understood all that awaited her only when, after stepping
24745 over the red baize at the entrance, she entered the hall, took off her
24746 fur cloak, and, beside Sonya and in front of her mother, mounted the
24747 brightly illuminated stairs between the flowers. Only then did she
24748 remember how she must behave at a ball, and tried to assume the majestic
24749 air she considered indispensable for a girl on such an occasion. But,
24750 fortunately for her, she felt her eyes growing misty, she saw nothing
24751 clearly, her pulse beat a hundred to the minute, and the blood throbbed
24752 at her heart. She could not assume that pose, which would have made her
24753 ridiculous, and she moved on almost fainting from excitement and trying
24754 with all her might to conceal it. And this was the very attitude that
24755 became her best. Before and behind them other visitors were entering,
24756 also talking in low tones and wearing ball dresses. The mirrors on the
24757 landing reflected ladies in white, pale-blue, and pink dresses, with
24758 diamonds and pearls on their bare necks and arms.
24760 Natasha looked in the mirrors and could not distinguish her reflection
24761 from the others. All was blended into one brilliant procession. On
24762 entering the ballroom the regular hum of voices, footsteps, and
24763 greetings deafened Natasha, and the light and glitter dazzled her still
24764 more. The host and hostess, who had already been standing at the door
24765 for half an hour repeating the same words to the various arrivals,
24766 "Charme de vous voir," * greeted the Rostovs and Peronskaya in the same
24770 * "Delighted to see you."
24772 The two girls in their white dresses, each with a rose in her black
24773 hair, both curtsied in the same way, but the hostess' eye involuntarily
24774 rested longer on the slim Natasha. She looked at her and gave her alone
24775 a special smile in addition to her usual smile as hostess. Looking at
24776 her she may have recalled the golden, irrecoverable days of her own
24777 girlhood and her own first ball. The host also followed Natasha with his
24778 eyes and asked the count which was his daughter.
24780 "Charming!" said he, kissing the tips of his fingers.
24782 In the ballroom guests stood crowding at the entrance doors awaiting the
24783 Emperor. The countess took up a position in one of the front rows of
24784 that crowd. Natasha heard and felt that several people were asking about
24785 her and looking at her. She realized that those noticing her liked her,
24786 and this observation helped to calm her.
24788 "There are some like ourselves and some worse," she thought.
24790 Peronskaya was pointing out to the countess the most important people at
24793 "That is the Dutch ambassador, do you see? That gray-haired man," she
24794 said, indicating an old man with a profusion of silver-gray curly hair,
24795 who was surrounded by ladies laughing at something he said.
24797 "Ah, here she is, the Queen of Petersburg, Countess Bezukhova," said
24798 Peronskaya, indicating Helene who had just entered. "How lovely! She is
24799 quite equal to Marya Antonovna. See how the men, young and old, pay
24800 court to her. Beautiful and clever... they say Prince--is quite mad
24801 about her. But see, those two, though not good-looking, are even more
24804 She pointed to a lady who was crossing the room followed by a very plain
24807 "She is a splendid match, a millionairess," said Peronskaya. "And look,
24808 here come her suitors."
24810 "That is Bezukhova's brother, Anatole Kuragin," she said, indicating a
24811 handsome officer of the Horse Guards who passed by them with head erect,
24812 looking at something over the heads of the ladies. "He's handsome, isn't
24813 he? I hear they will marry him to that rich girl. But your cousin,
24814 Drubetskoy, is also very attentive to her. They say she has millions. Oh
24815 yes, that's the French ambassador himself!" she replied to the countess'
24816 inquiry about Caulaincourt. "Looks as if he were a king! All the same,
24817 the French are charming, very charming. No one more charming in society.
24818 Ah, here she is! Yes, she is still the most beautiful of them all, our
24819 Marya Antonovna! And how simply she is dressed! Lovely! And that stout
24820 one in spectacles is the universal Freemason," she went on, indicating
24821 Pierre. "Put him beside his wife and he looks a regular buffoon!"
24823 Pierre, swaying his stout body, advanced, making way through the crowd
24824 and nodding to right and left as casually and good-naturedly as if he
24825 were passing through a crowd at a fair. He pushed through, evidently
24826 looking for someone.
24828 Natasha looked joyfully at the familiar face of Pierre, "the buffoon,"
24829 as Peronskaya had called him, and knew he was looking for them, and for
24830 her in particular. He had promised to be at the ball and introduce
24833 But before he reached them Pierre stopped beside a very handsome, dark
24834 man of middle height, and in a white uniform, who stood by a window
24835 talking to a tall man wearing stars and a ribbon. Natasha at once
24836 recognized the shorter and younger man in the white uniform: it was
24837 Bolkonski, who seemed to her to have grown much younger, happier, and
24840 "There's someone else we know--Bolkonski, do you see, Mamma?" said
24841 Natasha, pointing out Prince Andrew. "You remember, he stayed a night
24842 with us at Otradnoe."
24844 "Oh, you know him?" said Peronskaya. "I can't bear him. Il fait a
24845 present la pluie et le beau temps. * He's too proud for anything. Takes
24846 after his father. And he's hand in glove with Speranski, writing some
24847 project or other. Just look how he treats the ladies! There's one
24848 talking to him and he has turned away," she said, pointing at him. "I'd
24849 give it to him if he treated me as he does those ladies."
24852 * "He is all the rage just now."
24859 Suddenly everybody stirred, began talking, and pressed forward and then
24860 back, and between the two rows, which separated, the Emperor entered to
24861 the sounds of music that had immediately struck up. Behind him walked
24862 his host and hostess. He walked in rapidly, bowing to right and left as
24863 if anxious to get the first moments of the reception over. The band
24864 played the polonaise in vogue at that time on account of the words that
24865 had been set to it, beginning: "Alexander, Elisaveta, all our hearts you
24866 ravish quite..." The Emperor passed on to the drawing room, the crowd
24867 made a rush for the doors, and several persons with excited faces
24868 hurried there and back again. Then the crowd hastily retired from the
24869 drawing-room door, at which the Emperor reappeared talking to the
24870 hostess. A young man, looking distraught, pounced down on the ladies,
24871 asking them to move aside. Some ladies, with faces betraying complete
24872 forgetfulness of all the rules of decorum, pushed forward to the
24873 detriment of their toilets. The men began to choose partners and take
24874 their places for the polonaise.
24876 Everyone moved back, and the Emperor came smiling out of the drawing
24877 room leading his hostess by the hand but not keeping time to the music.
24878 The host followed with Marya Antonovna Naryshkina; then came
24879 ambassadors, ministers, and various generals, whom Peronskaya diligently
24880 named. More than half the ladies already had partners and were taking
24881 up, or preparing to take up, their positions for the polonaise. Natasha
24882 felt that she would be left with her mother and Sonya among a minority
24883 of women who crowded near the wall, not having been invited to dance.
24884 She stood with her slender arms hanging down, her scarcely defined bosom
24885 rising and falling regularly, and with bated breath and glittering,
24886 frightened eyes gazed straight before her, evidently prepared for the
24887 height of joy or misery. She was not concerned about the Emperor or any
24888 of those great people whom Peronskaya was pointing out--she had but one
24889 thought: "Is it possible no one will ask me, that I shall not be among
24890 the first to dance? Is it possible that not one of all these men will
24891 notice me? They do not even seem to see me, or if they do they look as
24892 if they were saying, 'Ah, she's not the one I'm after, so it's not worth
24893 looking at her!' No, it's impossible," she thought. "They must know how
24894 I long to dance, how splendidly I dance, and how they would enjoy
24897 The strains of the polonaise, which had continued for a considerable
24898 time, had begun to sound like a sad reminiscence to Natasha's ears. She
24899 wanted to cry. Peronskaya had left them. The count was at the other end
24900 of the room. She and the countess and Sonya were standing by themselves
24901 as in the depths of a forest amid that crowd of strangers, with no one
24902 interested in them and not wanted by anyone. Prince Andrew with a lady
24903 passed by, evidently not recognizing them. The handsome Anatole was
24904 smilingly talking to a partner on his arm and looked at Natasha as one
24905 looks at a wall. Boris passed them twice and each time turned away. Berg
24906 and his wife, who were not dancing, came up to them.
24908 This family gathering seemed humiliating to Natasha--as if there were
24909 nowhere else for the family to talk but here at the ball. She did not
24910 listen to or look at Vera, who was telling her something about her own
24913 At last the Emperor stopped beside his last partner (he had danced with
24914 three) and the music ceased. A worried aide-de-camp ran up to the
24915 Rostovs requesting them to stand farther back, though as it was they
24916 were already close to the wall, and from the gallery resounded the
24917 distinct, precise, enticingly rhythmical strains of a waltz. The Emperor
24918 looked smilingly down the room. A minute passed but no one had yet begun
24919 dancing. An aide-de-camp, the Master of Ceremonies, went up to Countess
24920 Bezukhova and asked her to dance. She smilingly raised her hand and laid
24921 it on his shoulder without looking at him. The aide-de-camp, an adept in
24922 his art, grasping his partner firmly round her waist, with confident
24923 deliberation started smoothly, gliding first round the edge of the
24924 circle, then at the corner of the room he caught Helene's left hand and
24925 turned her, the only sound audible, apart from the ever-quickening
24926 music, being the rhythmic click of the spurs on his rapid, agile feet,
24927 while at every third beat his partner's velvet dress spread out and
24928 seemed to flash as she whirled round. Natasha gazed at them and was
24929 ready to cry because it was not she who was dancing that first turn of
24932 Prince Andrew, in the white uniform of a cavalry colonel, wearing
24933 stockings and dancing shoes, stood looking animated and bright in the
24934 front row of the circle not far from the Rostovs. Baron Firhoff was
24935 talking to him about the first sitting of the Council of State to be
24936 held next day. Prince Andrew, as one closely connected with Speranski
24937 and participating in the work of the legislative commission, could give
24938 reliable information about that sitting, concerning which various rumors
24939 were current. But not listening to what Firhoff was saying, he was
24940 gazing now at the sovereign and now at the men intending to dance who
24941 had not yet gathered courage to enter the circle.
24943 Prince Andrew was watching these men abashed by the Emperor's presence,
24944 and the women who were breathlessly longing to be asked to dance.
24946 Pierre came up to him and caught him by the arm.
24948 "You always dance. I have a protegee, the young Rostova, here. Ask her,"
24951 "Where is she?" asked Bolkonski. "Excuse me!" he added, turning to the
24952 baron, "we will finish this conversation elsewhere--at a ball one must
24953 dance." He stepped forward in the direction Pierre indicated. The
24954 despairing, dejected expression of Natasha's face caught his eye. He
24955 recognized her, guessed her feelings, saw that it was her debut,
24956 remembered her conversation at the window, and with an expression of
24957 pleasure on his face approached Countess Rostova.
24959 "Allow me to introduce you to my daughter," said the countess, with
24962 "I have the pleasure of being already acquainted, if the countess
24963 remembers me," said Prince Andrew with a low and courteous bow quite
24964 belying Peronskaya's remarks about his rudeness, and approaching Natasha
24965 he held out his arm to grasp her waist before he had completed his
24966 invitation. He asked her to waltz. That tremulous expression on
24967 Natasha's face, prepared either for despair or rapture, suddenly
24968 brightened into a happy, grateful, childlike smile.
24970 "I have long been waiting for you," that frightened happy little girl
24971 seemed to say by the smile that replaced the threatened tears, as she
24972 raised her hand to Prince Andrew's shoulder. They were the second couple
24973 to enter the circle. Prince Andrew was one of the best dancers of his
24974 day and Natasha danced exquisitely. Her little feet in their white satin
24975 dancing shoes did their work swiftly, lightly, and independently of
24976 herself, while her face beamed with ecstatic happiness. Her slender bare
24977 arms and neck were not beautiful--compared to Helene's her shoulders
24978 looked thin and her bosom undeveloped. But Helene seemed, as it were,
24979 hardened by a varnish left by the thousands of looks that had scanned
24980 her person, while Natasha was like a girl exposed for the first time,
24981 who would have felt very much ashamed had she not been assured that this
24982 was absolutely necessary.
24984 Prince Andrew liked dancing, and wishing to escape as quickly as
24985 possible from the political and clever talk which everyone addressed to
24986 him, wishing also to break up the circle of restraint he disliked,
24987 caused by the Emperor's presence, he danced, and had chosen Natasha
24988 because Pierre pointed her out to him and because she was the first
24989 pretty girl who caught his eye; but scarcely had he embraced that
24990 slender supple figure and felt her stirring so close to him and smiling
24991 so near him than the wine of her charm rose to his head, and he felt
24992 himself revived and rejuvenated when after leaving her he stood
24993 breathing deeply and watching the other dancers.
25000 After Prince Andrew, Boris came up to ask Natasha for a dance, and then
25001 the aide-de-camp who had opened the ball, and several other young men,
25002 so that, flushed and happy, and passing on her superfluous partners to
25003 Sonya, she did not cease dancing all the evening. She noticed and saw
25004 nothing of what occupied everyone else. Not only did she fail to notice
25005 that the Emperor talked a long time with the French ambassador, and how
25006 particularly gracious he was to a certain lady, or that Prince So-and-so
25007 and So-and-so did and said this and that, and that Helene had great
25008 success and was honored by the special attention of So-and-so, but she
25009 did not even see the Emperor, and only noticed that he had gone because
25010 the ball became livelier after his departure. For one of the merry
25011 cotillions before supper Prince Andrew was again her partner. He
25012 reminded her of their first encounter in the Otradnoe avenue, and how
25013 she had been unable to sleep that moonlight night, and told her how he
25014 had involuntarily overheard her. Natasha blushed at that recollection
25015 and tried to excuse herself, as if there had been something to be
25016 ashamed of in what Prince Andrew had overheard.
25018 Like all men who have grown up in society, Prince Andrew liked meeting
25019 someone there not of the conventional society stamp. And such was
25020 Natasha, with her surprise, her delight, her shyness, and even her
25021 mistakes in speaking French. With her he behaved with special care and
25022 tenderness, sitting beside her and talking of the simplest and most
25023 unimportant matters; he admired her shy grace. In the middle of the
25024 cotillion, having completed one of the figures, Natasha, still out of
25025 breath, was returning to her seat when another dancer chose her. She was
25026 tired and panting and evidently thought of declining, but immediately
25027 put her hand gaily on the man's shoulder, smiling at Prince Andrew.
25029 "I'd be glad to sit beside you and rest: I'm tired; but you see how they
25030 keep asking me, and I'm glad of it, I'm happy and I love everybody, and
25031 you and I understand it all," and much, much more was said in her smile.
25032 When her partner left her Natasha ran across the room to choose two
25033 ladies for the figure.
25035 "If she goes to her cousin first and then to another lady, she will be
25036 my wife," said Prince Andrew to himself quite to his own surprise, as he
25037 watched her. She did go first to her cousin.
25039 "What rubbish sometimes enters one's head!" thought Prince Andrew, "but
25040 what is certain is that that girl is so charming, so original, that she
25041 won't be dancing here a month before she will be married.... Such as she
25042 are rare here," he thought, as Natasha, readjusting a rose that was
25043 slipping on her bodice, settled herself beside him.
25045 When the cotillion was over the old count in his blue coat came up to
25046 the dancers. He invited Prince Andrew to come and see them, and asked
25047 his daughter whether she was enjoying herself. Natasha did not answer at
25048 once but only looked up with a smile that said reproachfully: "How can
25049 you ask such a question?"
25051 "I have never enjoyed myself so much before!" she said, and Prince
25052 Andrew noticed how her thin arms rose quickly as if to embrace her
25053 father and instantly dropped again. Natasha was happier than she had
25054 ever been in her life. She was at that height of bliss when one becomes
25055 completely kind and good and does not believe in the possibility of
25056 evil, unhappiness, or sorrow.
25058 At that ball Pierre for the first time felt humiliated by the position
25059 his wife occupied in court circles. He was gloomy and absent-minded. A
25060 deep furrow ran across his forehead, and standing by a window he stared
25061 over his spectacles seeing no one.
25063 On her way to supper Natasha passed him.
25065 Pierre's gloomy, unhappy look struck her. She stopped in front of him.
25066 She wished to help him, to bestow on him the superabundance of her own
25069 "How delightful it is, Count!" said she. "Isn't it?"
25071 Pierre smiled absent-mindedly, evidently not grasping what she said.
25073 "Yes, I am very glad," he said.
25075 "How can people be dissatisfied with anything?" thought Natasha.
25076 "Especially such a capital fellow as Bezukhov!" In Natasha's eyes all
25077 the people at the ball alike were good, kind, and splendid people,
25078 loving one another; none of them capable of injuring another--and so
25079 they ought all to be happy.
25086 Next day Prince Andrew thought of the ball, but his mind did not dwell
25087 on it long. "Yes, it was a very brilliant ball," and then... "Yes, that
25088 little Rostova is very charming. There's something fresh, original, un-
25089 Petersburg-like about her that distinguishes her." That was all he
25090 thought about yesterday's ball, and after his morning tea he set to
25093 But either from fatigue or want of sleep he was ill-disposed for work
25094 and could get nothing done. He kept criticizing his own work, as he
25095 often did, and was glad when he heard someone coming.
25097 The visitor was Bitski, who served on various committees, frequented all
25098 the societies in Petersburg, and a passionate devotee of the new ideas
25099 and of Speranski, and a diligent Petersburg newsmonger--one of those men
25100 who choose their opinions like their clothes according to the fashion,
25101 but who for that very reason appear to be the warmest partisans. Hardly
25102 had he got rid of his hat before he ran into Prince Andrew's room with a
25103 preoccupied air and at once began talking. He had just heard particulars
25104 of that morning's sitting of the Council of State opened by the Emperor,
25105 and he spoke of it enthusiastically. The Emperor's speech had been
25106 extraordinary. It had been a speech such as only constitutional monarchs
25107 deliver. "The Sovereign plainly said that the Council and Senate are
25108 estates of the realm, he said that the government must rest not on
25109 authority but on secure bases. The Emperor said that the fiscal system
25110 must be reorganized and the accounts published," recounted Bitski,
25111 emphasizing certain words and opening his eyes significantly.
25113 "Ah, yes! Today's events mark an epoch, the greatest epoch in our
25114 history," he concluded.
25116 Prince Andrew listened to the account of the opening of the Council of
25117 State, which he had so impatiently awaited and to which he had attached
25118 such importance, and was surprised that this event, now that it had
25119 taken place, did not affect him, and even seemed quite insignificant. He
25120 listened with quiet irony to Bitski's enthusiastic account of it. A very
25121 simple thought occurred to him: "What does it matter to me or to Bitski
25122 what the Emperor was pleased to say at the Council? Can all that make me
25123 any happier or better?"
25125 And this simple reflection suddenly destroyed all the interest Prince
25126 Andrew had felt in the impending reforms. He was going to dine that
25127 evening at Speranski's, "with only a few friends," as the host had said
25128 when inviting him. The prospect of that dinner in the intimate home
25129 circle of the man he so admired had greatly interested Prince Andrew,
25130 especially as he had not yet seen Speranski in his domestic
25131 surroundings, but now he felt disinclined to go to it.
25133 At the appointed hour, however, he entered the modest house Speranski
25134 owned in the Taurida Gardens. In the parqueted dining room this small
25135 house, remarkable for its extreme cleanliness (suggesting that of a
25136 monastery), Prince Andrew, who was rather late, found the friendly
25137 gathering of Speranski's intimate acquaintances already assembled at
25138 five o'clock. There were no ladies present except Speranski's little
25139 daughter (long-faced like her father) and her governess. The other
25140 guests were Gervais, Magnitski, and Stolypin. While still in the
25141 anteroom Prince Andrew heard loud voices and a ringing staccato laugh--a
25142 laugh such as one hears on the stage. Someone--it sounded like
25143 Speranski--was distinctly ejaculating ha-ha-ha. Prince Andrew had never
25144 before heard Speranski's famous laugh, and this ringing, high-pitched
25145 laughter from a statesman made a strange impression on him.
25147 He entered the dining room. The whole company were standing between two
25148 windows at a small table laid with hors-d'oeuvres. Speranski, wearing a
25149 gray swallow-tail coat with a star on the breast, and evidently still
25150 the same waistcoat and high white stock he had worn at the meeting of
25151 the Council of State, stood at the table with a beaming countenance. His
25152 guests surrounded him. Magnitski, addressing himself to Speranski, was
25153 relating an anecdote, and Speranski was laughing in advance at what
25154 Magnitski was going to say. When Prince Andrew entered the room
25155 Magnitski's words were again crowned by laughter. Stolypin gave a deep
25156 bass guffaw as he munched a piece of bread and cheese. Gervais laughed
25157 softly with a hissing chuckle, and Speranski in a high-pitched staccato
25160 Still laughing, Speranski held out his soft white hand to Prince Andrew.
25162 "Very pleased to see you, Prince," he said. "One moment..." he went on,
25163 turning to Magnitski and interrupting his story. "We have agreed that
25164 this is a dinner for recreation, with not a word about business!" and
25165 turning again to the narrator he began to laugh afresh.
25167 Prince Andrew looked at the laughing Speranski with astonishment,
25168 regret, and disillusionment. It seemed to him that this was not
25169 Speranski but someone else. Everything that had formerly appeared
25170 mysterious and fascinating in Speranski suddenly became plain and
25173 At dinner the conversation did not cease for a moment and seemed to
25174 consist of the contents of a book of funny anecdotes. Before Magnitski
25175 had finished his story someone else was anxious to relate something
25176 still funnier. Most of the anecdotes, if not relating to the state
25177 service, related to people in the service. It seemed that in this
25178 company the insignificance of those people was so definitely accepted
25179 that the only possible attitude toward them was one of good humored
25180 ridicule. Speranski related how at the Council that morning a deaf
25181 dignitary, when asked his opinion, replied that he thought so too.
25182 Gervais gave a long account of an official revision, remarkable for the
25183 stupidity of everybody concerned. Stolypin, stuttering, broke into the
25184 conversation and began excitedly talking of the abuses that existed
25185 under the former order of things--threatening to give a serious turn to
25186 the conversation. Magnitski starting quizzing Stolypin about his
25187 vehemence. Gervais intervened with a joke, and the talk reverted to its
25188 former lively tone.
25190 Evidently Speranski liked to rest after his labors and find amusement in
25191 a circle of friends, and his guests, understanding his wish, tried to
25192 enliven him and amuse themselves. But their gaiety seemed to Prince
25193 Andrew mirthless and tiresome. Speranski's high-pitched voice struck him
25194 unpleasantly, and the incessant laughter grated on him like a false
25195 note. Prince Andrew did not laugh and feared that he would be a damper
25196 on the spirits of the company, but no one took any notice of his being
25197 out of harmony with the general mood. They all seemed very gay.
25199 He tried several times to join in the conversation, but his remarks were
25200 tossed aside each time like a cork thrown out of the water, and he could
25201 not jest with them.
25203 There was nothing wrong or unseemly in what they said, it was witty and
25204 might have been funny, but it lacked just that something which is the
25205 salt of mirth, and they were not even aware that such a thing existed.
25207 After dinner Speranski's daughter and her governess rose. He patted the
25208 little girl with his white hand and kissed her. And that gesture, too,
25209 seemed unnatural to Prince Andrew.
25211 The men remained at table over their port--English fashion. In the midst
25212 of a conversation that was started about Napoleon's Spanish affairs,
25213 which they all agreed in approving, Prince Andrew began to express a
25214 contrary opinion. Speranski smiled and, with an evident wish to prevent
25215 the conversation from taking an unpleasant course, told a story that had
25216 no connection with the previous conversation. For a few moments all were
25219 Having sat some time at table, Speranski corked a bottle of wine and,
25220 remarking, "Nowadays good wine rides in a carriage and pair," passed it
25221 to the servant and got up. All rose and continuing to talk loudly went
25222 into the drawing room. Two letters brought by a courier were handed to
25223 Speranski and he took them to his study. As soon as he had left the room
25224 the general merriment stopped and the guests began to converse sensibly
25225 and quietly with one another.
25227 "Now for the recitation!" said Speranski on returning from his study. "A
25228 wonderful talent!" he said to Prince Andrew, and Magnitski immediately
25229 assumed a pose and began reciting some humorous verses in French which
25230 he had composed about various well-known Petersburg people. He was
25231 interrupted several times by applause. When the verses were finished
25232 Prince Andrew went up to Speranski and took his leave.
25234 "Where are you off to so early?" asked Speranski.
25236 "I promised to go to a reception."
25238 They said no more. Prince Andrew looked closely into those mirrorlike,
25239 impenetrable eyes, and felt that it had been ridiculous of him to have
25240 expected anything from Speranski and from any of his own activities
25241 connected with him, or ever to have attributed importance to what
25242 Speranski was doing. That precise, mirthless laughter rang in Prince
25243 Andrew's ears long after he had left the house.
25245 When he reached home Prince Andrew began thinking of his life in
25246 Petersburg during those last four months as if it were something new. He
25247 recalled his exertions and solicitations, and the history of his project
25248 of army reform, which had been accepted for consideration and which they
25249 were trying to pass over in silence simply because another, a very poor
25250 one, had already been prepared and submitted to the Emperor. He thought
25251 of the meetings of a committee of which Berg was a member. He remembered
25252 how carefully and at what length everything relating to form and
25253 procedure was discussed at those meetings, and how sedulously and
25254 promptly all that related to the gist of the business was evaded. He
25255 recalled his labors on the Legal Code, and how painstakingly he had
25256 translated the articles of the Roman and French codes into Russian, and
25257 he felt ashamed of himself. Then he vividly pictured to himself
25258 Bogucharovo, his occupations in the country, his journey to Ryazan; he
25259 remembered the peasants and Dron the village elder, and mentally
25260 applying to them the Personal Rights he had divided into paragraphs, he
25261 felt astonished that he could have spent so much time on such useless
25269 Next day Prince Andrew called at a few houses he had not visited before,
25270 and among them at the Rostovs' with whom he had renewed acquaintance at
25271 the ball. Apart from considerations of politeness which demanded the
25272 call, he wanted to see that original, eager girl who had left such a
25273 pleasant impression on his mind, in her own home.
25275 Natasha was one of the first to meet him. She was wearing a dark-blue
25276 house dress in which Prince Andrew thought her even prettier than in her
25277 ball dress. She and all the Rostov family welcomed him as an old friend,
25278 simply and cordially. The whole family, whom he had formerly judged
25279 severely, now seemed to him to consist of excellent, simple, and kindly
25280 people. The old count's hospitality and good nature, which struck one
25281 especially in Petersburg as a pleasant surprise, were such that Prince
25282 Andrew could not refuse to stay to dinner. "Yes," he thought, "they are
25283 capital people, who of course have not the slightest idea what a
25284 treasure they possess in Natasha; but they are kindly folk and form the
25285 best possible setting for this strikingly poetic, charming girl,
25286 overflowing with life!"
25288 In Natasha Prince Andrew was conscious of a strange world completely
25289 alien to him and brimful of joys unknown to him, a different world, that
25290 in the Otradnoe avenue and at the window that moonlight night had
25291 already begun to disconcert him. Now this world disconcerted him no
25292 longer and was no longer alien to him, but he himself having entered it
25293 found in it a new enjoyment.
25295 After dinner Natasha, at Prince Andrew's request, went to the clavichord
25296 and began singing. Prince Andrew stood by a window talking to the ladies
25297 and listened to her. In the midst of a phrase he ceased speaking and
25298 suddenly felt tears choking him, a thing he had thought impossible for
25299 him. He looked at Natasha as she sang, and something new and joyful
25300 stirred in his soul. He felt happy and at the same time sad. He had
25301 absolutely nothing to weep about yet he was ready to weep. What about?
25302 His former love? The little princess? His disillusionments?... His hopes
25303 for the future?... Yes and no. The chief reason was a sudden, vivid
25304 sense of the terrible contrast between something infinitely great and
25305 illimitable within him and that limited and material something that he,
25306 and even she, was. This contrast weighed on and yet cheered him while
25309 As soon as Natasha had finished she went up to him and asked how he
25310 liked her voice. She asked this and then became confused, feeling that
25311 she ought not to have asked it. He smiled, looking at her, and said he
25312 liked her singing as he liked everything she did.
25314 Prince Andrew left the Rostovs' late in the evening. He went to bed from
25315 habit, but soon realized that he could not sleep. Having lit his candle
25316 he sat up in bed, then got up, then lay down again not at all troubled
25317 by his sleeplessness: his soul was as fresh and joyful as if he had
25318 stepped out of a stuffy room into God's own fresh air. It did not enter
25319 his head that he was in love with Natasha; he was not thinking about
25320 her, but only picturing her to himself, and in consequence all life
25321 appeared in a new light. "Why do I strive, why do I toil in this narrow,
25322 confined frame, when life, all life with all its joys, is open to me?"
25323 said he to himself. And for the first time for a very long while he
25324 began making happy plans for the future. He decided that he must attend
25325 to his son's education by finding a tutor and putting the boy in his
25326 charge, then he ought to retire from the service and go abroad, and see
25327 England, Switzerland and Italy. "I must use my freedom while I feel so
25328 much strength and youth in me," he said to himself. "Pierre was right
25329 when he said one must believe in the possibility of happiness in order
25330 to be happy, and now I do believe in it. Let the dead bury their dead,
25331 but while one has life one must live and be happy!" thought he.
25338 One morning Colonel Berg, whom Pierre knew as he knew everybody in
25339 Moscow and Petersburg, came to see him. Berg arrived in an immaculate
25340 brand-new uniform, with his hair pomaded and brushed forward over his
25341 temples as the Emperor Alexander wore his hair.
25343 "I have just been to see the countess, your wife. Unfortunately she
25344 could not grant my request, but I hope, Count, I shall be more fortunate
25345 with you," he said with a smile.
25347 "What is it you wish, Colonel? I am at your service."
25349 "I have now quite settled in my new rooms, Count" (Berg said this with
25350 perfect conviction that this information could not but be agreeable),
25351 "and so I wish to arrange just a small party for my own and my wife's
25352 friends." (He smiled still more pleasantly.) "I wished to ask the
25353 countess and you to do me the honor of coming to tea and to supper."
25355 Only Countess Helene, considering the society of such people as the
25356 Bergs beneath her, could be cruel enough to refuse such an invitation.
25357 Berg explained so clearly why he wanted to collect at his house a small
25358 but select company, and why this would give him pleasure, and why though
25359 he grudged spending money on cards or anything harmful, he was prepared
25360 to run into some expense for the sake of good society--that Pierre could
25361 not refuse, and promised to come.
25363 "But don't be late, Count, if I may venture to ask; about ten minutes to
25364 eight, please. We shall make up a rubber. Our general is coming. He is
25365 very good to me. We shall have supper, Count. So you will do me the
25368 Contrary to his habit of being late, Pierre on that day arrived at the
25369 Bergs' house, not at ten but at fifteen minutes to eight.
25371 Having prepared everything necessary for the party, the Bergs were ready
25372 for their guests' arrival.
25374 In their new, clean, and light study with its small busts and pictures
25375 and new furniture sat Berg and his wife. Berg, closely buttoned up in
25376 his new uniform, sat beside his wife explaining to her that one always
25377 could and should be acquainted with people above one, because only then
25378 does one get satisfaction from acquaintances.
25380 "You can get to know something, you can ask for something. See how I
25381 managed from my first promotion." (Berg measured his life not by years
25382 but by promotions.) "My comrades are still nobodies, while I am only
25383 waiting for a vacancy to command a regiment, and have the happiness to
25384 be your husband." (He rose and kissed Vera's hand, and on the way to her
25385 straightened out a turned-up corner of the carpet.) "And how have I
25386 obtained all this? Chiefly by knowing how to choose my aquaintances. It
25387 goes without saying that one must be conscientious and methodical."
25389 Berg smiled with a sense of his superiority over a weak woman, and
25390 paused, reflecting that this dear wife of his was after all but a weak
25391 woman who could not understand all that constitutes a man's dignity,
25392 what it was ein Mann zu sein. * Vera at the same time smiling with a
25393 sense of superiority over her good, conscientious husband, who all the
25394 same understood life wrongly, as according to Vera all men did. Berg,
25395 judging by his wife, thought all women weak and foolish. Vera, judging
25396 only by her husband and generalizing from that observation, supposed
25397 that all men, though they understand nothing and are conceited and
25398 selfish, ascribe common sense to themselves alone.
25403 Berg rose and embraced his wife carefully, so as not to crush her lace
25404 fichu for which he had paid a good price, kissing her straight on the
25407 "The only thing is, we mustn't have children too soon," he continued,
25408 following an unconscious sequence of ideas.
25410 "Yes," answered Vera, "I don't at all want that. We must live for
25413 "Princess Yusupova wore one exactly like this," said Berg, pointing to
25414 the fichu with a happy and kindly smile.
25416 Just then Count Bezukhov was announced. Husband and wife glanced at one
25417 another, both smiling with self-satisfaction, and each mentally claiming
25418 the honor of this visit.
25420 "This is what comes of knowing how to make acquaintances," thought Berg.
25421 "This is what comes of knowing how to conduct oneself."
25423 "But please don't interrupt me when I am entertaining the guests," said
25424 Vera, "because I know what interests each of them and what to say to
25429 "It can't be helped: men must sometimes have masculine conversation,"
25432 They received Pierre in their small, new drawing-room, where it was
25433 impossible to sit down anywhere without disturbing its symmetry,
25434 neatness, and order; so it was quite comprehensible and not strange that
25435 Berg, having generously offered to disturb the symmetry of an armchair
25436 or of the sofa for his dear guest, but being apparently painfully
25437 undecided on the matter himself, eventually left the visitor to settle
25438 the question of selection. Pierre disturbed the symmetry by moving a
25439 chair for himself, and Berg and Vera immediately began their evening
25440 party, interrupting each other in their efforts to entertain their
25443 Vera, having decided in her own mind that Pierre ought to be entertained
25444 with conversation about the French embassy, at once began accordingly.
25445 Berg, having decided that masculine conversation was required,
25446 interrupted his wife's remarks and touched on the question of the war
25447 with Austria, and unconsciously jumped from the general subject to
25448 personal considerations as to the proposals made him to take part in the
25449 Austrian campaign and the reasons why he had declined them. Though the
25450 conversation was very incoherent and Vera was angry at the intrusion of
25451 the masculine element, both husband and wife felt with satisfaction
25452 that, even if only one guest was present, their evening had begun very
25453 well and was as like as two peas to every other evening party with its
25454 talk, tea, and lighted candles.
25456 Before long Boris, Berg's old comrade, arrived. There was a shade of
25457 condescension and patronage in his treatment of Berg and Vera. After
25458 Boris came a lady with the colonel, then the general himself, then the
25459 Rostovs, and the party became unquestionably exactly like all other
25460 evening parties. Berg and Vera could not repress their smiles of
25461 satisfaction at the sight of all this movement in their drawing room, at
25462 the sound of the disconnected talk, the rustling of dresses, and the
25463 bowing and scraping. Everything was just as everybody always has it,
25464 especially so the general, who admired the apartment, patted Berg on the
25465 shoulder, and with parental authority superintended the setting out of
25466 the table for boston. The general sat down by Count Ilya Rostov, who was
25467 next to himself the most important guest. The old people sat with the
25468 old, the young with the young, and the hostess at the tea table, on
25469 which stood exactly the same kind of cakes in a silver cake basket as
25470 the Panins had at their party. Everything was just as it was everywhere
25478 Pierre, as one of the principal guests, had to sit down to boston with
25479 Count Rostov, the general, and the colonel. At the card table he
25480 happened to be directly facing Natasha, and was struck by a curious
25481 change that had come over her since the ball. She was silent, and not
25482 only less pretty than at the ball, but only redeemed from plainness by
25483 her look of gentle indifference to everything around.
25485 "What's the matter with her?" thought Pierre, glancing at her. She was
25486 sitting by her sister at the tea table, and reluctantly, without looking
25487 at him, made some reply to Boris who sat down beside her. After playing
25488 out a whole suit and to his partner's delight taking five tricks,
25489 Pierre, hearing greetings and the steps of someone who had entered the
25490 room while he was picking up his tricks, glanced again at Natasha.
25492 "What has happened to her?" he asked himself with still greater
25495 Prince Andrew was standing before her, saying something to her with a
25496 look of tender solicitude. She, having raised her head, was looking up
25497 at him, flushed and evidently trying to master her rapid breathing. And
25498 the bright glow of some inner fire that had been suppressed was again
25499 alight in her. She was completely transformed and from a plain girl had
25500 again become what she had been at the ball.
25502 Prince Andrew went up to Pierre, and the latter noticed a new and
25503 youthful expression in his friend's face.
25505 Pierre changed places several times during the game, sitting now with
25506 his back to Natasha and now facing her, but during the whole of the six
25507 rubbers he watched her and his friend.
25509 "Something very important is happening between them," thought Pierre,
25510 and a feeling that was both joyful and painful agitated him and made him
25513 After six rubbers the general got up, saying that it was no use playing
25514 like that, and Pierre was released. Natasha on one side was talking with
25515 Sonya and Boris, and Vera with a subtle smile was saying something to
25516 Prince Andrew. Pierre went up to his friend and, asking whether they
25517 were talking secrets, sat down beside them. Vera, having noticed Prince
25518 Andrew's attentions to Natasha, decided that at a party, a real evening
25519 party, subtle allusions to the tender passion were absolutely necessary
25520 and, seizing a moment when Prince Andrew was alone, began a conversation
25521 with him about feelings in general and about her sister. With so
25522 intellectual a guest as she considered Prince Andrew to be, she felt
25523 that she had to employ her diplomatic tact.
25525 When Pierre went up to them he noticed that Vera was being carried away
25526 by her self-satisfied talk, but that Prince Andrew seemed embarrassed, a
25527 thing that rarely happened with him.
25529 "What do you think?" Vera was saying with an arch smile. "You are so
25530 discerning, Prince, and understand people's characters so well at a
25531 glance. What do you think of Natalie? Could she be constant in her
25532 attachments? Could she, like other women" (Vera meant herself), "love a
25533 man once for all and remain true to him forever? That is what I consider
25534 true love. What do you think, Prince?"
25536 "I know your sister too little," replied Prince Andrew, with a sarcastic
25537 smile under which he wished to hide his embarrassment, "to be able to
25538 solve so delicate a question, and then I have noticed that the less
25539 attractive a woman is the more constant she is likely to be," he added,
25540 and looked up at Pierre who was just approaching them.
25542 "Yes, that is true, Prince. In our days," continued Vera--mentioning
25543 "our days" as people of limited intelligence are fond of doing,
25544 imagining that they have discovered and appraised the peculiarities of
25545 "our days" and that human characteristics change with the times--"in our
25546 days a girl has so much freedom that the pleasure of being courted often
25547 stifles real feeling in her. And it must be confessed that Natalie is
25548 very susceptible." This return to the subject of Natalie caused Prince
25549 Andrew to knit his brows with discomfort: he was about to rise, but Vera
25550 continued with a still more subtle smile:
25552 "I think no one has been more courted than she," she went on, "but till
25553 quite lately she never cared seriously for anyone. Now you know, Count,"
25554 she said to Pierre, "even our dear cousin Boris, who, between ourselves,
25555 was very far gone in the land of tenderness..." (alluding to a map of
25556 love much in vogue at that time).
25558 Prince Andrew frowned and remained silent.
25560 "You are friendly with Boris, aren't you?" asked Vera.
25562 "Yes, I know him..."
25564 "I expect he has told you of his childish love for Natasha?"
25566 "Oh, there was childish love?" suddenly asked Prince Andrew, blushing
25569 "Yes, you know between cousins intimacy often leads to love. Le
25570 cousinage est un dangereux voisinage. * Don't you think so?"
25573 * "Cousinhood is a dangerous neighborhood."
25575 "Oh, undoubtedly!" said Prince Andrew, and with sudden and unnatural
25576 liveliness he began chaffing Pierre about the need to be very careful
25577 with his fifty-year-old Moscow cousins, and in the midst of these
25578 jesting remarks he rose, taking Pierre by the arm, and drew him aside.
25580 "Well?" asked Pierre, seeing his friend's strange animation with
25581 surprise, and noticing the glance he turned on Natasha as he rose.
25583 "I must... I must have a talk with you," said Prince Andrew. "You know
25584 that pair of women's gloves?" (He referred to the masonic gloves given
25585 to a newly initiated Brother to present to the woman he loved.) "I...
25586 but no, I will talk to you later on," and with a strange light in his
25587 eyes and restlessness in his movements, Prince Andrew approached Natasha
25588 and sat down beside her. Pierre saw how Prince Andrew asked her
25589 something and how she flushed as she replied.
25591 But at that moment Berg came to Pierre and began insisting that he
25592 should take part in an argument between the general and the colonel on
25593 the affairs in Spain.
25595 Berg was satisfied and happy. The smile of pleasure never left his face.
25596 The party was very successful and quite like other parties he had seen.
25597 Everything was similar: the ladies' subtle talk, the cards, the general
25598 raising his voice at the card table, and the samovar and the tea cakes;
25599 only one thing was lacking that he had always seen at the evening
25600 parties he wished to imitate. They had not yet had a loud conversation
25601 among the men and a dispute about something important and clever. Now
25602 the general had begun such a discussion and so Berg drew Pierre to it.
25609 Next day, having been invited by the count, Prince Andrew dined with the
25610 Rostovs and spent the rest of the day there.
25612 Everyone in the house realized for whose sake Prince Andrew came, and
25613 without concealing it he tried to be with Natasha all day. Not only in
25614 the soul of the frightened yet happy and enraptured Natasha, but in the
25615 whole house, there was a feeling of awe at something important that was
25616 bound to happen. The countess looked with sad and sternly serious eyes
25617 at Prince Andrew when he talked to Natasha and timidly started some
25618 artificial conversation about trifles as soon as he looked her way.
25619 Sonya was afraid to leave Natasha and afraid of being in the way when
25620 she was with them. Natasha grew pale, in a panic of expectation, when
25621 she remained alone with him for a moment. Prince Andrew surprised her by
25622 his timidity. She felt that he wanted to say something to her but could
25623 not bring himself to do so.
25625 In the evening, when Prince Andrew had left, the countess went up to
25626 Natasha and whispered: "Well, what?"
25628 "Mamma! For heaven's sake don't ask me anything now! One can't talk
25629 about that," said Natasha.
25631 But all the same that night Natasha, now agitated and now frightened,
25632 lay a long time in her mother's bed gazing straight before her. She told
25633 her how he had complimented her, how he told her he was going abroad,
25634 asked her where they were going to spend the summer, and then how he had
25635 asked her about Boris.
25637 "But such a... such a... never happened to me before!" she said. "Only I
25638 feel afraid in his presence. I am always afraid when I'm with him. What
25639 does that mean? Does it mean that it's the real thing? Yes? Mamma, are
25642 "No, my love; I am frightened myself," answered her mother. "Now go!"
25644 "All the same I shan't sleep. What silliness, to sleep! Mummy! Mummy!
25645 such a thing never happened to me before," she said, surprised and
25646 alarmed at the feeling she was aware of in herself. "And could we ever
25649 It seemed to Natasha that even at the time she first saw Prince Andrew
25650 at Otradnoe she had fallen in love with him. It was as if she feared
25651 this strange, unexpected happiness of meeting again the very man she had
25652 then chosen (she was firmly convinced she had done so) and of finding
25653 him, as it seemed, not indifferent to her.
25655 "And it had to happen that he should come specially to Petersburg while
25656 we are here. And it had to happen that we should meet at that ball. It
25657 is fate. Clearly it is fate that everything led up to this! Already
25658 then, directly I saw him I felt something peculiar."
25660 "What else did he say to you? What are those verses? Read them..." said
25661 her mother, thoughtfully, referring to some verses Prince Andrew had
25662 written in Natasha's album.
25664 "Mamma, one need not be ashamed of his being a widower?"
25666 "Don't, Natasha! Pray to God. 'Marriages are made in heaven,'" said her
25669 "Darling Mummy, how I love you! How happy I am!" cried Natasha, shedding
25670 tears of joy and excitement and embracing her mother.
25672 At that very time Prince Andrew was sitting with Pierre and telling him
25673 of his love for Natasha and his firm resolve to make her his wife.
25675 That day Countess Helene had a reception at her house. The French
25676 ambassador was there, and a foreign prince of the blood who had of late
25677 become a frequent visitor of hers, and many brilliant ladies and
25678 gentlemen. Pierre, who had come downstairs, walked through the rooms and
25679 struck everyone by his preoccupied, absent-minded, and morose air.
25681 Since the ball he had felt the approach of a fit of nervous depression
25682 and had made desperate efforts to combat it. Since the intimacy of his
25683 wife with the royal prince, Pierre had unexpectedly been made a
25684 gentleman of the bedchamber, and from that time he had begun to feel
25685 oppressed and ashamed in court society, and dark thoughts of the vanity
25686 of all things human came to him oftener than before. At the same time
25687 the feeling he had noticed between his protegee Natasha and Prince
25688 Andrew accentuated his gloom by the contrast between his own position
25689 and his friend's. He tried equally to avoid thinking about his wife, and
25690 about Natasha and Prince Andrew; and again everything seemed to him
25691 insignificant in comparison with eternity; again the question: for what?
25692 presented itself; and he forced himself to work day and night at masonic
25693 labors, hoping to drive away the evil spirit that threatened him. Toward
25694 midnight, after he had left the countess' apartments, he was sitting
25695 upstairs in a shabby dressing gown, copying out the original transaction
25696 of the Scottish lodge of Freemasons at a table in his low room cloudy
25697 with tobacco smoke, when someone came in. It was Prince Andrew.
25699 "Ah, it's you!" said Pierre with a preoccupied, dissatisfied air. "And
25700 I, you see, am hard at it." He pointed to his manuscript book with that
25701 air of escaping from the ills of life with which unhappy people look at
25704 Prince Andrew, with a beaming, ecstatic expression of renewed life on
25705 his face, paused in front of Pierre and, not noticing his sad look,
25706 smiled at him with the egotism of joy.
25708 "Well, dear heart," said he, "I wanted to tell you about it yesterday
25709 and I have come to do so today. I never experienced anything like it
25710 before. I am in love, my friend!"
25712 Suddenly Pierre heaved a deep sigh and dumped his heavy person down on
25713 the sofa beside Prince Andrew.
25715 "With Natasha Rostova, yes?" said he.
25717 "Yes, yes! Who else should it be? I should never have believed it, but
25718 the feeling is stronger than I. Yesterday I tormented myself and
25719 suffered, but I would not exchange even that torment for anything in the
25720 world, I have not lived till now. At last I live, but I can't live
25721 without her! But can she love me?... I am too old for her.... Why don't
25724 "I? I? What did I tell you?" said Pierre suddenly, rising and beginning
25725 to pace up and down the room. "I always thought it.... That girl is such
25726 a treasure... she is a rare girl.... My dear friend, I entreat you,
25727 don't philosophize, don't doubt, marry, marry, marry.... And I am sure
25728 there will not be a happier man than you."
25734 "Don't talk rubbish..." said Prince Andrew, smiling and looking into
25737 "She does, I know," Pierre cried fiercely.
25739 "But do listen," returned Prince Andrew, holding him by the arm. "Do you
25740 know the condition I am in? I must talk about it to someone."
25742 "Well, go on, go on. I am very glad," said Pierre, and his face really
25743 changed, his brow became smooth, and he listened gladly to Prince
25744 Andrew. Prince Andrew seemed, and really was, quite a different, quite a
25745 new man. Where was his spleen, his contempt for life, his
25746 disillusionment? Pierre was the only person to whom he made up his mind
25747 to speak openly; and to him he told all that was in his soul. Now he
25748 boldly and lightly made plans for an extended future, said he could not
25749 sacrifice his own happiness to his father's caprice, and spoke of how he
25750 would either make his father consent to this marriage and love her, or
25751 would do without his consent; then he marveled at the feeling that had
25752 mastered him as at something strange, apart from and independent of
25755 "I should not have believed anyone who told me that I was capable of
25756 such love," said Prince Andrew. "It is not at all the same feeling that
25757 I knew in the past. The whole world is now for me divided into two
25758 halves: one half is she, and there all is joy, hope, light: the other
25759 half is everything where she is not, and there is all gloom and
25762 "Darkness and gloom," reiterated Pierre: "yes, yes, I understand that."
25764 "I cannot help loving the light, it is not my fault. And I am very
25765 happy! You understand me? I know you are glad for my sake."
25767 "Yes, yes," Pierre assented, looking at his friend with a touched and
25768 sad expression in his eyes. The brighter Prince Andrew's lot appeared to
25769 him, the gloomier seemed his own.
25776 Prince Andrew needed his father's consent to his marriage, and to obtain
25777 this he started for the country next day.
25779 His father received his son's communication with external composure, but
25780 inward wrath. He could not comprehend how anyone could wish to alter his
25781 life or introduce anything new into it, when his own life was already
25782 ending. "If only they would let me end my days as I want to," thought
25783 the old man, "then they might do as they please." With his son, however,
25784 he employed the diplomacy he reserved for important occasions and,
25785 adopting a quiet tone, discussed the whole matter.
25787 In the first place the marriage was not a brilliant one as regards
25788 birth, wealth, or rank. Secondly, Prince Andrew was no longer as young
25789 as he had been and his health was poor (the old man laid special stress
25790 on this), while she was very young. Thirdly, he had a son whom it would
25791 be a pity to entrust to a chit of a girl. "Fourthly and finally," the
25792 father said, looking ironically at his son, "I beg you to put it off for
25793 a year: go abroad, take a cure, look out as you wanted to for a German
25794 tutor for Prince Nicholas. Then if your love or passion or obstinacy--as
25795 you please--is still as great, marry! And that's my last word on it.
25796 Mind, the last..." concluded the prince, in a tone which showed that
25797 nothing would make him alter his decision.
25799 Prince Andrew saw clearly that the old man hoped that his feelings, or
25800 his fiancee's, would not stand a year's test, or that he (the old prince
25801 himself) would die before then, and he decided to conform to his
25802 father's wish--to propose, and postpone the wedding for a year.
25804 Three weeks after the last evening he had spent with the Rostovs, Prince
25805 Andrew returned to Petersburg.
25807 Next day after her talk with her mother Natasha expected Bolkonski all
25808 day, but he did not come. On the second and third day it was the same.
25809 Pierre did not come either and Natasha, not knowing that Prince Andrew
25810 had gone to see his father, could not explain his absence to herself.
25812 Three weeks passed in this way. Natasha had no desire to go out anywhere
25813 and wandered from room to room like a shadow, idle and listless; she
25814 wept secretly at night and did not go to her mother in the evenings. She
25815 blushed continually and was irritable. It seemed to her that everybody
25816 knew about her disappointment and was laughing at her and pitying her.
25817 Strong as was her inward grief, this wound to her vanity intensified her
25820 Once she came to her mother, tried to say something, and suddenly began
25821 to cry. Her tears were those of an offended child who does not know why
25822 it is being punished.
25824 The countess began to soothe Natasha, who after first listening to her
25825 mother's words, suddenly interrupted her:
25827 "Leave off, Mamma! I don't think, and don't want to think about it! He
25828 just came and then left off, left off..."
25830 Her voice trembled, and she again nearly cried, but recovered and went
25833 "And I don't at all want to get married. And I am afraid of him; I have
25834 now become quite calm, quite calm."
25836 The day after this conversation Natasha put on the old dress which she
25837 knew had the peculiar property of conducing to cheerfulness in the
25838 mornings, and that day she returned to the old way of life which she had
25839 abandoned since the ball. Having finished her morning tea she went to
25840 the ballroom, which she particularly liked for its loud resonance, and
25841 began singing her solfeggio. When she had finished her first exercise
25842 she stood still in the middle of the room and sang a musical phrase that
25843 particularly pleased her. She listened joyfully (as though she had not
25844 expected it) to the charm of the notes reverberating, filling the whole
25845 empty ballroom, and slowly dying away; and all at once she felt
25846 cheerful. "What's the good of making so much of it? Things are nice as
25847 it is," she said to herself, and she began walking up and down the room,
25848 not stepping simply on the resounding parquet but treading with each
25849 step from the heel to the toe (she had on a new and favorite pair of
25850 shoes) and listening to the regular tap of the heel and creak of the toe
25851 as gladly as she had to the sounds of her own voice. Passing a mirror
25852 she glanced into it. "There, that's me!" the expression of her face
25853 seemed to say as she caught sight of herself. "Well, and very nice too!
25856 A footman wanted to come in to clear away something in the room but she
25857 would not let him, and having closed the door behind him continued her
25858 walk. That morning she had returned to her favorite mood--love of, and
25859 delight in, herself. "How charming that Natasha is!" she said again,
25860 speaking as some third, collective, male person. "Pretty, a good voice,
25861 young, and in nobody's way if only they leave her in peace." But however
25862 much they left her in peace she could not now be at peace, and
25863 immediately felt this.
25865 In the hall the porch door opened, and someone asked, "At home?" and
25866 then footsteps were heard. Natasha was looking at the mirror, but did
25867 not see herself. She listened to the sounds in the hall. When she saw
25868 herself, her face was pale. It was he. She knew this for certain, though
25869 she hardly heard his voice through the closed doors.
25871 Pale and agitated, Natasha ran into the drawing room.
25873 "Mamma! Bolkonski has come!" she said. "Mamma, it is awful, it is
25874 unbearable! I don't want... to be tormented? What am I to do?..."
25876 Before the countess could answer, Prince Andrew entered the room with an
25877 agitated and serious face. As soon as he saw Natasha his face
25878 brightened. He kissed the countess' hand and Natasha's, and sat down
25881 "It is long since we had the pleasure..." began the countess, but Prince
25882 Andrew interrupted her by answering her intended question, obviously in
25883 haste to say what he had to.
25885 "I have not been to see you all this time because I have been at my
25886 father's. I had to talk over a very important matter with him. I only
25887 got back last night," he said glancing at Natasha; "I want to have a
25888 talk with you, Countess," he added after a moment's pause.
25890 The countess lowered her eyes, sighing deeply.
25892 "I am at your disposal," she murmured.
25894 Natasha knew that she ought to go away, but was unable to do so:
25895 something gripped her throat, and regardless of manners she stared
25896 straight at Prince Andrew with wide-open eyes.
25898 "At once? This instant!... No, it can't be!" she thought.
25900 Again he glanced at her, and that glance convinced her that she was not
25901 mistaken. Yes, at once, that very instant, her fate would be decided.
25903 "Go, Natasha! I will call you," said the countess in a whisper.
25905 Natasha glanced with frightened imploring eyes at Prince Andrew and at
25906 her mother and went out.
25908 "I have come, Countess, to ask for your daughter's hand," said Prince
25911 The countess' face flushed hotly, but she said nothing.
25913 "Your offer..." she began at last sedately. He remained silent, looking
25914 into her eyes. "Your offer..." (she grew confused) "is agreeable to us,
25915 and I accept your offer. I am glad. And my husband... I hope... but it
25916 will depend on her...."
25918 "I will speak to her when I have your consent.... Do you give it to me?"
25919 said Prince Andrew.
25921 "Yes," replied the countess. She held out her hand to him, and with a
25922 mixed feeling of estrangement and tenderness pressed her lips to his
25923 forehead as he stooped to kiss her hand. She wished to love him as a
25924 son, but felt that to her he was a stranger and a terrifying man. "I am
25925 sure my husband will consent," said the countess, "but your father..."
25927 "My father, to whom I have told my plans, has made it an express
25928 condition of his consent that the wedding is not to take place for a
25929 year. And I wished to tell you of that," said Prince Andrew.
25931 "It is true that Natasha is still young, but--so long as that?..."
25933 "It is unavoidable," said Prince Andrew with a sigh.
25935 "I will send her to you," said the countess, and left the room.
25937 "Lord have mercy upon us!" she repeated while seeking her daughter.
25939 Sonya said that Natasha was in her bedroom. Natasha was sitting on the
25940 bed, pale and dry eyed, and was gazing at the icons and whispering
25941 something as she rapidly crossed herself. Seeing her mother she jumped
25942 up and flew to her.
25944 "Well, Mamma?... Well?..."
25946 "Go, go to him. He is asking for your hand," said the countess, coldly
25947 it seemed to Natasha. "Go... go," said the mother, sadly and
25948 reproachfully, with a deep sigh, as her daughter ran away.
25950 Natasha never remembered how she entered the drawing room. When she came
25951 in and saw him she paused. "Is it possible that this stranger has now
25952 become everything to me?" she asked herself, and immediately answered,
25953 "Yes, everything! He alone is now dearer to me than everything in the
25954 world." Prince Andrew came up to her with downcast eyes.
25956 "I have loved you from the very first moment I saw you. May I hope?"
25958 He looked at her and was struck by the serious impassioned expression of
25959 her face. Her face said: "Why ask? Why doubt what you cannot but know?
25960 Why speak, when words cannot express what one feels?"
25962 She drew near to him and stopped. He took her hand and kissed it.
25966 "Yes, yes!" Natasha murmured as if in vexation. Then she sighed loudly
25967 and, catching her breath more and more quickly, began to sob.
25969 "What is it? What's the matter?"
25971 "Oh, I am so happy!" she replied, smiled through her tears, bent over
25972 closer to him, paused for an instant as if asking herself whether she
25973 might, and then kissed him.
25975 Prince Andrew held her hands, looked into her eyes, and did not find in
25976 his heart his former love for her. Something in him had suddenly
25977 changed; there was no longer the former poetic and mystic charm of
25978 desire, but there was pity for her feminine and childish weakness, fear
25979 at her devotion and trustfulness, and an oppressive yet joyful sense of
25980 the duty that now bound him to her forever. The present feeling, though
25981 not so bright and poetic as the former, was stronger and more serious.
25983 "Did your mother tell you that it cannot be for a year?" asked Prince
25984 Andrew, still looking into her eyes.
25986 "Is it possible that I--the 'chit of a girl,' as everybody called me,"
25987 thought Natasha--"is it possible that I am now to be the wife and the
25988 equal of this strange, dear, clever man whom even my father looks up to?
25989 Can it be true? Can it be true that there can be no more playing with
25990 life, that now I am grown up, that on me now lies a responsibility for
25991 my every word and deed? Yes, but what did he ask me?"
25993 "No," she replied, but she had not understood his question.
25995 "Forgive me!" he said. "But you are so young, and I have already been
25996 through so much in life. I am afraid for you, you do not yet know
25999 Natasha listened with concentrated attention, trying but failing to take
26000 in the meaning of his words.
26002 "Hard as this year which delays my happiness will be," continued Prince
26003 Andrew, "it will give you time to be sure of yourself. I ask you to make
26004 me happy in a year, but you are free: our engagement shall remain a
26005 secret, and should you find that you do not love me, or should you come
26006 to love..." said Prince Andrew with an unnatural smile.
26008 "Why do you say that?" Natasha interrupted him. "You know that from the
26009 very day you first came to Otradnoe I have loved you," she cried, quite
26010 convinced that she spoke the truth.
26012 "In a year you will learn to know yourself...."
26014 "A whole year!" Natasha repeated suddenly, only now realizing that the
26015 marriage was to be postponed for a year. "But why a year? Why a
26018 Prince Andrew began to explain to her the reasons for this delay.
26019 Natasha did not hear him.
26021 "And can't it be helped?" she asked. Prince Andrew did not reply, but
26022 his face expressed the impossibility of altering that decision.
26024 "It's awful! Oh, it's awful! awful!" Natasha suddenly cried, and again
26025 burst into sobs. "I shall die, waiting a year: it's impossible, it's
26026 awful!" She looked into her lover's face and saw in it a look of
26027 commiseration and perplexity.
26029 "No, no! I'll do anything!" she said, suddenly checking her tears. "I am
26032 The father and mother came into the room and gave the betrothed couple
26035 From that day Prince Andrew began to frequent the Rostovs' as Natasha's
26043 No betrothal ceremony took place and Natasha's engagement to Bolkonski
26044 was not announced; Prince Andrew insisted on that. He said that as he
26045 was responsible for the delay he ought to bear the whole burden of it;
26046 that he had given his word and bound himself forever, but that he did
26047 not wish to bind Natasha and gave her perfect freedom. If after six
26048 months she felt that she did not love him she would have full right to
26049 reject him. Naturally neither Natasha nor her parents wished to hear of
26050 this, but Prince Andrew was firm. He came every day to the Rostovs', but
26051 did not behave to Natasha as an affianced lover: he did not use the
26052 familiar thou, but said you to her, and kissed only her hand. After
26053 their engagement, quite different, intimate, and natural relations
26054 sprang up between them. It was as if they had not known each other till
26055 now. Both liked to recall how they had regarded each other when as yet
26056 they were nothing to one another; they felt themselves now quite
26057 different beings: then they were artificial, now natural and sincere. At
26058 first the family felt some constraint in intercourse with Prince Andrew;
26059 he seemed a man from another world, and for a long time Natasha trained
26060 the family to get used to him, proudly assuring them all that he only
26061 appeared to be different, but was really just like all of them, and that
26062 she was not afraid of him and no one else ought to be. After a few days
26063 they grew accustomed to him, and without restraint in his presence
26064 pursued their usual way of life, in which he took his part. He could
26065 talk about rural economy with the count, fashions with the countess and
26066 Natasha, and about albums and fancywork with Sonya. Sometimes the
26067 household both among themselves and in his presence expressed their
26068 wonder at how it had all happened, and at the evident omens there had
26069 been of it: Prince Andrew's coming to Otradnoe and their coming to
26070 Petersburg, and the likeness between Natasha and Prince Andrew which her
26071 nurse had noticed on his first visit, and Andrew's encounter with
26072 Nicholas in 1805, and many other incidents betokening that it had to be.
26074 In the house that poetic dullness and quiet reigned which always
26075 accompanies the presence of a betrothed couple. Often when all sitting
26076 together everyone kept silent. Sometimes the others would get up and go
26077 away and the couple, left alone, still remained silent. They rarely
26078 spoke of their future life. Prince Andrew was afraid and ashamed to
26079 speak of it. Natasha shared this as she did all his feelings, which she
26080 constantly divined. Once she began questioning him about his son. Prince
26081 Andrew blushed, as he often did now--Natasha particularly liked it in
26082 him--and said that his son would not live with them.
26084 "Why not?" asked Natasha in a frightened tone.
26086 "I cannot take him away from his grandfather, and besides..."
26088 "How I should have loved him!" said Natasha, immediately guessing his
26089 thought; "but I know you wish to avoid any pretext for finding fault
26092 Sometimes the old count would come up, kiss Prince Andrew, and ask his
26093 advice about Petya's education or Nicholas' service. The old countess
26094 sighed as she looked at them; Sonya was always getting frightened lest
26095 she should be in the way and tried to find excuses for leaving them
26096 alone, even when they did not wish it. When Prince Andrew spoke (he
26097 could tell a story very well), Natasha listened to him with pride; when
26098 she spoke she noticed with fear and joy that he gazed attentively and
26099 scrutinizingly at her. She asked herself in perplexity: "What does he
26100 look for in me? He is trying to discover something by looking at me!
26101 What if what he seeks in me is not there?" Sometimes she fell into one
26102 of the mad, merry moods characteristic of her, and then she particularly
26103 loved to hear and see how Prince Andrew laughed. He seldom laughed, but
26104 when he did he abandoned himself entirely to his laughter, and after
26105 such a laugh she always felt nearer to him. Natasha would have been
26106 completely happy if the thought of the separation awaiting her and
26107 drawing near had not terrified her, just as the mere thought of it made
26108 him turn pale and cold.
26110 On the eve of his departure from Petersburg Prince Andrew brought with
26111 him Pierre, who had not been to the Rostovs' once since the ball. Pierre
26112 seemed disconcerted and embarrassed. He was talking to the countess, and
26113 Natasha sat down beside a little chess table with Sonya, thereby
26114 inviting Prince Andrew to come too. He did so.
26116 "You have known Bezukhov a long time?" he asked. "Do you like him?"
26118 "Yes, he's a dear, but very absurd."
26120 And as usual when speaking of Pierre, she began to tell anecdotes of his
26121 absent-mindedness, some of which had even been invented about him.
26123 "Do you know I have entrusted him with our secret? I have known him from
26124 childhood. He has a heart of gold. I beg you, Natalie," Prince Andrew
26125 said with sudden seriousness--"I am going away and heaven knows what may
26126 happen. You may cease to... all right, I know I am not to say that. Only
26127 this, then: whatever may happen to you when I am not here..."
26131 "Whatever trouble may come," Prince Andrew continued, "I beg you,
26132 Mademoiselle Sophie, whatever may happen, to turn to him alone for
26133 advice and help! He is a most absent-minded and absurd fellow, but he
26134 has a heart of gold."
26136 Neither her father, nor her mother, nor Sonya, nor Prince Andrew himself
26137 could have foreseen how the separation from her lover would act on
26138 Natasha. Flushed and agitated she went about the house all that day,
26139 dry-eyed, occupied with most trivial matters as if not understanding
26140 what awaited her. She did not even cry when, on taking leave, he kissed
26141 her hand for the last time. "Don't go!" she said in a tone that made him
26142 wonder whether he really ought not to stay and which he remembered long
26143 afterwards. Nor did she cry when he was gone; but for several days she
26144 sat in her room dry-eyed, taking no interest in anything and only saying
26145 now and then, "Oh, why did he go away?"
26147 But a fortnight after his departure, to the surprise of those around
26148 her, she recovered from her mental sickness just as suddenly and became
26149 her old self again, but with a change in her moral physiognomy, as a
26150 child gets up after a long illness with a changed expression of face.
26157 During that year after his son's departure, Prince Nicholas Bolkonski's
26158 health and temper became much worse. He grew still more irritable, and
26159 it was Princess Mary who generally bore the brunt of his frequent fits
26160 of unprovoked anger. He seemed carefully to seek out her tender spots so
26161 as to torture her mentally as harshly as possible. Princess Mary had two
26162 passions and consequently two joys--her nephew, little Nicholas, and
26163 religion--and these were the favorite subjects of the prince's attacks
26164 and ridicule. Whatever was spoken of he would bring round to the
26165 superstitiousness of old maids, or the petting and spoiling of children.
26166 "You want to make him"--little Nicholas--"into an old maid like
26167 yourself! A pity! Prince Andrew wants a son and not an old maid," he
26168 would say. Or, turning to Mademoiselle Bourienne, he would ask her in
26169 Princess Mary's presence how she liked our village priests and icons and
26170 would joke about them.
26172 He continually hurt Princess Mary's feelings and tormented her, but it
26173 cost her no effort to forgive him. Could he be to blame toward her, or
26174 could her father, whom she knew loved her in spite of it all, be unjust?
26175 And what is justice? The princess never thought of that proud word
26176 "justice." All the complex laws of man centered for her in one clear and
26177 simple law--the law of love and self-sacrifice taught us by Him who
26178 lovingly suffered for mankind though He Himself was God. What had she to
26179 do with the justice or injustice of other people? She had to endure and
26180 love, and that she did.
26182 During the winter Prince Andrew had come to Bald Hills and had been gay,
26183 gentle, and more affectionate than Princess Mary had known him for a
26184 long time past. She felt that something had happened to him, but he said
26185 nothing to her about his love. Before he left he had a long talk with
26186 his father about something, and Princess Mary noticed that before his
26187 departure they were dissatisfied with one another.
26189 Soon after Prince Andrew had gone, Princess Mary wrote to her friend
26190 Julie Karagina in Petersburg, whom she had dreamed (as all girls dream)
26191 of marrying to her brother, and who was at that time in mourning for her
26192 own brother, killed in Turkey.
26194 Sorrow, it seems, is our common lot, my dear, tender friend Julie.
26196 Your loss is so terrible that I can only explain it to myself as a
26197 special providence of God who, loving you, wishes to try you and your
26198 excellent mother. Oh, my friend! Religion, and religion alone, can--I
26199 will not say comfort us--but save us from despair. Religion alone can
26200 explain to us what without its help man cannot comprehend: why, for what
26201 cause, kind and noble beings able to find happiness in life--not merely
26202 harming no one but necessary to the happiness of others--are called away
26203 to God, while cruel, useless, harmful persons, or such as are a burden
26204 to themselves and to others, are left living. The first death I saw, and
26205 one I shall never forget--that of my dear sister-in-law--left that
26206 impression on me. Just as you ask destiny why your splendid brother had
26207 to die, so I asked why that angel Lise, who not only never wronged
26208 anyone, but in whose soul there were never any unkind thoughts, had to
26209 die. And what do you think, dear friend? Five years have passed since
26210 then, and already I, with my petty understanding, begin to see clearly
26211 why she had to die, and in what way that death was but an expression of
26212 the infinite goodness of the Creator, whose every action, though
26213 generally incomprehensible to us, is but a manifestation of His infinite
26214 love for His creatures. Perhaps, I often think, she was too angelically
26215 innocent to have the strength to perform all a mother's duties. As a
26216 young wife she was irreproachable; perhaps she could not have been so as
26217 a mother. As it is, not only has she left us, and particularly Prince
26218 Andrew, with the purest regrets and memories, but probably she will
26219 there receive a place I dare not hope for myself. But not to speak of
26220 her alone, that early and terrible death has had the most beneficent
26221 influence on me and on my brother in spite of all our grief. Then, at
26222 the moment of our loss, these thoughts could not occur to me; I should
26223 then have dismissed them with horror, but now they are very clear and
26224 certain. I write all this to you, dear friend, only to convince you of
26225 the Gospel truth which has become for me a principle of life: not a
26226 single hair of our heads will fall without His will. And His will is
26227 governed only by infinite love for us, and so whatever befalls us is for
26230 You ask whether we shall spend next winter in Moscow. In spite of my
26231 wish to see you, I do not think so and do not want to do so. You will be
26232 surprised to hear that the reason for this is Buonaparte! The case is
26233 this: my father's health is growing noticeably worse, he cannot stand
26234 any contradiction and is becoming irritable. This irritability is, as
26235 you know, chiefly directed to political questions. He cannot endure the
26236 notion that Buonaparte is negotiating on equal terms with all the
26237 sovereigns of Europe and particularly with our own, the grandson of the
26238 Great Catherine! As you know, I am quite indifferent to politics, but
26239 from my father's remarks and his talks with Michael Ivanovich I know all
26240 that goes on in the world and especially about the honors conferred on
26241 Buonaparte, who only at Bald Hills in the whole world, it seems, is not
26242 accepted as a great man, still less as Emperor of France. And my father
26243 cannot stand this. It seems to me that it is chiefly because of his
26244 political views that my father is reluctant to speak of going to Moscow;
26245 for he foresees the encounters that would result from his way of
26246 expressing his views regardless of anybody. All the benefit he might
26247 derive from a course of treatment he would lose as a result of the
26248 disputes about Buonaparte which would be inevitable. In any case it will
26249 be decided very shortly.
26251 Our family life goes on in the old way except for my brother Andrew's
26252 absence. He, as I wrote you before, has changed very much of late. After
26253 his sorrow he only this year quite recovered his spirits. He has again
26254 become as I used to know him when a child: kind, affectionate, with that
26255 heart of gold to which I know no equal. He has realized, it seems to me,
26256 that life is not over for him. But together with this mental change he
26257 has grown physically much weaker. He has become thinner and more
26258 nervous. I am anxious about him and glad he is taking this trip abroad
26259 which the doctors recommended long ago. I hope it will cure him. You
26260 write that in Petersburg he is spoken of as one of the most active,
26261 cultivated, and capable of the young men. Forgive my vanity as a
26262 relation, but I never doubted it. The good he has done to everybody
26263 here, from his peasants up to the gentry, is incalculable. On his
26264 arrival in Petersburg he received only his due. I always wonder at the
26265 way rumors fly from Petersburg to Moscow, especially such false ones as
26266 that you write about--I mean the report of my brother's betrothal to the
26267 little Rostova. I do not think my brother will ever marry again, and
26268 certainly not her; and this is why: first, I know that though he rarely
26269 speaks about the wife he has lost, the grief of that loss has gone too
26270 deep in his heart for him ever to decide to give her a successor and our
26271 little angel a stepmother. Secondly because, as far as I know, that girl
26272 is not the kind of girl who could please Prince Andrew. I do not think
26273 he would choose her for a wife, and frankly I do not wish it. But I am
26274 running on too long and am at the end of my second sheet. Good-bye, my
26275 dear friend. May God keep you in His holy and mighty care. My dear
26276 friend, Mademoiselle Bourienne, sends you kisses.
26285 In the middle of the summer Princess Mary received an unexpected letter
26286 from Prince Andrew in Switzerland in which he gave her strange and
26287 surprising news. He informed her of his engagement to Natasha Rostova.
26288 The whole letter breathed loving rapture for his betrothed and tender
26289 and confiding affection for his sister. He wrote that he had never loved
26290 as he did now and that only now did he understand and know what life
26291 was. He asked his sister to forgive him for not having told her of his
26292 resolve when he had last visited Bald Hills, though he had spoken of it
26293 to his father. He had not done so for fear Princess Mary should ask her
26294 father to give his consent, irritating him and having to bear the brunt
26295 of his displeasure without attaining her object. "Besides," he wrote,
26296 "the matter was not then so definitely settled as it is now. My father
26297 then insisted on a delay of a year and now already six months, half of
26298 that period, have passed, and my resolution is firmer than ever. If the
26299 doctors did not keep me here at the spas I should be back in Russia, but
26300 as it is I have to postpone my return for three months. You know me and
26301 my relations with Father. I want nothing from him. I have been and
26302 always shall be independent; but to go against his will and arouse his
26303 anger, now that he may perhaps remain with us such a short time, would
26304 destroy half my happiness. I am now writing to him about the same
26305 question, and beg you to choose a good moment to hand him the letter and
26306 to let me know how he looks at the whole matter and whether there is
26307 hope that he may consent to reduce the term by four months."
26309 After long hesitations, doubts, and prayers, Princess Mary gave the
26310 letter to her father. The next day the old prince said to her quietly:
26312 "Write and tell your brother to wait till I am dead.... It won't be
26313 long--I shall soon set him free."
26315 The princess was about to reply, but her father would not let her speak
26316 and, raising his voice more and more, cried:
26318 "Marry, marry, my boy!... A good family!... Clever people, eh? Rich, eh?
26319 Yes, a nice stepmother little Nicholas will have! Write and tell him
26320 that he may marry tomorrow if he likes. She will be little Nicholas'
26321 stepmother and I'll marry Bourienne!... Ha, ha, ha! He mustn't be
26322 without a stepmother either! Only one thing, no more women are wanted in
26323 my house--let him marry and live by himself. Perhaps you will go and
26324 live with him too?" he added, turning to Princess Mary. "Go in heavens
26325 name! Go out into the frost... the frost... the frost!"
26327 After this outburst the prince did not speak any more about the matter.
26328 But repressed vexation at his son's poor-spirited behavior found
26329 expression in his treatment of his daughter. To his former pretexts for
26330 irony a fresh one was now added--allusions to stepmothers and
26331 amiabilities to Mademoiselle Bourienne.
26333 "Why shouldn't I marry her?" he asked his daughter. "She'll make a
26334 splendid princess!"
26336 And latterly, to her surprise and bewilderment, Princess Mary noticed
26337 that her father was really associating more and more with the
26338 Frenchwoman. She wrote to Prince Andrew about the reception of his
26339 letter, but comforted him with hopes of reconciling their father to the
26342 Little Nicholas and his education, her brother Andrew, and religion were
26343 Princess Mary's joys and consolations; but besides that, since everyone
26344 must have personal hopes, Princess Mary in the profoundest depths of her
26345 heart had a hidden dream and hope that supplied the chief consolation of
26346 her life. This comforting dream and hope were given her by God's folk--
26347 the half-witted and other pilgrims who visited her without the prince's
26348 knowledge. The longer she lived, the more experience and observation she
26349 had of life, the greater was her wonder at the short-sightedness of men
26350 who seek enjoyment and happiness here on earth: toiling, suffering,
26351 struggling, and harming one another, to obtain that impossible,
26352 visionary, sinful happiness. Prince Andrew had loved his wife, she died,
26353 but that was not enough: he wanted to bind his happiness to another
26354 woman. Her father objected to this because he wanted a more
26355 distinguished and wealthier match for Andrew. And they all struggled and
26356 suffered and tormented one another and injured their souls, their
26357 eternal souls, for the attainment of benefits which endure but for an
26358 instant. Not only do we know this ourselves, but Christ, the Son of God,
26359 came down to earth and told us that this life is but for a moment and is
26360 a probation; yet we cling to it and think to find happiness in it. "How
26361 is it that no one realizes this?" thought Princess Mary. "No one except
26362 these despised God's folk who, wallet on back, come to me by the back
26363 door, afraid of being seen by the prince, not for fear of ill-usage by
26364 him but for fear of causing him to sin. To leave family, home, and all
26365 the cares of worldly welfare, in order without clinging to anything to
26366 wander in hempen rags from place to place under an assumed name, doing
26367 no one any harm but praying for all--for those who drive one away as
26368 well as for those who protect one: higher than that life and truth there
26369 is no life or truth!"
26371 There was one pilgrim, a quiet pockmarked little woman of fifty called
26372 Theodosia, who for over thirty years had gone about barefoot and worn
26373 heavy chains. Princess Mary was particularly fond of her. Once, when in
26374 a room with a lamp dimly lit before the icon Theodosia was talking of
26375 her life, the thought that Theodosia alone had found the true path of
26376 life suddenly came to Princess Mary with such force that she resolved to
26377 become a pilgrim herself. When Theodosia had gone to sleep Princess Mary
26378 thought about this for a long time, and at last made up her mind that,
26379 strange as it might seem, she must go on a pilgrimage. She disclosed
26380 this thought to no one but to her confessor, Father Akinfi, the monk,
26381 and he approved of her intention. Under guise of a present for the
26382 pilgrims, Princess Mary prepared a pilgrim's complete costume for
26383 herself: a coarse smock, bast shoes, a rough coat, and a black kerchief.
26384 Often, approaching the chest of drawers containing this secret treasure,
26385 Princess Mary paused, uncertain whether the time had not already come to
26386 put her project into execution.
26388 Often, listening to the pilgrims' tales, she was so stimulated by their
26389 simple speech, mechanical to them but to her so full of deep meaning,
26390 that several times she was on the point of abandoning everything and
26391 running away from home. In imagination she already pictured herself by
26392 Theodosia's side, dressed in coarse rags, walking with a staff, a wallet
26393 on her back, along the dusty road, directing her wanderings from one
26394 saint's shrine to another, free from envy, earthly love, or desire, and
26395 reaching at last the place where there is no more sorrow or sighing, but
26396 eternal joy and bliss.
26398 "I shall come to a place and pray there, and before having time to get
26399 used to it or getting to love it, I shall go farther. I will go on till
26400 my legs fail, and I'll lie down and die somewhere, and shall at last
26401 reach that eternal, quiet haven, where there is neither sorrow nor
26402 sighing..." thought Princess Mary.
26404 But afterwards, when she saw her father and especially little Koko
26405 (Nicholas), her resolve weakened. She wept quietly, and felt that she
26406 was a sinner who loved her father and little nephew more than God.
26408 BOOK SEVEN: 1810 - 11
26415 The Bible legend tells us that the absence of labor--idleness--was a
26416 condition of the first man's blessedness before the Fall. Fallen man has
26417 retained a love of idleness, but the curse weighs on the race not only
26418 because we have to seek our bread in the sweat of our brows, but because
26419 our moral nature is such that we cannot be both idle and at ease. An
26420 inner voice tells us we are in the wrong if we are idle. If man could
26421 find a state in which he felt that though idle he was fulfilling his
26422 duty, he would have found one of the conditions of man's primitive
26423 blessedness. And such a state of obligatory and irreproachable idleness
26424 is the lot of a whole class--the military. The chief attraction of
26425 military service has consisted and will consist in this compulsory and
26426 irreproachable idleness.
26428 Nicholas Rostov experienced this blissful condition to the full when,
26429 after 1807, he continued to serve in the Pavlograd regiment, in which he
26430 already commanded the squadron he had taken over from Denisov.
26432 Rostov had become a bluff, good-natured fellow, whom his Moscow
26433 acquaintances would have considered rather bad form, but who was liked
26434 and respected by his comrades, subordinates, and superiors, and was well
26435 contented with his life. Of late, in 1809, he found in letters from home
26436 more frequent complaints from his mother that their affairs were falling
26437 into greater and greater disorder, and that it was time for him to come
26438 back to gladden and comfort his old parents.
26440 Reading these letters, Nicholas felt a dread of their wanting to take
26441 him away from surroundings in which, protected from all the
26442 entanglements of life, he was living so calmly and quietly. He felt that
26443 sooner or later he would have to re-enter that whirlpool of life, with
26444 its embarrassments and affairs to be straightened out, its accounts with
26445 stewards, quarrels, and intrigues, its ties, society, and with Sonya's
26446 love and his promise to her. It was all dreadfully difficult and
26447 complicated; and he replied to his mother in cold, formal letters in
26448 French, beginning: "My dear Mamma," and ending: "Your obedient son,"
26449 which said nothing of when he would return. In 1810 he received letters
26450 from his parents, in which they told him of Natasha's engagement to
26451 Bolkonski, and that the wedding would be in a year's time because the
26452 old prince made difficulties. This letter grieved and mortified
26453 Nicholas. In the first place he was sorry that Natasha, for whom he
26454 cared more than for anyone else in the family, should be lost to the
26455 home; and secondly, from his hussar point of view, he regretted not to
26456 have been there to show that fellow Bolkonski that connection with him
26457 was no such great honor after all, and that if he loved Natasha he might
26458 dispense with permission from his dotard father. For a moment he
26459 hesitated whether he should not apply for leave in order to see Natasha
26460 before she was married, but then came the maneuvers, and considerations
26461 about Sonya and about the confusion of their affairs, and Nicholas again
26462 put it off. But in the spring of that year, he received a letter from
26463 his mother, written without his father's knowledge, and that letter
26464 persuaded him to return. She wrote that if he did not come and take
26465 matters in hand, their whole property would be sold by auction and they
26466 would all have to go begging. The count was so weak, and trusted Mitenka
26467 so much, and was so good-natured, that everybody took advantage of him
26468 and things were going from bad to worse. "For God's sake, I implore you,
26469 come at once if you do not wish to make me and the whole family
26470 wretched," wrote the countess.
26472 This letter touched Nicholas. He had that common sense of a matter-of-
26473 fact man which showed him what he ought to do.
26475 The right thing now was, if not to retire from the service, at any rate
26476 to go home on leave. Why he had to go he did not know; but after his
26477 after-dinner nap he gave orders to saddle Mars, an extremely vicious
26478 gray stallion that had not been ridden for a long time, and when he
26479 returned with the horse all in a lather, he informed Lavrushka
26480 (Denisov's servant who had remained with him) and his comrades who
26481 turned up in the evening that he was applying for leave and was going
26482 home. Difficult and strange as it was for him to reflect that he would
26483 go away without having heard from the staff--and this interested him
26484 extremely--whether he was promoted to a captaincy or would receive the
26485 Order of St. Anne for the last maneuvers; strange as it was to think
26486 that he would go away without having sold his three roans to the Polish
26487 Count Golukhovski, who was bargaining for the horses Rostov had betted
26488 he would sell for two thousand rubles; incomprehensible as it seemed
26489 that the ball the hussars were giving in honor of the Polish
26490 Mademoiselle Przazdziecka (out of rivalry to the uhlans who had given
26491 one in honor of their Polish Mademoiselle Borzozowska) would take place
26492 without him--he knew he must go away from this good, bright world to
26493 somewhere where everything was stupid and confused. A week later he
26494 obtained his leave. His hussar comrades--not only those of his own
26495 regiment, but the whole brigade--gave Rostov a dinner to which the
26496 subscription was fifteen rubles a head, and at which there were two
26497 bands and two choirs of singers. Rostov danced the Trepak with Major
26498 Basov; the tipsy officers tossed, embraced, and dropped Rostov; the
26499 soldiers of the third squadron tossed him too, and shouted "hurrah!" and
26500 then they put him in his sleigh and escorted him as far as the first
26503 During the first half of the journey--from Kremenchug to Kiev--all
26504 Rostov's thoughts, as is usual in such cases, were behind him, with the
26505 squadron; but when he had gone more than halfway he began to forget his
26506 three roans and Dozhoyveyko, his quartermaster, and to wonder anxiously
26507 how things would be at Otradnoe and what he would find there. Thoughts
26508 of home grew stronger the nearer he approached it--far stronger, as
26509 though this feeling of his was subject to the law by which the force of
26510 attraction is in inverse proportion to the square of the distance. At
26511 the last post station before Otradnoe he gave the driver a three-ruble
26512 tip, and on arriving he ran breathlessly, like a boy, up the steps of
26515 After the rapture of meeting, and after that odd feeling of unsatisfied
26516 expectation--the feeling that "everything is just the same, so why did I
26517 hurry?"--Nicholas began to settle down in his old home world. His father
26518 and mother were much the same, only a little older. What was new in them
26519 was a certain uneasiness and occasional discord, which there used not to
26520 be, and which, as Nicholas soon found out, was due to the bad state of
26521 their affairs. Sonya was nearly twenty; she had stopped growing prettier
26522 and promised nothing more than she was already, but that was enough. She
26523 exhaled happiness and love from the time Nicholas returned, and the
26524 faithful, unalterable love of this girl had a gladdening effect on him.
26525 Petya and Natasha surprised Nicholas most. Petya was a big handsome boy
26526 of thirteen, merry, witty, and mischievous, with a voice that was
26527 already breaking. As for Natasha, for a long while Nicholas wondered and
26528 laughed whenever he looked at her.
26530 "You're not the same at all," he said.
26532 "How? Am I uglier?"
26534 "On the contrary, but what dignity? A princess!" he whispered to her.
26536 "Yes, yes, yes!" cried Natasha, joyfully.
26538 She told him about her romance with Prince Andrew and of his visit to
26539 Otradnoe and showed him his last letter.
26541 "Well, are you glad?" Natasha asked. "I am so tranquil and happy now."
26543 "Very glad," answered Nicholas. "He is an excellent fellow.... And are
26544 you very much in love?"
26546 "How shall I put it?" replied Natasha. "I was in love with Boris, with
26547 my teacher, and with Denisov, but this is quite different. I feel at
26548 peace and settled. I know that no better man than he exists, and I am
26549 calm and contented now. Not at all as before."
26551 Nicholas expressed his disapproval of the postponement of the marriage
26552 for a year; but Natasha attacked her brother with exasperation, proving
26553 to him that it could not be otherwise, and that it would be a bad thing
26554 to enter a family against the father's will, and that she herself wished
26557 "You don't at all understand," she said.
26559 Nicholas was silent and agreed with her.
26561 Her brother often wondered as he looked at her. She did not seem at all
26562 like a girl in love and parted from her affianced husband. She was even-
26563 tempered and calm and quite as cheerful as of old. This amazed Nicholas
26564 and even made him regard Bolkonski's courtship skeptically. He could not
26565 believe that her fate was sealed, especially as he had not seen her with
26566 Prince Andrew. It always seemed to him that there was something not
26567 quite right about this intended marriage.
26569 "Why this delay? Why no betrothal?" he thought. Once, when he had
26570 touched on this topic with his mother, he discovered, to his surprise
26571 and somewhat to his satisfaction, that in the depth of her soul she too
26572 had doubts about this marriage.
26574 "You see he writes," said she, showing her son a letter of Prince
26575 Andrew's, with that latent grudge a mother always has in regard to a
26576 daughter's future married happiness, "he writes that he won't come
26577 before December. What can be keeping him? Illness, probably! His health
26578 is very delicate. Don't tell Natasha. And don't attach importance to her
26579 being so bright: that's because she's living through the last days of
26580 her girlhood, but I know what she is like every time we receive a letter
26581 from him! However, God grant that everything turns out well!" (She
26582 always ended with these words.) "He is an excellent man!"
26589 After reaching home Nicholas was at first serious and even dull. He was
26590 worried by the impending necessity of interfering in the stupid business
26591 matters for which his mother had called him home. To throw off this
26592 burden as quickly as possible, on the third day after his arrival he
26593 went, angry and scowling and without answering questions as to where he
26594 was going, to Mitenka's lodge and demanded an account of everything. But
26595 what an account of everything might be Nicholas knew even less than the
26596 frightened and bewildered Mitenka. The conversation and the examination
26597 of the accounts with Mitenka did not last long. The village elder, a
26598 peasant delegate, and the village clerk, who were waiting in the
26599 passage, heard with fear and delight first the young count's voice
26600 roaring and snapping and rising louder and louder, and then words of
26601 abuse, dreadful words, ejaculated one after the other.
26603 "Robber!... Ungrateful wretch!... I'll hack the dog to pieces! I'm not
26604 my father!... Robbing us!..." and so on.
26606 Then with no less fear and delight they saw how the young count, red in
26607 the face and with bloodshot eyes, dragged Mitenka out by the scruff of
26608 the neck and applied his foot and knee to his behind with great agility
26609 at convenient moments between the words, shouting, "Be off! Never let me
26610 see your face here again, you villain!"
26612 Mitenka flew headlong down the six steps and ran away into the
26613 shrubbery. (This shrubbery was a well-known haven of refuge for culprits
26614 at Otradnoe. Mitenka himself, returning tipsy from the town, used to
26615 hide there, and many of the residents at Otradnoe, hiding from Mitenka,
26616 knew of its protective qualities.)
26618 Mitenka's wife and sisters-in-law thrust their heads and frightened
26619 faces out of the door of a room where a bright samovar was boiling and
26620 where the steward's high bedstead stood with its patchwork quilt.
26622 The young count paid no heed to them, but, breathing hard, passed by
26623 with resolute strides and went into the house.
26625 The countess, who heard at once from the maids what had happened at the
26626 lodge, was calmed by the thought that now their affairs would certainly
26627 improve, but on the other hand felt anxious as to the effect this
26628 excitement might have on her son. She went several times to his door on
26629 tiptoe and listened, as he lighted one pipe after another.
26631 Next day the old count called his son aside and, with an embarrassed
26632 smile, said to him:
26634 "But you know, my dear boy, it's a pity you got excited! Mitenka has
26635 told me all about it."
26637 "I knew," thought Nicholas, "that I should never understand anything in
26640 "You were angry that he had not entered those 700 rubles. But they were
26641 carried forward--and you did not look at the other page."
26643 "Papa, he is a blackguard and a thief! I know he is! And what I have
26644 done, I have done; but, if you like, I won't speak to him again."
26646 "No, my dear boy" (the count, too, felt embarrassed. He knew he had
26647 mismanaged his wife's property and was to blame toward his children, but
26648 he did not know how to remedy it). "No, I beg you to attend to the
26649 business. I am old. I..."
26651 "No, Papa. Forgive me if I have caused you unpleasantness. I understand
26652 it all less than you do."
26654 "Devil take all these peasants, and money matters, and carryings forward
26655 from page to page," he thought. "I used to understand what a 'corner'
26656 and the stakes at cards meant, but carrying forward to another page I
26657 don't understand at all," said he to himself, and after that he did not
26658 meddle in business affairs. But once the countess called her son and
26659 informed him that she had a promissory note from Anna Mikhaylovna for
26660 two thousand rubles, and asked him what he thought of doing with it.
26662 "This," answered Nicholas. "You say it rests with me. Well, I don't like
26663 Anna Mikhaylovna and I don't like Boris, but they were our friends and
26664 poor. Well then, this!" and he tore up the note, and by so doing caused
26665 the old countess to weep tears of joy. After that, young Rostov took no
26666 further part in any business affairs, but devoted himself with
26667 passionate enthusiasm to what was to him a new pursuit--the chase--for
26668 which his father kept a large establishment.
26675 The weather was already growing wintry and morning frosts congealed an
26676 earth saturated by autumn rains. The verdure had thickened and its
26677 bright green stood out sharply against the brownish strips of winter rye
26678 trodden down by the cattle, and against the pale-yellow stubble of the
26679 spring buckwheat. The wooded ravines and the copses, which at the end of
26680 August had still been green islands amid black fields and stubble, had
26681 become golden and bright-red islands amid the green winter rye. The
26682 hares had already half changed their summer coats, the fox cubs were
26683 beginning to scatter, and the young wolves were bigger than dogs. It was
26684 the best time of the year for the chase. The hounds of that ardent young
26685 sportsman Rostov had not merely reached hard winter condition, but were
26686 so jaded that at a meeting of the huntsmen it was decided to give them a
26687 three days' rest and then, on the sixteenth of September, to go on a
26688 distant expedition, starting from the oak grove where there was an
26689 undisturbed litter of wolf cubs.
26691 All that day the hounds remained at home. It was frosty and the air was
26692 sharp, but toward evening the sky became overcast and it began to thaw.
26693 On the fifteenth, when young Rostov, in his dressing gown, looked out of
26694 the window, he saw it was an unsurpassable morning for hunting: it was
26695 as if the sky were melting and sinking to the earth without any wind.
26696 The only motion in the air was that of the dripping, microscopic
26697 particles of drizzling mist. The bare twigs in the garden were hung with
26698 transparent drops which fell on the freshly fallen leaves. The earth in
26699 the kitchen garden looked wet and black and glistened like poppy seed
26700 and at a short distance merged into the dull, moist veil of mist.
26701 Nicholas went out into the wet and muddy porch. There was a smell of
26702 decaying leaves and of dog. Milka, a black-spotted, broad-haunched bitch
26703 with prominent black eyes, got up on seeing her master, stretched her
26704 hind legs, lay down like a hare, and then suddenly jumped up and licked
26705 him right on his nose and mustache. Another borzoi, a dog, catching
26706 sight of his master from the garden path, arched his back and, rushing
26707 headlong toward the porch with lifted tail, began rubbing himself
26710 "O-hoy!" came at that moment, that inimitable huntsman's call which
26711 unites the deepest bass with the shrillest tenor, and round the corner
26712 came Daniel the head huntsman and head kennelman, a gray, wrinkled old
26713 man with hair cut straight over his forehead, Ukrainian fashion, a long
26714 bent whip in his hand, and that look of independence and scorn of
26715 everything that is only seen in huntsmen. He doffed his Circassian cap
26716 to his master and looked at him scornfully. This scorn was not offensive
26717 to his master. Nicholas knew that this Daniel, disdainful of everybody
26718 and who considered himself above them, was all the same his serf and
26721 "Daniel!" Nicholas said timidly, conscious at the sight of the weather,
26722 the hounds, and the huntsman that he was being carried away by that
26723 irresistible passion for sport which makes a man forget all his previous
26724 resolutions, as a lover forgets in the presence of his mistress.
26726 "What orders, your excellency?" said the huntsman in his deep bass, deep
26727 as a proto-deacon's and hoarse with hallooing--and two flashing black
26728 eyes gazed from under his brows at his master, who was silent. "Can you
26729 resist it?" those eyes seemed to be asking.
26731 "It's a good day, eh? For a hunt and a gallop, eh?" asked Nicholas,
26732 scratching Milka behind the ears.
26734 Daniel did not answer, but winked instead.
26736 "I sent Uvarka at dawn to listen," his bass boomed out after a minute's
26737 pause. "He says she's moved them into the Otradnoe enclosure. They were
26738 howling there." (This meant that the she-wolf, about whom they both
26739 knew, had moved with her cubs to the Otradnoe copse, a small place a
26740 mile and a half from the house.)
26742 "We ought to go, don't you think so?" said Nicholas. "Come to me with
26747 "Then put off feeding them."
26751 Five minutes later Daniel and Uvarka were standing in Nicholas' big
26752 study. Though Daniel was not a big man, to see him in a room was like
26753 seeing a horse or a bear on the floor among the furniture and
26754 surroundings of human life. Daniel himself felt this, and as usual stood
26755 just inside the door, trying to speak softly and not move, for fear of
26756 breaking something in the master's apartment, and he hastened to say all
26757 that was necessary so as to get from under that ceiling, out into the
26758 open under the sky once more.
26760 Having finished his inquiries and extorted from Daniel an opinion that
26761 the hounds were fit (Daniel himself wished to go hunting), Nicholas
26762 ordered the horses to be saddled. But just as Daniel was about to go
26763 Natasha came in with rapid steps, not having done up her hair or
26764 finished dressing and with her old nurse's big shawl wrapped round her.
26765 Petya ran in at the same time.
26767 "You are going?" asked Natasha. "I knew you would! Sonya said you
26768 wouldn't go, but I knew that today is the sort of day when you couldn't
26771 "Yes, we are going," replied Nicholas reluctantly, for today, as he
26772 intended to hunt seriously, he did not want to take Natasha and Petya.
26773 "We are going, but only wolf hunting: it would be dull for you."
26775 "You know it is my greatest pleasure," said Natasha. "It's not fair; you
26776 are going by yourself, are having the horses saddled and said nothing to
26779 "'No barrier bars a Russian's path'--we'll go!" shouted Petya.
26781 "But you can't. Mamma said you mustn't," said Nicholas to Natasha.
26783 "Yes, I'll go. I shall certainly go," said Natasha decisively. "Daniel,
26784 tell them to saddle for us, and Michael must come with my dogs," she
26785 added to the huntsman.
26787 It seemed to Daniel irksome and improper to be in a room at all, but to
26788 have anything to do with a young lady seemed to him impossible. He cast
26789 down his eyes and hurried out as if it were none of his business,
26790 careful as he went not to inflict any accidental injury on the young
26798 The old count, who had always kept up an enormous hunting establishment
26799 but had now handed it all completely over to his son's care, being in
26800 very good spirits on this fifteenth of September, prepared to go out
26803 In an hour's time the whole hunting party was at the porch. Nicholas,
26804 with a stern and serious air which showed that now was no time for
26805 attending to trifles, went past Natasha and Petya who were trying to
26806 tell him something. He had a look at all the details of the hunt, sent a
26807 pack of hounds and huntsmen on ahead to find the quarry, mounted his
26808 chestnut Donets, and whistling to his own leash of borzois, set off
26809 across the threshing ground to a field leading to the Otradnoe wood. The
26810 old count's horse, a sorrel gelding called Viflyanka, was led by the
26811 groom in attendance on him, while the count himself was to drive in a
26812 small trap straight to a spot reserved for him.
26814 They were taking fifty-four hounds, with six hunt attendants and
26815 whippers-in. Besides the family, there were eight borzoi kennelmen and
26816 more than forty borzois, so that, with the borzois on the leash
26817 belonging to members of the family, there were about a hundred and
26818 thirty dogs and twenty horsemen.
26820 Each dog knew its master and its call. Each man in the hunt knew his
26821 business, his place, what he had to do. As soon as they had passed the
26822 fence they all spread out evenly and quietly, without noise or talk,
26823 along the road and field leading to the Otradnoe covert.
26825 The horses stepped over the field as over a thick carpet, now and then
26826 splashing into puddles as they crossed a road. The misty sky still
26827 seemed to descend evenly and imperceptibly toward the earth, the air was
26828 still, warm, and silent. Occasionally the whistle of a huntsman, the
26829 snort of a horse, the crack of a whip, or the whine of a straggling
26830 hound could be heard.
26832 When they had gone a little less than a mile, five more riders with dogs
26833 appeared out of the mist, approaching the Rostovs. In front rode a
26834 fresh-looking, handsome old man with a large gray mustache.
26836 "Good morning, Uncle!" said Nicholas, when the old man drew near.
26838 "That's it. Come on!... I was sure of it," began "Uncle." (He was a
26839 distant relative of the Rostovs', a man of small means, and their
26840 neighbor.) "I knew you wouldn't be able to resist it and it's a good
26841 thing you're going. That's it! Come on!" (This was "Uncle's" favorite
26842 expression.) "Take the covert at once, for my Girchik says the Ilagins
26843 are at Korniki with their hounds. That's it. Come on!... They'll take
26844 the cubs from under your very nose."
26846 "That's where I'm going. Shall we join up our packs?" asked Nicholas.
26848 The hounds were joined into one pack, and "Uncle" and Nicholas rode on
26849 side by side. Natasha, muffled up in shawls which did not hide her eager
26850 face and shining eyes, galloped up to them. She was followed by Petya
26851 who always kept close to her, by Michael, a huntsman, and by a groom
26852 appointed to look after her. Petya, who was laughing, whipped and pulled
26853 at his horse. Natasha sat easily and confidently on her black Arabchik
26854 and reined him in without effort with a firm hand.
26856 "Uncle" looked round disapprovingly at Petya and Natasha. He did not
26857 like to combine frivolity with the serious business of hunting.
26859 "Good morning, Uncle! We are going too!" shouted Petya.
26861 "Good morning, good morning! But don't go overriding the hounds," said
26864 "Nicholas, what a fine dog Trunila is! He knew me," said Natasha,
26865 referring to her favorite hound.
26867 "In the first place, Trunila is not a 'dog,' but a harrier," thought
26868 Nicholas, and looked sternly at his sister, trying to make her feel the
26869 distance that ought to separate them at that moment. Natasha understood
26872 "You mustn't think we'll be in anyone's way, Uncle," she said. "We'll go
26873 to our places and won't budge."
26875 "A good thing too, little countess," said "Uncle," "only mind you don't
26876 fall off your horse," he added, "because--that's it, come on!--you've
26877 nothing to hold on to."
26879 The oasis of the Otradnoe covert came in sight a few hundred yards off,
26880 the huntsmen were already nearing it. Rostov, having finally settled
26881 with "Uncle" where they should set on the hounds, and having shown
26882 Natasha where she was to stand--a spot where nothing could possibly run
26883 out--went round above the ravine.
26885 "Well, nephew, you're going for a big wolf," said "Uncle." "Mind and
26886 don't let her slip!"
26888 "That's as may happen," answered Rostov. "Karay, here!" he shouted,
26889 answering "Uncle's" remark by this call to his borzoi. Karay was a
26890 shaggy old dog with a hanging jowl, famous for having tackled a big wolf
26891 unaided. They all took up their places.
26893 The old count, knowing his son's ardor in the hunt, hurried so as not to
26894 be late, and the huntsmen had not yet reached their places when Count
26895 Ilya Rostov, cheerful, flushed, and with quivering cheeks, drove up with
26896 his black horses over the winter rye to the place reserved for him,
26897 where a wolf might come out. Having straightened his coat and fastened
26898 on his hunting knives and horn, he mounted his good, sleek, well-fed,
26899 and comfortable horse, Viflyanka, which was turning gray, like himself.
26900 His horses and trap were sent home. Count Ilya Rostov, though not at
26901 heart a keen sportsman, knew the rules of the hunt well, and rode to the
26902 bushy edge of the road where he was to stand, arranged his reins,
26903 settled himself in the saddle, and, feeling that he was ready, looked
26904 about with a smile.
26906 Beside him was Simon Chekmar, his personal attendant, an old horseman
26907 now somewhat stiff in the saddle. Chekmar held in leash three formidable
26908 wolfhounds, who had, however, grown fat like their master and his horse.
26909 Two wise old dogs lay down unleashed. Some hundred paces farther along
26910 the edge of the wood stood Mitka, the count's other groom, a daring
26911 horseman and keen rider to hounds. Before the hunt, by old custom, the
26912 count had drunk a silver cupful of mulled brandy, taken a snack, and
26913 washed it down with half a bottle of his favorite Bordeaux.
26915 He was somewhat flushed with the wine and the drive. His eyes were
26916 rather moist and glittered more than usual, and as he sat in his saddle,
26917 wrapped up in his fur coat, he looked like a child taken out for an
26920 The thin, hollow-cheeked Chekmar, having got everything ready, kept
26921 glancing at his master with whom he had lived on the best of terms for
26922 thirty years, and understanding the mood he was in expected a pleasant
26923 chat. A third person rode up circumspectly through the wood (it was
26924 plain that he had had a lesson) and stopped behind the count. This
26925 person was a gray-bearded old man in a woman's cloak, with a tall peaked
26926 cap on his head. He was the buffoon, who went by a woman's name,
26929 "Well, Nastasya Ivanovna!" whispered the count, winking at him. "If you
26930 scare away the beast, Daniel'll give it you!"
26932 "I know a thing or two myself!" said Nastasya Ivanovna.
26934 "Hush!" whispered the count and turned to Simon. "Have you seen the
26935 young countess?" he asked. "Where is she?"
26937 "With young Count Peter, by the Zharov rank grass," answered Simon,
26938 smiling. "Though she's a lady, she's very fond of hunting."
26940 "And you're surprised at the way she rides, Simon, eh?" said the count.
26941 "She's as good as many a man!"
26943 "Of course! It's marvelous. So bold, so easy!"
26945 "And Nicholas? Where is he? By the Lyadov upland, isn't he?"
26947 "Yes, sir. He knows where to stand. He understands the matter so well
26948 that Daniel and I are often quite astounded," said Simon, well knowing
26949 what would please his master.
26951 "Rides well, eh? And how well he looks on his horse, eh?"
26953 "A perfect picture! How he chased a fox out of the rank grass by the
26954 Zavarzinsk thicket the other day! Leaped a fearful place; what a sight
26955 when they rushed from the covert... the horse worth a thousand rubles
26956 and the rider beyond all price! Yes, one would have to search far to
26957 find another as smart."
26959 "To search far..." repeated the count, evidently sorry Simon had not
26960 said more. "To search far," he said, turning back the skirt of his coat
26961 to get at his snuffbox.
26963 "The other day when he came out from Mass in full uniform, Michael
26964 Sidorych..." Simon did not finish, for on the still air he had
26965 distinctly caught the music of the hunt with only two or three hounds
26966 giving tongue. He bent down his head and listened, shaking a warning
26967 finger at his master. "They are on the scent of the cubs..." he
26968 whispered, "straight to the Lyadov uplands."
26970 The count, forgetting to smooth out the smile on his face, looked into
26971 the distance straight before him, down the narrow open space, holding
26972 the snuffbox in his hand but not taking any. After the cry of the hounds
26973 came the deep tones of the wolf call from Daniel's hunting horn; the
26974 pack joined the first three hounds and they could be heard in full cry,
26975 with that peculiar lift in the note that indicates that they are after a
26976 wolf. The whippers-in no longer set on the hounds, but changed to the
26977 cry of ulyulyu, and above the others rose Daniel's voice, now a deep
26978 bass, now piercingly shrill. His voice seemed to fill the whole wood and
26979 carried far beyond out into the open field.
26981 After listening a few moments in silence, the count and his attendant
26982 convinced themselves that the hounds had separated into two packs: the
26983 sound of the larger pack, eagerly giving tongue, began to die away in
26984 the distance, the other pack rushed by the wood past the count, and it
26985 was with this that Daniel's voice was heard calling ulyulyu. The sounds
26986 of both packs mingled and broke apart again, but both were becoming more
26989 Simon sighed and stooped to straighten the leash a young borzoi had
26990 entangled; the count too sighed and, noticing the snuffbox in his hand,
26991 opened it and took a pinch. "Back!" cried Simon to a borzoi that was
26992 pushing forward out of the wood. The count started and dropped the
26993 snuffbox. Nastasya Ivanovna dismounted to pick it up. The count and
26994 Simon were looking at him.
26996 Then, unexpectedly, as often happens, the sound of the hunt suddenly
26997 approached, as if the hounds in full cry and Daniel ulyulyuing were just
27000 The count turned and saw on his right Mitka staring at him with eyes
27001 starting out of his head, raising his cap and pointing before him to the
27004 "Look out!" he shouted, in a voice plainly showing that he had long
27005 fretted to utter that word, and letting the borzois slip he galloped
27008 The count and Simon galloped out of the wood and saw on their left a
27009 wolf which, softly swaying from side to side, was coming at a quiet lope
27010 farther to the left to the very place where they were standing. The
27011 angry borzois whined and getting free of the leash rushed past the
27012 horses' feet at the wolf.
27014 The wolf paused, turned its heavy forehead toward the dogs awkwardly,
27015 like a man suffering from the quinsy, and, still slightly swaying from
27016 side to side, gave a couple of leaps and with a swish of its tail
27017 disappeared into the skirt of the wood. At the same instant, with a cry
27018 like a wail, first one hound, then another, and then another, sprang
27019 helter-skelter from the wood opposite and the whole pack rushed across
27020 the field toward the very spot where the wolf had disappeared. The hazel
27021 bushes parted behind the hounds and Daniel's chestnut horse appeared,
27022 dark with sweat. On its long back sat Daniel, hunched forward, capless,
27023 his disheveled gray hair hanging over his flushed, perspiring face.
27025 "Ulyulyulyu! ulyulyu!..." he cried. When he caught sight of the count
27026 his eyes flashed lightning.
27028 "Blast you!" he shouted, holding up his whip threateningly at the count.
27030 "You've let the wolf go!... What sportsmen!" and as if scorning to say
27031 more to the frightened and shamefaced count, he lashed the heaving
27032 flanks of his sweating chestnut gelding with all the anger the count had
27033 aroused and flew off after the hounds. The count, like a punished
27034 schoolboy, looked round, trying by a smile to win Simon's sympathy for
27035 his plight. But Simon was no longer there. He was galloping round by the
27036 bushes while the field was coming up on both sides, all trying to head
27037 the wolf, but it vanished into the wood before they could do so.
27044 Nicholas Rostov meanwhile remained at his post, waiting for the wolf. By
27045 the way the hunt approached and receded, by the cries of the dogs whose
27046 notes were familiar to him, by the way the voices of the huntsmen
27047 approached, receded, and rose, he realized what was happening at the
27048 copse. He knew that young and old wolves were there, that the hounds had
27049 separated into two packs, that somewhere a wolf was being chased, and
27050 that something had gone wrong. He expected the wolf to come his way any
27051 moment. He made thousands of different conjectures as to where and from
27052 what side the beast would come and how he would set upon it. Hope
27053 alternated with despair. Several times he addressed a prayer to God that
27054 the wolf should come his way. He prayed with that passionate and
27055 shamefaced feeling with which men pray at moments of great excitement
27056 arising from trivial causes. "What would it be to Thee to do this for
27057 me?" he said to God. "I know Thou art great, and that it is a sin to ask
27058 this of Thee, but for God's sake do let the old wolf come my way and let
27059 Karay spring at it--in sight of 'Uncle' who is watching from over there-
27060 -and seize it by the throat in a death grip!" A thousand times during
27061 that half-hour Rostov cast eager and restless glances over the edge of
27062 the wood, with the two scraggy oaks rising above the aspen undergrowth
27063 and the gully with its water-worn side and "Uncle's" cap just visible
27064 above the bush on his right.
27066 "No, I shan't have such luck," thought Rostov, "yet what wouldn't it be
27067 worth! It is not to be! Everywhere, at cards and in war, I am always
27068 unlucky." Memories of Austerlitz and of Dolokhov flashed rapidly and
27069 clearly through his mind. "Only once in my life to get an old wolf, I
27070 want only that!" thought he, straining eyes and ears and looking to the
27071 left and then to the right and listening to the slightest variation of
27072 note in the cries of the dogs.
27074 Again he looked to the right and saw something running toward him across
27075 the deserted field. "No, it can't be!" thought Rostov, taking a deep
27076 breath, as a man does at the coming of something long hoped for. The
27077 height of happiness was reached--and so simply, without warning, or
27078 noise, or display, that Rostov could not believe his eyes and remained
27079 in doubt for over a second. The wolf ran forward and jumped heavily over
27080 a gully that lay in her path. She was an old animal with a gray back and
27081 big reddish belly. She ran without hurry, evidently feeling sure that no
27082 one saw her. Rostov, holding his breath, looked round at the borzois.
27083 They stood or lay not seeing the wolf or understanding the situation.
27084 Old Karay had turned his head and was angrily searching for fleas,
27085 baring his yellow teeth and snapping at his hind legs.
27087 "Ulyulyulyu!" whispered Rostov, pouting his lips. The borzois jumped up,
27088 jerking the rings of the leashes and pricking their ears. Karay finished
27089 scratching his hindquarters and, cocking his ears, got up with quivering
27090 tail from which tufts of matted hair hung down.
27092 "Shall I loose them or not?" Nicholas asked himself as the wolf
27093 approached him coming from the copse. Suddenly the wolf's whole
27094 physiognomy changed: she shuddered, seeing what she had probably never
27095 seen before--human eyes fixed upon her--and turning her head a little
27096 toward Rostov, she paused.
27098 "Back or forward? Eh, no matter, forward..." the wolf seemed to say to
27099 herself, and she moved forward without again looking round and with a
27100 quiet, long, easy yet resolute lope.
27102 "Ulyulyu!" cried Nicholas, in a voice not his own, and of its own accord
27103 his good horse darted headlong downhill, leaping over gullies to head
27104 off the wolf, and the borzois passed it, running faster still. Nicholas
27105 did not hear his own cry nor feel that he was galloping, nor see the
27106 borzois, nor the ground over which he went: he saw only the wolf, who,
27107 increasing her speed, bounded on in the same direction along the hollow.
27108 The first to come into view was Milka, with her black markings and
27109 powerful quarters, gaining upon the wolf. Nearer and nearer... now she
27110 was ahead of it; but the wolf turned its head to face her, and instead
27111 of putting on speed as she usually did Milka suddenly raised her tail
27112 and stiffened her forelegs.
27114 "Ulyulyulyulyu!" shouted Nicholas.
27116 The reddish Lyubim rushed forward from behind Milka, sprang impetuously
27117 at the wolf, and seized it by its hindquarters, but immediately jumped
27118 aside in terror. The wolf crouched, gnashed her teeth, and again rose
27119 and bounded forward, followed at the distance of a couple of feet by all
27120 the borzois, who did not get any closer to her.
27122 "She'll get away! No, it's impossible!" thought Nicholas, still shouting
27123 with a hoarse voice.
27125 "Karay, ulyulyu!..." he shouted, looking round for the old borzoi who
27126 was now his only hope. Karay, with all the strength age had left him,
27127 stretched himself to the utmost and, watching the wolf, galloped heavily
27128 aside to intercept it. But the quickness of the wolf's lope and the
27129 borzoi's slower pace made it plain that Karay had miscalculated.
27130 Nicholas could already see not far in front of him the wood where the
27131 wolf would certainly escape should she reach it. But, coming toward him,
27132 he saw hounds and a huntsman galloping almost straight at the wolf.
27133 There was still hope. A long, yellowish young borzoi, one Nicholas did
27134 not know, from another leash, rushed impetuously at the wolf from in
27135 front and almost knocked her over. But the wolf jumped up more quickly
27136 than anyone could have expected and, gnashing her teeth, flew at the
27137 yellowish borzoi, which, with a piercing yelp, fell with its head on the
27138 ground, bleeding from a gash in its side.
27140 "Karay? Old fellow!..." wailed Nicholas.
27142 Thanks to the delay caused by this crossing of the wolf's path, the old
27143 dog with its felted hair hanging from its thigh was within five paces of
27144 it. As if aware of her danger, the wolf turned her eyes on Karay, tucked
27145 her tail yet further between her legs, and increased her speed. But here
27146 Nicholas only saw that something happened to Karay--the borzoi was
27147 suddenly on the wolf, and they rolled together down into a gully just in
27150 That instant, when Nicholas saw the wolf struggling in the gully with
27151 the dogs, while from under them could be seen her gray hair and
27152 outstretched hind leg and her frightened choking head, with her ears
27153 laid back (Karay was pinning her by the throat), was the happiest moment
27154 of his life. With his hand on his saddlebow, he was ready to dismount
27155 and stab the wolf, when she suddenly thrust her head up from among that
27156 mass of dogs, and then her forepaws were on the edge of the gully. She
27157 clicked her teeth (Karay no longer had her by the throat), leaped with a
27158 movement of her hind legs out of the gully, and having disengaged
27159 herself from the dogs, with tail tucked in again, went forward. Karay,
27160 his hair bristling, and probably bruised or wounded, climbed with
27161 difficulty out of the gully.
27163 "Oh my God! Why?" Nicholas cried in despair.
27165 "Uncle's" huntsman was galloping from the other side across the wolf's
27166 path and his borzois once more stopped the animal's advance. She was
27169 Nicholas and his attendant, with "Uncle" and his huntsman, were all
27170 riding round the wolf, crying "ulyulyu!" shouting and preparing to
27171 dismount each moment that the wolf crouched back, and starting forward
27172 again every time she shook herself and moved toward the wood where she
27175 Already, at the beginning of this chase, Daniel, hearing the ulyulyuing,
27176 had rushed out from the wood. He saw Karay seize the wolf, and checked
27177 his horse, supposing the affair to be over. But when he saw that the
27178 horsemen did not dismount and that the wolf shook herself and ran for
27179 safety, Daniel set his chestnut galloping, not at the wolf but straight
27180 toward the wood, just as Karay had run to cut the animal off. As a
27181 result of this, he galloped up to the wolf just when she had been
27182 stopped a second time by "Uncle's" borzois.
27184 Daniel galloped up silently, holding a naked dagger in his left hand and
27185 thrashing the laboring sides of his chestnut horse with his whip as if
27188 Nicholas neither saw nor heard Daniel until the chestnut, breathing
27189 heavily, panted past him, and he heard the fall of a body and saw Daniel
27190 lying on the wolf's back among the dogs, trying to seize her by the
27191 ears. It was evident to the dogs, the hunters, and to the wolf herself
27192 that all was now over. The terrified wolf pressed back her ears and
27193 tried to rise, but the borzois stuck to her. Daniel rose a little, took
27194 a step, and with his whole weight, as if lying down to rest, fell on the
27195 wolf, seizing her by the ears. Nicholas was about to stab her, but
27196 Daniel whispered, "Don't! We'll gag her!" and, changing his position,
27197 set his foot on the wolf's neck. A stick was thrust between her jaws and
27198 she was fastened with a leash, as if bridled, her legs were bound
27199 together, and Daniel rolled her over once or twice from side to side.
27201 With happy, exhausted faces, they laid the old wolf, alive, on a shying
27202 and snorting horse and, accompanied by the dogs yelping at her, took her
27203 to the place where they were all to meet. The hounds had killed two of
27204 the cubs and the borzois three. The huntsmen assembled with their booty
27205 and their stories, and all came to look at the wolf, which, with her
27206 broad-browed head hanging down and the bitten stick between her jaws,
27207 gazed with great glassy eyes at this crowd of dogs and men surrounding
27208 her. When she was touched, she jerked her bound legs and looked wildly
27209 yet simply at everybody. Old Count Rostov also rode up and touched the
27212 "Oh, what a formidable one!" said he. "A formidable one, eh?" he asked
27213 Daniel, who was standing near.
27215 "Yes, your excellency," answered Daniel, quickly doffing his cap.
27217 The count remembered the wolf he had let slip and his encounter with
27220 "Ah, but you are a crusty fellow, friend!" said the count.
27222 For sole reply Daniel gave him a shy, childlike, meek, and amiable
27230 The old count went home, and Natasha and Petya promised to return very
27231 soon, but as it was still early the hunt went farther. At midday they
27232 put the hounds into a ravine thickly overgrown with young trees.
27233 Nicholas standing in a fallow field could see all his whips.
27235 Facing him lay a field of winter rye, there his own huntsman stood alone
27236 in a hollow behind a hazel bush. The hounds had scarcely been loosed
27237 before Nicholas heard one he knew, Voltorn, giving tongue at intervals;
27238 other hounds joined in, now pausing and now again giving tongue. A
27239 moment later he heard a cry from the wooded ravine that a fox had been
27240 found, and the whole pack, joining together, rushed along the ravine
27241 toward the ryefield and away from Nicholas.
27243 He saw the whips in their red caps galloping along the edge of the
27244 ravine, he even saw the hounds, and was expecting a fox to show itself
27245 at any moment on the ryefield opposite.
27247 The huntsman standing in the hollow moved and loosed his borzois, and
27248 Nicholas saw a queer, short-legged red fox with a fine brush going hard
27249 across the field. The borzois bore down on it.... Now they drew close to
27250 the fox which began to dodge between the field in sharper and sharper
27251 curves, trailing its brush, when suddenly a strange white borzoi dashed
27252 in followed by a black one, and everything was in confusion; the borzois
27253 formed a star-shaped figure, scarcely swaying their bodies and with
27254 tails turned away from the center of the group. Two huntsmen galloped up
27255 to the dogs; one in a red cap, the other, a stranger, in a green coat.
27257 "What's this?" thought Nicholas. "Where's that huntsman from? He is not
27260 The huntsmen got the fox, but stayed there a long time without strapping
27261 it to the saddle. Their horses, bridled and with high saddles, stood
27262 near them and there too the dogs were lying. The huntsmen waved their
27263 arms and did something to the fox. Then from that spot came the sound of
27264 a horn, with the signal agreed on in case of a fight.
27266 "That's Ilagin's huntsman having a row with our Ivan," said Nicholas'
27269 Nicholas sent the man to call Natasha and Petya to him, and rode at a
27270 footpace to the place where the whips were getting the hounds together.
27271 Several of the field galloped to the spot where the fight was going on.
27273 Nicholas dismounted, and with Natasha and Petya, who had ridden up,
27274 stopped near the hounds, waiting to see how the matter would end. Out of
27275 the bushes came the huntsman who had been fighting and rode toward his
27276 young master, with the fox tied to his crupper. While still at a
27277 distance he took off his cap and tried to speak respectfully, but he was
27278 pale and breathless and his face was angry. One of his eyes was black,
27279 but he probably was not even aware of it.
27281 "What has happened?" asked Nicholas.
27283 "A likely thing, killing a fox our dogs had hunted! And it was my gray
27284 bitch that caught it! Go to law, indeed!... He snatches at the fox! I
27285 gave him one with the fox. Here it is on my saddle! Do you want a taste
27286 of this?..." said the huntsman, pointing to his dagger and probably
27287 imagining himself still speaking to his foe.
27289 Nicholas, not stopping to talk to the man, asked his sister and Petya to
27290 wait for him and rode to the spot where the enemy's, Ilagin's, hunting
27293 The victorious huntsman rode off to join the field, and there,
27294 surrounded by inquiring sympathizers, recounted his exploits.
27296 The facts were that Ilagin, with whom the Rostovs had a quarrel and were
27297 at law, hunted over places that belonged by custom to the Rostovs, and
27298 had now, as if purposely, sent his men to the very woods the Rostovs
27299 were hunting and let his man snatch a fox their dogs had chased.
27301 Nicholas, though he had never seen Ilagin, with his usual absence of
27302 moderation in judgment, hated him cordially from reports of his
27303 arbitrariness and violence, and regarded him as his bitterest foe. He
27304 rode in angry agitation toward him, firmly grasping his whip and fully
27305 prepared to take the most resolute and desperate steps to punish his
27308 Hardly had he passed an angle of the wood before a stout gentleman in a
27309 beaver cap came riding toward him on a handsome raven-black horse,
27310 accompanied by two hunt servants.
27312 Instead of an enemy, Nicholas found in Ilagin a stately and courteous
27313 gentleman who was particularly anxious to make the young count's
27314 acquaintance. Having ridden up to Nicholas, Ilagin raised his beaver cap
27315 and said he much regretted what had occurred and would have the man
27316 punished who had allowed himself to seize a fox hunted by someone else's
27317 borzois. He hoped to become better acquainted with the count and invited
27318 him to draw his covert.
27320 Natasha, afraid that her brother would do something dreadful, had
27321 followed him in some excitement. Seeing the enemies exchanging friendly
27322 greetings, she rode up to them. Ilagin lifted his beaver cap still
27323 higher to Natasha and said, with a pleasant smile, that the young
27324 countess resembled Diana in her passion for the chase as well as in her
27325 beauty, of which he had heard much.
27327 To expiate his huntsman's offense, Ilagin pressed the Rostovs to come to
27328 an upland of his about a mile away which he usually kept for himself and
27329 which, he said, swarmed with hares. Nicholas agreed, and the hunt, now
27332 The way to Iligin's upland was across the fields. The hunt servants fell
27333 into line. The masters rode together. "Uncle," Rostov, and Ilagin kept
27334 stealthily glancing at one another's dogs, trying not to be observed by
27335 their companions and searching uneasily for rivals to their own borzois.
27337 Rostov was particularly struck by the beauty of a small, pure-bred, red-
27338 spotted bitch on Ilagin's leash, slender but with muscles like steel, a
27339 delicate muzzle, and prominent black eyes. He had heard of the swiftness
27340 of Ilagin's borzois, and in that beautiful bitch saw a rival to his own
27343 In the middle of a sober conversation begun by Ilagin about the year's
27344 harvest, Nicholas pointed to the red-spotted bitch.
27346 "A fine little bitch, that!" said he in a careless tone. "Is she swift?"
27348 "That one? Yes, she's a good dog, gets what she's after," answered
27349 Ilagin indifferently, of the red-spotted bitch Erza, for which, a year
27350 before, he had given a neighbor three families of house serfs. "So in
27351 your parts, too, the harvest is nothing to boast of, Count?" he went on,
27352 continuing the conversation they had begun. And considering it polite to
27353 return the young count's compliment, Ilagin looked at his borzois and
27354 picked out Milka who attracted his attention by her breadth. "That
27355 black-spotted one of yours is fine--well shaped!" said he.
27357 "Yes, she's fast enough," replied Nicholas, and thought: "If only a
27358 full-grown hare would cross the field now I'd show you what sort of
27359 borzoi she is," and turning to his groom, he said he would give a ruble
27360 to anyone who found a hare.
27362 "I don't understand," continued Ilagin, "how some sportsmen can be so
27363 jealous about game and dogs. For myself, I can tell you, Count, I enjoy
27364 riding in company such as this... what could be better?" (he again
27365 raised his cap to Natasha) "but as for counting skins and what one
27366 takes, I don't care about that."
27370 "Or being upset because someone else's borzoi and not mine catches
27371 something. All I care about is to enjoy seeing the chase, is it not so,
27372 Count? For I consider that..."
27374 "A-tu!" came the long-drawn cry of one of the borzoi whippers-in, who
27375 had halted. He stood on a knoll in the stubble, holding his whip aloft,
27376 and again repeated his long-drawn cry, "A-tu!" (This call and the
27377 uplifted whip meant that he saw a sitting hare.)
27379 "Ah, he has found one, I think," said Ilagin carelessly. "Yes, we must
27380 ride up.... Shall we both course it?" answered Nicholas, seeing in Erza
27381 and "Uncle's" red Rugay two rivals he had never yet had a chance of
27382 pitting against his own borzois. "And suppose they outdo my Milka at
27383 once!" he thought as he rode with "Uncle" and Ilagin toward the hare.
27385 "A full-grown one?" asked Ilagin as he approached the whip who had
27386 sighted the hare--and not without agitation he looked round and whistled
27389 "And you, Michael Nikanorovich?" he said, addressing "Uncle."
27391 The latter was riding with a sullen expression on his face.
27393 "How can I join in? Why, you've given a village for each of your
27394 borzois! That's it, come on! Yours are worth thousands. Try yours
27395 against one another, you two, and I'll look on!"
27397 "Rugay, hey, hey!" he shouted. "Rugayushka!" he added, involuntarily by
27398 this diminutive expressing his affection and the hopes he placed on this
27399 red borzoi. Natasha saw and felt the agitation the two elderly men and
27400 her brother were trying to conceal, and was herself excited by it.
27402 The huntsman stood halfway up the knoll holding up his whip and the
27403 gentlefolk rode up to him at a footpace; the hounds that were far off on
27404 the horizon turned away from the hare, and the whips, but not the
27405 gentlefolk, also moved away. All were moving slowly and sedately.
27407 "How is it pointing?" asked Nicholas, riding a hundred paces toward the
27408 whip who had sighted the hare.
27410 But before the whip could reply, the hare, scenting the frost coming
27411 next morning, was unable to rest and leaped up. The pack on leash rushed
27412 downhill in full cry after the hare, and from all sides the borzois that
27413 were not on leash darted after the hounds and the hare. All the hunt,
27414 who had been moving slowly, shouted, "Stop!" calling in the hounds,
27415 while the borzoi whips, with a cry of "A-tu!" galloped across the field
27416 setting the borzois on the hare. The tranquil Ilagin, Nicholas, Natasha,
27417 and "Uncle" flew, reckless of where and how they went, seeing only the
27418 borzois and the hare and fearing only to lose sight even for an instant
27419 of the chase. The hare they had started was a strong and swift one. When
27420 he jumped up he did not run at once, but pricked his ears listening to
27421 the shouting and trampling that resounded from all sides at once. He
27422 took a dozen bounds, not very quickly, letting the borzois gain on him,
27423 and, finally having chosen his direction and realized his danger, laid
27424 back his ears and rushed off headlong. He had been lying in the stubble,
27425 but in front of him was the autumn sowing where the ground was soft. The
27426 two borzois of the huntsman who had sighted him, having been the
27427 nearest, were the first to see and pursue him, but they had not gone far
27428 before Ilagin's red-spotted Erza passed them, got within a length, flew
27429 at the hare with terrible swiftness aiming at his scut, and, thinking
27430 she had seized him, rolled over like a ball. The hare arched his back
27431 and bounded off yet more swiftly. From behind Erza rushed the broad-
27432 haunched, black-spotted Milka and began rapidly gaining on the hare.
27434 "Milashka, dear!" rose Nicholas' triumphant cry. It looked as if Milka
27435 would immediately pounce on the hare, but she overtook him and flew
27436 past. The hare had squatted. Again the beautiful Erza reached him, but
27437 when close to the hare's scut paused as if measuring the distance, so as
27438 not to make a mistake this time but seize his hind leg.
27440 "Erza, darling!" Ilagin wailed in a voice unlike his own. Erza did not
27441 hearken to his appeal. At the very moment when she would have seized her
27442 prey, the hare moved and darted along the balk between the winter rye
27443 and the stubble. Again Erza and Milka were abreast, running like a pair
27444 of carriage horses, and began to overtake the hare, but it was easier
27445 for the hare to run on the balk and the borzois did not overtake him so
27448 "Rugay, Rugayushka! That's it, come on!" came a third voice just then,
27449 and "Uncle's" red borzoi, straining and curving its back, caught up with
27450 the two foremost borzois, pushed ahead of them regardless of the
27451 terrible strain, put on speed close to the hare, knocked it off the balk
27452 onto the ryefield, again put on speed still more viciously, sinking to
27453 his knees in the muddy field, and all one could see was how, muddying
27454 his back, he rolled over with the hare. A ring of borzois surrounded
27455 him. A moment later everyone had drawn up round the crowd of dogs. Only
27456 the delighted "Uncle" dismounted, and cut off a pad, shaking the hare
27457 for the blood to drip off, and anxiously glancing round with restless
27458 eyes while his arms and legs twitched. He spoke without himself knowing
27459 whom to or what about. "That's it, come on! That's a dog!... There, it
27460 has beaten them all, the thousand-ruble as well as the one-ruble
27461 borzois. That's it, come on!" said he, panting and looking wrathfully
27462 around as if he were abusing someone, as if they were all his enemies
27463 and had insulted him, and only now had he at last succeeded in
27464 justifying himself. "There are your thousand-ruble ones.... That's it,
27467 "Rugay, here's a pad for you!" he said, throwing down the hare's muddy
27468 pad. "You've deserved it, that's it, come on!"
27470 "She'd tired herself out, she'd run it down three times by herself,"
27471 said Nicholas, also not listening to anyone and regardless of whether he
27474 "But what is there in running across it like that?" said Ilagin's groom.
27476 "Once she had missed it and turned it away, any mongrel could take it,"
27477 Ilagin was saying at the same time, breathless from his gallop and his
27478 excitement. At the same moment Natasha, without drawing breath, screamed
27479 joyously, ecstatically, and so piercingly that it set everyone's ear
27480 tingling. By that shriek she expressed what the others expressed by all
27481 talking at once, and it was so strange that she must herself have been
27482 ashamed of so wild a cry and everyone else would have been amazed at it
27483 at any other time. "Uncle" himself twisted up the hare, threw it neatly
27484 and smartly across his horse's back as if by that gesture he meant to
27485 rebuke everybody, and, with an air of not wishing to speak to anyone,
27486 mounted his bay and rode off. The others all followed, dispirited and
27487 shamefaced, and only much later were they able to regain their former
27488 affectation of indifference. For a long time they continued to look at
27489 red Rugay who, his arched back spattered with mud and clanking the ring
27490 of his leash, walked along just behind "Uncle's" horse with the serene
27491 air of a conqueror.
27493 "Well, I am like any other dog as long as it's not a question of
27494 coursing. But when it is, then look out!" his appearance seemed to
27495 Nicholas to be saying.
27497 When, much later, "Uncle" rode up to Nicholas and began talking to him,
27498 he felt flattered that, after what had happened, "Uncle" deigned to
27506 Toward evening Ilagin took leave of Nicholas, who found that they were
27507 so far from home that he accepted "Uncle's" offer that the hunting party
27508 should spend the night in his little village of Mikhaylovna.
27510 "And if you put up at my house that will be better still. That's it,
27511 come on!" said "Uncle." "You see it's damp weather, and you could rest,
27512 and the little countess could be driven home in a trap."
27514 "Uncle's" offer was accepted. A huntsman was sent to Otradnoe for a
27515 trap, while Nicholas rode with Natasha and Petya to "Uncle's" house.
27517 Some five male domestic serfs, big and little, rushed out to the front
27518 porch to meet their master. A score of women serfs, old and young, as
27519 well as children, popped out from the back entrance to have a look at
27520 the hunters who were arriving. The presence of Natasha--a woman, a lady,
27521 and on horseback--raised the curiosity of the serfs to such a degree
27522 that many of them came up to her, stared her in the face, and unabashed
27523 by her presence made remarks about her as though she were some prodigy
27524 on show and not a human being able to hear or understand what was said
27527 "Arinka! Look, she sits sideways! There she sits and her skirt
27528 dangles.... See, she's got a little hunting horn!"
27530 "Goodness gracious! See her knife?..."
27532 "Isn't she a Tartar!"
27534 "How is it you didn't go head over heels?" asked the boldest of all,
27535 addressing Natasha directly.
27537 "Uncle" dismounted at the porch of his little wooden house which stood
27538 in the midst of an overgrown garden and, after a glance at his
27539 retainers, shouted authoritatively that the superfluous ones should take
27540 themselves off and that all necessary preparations should be made to
27541 receive the guests and the visitors.
27543 The serfs all dispersed. "Uncle" lifted Natasha off her horse and taking
27544 her hand led her up the rickety wooden steps of the porch. The house,
27545 with its bare, unplastered log walls, was not overclean--it did not seem
27546 that those living in it aimed at keeping it spotless--but neither was it
27547 noticeably neglected. In the entry there was a smell of fresh apples,
27548 and wolf and fox skins hung about.
27550 "Uncle" led the visitors through the anteroom into a small hall with a
27551 folding table and red chairs, then into the drawing room with a round
27552 birchwood table and a sofa, and finally into his private room where
27553 there was a tattered sofa, a worn carpet, and portraits of Suvorov, of
27554 the host's father and mother, and of himself in military uniform. The
27555 study smelt strongly of tobacco and dogs. "Uncle" asked his visitors to
27556 sit down and make themselves at home, and then went out of the room.
27557 Rugay, his back still muddy, came into the room and lay down on the
27558 sofa, cleaning himself with his tongue and teeth. Leading from the study
27559 was a passage in which a partition with ragged curtains could be seen.
27560 From behind this came women's laughter and whispers. Natasha, Nicholas,
27561 and Petya took off their wraps and sat down on the sofa. Petya, leaning
27562 on his elbow, fell asleep at once. Natasha and Nicholas were silent.
27563 Their faces glowed, they were hungry and very cheerful. They looked at
27564 one another (now that the hunt was over and they were in the house,
27565 Nicholas no longer considered it necessary to show his manly superiority
27566 over his sister), Natasha gave him a wink, and neither refrained long
27567 from bursting into a peal of ringing laughter even before they had a
27568 pretext ready to account for it.
27570 After a while "Uncle" came in, in a Cossack coat, blue trousers, and
27571 small top boots. And Natasha felt that this costume, the very one she
27572 had regarded with surprise and amusement at Otradnoe, was just the right
27573 thing and not at all worse than a swallow-tail or frock coat. "Uncle"
27574 too was in high spirits and far from being offended by the brother's and
27575 sister's laughter (it could never enter his head that they might be
27576 laughing at his way of life) he himself joined in the merriment.
27578 "That's right, young countess, that's it, come on! I never saw anyone
27579 like her!" said he, offering Nicholas a pipe with a long stem and, with
27580 a practiced motion of three fingers, taking down another that had been
27581 cut short. "She's ridden all day like a man, and is as fresh as ever!"
27583 Soon after "Uncle's" reappearance the door was opened, evidently from
27584 the sound by a barefooted girl, and a stout, rosy, good-looking woman of
27585 about forty, with a double chin and full red lips, entered carrying a
27586 large loaded tray. With hospitable dignity and cordiality in her glance
27587 and in every motion, she looked at the visitors and, with a pleasant
27588 smile, bowed respectfully. In spite of her exceptional stoutness, which
27589 caused her to protrude her chest and stomach and throw back her head,
27590 this woman (who was "Uncle's" housekeeper) trod very lightly. She went
27591 to the table, set down the tray, and with her plump white hands deftly
27592 took from it the bottles and various hors d'oeuvres and dishes and
27593 arranged them on the table. When she had finished, she stepped aside and
27594 stopped at the door with a smile on her face. "Here I am. I am she! Now
27595 do you understand 'Uncle'?" her expression said to Rostov. How could one
27596 help understanding? Not only Nicholas, but even Natasha understood the
27597 meaning of his puckered brow and the happy complacent smile that
27598 slightly puckered his lips when Anisya Fedorovna entered. On the tray
27599 was a bottle of herb wine, different kinds of vodka, pickled mushrooms,
27600 rye cakes made with buttermilk, honey in the comb, still mead and
27601 sparkling mead, apples, nuts (raw and roasted), and nut-and-honey
27602 sweets. Afterwards she brought a freshly roasted chicken, ham, preserves
27603 made with honey, and preserves made with sugar.
27605 All this was the fruit of Anisya Fedorovna's housekeeping, gathered and
27606 prepared by her. The smell and taste of it all had a smack of Anisya
27607 Fedorovna herself: a savor of juiciness, cleanliness, whiteness, and
27610 "Take this, little Lady-Countess!" she kept saying, as she offered
27611 Natasha first one thing and then another.
27613 Natasha ate of everything and thought she had never seen or eaten such
27614 buttermilk cakes, such aromatic jam, such honey-and-nut sweets, or such
27615 a chicken anywhere. Anisya Fedorovna left the room.
27617 After supper, over their cherry brandy, Rostov and "Uncle" talked of
27618 past and future hunts, of Rugay and Ilagin's dogs, while Natasha sat
27619 upright on the sofa and listened with sparkling eyes. She tried several
27620 times to wake Petya that he might eat something, but he only muttered
27621 incoherent words without waking up. Natasha felt so lighthearted and
27622 happy in these novel surroundings that she only feared the trap would
27623 come for her too soon. After a casual pause, such as often occurs when
27624 receiving friends for the first time in one's own house, "Uncle,"
27625 answering a thought that was in his visitors' mind, said:
27627 "This, you see, is how I am finishing my days... Death will come. That's
27628 it, come on! Nothing will remain. Then why harm anyone?"
27630 "Uncle's" face was very significant and even handsome as he said this.
27631 Involuntarily Rostov recalled all the good he had heard about him from
27632 his father and the neighbors. Throughout the whole province "Uncle" had
27633 the reputation of being the most honorable and disinterested of cranks.
27634 They called him in to decide family disputes, chose him as executor,
27635 confided secrets to him, elected him to be a justice and to other posts;
27636 but he always persistently refused public appointments, passing the
27637 autumn and spring in the fields on his bay gelding, sitting at home in
27638 winter, and lying in his overgrown garden in summer.
27640 "Why don't you enter the service, Uncle?"
27642 "I did once, but gave it up. I am not fit for it. That's it, come on! I
27643 can't make head or tail of it. That's for you--I haven't brains enough.
27644 Now, hunting is another matter--that's it, come on! Open the door,
27645 there!" he shouted. "Why have you shut it?"
27647 The door at the end of the passage led to the huntsmen's room, as they
27648 called the room for the hunt servants.
27650 There was a rapid patter of bare feet, and an unseen hand opened the
27651 door into the huntsmen's room, from which came the clear sounds of a
27652 balalayka on which someone, who was evidently a master of the art, was
27653 playing. Natasha had been listening to those strains for some time and
27654 now went out into the passage to hear better.
27656 "That's Mitka, my coachman.... I have got him a good balalayka. I'm fond
27657 of it," said "Uncle."
27659 It was the custom for Mitka to play the balalayka in the huntsmen's room
27660 when "Uncle" returned from the chase. "Uncle" was fond of such music.
27662 "How good! Really very good!" said Nicholas with some unintentional
27663 superciliousness, as if ashamed to confess that the sounds pleased him
27666 "Very good?" said Natasha reproachfully, noticing her brother's tone.
27667 "Not 'very good' it's simply delicious!"
27669 Just as "Uncle's" pickled mushrooms, honey, and cherry brandy had seemed
27670 to her the best in the world, so also that song, at that moment, seemed
27671 to her the acme of musical delight.
27673 "More, please, more!" cried Natasha at the door as soon as the balalayka
27674 ceased. Mitka tuned up afresh, and recommenced thrumming the balalayka
27675 to the air of My Lady, with trills and variations. "Uncle" sat
27676 listening, slightly smiling, with his head on one side. The air was
27677 repeated a hundred times. The balalayka was retuned several times and
27678 the same notes were thrummed again, but the listeners did not grow weary
27679 of it and wished to hear it again and again. Anisya Fedorovna came in
27680 and leaned her portly person against the doorpost.
27682 "You like listening?" she said to Natasha, with a smile extremely like
27683 "Uncle's." "That's a good player of ours," she added.
27685 "He doesn't play that part right!" said "Uncle" suddenly, with an
27686 energetic gesture. "Here he ought to burst out--that's it, come on!--
27687 ought to burst out."
27689 "Do you play then?" asked Natasha.
27691 "Uncle" did not answer, but smiled.
27693 "Anisya, go and see if the strings of my guitar are all right. I haven't
27694 touched it for a long time. That's it--come on! I've given it up."
27696 Anisya Fedorovna, with her light step, willingly went to fulfill her
27697 errand and brought back the guitar.
27699 Without looking at anyone, "Uncle" blew the dust off it and, tapping the
27700 case with his bony fingers, tuned the guitar and settled himself in his
27701 armchair. He took the guitar a little above the fingerboard, arching his
27702 left elbow with a somewhat theatrical gesture, and, with a wink at
27703 Anisya Fedorovna, struck a single chord, pure and sonorous, and then
27704 quietly, smoothly, and confidently began playing in very slow time, not
27705 My Lady, but the well-known song: Came a maiden down the street. The
27706 tune, played with precision and in exact time, began to thrill in the
27707 hearts of Nicholas and Natasha, arousing in them the same kind of sober
27708 mirth as radiated from Anisya Fedorovna's whole being. Anisya Fedorovna
27709 flushed, and drawing her kerchief over her face went laughing out of the
27710 room. "Uncle" continued to play correctly, carefully, with energetic
27711 firmness, looking with a changed and inspired expression at the spot
27712 where Anisya Fedorovna had just stood. Something seemed to be laughing a
27713 little on one side of his face under his gray mustaches, especially as
27714 the song grew brisker and the time quicker and when, here and there, as
27715 he ran his fingers over the strings, something seemed to snap.
27717 "Lovely, lovely! Go on, Uncle, go on!" shouted Natasha as soon as he had
27718 finished. She jumped up and hugged and kissed him. "Nicholas, Nicholas!"
27719 she said, turning to her brother, as if asking him: "What is it moves me
27722 Nicholas too was greatly pleased by "Uncle's" playing, and "Uncle"
27723 played the piece over again. Anisya Fedorovna's smiling face reappeared
27724 in the doorway and behind hers other faces...
27727 Fetching water clear and sweet, Stop, dear maiden, I entreat--
27729 played "Uncle" once more, running his fingers skillfully over the
27730 strings, and then he stopped short and jerked his shoulders.
27732 "Go on, Uncle dear," Natasha wailed in an imploring tone as if her life
27735 "Uncle" rose, and it was as if there were two men in him: one of them
27736 smiled seriously at the merry fellow, while the merry fellow struck a
27737 naive and precise attitude preparatory to a folk dance.
27739 "Now then, niece!" he exclaimed, waving to Natasha the hand that had
27740 just struck a chord.
27742 Natasha threw off the shawl from her shoulders, ran forward to face
27743 "Uncle," and setting her arms akimbo also made a motion with her
27744 shoulders and struck an attitude.
27746 Where, how, and when had this young countess, educated by an emigree
27747 French governess, imbibed from the Russian air she breathed that spirit
27748 and obtained that manner which the pas de chale * would, one would have
27749 supposed, long ago have effaced? But the spirit and the movements were
27750 those inimitable and unteachable Russian ones that "Uncle" had expected
27751 of her. As soon as she had struck her pose, and smiled triumphantly,
27752 proudly, and with sly merriment, the fear that had at first seized
27753 Nicholas and the others that she might not do the right thing was at an
27754 end, and they were already admiring her.
27757 * The French shawl dance.
27759 She did the right thing with such precision, such complete precision,
27760 that Anisya Fedorovna, who had at once handed her the handkerchief she
27761 needed for the dance, had tears in her eyes, though she laughed as she
27762 watched this slim, graceful countess, reared in silks and velvets and so
27763 different from herself, who yet was able to understand all that was in
27764 Anisya and in Anisya's father and mother and aunt, and in every Russian
27767 "Well, little countess; that's it--come on!" cried "Uncle," with a
27768 joyous laugh, having finished the dance. "Well done, niece! Now a fine
27769 young fellow must be found as husband for you. That's it--come on!"
27771 "He's chosen already," said Nicholas smiling.
27773 "Oh?" said "Uncle" in surprise, looking inquiringly at Natasha, who
27774 nodded her head with a happy smile.
27776 "And such a one!" she said. But as soon as she had said it a new train
27777 of thoughts and feelings arose in her. "What did Nicholas' smile mean
27778 when he said 'chosen already'? Is he glad of it or not? It is as if he
27779 thought my Bolkonski would not approve of or understand our gaiety. But
27780 he would understand it all. Where is he now?" she thought, and her face
27781 suddenly became serious. But this lasted only a second. "Don't dare to
27782 think about it," she said to herself, and sat down again smilingly
27783 beside "Uncle," begging him to play something more.
27785 "Uncle" played another song and a valse; then after a pause he cleared
27786 his throat and sang his favorite hunting song:
27789 As 'twas growing dark last night Fell the snow so soft and light...
27791 "Uncle" sang as peasants sing, with full and naive conviction that the
27792 whole meaning of a song lies in the words and that the tune comes of
27793 itself, and that apart from the words there is no tune, which exists
27794 only to give measure to the words. As a result of this the unconsidered
27795 tune, like the song of a bird, was extraordinarily good. Natasha was in
27796 ecstasies over "Uncle's" singing. She resolved to give up learning the
27797 harp and to play only the guitar. She asked "Uncle" for his guitar and
27798 at once found the chords of the song.
27800 After nine o'clock two traps and three mounted men, who had been sent to
27801 look for them, arrived to fetch Natasha and Petya. The count and
27802 countess did not know where they were and were very anxious, said one of
27805 Petya was carried out like a log and laid in the larger of the two
27806 traps. Natasha and Nicholas got into the other. "Uncle" wrapped Natasha
27807 up warmly and took leave of her with quite a new tenderness. He
27808 accompanied them on foot as far as the bridge that could not be crossed,
27809 so that they had to go round by the ford, and he sent huntsmen to ride
27810 in front with lanterns.
27812 "Good-bye, dear niece," his voice called out of the darkness--not the
27813 voice Natasha had known previously, but the one that had sung As 'twas
27814 growing dark last night.
27816 In the village through which they passed there were red lights and a
27817 cheerful smell of smoke.
27819 "What a darling Uncle is!" said Natasha, when they had come out onto the
27822 "Yes," returned Nicholas. "You're not cold?"
27824 "No. I'm quite, quite all right. I feel so comfortable!" answered
27825 Natasha, almost perplexed by her feelings. They remained silent a long
27826 while. The night was dark and damp. They could not see the horses, but
27827 only heard them splashing through the unseen mud.
27829 What was passing in that receptive childlike soul that so eagerly caught
27830 and assimilated all the diverse impressions of life? How did they all
27831 find place in her? But she was very happy. As they were nearing home she
27832 suddenly struck up the air of As 'twas growing dark last night--the tune
27833 of which she had all the way been trying to get and had at last caught.
27835 "Got it?" said Nicholas.
27837 "What were you thinking about just now, Nicholas?" inquired Natasha.
27839 They were fond of asking one another that question.
27841 "I?" said Nicholas, trying to remember. "Well, you see, first I thought
27842 that Rugay, the red hound, was like Uncle, and that if he were a man he
27843 would always keep Uncle near him, if not for his riding, then for his
27844 manner. What a good fellow Uncle is! Don't you think so?... Well, and
27847 "I? Wait a bit, wait.... Yes, first I thought that we are driving along
27848 and imagining that we are going home, but that heaven knows where we are
27849 really going in the darkness, and that we shall arrive and suddenly find
27850 that we are not in Otradnoe, but in Fairyland. And then I thought... No,
27853 "I know, I expect you thought of him," said Nicholas, smiling as Natasha
27854 knew by the sound of his voice.
27856 "No," said Natasha, though she had in reality been thinking about Prince
27857 Andrew at the same time as of the rest, and of how he would have liked
27858 "Uncle." "And then I was saying to myself all the way, 'How well Anisya
27859 carried herself, how well!'" And Nicholas heard her spontaneous, happy,
27860 ringing laughter. "And do you know," she suddenly said, "I know that I
27861 shall never again be as happy and tranquil as I am now."
27863 "Rubbish, nonsense, humbug!" exclaimed Nicholas, and he thought: "How
27864 charming this Natasha of mine is! I have no other friend like her and
27865 never shall have. Why should she marry? We might always drive about
27868 "What a darling this Nicholas of mine is!" thought Natasha.
27870 "Ah, there are still lights in the drawing-room!" she said, pointing to
27871 the windows of the house that gleamed invitingly in the moist velvety
27872 darkness of the night.
27879 Count Ilya Rostov had resigned the position of Marshal of the Nobility
27880 because it involved him in too much expense, but still his affairs did
27881 not improve. Natasha and Nicholas often noticed their parents conferring
27882 together anxiously and privately and heard suggestions of selling the
27883 fine ancestral Rostov house and estate near Moscow. It was not necessary
27884 to entertain so freely as when the count had been Marshal, and life at
27885 Otradnoe was quieter than in former years, but still the enormous house
27886 and its lodges were full of people and more than twenty sat down to
27887 table every day. These were all their own people who had settled down in
27888 the house almost as members of the family, or persons who were, it
27889 seemed, obliged to live in the count's house. Such were Dimmler the
27890 musician and his wife, Vogel the dancing master and his family, Belova,
27891 an old maiden lady, an inmate of the house, and many others such as
27892 Petya's tutors, the girls' former governess, and other people who simply
27893 found it preferable and more advantageous to live in the count's house
27894 than at home. They had not as many visitors as before, but the old
27895 habits of life without which the count and countess could not conceive
27896 of existence remained unchanged. There was still the hunting
27897 establishment which Nicholas had even enlarged, the same fifty horses
27898 and fifteen grooms in the stables, the same expensive presents and
27899 dinner parties to the whole district on name days; there were still the
27900 count's games of whist and boston, at which--spreading out his cards so
27901 that everybody could see them--he let himself be plundered of hundreds
27902 of rubles every day by his neighbors, who looked upon an opportunity to
27903 play a rubber with Count Rostov as a most profitable source of income.
27905 The count moved in his affairs as in a huge net, trying not to believe
27906 that he was entangled but becoming more and more so at every step, and
27907 feeling too feeble to break the meshes or to set to work carefully and
27908 patiently to disentangle them. The countess, with her loving heart, felt
27909 that her children were being ruined, that it was not the count's fault
27910 for he could not help being what he was--that (though he tried to hide
27911 it) he himself suffered from the consciousness of his own and his
27912 children's ruin, and she tried to find means of remedying the position.
27913 From her feminine point of view she could see only one solution, namely,
27914 for Nicholas to marry a rich heiress. She felt this to be their last
27915 hope and that if Nicholas refused the match she had found for him, she
27916 would have to abandon the hope of ever getting matters right. This match
27917 was with Julie Karagina, the daughter of excellent and virtuous parents,
27918 a girl the Rostovs had known from childhood, and who had now become a
27919 wealthy heiress through the death of the last of her brothers.
27921 The countess had written direct to Julie's mother in Moscow suggesting a
27922 marriage between their children and had received a favorable answer from
27923 her. Karagina had replied that for her part she was agreeable, and
27924 everything depend on her daughter's inclination. She invited Nicholas to
27927 Several times the countess, with tears in her eyes, told her son that
27928 now both her daughters were settled, her only wish was to see him
27929 married. She said she could lie down in her grave peacefully if that
27930 were accomplished. Then she told him that she knew of a splendid girl
27931 and tried to discover what he thought about marriage.
27933 At other times she praised Julie to him and advised him to go to Moscow
27934 during the holidays to amuse himself. Nicholas guessed what his mother's
27935 remarks were leading to and during one of these conversations induced
27936 her to speak quite frankly. She told him that her only hope of getting
27937 their affairs disentangled now lay in his marrying Julie Karagina.
27939 "But, Mamma, suppose I loved a girl who has no fortune, would you expect
27940 me to sacrifice my feelings and my honor for the sake of money?" he
27941 asked his mother, not realizing the cruelty of his question and only
27942 wishing to show his noble-mindedness.
27944 "No, you have not understood me," said his mother, not knowing how to
27945 justify herself. "You have not understood me, Nikolenka. It is your
27946 happiness I wish for," she added, feeling that she was telling an
27947 untruth and was becoming entangled. She began to cry.
27949 "Mamma, don't cry! Only tell me that you wish it, and you know I will
27950 give my life, anything, to put you at ease," said Nicholas. "I would
27951 sacrifice anything for you--even my feelings."
27953 But the countess did not want the question put like that: she did not
27954 want a sacrifice from her son, she herself wished to make a sacrifice
27957 "No, you have not understood me, don't let us talk about it," she
27958 replied, wiping away her tears.
27960 "Maybe I do love a poor girl," said Nicholas to himself. "Am I to
27961 sacrifice my feelings and my honor for money? I wonder how Mamma could
27962 speak so to me. Because Sonya is poor I must not love her," he thought,
27963 "must not respond to her faithful, devoted love? Yet I should certainly
27964 be happier with her than with some doll-like Julie. I can always
27965 sacrifice my feelings for my family's welfare," he said to himself, "but
27966 I can't coerce my feelings. If I love Sonya, that feeling is for me
27967 stronger and higher than all else."
27969 Nicholas did not go to Moscow, and the countess did not renew the
27970 conversation with him about marriage. She saw with sorrow, and sometimes
27971 with exasperation, symptoms of a growing attachment between her son and
27972 the portionless Sonya. Though she blamed herself for it, she could not
27973 refrain from grumbling at and worrying Sonya, often pulling her up
27974 without reason, addressing her stiffly as "my dear," and using the
27975 formal "you" instead of the intimate "thou" in speaking to her. The
27976 kindhearted countess was the more vexed with Sonya because that poor,
27977 dark-eyed niece of hers was so meek, so kind, so devotedly grateful to
27978 her benefactors, and so faithfully, unchangingly, and unselfishly in
27979 love with Nicholas, that there were no grounds for finding fault with
27982 Nicholas was spending the last of his leave at home. A fourth letter had
27983 come from Prince Andrew, from Rome, in which he wrote that he would have
27984 been on his way back to Russia long ago had not his wound unexpectedly
27985 reopened in the warm climate, which obliged him to defer his return till
27986 the beginning of the new year. Natasha was still as much in love with
27987 her betrothed, found the same comfort in that love, and was still as
27988 ready to throw herself into all the pleasures of life as before; but at
27989 the end of the fourth month of their separation she began to have fits
27990 of depression which she could not master. She felt sorry for herself:
27991 sorry that she was being wasted all this time and of no use to anyone--
27992 while she felt herself so capable of loving and being loved.
27994 Things were not cheerful in the Rostovs' home.
28001 Christmas came and except for the ceremonial Mass, the solemn and
28002 wearisome Christmas congratulations from neighbors and servants, and the
28003 new dresses everyone put on, there were no special festivities, though
28004 the calm frost of twenty degrees Reaumur, the dazzling sunshine by day,
28005 and the starlight of the winter nights seemed to call for some special
28006 celebration of the season.
28008 On the third day of Christmas week, after the midday dinner, all the
28009 inmates of the house dispersed to various rooms. It was the dullest time
28010 of the day. Nicholas, who had been visiting some neighbors that morning,
28011 was asleep on the sitting-room sofa. The old count was resting in his
28012 study. Sonya sat in the drawing room at the round table, copying a
28013 design for embroidery. The countess was playing patience. Nastasya
28014 Ivanovna the buffoon sat with a sad face at the window with two old
28015 ladies. Natasha came into the room, went up to Sonya, glanced at what
28016 she was doing, and then went up to her mother and stood without
28019 "Why are you wandering about like an outcast?" asked her mother. "What
28022 "Him... I want him... now, this minute! I want him!" said Natasha, with
28023 glittering eyes and no sign of a smile.
28025 The countess lifted her head and looked attentively at her daughter.
28027 "Don't look at me, Mamma! Don't look; I shall cry directly."
28029 "Sit down with me a little," said the countess.
28031 "Mamma, I want him. Why should I be wasted like this, Mamma?"
28033 Her voice broke, tears gushed from her eyes, and she turned quickly to
28034 hide them and left the room.
28036 She passed into the sitting room, stood there thinking awhile, and then
28037 went into the maids' room. There an old maidservant was grumbling at a
28038 young girl who stood panting, having just run in through the cold from
28039 the serfs' quarters.
28041 "Stop playing--there's a time for everything," said the old woman.
28043 "Let her alone, Kondratevna," said Natasha. "Go, Mavrushka, go."
28045 Having released Mavrushka, Natasha crossed the dancing hall and went to
28046 the vestibule. There an old footman and two young ones were playing
28047 cards. They broke off and rose as she entered.
28049 "What can I do with them?" thought Natasha.
28051 "Oh, Nikita, please go... where can I send him?... Yes, go to the yard
28052 and fetch a fowl, please, a cock, and you, Misha, bring me some oats."
28054 "Just a few oats?" said Misha, cheerfully and readily.
28056 "Go, go quickly," the old man urged him.
28058 "And you, Theodore, get me a piece of chalk."
28060 On her way past the butler's pantry she told them to set a samovar,
28061 though it was not at all the time for tea.
28063 Foka, the butler, was the most ill-tempered person in the house. Natasha
28064 liked to test her power over him. He distrusted the order and asked
28065 whether the samovar was really wanted.
28067 "Oh dear, what a young lady!" said Foka, pretending to frown at Natasha.
28069 No one in the house sent people about or gave them as much trouble as
28070 Natasha did. She could not see people unconcernedly, but had to send
28071 them on some errand. She seemed to be trying whether any of them would
28072 get angry or sulky with her; but the serfs fulfilled no one's orders so
28073 readily as they did hers. "What can I do, where can I go?" thought she,
28074 as she went slowly along the passage.
28076 "Nastasya Ivanovna, what sort of children shall I have?" she asked the
28077 buffoon, who was coming toward her in a woman's jacket.
28079 "Why, fleas, crickets, grasshoppers," answered the buffoon.
28081 "O Lord, O Lord, it's always the same! Oh, where am I to go? What am I
28082 to do with myself?" And tapping with her heels, she ran quickly upstairs
28083 to see Vogel and his wife who lived on the upper story.
28085 Two governesses were sitting with the Vogels at a table, on which were
28086 plates of raisins, walnuts, and almonds. The governesses were discussing
28087 whether it was cheaper to live in Moscow or Odessa. Natasha sat down,
28088 listened to their talk with a serious and thoughtful air, and then got
28091 "The island of Madagascar," she said, "Ma-da-gas-car," she repeated,
28092 articulating each syllable distinctly, and, not replying to Madame
28093 Schoss who asked her what she was saying, she went out of the room.
28095 Her brother Petya was upstairs too; with the man in attendance on him he
28096 was preparing fireworks to let off that night.
28098 "Petya! Petya!" she called to him. "Carry me downstairs."
28100 Petya ran up and offered her his back. She jumped on it, putting her
28101 arms round his neck, and he pranced along with her.
28103 "No, don't... the island of Madagascar!" she said, and jumping off his
28104 back she went downstairs.
28106 Having as it were reviewed her kingdom, tested her power, and made sure
28107 that everyone was submissive, but that all the same it was dull, Natasha
28108 betook herself to the ballroom, picked up her guitar, sat down in a dark
28109 corner behind a bookcase, and began to run her fingers over the strings
28110 in the bass, picking out a passage she recalled from an opera she had
28111 heard in Petersburg with Prince Andrew. What she drew from the guitar
28112 would have had no meaning for other listeners, but in her imagination a
28113 whole series of reminiscences arose from those sounds. She sat behind
28114 the bookcase with her eyes fixed on a streak of light escaping from the
28115 pantry door and listened to herself and pondered. She was in a mood for
28116 brooding on the past.
28118 Sonya passed to the pantry with a glass in her hand. Natasha glanced at
28119 her and at the crack in the pantry door, and it seemed to her that she
28120 remembered the light falling through that crack once before and Sonya
28121 passing with a glass in her hand. "Yes it was exactly the same," thought
28124 "Sonya, what is this?" she cried, twanging a thick string.
28126 "Oh, you are there!" said Sonya with a start, and came near and
28127 listened. "I don't know. A storm?" she ventured timidly, afraid of being
28130 "There! That's just how she started and just how she came up smiling
28131 timidly when all this happened before," thought Natasha, "and in just
28132 the same way I thought there was something lacking in her."
28134 "No, it's the chorus from The Water-Carrier, listen!" and Natasha sang
28135 the air of the chorus so that Sonya should catch it. "Where were you
28138 "To change the water in this glass. I am just finishing the design."
28140 "You always find something to do, but I can't," said Natasha. "And
28145 "Sonya, go and wake him," said Natasha. "Tell him I want him to come and
28148 She sat awhile, wondering what the meaning of it all having happened
28149 before could be, and without solving this problem, or at all regretting
28150 not having done so, she again passed in fancy to the time when she was
28151 with him and he was looking at her with a lover's eyes.
28153 "Oh, if only he would come quicker! I am so afraid it will never be!
28154 And, worst of all, I am growing old--that's the thing! There won't then
28155 be in me what there is now. But perhaps he'll come today, will come
28156 immediately. Perhaps he has come and is sitting in the drawing room.
28157 Perhaps he came yesterday and I have forgotten it." She rose, put down
28158 the guitar, and went to the drawing room.
28160 All the domestic circle, tutors, governesses, and guests, were already
28161 at the tea table. The servants stood round the table--but Prince Andrew
28162 was not there and life was going on as before.
28164 "Ah, here she is!" said the old count, when he saw Natasha enter. "Well,
28165 sit down by me." But Natasha stayed by her mother and glanced round as
28166 if looking for something.
28168 "Mamma!" she muttered, "give him to me, give him, Mamma, quickly,
28169 quickly!" and she again had difficulty in repressing her sobs.
28171 She sat down at the table and listened to the conversation between the
28172 elders and Nicholas, who had also come to the table. "My God, my God!
28173 The same faces, the same talk, Papa holding his cup and blowing in the
28174 same way!" thought Natasha, feeling with horror a sense of repulsion
28175 rising up in her for the whole household, because they were always the
28178 After tea, Nicholas, Sonya, and Natasha went to the sitting room, to
28179 their favorite corner where their most intimate talks always began.
28186 "Does it ever happen to you," said Natasha to her brother, when they
28187 settled down in the sitting room, "does it ever happen to you to feel as
28188 if there were nothing more to come--nothing; that everything good is
28189 past? And to feel not exactly dull, but sad?"
28191 "I should think so!" he replied. "I have felt like that when everything
28192 was all right and everyone was cheerful. The thought has come into my
28193 mind that I was already tired of it all, and that we must all die. Once
28194 in the regiment I had not gone to some merrymaking where there was
28195 music... and suddenly I felt so depressed..."
28197 "Oh yes, I know, I know, I know!" Natasha interrupted him. "When I was
28198 quite little that used to be so with me. Do you remember when I was
28199 punished once about some plums? You were all dancing, and I sat sobbing
28200 in the schoolroom? I shall never forget it: I felt sad and sorry for
28201 everyone, for myself, and for everyone. And I was innocent--that was the
28202 chief thing," said Natasha. "Do you remember?"
28204 "I remember," answered Nicholas. "I remember that I came to you
28205 afterwards and wanted to comfort you, but do you know, I felt ashamed
28206 to. We were terribly absurd. I had a funny doll then and wanted to give
28207 it to you. Do you remember?"
28209 "And do you remember," Natasha asked with a pensive smile, "how once,
28210 long, long ago, when we were quite little, Uncle called us into the
28211 study--that was in the old house--and it was dark--we went in and
28212 suddenly there stood..."
28214 "A Negro," chimed in Nicholas with a smile of delight. "Of course I
28215 remember. Even now I don't know whether there really was a Negro, or if
28216 we only dreamed it or were told about him."
28218 "He was gray, you remember, and had white teeth, and stood and looked at
28221 "Sonya, do you remember?" asked Nicholas.
28223 "Yes, yes, I do remember something too," Sonya answered timidly.
28225 "You know I have asked Papa and Mamma about that Negro," said Natasha,
28226 "and they say there was no Negro at all. But you see, you remember!"
28228 "Of course I do, I remember his teeth as if I had just seen them."
28230 "How strange it is! It's as if it were a dream! I like that."
28232 "And do you remember how we rolled hard-boiled eggs in the ballroom, and
28233 suddenly two old women began spinning round on the carpet? Was that real
28234 or not? Do you remember what fun it was?"
28236 "Yes, and you remember how Papa in his blue overcoat fired a gun in the
28239 So they went through their memories, smiling with pleasure: not the sad
28240 memories of old age, but poetic, youthful ones--those impressions of
28241 one's most distant past in which dreams and realities blend--and they
28242 laughed with quiet enjoyment.
28244 Sonya, as always, did not quite keep pace with them, though they shared
28245 the same reminiscences.
28247 Much that they remembered had slipped from her mind, and what she
28248 recalled did not arouse the same poetic feeling as they experienced. She
28249 simply enjoyed their pleasure and tried to fit in with it.
28251 She only really took part when they recalled Sonya's first arrival. She
28252 told them how afraid she had been of Nicholas because he had on a corded
28253 jacket and her nurse had told her that she, too, would be sewn up with
28256 "And I remember their telling me that you had been born under a
28257 cabbage," said Natasha, "and I remember that I dared not disbelieve it
28258 then, but knew that it was not true, and I felt so uncomfortable."
28260 While they were talking a maid thrust her head in at the other door of
28263 "They have brought the cock, Miss," she said in a whisper.
28265 "It isn't wanted, Petya. Tell them to take it away," replied Natasha.
28267 In the middle of their talk in the sitting room, Dimmler came in and
28268 went up to the harp that stood there in a corner. He took off its cloth
28269 covering, and the harp gave out a jarring sound.
28271 "Mr. Dimmler, please play my favorite nocturne by Field," came the old
28272 countess' voice from the drawing room.
28274 Dimmler struck a chord and, turning to Natasha, Nicholas, and Sonya,
28275 remarked: "How quiet you young people are!"
28277 "Yes, we're philosophizing," said Natasha, glancing round for a moment
28278 and then continuing the conversation. They were now discussing dreams.
28280 Dimmler began to play; Natasha went on tiptoe noiselessly to the table,
28281 took up a candle, carried it out, and returned, seating herself quietly
28282 in her former place. It was dark in the room especially where they were
28283 sitting on the sofa, but through the big windows the silvery light of
28284 the full moon fell on the floor. Dimmler had finished the piece but
28285 still sat softly running his fingers over the strings, evidently
28286 uncertain whether to stop or to play something else.
28288 "Do you know," said Natasha in a whisper, moving closer to Nicholas and
28289 Sonya, "that when one goes on and on recalling memories, one at last
28290 begins to remember what happened before one was in the world..."
28292 "That is metempsychosis," said Sonya, who had always learned well, and
28293 remembered everything. "The Egyptians believed that our souls have lived
28294 in animals, and will go back into animals again."
28296 "No, I don't believe we ever were in animals," said Natasha, still in a
28297 whisper though the music had ceased. "But I am certain that we were
28298 angels somewhere there, and have been here, and that is why we
28301 "May I join you?" said Dimmler who had come up quietly, and he sat down
28304 "If we have been angels, why have we fallen lower?" said Nicholas. "No,
28307 "Not lower, who said we were lower?... How do I know what I was before?"
28308 Natasha rejoined with conviction. "The soul is immortal--well then, if I
28309 shall always live I must have lived before, lived for a whole eternity."
28311 "Yes, but it is hard for us to imagine eternity," remarked Dimmler, who
28312 had joined the young folk with a mildly condescending smile but now
28313 spoke as quietly and seriously as they.
28315 "Why is it hard to imagine eternity?" said Natasha. "It is now today,
28316 and it will be tomorrow, and always; and there was yesterday, and the
28319 "Natasha! Now it's your turn. Sing me something," they heard the
28320 countess say. "Why are you sitting there like conspirators?"
28322 "Mamma, I don't at all want to," replied Natasha, but all the same she
28325 None of them, not even the middle-aged Dimmler, wanted to break off
28326 their conversation and quit that corner in the sitting room, but Natasha
28327 got up and Nicholas sat down at the clavichord. Standing as usual in the
28328 middle of the hall and choosing the place where the resonance was best,
28329 Natasha began to sing her mother's favorite song.
28331 She had said she did not want to sing, but it was long since she had
28332 sung, and long before she again sang, as she did that evening. The
28333 count, from his study where he was talking to Mitenka, heard her and,
28334 like a schoolboy in a hurry to run out to play, blundered in his talk
28335 while giving orders to the steward, and at last stopped, while Mitenka
28336 stood in front of him also listening and smiling. Nicholas did not take
28337 his eyes off his sister and drew breath in time with her. Sonya, as she
28338 listened, thought of the immense difference there was between herself
28339 and her friend, and how impossible it was for her to be anything like as
28340 bewitching as her cousin. The old countess sat with a blissful yet sad
28341 smile and with tears in her eyes, occasionally shaking her head. She
28342 thought of Natasha and of her own youth, and of how there was something
28343 unnatural and dreadful in this impending marriage of Natasha and Prince
28346 Dimmler, who had seated himself beside the countess, listened with
28349 "Ah, Countess," he said at last, "that's a European talent, she has
28350 nothing to learn--what softness, tenderness, and strength...."
28352 "Ah, how afraid I am for her, how afraid I am!" said the countess, not
28353 realizing to whom she was speaking. Her maternal instinct told her that
28354 Natasha had too much of something, and that because of this she would
28355 not be happy. Before Natasha had finished singing, fourteen-year-old
28356 Petya rushed in delightedly, to say that some mummers had arrived.
28358 Natasha stopped abruptly.
28360 "Idiot!" she screamed at her brother and, running to a chair, threw
28361 herself on it, sobbing so violently that she could not stop for a long
28364 "It's nothing, Mamma, really it's nothing; only Petya startled me," she
28365 said, trying to smile, but her tears still flowed and sobs still choked
28368 The mummers (some of the house serfs) dressed up as bears, Turks,
28369 innkeepers, and ladies--frightening and funny--bringing in with them the
28370 cold from outside and a feeling of gaiety, crowded, at first timidly,
28371 into the anteroom, then hiding behind one another they pushed into the
28372 ballroom where, shyly at first and then more and more merrily and
28373 heartily, they started singing, dancing, and playing Christmas games.
28374 The countess, when she had identified them and laughed at their
28375 costumes, went into the drawing room. The count sat in the ballroom,
28376 smiling radiantly and applauding the players. The young people had
28379 Half an hour later there appeared among the other mummers in the
28380 ballroom an old lady in a hooped skirt--this was Nicholas. A Turkish
28381 girl was Petya. A clown was Dimmler. An hussar was Natasha, and a
28382 Circassian was Sonya with burnt-cork mustache and eyebrows.
28384 After the condescending surprise, nonrecognition, and praise, from those
28385 who were not themselves dressed up, the young people decided that their
28386 costumes were so good that they ought to be shown elsewhere.
28388 Nicholas, who, as the roads were in splendid condition, wanted to take
28389 them all for a drive in his troyka, proposed to take with them about a
28390 dozen of the serf mummers and drive to "Uncle's."
28392 "No, why disturb the old fellow?" said the countess. "Besides, you
28393 wouldn't have room to turn round there. If you must go, go to the
28396 Melyukova was a widow, who, with her family and their tutors and
28397 governesses, lived three miles from the Rostovs.
28399 "That's right, my dear," chimed in the old count, thoroughly aroused.
28400 "I'll dress up at once and go with them. I'll make Pashette open her
28403 But the countess would not agree to his going; he had had a bad leg all
28404 these last days. It was decided that the count must not go, but that if
28405 Louisa Ivanovna (Madame Schoss) would go with them, the young ladies
28406 might go to the Melyukovs', Sonya, generally so timid and shy, more
28407 urgently than anyone begging Louisa Ivanovna not to refuse.
28409 Sonya's costume was the best of all. Her mustache and eyebrows were
28410 extraordinarily becoming. Everyone told her she looked very handsome,
28411 and she was in a spirited and energetic mood unusual with her. Some
28412 inner voice told her that now or never her fate would be decided, and in
28413 her male attire she seemed quite a different person. Louisa Ivanovna
28414 consented to go, and in half an hour four troyka sleighs with large and
28415 small bells, their runners squeaking and whistling over the frozen snow,
28416 drove up to the porch.
28418 Natasha was foremost in setting a merry holiday tone, which, passing
28419 from one to another, grew stronger and reached its climax when they all
28420 came out into the frost and got into the sleighs, talking, calling to
28421 one another, laughing, and shouting.
28423 Two of the troykas were the usual household sleighs, the third was the
28424 old count's with a trotter from the Orlov stud as shaft horse, the
28425 fourth was Nicholas' own with a short shaggy black shaft horse.
28426 Nicholas, in his old lady's dress over which he had belted his hussar
28427 overcoat, stood in the middle of the sleigh, reins in hand.
28429 It was so light that he could see the moonlight reflected from the metal
28430 harness disks and from the eyes of the horses, who looked round in alarm
28431 at the noisy party under the shadow of the porch roof.
28433 Natasha, Sonya, Madame Schoss, and two maids got into Nicholas' sleigh;
28434 Dimmler, his wife, and Petya, into the old count's, and the rest of the
28435 mummers seated themselves in the other two sleighs.
28437 "You go ahead, Zakhar!" shouted Nicholas to his father's coachman,
28438 wishing for a chance to race past him.
28440 The old count's troyka, with Dimmler and his party, started forward,
28441 squeaking on its runners as though freezing to the snow, its deep-toned
28442 bell clanging. The side horses, pressing against the shafts of the
28443 middle horse, sank in the snow, which was dry and glittered like sugar,
28446 Nicholas set off, following the first sleigh; behind him the others
28447 moved noisily, their runners squeaking. At first they drove at a steady
28448 trot along the narrow road. While they drove past the garden the shadows
28449 of the bare trees often fell across the road and hid the brilliant
28450 moonlight, but as soon as they were past the fence, the snowy plain
28451 bathed in moonlight and motionless spread out before them glittering
28452 like diamonds and dappled with bluish shadows. Bang, bang! went the
28453 first sleigh over a cradle hole in the snow of the road, and each of the
28454 other sleighs jolted in the same way, and rudely breaking the frost-
28455 bound stillness, the troykas began to speed along the road, one after
28458 "A hare's track, a lot of tracks!" rang out Natasha's voice through the
28461 "How light it is, Nicholas!" came Sonya's voice.
28463 Nicholas glanced round at Sonya, and bent down to see her face closer.
28464 Quite a new, sweet face with black eyebrows and mustaches peeped up at
28465 him from her sable furs--so close and yet so distant--in the moonlight.
28467 "That used to be Sonya," thought he, and looked at her closer and
28470 "What is it, Nicholas?"
28472 "Nothing," said he and turned again to the horses.
28474 When they came out onto the beaten highroad--polished by sleigh runners
28475 and cut up by rough-shod hoofs, the marks of which were visible in the
28476 moonlight--the horses began to tug at the reins of their own accord and
28477 increased their pace. The near side horse, arching his head and breaking
28478 into a short canter, tugged at his traces. The shaft horse swayed from
28479 side to side, moving his ears as if asking: "Isn't it time to begin
28480 now?" In front, already far ahead the deep bell of the sleigh ringing
28481 farther and farther off, the black horses driven by Zakhar could be
28482 clearly seen against the white snow. From that sleigh one could hear the
28483 shouts, laughter, and voices of the mummers.
28485 "Gee up, my darlings!" shouted Nicholas, pulling the reins to one side
28486 and flourishing the whip.
28488 It was only by the keener wind that met them and the jerks given by the
28489 side horses who pulled harder--ever increasing their gallop--that one
28490 noticed how fast the troyka was flying. Nicholas looked back. With
28491 screams squeals, and waving of whips that caused even the shaft horses
28492 to gallop--the other sleighs followed. The shaft horse swung steadily
28493 beneath the bow over its head, with no thought of slackening pace and
28494 ready to put on speed when required.
28496 Nicholas overtook the first sleigh. They were driving downhill and
28497 coming out upon a broad trodden track across a meadow, near a river.
28499 "Where are we?" thought he. "It's the Kosoy meadow, I suppose. But no--
28500 this is something new I've never seen before. This isn't the Kosoy
28501 meadow nor the Demkin hill, and heaven only knows what it is! It is
28502 something new and enchanted. Well, whatever it may be..." And shouting
28503 to his horses, he began to pass the first sleigh.
28505 Zakhar held back his horses and turned his face, which was already
28506 covered with hoarfrost to his eyebrows.
28508 Nicholas gave the horses the rein, and Zakhar, stretching out his arms,
28509 clucked his tongue and let his horses go.
28511 "Now, look out, master!" he cried.
28513 Faster still the two troykas flew side by side, and faster moved the
28514 feet of the galloping side horses. Nicholas began to draw ahead. Zakhar,
28515 while still keeping his arms extended, raised one hand with the reins.
28517 "No you won't, master!" he shouted.
28519 Nicholas put all his horses to a gallop and passed Zakhar. The horses
28520 showered the fine dry snow on the faces of those in the sleigh--beside
28521 them sounded quick ringing bells and they caught confused glimpses of
28522 swiftly moving legs and the shadows of the troyka they were passing. The
28523 whistling sound of the runners on the snow and the voices of girls
28524 shrieking were heard from different sides.
28526 Again checking his horses, Nicholas looked around him. They were still
28527 surrounded by the magic plain bathed in moonlight and spangled with
28530 "Zakhar is shouting that I should turn to the left, but why to the
28531 left?" thought Nicholas. "Are we getting to the Melyukovs'? Is this
28532 Melyukovka? Heaven only knows where we are going, and heaven knows what
28533 is happening to us--but it is very strange and pleasant whatever it is."
28534 And he looked round in the sleigh.
28536 "Look, his mustache and eyelashes are all white!" said one of the
28537 strange, pretty, unfamiliar people--the one with fine eyebrows and
28540 "I think this used to be Natasha," thought Nicholas, "and that was
28541 Madame Schoss, but perhaps it's not, and this Circassian with the
28542 mustache I don't know, but I love her."
28544 "Aren't you cold?" he asked.
28546 They did not answer but began to laugh. Dimmler from the sleigh behind
28547 shouted something--probably something funny--but they could not make out
28550 "Yes, yes!" some voices answered, laughing.
28552 "But here was a fairy forest with black moving shadows, and a glitter of
28553 diamonds and a flight of marble steps and the silver roofs of fairy
28554 buildings and the shrill yells of some animals. And if this is really
28555 Melyukovka, it is still stranger that we drove heaven knows where and
28556 have come to Melyukovka," thought Nicholas.
28558 It really was Melyukovka, and maids and footmen with merry faces came
28559 running, out to the porch carrying candles.
28561 "Who is it?" asked someone in the porch.
28563 "The mummers from the count's. I know by the horses," replied some
28571 Pelageya Danilovna Melyukova, a broadly built, energetic woman wearing
28572 spectacles, sat in the drawing room in a loose dress, surrounded by her
28573 daughters whom she was trying to keep from feeling dull. They were
28574 quietly dropping melted wax into snow and looking at the shadows the wax
28575 figures would throw on the wall, when they heard the steps and voices of
28576 new arrivals in the vestibule.
28578 Hussars, ladies, witches, clowns, and bears, after clearing their
28579 throats and wiping the hoarfrost from their faces in the vestibule, came
28580 into the ballroom where candles were hurriedly lighted. The clown--
28581 Dimmler--and the lady--Nicholas--started a dance. Surrounded by the
28582 screaming children the mummers, covering their faces and disguising
28583 their voices, bowed to their hostess and arranged themselves about the
28586 "Dear me! there's no recognizing them! And Natasha! See whom she looks
28587 like! She really reminds me of somebody. But Herr Dimmler--isn't he
28588 good! I didn't know him! And how he dances. Dear me, there's a
28589 Circassian. Really, how becoming it is to dear Sonya. And who is that?
28590 Well, you have cheered us up! Nikita and Vanya--clear away the tables!
28591 And we were sitting so quietly. Ha, ha, ha!... The hussar, the hussar!
28592 Just like a boy! And the legs!... I can't look at him..." different
28593 voices were saying.
28595 Natasha, the young Melyukovs' favorite, disappeared with them into the
28596 back rooms where a cork and various dressing gowns and male garments
28597 were called for and received from the footman by bare girlish arms from
28598 behind the door. Ten minutes later, all the young Melyukovs joined the
28601 Pelageya Danilovna, having given orders to clear the rooms for the
28602 visitors and arranged about refreshments for the gentry and the serfs,
28603 went about among the mummers without removing her spectacles, peering
28604 into their faces with a suppressed smile and failing to recognize any of
28605 them. It was not merely Dimmler and the Rostovs she failed to recognize,
28606 she did not even recognize her own daughters, or her late husband's,
28607 dressing gowns and uniforms, which they had put on.
28609 "And who is this?" she asked her governess, peering into the face of her
28610 own daughter dressed up as a Kazan-Tartar. "I suppose it is one of the
28611 Rostovs! Well, Mr. Hussar, and what regiment do you serve in?" she asked
28612 Natasha. "Here, hand some fruit jelly to the Turk!" she ordered the
28613 butler who was handing things round. "That's not forbidden by his law."
28615 Sometimes, as she looked at the strange but amusing capers cut by the
28616 dancers, who--having decided once for all that being disguised, no one
28617 would recognize them--were not at all shy, Pelageya Danilovna hid her
28618 face in her handkerchief, and her whole stout body shook with
28619 irrepressible, kindly, elderly laughter.
28621 "My little Sasha! Look at Sasha!" she said.
28623 After Russian country dances and chorus dances, Pelageya Danilovna made
28624 the serfs and gentry join in one large circle: a ring, a string, and a
28625 silver ruble were fetched and they all played games together.
28627 In an hour, all the costumes were crumpled and disordered. The corked
28628 eyebrows and mustaches were smeared over the perspiring, flushed, and
28629 merry faces. Pelageya Danilovna began to recognize the mummers, admired
28630 their cleverly contrived costumes, and particularly how they suited the
28631 young ladies, and she thanked them all for having entertained her so
28632 well. The visitors were invited to supper in the drawing room, and the
28633 serfs had something served to them in the ballroom.
28635 "Now to tell one's fortune in the empty bathhouse is frightening!" said
28636 an old maid who lived with the Melyukovs, during supper.
28638 "Why?" said the eldest Melyukov girl.
28640 "You wouldn't go, it takes courage..."
28642 "I'll go," said Sonya.
28644 "Tell what happened to the young lady!" said the second Melyukov girl.
28646 "Well," began the old maid, "a young lady once went out, took a cock,
28647 laid the table for two, all properly, and sat down. After sitting a
28648 while, she suddenly hears someone coming... a sleigh drives up with
28649 harness bells; she hears him coming! He comes in, just in the shape of a
28650 man, like an officer--comes in and sits down to table with her."
28652 "Ah! ah!" screamed Natasha, rolling her eyes with horror.
28654 "Yes? And how... did he speak?"
28656 "Yes, like a man. Everything quite all right, and he began persuading
28657 her; and she should have kept him talking till cockcrow, but she got
28658 frightened, just got frightened and hid her face in her hands. Then he
28659 caught her up. It was lucky the maids ran in just then..."
28661 "Now, why frighten them?" said Pelageya Danilovna.
28663 "Mamma, you used to try your fate yourself..." said her daughter.
28665 "And how does one do it in a barn?" inquired Sonya.
28667 "Well, say you went to the barn now, and listened. It depends on what
28668 you hear; hammering and knocking--that's bad; but a sound of shifting
28669 grain is good and one sometimes hears that, too."
28671 "Mamma, tell us what happened to you in the barn."
28673 Pelageya Danilovna smiled.
28675 "Oh, I've forgotten..." she replied. "But none of you would go?"
28677 "Yes, I will; Pelageya Danilovna, let me! I'll go," said Sonya.
28679 "Well, why not, if you're not afraid?"
28681 "Louisa Ivanovna, may I?" asked Sonya.
28683 Whether they were playing the ring and string game or the ruble game or
28684 talking as now, Nicholas did not leave Sonya's side, and gazed at her
28685 with quite new eyes. It seemed to him that it was only today, thanks to
28686 that burnt-cork mustache, that he had fully learned to know her. And
28687 really, that evening, Sonya was brighter, more animated, and prettier
28688 than Nicholas had ever seen her before.
28690 "So that's what she is like; what a fool I have been!" he thought gazing
28691 at her sparkling eyes, and under the mustache a happy rapturous smile
28692 dimpled her cheeks, a smile he had never seen before.
28694 "I'm not afraid of anything," said Sonya. "May I go at once?" She got
28697 They told her where the barn was and how she should stand and listen,
28698 and they handed her a fur cloak. She threw this over her head and
28699 shoulders and glanced at Nicholas.
28701 "What a darling that girl is!" thought he. "And what have I been
28702 thinking of till now?"
28704 Sonya went out into the passage to go to the barn. Nicholas went hastily
28705 to the front porch, saying he felt too hot. The crowd of people really
28706 had made the house stuffy.
28708 Outside, there was the same cold stillness and the same moon, but even
28709 brighter than before. The light was so strong and the snow sparkled with
28710 so many stars that one did not wish to look up at the sky and the real
28711 stars were unnoticed. The sky was black and dreary, while the earth was
28714 "I am a fool, a fool! what have I been waiting for?" thought Nicholas,
28715 and running out from the porch he went round the corner of the house and
28716 along the path that led to the back porch. He knew Sonya would pass that
28717 way. Halfway lay some snow-covered piles of firewood and across and
28718 along them a network of shadows from the bare old lime trees fell on the
28719 snow and on the path. This path led to the barn. The log walls of the
28720 barn and its snow-covered roof, that looked as if hewn out of some
28721 precious stone, sparkled in the moonlight. A tree in the garden snapped
28722 with the frost, and then all was again perfectly silent. His bosom
28723 seemed to inhale not air but the strength of eternal youth and gladness.
28725 From the back porch came the sound of feet descending the steps, the
28726 bottom step upon which snow had fallen gave a ringing creak and he heard
28727 the voice of an old maidservant saying, "Straight, straight, along the
28728 path, Miss. Only, don't look back."
28730 "I am not afraid," answered Sonya's voice, and along the path toward
28731 Nicholas came the crunching, whistling sound of Sonya's feet in her thin
28734 Sonya came along, wrapped in her cloak. She was only a couple of paces
28735 away when she saw him, and to her too he was not the Nicholas she had
28736 known and always slightly feared. He was in a woman's dress, with
28737 tousled hair and a happy smile new to Sonya. She ran rapidly toward him.
28739 "Quite different and yet the same," thought Nicholas, looking at her
28740 face all lit up by the moonlight. He slipped his arms under the cloak
28741 that covered her head, embraced her, pressed her to him, and kissed her
28742 on the lips that wore a mustache and had a smell of burnt cork. Sonya
28743 kissed him full on the lips, and disengaging her little hands pressed
28744 them to his cheeks.
28746 "Sonya!... Nicholas!"... was all they said. They ran to the barn and
28747 then back again, re-entering, he by the front and she by the back porch.
28754 When they all drove back from Pelageya Danilovna's, Natasha, who always
28755 saw and noticed everything, arranged that she and Madame Schoss should
28756 go back in the sleigh with Dimmler, and Sonya with Nicholas and the
28759 On the way back Nicholas drove at a steady pace instead of racing and
28760 kept peering by that fantastic all-transforming light into Sonya's face
28761 and searching beneath the eyebrows and mustache for his former and his
28762 present Sonya from whom he had resolved never to be parted again. He
28763 looked and recognizing in her both the old and the new Sonya, and being
28764 reminded by the smell of burnt cork of the sensation of her kiss,
28765 inhaled the frosty air with a full breast and, looking at the ground
28766 flying beneath him and at the sparkling sky, felt himself again in
28769 "Sonya, is it well with thee?" he asked from time to time.
28771 "Yes!" she replied. "And with thee?"
28773 When halfway home Nicholas handed the reins to the coachman and ran for
28774 a moment to Natasha's sleigh and stood on its wing.
28776 "Natasha!" he whispered in French, "do you know I have made up my mind
28779 "Have you told her?" asked Natasha, suddenly beaming all over with joy.
28781 "Oh, how strange you are with that mustache and those eyebrows!...
28782 Natasha--are you glad?"
28784 "I am so glad, so glad! I was beginning to be vexed with you. I did not
28785 tell you, but you have been treating her badly. What a heart she has,
28786 Nicholas! I am horrid sometimes, but I was ashamed to be happy while
28787 Sonya was not," continued Natasha. "Now I am so glad! Well, run back to
28790 "No, wait a bit.... Oh, how funny you look!" cried Nicholas, peering
28791 into her face and finding in his sister too something new, unusual, and
28792 bewitchingly tender that he had not seen in her before. "Natasha, it's
28793 magical, isn't it?"
28795 "Yes," she replied. "You have done splendidly."
28797 "Had I seen her before as she is now," thought Nicholas, "I should long
28798 ago have asked her what to do and have done whatever she told me, and
28799 all would have been well."
28801 "So you are glad and I have done right?"
28803 "Oh, quite right! I had a quarrel with Mamma some time ago about it.
28804 Mamma said she was angling for you. How could she say such a thing! I
28805 nearly stormed at Mamma. I will never let anyone say anything bad of
28806 Sonya, for there is nothing but good in her."
28808 "Then it's all right?" said Nicholas, again scrutinizing the expression
28809 of his sister's face to see if she was in earnest. Then he jumped down
28810 and, his boots scrunching the snow, ran back to his sleigh. The same
28811 happy, smiling Circassian, with mustache and beaming eyes looking up
28812 from under a sable hood, was still sitting there, and that Circassian
28813 was Sonya, and that Sonya was certainly his future happy and loving
28816 When they reached home and had told their mother how they had spent the
28817 evening at the Melyukovs', the girls went to their bedroom. When they
28818 had undressed, but without washing off the cork mustaches, they sat a
28819 long time talking of their happiness. They talked of how they would live
28820 when they were married, how their husbands would be friends, and how
28821 happy they would be. On Natasha's table stood two looking glasses which
28822 Dunyasha had prepared beforehand.
28824 "Only when will all that be? I am afraid never.... It would be too
28825 good!" said Natasha, rising and going to the looking glasses.
28827 "Sit down, Natasha; perhaps you'll see him," said Sonya.
28829 Natasha lit the candles, one on each side of one of the looking glasses,
28832 "I see someone with a mustache," said Natasha, seeing her own face.
28834 "You mustn't laugh, Miss," said Dunyasha.
28836 With Sonya's help and the maid's, Natasha got the glass she held into
28837 the right position opposite the other; her face assumed a serious
28838 expression and she sat silent. She sat a long time looking at the
28839 receding line of candles reflected in the glasses and expecting (from
28840 tales she had heard) to see a coffin, or him, Prince Andrew, in that
28841 last dim, indistinctly outlined square. But ready as she was to take the
28842 smallest speck for the image of a man or of a coffin, she saw nothing.
28843 She began blinking rapidly and moved away from the looking glasses.
28845 "Why is it others see things and I don't?" she said. "You sit down now,
28846 Sonya. You absolutely must, tonight! Do it for me.... Today I feel so
28849 Sonya sat down before the glasses, got the right position, and began
28852 "Now, Miss Sonya is sure to see something," whispered Dunyasha; "while
28853 you do nothing but laugh."
28855 Sonya heard this and Natasha's whisper:
28857 "I know she will. She saw something last year."
28859 For about three minutes all were silent.
28861 "Of course she will!" whispered Natasha, but did not finish... suddenly
28862 Sonya pushed away the glass she was holding and covered her eyes with
28865 "Oh, Natasha!" she cried.
28867 "Did you see? Did you? What was it?" exclaimed Natasha, holding up the
28870 Sonya had not seen anything, she was just wanting to blink and to get up
28871 when she heard Natasha say, "Of course she will!" She did not wish to
28872 disappoint either Dunyasha or Natasha, but it was hard to sit still. She
28873 did not herself know how or why the exclamation escaped her when she
28876 "You saw him?" urged Natasha, seizing her hand.
28878 "Yes. Wait a bit... I... saw him," Sonya could not help saying, not yet
28879 knowing whom Natasha meant by him, Nicholas or Prince Andrew.
28881 "But why shouldn't I say I saw something? Others do see! Besides who can
28882 tell whether I saw anything or not?" flashed through Sonya's mind.
28884 "Yes, I saw him," she said.
28886 "How? Standing or lying?"
28888 "No, I saw... At first there was nothing, then I saw him lying down."
28890 "Andrew lying? Is he ill?" asked Natasha, her frightened eyes fixed on
28893 "No, on the contrary, on the contrary! His face was cheerful, and he
28894 turned to me." And when saying this she herself fancied she had really
28895 seen what she described.
28897 "Well, and then, Sonya?..."
28899 "After that, I could not make out what there was; something blue and
28902 "Sonya! When will he come back? When shall I see him! O, God, how afraid
28903 I am for him and for myself and about everything!..." Natasha began, and
28904 without replying to Sonya's words of comfort she got into bed, and long
28905 after her candle was out lay open-eyed and motionless, gazing at the
28906 moonlight through the frosty windowpanes.
28913 Soon after the Christmas holidays Nicholas told his mother of his love
28914 for Sonya and of his firm resolve to marry her. The countess, who had
28915 long noticed what was going on between them and was expecting this
28916 declaration, listened to him in silence and then told her son that he
28917 might marry whom he pleased, but that neither she nor his father would
28918 give their blessing to such a marriage. Nicholas, for the first time,
28919 felt that his mother was displeased with him and that, despite her love
28920 for him, she would not give way. Coldly, without looking at her son, she
28921 sent for her husband and, when he came, tried briefly and coldly to
28922 inform him of the facts, in her son's presence, but unable to restrain
28923 herself she burst into tears of vexation and left the room. The old
28924 count began irresolutely to admonish Nicholas and beg him to abandon his
28925 purpose. Nicholas replied that he could not go back on his word, and his
28926 father, sighing and evidently disconcerted, very soon became silent and
28927 went in to the countess. In all his encounters with his son, the count
28928 was always conscious of his own guilt toward him for having wasted the
28929 family fortune, and so he could not be angry with him for refusing to
28930 marry an heiress and choosing the dowerless Sonya. On this occasion, he
28931 was only more vividly conscious of the fact that if his affairs had not
28932 been in disorder, no better wife for Nicholas than Sonya could have been
28933 wished for, and that no one but himself with his Mitenka and his
28934 uncomfortable habits was to blame for the condition of the family
28937 The father and mother did not speak of the matter to their son again,
28938 but a few days later the countess sent for Sonya and, with a cruelty
28939 neither of them expected, reproached her niece for trying to catch
28940 Nicholas and for ingratitude. Sonya listened silently with downcast eyes
28941 to the countess' cruel words, without understanding what was required of
28942 her. She was ready to sacrifice everything for her benefactors. Self-
28943 sacrifice was her most cherished idea but in this case she could not see
28944 what she ought to sacrifice, or for whom. She could not help loving the
28945 countess and the whole Rostov family, but neither could she help loving
28946 Nicholas and knowing that his happiness depended on that love. She was
28947 silent and sad and did not reply. Nicholas felt the situation to be
28948 intolerable and went to have an explanation with his mother. He first
28949 implored her to forgive him and Sonya and consent to their marriage,
28950 then he threatened that if she molested Sonya he would at once marry her
28953 The countess, with a coldness her son had never seen in her before,
28954 replied that he was of age, that Prince Andrew was marrying without his
28955 father's consent, and he could do the same, but that she would never
28956 receive that intriguer as her daughter.
28958 Exploding at the word intriguer, Nicholas, raising his voice, told his
28959 mother he had never expected her to try to force him to sell his
28960 feelings, but if that were so, he would say for the last time.... But he
28961 had no time to utter the decisive word which the expression of his face
28962 caused his mother to await with terror, and which would perhaps have
28963 forever remained a cruel memory to them both. He had not time to say it,
28964 for Natasha, with a pale and set face, entered the room from the door at
28965 which she had been listening.
28967 "Nicholas, you are talking nonsense! Be quiet, be quiet, be quiet, I
28968 tell you!..." she almost screamed, so as to drown his voice.
28970 "Mamma darling, it's not at all so... my poor, sweet darling," she said
28971 to her mother, who conscious that they had been on the brink of a
28972 rupture gazed at her son with terror, but in the obstinacy and
28973 excitement of the conflict could not and would not give way.
28975 "Nicholas, I'll explain to you. Go away! Listen, Mamma darling," said
28978 Her words were incoherent, but they attained the purpose at which she
28981 The countess, sobbing heavily, hid her face on her daughter's breast,
28982 while Nicholas rose, clutching his head, and left the room.
28984 Natasha set to work to effect a reconciliation, and so far succeeded
28985 that Nicholas received a promise from his mother that Sonya should not
28986 be troubled, while he on his side promised not to undertake anything
28987 without his parents' knowledge.
28989 Firmly resolved, after putting his affairs in order in the regiment, to
28990 retire from the army and return and marry Sonya, Nicholas, serious,
28991 sorrowful, and at variance with his parents, but, as it seemed to him,
28992 passionately in love, left at the beginning of January to rejoin his
28995 After Nicholas had gone things in the Rostov household were more
28996 depressing than ever, and the countess fell ill from mental agitation.
28998 Sonya was unhappy at the separation from Nicholas and still more so on
28999 account of the hostile tone the countess could not help adopting toward
29000 her. The count was more perturbed than ever by the condition of his
29001 affairs, which called for some decisive action. Their town house and
29002 estate near Moscow had inevitably to be sold, and for this they had to
29003 go to Moscow. But the countess' health obliged them to delay their
29004 departure from day to day.
29006 Natasha, who had borne the first period of separation from her betrothed
29007 lightly and even cheerfully, now grew more agitated and impatient every
29008 day. The thought that her best days, which she would have employed in
29009 loving him, were being vainly wasted, with no advantage to anyone,
29010 tormented her incessantly. His letters for the most part irritated her.
29011 It hurt her to think that while she lived only in the thought of him, he
29012 was living a real life, seeing new places and new people that interested
29013 him. The more interesting his letters were the more vexed she felt. Her
29014 letters to him, far from giving her any comfort, seemed to her a
29015 wearisome and artificial obligation. She could not write, because she
29016 could not conceive the possibility of expressing sincerely in a letter
29017 even a thousandth part of what she expressed by voice, smile, and
29018 glance. She wrote to him formal, monotonous, and dry letters, to which
29019 she attached no importance herself, and in the rough copies of which the
29020 countess corrected her mistakes in spelling.
29022 There was still no improvement in the countess' health, but it was
29023 impossible to defer the journey to Moscow any longer. Natasha's
29024 trousseau had to be ordered and the house sold. Moreover, Prince Andrew
29025 was expected in Moscow, where old Prince Bolkonski was spending the
29026 winter, and Natasha felt sure he had already arrived.
29028 So the countess remained in the country, and the count, taking Sonya and
29029 Natasha with him, went to Moscow at the end of January.
29031 BOOK EIGHT: 1811 - 12
29038 After Prince Andrew's engagement to Natasha, Pierre without any apparent
29039 cause suddenly felt it impossible to go on living as before. Firmly
29040 convinced as he was of the truths revealed to him by his benefactor, and
29041 happy as he had been in perfecting his inner man, to which he had
29042 devoted himself with such ardor--all the zest of such a life vanished
29043 after the engagement of Andrew and Natasha and the death of Joseph
29044 Alexeevich, the news of which reached him almost at the same time. Only
29045 the skeleton of life remained: his house, a brilliant wife who now
29046 enjoyed the favors of a very important personage, acquaintance with all
29047 Petersburg, and his court service with its dull formalities. And this
29048 life suddenly seemed to Pierre unexpectedly loathsome. He ceased keeping
29049 a diary, avoided the company of the Brothers, began going to the club
29050 again, drank a great deal, and came once more in touch with the bachelor
29051 sets, leading such a life that the Countess Helene thought it necessary
29052 to speak severely to him about it. Pierre felt that she was right, and
29053 to avoid compromising her went away to Moscow.
29055 In Moscow as soon as he entered his huge house in which the faded and
29056 fading princesses still lived, with its enormous retinue; as soon as,
29057 driving through the town, he saw the Iberian shrine with innumerable
29058 tapers burning before the golden covers of the icons, the Kremlin Square
29059 with its snow undisturbed by vehicles, the sleigh drivers and hovels of
29060 the Sivtsev Vrazhok, those old Moscovites who desired nothing, hurried
29061 nowhere, and were ending their days leisurely; when he saw those old
29062 Moscow ladies, the Moscow balls, and the English Club, he felt himself
29063 at home in a quiet haven. In Moscow he felt at peace, at home, warm and
29064 dirty as in an old dressing gown.
29066 Moscow society, from the old women down to the children, received Pierre
29067 like a long-expected guest whose place was always ready awaiting him.
29068 For Moscow society Pierre was the nicest, kindest, most intellectual,
29069 merriest, and most magnanimous of cranks, a heedless, genial nobleman of
29070 the old Russian type. His purse was always empty because it was open to
29073 Benefit performances, poor pictures, statues, benevolent societies,
29074 gypsy choirs, schools, subscription dinners, sprees, Freemasons,
29075 churches, and books--no one and nothing met with a refusal from him, and
29076 had it not been for two friends who had borrowed large sums from him and
29077 taken him under their protection, he would have given everything away.
29078 There was never a dinner or soiree at the club without him. As soon as
29079 he sank into his place on the sofa after two bottles of Margaux he was
29080 surrounded, and talking, disputing, and joking began. When there were
29081 quarrels, his kindly smile and well-timed jests reconciled the
29082 antagonists. The masonic dinners were dull and dreary when he was not
29085 When after a bachelor supper he rose with his amiable and kindly smile,
29086 yielding to the entreaties of the festive company to drive off somewhere
29087 with them, shouts of delight and triumph arose among the young men. At
29088 balls he danced if a partner was needed. Young ladies, married and
29089 unmarried, liked him because without making love to any of them, he was
29090 equally amiable to all, especially after supper. "Il est charmant; il
29091 n'a pas de sexe," * they said of him.
29094 * "He is charming; he has no sex."
29096 Pierre was one of those retired gentlemen-in-waiting of whom there were
29097 hundreds good-humoredly ending their days in Moscow.
29099 How horrified he would have been seven years before, when he first
29100 arrived from abroad, had he been told that there was no need for him to
29101 seek or plan anything, that his rut had long been shaped, eternally
29102 predetermined, and that wriggle as he might, he would be what all in his
29103 position were. He could not have believed it! Had he not at one time
29104 longed with all his heart to establish a republic in Russia; then
29105 himself to be a Napoleon; then to be a philosopher; and then a
29106 strategist and the conqueror of Napoleon? Had he not seen the
29107 possibility of, and passionately desired, the regeneration of the sinful
29108 human race, and his own progress to the highest degree of perfection?
29109 Had he not established schools and hospitals and liberated his serfs?
29111 But instead of all that--here he was, the wealthy husband of an
29112 unfaithful wife, a retired gentleman-in-waiting, fond of eating and
29113 drinking and, as he unbuttoned his waistcoat, of abusing the government
29114 a bit, a member of the Moscow English Club, and a universal favorite in
29115 Moscow society. For a long time he could not reconcile himself to the
29116 idea that he was one of those same retired Moscow gentlemen-in-waiting
29117 he had so despised seven years before.
29119 Sometimes he consoled himself with the thought that he was only living
29120 this life temporarily; but then he was shocked by the thought of how
29121 many, like himself, had entered that life and that club temporarily,
29122 with all their teeth and hair, and had only left it when not a single
29123 tooth or hair remained.
29125 In moments of pride, when he thought of his position it seemed to him
29126 that he was quite different and distinct from those other retired
29127 gentlemen-in-waiting he had formerly despised: they were empty, stupid,
29128 contented fellows, satisfied with their position, "while I am still
29129 discontented and want to do something for mankind. But perhaps all these
29130 comrades of mine struggled just like me and sought something new, a path
29131 in life of their own, and like me were brought by force of
29132 circumstances, society, and race--by that elemental force against which
29133 man is powerless--to the condition I am in," said he to himself in
29134 moments of humility; and after living some time in Moscow he no longer
29135 despised, but began to grow fond of, to respect, and to pity his
29136 comrades in destiny, as he pitied himself.
29138 Pierre no longer suffered moments of despair, hypochondria, and disgust
29139 with life, but the malady that had formerly found expression in such
29140 acute attacks was driven inwards and never left him for a moment. "What
29141 for? Why? What is going on in the world?" he would ask himself in
29142 perplexity several times a day, involuntarily beginning to reflect anew
29143 on the meaning of the phenomena of life; but knowing by experience that
29144 there were no answers to these questions he made haste to turn away from
29145 them, and took up a book, or hurried off to the club or to Apollon
29146 Nikolaevich's, to exchange the gossip of the town.
29148 "Helene, who has never cared for anything but her own body and is one of
29149 the stupidest women in the world," thought Pierre, "is regarded by
29150 people as the acme of intelligence and refinement, and they pay homage
29151 to her. Napoleon Bonaparte was despised by all as long as he was great,
29152 but now that he has become a wretched comedian the Emperor Francis wants
29153 to offer him his daughter in an illegal marriage. The Spaniards, through
29154 the Catholic clergy, offer praise to God for their victory over the
29155 French on the fourteenth of June, and the French, also through the
29156 Catholic clergy, offer praise because on that same fourteenth of June
29157 they defeated the Spaniards. My brother Masons swear by the blood that
29158 they are ready to sacrifice everything for their neighbor, but they do
29159 not give a ruble each to the collections for the poor, and they
29160 intrigue, the Astraea Lodge against the Manna Seekers, and fuss about an
29161 authentic Scotch carpet and a charter that nobody needs, and the meaning
29162 of which the very man who wrote it does not understand. We all profess
29163 the Christian law of forgiveness of injuries and love of our neighbors,
29164 the law in honor of which we have built in Moscow forty times forty
29165 churches--but yesterday a deserter was knouted to death and a minister
29166 of that same law of love and forgiveness, a priest, gave the soldier a
29167 cross to kiss before his execution." So thought Pierre, and the whole of
29168 this general deception which everyone accepts, accustomed as he was to
29169 it, astonished him each time as if it were something new. "I understand
29170 the deception and confusion," he thought, "but how am I to tell them all
29171 that I see? I have tried, and have always found that they too in the
29172 depths of their souls understand it as I do, and only try not to see it.
29173 So it appears that it must be so! But I--what is to become of me?"
29174 thought he. He had the unfortunate capacity many men, especially
29175 Russians, have of seeing and believing in the possibility of goodness
29176 and truth, but of seeing the evil and falsehood of life too clearly to
29177 be able to take a serious part in it. Every sphere of work was
29178 connected, in his eyes, with evil and deception. Whatever he tried to
29179 be, whatever he engaged in, the evil and falsehood of it repulsed him
29180 and blocked every path of activity. Yet he had to live and to find
29181 occupation. It was too dreadful to be under the burden of these
29182 insoluble problems, so he abandoned himself to any distraction in order
29183 to forget them. He frequented every kind of society, drank much, bought
29184 pictures, engaged in building, and above all--read.
29186 He read, and read everything that came to hand. On coming home, while
29187 his valets were still taking off his things, he picked up a book and
29188 began to read. From reading he passed to sleeping, from sleeping to
29189 gossip in drawing rooms of the club, from gossip to carousals and women;
29190 from carousals back to gossip, reading, and wine. Drinking became more
29191 and more a physical and also a moral necessity. Though the doctors
29192 warned him that with his corpulence wine was dangerous for him, he drank
29193 a great deal. He was only quite at ease when having poured several
29194 glasses of wine mechanically into his large mouth he felt a pleasant
29195 warmth in his body, an amiability toward all his fellows, and a
29196 readiness to respond superficially to every idea without probing it
29197 deeply. Only after emptying a bottle or two did he feel dimly that the
29198 terribly tangled skein of life which previously had terrified him was
29199 not as dreadful as he had thought. He was always conscious of some
29200 aspect of that skein, as with a buzzing in his head after dinner or
29201 supper he chatted or listened to conversation or read. But under the
29202 influence of wine he said to himself: "It doesn't matter. I'll get it
29203 unraveled. I have a solution ready, but have no time now--I'll think it
29204 all out later on!" But the later on never came.
29206 In the morning, on an empty stomach, all the old questions appeared as
29207 insoluble and terrible as ever, and Pierre hastily picked up a book, and
29208 if anyone came to see him he was glad.
29210 Sometimes he remembered how he had heard that soldiers in war when
29211 entrenched under the enemy's fire, if they have nothing to do, try hard
29212 to find some occupation the more easily to bear the danger. To Pierre
29213 all men seemed like those soldiers, seeking refuge from life: some in
29214 ambition, some in cards, some in framing laws, some in women, some in
29215 toys, some in horses, some in politics, some in sport, some in wine, and
29216 some in governmental affairs. "Nothing is trivial, and nothing is
29217 important, it's all the same--only to save oneself from it as best one
29218 can," thought Pierre. "Only not to see it, that dreadful it!"
29225 At the beginning of winter Prince Nicholas Bolkonski and his daughter
29226 moved to Moscow. At that time enthusiasm for the Emperor Alexander's
29227 regime had weakened and a patriotic and anti-French tendency prevailed
29228 there, and this, together with his past and his intellect and his
29229 originality, at once made Prince Nicholas Bolkonski an object of
29230 particular respect to the Moscovites and the center of the Moscow
29231 opposition to the government.
29233 The prince had aged very much that year. He showed marked signs of
29234 senility by a tendency to fall asleep, forgetfulness of quite recent
29235 events, remembrance of remote ones, and the childish vanity with which
29236 he accepted the role of head of the Moscow opposition. In spite of this
29237 the old man inspired in all his visitors alike a feeling of respectful
29238 veneration--especially of an evening when he came in to tea in his old-
29239 fashioned coat and powdered wig and, aroused by anyone, told his abrupt
29240 stories of the past, or uttered yet more abrupt and scathing criticisms
29241 of the present. For them all, that old-fashioned house with its gigantic
29242 mirrors, pre-Revolution furniture, powdered footmen, and the stern
29243 shrewd old man (himself a relic of the past century) with his gentle
29244 daughter and the pretty Frenchwoman who were reverently devoted to him
29245 presented a majestic and agreeable spectacle. But the visitors did not
29246 reflect that besides the couple of hours during which they saw their
29247 host, there were also twenty-two hours in the day during which the
29248 private and intimate life of the house continued.
29250 Latterly that private life had become very trying for Princess Mary.
29251 There in Moscow she was deprived of her greatest pleasures--talks with
29252 the pilgrims and the solitude which refreshed her at Bald Hills--and she
29253 had none of the advantages and pleasures of city life. She did not go
29254 out into society; everyone knew that her father would not let her go
29255 anywhere without him, and his failing health prevented his going out
29256 himself, so that she was not invited to dinners and evening parties. She
29257 had quite abandoned the hope of getting married. She saw the coldness
29258 and malevolence with which the old prince received and dismissed the
29259 young men, possible suitors, who sometimes appeared at their house. She
29260 had no friends: during this visit to Moscow she had been disappointed in
29261 the two who had been nearest to her. Mademoiselle Bourienne, with whom
29262 she had never been able to be quite frank, had now become unpleasant to
29263 her, and for various reasons Princess Mary avoided her. Julie, with whom
29264 she had corresponded for the last five years, was in Moscow, but proved
29265 to be quite alien to her when they met. Just then Julie, who by the
29266 death of her brothers had become one of the richest heiresses in Moscow,
29267 was in the full whirl of society pleasures. She was surrounded by young
29268 men who, she fancied, had suddenly learned to appreciate her worth.
29269 Julie was at that stage in the life of a society woman when she feels
29270 that her last chance of marrying has come and that her fate must be
29271 decided now or never. On Thursdays Princess Mary remembered with a
29272 mournful smile that she now had no one to write to, since Julie--whose
29273 presence gave her no pleasure was here and they met every week. Like the
29274 old emigre who declined to marry the lady with whom he had spent his
29275 evenings for years, she regretted Julie's presence and having no one to
29276 write to. In Moscow Princess Mary had no one to talk to, no one to whom
29277 to confide her sorrow, and much sorrow fell to her lot just then. The
29278 time for Prince Andrew's return and marriage was approaching, but his
29279 request to her to prepare his father for it had not been carried out; in
29280 fact, it seemed as if matters were quite hopeless, for at every mention
29281 of the young Countess Rostova the old prince (who apart from that was
29282 usually in a bad temper) lost control of himself. Another lately added
29283 sorrow arose from the lessons she gave her six year-old nephew. To her
29284 consternation she detected in herself in relation to little Nicholas
29285 some symptoms of her father's irritability. However often she told
29286 herself that she must not get irritable when teaching her nephew, almost
29287 every time that, pointer in hand, she sat down to show him the French
29288 alphabet, she so longed to pour her own knowledge quickly and easily
29289 into the child--who was already afraid that Auntie might at any moment
29290 get angry--that at his slightest inattention she trembled, became
29291 flustered and heated, raised her voice, and sometimes pulled him by the
29292 arm and put him in the corner. Having put him in the corner she would
29293 herself begin to cry over her cruel, evil nature, and little Nicholas,
29294 following her example, would sob, and without permission would leave his
29295 corner, come to her, pull her wet hands from her face, and comfort her.
29296 But what distressed the princess most of all was her father's
29297 irritability, which was always directed against her and had of late
29298 amounted to cruelty. Had he forced her to prostrate herself to the
29299 ground all night, had he beaten her or made her fetch wood or water, it
29300 would never have entered her mind to think her position hard; but this
29301 loving despot--the more cruel because he loved her and for that reason
29302 tormented himself and her--knew how not merely to hurt and humiliate her
29303 deliberately, but to show her that she was always to blame for
29304 everything. Of late he had exhibited a new trait that tormented Princess
29305 Mary more than anything else; this was his ever-increasing intimacy with
29306 Mademoiselle Bourienne. The idea that at the first moment of receiving
29307 the news of his son's intentions had occurred to him in jest--that if
29308 Andrew got married he himself would marry Bourienne--had evidently
29309 pleased him, and latterly he had persistently, and as it seemed to
29310 Princess Mary merely to offend her, shown special endearments to the
29311 companion and expressed his dissatisfaction with his daughter by
29312 demonstrations of love of Bourienne.
29314 One day in Moscow in Princess Mary's presence (she thought her father
29315 did it purposely when she was there) the old prince kissed Mademoiselle
29316 Bourienne's hand and, drawing her to him, embraced her affectionately.
29317 Princess Mary flushed and ran out of the room. A few minutes later
29318 Mademoiselle Bourienne came into Princess Mary's room smiling and making
29319 cheerful remarks in her agreeable voice. Princess Mary hastily wiped
29320 away her tears, went resolutely up to Mademoiselle Bourienne, and
29321 evidently unconscious of what she was doing began shouting in angry
29322 haste at the Frenchwoman, her voice breaking: "It's horrible, vile,
29323 inhuman, to take advantage of the weakness..." She did not finish.
29324 "Leave my room," she exclaimed, and burst into sobs.
29326 Next day the prince did not say a word to his daughter, but she noticed
29327 that at dinner he gave orders that Mademoiselle Bourienne should be
29328 served first. After dinner, when the footman handed coffee and from
29329 habit began with the princess, the prince suddenly grew furious, threw
29330 his stick at Philip, and instantly gave instructions to have him
29331 conscripted for the army.
29333 "He doesn't obey... I said it twice... and he doesn't obey! She is the
29334 first person in this house; she's my best friend," cried the prince.
29335 "And if you allow yourself," he screamed in a fury, addressing Princess
29336 Mary for the first time, "to forget yourself again before her as you
29337 dared to do yesterday, I will show you who is master in this house. Go!
29338 Don't let me set eyes on you; beg her pardon!"
29340 Princess Mary asked Mademoiselle Bourienne's pardon, and also her
29341 father's pardon for herself and for Philip the footman, who had begged
29342 for her intervention.
29344 At such moments something like a pride of sacrifice gathered in her
29345 soul. And suddenly that father whom she had judged would look for his
29346 spectacles in her presence, fumbling near them and not seeing them, or
29347 would forget something that had just occurred, or take a false step with
29348 his failing legs and turn to see if anyone had noticed his feebleness,
29349 or, worst of all, at dinner when there were no visitors to excite him
29350 would suddenly fall asleep, letting his napkin drop and his shaking head
29351 sink over his plate. "He is old and feeble, and I dare to condemn him!"
29352 she thought at such moments, with a feeling of revulsion against
29360 In 1811 there was living in Moscow a French doctor--Metivier--who had
29361 rapidly become the fashion. He was enormously tall, handsome, amiable as
29362 Frenchmen are, and was, as all Moscow said, an extraordinarily clever
29363 doctor. He was received in the best houses not merely as a doctor, but
29366 Prince Nicholas had always ridiculed medicine, but latterly on
29367 Mademoiselle Bourienne's advice had allowed this doctor to visit him and
29368 had grown accustomed to him. Metivier came to see the prince about twice
29371 On December 6--St. Nicholas' Day and the prince's name day--all Moscow
29372 came to the prince's front door but he gave orders to admit no one and
29373 to invite to dinner only a small number, a list of whom he gave to
29376 Metivier, who came in the morning with his felicitations, considered it
29377 proper in his quality of doctor de forcer la consigne, * as he told
29378 Princess Mary, and went in to see the prince. It happened that on that
29379 morning of his name day the prince was in one of his worst moods. He had
29380 been going about the house all the morning finding fault with everyone
29381 and pretending not to understand what was said to him and not to be
29382 understood himself. Princess Mary well knew this mood of quiet absorbed
29383 querulousness, which generally culminated in a burst of rage, and she
29384 went about all that morning as though facing a cocked and loaded gun and
29385 awaited the inevitable explosion. Until the doctor's arrival the morning
29386 had passed off safely. After admitting the doctor, Princess Mary sat
29387 down with a book in the drawing room near the door through which she
29388 could hear all that passed in the study.
29391 * To force the guard.
29393 At first she heard only Metivier's voice, then her father's, then both
29394 voices began speaking at the same time, the door was flung open, and on
29395 the threshold appeared the handsome figure of the terrified Metivier
29396 with his shock of black hair, and the prince in his dressing gown and
29397 fez, his face distorted with fury and the pupils of his eyes rolled
29400 "You don't understand?" shouted the prince, "but I do! French spy, slave
29401 of Buonaparte, spy, get out of my house! Be off, I tell you..."
29403 Metivier, shrugging his shoulders, went up to Mademoiselle Bourienne who
29404 at the sound of shouting had run in from an adjoining room.
29406 "The prince is not very well: bile and rush of blood to the head. Keep
29407 calm, I will call again tomorrow," said Metivier; and putting his
29408 fingers to his lips he hastened away.
29410 Through the study door came the sound of slippered feet and the cry:
29411 "Spies, traitors, traitors everywhere! Not a moment's peace in my own
29414 After Metivier's departure the old prince called his daughter in, and
29415 the whole weight of his wrath fell on her. She was to blame that a spy
29416 had been admitted. Had he not told her, yes, told her to make a list,
29417 and not to admit anyone who was not on that list? Then why was that
29418 scoundrel admitted? She was the cause of it all. With her, he said, he
29419 could not have a moment's peace and could not die quietly.
29421 "No, ma'am! We must part, we must part! Understand that, understand it!
29422 I cannot endure any more," he said, and left the room. Then, as if
29423 afraid she might find some means of consolation, he returned and trying
29424 to appear calm added: "And don't imagine I have said this in a moment of
29425 anger. I am calm. I have thought it over, and it will be carried out--we
29426 must part; so find some place for yourself...." But he could not
29427 restrain himself and with the virulence of which only one who loves is
29428 capable, evidently suffering himself, he shook his fists at her and
29431 "If only some fool would marry her!" Then he slammed the door, sent for
29432 Mademoiselle Bourienne, and subsided into his study.
29434 At two o'clock the six chosen guests assembled for dinner.
29436 These guests--the famous Count Rostopchin, Prince Lopukhin with his
29437 nephew, General Chatrov an old war comrade of the prince's, and of the
29438 younger generation Pierre and Boris Drubetskoy--awaited the prince in
29441 Boris, who had come to Moscow on leave a few days before, had been
29442 anxious to be presented to Prince Nicholas Bolkonski, and had contrived
29443 to ingratiate himself so well that the old prince in his case made an
29444 exception to the rule of not receiving bachelors in his house.
29446 The prince's house did not belong to what is known as fashionable
29447 society, but his little circle--though not much talked about in town--
29448 was one it was more flattering to be received in than any other. Boris
29449 had realized this the week before when the commander-in-chief in his
29450 presence invited Rostopchin to dinner on St. Nicholas' Day, and
29451 Rostopchin had replied that he could not come:
29453 "On that day I always go to pay my devotions to the relics of Prince
29454 Nicholas Bolkonski."
29456 "Oh, yes, yes!" replied the commander-in-chief. "How is he?..."
29458 The small group that assembled before dinner in the lofty old-fashioned
29459 drawing room with its old furniture resembled the solemn gathering of a
29460 court of justice. All were silent or talked in low tones. Prince
29461 Nicholas came in serious and taciturn. Princess Mary seemed even quieter
29462 and more diffident than usual. The guests were reluctant to address her,
29463 feeling that she was in no mood for their conversation. Count Rostopchin
29464 alone kept the conversation going, now relating the latest town news,
29465 and now the latest political gossip.
29467 Lopukhin and the old general occasionally took part in the conversation.
29468 Prince Bolkonski listened as a presiding judge receives a report, only
29469 now and then, silently or by a brief word, showing that he took heed of
29470 what was being reported to him. The tone of the conversation was such as
29471 indicated that no one approved of what was being done in the political
29472 world. Incidents were related evidently confirming the opinion that
29473 everything was going from bad to worse, but whether telling a story or
29474 giving an opinion the speaker always stopped, or was stopped, at the
29475 point beyond which his criticism might touch the sovereign himself.
29477 At dinner the talk turned on the latest political news: Napoleon's
29478 seizure of the Duke of Oldenburg's territory, and the Russian Note,
29479 hostile to Napoleon, which had been sent to all the European courts.
29481 "Bonaparte treats Europe as a pirate does a captured vessel," said Count
29482 Rostopchin, repeating a phrase he had uttered several times before. "One
29483 only wonders at the long-suffering or blindness of the crowned heads.
29484 Now the Pope's turn has come and Bonaparte doesn't scruple to depose the
29485 head of the Catholic Church--yet all keep silent! Our sovereign alone
29486 has protested against the seizure of the Duke of Oldenburg's territory,
29487 and even..." Count Rostopchin paused, feeling that he had reached the
29488 limit beyond which censure was impossible.
29490 "Other territories have been offered in exchange for the Duchy of
29491 Oldenburg," said Prince Bolkonski. "He shifts the Dukes about as I might
29492 move my serfs from Bald Hills to Bogucharovo or my Ryazan estates."
29494 "The Duke of Oldenburg bears his misfortunes with admirable strength of
29495 character and resignation," remarked Boris, joining in respectfully.
29497 He said this because on his journey from Petersburg he had had the honor
29498 of being presented to the Duke. Prince Bolkonski glanced at the young
29499 man as if about to say something in reply, but changed his mind,
29500 evidently considering him too young.
29502 "I have read our protests about the Oldenburg affair and was surprised
29503 how badly the Note was worded," remarked Count Rostopchin in the casual
29504 tone of a man dealing with a subject quite familiar to him.
29506 Pierre looked at Rostopchin with naive astonishment, not understanding
29507 why he should be disturbed by the bad composition of the Note.
29509 "Does it matter, Count, how the Note is worded," he asked, "so long as
29510 its substance is forcible?"
29512 "My dear fellow, with our five hundred thousand troops it should be easy
29513 to have a good style," returned Count Rostopchin.
29515 Pierre now understood the count's dissatisfaction with the wording of
29518 "One would have thought quill drivers enough had sprung up," remarked
29519 the old prince. "There in Petersburg they are always writing--not notes
29520 only but even new laws. My Andrew there has written a whole volume of
29521 laws for Russia. Nowadays they are always writing!" and he laughed
29524 There was a momentary pause in the conversation; the old general cleared
29525 his throat to draw attention.
29527 "Did you hear of the last event at the review in Petersburg? The figure
29528 cut by the new French ambassador."
29530 "Eh? Yes, I heard something: he said something awkward in His Majesty's
29533 "His Majesty drew attention to the Grenadier division and to the march
29534 past," continued the general, "and it seems the ambassador took no
29535 notice and allowed himself to reply that: 'We in France pay no attention
29536 to such trifles!' The Emperor did not condescend to reply. At the next
29537 review, they say, the Emperor did not once deign to address him."
29539 All were silent. On this fact relating to the Emperor personally, it was
29540 impossible to pass any judgment.
29542 "Impudent fellows!" said the prince. "You know Metivier? I turned him
29543 out of my house this morning. He was here; they admitted him in spite of
29544 my request that they should let no one in," he went on, glancing angrily
29547 And he narrated his whole conversation with the French doctor and the
29548 reasons that convinced him that Metivier was a spy. Though these reasons
29549 were very insufficient and obscure, no one made any rejoinder.
29551 After the roast, champagne was served. The guests rose to congratulate
29552 the old prince. Princess Mary, too, went round to him.
29554 He gave her a cold, angry look and offered her his wrinkled, clean-
29555 shaven cheek to kiss. The whole expression of his face told her that he
29556 had not forgotten the morning's talk, that his decision remained in
29557 force, and only the presence of visitors hindered his speaking of it to
29560 When they went into the drawing room where coffee was served, the old
29563 Prince Nicholas grew more animated and expressed his views on the
29566 He said that our wars with Bonaparte would be disastrous so long as we
29567 sought alliances with the Germans and thrust ourselves into European
29568 affairs, into which we had been drawn by the Peace of Tilsit. "We ought
29569 not to fight either for or against Austria. Our political interests are
29570 all in the East, and in regard to Bonaparte the only thing is to have an
29571 armed frontier and a firm policy, and he will never dare to cross the
29572 Russian frontier, as was the case in 1807!"
29574 "How can we fight the French, Prince?" said Count Rostopchin. "Can we
29575 arm ourselves against our teachers and divinities? Look at our youths,
29576 look at our ladies! The French are our Gods: Paris is our Kingdom of
29579 He began speaking louder, evidently to be heard by everyone.
29581 "French dresses, French ideas, French feelings! There now, you turned
29582 Metivier out by the scruff of his neck because he is a Frenchman and a
29583 scoundrel, but our ladies crawl after him on their knees. I went to a
29584 party last night, and there out of five ladies three were Roman
29585 Catholics and had the Pope's indulgence for doing woolwork on Sundays.
29586 And they themselves sit there nearly naked, like the signboards at our
29587 Public Baths if I may say so. Ah, when one looks at our young people,
29588 Prince, one would like to take Peter the Great's old cudgel out of the
29589 museum and belabor them in the Russian way till all the nonsense jumps
29592 All were silent. The old prince looked at Rostopchin with a smile and
29593 wagged his head approvingly.
29595 "Well, good-by, your excellency, keep well!" said Rostopchin, getting up
29596 with characteristic briskness and holding out his hand to the prince.
29598 "Good-bye, my dear fellow.... His words are music, I never tire of
29599 hearing him!" said the old prince, keeping hold of the hand and offering
29600 his cheek to be kissed.
29602 Following Rostopchin's example the others also rose.
29609 Princess Mary as she sat listening to the old men's talk and
29610 faultfinding, understood nothing of what she heard; she only wondered
29611 whether the guests had all observed her father's hostile attitude toward
29612 her. She did not even notice the special attentions and amiabilities
29613 shown her during dinner by Boris Drubetskoy, who was visiting them for
29614 the third time already.
29616 Princess Mary turned with absent-minded questioning look to Pierre, who
29617 hat in hand and with a smile on his face was the last of the guests to
29618 approach her after the old prince had gone out and they were left alone
29619 in the drawing room.
29621 "May I stay a little longer?" he said, letting his stout body sink into
29622 an armchair beside her.
29624 "Oh yes," she answered. "You noticed nothing?" her look asked.
29626 Pierre was in an agreeable after-dinner mood. He looked straight before
29627 him and smiled quietly.
29629 "Have you known that young man long, Princess?" he asked.
29639 "Yes, he is an agreeable young man.... Why do you ask me that?" said
29640 Princess Mary, still thinking of that morning's conversation with her
29643 "Because I have noticed that when a young man comes on leave from
29644 Petersburg to Moscow it is usually with the object of marrying an
29647 "You have observed that?" said Princess Mary.
29649 "Yes," returned Pierre with a smile, "and this young man now manages
29650 matters so that where there is a wealthy heiress there he is too. I can
29651 read him like a book. At present he is hesitating whom to lay siege to--
29652 you or Mademoiselle Julie Karagina. He is very attentive to her."
29656 "Yes, very often. And do you know the new way of courting?" said Pierre
29657 with an amused smile, evidently in that cheerful mood of good humored
29658 raillery for which he so often reproached himself in his diary.
29660 "No," replied Princess Mary.
29662 "To please Moscow girls nowadays one has to be melancholy. He is very
29663 melancholy with Mademoiselle Karagina," said Pierre.
29665 "Really?" asked Princess Mary, looking into Pierre's kindly face and
29666 still thinking of her own sorrow. "It would be a relief," thought she,
29667 "if I ventured to confide what I am feeling to someone. I should like to
29668 tell everything to Pierre. He is kind and generous. It would be a
29669 relief. He would give me advice."
29671 "Would you marry him?"
29673 "Oh, my God, Count, there are moments when I would marry anybody!" she
29674 cried suddenly to her own surprise and with tears in her voice. "Ah, how
29675 bitter it is to love someone near to you and to feel that..." she went
29676 on in a trembling voice, "that you can do nothing for him but grieve
29677 him, and to know that you cannot alter this. Then there is only one
29678 thing left--to go away, but where could I go?"
29680 "What is wrong? What is it, Princess?"
29682 But without finishing what she was saying, Princess Mary burst into
29685 "I don't know what is the matter with me today. Don't take any notice--
29686 forget what I have said!"
29688 Pierre's gaiety vanished completely. He anxiously questioned the
29689 princess, asked her to speak out fully and confide her grief to him; but
29690 she only repeated that she begged him to forget what she had said, that
29691 she did not remember what she had said, and that she had no trouble
29692 except the one he knew of--that Prince Andrew's marriage threatened to
29693 cause a rupture between father and son.
29695 "Have you any news of the Rostovs?" she asked, to change the subject. "I
29696 was told they are coming soon. I am also expecting Andrew any day. I
29697 should like them to meet here."
29699 "And how does he now regard the matter?" asked Pierre, referring to the
29702 Princess Mary shook her head.
29704 "What is to be done? In a few months the year will be up. The thing is
29705 impossible. I only wish I could spare my brother the first moments. I
29706 wish they would come sooner. I hope to be friends with her. You have
29707 known them a long time," said Princess Mary. "Tell me honestly the whole
29708 truth: what sort of girl is she, and what do you think of her?--The real
29709 truth, because you know Andrew is risking so much doing this against his
29710 father's will that I should like to know..."
29712 An undefined instinct told Pierre that these explanations, and repeated
29713 requests to be told the whole truth, expressed ill-will on the princess'
29714 part toward her future sister-in-law and a wish that he should
29715 disapprove of Andrew's choice; but in reply he said what he felt rather
29716 than what he thought.
29718 "I don't know how to answer your question," he said, blushing without
29719 knowing why. "I really don't know what sort of girl she is; I can't
29720 analyze her at all. She is enchanting, but what makes her so I don't
29721 know. That is all one can say about her."
29723 Princess Mary sighed, and the expression on her face said: "Yes, that's
29724 what I expected and feared."
29726 "Is she clever?" she asked.
29730 "I think not," he said, "and yet--yes. She does not deign to be
29731 clever.... Oh no, she is simply enchanting, and that is all."
29733 Princess Mary again shook her head disapprovingly.
29735 "Ah, I so long to like her! Tell her so if you see her before I do."
29737 "I hear they are expected very soon," said Pierre.
29739 Princess Mary told Pierre of her plan to become intimate with her future
29740 sister-in-law as soon as the Rostovs arrived and to try to accustom the
29748 Boris had not succeeded in making a wealthy match in Petersburg, so with
29749 the same object in view he came to Moscow. There he wavered between the
29750 two richest heiresses, Julie and Princess Mary. Though Princess Mary
29751 despite her plainness seemed to him more attractive than Julie, he,
29752 without knowing why, felt awkward about paying court to her. When they
29753 had last met on the old prince's name day, she had answered at random
29754 all his attempts to talk sentimentally, evidently not listening to what
29757 Julie on the contrary accepted his attentions readily, though in a
29758 manner peculiar to herself.
29760 She was twenty-seven. After the death of her brothers she had become
29761 very wealthy. She was by now decidedly plain, but thought herself not
29762 merely as good-looking as before but even far more attractive. She was
29763 confirmed in this delusion by the fact that she had become a very
29764 wealthy heiress and also by the fact that the older she grew the less
29765 dangerous she became to men, and the more freely they could associate
29766 with her and avail themselves of her suppers, soirees, and the animated
29767 company that assembled at her house, without incurring any obligation. A
29768 man who would have been afraid ten years before of going every day to
29769 the house when there was a girl of seventeen there, for fear of
29770 compromising her and committing himself, would now go boldly every day
29771 and treat her not as a marriageable girl but as a sexless acquaintance.
29773 That winter the Karagins' house was the most agreeable and hospitable in
29774 Moscow. In addition to the formal evening and dinner parties, a large
29775 company, chiefly of men, gathered there every day, supping at midnight
29776 and staying till three in the morning. Julie never missed a ball, a
29777 promenade, or a play. Her dresses were always of the latest fashion. But
29778 in spite of that she seemed to be disillusioned about everything and
29779 told everyone that she did not believe either in friendship or in love,
29780 or any of the joys of life, and expected peace only "yonder." She
29781 adopted the tone of one who has suffered a great disappointment, like a
29782 girl who has either lost the man she loved or been cruelly deceived by
29783 him. Though nothing of the kind had happened to her she was regarded in
29784 that light, and had even herself come to believe that she had suffered
29785 much in life. This melancholy, which did not prevent her amusing
29786 herself, did not hinder the young people who came to her house from
29787 passing the time pleasantly. Every visitor who came to the house paid
29788 his tribute to the melancholy mood of the hostess, and then amused
29789 himself with society gossip, dancing, intellectual games, and bouts
29790 rimes, which were in vogue at the Karagins'. Only a few of these young
29791 men, among them Boris, entered more deeply into Julie's melancholy, and
29792 with these she had prolonged conversations in private on the vanity of
29793 all worldly things, and to them she showed her albums filled with
29794 mournful sketches, maxims, and verses.
29796 To Boris, Julie was particularly gracious: she regretted his early
29797 disillusionment with life, offered him such consolation of friendship as
29798 she who had herself suffered so much could render, and showed him her
29799 album. Boris sketched two trees in the album and wrote: "Rustic trees,
29800 your dark branches shed gloom and melancholy upon me."
29802 On another page he drew a tomb, and wrote:
29805 La mort est secourable et la mort est tranquille. Ah! contre les
29806 douleurs il n'y a pas d'autre asile. *
29809 * Death gives relief and death is peaceful.
29811 Ah! from suffering there is no other refuge.
29813 Julie said this was charming
29815 "There is something so enchanting in the smile of melancholy," she said
29816 to Boris, repeating word for word a passage she had copied from a book.
29817 "It is a ray of light in the darkness, a shade between sadness and
29818 despair, showing the possibility of consolation."
29820 In reply Boris wrote these lines:
29823 Aliment de poison d'une ame trop sensible, Toi, sans qui le bonheur me
29824 serait impossible, Tendre melancholie, ah, viens me consoler, Viens
29825 calmer les tourments de ma sombre retraite, Et mele une douceur secrete
29826 A ces pleurs que je sens couler. *
29829 *Poisonous nourishment of a too sensitive soul, Thou, without whom
29830 happiness would for me be impossible, Tender melancholy, ah, come to
29831 console me, Come to calm the torments of my gloomy retreat, And mingle a
29832 secret sweetness With these tears that I feel to be flowing.
29834 For Boris, Julie played most doleful nocturnes on her harp. Boris read
29835 'Poor Liza' aloud to her, and more than once interrupted the reading
29836 because of the emotions that choked him. Meeting at large gatherings
29837 Julie and Boris looked on one another as the only souls who understood
29838 one another in a world of indifferent people.
29840 Anna Mikhaylovna, who often visited the Karagins, while playing cards
29841 with the mother made careful inquiries as to Julie's dowry (she was to
29842 have two estates in Penza and the Nizhegorod forests). Anna Mikhaylovna
29843 regarded the refined sadness that united her son to the wealthy Julie
29844 with emotion, and resignation to the Divine will.
29846 "You are always charming and melancholy, my dear Julie," she said to the
29847 daughter. "Boris says his soul finds repose at your house. He has
29848 suffered so many disappointments and is so sensitive," said she to the
29849 mother. "Ah, my dear, I can't tell you how fond I have grown of Julie
29850 latterly," she said to her son. "But who could help loving her? She is
29851 an angelic being! Ah, Boris, Boris!"--she paused. "And how I pity her
29852 mother," she went on; "today she showed me her accounts and letters from
29853 Penza (they have enormous estates there), and she, poor thing, has no
29854 one to help her, and they do cheat her so!"
29856 Boris smiled almost imperceptibly while listening to his mother. He
29857 laughed blandly at her naive diplomacy but listened to what she had to
29858 say, and sometimes questioned her carefully about the Penza and
29859 Nizhegorod estates.
29861 Julie had long been expecting a proposal from her melancholy adorer and
29862 was ready to accept it; but some secret feeling of repulsion for her,
29863 for her passionate desire to get married, for her artificiality, and a
29864 feeling of horror at renouncing the possibility of real love still
29865 restrained Boris. His leave was expiring. He spent every day and whole
29866 days at the Karagins', and every day on thinking the matter over told
29867 himself that he would propose tomorrow. But in Julie's presence, looking
29868 at her red face and chin (nearly always powdered), her moist eyes, and
29869 her expression of continual readiness to pass at once from melancholy to
29870 an unnatural rapture of married bliss, Boris could not utter the
29871 decisive words, though in imagination he had long regarded himself as
29872 the possessor of those Penza and Nizhegorod estates and had apportioned
29873 the use of the income from them. Julie saw Boris' indecision, and
29874 sometimes the thought occurred to her that she was repulsive to him, but
29875 her feminine self-deception immediately supplied her with consolation,
29876 and she told herself that he was only shy from love. Her melancholy,
29877 however, began to turn to irritability, and not long before Boris'
29878 departure she formed a definite plan of action. Just as Boris' leave of
29879 absence was expiring, Anatole Kuragin made his appearance in Moscow, and
29880 of course in the Karagins' drawing room, and Julie, suddenly abandoning
29881 her melancholy, became cheerful and very attentive to Kuragin.
29883 "My dear," said Anna Mikhaylovna to her son, "I know from a reliable
29884 source that Prince Vasili has sent his son to Moscow to get him married
29885 to Julie. I am so fond of Julie that I should be sorry for her. What do
29886 you think of it, my dear?"
29888 The idea of being made a fool of and of having thrown away that whole
29889 month of arduous melancholy service to Julie, and of seeing all the
29890 revenue from the Penza estates which he had already mentally apportioned
29891 and put to proper use fall into the hands of another, and especially
29892 into the hands of that idiot Anatole, pained Boris. He drove to the
29893 Karagins' with the firm intention of proposing. Julie met him in a gay,
29894 careless manner, spoke casually of how she had enjoyed yesterday's ball,
29895 and asked when he was leaving. Though Boris had come intentionally to
29896 speak of his love and therefore meant to be tender, he began speaking
29897 irritably of feminine inconstancy, of how easily women can turn from
29898 sadness to joy, and how their moods depend solely on who happens to be
29899 paying court to them. Julie was offended and replied that it was true
29900 that a woman needs variety, and the same thing over and over again would
29903 "Then I should advise you..." Boris began, wishing to sting her; but at
29904 that instant the galling thought occurred to him that he might have to
29905 leave Moscow without having accomplished his aim, and have vainly wasted
29906 his efforts--which was a thing he never allowed to happen.
29908 He checked himself in the middle of the sentence, lowered his eyes to
29909 avoid seeing her unpleasantly irritated and irresolute face, and said:
29911 "I did not come here at all to quarrel with you. On the contrary..."
29913 He glanced at her to make sure that he might go on. Her irritability had
29914 suddenly quite vanished, and her anxious, imploring eyes were fixed on
29915 him with greedy expectation. "I can always arrange so as not to see her
29916 often," thought Boris. "The affair has been begun and must be finished!"
29917 He blushed hotly, raised his eyes to hers, and said:
29919 "You know my feelings for you!"
29921 There was no need to say more: Julie's face shone with triumph and self-
29922 satisfaction; but she forced Boris to say all that is said on such
29923 occasions--that he loved her and had never loved any other woman more
29924 than her. She knew that for the Penza estates and Nizhegorod forests she
29925 could demand this, and she received what she demanded.
29927 The affianced couple, no longer alluding to trees that shed gloom and
29928 melancholy upon them, planned the arrangements of a splendid house in
29929 Petersburg, paid calls, and prepared everything for a brilliant wedding.
29936 At the end of January old Count Rostov went to Moscow with Natasha and
29937 Sonya. The countess was still unwell and unable to travel but it was
29938 impossible to wait for her recovery. Prince Andrew was expected in
29939 Moscow any day, the trousseau had to be ordered and the estate near
29940 Moscow had to be sold, besides which the opportunity of presenting his
29941 future daughter-in-law to old Prince Bolkonski while he was in Moscow
29942 could not be missed. The Rostovs' Moscow house had not been heated that
29943 winter and, as they had come only for a short time and the countess was
29944 not with them, the count decided to stay with Marya Dmitrievna
29945 Akhrosimova, who had long been pressing her hospitality on them.
29947 Late one evening the Rostovs' four sleighs drove into Marya Dmitrievna's
29948 courtyard in the old Konyusheny street. Marya Dmitrievna lived alone.
29949 She had already married off her daughter, and her sons were all in the
29952 She held herself as erect, told everyone her opinion as candidly,
29953 loudly, and bluntly as ever, and her whole bearing seemed a reproach to
29954 others for any weakness, passion, or temptation--the possibility of
29955 which she did not admit. From early in the morning, wearing a dressing
29956 jacket, she attended to her household affairs, and then she drove out:
29957 on holy days to church and after the service to jails and prisons on
29958 affairs of which she never spoke to anyone. On ordinary days, after
29959 dressing, she received petitioners of various classes, of whom there
29960 were always some. Then she had dinner, a substantial and appetizing meal
29961 at which there were always three or four guests; after dinner she played
29962 a game of boston, and at night she had the newspapers or a new book read
29963 to her while she knitted. She rarely made an exception and went out to
29964 pay visits, and then only to the most important persons in the town.
29966 She had not yet gone to bed when the Rostovs arrived and the pulley of
29967 the hall door squeaked from the cold as it let in the Rostovs and their
29968 servants. Marya Dmitrievna, with her spectacles hanging down on her nose
29969 and her head flung back, stood in the hall doorway looking with a stern,
29970 grim face at the new arrivals. One might have thought she was angry with
29971 the travelers and would immediately turn them out, had she not at the
29972 same time been giving careful instructions to the servants for the
29973 accommodation of the visitors and their belongings.
29975 "The count's things? Bring them here," she said, pointing to the
29976 portmanteaus and not greeting anyone. "The young ladies'? There to the
29977 left. Now what are you dawdling for?" she cried to the maids. "Get the
29978 samovar ready!... You've grown plumper and prettier," she remarked,
29979 drawing Natasha (whose cheeks were glowing from the cold) to her by the
29980 hood. "Foo! You are cold! Now take off your things, quick!" she shouted
29981 to the count who was going to kiss her hand. "You're half frozen, I'm
29982 sure! Bring some rum for tea!... Bonjour, Sonya dear!" she added,
29983 turning to Sonya and indicating by this French greeting her slightly
29984 contemptuous though affectionate attitude toward her.
29986 When they came in to tea, having taken off their outdoor things and
29987 tidied themselves up after their journey, Marya Dmitrievna kissed them
29990 "I'm heartily glad you have come and are staying with me. It was high
29991 time," she said, giving Natasha a significant look. "The old man is here
29992 and his son's expected any day. You'll have to make his acquaintance.
29993 But we'll speak of that later on," she added, glancing at Sonya with a
29994 look that showed she did not want to speak of it in her presence. "Now
29995 listen," she said to the count. "What do you want tomorrow? Whom will
29996 you send for? Shinshin?" she crooked one of her fingers. "The sniveling
29997 Anna Mikhaylovna? That's two. She's here with her son. The son is
29998 getting married! Then Bezukhov, eh? He is here too, with his wife. He
29999 ran away from her and she came galloping after him. He dined with me on
30000 Wednesday. As for them"--and she pointed to the girls--"tomorrow I'll
30001 take them first to the Iberian shrine of the Mother of God, and then
30002 we'll drive to the Super-Rogue's. I suppose you'll have everything new.
30003 Don't judge by me: sleeves nowadays are this size! The other day young
30004 Princess Irina Vasilevna came to see me; she was an awful sight--looked
30005 as if she had put two barrels on her arms. You know not a day passes now
30006 without some new fashion.... And what have you to do yourself?" she
30007 asked the count sternly.
30009 "One thing has come on top of another: her rags to buy, and now a
30010 purchaser has turned up for the Moscow estate and for the house. If you
30011 will be so kind, I'll fix a time and go down to the estate just for a
30012 day, and leave my lassies with you."
30014 "All right. All right. They'll be safe with me, as safe as in Chancery!
30015 I'll take them where they must go, scold them a bit, and pet them a
30016 bit," said Marya Dmitrievna, touching her goddaughter and favorite,
30017 Natasha, on the cheek with her large hand.
30019 Next morning Marya Dmitrievna took the young ladies to the Iberian
30020 shrine of the Mother of God and to Madame Suppert-Roguet, who was so
30021 afraid of Marya Dmitrievna that she always let her have costumes at a
30022 loss merely to get rid of her. Marya Dmitrievna ordered almost the whole
30023 trousseau. When they got home she turned everybody out of the room
30024 except Natasha, and then called her pet to her armchair.
30026 "Well, now we'll talk. I congratulate you on your betrothed. You've
30027 hooked a fine fellow! I am glad for your sake and I've known him since
30028 he was so high." She held her hand a couple of feet from the ground.
30029 Natasha blushed happily. "I like him and all his family. Now listen! You
30030 know that old Prince Nicholas much dislikes his son's marrying. The old
30031 fellow's crotchety! Of course Prince Andrew is not a child and can shift
30032 without him, but it's not nice to enter a family against a father's
30033 will. One wants to do it peacefully and lovingly. You're a clever girl
30034 and you'll know how to manage. Be kind, and use your wits. Then all will
30037 Natasha remained silent, from shyness Marya Dmitrievna supposed, but
30038 really because she disliked anyone interfering in what touched her love
30039 of Prince Andrew, which seemed to her so apart from all human affairs
30040 that no one could understand it. She loved and knew Prince Andrew, he
30041 loved her only, and was to come one of these days and take her. She
30042 wanted nothing more.
30044 "You see I have known him a long time and am also fond of Mary, your
30045 future sister-in-law. 'Husbands' sisters bring up blisters,' but this
30046 one wouldn't hurt a fly. She has asked me to bring you two together.
30047 Tomorrow you'll go with your father to see her. Be very nice and
30048 affectionate to her: you're younger than she. When he comes, he'll find
30049 you already know his sister and father and are liked by them. Am I right
30050 or not? Won't that be best?"
30052 "Yes, it will," Natasha answered reluctantly.
30059 Next day, by Marya Dmitrievna's advice, Count Rostov took Natasha to
30060 call on Prince Nicholas Bolkonski. The count did not set out cheerfully
30061 on this visit, at heart he felt afraid. He well remembered the last
30062 interview he had had with the old prince at the time of the enrollment,
30063 when in reply to an invitation to dinner he had had to listen to an
30064 angry reprimand for not having provided his full quota of men. Natasha,
30065 on the other hand, having put on her best gown, was in the highest
30066 spirits. "They can't help liking me," she thought. "Everybody always has
30067 liked me, and I am so willing to do anything they wish, so ready to be
30068 fond of him--for being his father--and of her--for being his sister--
30069 that there is no reason for them not to like me..."
30071 They drove up to the gloomy old house on the Vozdvizhenka and entered
30074 "Well, the Lord have mercy on us!" said the count, half in jest, half in
30075 earnest; but Natasha noticed that her father was flurried on entering
30076 the anteroom and inquired timidly and softly whether the prince and
30077 princess were at home.
30079 When they had been announced a perturbation was noticeable among the
30080 servants. The footman who had gone to announce them was stopped by
30081 another in the large hall and they whispered to one another. Then a
30082 maidservant ran into the hall and hurriedly said something, mentioning
30083 the princess. At last an old, cross looking footman came and announced
30084 to the Rostovs that the prince was not receiving, but that the princess
30085 begged them to walk up. The first person who came to meet the visitors
30086 was Mademoiselle Bourienne. She greeted the father and daughter with
30087 special politeness and showed them to the princess' room. The princess,
30088 looking excited and nervous, her face flushed in patches, ran in to meet
30089 the visitors, treading heavily, and vainly trying to appear cordial and
30090 at ease. From the first glance Princess Mary did not like Natasha. She
30091 thought her too fashionably dressed, frivolously gay and vain. She did
30092 not at all realize that before having seen her future sister-in-law she
30093 was prejudiced against her by involuntary envy of her beauty, youth, and
30094 happiness, as well as by jealousy of her brother's love for her. Apart
30095 from this insuperable antipathy to her, Princess Mary was agitated just
30096 then because on the Rostovs' being announced, the old prince had shouted
30097 that he did not wish to see them, that Princess Mary might do so if she
30098 chose, but they were not to be admitted to him. She had decided to
30099 receive them, but feared lest the prince might at any moment indulge in
30100 some freak, as he seemed much upset by the Rostovs' visit.
30102 "There, my dear princess, I've brought you my songstress," said the
30103 count, bowing and looking round uneasily as if afraid the old prince
30104 might appear. "I am so glad you should get to know one another... very
30105 sorry the prince is still ailing," and after a few more commonplace
30106 remarks he rose. "If you'll allow me to leave my Natasha in your hands
30107 for a quarter of an hour, Princess, I'll drive round to see Anna
30108 Semenovna, it's quite near in the Dogs' Square, and then I'll come back
30111 The count had devised this diplomatic ruse (as he afterwards told his
30112 daughter) to give the future sisters-in-law an opportunity to talk to
30113 one another freely, but another motive was to avoid the danger of
30114 encountering the old prince, of whom he was afraid. He did not mention
30115 this to his daughter, but Natasha noticed her father's nervousness and
30116 anxiety and felt mortified by it. She blushed for him, grew still
30117 angrier at having blushed, and looked at the princess with a bold and
30118 defiant expression which said that she was not afraid of anybody. The
30119 princess told the count that she would be delighted, and only begged him
30120 to stay longer at Anna Semenovna's, and he departed.
30122 Despite the uneasy glances thrown at her by Princess Mary--who wished to
30123 have a tête-à-tête with Natasha--Mademoiselle Bourienne remained in the
30124 room and persistently talked about Moscow amusements and theaters.
30125 Natasha felt offended by the hesitation she had noticed in the anteroom,
30126 by her father's nervousness, and by the unnatural manner of the princess
30127 who--she thought--was making a favor of receiving her, and so everything
30128 displeased her. She did not like Princess Mary, whom she thought very
30129 plain, affected, and dry. Natasha suddenly shrank into herself and
30130 involuntarily assumed an offhand air which alienated Princess Mary still
30131 more. After five minutes of irksome, constrained conversation, they
30132 heard the sound of slippered feet rapidly approaching. Princess Mary
30135 The door opened and the old prince, in a dressing gown and a white
30138 "Ah, madam!" he began. "Madam, Countess... Countess Rostova, if I am not
30139 mistaken... I beg you to excuse me, to excuse me... I did not know,
30140 madam. God is my witness, I did not know you had honored us with a
30141 visit, and I came in such a costume only to see my daughter. I beg you
30142 to excuse me... God is my witness, I didn't know-" he repeated,
30143 stressing the word "God" so unnaturally and so unpleasantly that
30144 Princess Mary stood with downcast eyes not daring to look either at her
30145 father or at Natasha.
30147 Nor did the latter, having risen and curtsied, know what to do.
30148 Mademoiselle Bourienne alone smiled agreeably.
30150 "I beg you to excuse me, excuse me! God is my witness, I did not know,"
30151 muttered the old man, and after looking Natasha over from head to foot
30154 Mademoiselle Bourienne was the first to recover herself after this
30155 apparition and began speaking about the prince's indisposition. Natasha
30156 and Princess Mary looked at one another in silence, and the longer they
30157 did so without saying what they wanted to say, the greater grew their
30158 antipathy to one another.
30160 When the count returned, Natasha was impolitely pleased and hastened to
30161 get away: at that moment she hated the stiff, elderly princess, who
30162 could place her in such an embarrassing position and had spent half an
30163 hour with her without once mentioning Prince Andrew. "I couldn't begin
30164 talking about him in the presence of that Frenchwoman," thought Natasha.
30165 The same thought was meanwhile tormenting Princess Mary. She knew what
30166 she ought to have said to Natasha, but she had been unable to say it
30167 because Mademoiselle Bourienne was in the way, and because, without
30168 knowing why, she felt it very difficult to speak of the marriage. When
30169 the count was already leaving the room, Princess Mary went up hurriedly
30170 to Natasha, took her by the hand, and said with a deep sigh:
30174 Natasha glanced at her ironically without knowing why.
30176 "Dear Natalie," said Princess Mary, "I want you to know that I am glad
30177 my brother has found happiness...."
30179 She paused, feeling that she was not telling the truth. Natasha noticed
30180 this and guessed its reason.
30182 "I think, Princess, it is not convenient to speak of that now," she said
30183 with external dignity and coldness, though she felt the tears choking
30186 "What have I said and what have I done?" thought she, as soon as she was
30189 They waited a long time for Natasha to come to dinner that day. She sat
30190 in her room crying like a child, blowing her nose and sobbing. Sonya
30191 stood beside her, kissing her hair.
30193 "Natasha, what is it about?" she asked. "What do they matter to you? It
30194 will all pass, Natasha."
30196 "But if you only knew how offensive it was... as if I..."
30198 "Don't talk about it, Natasha. It wasn't your fault so why should you
30199 mind? Kiss me," said Sonya.
30201 Natasha raised her head and, kissing her friend on the lips, pressed her
30202 wet face against her.
30204 "I can't tell you, I don't know. No one's to blame," said Natasha--"It's
30205 my fault. But it all hurts terribly. Oh, why doesn't he come?..."
30207 She came in to dinner with red eyes. Marya Dmitrievna, who knew how the
30208 prince had received the Rostovs, pretended not to notice how upset
30209 Natasha was and jested resolutely and loudly at table with the count and
30217 That evening the Rostovs went to the Opera, for which Marya Dmitrievna
30220 Natasha did not want to go, but could not refuse Marya Dmitrievna's kind
30221 offer which was intended expressly for her. When she came ready dressed
30222 into the ballroom to await her father, and looking in the large mirror
30223 there saw that she was pretty, very pretty, she felt even more sad, but
30224 it was a sweet, tender sadness.
30226 "O God, if he were here now I would not behave as I did then, but
30227 differently. I would not be silly and afraid of things, I would simply
30228 embrace him, cling to him, and make him look at me with those searching
30229 inquiring eyes with which he has so often looked at me, and then I would
30230 make him laugh as he used to laugh. And his eyes--how I see those eyes!"
30231 thought Natasha. "And what do his father and sister matter to me? I love
30232 him alone, him, him, with that face and those eyes, with his smile,
30233 manly and yet childlike.... No, I had better not think of him; not think
30234 of him but forget him, quite forget him for the present. I can't bear
30235 this waiting and I shall cry in a minute!" and she turned away from the
30236 glass, making an effort not to cry. "And how can Sonya love Nicholas so
30237 calmly and quietly and wait so long and so patiently?" thought she,
30238 looking at Sonya, who also came in quite ready, with a fan in her hand.
30239 "No, she's altogether different. I can't!"
30241 Natasha at that moment felt so softened and tender that it was not
30242 enough for her to love and know she was beloved, she wanted now, at
30243 once, to embrace the man she loved, to speak and hear from him words of
30244 love such as filled her heart. While she sat in the carriage beside her
30245 father, pensively watching the lights of the street lamps flickering on
30246 the frozen window, she felt still sadder and more in love, and forgot
30247 where she was going and with whom. Having fallen into the line of
30248 carriages, the Rostovs' carriage drove up to the theater, its wheels
30249 squeaking over the snow. Natasha and Sonya, holding up their dresses,
30250 jumped out quickly. The count got out helped by the footmen, and,
30251 passing among men and women who were entering and the program sellers,
30252 they all three went along the corridor to the first row of boxes.
30253 Through the closed doors the music was already audible.
30255 "Natasha, your hair!..." whispered Sonya.
30257 An attendant deferentially and quickly slipped before the ladies and
30258 opened the door of their box. The music sounded louder and through the
30259 door rows of brightly lit boxes in which ladies sat with bare arms and
30260 shoulders, and noisy stalls brilliant with uniforms, glittered before
30261 their eyes. A lady entering the next box shot a glance of feminine envy
30262 at Natasha. The curtain had not yet risen and the overture was being
30263 played. Natasha, smoothing her gown, went in with Sonya and sat down,
30264 scanning the brilliant tiers of boxes opposite. A sensation she had not
30265 experienced for a long time--that of hundreds of eyes looking at her
30266 bare arms and neck--suddenly affected her both agreeably and
30267 disagreeably and called up a whole crowd of memories, desires and
30268 emotions associated with that feeling.
30270 The two remarkably pretty girls, Natasha and Sonya, with Count Rostov
30271 who had not been seen in Moscow for a long time, attracted general
30272 attention. Moreover, everybody knew vaguely of Natasha's engagement to
30273 Prince Andrew, and knew that the Rostovs had lived in the country ever
30274 since, and all looked with curiosity at a fiancee who was making one of
30275 the best matches in Russia.
30277 Natasha's looks, as everyone told her, had improved in the country, and
30278 that evening thanks to her agitation she was particularly pretty. She
30279 struck those who saw her by her fullness of life and beauty, combined
30280 with her indifference to everything about her. Her black eyes looked at
30281 the crowd without seeking anyone, and her delicate arm, bare to above
30282 the elbow, lay on the velvet edge of the box, while, evidently
30283 unconsciously, she opened and closed her hand in time to the music,
30284 crumpling her program. "Look, there's Alenina," said Sonya, "with her
30287 "Dear me, Michael Kirilovich has grown still stouter!" remarked the
30290 "Look at our Anna Mikhaylovna--what a headdress she has on!"
30292 "The Karagins, Julie--and Boris with them. One can see at once that
30293 they're engaged...."
30295 "Drubetskoy has proposed?"
30297 "Oh yes, I heard it today," said Shinshin, coming into the Rostovs' box.
30299 Natasha looked in the direction in which her father's eyes were turned
30300 and saw Julie sitting beside her mother with a happy look on her face
30301 and a string of pearls round her thick red neck--which Natasha knew was
30302 covered with powder. Behind them, wearing a smile and leaning over with
30303 an ear to Julie's mouth, was Boris' handsome smoothly brushed head. He
30304 looked at the Rostovs from under his brows and said something, smiling,
30307 "They are talking about us, about me and him!" thought Natasha. "And he
30308 no doubt is calming her jealousy of me. They needn't trouble themselves!
30309 If only they knew how little I am concerned about any of them."
30311 Behind them sat Anna Mikhaylovna wearing a green headdress and with a
30312 happy look of resignation to the will of God on her face. Their box was
30313 pervaded by that atmosphere of an affianced couple which Natasha knew so
30314 well and liked so much. She turned away and suddenly remembered all that
30315 had been so humiliating in her morning's visit.
30317 "What right has he not to wish to receive me into his family? Oh, better
30318 not think of it--not till he comes back!" she told herself, and began
30319 looking at the faces, some strange and some familiar, in the stalls. In
30320 the front, in the very center, leaning back against the orchestra rail,
30321 stood Dolokhov in a Persian dress, his curly hair brushed up into a huge
30322 shock. He stood in full view of the audience, well aware that he was
30323 attracting everyone's attention, yet as much at ease as though he were
30324 in his own room. Around him thronged Moscow's most brilliant young men,
30325 whom he evidently dominated.
30327 The count, laughing, nudged the blushing Sonya and pointed to her former
30330 "Do you recognize him?" said he. "And where has he sprung from?" he
30331 asked, turning to Shinshin. "Didn't he vanish somewhere?"
30333 "He did," replied Shinshin. "He was in the Caucasus and ran away from
30334 there. They say he has been acting as minister to some ruling prince in
30335 Persia, where he killed the Shah's brother. Now all the Moscow ladies
30336 are mad about him! It's 'Dolokhov the Persian' that does it! We never
30337 hear a word but Dolokhov is mentioned. They swear by him, they offer him
30338 to you as they would a dish of choice sterlet. Dolokhov and Anatole
30339 Kuragin have turned all our ladies' heads."
30341 A tall, beautiful woman with a mass of plaited hair and much exposed
30342 plump white shoulders and neck, round which she wore a double string of
30343 large pearls, entered the adjoining box rustling her heavy silk dress
30344 and took a long time settling into her place.
30346 Natasha involuntarily gazed at that neck, those shoulders, and pearls
30347 and coiffure, and admired the beauty of the shoulders and the pearls.
30348 While Natasha was fixing her gaze on her for the second time the lady
30349 looked round and, meeting the count's eyes, nodded to him and smiled.
30350 She was the Countess Bezukhova, Pierre's wife, and the count, who knew
30351 everyone in society, leaned over and spoke to her.
30353 "Have you been here long, Countess?" he inquired. "I'll call, I'll call
30354 to kiss your hand. I'm here on business and have brought my girls with
30355 me. They say Semenova acts marvelously. Count Pierre never used to
30356 forget us. Is he here?"
30358 "Yes, he meant to look in," answered Helene, and glanced attentively at
30361 Count Rostov resumed his seat.
30363 "Handsome, isn't she?" he whispered to Natasha.
30365 "Wonderful!" answered Natasha. "She's a woman one could easily fall in
30368 Just then the last chords of the overture were heard and the conductor
30369 tapped with his stick. Some latecomers took their seats in the stalls,
30370 and the curtain rose.
30372 As soon as it rose everyone in the boxes and stalls became silent, and
30373 all the men, old and young, in uniform and evening dress, and all the
30374 women with gems on their bare flesh, turned their whole attention with
30375 eager curiosity to the stage. Natasha too began to look at it.
30382 The floor of the stage consisted of smooth boards, at the sides was some
30383 painted cardboard representing trees, and at the back was a cloth
30384 stretched over boards. In the center of the stage sat some girls in red
30385 bodices and white skirts. One very fat girl in a white silk dress sat
30386 apart on a low bench, to the back of which a piece of green cardboard
30387 was glued. They all sang something. When they had finished their song
30388 the girl in white went up to the prompter's box and a man with tight
30389 silk trousers over his stout legs, and holding a plume and a dagger,
30390 went up to her and began singing, waving his arms about.
30392 First the man in the tight trousers sang alone, then she sang, then they
30393 both paused while the orchestra played and the man fingered the hand of
30394 the girl in white, obviously awaiting the beat to start singing with
30395 her. They sang together and everyone in the theater began clapping and
30396 shouting, while the man and woman on the stage--who represented lovers--
30397 began smiling, spreading out their arms, and bowing.
30399 After her life in the country, and in her present serious mood, all this
30400 seemed grotesque and amazing to Natasha. She could not follow the opera
30401 nor even listen to the music; she saw only the painted cardboard and the
30402 queerly dressed men and women who moved, spoke, and sang so strangely in
30403 that brilliant light. She knew what it was all meant to represent, but
30404 it was so pretentiously false and unnatural that she first felt ashamed
30405 for the actors and then amused at them. She looked at the faces of the
30406 audience, seeking in them the same sense of ridicule and perplexity she
30407 herself experienced, but they all seemed attentive to what was happening
30408 on the stage, and expressed delight which to Natasha seemed feigned. "I
30409 suppose it has to be like this!" she thought. She kept looking round in
30410 turn at the rows of pomaded heads in the stalls and then at the seminude
30411 women in the boxes, especially at Helene in the next box, who--
30412 apparently quite unclothed--sat with a quiet tranquil smile, not taking
30413 her eyes off the stage. And feeling the bright light that flooded the
30414 whole place and the warm air heated by the crowd, Natasha little by
30415 little began to pass into a state of intoxication she had not
30416 experienced for a long while. She did not realize who and where she was,
30417 nor what was going on before her. As she looked and thought, the
30418 strangest fancies unexpectedly and disconnectedly passed through her
30419 mind: the idea occurred to her of jumping onto the edge of the box and
30420 singing the air the actress was singing, then she wished to touch with
30421 her fan an old gentleman sitting not far from her, then to lean over to
30422 Helene and tickle her.
30424 At a moment when all was quiet before the commencement of a song, a door
30425 leading to the stalls on the side nearest the Rostovs' box creaked, and
30426 the steps of a belated arrival were heard. "There's Kuragin!" whispered
30427 Shinshin. Countess Bezukhova turned smiling to the newcomer, and
30428 Natasha, following the direction of that look, saw an exceptionally
30429 handsome adjutant approaching their box with a self-assured yet
30430 courteous bearing. This was Anatole Kuragin whom she had seen and
30431 noticed long ago at the ball in Petersburg. He was now in an adjutant's
30432 uniform with one epaulet and a shoulder knot. He moved with a restrained
30433 swagger which would have been ridiculous had he not been so good-looking
30434 and had his handsome face not worn such an expression of good-humored
30435 complacency and gaiety. Though the performance was proceeding, he walked
30436 deliberately down the carpeted gangway, his sword and spurs slightly
30437 jingling and his handsome perfumed head held high. Having looked at
30438 Natasha he approached his sister, laid his well gloved hand on the edge
30439 of her box, nodded to her, and leaning forward asked a question, with a
30440 motion toward Natasha.
30442 "Mais charmante!" said he, evidently referring to Natasha, who did not
30443 exactly hear his words but understood them from the movement of his
30444 lips. Then he took his place in the first row of the stalls and sat down
30445 beside Dolokhov, nudging with his elbow in a friendly and offhand way
30446 that Dolokhov whom others treated so fawningly. He winked at him gaily,
30447 smiled, and rested his foot against the orchestra screen.
30449 "How like the brother is to the sister," remarked the count. "And how
30450 handsome they both are!"
30452 Shinshin, lowering his voice, began to tell the count of some intrigue
30453 of Kuragin's in Moscow, and Natasha tried to overhear it just because he
30454 had said she was "charmante."
30456 The first act was over. In the stalls everyone began moving about, going
30459 Boris came to the Rostovs' box, received their congratulations very
30460 simply, and raising his eyebrows with an absent-minded smile conveyed to
30461 Natasha and Sonya his fiancee's invitation to her wedding, and went
30462 away. Natasha with a gay, coquettish smile talked to him, and
30463 congratulated on his approaching wedding that same Boris with whom she
30464 had formerly been in love. In the state of intoxication she was in,
30465 everything seemed simple and natural.
30467 The scantily clad Helene smiled at everyone in the same way, and Natasha
30468 gave Boris a similar smile.
30470 Helene's box was filled and surrounded from the stalls by the most
30471 distinguished and intellectual men, who seemed to vie with one another
30472 in their wish to let everyone see that they knew her.
30474 During the whole of that entr'acte Kuragin stood with Dolokhov in front
30475 of the orchestra partition, looking at the Rostovs' box. Natasha knew he
30476 was talking about her and this afforded her pleasure. She even turned so
30477 that he should see her profile in what she thought was its most becoming
30478 aspect. Before the beginning of the second act Pierre appeared in the
30479 stalls. The Rostovs had not seen him since their arrival. His face
30480 looked sad, and he had grown still stouter since Natasha last saw him.
30481 He passed up to the front rows, not noticing anyone. Anatole went up to
30482 him and began speaking to him, looking at and indicating the Rostovs'
30483 box. On seeing Natasha Pierre grew animated and, hastily passing between
30484 the rows, came toward their box. When he got there he leaned on his
30485 elbows and, smiling, talked to her for a long time. While conversing
30486 with Pierre, Natasha heard a man's voice in Countess Bezukhova's box and
30487 something told her it was Kuragin. She turned and their eyes met. Almost
30488 smiling, he gazed straight into her eyes with such an enraptured
30489 caressing look that it seemed strange to be so near him, to look at him
30490 like that, to be so sure he admired her, and not to be acquainted with
30493 In the second act there was scenery representing tombstones, there was a
30494 round hole in the canvas to represent the moon, shades were raised over
30495 the footlights, and from horns and contrabass came deep notes while many
30496 people appeared from right and left wearing black cloaks and holding
30497 things like daggers in their hands. They began waving their arms. Then
30498 some other people ran in and began dragging away the maiden who had been
30499 in white and was now in light blue. They did not drag her away at once,
30500 but sang with her for a long time and then at last dragged her off, and
30501 behind the scenes something metallic was struck three times and everyone
30502 knelt down and sang a prayer. All these things were repeatedly
30503 interrupted by the enthusiastic shouts of the audience.
30505 During this act every time Natasha looked toward the stalls she saw
30506 Anatole Kuragin with an arm thrown across the back of his chair, staring
30507 at her. She was pleased to see that he was captivated by her and it did
30508 not occur to her that there was anything wrong in it.
30510 When the second act was over Countess Bezukhova rose, turned to the
30511 Rostovs' box--her whole bosom completely exposed--beckoned the old count
30512 with a gloved finger, and paying no attention to those who had entered
30513 her box began talking to him with an amiable smile.
30515 "Do make me acquainted with your charming daughters," said she. "The
30516 whole town is singing their praises and I don't even know them!"
30518 Natasha rose and curtsied to the splendid countess. She was so pleased
30519 by praise from this brilliant beauty that she blushed with pleasure.
30521 "I want to become a Moscovite too, now," said Helene. "How is it you're
30522 not ashamed to bury such pearls in the country?"
30524 Countess Bezukhova quite deserved her reputation of being a fascinating
30525 woman. She could say what she did not think--especially what was
30526 flattering--quite simply and naturally.
30528 "Dear count, you must let me look after your daughters! Though I am not
30529 staying here long this time--nor are you--I will try to amuse them. I
30530 have already heard much of you in Petersburg and wanted to get to know
30531 you," said she to Natasha with her stereotyped and lovely smile. "I had
30532 heard about you from my page, Drubetskoy. Have you heard he is getting
30533 married? And also from my husband's friend Bolkonski, Prince Andrew
30534 Bolkonski," she went on with special emphasis, implying that she knew of
30535 his relation to Natasha. To get better acquainted she asked that one of
30536 the young ladies should come into her box for the rest of the
30537 performance, and Natasha moved over to it.
30539 The scene of the third act represented a palace in which many candles
30540 were burning and pictures of knights with short beards hung on the
30541 walls. In the middle stood what were probably a king and a queen. The
30542 king waved his right arm and, evidently nervous, sang something badly
30543 and sat down on a crimson throne. The maiden who had been first in white
30544 and then in light blue, now wore only a smock, and stood beside the
30545 throne with her hair down. She sang something mournfully, addressing the
30546 queen, but the king waved his arm severely, and men and women with bare
30547 legs came in from both sides and began dancing all together. Then the
30548 violins played very shrilly and merrily and one of the women with thick
30549 bare legs and thin arms, separating from the others, went behind the
30550 wings, adjusted her bodice, returned to the middle of the stage, and
30551 began jumping and striking one foot rapidly against the other. In the
30552 stalls everyone clapped and shouted "bravo!" Then one of the men went
30553 into a corner of the stage. The cymbals and horns in the orchestra
30554 struck up more loudly, and this man with bare legs jumped very high and
30555 waved his feet about very rapidly. (He was Duport, who received sixty
30556 thousand rubles a year for this art.) Everybody in the stalls, boxes,
30557 and galleries began clapping and shouting with all their might, and the
30558 man stopped and began smiling and bowing to all sides. Then other men
30559 and women danced with bare legs. Then the king again shouted to the
30560 sound of music, and they all began singing. But suddenly a storm came
30561 on, chromatic scales and diminished sevenths were heard in the
30562 orchestra, everyone ran off, again dragging one of their number away,
30563 and the curtain dropped. Once more there was a terrible noise and
30564 clatter among the audience, and with rapturous faces everyone began
30565 shouting: "Duport! Duport! Duport!" Natasha no longer thought this
30566 strange. She looked about with pleasure, smiling joyfully.
30568 "Isn't Duport delightful?" Helene asked her.
30570 "Oh, yes," replied Natasha.
30577 During the entr'acte a whiff of cold air came into Helene's box, the
30578 door opened, and Anatole entered, stooping and trying not to brush
30581 "Let me introduce my brother to you," said Helene, her eyes shifting
30582 uneasily from Natasha to Anatole.
30584 Natasha turned her pretty little head toward the elegant young officer
30585 and smiled at him over her bare shoulder. Anatole, who was as handsome
30586 at close quarters as at a distance, sat down beside her and told her he
30587 had long wished to have this happiness--ever since the Naryshkins' ball
30588 in fact, at which he had had the well-remembered pleasure of seeing her.
30589 Kuragin was much more sensible and simple with women than among men. He
30590 talked boldly and naturally, and Natasha was strangely and agreeably
30591 struck by the fact that there was nothing formidable in this man about
30592 whom there was so much talk, but that on the contrary his smile was most
30593 naive, cheerful, and good-natured.
30595 Kuragin asked her opinion of the performance and told her how at a
30596 previous performance Semenova had fallen down on the stage.
30598 "And do you know, Countess," he said, suddenly addressing her as an old,
30599 familiar acquaintance, "we are getting up a costume tournament; you
30600 ought to take part in it! It will be great fun. We shall all meet at the
30601 Karagins'! Please come! No! Really, eh?" said he.
30603 While saying this he never removed his smiling eyes from her face, her
30604 neck, and her bare arms. Natasha knew for certain that he was enraptured
30605 by her. This pleased her, yet his presence made her feel constrained and
30606 oppressed. When she was not looking at him she felt that he was looking
30607 at her shoulders, and she involuntarily caught his eye so that he should
30608 look into hers rather than this. But looking into his eyes she was
30609 frightened, realizing that there was not that barrier of modesty she had
30610 always felt between herself and other men. She did not know how it was
30611 that within five minutes she had come to feel herself terribly near to
30612 this man. When she turned away she feared he might seize her from behind
30613 by her bare arm and kiss her on the neck. They spoke of most ordinary
30614 things, yet she felt that they were closer to one another than she had
30615 ever been to any man. Natasha kept turning to Helene and to her father,
30616 as if asking what it all meant, but Helene was engaged in conversation
30617 with a general and did not answer her look, and her father's eyes said
30618 nothing but what they always said: "Having a good time? Well, I'm glad
30621 During one of these moments of awkward silence when Anatole's prominent
30622 eyes were gazing calmly and fixedly at her, Natasha, to break the
30623 silence, asked him how he liked Moscow. She asked the question and
30624 blushed. She felt all the time that by talking to him she was doing
30625 something improper. Anatole smiled as though to encourage her.
30627 "At first I did not like it much, because what makes a town pleasant ce
30628 sont les jolies femmes, * isn't that so? But now I like it very much
30629 indeed," he said, looking at her significantly. "You'll come to the
30630 costume tournament, Countess? Do come!" and putting out his hand to her
30631 bouquet and dropping his voice, he added, "You will be the prettiest
30632 there. Do come, dear countess, and give me this flower as a pledge!"
30635 * Are the pretty women.
30637 Natasha did not understand what he was saying any more than he did
30638 himself, but she felt that his incomprehensible words had an improper
30639 intention. She did not know what to say and turned away as if she had
30640 not heard his remark. But as soon as she had turned away she felt that
30641 he was there, behind, so close behind her.
30643 "How is he now? Confused? Angry? Ought I to put it right?" she asked
30644 herself, and she could not refrain from turning round. She looked
30645 straight into his eyes, and his nearness, self-assurance, and the good-
30646 natured tenderness of his smile vanquished her. She smiled just as he
30647 was doing, gazing straight into his eyes. And again she felt with horror
30648 that no barrier lay between him and her.
30650 The curtain rose again. Anatole left the box, serene and gay. Natasha
30651 went back to her father in the other box, now quite submissive to the
30652 world she found herself in. All that was going on before her now seemed
30653 quite natural, but on the other hand all her previous thoughts of her
30654 betrothed, of Princess Mary, or of life in the country did not once
30655 recur to her mind and were as if belonging to a remote past.
30657 In the fourth act there was some sort of devil who sang waving his arm
30658 about, till the boards were withdrawn from under him and he disappeared
30659 down below. That was the only part of the fourth act that Natasha saw.
30660 She felt agitated and tormented, and the cause of this was Kuragin whom
30661 she could not help watching. As they were leaving the theater Anatole
30662 came up to them, called their carriage, and helped them in. As he was
30663 putting Natasha in he pressed her arm above the elbow. Agitated and
30664 flushed she turned round. He was looking at her with glittering eyes,
30667 Only after she had reached home was Natasha able clearly to think over
30668 what had happened to her, and suddenly remembering Prince Andrew she was
30669 horrified, and at tea to which all had sat down after the opera, she
30670 gave a loud exclamation, flushed, and ran out of the room.
30672 "O God! I am lost!" she said to herself. "How could I let him?" She sat
30673 for a long time hiding her flushed face in her hands trying to realize
30674 what had happened to her, but was unable either to understand what had
30675 happened or what she felt. Everything seemed dark, obscure, and
30676 terrible. There in that enormous, illuminated theater where the bare-
30677 legged Duport, in a tinsel-decorated jacket, jumped about to the music
30678 on wet boards, and young girls and old men, and the nearly naked Helene
30679 with her proud, calm smile, rapturously cried "bravo!"--there in the
30680 presence of that Helene it had all seemed clear and simple; but now,
30681 alone by herself, it was incomprehensible. "What is it? What was that
30682 terror I felt of him? What is this gnawing of conscience I am feeling
30685 Only to the old countess at night in bed could Natasha have told all she
30686 was feeling. She knew that Sonya with her severe and simple views would
30687 either not understand it at all or would be horrified at such a
30688 confession. So Natasha tried to solve what was torturing her by herself.
30690 "Am I spoiled for Andrew's love or not?" she asked herself, and with
30691 soothing irony replied: "What a fool I am to ask that! What did happen
30692 to me? Nothing! I have done nothing, I didn't lead him on at all. Nobody
30693 will know and I shall never see him again," she told herself. "So it is
30694 plain that nothing has happened and there is nothing to repent of, and
30695 Andrew can love me still. But why 'still?' O God, why isn't he here?"
30696 Natasha quieted herself for a moment, but again some instinct told her
30697 that though all this was true, and though nothing had happened, yet the
30698 former purity of her love for Prince Andrew had perished. And again in
30699 imagination she went over her whole conversation with Kuragin, and again
30700 saw the face, gestures, and tender smile of that bold handsome man when
30701 he pressed her arm.
30708 Anatole Kuragin was staying in Moscow because his father had sent him
30709 away from Petersburg, where he had been spending twenty thousand rubles
30710 a year in cash, besides running up debts for as much more, which his
30711 creditors demanded from his father.
30713 His father announced to him that he would now pay half his debts for the
30714 last time, but only on condition that he went to Moscow as adjutant to
30715 the commander-in-chief--a post his father had procured for him--and
30716 would at last try to make a good match there. He indicated to him
30717 Princess Mary and Julie Karagina.
30719 Anatole consented and went to Moscow, where he put up at Pierre's house.
30720 Pierre received him unwillingly at first, but got used to him after a
30721 while, sometimes even accompanied him on his carousals, and gave him
30722 money under the guise of loans.
30724 As Shinshin had remarked, from the time of his arrival Anatole had
30725 turned the heads of the Moscow ladies, especially by the fact that he
30726 slighted them and plainly preferred the gypsy girls and French
30727 actresses--with the chief of whom, Mademoiselle George, he was said to
30728 be on intimate relations. He had never missed a carousal at Danilov's or
30729 other Moscow revelers', drank whole nights through, outvying everyone
30730 else, and was at all the balls and parties of the best society. There
30731 was talk of his intrigues with some of the ladies, and he flirted with a
30732 few of them at the balls. But he did not run after the unmarried girls,
30733 especially the rich heiresses who were most of them plain. There was a
30734 special reason for this, as he had got married two years before--a fact
30735 known only to his most intimate friends. At that time while with his
30736 regiment in Poland, a Polish landowner of small means had forced him to
30737 marry his daughter. Anatole had very soon abandoned his wife and, for a
30738 payment which he agreed to send to his father-in-law, had arranged to be
30739 free to pass himself off as a bachelor.
30741 Anatole was always content with his position, with himself, and with
30742 others. He was instinctively and thoroughly convinced that it was
30743 impossible for him to live otherwise than as he did and that he had
30744 never in his life done anything base. He was incapable of considering
30745 how his actions might affect others or what the consequences of this or
30746 that action of his might be. He was convinced that, as a duck is so made
30747 that it must live in water, so God had made him such that he must spend
30748 thirty thousand rubles a year and always occupy a prominent position in
30749 society. He believed this so firmly that others, looking at him, were
30750 persuaded of it too and did not refuse him either a leading place in
30751 society or money, which he borrowed from anyone and everyone and
30752 evidently would not repay.
30754 He was not a gambler, at any rate he did not care about winning. He was
30755 not vain. He did not mind what people thought of him. Still less could
30756 he be accused of ambition. More than once he had vexed his father by
30757 spoiling his own career, and he laughed at distinctions of all kinds. He
30758 was not mean, and did not refuse anyone who asked of him. All he cared
30759 about was gaiety and women, and as according to his ideas there was
30760 nothing dishonorable in these tastes, and he was incapable of
30761 considering what the gratification of his tastes entailed for others, he
30762 honestly considered himself irreproachable, sincerely despised rogues
30763 and bad people, and with a tranquil conscience carried his head high.
30765 Rakes, those male Magdalenes, have a secret feeling of innocence similar
30766 to that which female Magdalenes have, based on the same hope of
30767 forgiveness. "All will be forgiven her, for she loved much; and all will
30768 be forgiven him, for he enjoyed much."
30770 Dolokhov, who had reappeared that year in Moscow after his exile and his
30771 Persian adventures, and was leading a life of luxury, gambling, and
30772 dissipation, associated with his old Petersburg comrade Kuragin and made
30773 use of him for his own ends.
30775 Anatole was sincerely fond of Dolokhov for his cleverness and audacity.
30776 Dolokhov, who needed Anatole Kuragin's name, position, and connections
30777 as a bait to draw rich young men into his gambling set, made use of him
30778 and amused himself at his expense without letting the other feel it.
30779 Apart from the advantage he derived from Anatole, the very process of
30780 dominating another's will was in itself a pleasure, a habit, and a
30781 necessity to Dolokhov.
30783 Natasha had made a strong impression on Kuragin. At supper after the
30784 opera he described to Dolokhov with the air of a connoisseur the
30785 attractions of her arms, shoulders, feet, and hair and expressed his
30786 intention of making love to her. Anatole had no notion and was incapable
30787 of considering what might come of such love-making, as he never had any
30788 notion of the outcome of any of his actions.
30790 "She's first-rate, my dear fellow, but not for us," replied Dolokhov.
30792 "I will tell my sister to ask her to dinner," said Anatole. "Eh?"
30794 "You'd better wait till she's married...."
30796 "You know, I adore little girls, they lose their heads at once," pursued
30799 "You have been caught once already by a 'little girl,'" said Dolokhov
30800 who knew of Kuragin's marriage. "Take care!"
30802 "Well, that can't happen twice! Eh?" said Anatole, with a good-humored
30810 The day after the opera the Rostovs went nowhere and nobody came to see
30811 them. Marya Dmitrievna talked to the count about something which they
30812 concealed from Natasha. Natasha guessed they were talking about the old
30813 prince and planning something, and this disquieted and offended her. She
30814 was expecting Prince Andrew any moment and twice that day sent a
30815 manservant to the Vozdvizhenka to ascertain whether he had come. He had
30816 not arrived. She suffered more now than during her first days in Moscow.
30817 To her impatience and pining for him were now added the unpleasant
30818 recollection of her interview with Princess Mary and the old prince, and
30819 a fear and anxiety of which she did not understand the cause. She
30820 continually fancied that either he would never come or that something
30821 would happen to her before he came. She could no longer think of him by
30822 herself calmly and continuously as she had done before. As soon as she
30823 began to think of him, the recollection of the old prince, of Princess
30824 Mary, of the theater, and of Kuragin mingled with her thoughts. The
30825 question again presented itself whether she was not guilty, whether she
30826 had not already broken faith with Prince Andrew, and again she found
30827 herself recalling to the minutest detail every word, every gesture, and
30828 every shade in the play of expression on the face of the man who had
30829 been able to arouse in her such an incomprehensible and terrifying
30830 feeling. To the family Natasha seemed livelier than usual, but she was
30831 far less tranquil and happy than before.
30833 On Sunday morning Marya Dmitrievna invited her visitors to Mass at her
30834 parish church--the Church of the Assumption built over the graves of
30835 victims of the plague.
30837 "I don't like those fashionable churches," she said, evidently priding
30838 herself on her independence of thought. "God is the same every where. We
30839 have an excellent priest, he conducts the service decently and with
30840 dignity, and the deacon is the same. What holiness is there in giving
30841 concerts in the choir? I don't like it, it's just self-indulgence!"
30843 Marya Dmitrievna liked Sundays and knew how to keep them. Her whole
30844 house was scrubbed and cleaned on Saturdays; neither she nor the
30845 servants worked, and they all wore holiday dress and went to church. At
30846 her table there were extra dishes at dinner, and the servants had vodka
30847 and roast goose or suckling pig. But in nothing in the house was the
30848 holiday so noticeable as in Marya Dmitrievna's broad, stern face, which
30849 on that day wore an invariable look of solemn festivity.
30851 After Mass, when they had finished their coffee in the dining room where
30852 the loose covers had been removed from the furniture, a servant
30853 announced that the carriage was ready, and Marya Dmitrievna rose with a
30854 stern air. She wore her holiday shawl, in which she paid calls, and
30855 announced that she was going to see Prince Nicholas Bolkonski to have an
30856 explanation with him about Natasha.
30858 After she had gone, a dressmaker from Madame Suppert-Roguet waited on
30859 the Rostovs, and Natasha, very glad of this diversion, having shut
30860 herself into a room adjoining the drawing room, occupied herself trying
30861 on the new dresses. Just as she had put on a bodice without sleeves and
30862 only tacked together, and was turning her head to see in the glass how
30863 the back fitted, she heard in the drawing room the animated sounds of
30864 her father's voice and another's--a woman's--that made her flush. It was
30865 Helene. Natasha had not time to take off the bodice before the door
30866 opened and Countess Bezukhova, dressed in a purple velvet gown with a
30867 high collar, came into the room beaming with good-humored amiable
30870 "Oh, my enchantress!" she cried to the blushing Natasha. "Charming! No,
30871 this is really beyond anything, my dear count," said she to Count Rostov
30872 who had followed her in. "How can you live in Moscow and go nowhere? No,
30873 I won't let you off! Mademoiselle George will recite at my house tonight
30874 and there'll be some people, and if you don't bring your lovely girls--
30875 who are prettier than Mademoiselle George--I won't know you! My husband
30876 is away in Tver or I would send him to fetch you. You must come. You
30877 positively must! Between eight and nine."
30879 She nodded to the dressmaker, whom she knew and who had curtsied
30880 respectfully to her, and seated herself in an armchair beside the
30881 looking glass, draping the folds of her velvet dress picturesquely. She
30882 did not cease chattering good-naturedly and gaily, continually praising
30883 Natasha's beauty. She looked at Natasha's dresses and praised them, as
30884 well as a new dress of her own made of "metallic gauze," which she had
30885 received from Paris, and advised Natasha to have one like it.
30887 "But anything suits you, my charmer!" she remarked.
30889 A smile of pleasure never left Natasha's face. She felt happy and as if
30890 she were blossoming under the praise of this dear Countess Bezukhova who
30891 had formerly seemed to her so unapproachable and important and was now
30892 so kind to her. Natasha brightened up and felt almost in love with this
30893 woman, who was so beautiful and so kind. Helene for her part was
30894 sincerely delighted with Natasha and wished to give her a good time.
30895 Anatole had asked her to bring him and Natasha together, and she was
30896 calling on the Rostovs for that purpose. The idea of throwing her
30897 brother and Natasha together amused her.
30899 Though at one time, in Petersburg, she had been annoyed with Natasha for
30900 drawing Boris away, she did not think of that now, and in her own way
30901 heartily wished Natasha well. As she was leaving the Rostovs she called
30902 her protegee aside.
30904 "My brother dined with me yesterday--we nearly died of laughter--he ate
30905 nothing and kept sighing for you, my charmer! He is madly, quite madly,
30906 in love with you, my dear."
30908 Natasha blushed scarlet when she heard this.
30910 "How she blushes, how she blushes, my pretty!" said Helene. "You must
30911 certainly come. If you love somebody, my charmer, that is not a reason
30912 to shut yourself up. Even if you are engaged, I am sure your fiance
30913 would wish you to go into society rather than be bored to death."
30915 "So she knows I am engaged, and she and her husband Pierre--that good
30916 Pierre--have talked and laughed about this. So it's all right." And
30917 again, under Helene's influence, what had seemed terrible now seemed
30918 simple and natural. "And she is such a grande dame, so kind, and
30919 evidently likes me so much. And why not enjoy myself?" thought Natasha,
30920 gazing at Helene with wide-open, wondering eyes.
30922 Marya Dmitrievna came back to dinner taciturn and serious, having
30923 evidently suffered a defeat at the old prince's. She was still too
30924 agitated by the encounter to be able to talk of the affair calmly. In
30925 answer to the count's inquiries she replied that things were all right
30926 and that she would tell about it next day. On hearing of Countess
30927 Bezukhova's visit and the invitation for that evening, Marya Dmitrievna
30930 "I don't care to have anything to do with Bezukhova and don't advise you
30931 to; however, if you've promised--go. It will divert your thoughts," she
30932 added, addressing Natasha.
30939 Count Rostov took the girls to Countess Bezukhova's. There were a good
30940 many people there, but nearly all strangers to Natasha. Count Rostov was
30941 displeased to see that the company consisted almost entirely of men and
30942 women known for the freedom of their conduct. Mademoiselle George was
30943 standing in a corner of the drawing room surrounded by young men. There
30944 were several Frenchmen present, among them Metivier who from the time
30945 Helene reached Moscow had been an intimate in her house. The count
30946 decided not to sit down to cards or let his girls out of his sight and
30947 to get away as soon as Mademoiselle George's performance was over.
30949 Anatole was at the door, evidently on the lookout for the Rostovs.
30950 Immediately after greeting the count he went up to Natasha and followed
30951 her. As soon as she saw him she was seized by the same feeling she had
30952 had at the opera--gratified vanity at his admiration of her and fear at
30953 the absence of a moral barrier between them.
30955 Helene welcomed Natasha delightedly and was loud in admiration of her
30956 beauty and her dress. Soon after their arrival Mademoiselle George went
30957 out of the room to change her costume. In the drawing room people began
30958 arranging the chairs and taking their seats. Anatole moved a chair for
30959 Natasha and was about to sit down beside her, but the count, who never
30960 lost sight of her, took the seat himself. Anatole sat down behind her.
30962 Mademoiselle George, with her bare, fat, dimpled arms, and a red shawl
30963 draped over one shoulder, came into the space left vacant for her, and
30964 assumed an unnatural pose. Enthusiastic whispering was audible.
30966 Mademoiselle George looked sternly and gloomily at the audience and
30967 began reciting some French verses describing her guilty love for her
30968 son. In some places she raised her voice, in others she whispered,
30969 lifting her head triumphantly; sometimes she paused and uttered hoarse
30970 sounds, rolling her eyes.
30972 "Adorable! divine! delicious!" was heard from every side.
30974 Natasha looked at the fat actress, but neither saw nor heard nor
30975 understood anything of what went on before her. She only felt herself
30976 again completely borne away into this strange senseless world--so remote
30977 from her old world--a world in which it was impossible to know what was
30978 good or bad, reasonable or senseless. Behind her sat Anatole, and
30979 conscious of his proximity she experienced a frightened sense of
30982 After the first monologue the whole company rose and surrounded
30983 Mademoiselle George, expressing their enthusiasm.
30985 "How beautiful she is!" Natasha remarked to her father who had also
30986 risen and was moving through the crowd toward the actress.
30988 "I don't think so when I look at you!" said Anatole, following Natasha.
30989 He said this at a moment when she alone could hear him. "You are
30990 enchanting... from the moment I saw you I have never ceased..."
30992 "Come, come, Natasha!" said the count, as he turned back for his
30993 daughter. "How beautiful she is!" Natasha without saying anything
30994 stepped up to her father and looked at him with surprised inquiring
30997 After giving several recitations, Mademoiselle George left, and Countess
30998 Bezukhova asked her visitors into the ballroom.
31000 The count wished to go home, but Helene entreated him not to spoil her
31001 improvised ball, and the Rostovs stayed on. Anatole asked Natasha for a
31002 valse and as they danced he pressed her waist and hand and told her she
31003 was bewitching and that he loved her. During the ecossaise, which she
31004 also danced with him, Anatole said nothing when they happened to be by
31005 themselves, but merely gazed at her. Natasha lifted her frightened eyes
31006 to him, but there was such confident tenderness in his affectionate look
31007 and smile that she could not, whilst looking at him, say what she had to
31008 say. She lowered her eyes.
31010 "Don't say such things to me. I am betrothed and love another," she said
31011 rapidly.... She glanced at him.
31013 Anatole was not upset or pained by what she had said.
31015 "Don't speak to me of that! What can I do?" said he. "I tell you I am
31016 madly, madly, in love with you! Is it my fault that you are
31017 enchanting?... It's our turn to begin."
31019 Natasha, animated and excited, looked about her with wide-open
31020 frightened eyes and seemed merrier than usual. She understood hardly
31021 anything that went on that evening. They danced the ecossaise and the
31022 Grossvater. Her father asked her to come home, but she begged to remain.
31023 Wherever she went and whomever she was speaking to, she felt his eyes
31024 upon her. Later on she recalled how she had asked her father to let her
31025 go to the dressing room to rearrange her dress, that Helene had followed
31026 her and spoken laughingly of her brother's love, and that she again met
31027 Anatole in the little sitting room. Helene had disappeared leaving them
31028 alone, and Anatole had taken her hand and said in a tender voice:
31030 "I cannot come to visit you but is it possible that I shall never see
31031 you? I love you madly. Can I never...?" and, blocking her path, he
31032 brought his face close to hers.
31034 His large, glittering, masculine eyes were so close to hers that she saw
31037 "Natalie?" he whispered inquiringly while she felt her hands being
31038 painfully pressed. "Natalie?"
31040 "I don't understand. I have nothing to say," her eyes replied.
31042 Burning lips were pressed to hers, and at the same instant she felt
31043 herself released, and Helene's footsteps and the rustle of her dress
31044 were heard in the room. Natasha looked round at her, and then, red and
31045 trembling, threw a frightened look of inquiry at Anatole and moved
31048 "One word, just one, for God's sake!" cried Anatole.
31050 She paused. She so wanted a word from him that would explain to her what
31051 had happened and to which she could find no answer.
31053 "Natalie, just a word, only one!" he kept repeating, evidently not
31054 knowing what to say and he repeated it till Helene came up to them.
31056 Helene returned with Natasha to the drawing room. The Rostovs went away
31057 without staying for supper.
31059 After reaching home Natasha did not sleep all night. She was tormented
31060 by the insoluble question whether she loved Anatole or Prince Andrew.
31061 She loved Prince Andrew--she remembered distinctly how deeply she loved
31062 him. But she also loved Anatole, of that there was no doubt. "Else how
31063 could all this have happened?" thought she. "If, after that, I could
31064 return his smile when saying good-by, if I was able to let it come to
31065 that, it means that I loved him from the first. It means that he is
31066 kind, noble, and splendid, and I could not help loving him. What am I to
31067 do if I love him and the other one too?" she asked herself, unable to
31068 find an answer to these terrible questions.
31075 Morning came with its cares and bustle. Everyone got up and began to
31076 move about and talk, dressmakers came again. Marya Dmitrievna appeared,
31077 and they were called to breakfast. Natasha kept looking uneasily at
31078 everybody with wide-open eyes, as if wishing to intercept every glance
31079 directed toward her, and tried to appear the same as usual.
31081 After breakfast, which was her best time, Marya Dmitrievna sat down in
31082 her armchair and called Natasha and the count to her.
31084 "Well, friends, I have now thought the whole matter over and this is my
31085 advice," she began. "Yesterday, as you know, I went to see Prince
31086 Bolkonski. Well, I had a talk with him.... He took it into his head to
31087 begin shouting, but I am not one to be shouted down. I said what I had
31090 "Well, and he?" asked the count.
31092 "He? He's crazy... he did not want to listen. But what's the use of
31093 talking? As it is we have worn the poor girl out," said Marya
31094 Dmitrievna. "My advice to you is finish your business and go back home
31095 to Otradnoe... and wait there."
31097 "Oh, no!" exclaimed Natasha.
31099 "Yes, go back," said Marya Dmitrievna, "and wait there. If your
31100 betrothed comes here now--there will be no avoiding a quarrel; but alone
31101 with the old man he will talk things over and then come on to you."
31103 Count Rostov approved of this suggestion, appreciating its
31104 reasonableness. If the old man came round it would be all the better to
31105 visit him in Moscow or at Bald Hills later on; and if not, the wedding,
31106 against his wishes, could only be arranged at Otradnoe.
31108 "That is perfectly true. And I am sorry I went to see him and took her,"
31109 said the old count.
31111 "No, why be sorry? Being here, you had to pay your respects. But if he
31112 won't--that's his affair," said Marya Dmitrievna, looking for something
31113 in her reticule. "Besides, the trousseau is ready, so there is nothing
31114 to wait for; and what is not ready I'll send after you. Though I don't
31115 like letting you go, it is the best way. So go, with God's blessing!"
31117 Having found what she was looking for in the reticule she handed it to
31118 Natasha. It was a letter from Princess Mary.
31120 "She has written to you. How she torments herself, poor thing! She's
31121 afraid you might think that she does not like you."
31123 "But she doesn't like me," said Natasha.
31125 "Don't talk nonsense!" cried Marya Dmitrievna.
31127 "I shan't believe anyone, I know she doesn't like me," replied Natasha
31128 boldly as she took the letter, and her face expressed a cold and angry
31129 resolution that caused Marya Dmitrievna to look at her more intently and
31132 "Don't answer like that, my good girl!" she said. "What I say is true!
31133 Write an answer!" Natasha did not reply and went to her own room to read
31134 Princess Mary's letter.
31136 Princess Mary wrote that she was in despair at the misunderstanding that
31137 had occurred between them. Whatever her father's feelings might be, she
31138 begged Natasha to believe that she could not help loving her as the one
31139 chosen by her brother, for whose happiness she was ready to sacrifice
31142 "Do not think, however," she wrote, "that my father is ill-disposed
31143 toward you. He is an invalid and an old man who must be forgiven; but he
31144 is good and magnanimous and will love her who makes his son happy."
31145 Princess Mary went on to ask Natasha to fix a time when she could see
31148 After reading the letter Natasha sat down at the writing table to answer
31149 it. "Dear Princess," she wrote in French quickly and mechanically, and
31150 then paused. What more could she write after all that had happened the
31151 evening before? "Yes, yes! All that has happened, and now all is
31152 changed," she thought as she sat with the letter she had begun before
31153 her. "Must I break off with him? Must I really? That's awful..." and to
31154 escape from these dreadful thoughts she went to Sonya and began sorting
31157 After dinner Natasha went to her room and again took up Princess Mary's
31158 letter. "Can it be that it is all over?" she thought. "Can it be that
31159 all this has happened so quickly and has destroyed all that went
31160 before?" She recalled her love for Prince Andrew in all its former
31161 strength, and at the same time felt that she loved Kuragin. She vividly
31162 pictured herself as Prince Andrew's wife, and the scenes of happiness
31163 with him she had so often repeated in her imagination, and at the same
31164 time, aglow with excitement, recalled every detail of yesterday's
31165 interview with Anatole.
31167 "Why could that not be as well?" she sometimes asked herself in complete
31168 bewilderment. "Only so could I be completely happy; but now I have to
31169 choose, and I can't be happy without either of them. Only," she thought,
31170 "to tell Prince Andrew what has happened or to hide it from him are both
31171 equally impossible. But with that one nothing is spoiled. But am I
31172 really to abandon forever the joy of Prince Andrew's love, in which I
31173 have lived so long?"
31175 "Please, Miss!" whispered a maid entering the room with a mysterious
31176 air. "A man told me to give you this-" and she handed Natasha a letter.
31178 "Only, for Christ's sake..." the girl went on, as Natasha, without
31179 thinking, mechanically broke the seal and read a love letter from
31180 Anatole, of which, without taking in a word, she understood only that it
31181 was a letter from him--from the man she loved. Yes, she loved him, or
31182 else how could that have happened which had happened? And how could she
31183 have a love letter from him in her hand?
31185 With trembling hands Natasha held that passionate love letter which
31186 Dolokhov had composed for Anatole, and as she read it she found in it an
31187 echo of all that she herself imagined she was feeling.
31189 "Since yesterday evening my fate has been sealed; to be loved by you or
31190 to die. There is no other way for me," the letter began. Then he went on
31191 to say that he knew her parents would not give her to him--for this
31192 there were secret reasons he could reveal only to her--but that if she
31193 loved him she need only say the word yes, and no human power could
31194 hinder their bliss. Love would conquer all. He would steal her away and
31195 carry her off to the ends of the earth.
31197 "Yes, yes! I love him!" thought Natasha, reading the letter for the
31198 twentieth time and finding some peculiarly deep meaning in each word of
31201 That evening Marya Dmitrievna was going to the Akharovs' and proposed to
31202 take the girls with her. Natasha, pleading a headache, remained at home.
31209 On returning late in the evening Sonya went to Natasha's room, and to
31210 her surprise found her still dressed and asleep on the sofa. Open on the
31211 table, beside her lay Anatole's letter. Sonya picked it up and read it.
31213 As she read she glanced at the sleeping Natasha, trying to find in her
31214 face an explanation of what she was reading, but did not find it. Her
31215 face was calm, gentle, and happy. Clutching her breast to keep herself
31216 from choking, Sonya, pale and trembling with fear and agitation, sat
31217 down in an armchair and burst into tears.
31219 "How was it I noticed nothing? How could it go so far? Can she have left
31220 off loving Prince Andrew? And how could she let Kuragin go to such
31221 lengths? He is a deceiver and a villain, that's plain! What will
31222 Nicholas, dear noble Nicholas, do when he hears of it? So this is the
31223 meaning of her excited, resolute, unnatural look the day before
31224 yesterday, yesterday, and today," thought Sonya. "But it can't be that
31225 she loves him! She probably opened the letter without knowing who it was
31226 from. Probably she is offended by it. She could not do such a thing!"
31228 Sonya wiped away her tears and went up to Natasha, again scanning her
31231 "Natasha!" she said, just audibly.
31233 Natasha awoke and saw Sonya.
31237 And with the decision and tenderness that often come at the moment of
31238 awakening, she embraced her friend, but noticing Sonya's look of
31239 embarrassment, her own face expressed confusion and suspicion.
31241 "Sonya, you've read that letter?" she demanded.
31243 "Yes," answered Sonya softly.
31245 Natasha smiled rapturously.
31247 "No, Sonya, I can't any longer!" she said. "I can't hide it from you any
31248 longer. You know, we love one another! Sonya, darling, he writes...
31251 Sonya stared open-eyed at Natasha, unable to believe her ears.
31253 "And Bolkonski?" she asked.
31255 "Ah, Sonya, if you only knew how happy I am!" cried Natasha. "You don't
31256 know what love is...."
31258 "But, Natasha, can that be all over?"
31260 Natasha looked at Sonya with wide-open eyes as if she could not grasp
31263 "Well, then, are you refusing Prince Andrew?" said Sonya.
31265 "Oh, you don't understand anything! Don't talk nonsense, just listen!"
31266 said Natasha, with momentary vexation.
31268 "But I can't believe it," insisted Sonya. "I don't understand. How is it
31269 you have loved a man for a whole year and suddenly... Why, you have only
31270 seen him three times! Natasha, I don't believe you, you're joking! In
31271 three days to forget everything and so..."
31273 "Three days?" said Natasha. "It seems to me I've loved him a hundred
31274 years. It seems to me that I have never loved anyone before. You can't
31275 understand it.... Sonya, wait a bit, sit here," and Natasha embraced and
31278 "I had heard that it happens like this, and you must have heard it too,
31279 but it's only now that I feel such love. It's not the same as before. As
31280 soon as I saw him I felt he was my master and I his slave, and that I
31281 could not help loving him. Yes, his slave! Whatever he orders I shall
31282 do. You don't understand that. What can I do? What can I do, Sonya?"
31283 cried Natasha with a happy yet frightened expression.
31285 "But think what you are doing," cried Sonya. "I can't leave it like
31286 this. This secret correspondence... How could you let him go so far?"
31287 she went on, with a horror and disgust she could hardly conceal.
31289 "I told you that I have no will," Natasha replied. "Why can't you
31290 understand? I love him!"
31292 "Then I won't let it come to that... I shall tell!" cried Sonya,
31293 bursting into tears.
31295 "What do you mean? For God's sake... If you tell, you are my enemy!"
31296 declared Natasha. "You want me to be miserable, you want us to be
31299 When she saw Natasha's fright, Sonya shed tears of shame and pity for
31302 "But what has happened between you?" she asked. "What has he said to
31303 you? Why doesn't he come to the house?"
31305 Natasha did not answer her questions.
31307 "For God's sake, Sonya, don't tell anyone, don't torture me," Natasha
31308 entreated. "Remember no one ought to interfere in such matters! I have
31309 confided in you...."
31311 "But why this secrecy? Why doesn't he come to the house?" asked Sonya.
31312 "Why doesn't he openly ask for your hand? You know Prince Andrew gave
31313 you complete freedom--if it is really so; but I don't believe it!
31314 Natasha, have you considered what these secret reasons can be?"
31316 Natasha looked at Sonya with astonishment. Evidently this question
31317 presented itself to her mind for the first time and she did not know how
31320 "I don't know what the reasons are. But there must be reasons!"
31322 Sonya sighed and shook her head incredulously.
31324 "If there were reasons..." she began.
31326 But Natasha, guessing her doubts, interrupted her in alarm.
31328 "Sonya, one can't doubt him! One can't, one can't! Don't you
31329 understand?" she cried.
31331 "Does he love you?"
31333 "Does he love me?" Natasha repeated with a smile of pity at her friend's
31334 lack of comprehension. "Why, you have read his letter and you have seen
31337 "But if he is dishonorable?"
31339 "He! dishonorable? If you only knew!" exclaimed Natasha.
31341 "If he is an honorable man he should either declare his intentions or
31342 cease seeing you; and if you won't do this, I will. I will write to him,
31343 and I will tell Papa!" said Sonya resolutely.
31345 "But I can't live without him!" cried Natasha.
31347 "Natasha, I don't understand you. And what are you saying! Think of your
31348 father and of Nicholas."
31350 "I don't want anyone, I don't love anyone but him. How dare you say he
31351 is dishonorable? Don't you know that I love him?" screamed Natasha. "Go
31352 away, Sonya! I don't want to quarrel with you, but go, for God's sake
31353 go! You see how I am suffering!" Natasha cried angrily, in a voice of
31354 despair and repressed irritation. Sonya burst into sobs and ran from the
31357 Natasha went to the table and without a moment's reflection wrote that
31358 answer to Princess Mary which she had been unable to write all the
31359 morning. In this letter she said briefly that all their
31360 misunderstandings were at an end; that availing herself of the
31361 magnanimity of Prince Andrew who when he went abroad had given her her
31362 freedom, she begged Princess Mary to forget everything and forgive her
31363 if she had been to blame toward her, but that she could not be his wife.
31364 At that moment this all seemed quite easy, simple, and clear to Natasha.
31366 On Friday the Rostovs were to return to the country, but on Wednesday
31367 the count went with the prospective purchaser to his estate near Moscow.
31369 On the day the count left, Sonya and Natasha were invited to a big
31370 dinner party at the Karagins', and Marya Dmitrievna took them there. At
31371 that party Natasha again met Anatole, and Sonya noticed that she spoke
31372 to him, trying not to be overheard, and that all through dinner she was
31373 more agitated than ever. When they got home Natasha was the first to
31374 begin the explanation Sonya expected.
31376 "There, Sonya, you were talking all sorts of nonsense about him,"
31377 Natasha began in a mild voice such as children use when they wish to be
31378 praised. "We have had an explanation today."
31380 "Well, what happened? What did he say? Natasha, how glad I am you're not
31381 angry with me! Tell me everything--the whole truth. What did he say?"
31383 Natasha became thoughtful.
31385 "Oh, Sonya, if you knew him as I do! He said... He asked me what I had
31386 promised Bolkonski. He was glad I was free to refuse him."
31388 Sonya sighed sorrowfully.
31390 "But you haven't refused Bolkonski?" said she.
31392 "Perhaps I have. Perhaps all is over between me and Bolkonski. Why do
31393 you think so badly of me?"
31395 "I don't think anything, only I don't understand this..."
31397 "Wait a bit, Sonya, you'll understand everything. You'll see what a man
31398 he is! Now don't think badly of me or of him. I don't think badly of
31399 anyone: I love and pity everybody. But what am I to do?"
31401 Sonya did not succumb to the tender tone Natasha used toward her. The
31402 more emotional and ingratiating the expression of Natasha's face became,
31403 the more serious and stern grew Sonya's.
31405 "Natasha," said she, "you asked me not to speak to you, and I haven't
31406 spoken, but now you yourself have begun. I don't trust him, Natasha. Why
31409 "Again, again!" interrupted Natasha.
31411 "Natasha, I am afraid for you!"
31415 "I am afraid you're going to your ruin," said Sonya resolutely, and was
31416 herself horrified at what she had said.
31418 Anger again showed in Natasha's face.
31420 "And I'll go to my ruin, I will, as soon as possible! It's not your
31421 business! It won't be you, but I, who'll suffer. Leave me alone, leave
31422 me alone! I hate you!"
31424 "Natasha!" moaned Sonya, aghast.
31426 "I hate you, I hate you! You're my enemy forever!" And Natasha ran out
31429 Natasha did not speak to Sonya again and avoided her. With the same
31430 expression of agitated surprise and guilt she went about the house,
31431 taking up now one occupation, now another, and at once abandoning them.
31433 Hard as it was for Sonya, she watched her friend and did not let her out
31436 The day before the count was to return, Sonya noticed that Natasha sat
31437 by the drawing-room window all the morning as if expecting something and
31438 that she made a sign to an officer who drove past, whom Sonya took to be
31441 Sonya began watching her friend still more attentively and noticed that
31442 at dinner and all that evening Natasha was in a strange and unnatural
31443 state. She answered questions at random, began sentences she did not
31444 finish, and laughed at everything.
31446 After tea Sonya noticed a housemaid at Natasha's door timidly waiting to
31447 let her pass. She let the girl go in, and then listening at the door
31448 learned that another letter had been delivered.
31450 Then suddenly it became clear to Sonya that Natasha had some dreadful
31451 plan for that evening. Sonya knocked at her door. Natasha did not let
31454 "She will run away with him!" thought Sonya. "She is capable of
31455 anything. There was something particularly pathetic and resolute in her
31456 face today. She cried as she said good-by to Uncle," Sonya remembered.
31457 "Yes, that's it, she means to elope with him, but what am I to do?"
31458 thought she, recalling all the signs that clearly indicated that Natasha
31459 had some terrible intention. "The count is away. What am I to do? Write
31460 to Kuragin demanding an explanation? But what is there to oblige him to
31461 reply? Write to Pierre, as Prince Andrew asked me to in case of some
31462 misfortune?... But perhaps she really has already refused Bolkonski--she
31463 sent a letter to Princess Mary yesterday. And Uncle is away...." To tell
31464 Marya Dmitrievna who had such faith in Natasha seemed to Sonya terrible.
31465 "Well, anyway," thought Sonya as she stood in the dark passage, "now or
31466 never I must prove that I remember the family's goodness to me and that
31467 I love Nicholas. Yes! If I don't sleep for three nights I'll not leave
31468 this passage and will hold her back by force and will and not let the
31469 family be disgraced," thought she.
31476 Anatole had lately moved to Dolokhov's. The plan for Natalie Rostova's
31477 abduction had been arranged and the preparations made by Dolokhov a few
31478 days before, and on the day that Sonya, after listening at Natasha's
31479 door, resolved to safeguard her, it was to have been put into execution.
31480 Natasha had promised to come out to Kuragin at the back porch at ten
31481 that evening. Kuragin was to put her into a troyka he would have ready
31482 and to drive her forty miles to the village of Kamenka, where an
31483 unfrocked priest was in readiness to perform a marriage ceremony over
31484 them. At Kamenka a relay of horses was to wait which would take them to
31485 the Warsaw highroad, and from there they would hasten abroad with post
31488 Anatole had a passport, an order for post horses, ten thousand rubles he
31489 had taken from his sister and another ten thousand borrowed with
31492 Two witnesses for the mock marriage--Khvostikov, a retired petty
31493 official whom Dolokhov made use of in his gambling transactions, and
31494 Makarin, a retired hussar, a kindly, weak fellow who had an unbounded
31495 affection for Kuragin--were sitting at tea in Dolokhov's front room.
31497 In his large study, the walls of which were hung to the ceiling with
31498 Persian rugs, bearskins, and weapons, sat Dolokhov in a traveling cloak
31499 and high boots, at an open desk on which lay abacus and some bundles of
31500 paper money. Anatole, with uniform unbuttoned, walked to and fro from
31501 the room where the witnesses were sitting, through the study to the room
31502 behind, where his French valet and others were packing the last of his
31503 things. Dolokhov was counting the money and noting something down.
31505 "Well," he said, "Khvostikov must have two thousand."
31507 "Give it to him, then," said Anatole.
31509 "Makarka" (their name for Makarin) "will go through fire and water for
31510 you for nothing. So here are our accounts all settled," said Dolokhov,
31511 showing him the memorandum. "Is that right?"
31513 "Yes, of course," returned Anatole, evidently not listening to Dolokhov
31514 and looking straight before him with a smile that did not leave his
31517 Dolokhov banged down the lid of his desk and turned to Anatole with an
31520 "Do you know? You'd really better drop it all. There's still time!"
31522 "Fool," retorted Anatole. "Don't talk nonsense! If you only knew... it's
31523 the devil knows what!"
31525 "No, really, give it up!" said Dolokhov. "I am speaking seriously. It's
31526 no joke, this plot you've hatched."
31528 "What, teasing again? Go to the devil! Eh?" said Anatole, making a
31529 grimace. "Really it's no time for your stupid jokes," and he left the
31532 Dolokhov smiled contemptuously and condescendingly when Anatole had gone
31535 "You wait a bit," he called after him. "I'm not joking, I'm talking
31536 sense. Come here, come here!"
31538 Anatole returned and looked at Dolokhov, trying to give him his
31539 attention and evidently submitting to him involuntarily.
31541 "Now listen to me. I'm telling you this for the last time. Why should I
31542 joke about it? Did I hinder you? Who arranged everything for you? Who
31543 found the priest and got the passport? Who raised the money? I did it
31546 "Well, thank you for it. Do you think I am not grateful?" And Anatole
31547 sighed and embraced Dolokhov.
31549 "I helped you, but all the same I must tell you the truth; it is a
31550 dangerous business, and if you think about it--a stupid business. Well,
31551 you'll carry her off--all right! Will they let it stop at that? It will
31552 come out that you're already married. Why, they'll have you in the
31553 criminal court...."
31555 "Oh, nonsense, nonsense!" Anatole ejaculated and again made a grimace.
31556 "Didn't I explain to you? What?" And Anatole, with the partiality dull-
31557 witted people have for any conclusion they have reached by their own
31558 reasoning, repeated the argument he had already put to Dolokhov a
31559 hundred times. "Didn't I explain to you that I have come to this
31560 conclusion: if this marriage is invalid," he went on, crooking one
31561 finger, "then I have nothing to answer for; but if it is valid, no
31562 matter! Abroad no one will know anything about it. Isn't that so? And
31563 don't talk to me, don't, don't."
31565 "Seriously, you'd better drop it! You'll only get yourself into a mess!"
31567 "Go to the devil!" cried Anatole and, clutching his hair, left the room,
31568 but returned at once and dropped into an armchair in front of Dolokhov
31569 with his feet turned under him. "It's the very devil! What? Feel how it
31570 beats!" He took Dolokhov's hand and put it on his heart. "What a foot,
31571 my dear fellow! What a glance! A goddess!" he added in French. "What?"
31573 Dolokhov with a cold smile and a gleam in his handsome insolent eyes
31574 looked at him--evidently wishing to get some more amusement out of him.
31576 "Well and when the money's gone, what then?"
31578 "What then? Eh?" repeated Anatole, sincerely perplexed by a thought of
31579 the future. "What then?... Then, I don't know.... But why talk
31580 nonsense!" He glanced at his watch. "It's time!"
31582 Anatole went into the back room.
31584 "Now then! Nearly ready? You're dawdling!" he shouted to the servants.
31586 Dolokhov put away the money, called a footman whom he ordered to bring
31587 something for them to eat and drink before the journey, and went into
31588 the room where Khvostikov and Makarin were sitting.
31590 Anatole lay on the sofa in the study leaning on his elbow and smiling
31591 pensively, while his handsome lips muttered tenderly to himself.
31593 "Come and eat something. Have a drink!" Dolokhov shouted to him from the
31596 "I don't want to," answered Anatole continuing to smile.
31598 "Come! Balaga is here."
31600 Anatole rose and went into the dining room. Balaga was a famous troyka
31601 driver who had known Dolokhov and Anatole some six years and had given
31602 them good service with his troykas. More than once when Anatole's
31603 regiment was stationed at Tver he had taken him from Tver in the
31604 evening, brought him to Moscow by daybreak, and driven him back again
31605 the next night. More than once he had enabled Dolokhov to escape when
31606 pursued. More than once he had driven them through the town with gypsies
31607 and "ladykins" as he called the cocottes. More than once in their
31608 service he had run over pedestrians and upset vehicles in the streets of
31609 Moscow and had always been protected from the consequences by "my
31610 gentlemen" as he called them. He had ruined more than one horse in their
31611 service. More than once they had beaten him, and more than once they had
31612 made him drunk on champagne and Madeira, which he loved; and he knew
31613 more than one thing about each of them which would long ago have sent an
31614 ordinary man to Siberia. They often called Balaga into their orgies and
31615 made him drink and dance at the gypsies', and more than one thousand
31616 rubles of their money had passed through his hands. In their service he
31617 risked his skin and his life twenty times a year, and in their service
31618 had lost more horses than the money he had from them would buy. But he
31619 liked them; liked that mad driving at twelve miles an hour, liked
31620 upsetting a driver or running down a pedestrian, and flying at full
31621 gallop through the Moscow streets. He liked to hear those wild, tipsy
31622 shouts behind him: "Get on! Get on!" when it was impossible to go any
31623 faster. He liked giving a painful lash on the neck to some peasant who,
31624 more dead than alive, was already hurrying out of his way. "Real
31625 gentlemen!" he considered them.
31627 Anatole and Dolokhov liked Balaga too for his masterly driving and
31628 because he liked the things they liked. With others Balaga bargained,
31629 charging twenty-five rubles for a two hours' drive, and rarely drove
31630 himself, generally letting his young men do so. But with "his gentlemen"
31631 he always drove himself and never demanded anything for his work. Only a
31632 couple of times a year--when he knew from their valets that they had
31633 money in hand--he would turn up of a morning quite sober and with a deep
31634 bow would ask them to help him. The gentlemen always made him sit down.
31636 "Do help me out, Theodore Ivanych, sir," or "your excellency," he would
31637 say. "I am quite out of horses. Let me have what you can to go to the
31640 And Anatole and Dolokhov, when they had money, would give him a thousand
31641 or a couple of thousand rubles.
31643 Balaga was a fair-haired, short, and snub-nosed peasant of about twenty-
31644 seven; red-faced, with a particularly red thick neck, glittering little
31645 eyes, and a small beard. He wore a fine, dark-blue, silk-lined cloth
31646 coat over a sheepskin.
31648 On entering the room now he crossed himself, turning toward the front
31649 corner of the room, and went up to Dolokhov, holding out a small, black
31652 "Theodore Ivanych!" he said, bowing.
31654 "How d'you do, friend? Well, here he is!"
31656 "Good day, your excellency!" he said, again holding out his hand to
31657 Anatole who had just come in.
31659 "I say, Balaga," said Anatole, putting his hands on the man's shoulders,
31660 "do you care for me or not? Eh? Now, do me a service.... What horses
31661 have you come with? Eh?"
31663 "As your messenger ordered, your special beasts," replied Balaga.
31665 "Well, listen, Balaga! Drive all three to death but get me there in
31668 "When they are dead, what shall I drive?" said Balaga with a wink.
31670 "Mind, I'll smash your face in! Don't make jokes!" cried Anatole,
31671 suddenly rolling his eyes.
31673 "Why joke?" said the driver, laughing. "As if I'd grudge my gentlemen
31674 anything! As fast as ever the horses can gallop, so fast we'll go!"
31676 "Ah!" said Anatole. "Well, sit down."
31678 "Yes, sit down!" said Dolokhov.
31680 "I'll stand, Theodore Ivanych."
31682 "Sit down; nonsense! Have a drink!" said Anatole, and filled a large
31683 glass of Madeira for him.
31685 The driver's eyes sparkled at the sight of the wine. After refusing it
31686 for manners' sake, he drank it and wiped his mouth with a red silk
31687 handkerchief he took out of his cap.
31689 "And when are we to start, your excellency?"
31691 "Well..." Anatole looked at his watch. "We'll start at once. Mind,
31692 Balaga! You'll get there in time? Eh?"
31694 "That depends on our luck in starting, else why shouldn't we be there in
31695 time?" replied Balaga. "Didn't we get you to Tver in seven hours? I
31696 think you remember that, your excellency?"
31698 "Do you know, one Christmas I drove from Tver," said Anatole, smilingly
31699 at the recollection and turning to Makarin who gazed rapturously at him
31700 with wide-open eyes. "Will you believe it, Makarka, it took one's breath
31701 away, the rate we flew. We came across a train of loaded sleighs and
31702 drove right over two of them. Eh?"
31704 "Those were horses!" Balaga continued the tale. "That time I'd harnessed
31705 two young side horses with the bay in the shafts," he went on, turning
31706 to Dolokhov. "Will you believe it, Theodore Ivanych, those animals flew
31707 forty miles? I couldn't hold them in, my hands grew numb in the sharp
31708 frost so that I threw down the reins--'Catch hold yourself, your
31709 excellency!' says I, and I just tumbled on the bottom of the sleigh and
31710 sprawled there. It wasn't a case of urging them on, there was no holding
31711 them in till we reached the place. The devils took us there in three
31712 hours! Only the near one died of it."
31719 Anatole went out of the room and returned a few minutes later wearing a
31720 fur coat girt with a silver belt, and a sable cap jauntily set on one
31721 side and very becoming to his handsome face. Having looked in a mirror,
31722 and standing before Dolokhov in the same pose he had assumed before it,
31723 he lifted a glass of wine.
31725 "Well, good-by, Theodore. Thank you for everything and farewell!" said
31726 Anatole. "Well, comrades and friends..." he considered for a moment
31727 "...of my youth, farewell!" he said, turning to Makarin and the others.
31729 Though they were all going with him, Anatole evidently wished to make
31730 something touching and solemn out of this address to his comrades. He
31731 spoke slowly in a loud voice and throwing out his chest slightly swayed
31734 "All take glasses; you too, Balaga. Well, comrades and friends of my
31735 youth, we've had our fling and lived and reveled. Eh? And now, when
31736 shall we meet again? I am going abroad. We have had a good time--now
31737 farewell, lads! To our health! Hurrah!..." he cried, and emptying his
31738 glass flung it on the floor.
31740 "To your health!" said Balaga who also emptied his glass, and wiped his
31741 mouth with his handkerchief.
31743 Makarin embraced Anatole with tears in his eyes.
31745 "Ah, Prince, how sorry I am to part from you!
31747 "Let's go. Let's go!" cried Anatole.
31749 Balaga was about to leave the room.
31751 "No, stop!" said Anatole. "Shut the door; we have first to sit down.
31754 They shut the door and all sat down.
31756 "Now, quick march, lads!" said Anatole, rising.
31758 Joseph, his valet, handed him his sabretache and saber, and they all
31759 went out into the vestibule.
31761 "And where's the fur cloak?" asked Dolokhov. "Hey, Ignatka! Go to
31762 Matrena Matrevna and ask her for the sable cloak. I have heard what
31763 elopements are like," continued Dolokhov with a wink. "Why, she'll rush
31764 out more dead than alive just in the things she is wearing; if you delay
31765 at all there'll be tears and 'Papa' and 'Mamma,' and she's frozen in a
31766 minute and must go back--but you wrap the fur cloak round her first
31767 thing and carry her to the sleigh."
31769 The valet brought a woman's fox-lined cloak.
31771 "Fool, I told you the sable one! Hey, Matrena, the sable!" he shouted so
31772 that his voice rang far through the rooms.
31774 A handsome, slim, and pale-faced gypsy girl with glittering black eyes
31775 and curly blue-black hair, wearing a red shawl, ran out with a sable
31778 "Here, I don't grudge it--take it!" she said, evidently afraid of her
31779 master and yet regretful of her cloak.
31781 Dolokhov, without answering, took the cloak, threw it over Matrena, and
31782 wrapped her up in it.
31784 "That's the way," said Dolokhov, "and then so!" and he turned the collar
31785 up round her head, leaving only a little of the face uncovered. "And
31786 then so, do you see?" and he pushed Anatole's head forward to meet the
31787 gap left by the collar, through which Matrena's brilliant smile was
31790 "Well, good-by, Matrena," said Anatole, kissing her. "Ah, my revels here
31791 are over. Remember me to Steshka. There, good-by! Good-bye, Matrena,
31794 "Well, Prince, may God give you great luck!" said Matrena in her gypsy
31797 Two troykas were standing before the porch and two young drivers were
31798 holding the horses. Balaga took his seat in the front one and holding
31799 his elbows high arranged the reins deliberately. Anatole and Dolokhov
31800 got in with him. Makarin, Khvostikov, and a valet seated themselves in
31803 "Well, are you ready?" asked Balaga.
31805 "Go!" he cried, twisting the reins round his hands, and the troyka tore
31806 down the Nikitski Boulevard.
31808 "Tproo! Get out of the way! Hi!... Tproo!..." The shouting of Balaga and
31809 of the sturdy young fellow seated on the box was all that could be
31810 heard. On the Arbat Square the troyka caught against a carriage;
31811 something cracked, shouts were heard, and the troyka flew along the
31814 After taking a turn along the Podnovinski Boulevard, Balaga began to
31815 rein in, and turning back drew up at the crossing of the old Konyusheny
31818 The young fellow on the box jumped down to hold the horses and Anatole
31819 and Dolokhov went along the pavement. When they reached the gate
31820 Dolokhov whistled. The whistle was answered, and a maidservant ran out.
31822 "Come into the courtyard or you'll be seen; she'll come out directly,"
31825 Dolokhov stayed by the gate. Anatole followed the maid into the
31826 courtyard, turned the corner, and ran up into the porch.
31828 He was met by Gabriel, Marya Dmitrievna's gigantic footman.
31830 "Come to the mistress, please," said the footman in his deep bass,
31831 intercepting any retreat.
31833 "To what Mistress? Who are you?" asked Anatole in a breathless whisper.
31835 "Kindly step in, my orders are to bring you in."
31837 "Kuragin! Come back!" shouted Dolokhov. "Betrayed! Back!"
31839 Dolokhov, after Anatole entered, had remained at the wicket gate and was
31840 struggling with the yard porter who was trying to lock it. With a last
31841 desperate effort Dolokhov pushed the porter aside, and when Anatole ran
31842 back seized him by the arm, pulled him through the wicket, and ran back
31843 with him to the troyka.
31850 Marya Dmitrievna, having found Sonya weeping in the corridor, made her
31851 confess everything, and intercepting the note to Natasha she read it and
31852 went into Natasha's room with it in her hand.
31854 "You shameless good-for-nothing!" said she. "I won't hear a word."
31856 Pushing back Natasha who looked at her with astonished but tearless
31857 eyes, she locked her in; and having given orders to the yard porter to
31858 admit the persons who would be coming that evening, but not to let them
31859 out again, and having told the footman to bring them up to her, she
31860 seated herself in the drawing room to await the abductors.
31862 When Gabriel came to inform her that the men who had come had run away
31863 again, she rose frowning, and clasping her hands behind her paced
31864 through the rooms a long time considering what she should do. Toward
31865 midnight she went to Natasha's room fingering the key in her pocket.
31866 Sonya was sitting sobbing in the corridor. "Marya Dmitrievna, for God's
31867 sake let me in to her!" she pleaded, but Marya Dmitrievna unlocked the
31868 door and went in without giving her an answer.... "Disgusting,
31869 abominable... In my house... horrid girl, hussy! I'm only sorry for her
31870 father!" thought she, trying to restrain her wrath. "Hard as it may be,
31871 I'll tell them all to hold their tongues and will hide it from the
31872 count." She entered the room with resolute steps. Natasha lying on the
31873 sofa, her head hidden in her hands, and she did not stir. She was in
31874 just the same position in which Marya Dmitrievna had left her.
31876 "A nice girl! Very nice!" said Marya Dmitrievna. "Arranging meetings
31877 with lovers in my house! It's no use pretending: you listen when I speak
31878 to you!" And Marya Dmitrievna touched her arm. "Listen when I speak!
31879 You've disgraced yourself like the lowest of hussies. I'd treat you
31880 differently, but I'm sorry for your father, so I will conceal it."
31882 Natasha did not change her position, but her whole body heaved with
31883 noiseless, convulsive sobs which choked her. Marya Dmitrievna glanced
31884 round at Sonya and seated herself on the sofa beside Natasha.
31886 "It's lucky for him that he escaped me; but I'll find him!" she said in
31887 her rough voice. "Do you hear what I am saying or not?" she added.
31889 She put her large hand under Natasha's face and turned it toward her.
31890 Both Marya Dmitrievna and Sonya were amazed when they saw how Natasha
31891 looked. Her eyes were dry and glistening, her lips compressed, her
31894 "Let me be!... What is it to me?... I shall die!" she muttered,
31895 wrenching herself from Marya Dmitrievna's hands with a vicious effort
31896 and sinking down again into her former position.
31898 "Natalie!" said Marya Dmitrievna. "I wish for your good. Lie still, stay
31899 like that then, I won't touch you. But listen. I won't tell you how
31900 guilty you are. You know that yourself. But when your father comes back
31901 tomorrow what am I to tell him? Eh?"
31903 Again Natasha's body shook with sobs.
31905 "Suppose he finds out, and your brother, and your betrothed?"
31907 "I have no betrothed: I have refused him!" cried Natasha.
31909 "That's all the same," continued Marya Dmitrievna. "If they hear of
31910 this, will they let it pass? He, your father, I know him... if he
31911 challenges him to a duel will that be all right? Eh?"
31913 "Oh, let me be! Why have you interfered at all? Why? Why? Who asked you
31914 to?" shouted Natasha, raising herself on the sofa and looking
31915 malignantly at Marya Dmitrievna.
31917 "But what did you want?" cried Marya Dmitrievna, growing angry again.
31918 "Were you kept under lock and key? Who hindered his coming to the house?
31919 Why carry you off as if you were some gypsy singing girl?... Well, if he
31920 had carried you off... do you think they wouldn't have found him? Your
31921 father, or brother, or your betrothed? And he's a scoundrel, a wretch--
31924 "He is better than any of you!" exclaimed Natasha getting up. "If you
31925 hadn't interfered... Oh, my God! What is it all? What is it? Sonya,
31928 And she burst into sobs with the despairing vehemence with which people
31929 bewail disasters they feel they have themselves occasioned. Marya
31930 Dmitrievna was to speak again but Natasha cried out:
31932 "Go away! Go away! You all hate and despise me!" and she threw herself
31935 Marya Dmitrievna went on admonishing her for some time, enjoining on her
31936 that it must all be kept from her father and assuring her that nobody
31937 would know anything about it if only Natasha herself would undertake to
31938 forget it all and not let anyone see that something had happened.
31939 Natasha did not reply, nor did she sob any longer, but she grew cold and
31940 had a shivering fit. Marya Dmitrievna put a pillow under her head,
31941 covered her with two quilts, and herself brought her some lime-flower
31942 water, but Natasha did not respond to her.
31944 "Well, let her sleep," said Marya Dmitrievna as she went out of the room
31945 supposing Natasha to be asleep.
31947 But Natasha was not asleep; with pale face and fixed wide-open eyes she
31948 looked straight before her. All that night she did not sleep or weep and
31949 did not speak to Sonya who got up and went to her several times.
31951 Next day Count Rostov returned from his estate near Moscow in time for
31952 lunch as he had promised. He was in very good spirits; the affair with
31953 the purchaser was going on satisfactorily, and there was nothing to keep
31954 him any longer in Moscow, away from the countess whom he missed. Marya
31955 Dmitrievna met him and told him that Natasha had been very unwell the
31956 day before and that they had sent for the doctor, but that she was
31957 better now. Natasha had not left her room that morning. With compressed
31958 and parched lips and dry fixed eyes, she sat at the window, uneasily
31959 watching the people who drove past and hurriedly glancing round at
31960 anyone who entered the room. She was evidently expecting news of him and
31961 that he would come or would write to her.
31963 When the count came to see her she turned anxiously round at the sound
31964 of a man's footstep, and then her face resumed its cold and malevolent
31965 expression. She did not even get up to greet him. "What is the matter
31966 with you, my angel? Are you ill?" asked the count.
31968 After a moment's silence Natasha answered: "Yes, ill."
31970 In reply to the count's anxious inquiries as to why she was so dejected
31971 and whether anything had happened to her betrothed, she assured him that
31972 nothing had happened and asked him not to worry. Marya Dmitrievna
31973 confirmed Natasha's assurances that nothing had happened. From the
31974 pretense of illness, from his daughter's distress, and by the
31975 embarrassed faces of Sonya and Marya Dmitrievna, the count saw clearly
31976 that something had gone wrong during his absence, but it was so terrible
31977 for him to think that anything disgraceful had happened to his beloved
31978 daughter, and he so prized his own cheerful tranquillity, that he
31979 avoided inquiries and tried to assure himself that nothing particularly
31980 had happened; and he was only dissatisfied that her indisposition
31981 delayed their return to the country.
31988 From the day his wife arrived in Moscow Pierre had been intending to go
31989 away somewhere, so as not to be near her. Soon after the Rostovs came to
31990 Moscow the effect Natasha had on him made him hasten to carry out his
31991 intention. He went to Tver to see Joseph Alexeevich's widow, who had
31992 long since promised to hand over to him some papers of her deceased
31995 When he returned to Moscow Pierre was handed a letter from Marya
31996 Dmitrievna asking him to come and see her on a matter of great
31997 importance relating to Andrew Bolkonski and his betrothed. Pierre had
31998 been avoiding Natasha because it seemed to him that his feeling for her
31999 was stronger than a married man's should be for his friend's fiancee.
32000 Yet some fate constantly threw them together.
32002 "What can have happened? And what can they want with me?" thought he as
32003 he dressed to go to Marya Dmitrievna's. "If only Prince Andrew would
32004 hurry up and come and marry her!" thought he on his way to the house.
32006 On the Tverskoy Boulevard a familiar voice called to him.
32008 "Pierre! Been back long?" someone shouted. Pierre raised his head. In a
32009 sleigh drawn by two gray trotting-horses that were bespattering the
32010 dashboard with snow, Anatole and his constant companion Makarin dashed
32011 past. Anatole was sitting upright in the classic pose of military
32012 dandies, the lower part of his face hidden by his beaver collar and his
32013 head slightly bent. His face was fresh and rosy, his white-plumed hat,
32014 tilted to one side, disclosed his curled and pomaded hair besprinkled
32017 "Yes, indeed, that's a true sage," thought Pierre. "He sees nothing
32018 beyond the pleasure of the moment, nothing troubles him and so he is
32019 always cheerful, satisfied, and serene. What wouldn't I give to be like
32020 him!" he thought enviously.
32022 In Marya Dmitrievna's anteroom the footman who helped him off with his
32023 fur coat said that the mistress asked him to come to her bedroom.
32025 When he opened the ballroom door Pierre saw Natasha sitting at the
32026 window, with a thin, pale, and spiteful face. She glanced round at him,
32027 frowned, and left the room with an expression of cold dignity.
32029 "What has happened?" asked Pierre, entering Marya Dmitrievna's room.
32031 "Fine doings!" answered Dmitrievna. "For fifty-eight years have I lived
32032 in this world and never known anything so disgraceful!"
32034 And having put him on his honor not to repeat anything she told him,
32035 Marya Dmitrievna informed him that Natasha had refused Prince Andrew
32036 without her parents' knowledge and that the cause of this was Anatole
32037 Kuragin into whose society Pierre's wife had thrown her and with whom
32038 Natasha had tried to elope during her father's absence, in order to be
32041 Pierre raised his shoulders and listened open-mouthed to what was told
32042 him, scarcely able to believe his own ears. That Prince Andrew's deeply
32043 loved affianced wife--the same Natasha Rostova who used to be so
32044 charming--should give up Bolkonski for that fool Anatole who was already
32045 secretly married (as Pierre knew), and should be so in love with him as
32046 to agree to run away with him, was something Pierre could not conceive
32047 and could not imagine.
32049 He could not reconcile the charming impression he had of Natasha, whom
32050 he had known from a child, with this new conception of her baseness,
32051 folly, and cruelty. He thought of his wife. "They are all alike!" he
32052 said to himself, reflecting that he was not the only man unfortunate
32053 enough to be tied to a bad woman. But still he pitied Prince Andrew to
32054 the point of tears and sympathized with his wounded pride, and the more
32055 he pitied his friend the more did he think with contempt and even with
32056 disgust of that Natasha who had just passed him in the ballroom with
32057 such a look of cold dignity. He did not know that Natasha's soul was
32058 overflowing with despair, shame, and humiliation, and that it was not
32059 her fault that her face happened to assume an expression of calm dignity
32062 "But how get married?" said Pierre, in answer to Marya Dmitrievna. "He
32063 could not marry--he is married!"
32065 "Things get worse from hour to hour!" ejaculated Marya Dmitrievna. "A
32066 nice youth! What a scoundrel! And she's expecting him--expecting him
32067 since yesterday. She must be told! Then at least she won't go on
32070 After hearing the details of Anatole's marriage from Pierre, and giving
32071 vent to her anger against Anatole in words of abuse, Marya Dmitrievna
32072 told Pierre why she had sent for him. She was afraid that the count or
32073 Bolkonski, who might arrive at any moment, if they knew of this affair
32074 (which she hoped to hide from them) might challenge Anatole to a duel,
32075 and she therefore asked Pierre to tell his brother-in-law in her name to
32076 leave Moscow and not dare to let her set eyes on him again. Pierre--only
32077 now realizing the danger to the old count, Nicholas, and Prince Andrew--
32078 promised to do as she wished. Having briefly and exactly explained her
32079 wishes to him, she let him go to the drawing room.
32081 "Mind, the count knows nothing. Behave as if you know nothing either,"
32082 she said. "And I will go and tell her it is no use expecting him! And
32083 stay to dinner if you care to!" she called after Pierre.
32085 Pierre met the old count, who seemed nervous and upset. That morning
32086 Natasha had told him that she had rejected Bolkonski.
32088 "Troubles, troubles, my dear fellow!" he said to Pierre. "What troubles
32089 one has with these girls without their mother! I do so regret having
32090 come here.... I will be frank with you. Have you heard she has broken
32091 off her engagement without consulting anybody? It's true this engagement
32092 never was much to my liking. Of course he is an excellent man, but
32093 still, with his father's disapproval they wouldn't have been happy, and
32094 Natasha won't lack suitors. Still, it has been going on so long, and to
32095 take such a step without father's or mother's consent! And now she's
32096 ill, and God knows what! It's hard, Count, hard to manage daughters in
32097 their mother's absence...."
32099 Pierre saw that the count was much upset and tried to change the
32100 subject, but the count returned to his troubles.
32102 Sonya entered the room with an agitated face.
32104 "Natasha is not quite well; she's in her room and would like to see you.
32105 Marya Dmitrievna is with her and she too asks you to come."
32107 "Yes, you are a great friend of Bolkonski's, no doubt she wants to send
32108 him a message," said the count. "Oh dear! Oh dear! How happy it all
32111 And clutching the spare gray locks on his temples the count left the
32114 When Marya Dmitrievna told Natasha that Anatole was married, Natasha did
32115 not wish to believe it and insisted on having it confirmed by Pierre
32116 himself. Sonya told Pierre this as she led him along the corridor to
32119 Natasha, pale and stern, was sitting beside Marya Dmitrievna, and her
32120 eyes, glittering feverishly, met Pierre with a questioning look the
32121 moment he entered. She did not smile or nod, but only gazed fixedly at
32122 him, and her look asked only one thing: was he a friend, or like the
32123 others an enemy in regard to Anatole? As for Pierre, he evidently did
32126 "He knows all about it," said Marya Dmitrievna pointing to Pierre and
32127 addressing Natasha. "Let him tell you whether I have told the truth."
32129 Natasha looked from one to the other as a hunted and wounded animal
32130 looks at the approaching dogs and sportsmen.
32132 "Natalya Ilynichna," Pierre began, dropping his eyes with a feeling of
32133 pity for her and loathing for the thing he had to do, "whether it is
32134 true or not should make no difference to you, because..."
32136 "Then it is not true that he's married!"
32140 "Has he been married long?" she asked. "On your honor?..."
32142 Pierre gave his word of honor.
32144 "Is he still here?" she asked, quickly.
32146 "Yes, I have just seen him."
32148 She was evidently unable to speak and made a sign with her hands that
32149 they should leave her alone.
32156 Pierre did not stay for dinner, but left the room and went away at once.
32157 He drove through the town seeking Anatole Kuragin, at the thought of
32158 whom now the blood rushed to his heart and he felt a difficulty in
32159 breathing. He was not at the ice hills, nor at the gypsies', nor at
32160 Komoneno's. Pierre drove to the club. In the club all was going on as
32161 usual. The members who were assembling for dinner were sitting about in
32162 groups; they greeted Pierre and spoke of the town news. The footman
32163 having greeted him, knowing his habits and his acquaintances, told him
32164 there was a place left for him in the small dining room and that Prince
32165 Michael Zakharych was in the library, but Paul Timofeevich had not yet
32166 arrived. One of Pierre's acquaintances, while they were talking about
32167 the weather, asked if he had heard of Kuragin's abduction of Rostova
32168 which was talked of in the town, and was it true? Pierre laughed and
32169 said it was nonsense for he had just come from the Rostovs'. He asked
32170 everyone about Anatole. One man told him he had not come yet, and
32171 another that he was coming to dinner. Pierre felt it strange to see this
32172 calm, indifferent crowd of people unaware of what was going on in his
32173 soul. He paced through the ballroom, waited till everyone had come, and
32174 as Anatole had not turned up did not stay for dinner but drove home.
32176 Anatole, for whom Pierre was looking, dined that day with Dolokhov,
32177 consulting him as to how to remedy this unfortunate affair. It seemed to
32178 him essential to see Natasha. In the evening he drove to his sister's to
32179 discuss with her how to arrange a meeting. When Pierre returned home
32180 after vainly hunting all over Moscow, his valet informed him that Prince
32181 Anatole was with the countess. The countess' drawing room was full of
32184 Pierre without greeting his wife whom he had not seen since his return--
32185 at that moment she was more repulsive to him than ever--entered the
32186 drawing room and seeing Anatole went up to him.
32188 "Ah, Pierre," said the countess going up to her husband. "You don't know
32189 what a plight our Anatole..."
32191 She stopped, seeing in the forward thrust of her husband's head, in his
32192 glowing eyes and his resolute gait, the terrible indications of that
32193 rage and strength which she knew and had herself experienced after his
32194 duel with Dolokhov.
32196 "Where you are, there is vice and evil!" said Pierre to his wife.
32197 "Anatole, come with me! I must speak to you," he added in French.
32199 Anatole glanced round at his sister and rose submissively, ready to
32200 follow Pierre. Pierre, taking him by the arm, pulled him toward himself
32201 and was leading him from the room.
32203 "If you allow yourself in my drawing room..." whispered Helene, but
32204 Pierre did not reply and went out of the room.
32206 Anatole followed him with his usual jaunty step but his face betrayed
32209 Having entered his study Pierre closed the door and addressed Anatole
32210 without looking at him.
32212 "You promised Countess Rostova to marry her and were about to elope with
32215 "Mon cher," answered Anatole (their whole conversation was in French),
32216 "I don't consider myself bound to answer questions put to me in that
32219 Pierre's face, already pale, became distorted by fury. He seized Anatole
32220 by the collar of his uniform with his big hand and shook him from side
32221 to side till Anatole's face showed a sufficient degree of terror.
32223 "When I tell you that I must talk to you!..." repeated Pierre.
32225 "Come now, this is stupid. What?" said Anatole, fingering a button of
32226 his collar that had been wrenched loose with a bit of the cloth.
32228 "You're a scoundrel and a blackguard, and I don't know what deprives me
32229 from the pleasure of smashing your head with this!" said Pierre,
32230 expressing himself so artificially because he was talking French.
32232 He took a heavy paperweight and lifted it threateningly, but at once put
32233 it back in its place.
32235 "Did you promise to marry her?"
32237 "I... I didn't think of it. I never promised, because..."
32239 Pierre interrupted him.
32241 "Have you any letters of hers? Any letters?" he said, moving toward
32244 Anatole glanced at him and immediately thrust his hand into his pocket
32245 and drew out his pocketbook.
32247 Pierre took the letter Anatole handed him and, pushing aside a table
32248 that stood in his way, threw himself on the sofa.
32250 "I shan't be violent, don't be afraid!" said Pierre in answer to a
32251 frightened gesture of Anatole's. "First, the letters," said he, as if
32252 repeating a lesson to himself. "Secondly," he continued after a short
32253 pause, again rising and again pacing the room, "tomorrow you must get
32256 "But how can I?..."
32258 "Thirdly," Pierre continued without listening to him, "you must never
32259 breathe a word of what has passed between you and Countess Rostova. I
32260 know I can't prevent your doing so, but if you have a spark of
32261 conscience..." Pierre paced the room several times in silence.
32263 Anatole sat at a table frowning and biting his lips.
32265 "After all, you must understand that besides your pleasure there is such
32266 a thing as other people's happiness and peace, and that you are ruining
32267 a whole life for the sake of amusing yourself! Amuse yourself with women
32268 like my wife--with them you are within your rights, for they know what
32269 you want of them. They are armed against you by the same experience of
32270 debauchery; but to promise a maid to marry her... to deceive, to
32271 kidnap.... Don't you understand that it is as mean as beating an old man
32274 Pierre paused and looked at Anatole no longer with an angry but with a
32277 "I don't know about that, eh?" said Anatole, growing more confident as
32278 Pierre mastered his wrath. "I don't know that and don't want to," he
32279 said, not looking at Pierre and with a slight tremor of his lower jaw,
32280 "but you have used such words to me--'mean' and so on--which as a man of
32281 honor I can't allow anyone to use."
32283 Pierre glanced at him with amazement, unable to understand what he
32286 "Though it was tête-à-tête," Anatole continued, "still I can't..."
32288 "Is it satisfaction you want?" said Pierre ironically.
32290 "You could at least take back your words. What? If you want me to do as
32293 "I take them back, I take them back!" said Pierre, "and I ask you to
32294 forgive me." Pierre involuntarily glanced at the loose button. "And if
32295 you require money for your journey..."
32297 Anatole smiled. The expression of that base and cringing smile, which
32298 Pierre knew so well in his wife, revolted him.
32300 "Oh, vile and heartless brood!" he exclaimed, and left the room.
32302 Next day Anatole left for Petersburg.
32309 Pierre drove to Marya Dmitrievna's to tell her of the fulfillment of her
32310 wish that Kuragin should be banished from Moscow. The whole house was in
32311 a state of alarm and commotion. Natasha was very ill, having, as Marya
32312 Dmitrievna told him in secret, poisoned herself the night after she had
32313 been told that Anatole was married, with some arsenic she had stealthily
32314 procured. After swallowing a little she had been so frightened that she
32315 woke Sonya and told her what she had done. The necessary antidotes had
32316 been administered in time and she was now out of danger, though still so
32317 weak that it was out of the question to move her to the country, and so
32318 the countess had been sent for. Pierre saw the distracted count, and
32319 Sonya, who had a tear-stained face, but he could not see Natasha.
32321 Pierre dined at the club that day and heard on all sides gossip about
32322 the attempted abduction of Rostova. He resolutely denied these rumors,
32323 assuring everyone that nothing had happened except that his brother-in-
32324 law had proposed to her and been refused. It seemed to Pierre that it
32325 was his duty to conceal the whole affair and re-establish Natasha's
32328 He was awaiting Prince Andrew's return with dread and went every day to
32329 the old prince's for news of him.
32331 Old Prince Bolkonski heard all the rumors current in the town from
32332 Mademoiselle Bourienne and had read the note to Princess Mary in which
32333 Natasha had broken off her engagement. He seemed in better spirits than
32334 usual and awaited his son with great impatience.
32336 Some days after Anatole's departure Pierre received a note from Prince
32337 Andrew, informing him of his arrival and asking him to come to see him.
32339 As soon as he reached Moscow, Prince Andrew had received from his father
32340 Natasha's note to Princess Mary breaking off her engagement
32341 (Mademoiselle Bourienne had purloined it from Princess Mary and given it
32342 to the old prince), and he heard from him the story of Natasha's
32343 elopement, with additions.
32345 Prince Andrew had arrived in the evening and Pierre came to see him next
32346 morning. Pierre expected to find Prince Andrew in almost the same state
32347 as Natasha and was therefore surprised on entering the drawing room to
32348 hear him in the study talking in a loud animated voice about some
32349 intrigue going on in Petersburg. The old prince's voice and another now
32350 and then interrupted him. Princess Mary came out to meet Pierre. She
32351 sighed, looking toward the door of the room where Prince Andrew was,
32352 evidently intending to express her sympathy with his sorrow, but Pierre
32353 saw by her face that she was glad both at what had happened and at the
32354 way her brother had taken the news of Natasha's faithlessness.
32356 "He says he expected it," she remarked. "I know his pride will not let
32357 him express his feelings, but still he has taken it better, far better,
32358 than I expected. Evidently it had to be...."
32360 "But is it possible that all is really ended?" asked Pierre.
32362 Princess Mary looked at him with astonishment. She did not understand
32363 how he could ask such a question. Pierre went into the study. Prince
32364 Andrew, greatly changed and plainly in better health, but with a fresh
32365 horizontal wrinkle between his brows, stood in civilian dress facing his
32366 father and Prince Meshcherski, warmly disputing and vigorously
32367 gesticulating. The conversation was about Speranski--the news of whose
32368 sudden exile and alleged treachery had just reached Moscow.
32370 "Now he is censured and accused by all who were enthusiastic about him a
32371 month ago," Prince Andrew was saying, "and by those who were unable to
32372 understand his aims. To judge a man who is in disfavor and to throw on
32373 him all the blame of other men's mistakes is very easy, but I maintain
32374 that if anything good has been accomplished in this reign it was done by
32375 him, by him alone."
32377 He paused at the sight of Pierre. His face quivered and immediately
32378 assumed a vindictive expression.
32380 "Posterity will do him justice," he concluded, and at once turned to
32383 "Well, how are you? Still getting stouter?" he said with animation, but
32384 the new wrinkle on his forehead deepened. "Yes, I am well," he said in
32385 answer to Pierre's question, and smiled.
32387 To Pierre that smile said plainly: "I am well, but my health is now of
32390 After a few words to Pierre about the awful roads from the Polish
32391 frontier, about people he had met in Switzerland who knew Pierre, and
32392 about M. Dessalles, whom he had brought from abroad to be his son's
32393 tutor, Prince Andrew again joined warmly in the conversation about
32394 Speranski which was still going on between the two old men.
32396 "If there were treason, or proofs of secret relations with Napoleon,
32397 they would have been made public," he said with warmth and haste. "I do
32398 not, and never did, like Speranski personally, but I like justice!"
32400 Pierre now recognized in his friend a need with which he was only too
32401 familiar, to get excited and to have arguments about extraneous matters
32402 in order to stifle thoughts that were too oppressive and too intimate.
32403 When Prince Meshcherski had left, Prince Andrew took Pierre's arm and
32404 asked him into the room that had been assigned him. A bed had been made
32405 up there, and some open portmanteaus and trunks stood about. Prince
32406 Andrew went to one and took out a small casket, from which he drew a
32407 packet wrapped in paper. He did it all silently and very quickly. He
32408 stood up and coughed. His face was gloomy and his lips compressed.
32410 "Forgive me for troubling you..."
32412 Pierre saw that Prince Andrew was going to speak of Natasha, and his
32413 broad face expressed pity and sympathy. This expression irritated Prince
32414 Andrew, and in a determined, ringing, and unpleasant tone he continued:
32416 "I have received a refusal from Countess Rostova and have heard reports
32417 of your brother-in-law having sought her hand, or something of that
32418 kind. Is that true?"
32420 "Both true and untrue," Pierre began; but Prince Andrew interrupted him.
32422 "Here are her letters and her portrait," said he.
32424 He took the packet from the table and handed it to Pierre.
32426 "Give this to the countess... if you see her."
32428 "She is very ill," said Pierre.
32430 "Then she is here still?" said Prince Andrew. "And Prince Kuragin?" he
32433 "He left long ago. She has been at death's door."
32435 "I much regret her illness," said Prince Andrew; and he smiled like his
32436 father, coldly, maliciously, and unpleasantly.
32438 "So Monsieur Kuragin has not honored Countess Rostova with his hand?"
32439 said Prince Andrew, and he snorted several times.
32441 "He could not marry, for he was married already," said Pierre.
32443 Prince Andrew laughed disagreeably, again reminding one of his father.
32445 "And where is your brother-in-law now, if I may ask?" he said.
32447 "He has gone to Peters... But I don't know," said Pierre.
32449 "Well, it doesn't matter," said Prince Andrew. "Tell Countess Rostova
32450 that she was and is perfectly free and that I wish her all that is
32453 Pierre took the packet. Prince Andrew, as if trying to remember whether
32454 he had something more to say, or waiting to see if Pierre would say
32455 anything, looked fixedly at him.
32457 "I say, do you remember our discussion in Petersburg?" asked Pierre,
32460 "Yes," returned Prince Andrew hastily. "I said that a fallen woman
32461 should be forgiven, but I didn't say I could forgive her. I can't."
32463 "But can this be compared...?" said Pierre.
32465 Prince Andrew interrupted him and cried sharply: "Yes, ask her hand
32466 again, be magnanimous, and so on?... Yes, that would be very noble, but
32467 I am unable to follow in that gentleman's footsteps. If you wish to be
32468 my friend never speak to me of that... of all that! Well, good-by. So
32469 you'll give her the packet?"
32471 Pierre left the room and went to the old prince and Princess Mary.
32473 The old man seemed livelier than usual. Princess Mary was the same as
32474 always, but beneath her sympathy for her brother, Pierre noticed her
32475 satisfaction that the engagement had been broken off. Looking at them
32476 Pierre realized what contempt and animosity they all felt for the
32477 Rostovs, and that it was impossible in their presence even to mention
32478 the name of her who could give up Prince Andrew for anyone else.
32480 At dinner the talk turned on the war, the approach of which was becoming
32481 evident. Prince Andrew talked incessantly, arguing now with his father,
32482 now with the Swiss tutor Dessalles, and showing an unnatural animation,
32483 the cause of which Pierre so well understood.
32490 That same evening Pierre went to the Rostovs' to fulfill the commission
32491 entrusted to him. Natasha was in bed, the count at the club, and Pierre,
32492 after giving the letters to Sonya, went to Marya Dmitrievna who was
32493 interested to know how Prince Andrew had taken the news. Ten minutes
32494 later Sonya came to Marya Dmitrievna.
32496 "Natasha insists on seeing Count Peter Kirilovich," said she.
32498 "But how? Are we to take him up to her? The room there has not been
32501 "No, she has dressed and gone into the drawing room," said Sonya.
32503 Marya Dmitrievna only shrugged her shoulders.
32505 "When will her mother come? She has worried me to death! Now mind, don't
32506 tell her everything!" said she to Pierre. "One hasn't the heart to scold
32507 her, she is so much to be pitied, so much to be pitied."
32509 Natasha was standing in the middle of the drawing room, emaciated, with
32510 a pale set face, but not at all shamefaced as Pierre expected to find
32511 her. When he appeared at the door she grew flurried, evidently undecided
32512 whether to go to meet him or to wait till he came up.
32514 Pierre hastened to her. He thought she would give him her hand as usual;
32515 but she, stepping up to him, stopped, breathing heavily, her arms
32516 hanging lifelessly just in the pose she used to stand in when she went
32517 to the middle of the ballroom to sing, but with quite a different
32518 expression of face.
32520 "Peter Kirilovich," she began rapidly, "Prince Bolkonski was your
32521 friend--is your friend," she corrected herself. (It seemed to her that
32522 everything that had once been must now be different.) "He told me once
32523 to apply to you..."
32525 Pierre sniffed as he looked at her, but did not speak. Till then he had
32526 reproached her in his heart and tried to despise her, but he now felt so
32527 sorry for her that there was no room in his soul for reproach.
32529 "He is here now: tell him... to for... forgive me!" She stopped and
32530 breathed still more quickly, but did not shed tears.
32532 "Yes... I will tell him," answered Pierre; "but..."
32534 He did not know what to say.
32536 Natasha was evidently dismayed at the thought of what he might think she
32539 "No, I know all is over," she said hurriedly. "No, that can never be.
32540 I'm only tormented by the wrong I have done him. Tell him only that I
32541 beg him to forgive, forgive, forgive me for everything...."
32543 She trembled all over and sat down on a chair.
32545 A sense of pity he had never before known overflowed Pierre's heart.
32547 "I will tell him, I will tell him everything once more," said Pierre.
32548 "But... I should like to know one thing...."
32550 "Know what?" Natasha's eyes asked.
32552 "I should like to know, did you love..." Pierre did not know how to
32553 refer to Anatole and flushed at the thought of him--"did you love that
32556 "Don't call him bad!" said Natasha. "But I don't know, don't know at
32559 She began to cry and a still greater sense of pity, tenderness, and love
32560 welled up in Pierre. He felt the tears trickle under his spectacles and
32561 hoped they would not be noticed.
32563 "We won't speak of it any more, my dear," said Pierre, and his gentle,
32564 cordial tone suddenly seemed very strange to Natasha.
32566 "We won't speak of it, my dear--I'll tell him everything; but one thing
32567 I beg of you, consider me your friend and if you want help, advice, or
32568 simply to open your heart to someone--not now, but when your mind is
32569 clearer think of me!" He took her hand and kissed it. "I shall be happy
32570 if it's in my power..."
32572 Pierre grew confused.
32574 "Don't speak to me like that. I am not worth it!" exclaimed Natasha and
32575 turned to leave the room, but Pierre held her hand.
32577 He knew he had something more to say to her. But when he said it he was
32578 amazed at his own words.
32580 "Stop, stop! You have your whole life before you," said he to her.
32583 "Before me? No! All is over for me," she replied with shame and self-
32586 "All over?" he repeated. "If I were not myself, but the handsomest,
32587 cleverest, and best man in the world, and were free, I would this moment
32588 ask on my knees for your hand and your love!"
32590 For the first time for many days Natasha wept tears of gratitude and
32591 tenderness, and glancing at Pierre she went out of the room.
32593 Pierre too when she had gone almost ran into the anteroom, restraining
32594 tears of tenderness and joy that choked him, and without finding the
32595 sleeves of his fur cloak threw it on and got into his sleigh.
32597 "Where to now, your excellency?" asked the coachman.
32599 "Where to?" Pierre asked himself. "Where can I go now? Surely not to the
32600 club or to pay calls?" All men seemed so pitiful, so poor, in comparison
32601 with this feeling of tenderness and love he experienced: in comparison
32602 with that softened, grateful, last look she had given him through her
32605 "Home!" said Pierre, and despite twenty-two degrees of frost Fahrenheit
32606 he threw open the bearskin cloak from his broad chest and inhaled the
32609 It was clear and frosty. Above the dirty, ill-lit streets, above the
32610 black roofs, stretched the dark starry sky. Only looking up at the sky
32611 did Pierre cease to feel how sordid and humiliating were all mundane
32612 things compared with the heights to which his soul had just been raised.
32613 At the entrance to the Arbat Square an immense expanse of dark starry
32614 sky presented itself to his eyes. Almost in the center of it, above the
32615 Prechistenka Boulevard, surrounded and sprinkled on all sides by stars
32616 but distinguished from them all by its nearness to the earth, its white
32617 light, and its long uplifted tail, shone the enormous and brilliant
32618 comet of 1812--the comet which was said to portend all kinds of woes and
32619 the end of the world. In Pierre, however, that comet with its long
32620 luminous tail aroused no feeling of fear. On the contrary he gazed
32621 joyfully, his eyes moist with tears, at this bright comet which, having
32622 traveled in its orbit with inconceivable velocity through immeasurable
32623 space, seemed suddenly--like an arrow piercing the earth--to remain
32624 fixed in a chosen spot, vigorously holding its tail erect, shining and
32625 displaying its white light amid countless other scintillating stars. It
32626 seemed to Pierre that this comet fully responded to what was passing in
32627 his own softened and uplifted soul, now blossoming into a new life.
32636 From the close of the year 1811 intensified arming and concentrating of
32637 the forces of Western Europe began, and in 1812 these forces--millions
32638 of men, reckoning those transporting and feeding the army--moved from
32639 the west eastwards to the Russian frontier, toward which since 1811
32640 Russian forces had been similarly drawn. On the twelfth of June, 1812,
32641 the forces of Western Europe crossed the Russian frontier and war began,
32642 that is, an event took place opposed to human reason and to human
32643 nature. Millions of men perpetrated against one another such innumerable
32644 crimes, frauds, treacheries, thefts, forgeries, issues of false money,
32645 burglaries, incendiarisms, and murders as in whole centuries are not
32646 recorded in the annals of all the law courts of the world, but which
32647 those who committed them did not at the time regard as being crimes.
32649 What produced this extraordinary occurrence? What were its causes? The
32650 historians tell us with naive assurance that its causes were the wrongs
32651 inflicted on the Duke of Oldenburg, the nonobservance of the Continental
32652 System, the ambition of Napoleon, the firmness of Alexander, the
32653 mistakes of the diplomatists, and so on.
32655 Consequently, it would only have been necessary for Metternich,
32656 Rumyantsev, or Talleyrand, between a levee and an evening party, to have
32657 taken proper pains and written a more adroit note, or for Napoleon to
32658 have written to Alexander: "My respected Brother, I consent to restore
32659 the duchy to the Duke of Oldenburg"--and there would have been no war.
32661 We can understand that the matter seemed like that to contemporaries. It
32662 naturally seemed to Napoleon that the war was caused by England's
32663 intrigues (as in fact he said on the island of St. Helena). It naturally
32664 seemed to members of the English Parliament that the cause of the war
32665 was Napoleon's ambition; to the Duke of Oldenburg, that the cause of the
32666 war was the violence done to him; to businessmen that the cause of the
32667 war was the Continental System which was ruining Europe; to the generals
32668 and old soldiers that the chief reason for the war was the necessity of
32669 giving them employment; to the legitimists of that day that it was the
32670 need of re-establishing les bons principes, and to the diplomatists of
32671 that time that it all resulted from the fact that the alliance between
32672 Russia and Austria in 1809 had not been sufficiently well concealed from
32673 Napoleon, and from the awkward wording of Memorandum No. 178. It is
32674 natural that these and a countless and infinite quantity of other
32675 reasons, the number depending on the endless diversity of points of
32676 view, presented themselves to the men of that day; but to us, to
32677 posterity who view the thing that happened in all its magnitude and
32678 perceive its plain and terrible meaning, these causes seem insufficient.
32679 To us it is incomprehensible that millions of Christian men killed and
32680 tortured each other either because Napoleon was ambitious or Alexander
32681 was firm, or because England's policy was astute or the Duke of
32682 Oldenburg wronged. We cannot grasp what connection such circumstances
32683 have with the actual fact of slaughter and violence: why because the
32684 Duke was wronged, thousands of men from the other side of Europe killed
32685 and ruined the people of Smolensk and Moscow and were killed by them.
32687 To us, their descendants, who are not historians and are not carried
32688 away by the process of research and can therefore regard the event with
32689 unclouded common sense, an incalculable number of causes present
32690 themselves. The deeper we delve in search of these causes the more of
32691 them we find; and each separate cause or whole series of causes appears
32692 to us equally valid in itself and equally false by its insignificance
32693 compared to the magnitude of the events, and by its impotence--apart
32694 from the cooperation of all the other coincident causes--to occasion the
32695 event. To us, the wish or objection of this or that French corporal to
32696 serve a second term appears as much a cause as Napoleon's refusal to
32697 withdraw his troops beyond the Vistula and to restore the duchy of
32698 Oldenburg; for had he not wished to serve, and had a second, a third,
32699 and a thousandth corporal and private also refused, there would have
32700 been so many less men in Napoleon's army and the war could not have
32703 Had Napoleon not taken offense at the demand that he should withdraw
32704 beyond the Vistula, and not ordered his troops to advance, there would
32705 have been no war; but had all his sergeants objected to serving a second
32706 term then also there could have been no war. Nor could there have been a
32707 war had there been no English intrigues and no Duke of Oldenburg, and
32708 had Alexander not felt insulted, and had there not been an autocratic
32709 government in Russia, or a Revolution in France and a subsequent
32710 dictatorship and Empire, or all the things that produced the French
32711 Revolution, and so on. Without each of these causes nothing could have
32712 happened. So all these causes--myriads of causes--coincided to bring it
32713 about. And so there was no one cause for that occurrence, but it had to
32714 occur because it had to. Millions of men, renouncing their human
32715 feelings and reason, had to go from west to east to slay their fellows,
32716 just as some centuries previously hordes of men had come from the east
32717 to the west, slaying their fellows.
32719 The actions of Napoleon and Alexander, on whose words the event seemed
32720 to hang, were as little voluntary as the actions of any soldier who was
32721 drawn into the campaign by lot or by conscription. This could not be
32722 otherwise, for in order that the will of Napoleon and Alexander (on whom
32723 the event seemed to depend) should be carried out, the concurrence of
32724 innumerable circumstances was needed without any one of which the event
32725 could not have taken place. It was necessary that millions of men in
32726 whose hands lay the real power--the soldiers who fired, or transported
32727 provisions and guns--should consent to carry out the will of these weak
32728 individuals, and should have been induced to do so by an infinite number
32729 of diverse and complex causes.
32731 We are forced to fall back on fatalism as an explanation of irrational
32732 events (that is to say, events the reasonableness of which we do not
32733 understand). The more we try to explain such events in history
32734 reasonably, the more unreasonable and incomprehensible do they become to
32737 Each man lives for himself, using his freedom to attain his personal
32738 aims, and feels with his whole being that he can now do or abstain from
32739 doing this or that action; but as soon as he has done it, that action
32740 performed at a certain moment in time becomes irrevocable and belongs to
32741 history, in which it has not a free but a predestined significance.
32743 There are two sides to the life of every man, his individual life, which
32744 is the more free the more abstract its interests, and his elemental hive
32745 life in which he inevitably obeys laws laid down for him.
32747 Man lives consciously for himself, but is an unconscious instrument in
32748 the attainment of the historic, universal, aims of humanity. A deed done
32749 is irrevocable, and its result coinciding in time with the actions of
32750 millions of other men assumes an historic significance. The higher a man
32751 stands on the social ladder, the more people he is connected with and
32752 the more power he has over others, the more evident is the
32753 predestination and inevitability of his every action.
32755 "The king's heart is in the hands of the Lord."
32757 A king is history's slave.
32759 History, that is, the unconscious, general, hive life of mankind, uses
32760 every moment of the life of kings as a tool for its own purposes.
32762 Though Napoleon at that time, in 1812, was more convinced than ever that
32763 it depended on him, verser (ou ne pas verser) le sang de ses peuples *--
32764 as Alexander expressed it in the last letter he wrote him--he had never
32765 been so much in the grip of inevitable laws, which compelled him, while
32766 thinking that he was acting on his own volition, to perform for the hive
32767 life--that is to say, for history--whatever had to be performed.
32770 * "To shed (or not to shed) the blood of his peoples."
32772 The people of the west moved eastwards to slay their fellow men, and by
32773 the law of coincidence thousands of minute causes fitted in and co-
32774 ordinated to produce that movement and war: reproaches for the
32775 nonobservance of the Continental System, the Duke of Oldenburg's wrongs,
32776 the movement of troops into Prussia--undertaken (as it seemed to
32777 Napoleon) only for the purpose of securing an armed peace, the French
32778 Emperor's love and habit of war coinciding with his people's
32779 inclinations, allurement by the grandeur of the preparations, and the
32780 expenditure on those preparations and the need of obtaining advantages
32781 to compensate for that expenditure, the intoxicating honors he received
32782 in Dresden, the diplomatic negotiations which, in the opinion of
32783 contemporaries, were carried on with a sincere desire to attain peace,
32784 but which only wounded the self-love of both sides, and millions of
32785 other causes that adapted themselves to the event that was happening or
32788 When an apple has ripened and falls, why does it fall? Because of its
32789 attraction to the earth, because its stalk withers, because it is dried
32790 by the sun, because it grows heavier, because the wind shakes it, or
32791 because the boy standing below wants to eat it?
32793 Nothing is the cause. All this is only the coincidence of conditions in
32794 which all vital organic and elemental events occur. And the botanist who
32795 finds that the apple falls because the cellular tissue decays and so
32796 forth is equally right with the child who stands under the tree and says
32797 the apple fell because he wanted to eat it and prayed for it. Equally
32798 right or wrong is he who says that Napoleon went to Moscow because he
32799 wanted to, and perished because Alexander desired his destruction, and
32800 he who says that an undermined hill weighing a million tons fell because
32801 the last navvy struck it for the last time with his mattock. In historic
32802 events the so-called great men are labels giving names to events, and
32803 like labels they have but the smallest connection with the event itself.
32805 Every act of theirs, which appears to them an act of their own will, is
32806 in an historical sense involuntary and is related to the whole course of
32807 history and predestined from eternity.
32814 On the twenty-ninth of May Napoleon left Dresden, where he had spent
32815 three weeks surrounded by a court that included princes, dukes, kings,
32816 and even an emperor. Before leaving, Napoleon showed favor to the
32817 emperor, kings, and princes who had deserved it, reprimanded the kings
32818 and princes with whom he was dissatisfied, presented pearls and diamonds
32819 of his own--that is, which he had taken from other kings--to the Empress
32820 of Austria, and having, as his historian tells us, tenderly embraced the
32821 Empress Marie Louise--who regarded him as her husband, though he had
32822 left another wife in Paris--left her grieved by the parting which she
32823 seemed hardly able to bear. Though the diplomatists still firmly
32824 believed in the possibility of peace and worked zealously to that end,
32825 and though the Emperor Napoleon himself wrote a letter to Alexander,
32826 calling him Monsieur mon frere, and sincerely assured him that he did
32827 not want war and would always love and honor him--yet he set off to join
32828 his army, and at every station gave fresh orders to accelerate the
32829 movement of his troops from west to east. He went in a traveling coach
32830 with six horses, surrounded by pages, aides-de-camp, and an escort,
32831 along the road to Posen, Thorn, Danzig, and Konigsberg. At each of these
32832 towns thousands of people met him with excitement and enthusiasm.
32834 The army was moving from west to east, and relays of six horses carried
32835 him in the same direction. On the tenth of June, * coming up with the
32836 army, he spent the night in apartments prepared for him on the estate of
32837 a Polish count in the Vilkavisski forest.
32842 Next day, overtaking the army, he went in a carriage to the Niemen, and,
32843 changing into a Polish uniform, he drove to the riverbank in order to
32844 select a place for the crossing.
32846 Seeing, on the other side, some Cossacks (les Cosaques) and the wide-
32847 spreading steppes in the midst of which lay the holy city of Moscow
32848 (Moscou, la ville sainte), the capital of a realm such as the Scythia
32849 into which Alexander the Great had marched--Napoleon unexpectedly, and
32850 contrary alike to strategic and diplomatic considerations, ordered an
32851 advance, and the next day his army began to cross the Niemen.
32853 Early in the morning of the twelfth of June he came out of his tent,
32854 which was pitched that day on the steep left bank of the Niemen, and
32855 looked through a spyglass at the streams of his troops pouring out of
32856 the Vilkavisski forest and flowing over the three bridges thrown across
32857 the river. The troops, knowing of the Emperor's presence, were on the
32858 lookout for him, and when they caught sight of a figure in an overcoat
32859 and a cocked hat standing apart from his suite in front of his tent on
32860 the hill, they threw up their caps and shouted: "Vive l'Empereur!" and
32861 one after another poured in a ceaseless stream out of the vast forest
32862 that had concealed them and, separating, flowed on and on by the three
32863 bridges to the other side.
32865 "Now we'll go into action. Oh, when he takes it in hand himself, things
32866 get hot... by heaven!... There he is!... Vive l'Empereur! So these are
32867 the steppes of Asia! It's a nasty country all the same. Au revoir,
32868 Beauche; I'll keep the best palace in Moscow for you! Au revoir. Good
32869 luck!... Did you see the Emperor? Vive l'Empereur!... preur!--If they
32870 make me Governor of India, Gerard, I'll make you Minister of Kashmir--
32871 that's settled. Vive l'Empereur! Hurrah! hurrah! hurrah! The Cossacks--
32872 those rascals--see how they run! Vive l'Empereur! There he is, do you
32873 see him? I've seen him twice, as I see you now. The little corporal... I
32874 saw him give the cross to one of the veterans.... Vive l'Empereur!" came
32875 the voices of men, old and young, of most diverse characters and social
32876 positions. On the faces of all was one common expression of joy at the
32877 commencement of the long-expected campaign and of rapture and devotion
32878 to the man in the gray coat who was standing on the hill.
32880 On the thirteenth of June a rather small, thoroughbred Arab horse was
32881 brought to Napoleon. He mounted it and rode at a gallop to one of the
32882 bridges over the Niemen, deafened continually by incessant and rapturous
32883 acclamations which he evidently endured only because it was impossible
32884 to forbid the soldiers to express their love of him by such shouting,
32885 but the shouting which accompanied him everywhere disturbed him and
32886 distracted him from the military cares that had occupied him from the
32887 time he joined the army. He rode across one of the swaying pontoon
32888 bridges to the farther side, turned sharply to the left, and galloped in
32889 the direction of Kovno, preceded by enraptured, mounted chasseurs of the
32890 Guard who, breathless with delight, galloped ahead to clear a path for
32891 him through the troops. On reaching the broad river Viliya, he stopped
32892 near a regiment of Polish uhlans stationed by the river.
32894 "Vivat!" shouted the Poles, ecstatically, breaking their ranks and
32895 pressing against one another to see him.
32897 Napoleon looked up and down the river, dismounted, and sat down on a log
32898 that lay on the bank. At a mute sign from him, a telescope was handed
32899 him which he rested on the back of a happy page who had run up to him,
32900 and he gazed at the opposite bank. Then he became absorbed in a map laid
32901 out on the logs. Without lifting his head he said something, and two of
32902 his aides-de-camp galloped off to the Polish uhlans.
32904 "What? What did he say?" was heard in the ranks of the Polish uhlans
32905 when one of the aides-de-camp rode up to them.
32907 The order was to find a ford and to cross the river. The colonel of the
32908 Polish uhlans, a handsome old man, flushed and, fumbling in his speech
32909 from excitement, asked the aide-de-camp whether he would be permitted to
32910 swim the river with his uhlans instead of seeking a ford. In evident
32911 fear of refusal, like a boy asking for permission to get on a horse, he
32912 begged to be allowed to swim across the river before the Emperor's eyes.
32913 The aide-de-camp replied that probably the Emperor would not be
32914 displeased at this excess of zeal.
32916 As soon as the aide-de-camp had said this, the old mustached officer,
32917 with happy face and sparkling eyes, raised his saber, shouted "Vivat!"
32918 and, commanding the uhlans to follow him, spurred his horse and galloped
32919 into the river. He gave an angry thrust to his horse, which had grown
32920 restive under him, and plunged into the water, heading for the deepest
32921 part where the current was swift. Hundreds of uhlans galloped in after
32922 him. It was cold and uncanny in the rapid current in the middle of the
32923 stream, and the uhlans caught hold of one another as they fell off their
32924 horses. Some of the horses were drowned and some of the men; the others
32925 tried to swim on, some in the saddle and some clinging to their horses'
32926 manes. They tried to make their way forward to the opposite bank and,
32927 though there was a ford one third of a mile away, were proud that they
32928 were swimming and drowning in this river under the eyes of the man who
32929 sat on the log and was not even looking at what they were doing. When
32930 the aide-de-camp, having returned and choosing an opportune moment,
32931 ventured to draw the Emperor's attention to the devotion of the Poles to
32932 his person, the little man in the gray overcoat got up and, having
32933 summoned Berthier, began pacing up and down the bank with him, giving
32934 him instructions and occasionally glancing disapprovingly at the
32935 drowning uhlans who distracted his attention.
32937 For him it was no new conviction that his presence in any part of the
32938 world, from Africa to the steppes of Muscovy alike, was enough to
32939 dumfound people and impel them to insane self-oblivion. He called for
32940 his horse and rode to his quarters.
32942 Some forty uhlans were drowned in the river, though boats were sent to
32943 their assistance. The majority struggled back to the bank from which
32944 they had started. The colonel and some of his men got across and with
32945 difficulty clambered out on the further bank. And as soon as they had
32946 got out, in their soaked and streaming clothes, they shouted "Vivat!"
32947 and looked ecstatically at the spot where Napoleon had been but where he
32948 no longer was and at that moment considered themselves happy.
32950 That evening, between issuing one order that the forged Russian paper
32951 money prepared for use in Russia should be delivered as quickly as
32952 possible and another that a Saxon should be shot, on whom a letter
32953 containing information about the orders to the French army had been
32954 found, Napoleon also gave instructions that the Polish colonel who had
32955 needlessly plunged into the river should be enrolled in the Legion
32956 d'honneur of which Napoleon was himself the head.
32958 Quos vult perdere dementat. *
32961 * Those whom (God) wishes to destroy he drives mad.
32968 The Emperor of Russia had, meanwhile, been in Vilna for more than a
32969 month, reviewing troops and holding maneuvers. Nothing was ready for the
32970 war that everyone expected and to prepare for which the Emperor had come
32971 from Petersburg. There was no general plan of action. The vacillation
32972 between the various plans that were proposed had even increased after
32973 the Emperor had been at headquarters for a month. Each of the three
32974 armies had its own commander-in-chief, but there was no supreme
32975 commander of all the forces, and the Emperor did not assume that
32976 responsibility himself.
32978 The longer the Emperor remained in Vilna the less did everybody--tired
32979 of waiting--prepare for the war. All the efforts of those who surrounded
32980 the sovereign seemed directed merely to making him spend his time
32981 pleasantly and forget that war was impending.
32983 In June, after many balls and fetes given by the Polish magnates, by the
32984 courtiers, and by the Emperor himself, it occurred to one of the Polish
32985 aides-de-camp in attendance that a dinner and ball should be given for
32986 the Emperor by his aides-de-camp. This idea was eagerly received. The
32987 Emperor gave his consent. The aides-de-camp collected money by
32988 subscription. The lady who was thought to be most pleasing to the
32989 Emperor was invited to act as hostess. Count Bennigsen, being a
32990 landowner in the Vilna province, offered his country house for the fete,
32991 and the thirteenth of June was fixed for a ball, dinner, regatta, and
32992 fireworks at Zakret, Count Bennigsen's country seat.
32994 The very day that Napoleon issued the order to cross the Niemen, and his
32995 vanguard, driving off the Cossacks, crossed the Russian frontier,
32996 Alexander spent the evening at the entertainment given by his aides-de-
32997 camp at Bennigsen's country house.
32999 It was a gay and brilliant fete. Connoisseurs of such matters declared
33000 that rarely had so many beautiful women been assembled in one place.
33001 Countess Bezukhova was present among other Russian ladies who had
33002 followed the sovereign from Petersburg to Vilna and eclipsed the refined
33003 Polish ladies by her massive, so-called Russian type of beauty. The
33004 Emperor noticed her and honored her with a dance.
33006 Boris Drubetskoy, having left his wife in Moscow and being for the
33007 present en garcon (as he phrased it), was also there and, though not an
33008 aide-de-camp, had subscribed a large sum toward the expenses. Boris was
33009 now a rich man who had risen to high honors and no longer sought
33010 patronage but stood on an equal footing with the highest of those of his
33011 own age. He was meeting Helene in Vilna after not having seen her for a
33012 long time and did not recall the past, but as Helene was enjoying the
33013 favors of a very important personage and Boris had only recently
33014 married, they met as good friends of long standing.
33016 At midnight dancing was still going on. Helene, not having a suitable
33017 partner, herself offered to dance the mazurka with Boris. They were the
33018 third couple. Boris, coolly looking at Helene's dazzling bare shoulders
33019 which emerged from a dark, gold-embroidered, gauze gown, talked to her
33020 of old acquaintances and at the same time, unaware of it himself and
33021 unnoticed by others, never for an instant ceased to observe the Emperor
33022 who was in the same room. The Emperor was not dancing, he stood in the
33023 doorway, stopping now one pair and now another with gracious words which
33024 he alone knew how to utter.
33026 As the mazurka began, Boris saw that Adjutant General Balashev, one of
33027 those in closest attendance on the Emperor, went up to him and contrary
33028 to court etiquette stood near him while he was talking to a Polish lady.
33029 Having finished speaking to her, the Emperor looked inquiringly at
33030 Balashev and, evidently understanding that he only acted thus because
33031 there were important reasons for so doing, nodded slightly to the lady
33032 and turned to him. Hardly had Balashev begun to speak before a look of
33033 amazement appeared on the Emperor's face. He took Balashev by the arm
33034 and crossed the room with him, unconsciously clearing a path seven yards
33035 wide as the people on both sides made way for him. Boris noticed
33036 Arakcheev's excited face when the sovereign went out with Balashev.
33037 Arakcheev looked at the Emperor from under his brow and, sniffing with
33038 his red nose, stepped forward from the crowd as if expecting the Emperor
33039 to address him. (Boris understood that Arakcheev envied Balashev and was
33040 displeased that evidently important news had reached the Emperor
33041 otherwise than through himself.)
33043 But the Emperor and Balashev passed out into the illuminated garden
33044 without noticing Arakcheev who, holding his sword and glancing
33045 wrathfully around, followed some twenty paces behind them.
33047 All the time Boris was going through the figures of the mazurka, he was
33048 worried by the question of what news Balashev had brought and how he
33049 could find it out before others. In the figure in which he had to choose
33050 two ladies, he whispered to Helene that he meant to choose Countess
33051 Potocka who, he thought, had gone out onto the veranda, and glided over
33052 the parquet to the door opening into the garden, where, seeing Balashev
33053 and the Emperor returning to the veranda, he stood still. They were
33054 moving toward the door. Boris, fluttering as if he had not had time to
33055 withdraw, respectfully pressed close to the doorpost with bowed head.
33057 The Emperor, with the agitation of one who has been personally
33058 affronted, was finishing with these words:
33060 "To enter Russia without declaring war! I will not make peace as long as
33061 a single armed enemy remains in my country!" It seemed to Boris that it
33062 gave the Emperor pleasure to utter these words. He was satisfied with
33063 the form in which he had expressed his thoughts, but displeased that
33064 Boris had overheard it.
33066 "Let no one know of it!" the Emperor added with a frown.
33068 Boris understood that this was meant for him and, closing his eyes,
33069 slightly bowed his head. The Emperor re-entered the ballroom and
33070 remained there about another half-hour.
33072 Boris was thus the first to learn the news that the French army had
33073 crossed the Niemen and, thanks to this, was able to show certain
33074 important personages that much that was concealed from others was
33075 usually known to him, and by this means he rose higher in their
33078 The unexpected news of the French having crossed the Niemen was
33079 particularly startling after a month of unfulfilled expectations, and at
33080 a ball. On first receiving the news, under the influence of indignation
33081 and resentment the Emperor had found a phrase that pleased him, fully
33082 expressed his feelings, and has since become famous. On returning home
33083 at two o'clock that night he sent for his secretary, Shishkov, and told
33084 him to write an order to the troops and a rescript to Field Marshal
33085 Prince Saltykov, in which he insisted on the words being inserted that
33086 he would not make peace so long as a single armed Frenchman remained on
33089 Next day the following letter was sent to Napoleon:
33091 Monsieur mon frere,
33093 Yesterday I learned that, despite the loyalty with which I have kept my
33094 engagements with Your Majesty, your troops have crossed the Russian
33095 frontier, and I have this moment received from Petersburg a note, in
33096 which Count Lauriston informs me, as a reason for this aggression, that
33097 Your Majesty has considered yourself to be in a state of war with me
33098 from the time Prince Kuragin asked for his passports. The reasons on
33099 which the Duc de Bassano based his refusal to deliver them to him would
33100 never have led me to suppose that that could serve as a pretext for
33101 aggression. In fact, the ambassador, as he himself has declared, was
33102 never authorized to make that demand, and as soon as I was informed of
33103 it I let him know how much I disapproved of it and ordered him to remain
33104 at his post. If Your Majesty does not intend to shed the blood of our
33105 peoples for such a misunderstanding, and consents to withdraw your
33106 troops from Russian territory, I will regard what has passed as not
33107 having occurred and an understanding between us will be possible. In the
33108 contrary case, Your Majesty, I shall see myself forced to repel an
33109 attack that nothing on my part has provoked. It still depends on Your
33110 Majesty to preserve humanity from the calamity of another war. I am,
33113 (signed) Alexander.
33120 At two in the morning of the fourteenth of June, the Emperor, having
33121 sent for Balashev and read him his letter to Napoleon, ordered him to
33122 take it and hand it personally to the French Emperor. When dispatching
33123 Balashev, the Emperor repeated to him the words that he would not make
33124 peace so long as a single armed enemy remained on Russian soil and told
33125 him to transmit those words to Napoleon. Alexander did not insert them
33126 in his letter to Napoleon, because with his characteristic tact he felt
33127 it would be injudicious to use them at a moment when a last attempt at
33128 reconciliation was being made, but he definitely instructed Balashev to
33129 repeat them personally to Napoleon.
33131 Having set off in the small hours of the fourteenth, accompanied by a
33132 bugler and two Cossacks, Balashev reached the French outposts at the
33133 village of Rykonty, on the Russian side of the Niemen, by dawn. There he
33134 was stopped by French cavalry sentinels.
33136 A French noncommissioned officer of hussars, in crimson uniform and a
33137 shaggy cap, shouted to the approaching Balashev to halt. Balashev did
33138 not do so at once, but continued to advance along the road at a walking
33141 The noncommissioned officer frowned and, muttering words of abuse,
33142 advanced his horse's chest against Balashev, put his hand to his saber,
33143 and shouted rudely at the Russian general, asking: was he deaf that he
33144 did not do as he was told? Balashev mentioned who he was. The
33145 noncommissioned officer began talking with his comrades about regimental
33146 matters without looking at the Russian general.
33148 After living at the seat of the highest authority and power, after
33149 conversing with the Emperor less than three hours before, and in general
33150 being accustomed to the respect due to his rank in the service, Balashev
33151 found it very strange here on Russian soil to encounter this hostile,
33152 and still more this disrespectful, application of brute force to
33155 The sun was only just appearing from behind the clouds, the air was
33156 fresh and dewy. A herd of cattle was being driven along the road from
33157 the village, and over the fields the larks rose trilling, one after
33158 another, like bubbles rising in water.
33160 Balashev looked around him, awaiting the arrival of an officer from the
33161 village. The Russian Cossacks and bugler and the French hussars looked
33162 silently at one another from time to time.
33164 A French colonel of hussars, who had evidently just left his bed, came
33165 riding from the village on a handsome sleek gray horse, accompanied by
33166 two hussars. The officer, the soldiers, and their horses all looked
33167 smart and well kept.
33169 It was that first period of a campaign when troops are still in full
33170 trim, almost like that of peacetime maneuvers, but with a shade of
33171 martial swagger in their clothes, and a touch of the gaiety and spirit
33172 of enterprise which always accompany the opening of a campaign.
33174 The French colonel with difficulty repressed a yawn, but was polite and
33175 evidently understood Balashev's importance. He led him past his soldiers
33176 and behind the outposts and told him that his wish to be presented to
33177 the Emperor would most likely be satisfied immediately, as the Emperor's
33178 quarters were, he believed, not far off.
33180 They rode through the village of Rykonty, past tethered French hussar
33181 horses, past sentinels and men who saluted their colonel and stared with
33182 curiosity at a Russian uniform, and came out at the other end of the
33183 village. The colonel said that the commander of the division was a mile
33184 and a quarter away and would receive Balashev and conduct him to his
33187 The sun had by now risen and shone gaily on the bright verdure.
33189 They had hardly ridden up a hill, past a tavern, before they saw a group
33190 of horsemen coming toward them. In front of the group, on a black horse
33191 with trappings that glittered in the sun, rode a tall man with plumes in
33192 his hat and black hair curling down to his shoulders. He wore a red
33193 mantle, and stretched his long legs forward in French fashion. This man
33194 rode toward Balashev at a gallop, his plumes flowing and his gems and
33195 gold lace glittering in the bright June sunshine.
33197 Balashev was only two horses' length from the equestrian with the
33198 bracelets, plumes, necklaces, and gold embroidery, who was galloping
33199 toward him with a theatrically solemn countenance, when Julner, the
33200 French colonel, whispered respectfully: "The King of Naples!" It was, in
33201 fact, Murat, now called "King of Naples." Though it was quite
33202 incomprehensible why he should be King of Naples, he was called so, and
33203 was himself convinced that he was so, and therefore assumed a more
33204 solemn and important air than formerly. He was so sure that he really
33205 was the King of Naples that when, on the eve of his departure from that
33206 city, while walking through the streets with his wife, some Italians
33207 called out to him: "Viva il re!" * he turned to his wife with a pensive
33208 smile and said: "Poor fellows, they don't know that I am leaving them
33212 * "Long live the king."
33214 But though he firmly believed himself to be King of Naples and pitied
33215 the grief felt by the subjects he was abandoning, latterly, after he had
33216 been ordered to return to military service--and especially since his
33217 last interview with Napoleon in Danzig, when his august brother-in-law
33218 had told him: "I made you King that you should reign in my way, but not
33219 in yours!"--he had cheerfully taken up his familiar business, and--like
33220 a well-fed but not overfat horse that feels himself in harness and grows
33221 skittish between the shafts--he dressed up in clothes as variegated and
33222 expensive as possible, and gaily and contentedly galloped along the
33223 roads of Poland, without himself knowing why or whither.
33225 On seeing the Russian general he threw back his head, with its long hair
33226 curling to his shoulders, in a majestically royal manner, and looked
33227 inquiringly at the French colonel. The colonel respectfully informed His
33228 Majesty of Balashev's mission, whose name he could not pronounce.
33230 "De Bal-macheve!" said the King (overcoming by his assurance the
33231 difficulty that had presented itself to the colonel). "Charmed to make
33232 your acquaintance, General!" he added, with a gesture of kingly
33235 As soon as the King began to speak loud and fast his royal dignity
33236 instantly forsook him, and without noticing it he passed into his
33237 natural tone of good-natured familiarity. He laid his hand on the
33238 withers of Balashev's horse and said:
33240 "Well, General, it all looks like war," as if regretting a circumstance
33241 of which he was unable to judge.
33243 "Your Majesty," replied Balashev, "my master, the Emperor, does not
33244 desire war and as Your Majesty sees..." said Balashev, using the words
33245 Your Majesty at every opportunity, with the affectation unavoidable in
33246 frequently addressing one to whom the title was still a novelty.
33248 Murat's face beamed with stupid satisfaction as he listened to "Monsieur
33249 de Bal-macheve." But royaute oblige! * and he felt it incumbent on him,
33250 as a king and an ally, to confer on state affairs with Alexander's
33251 envoy. He dismounted, took Balashev's arm, and moving a few steps away
33252 from his suite, which waited respectfully, began to pace up and down
33253 with him, trying to speak significantly. He referred to the fact that
33254 the Emperor Napoleon had resented the demand that he should withdraw his
33255 troops from Prussia, especially when that demand became generally known
33256 and the dignity of France was thereby offended.
33259 * "Royalty has its obligations."
33261 Balashev replied that there was "nothing offensive in the demand,
33262 because..." but Murat interrupted him.
33264 "Then you don't consider the Emperor Alexander the aggressor?" he asked
33265 unexpectedly, with a kindly and foolish smile.
33267 Balashev told him why he considered Napoleon to be the originator of the
33270 "Oh, my dear general!" Murat again interrupted him, "with all my heart I
33271 wish the Emperors may arrange the affair between them, and that the war
33272 begun by no wish of mine may finish as quickly as possible!" said he, in
33273 the tone of a servant who wants to remain good friends with another
33274 despite a quarrel between their masters.
33276 And he went on to inquiries about the Grand Duke and the state of his
33277 health, and to reminiscences of the gay and amusing times he had spent
33278 with him in Naples. Then suddenly, as if remembering his royal dignity,
33279 Murat solemnly drew himself up, assumed the pose in which he had stood
33280 at his coronation, and, waving his right arm, said:
33282 "I won't detain you longer, General. I wish success to your mission,"
33283 and with his embroidered red mantle, his flowing feathers, and his
33284 glittering ornaments, he rejoined his suite who were respectfully
33287 Balashev rode on, supposing from Murat's words that he would very soon
33288 be brought before Napoleon himself. But instead of that, at the next
33289 village the sentinels of Davout's infantry corps detained him as the
33290 pickets of the vanguard had done, and an adjutant of the corps
33291 commander, who was fetched, conducted him into the village to Marshal
33299 Davout was to Napoleon what Arakcheev was to Alexander--though not a
33300 coward like Arakcheev, he was as precise, as cruel, and as unable to
33301 express his devotion to his monarch except by cruelty.
33303 In the organism of states such men are necessary, as wolves are
33304 necessary in the organism of nature, and they always exist, always
33305 appear and hold their own, however incongruous their presence and their
33306 proximity to the head of the government may be. This inevitability alone
33307 can explain how the cruel Arakcheev, who tore out a grenadier's mustache
33308 with his own hands, whose weak nerves rendered him unable to face
33309 danger, and who was neither an educated man nor a courtier, was able to
33310 maintain his powerful position with Alexander, whose own character was
33311 chivalrous, noble, and gentle.
33313 Balashev found Davout seated on a barrel in the shed of a peasant's hut,
33314 writing--he was auditing accounts. Better quarters could have been found
33315 him, but Marshal Davout was one of those men who purposely put
33316 themselves in most depressing conditions to have a justification for
33317 being gloomy. For the same reason they are always hard at work and in a
33318 hurry. "How can I think of the bright side of life when, as you see, I
33319 am sitting on a barrel and working in a dirty shed?" the expression of
33320 his face seemed to say. The chief pleasure and necessity of such men,
33321 when they encounter anyone who shows animation, is to flaunt their own
33322 dreary, persistent activity. Davout allowed himself that pleasure when
33323 Balashev was brought in. He became still more absorbed in his task when
33324 the Russian general entered, and after glancing over his spectacles at
33325 Balashev's face, which was animated by the beauty of the morning and by
33326 his talk with Murat, he did not rise or even stir, but scowled still
33327 more and sneered malevolently.
33329 When he noticed in Balashev's face the disagreeable impression this
33330 reception produced, Davout raised his head and coldly asked what he
33333 Thinking he could have been received in such a manner only because
33334 Davout did not know that he was adjutant general to the Emperor
33335 Alexander and even his envoy to Napoleon, Balashev hastened to inform
33336 him of his rank and mission. Contrary to his expectation, Davout, after
33337 hearing him, became still surlier and ruder.
33339 "Where is your dispatch?" he inquired. "Give it to me. I will send it to
33342 Balashev replied that he had been ordered to hand it personally to the
33345 "Your Emperor's orders are obeyed in your army, but here," said Davout,
33346 "you must do as you're told."
33348 And, as if to make the Russian general still more conscious of his
33349 dependence on brute force, Davout sent an adjutant to call the officer
33352 Balashev took out the packet containing the Emperor's letter and laid it
33353 on the table (made of a door with its hinges still hanging on it, laid
33354 across two barrels). Davout took the packet and read the inscription.
33356 "You are perfectly at liberty to treat me with respect or not,"
33357 protested Balashev, "but permit me to observe that I have the honor to
33358 be adjutant general to His Majesty...."
33360 Davout glanced at him silently and plainly derived pleasure from the
33361 signs of agitation and confusion which appeared on Balashev's face.
33363 "You will be treated as is fitting," said he and, putting the packet in
33364 his pocket, left the shed.
33366 A minute later the marshal's adjutant, de Castres, came in and conducted
33367 Balashev to the quarters assigned him.
33369 That day he dined with the marshal, at the same board on the barrels.
33371 Next day Davout rode out early and, after asking Balashev to come to
33372 him, peremptorily requested him to remain there, to move on with the
33373 baggage train should orders come for it to move, and to talk to no one
33374 except Monsieur de Castres.
33376 After four days of solitude, ennui, and consciousness of his impotence
33377 and insignificance--particularly acute by contrast with the sphere of
33378 power in which he had so lately moved--and after several marches with
33379 the marshal's baggage and the French army, which occupied the whole
33380 district, Balashev was brought to Vilna--now occupied by the French--
33381 through the very gate by which he had left it four days previously.
33383 Next day the imperial gentleman-in-waiting, the Comte de Turenne, came
33384 to Balashev and informed him of the Emperor Napoleon's wish to honor him
33387 Four days before, sentinels of the Preobrazhensk regiment had stood in
33388 front of the house to which Balashev was conducted, and now two French
33389 grenadiers stood there in blue uniforms unfastened in front and with
33390 shaggy caps on their heads, and an escort of hussars and uhlans and a
33391 brilliant suite of aides-de-camp, pages, and generals, who were waiting
33392 for Napoleon to come out, were standing at the porch, round his saddle
33393 horse and his Mameluke, Rustan. Napoleon received Balashev in the very
33394 house in Vilna from which Alexander had dispatched him on his mission.
33401 Though Balashev was used to imperial pomp, he was amazed at the luxury
33402 and magnificence of Napoleon's court.
33404 The Comte de Turenne showed him into a big reception room where many
33405 generals, gentlemen-in-waiting, and Polish magnates--several of whom
33406 Balashev had seen at the court of the Emperor of Russia--were waiting.
33407 Duroc said that Napoleon would receive the Russian general before going
33410 After some minutes, the gentleman-in-waiting who was on duty came into
33411 the great reception room and, bowing politely, asked Balashev to follow
33414 Balashev went into a small reception room, one door of which led into a
33415 study, the very one from which the Russian Emperor had dispatched him on
33416 his mission. He stood a minute or two, waiting. He heard hurried
33417 footsteps beyond the door, both halves of it were opened rapidly; all
33418 was silent and then from the study the sound was heard of other steps,
33419 firm and resolute--they were those of Napoleon. He had just finished
33420 dressing for his ride, and wore a blue uniform, opening in front over a
33421 white waistcoat so long that it covered his rotund stomach, white
33422 leather breeches tightly fitting the fat thighs of his short legs, and
33423 Hessian boots. His short hair had evidently just been brushed, but one
33424 lock hung down in the middle of his broad forehead. His plump white neck
33425 stood out sharply above the black collar of his uniform, and he smelled
33426 of Eau de Cologne. His full face, rather young-looking, with its
33427 prominent chin, wore a gracious and majestic expression of imperial
33430 He entered briskly, with a jerk at every step and his head slightly
33431 thrown back. His whole short corpulent figure with broad thick
33432 shoulders, and chest and stomach involuntarily protruding, had that
33433 imposing and stately appearance one sees in men of forty who live in
33434 comfort. It was evident, too, that he was in the best of spirits that
33437 He nodded in answer to Balashav's low and respectful bow, and coming up
33438 to him at once began speaking like a man who values every moment of his
33439 time and does not condescend to prepare what he has to say but is sure
33440 he will always say the right thing and say it well.
33442 "Good day, General!" said he. "I have received the letter you brought
33443 from the Emperor Alexander and am very glad to see you." He glanced with
33444 his large eyes into Balashav's face and immediately looked past him.
33446 It was plain that Balashev's personality did not interest him at all.
33447 Evidently only what took place within his own mind interested him.
33448 Nothing outside himself had any significance for him, because everything
33449 in the world, it seemed to him, depended entirely on his will.
33451 "I do not, and did not, desire war," he continued, "but it has been
33452 forced on me. Even now" (he emphasized the word) "I am ready to receive
33453 any explanations you can give me."
33455 And he began clearly and concisely to explain his reasons for
33456 dissatisfaction with the Russian government. Judging by the calmly
33457 moderate and amicable tone in which the French Emperor spoke, Balashev
33458 was firmly persuaded that he wished for peace and intended to enter into
33461 When Napoleon, having finished speaking, looked inquiringly at the
33462 Russian envoy, Balashev began a speech he had prepared long before:
33463 "Sire! The Emperor, my master..." but the sight of the Emperor's eyes
33464 bent on him confused him. "You are flurried--compose yourself!" Napoleon
33465 seemed to say, as with a scarcely perceptible smile he looked at
33466 Balashev's uniform and sword.
33468 Balashev recovered himself and began to speak. He said that the Emperor
33469 Alexander did not consider Kurakin's demand for his passports a
33470 sufficient cause for war; that Kurakin had acted on his own initiative
33471 and without his sovereign's assent, that the Emperor Alexander did not
33472 desire war, and had no relations with England.
33474 "Not yet!" interposed Napoleon, and, as if fearing to give vent to his
33475 feelings, he frowned and nodded slightly as a sign that Balashev might
33478 After saying all he had been instructed to say, Balashev added that the
33479 Emperor Alexander wished for peace, but would not enter into
33480 negotiations except on condition that... Here Balashev hesitated: he
33481 remembered the words the Emperor Alexander had not written in his
33482 letter, but had specially inserted in the rescript to Saltykov and had
33483 told Balashev to repeat to Napoleon. Balashev remembered these words,
33484 "So long as a single armed foe remains on Russian soil," but some
33485 complex feeling restrained him. He could not utter them, though he
33486 wished to do so. He grew confused and said: "On condition that the
33487 French army retires beyond the Niemen."
33489 Napoleon noticed Balashev's embarrassment when uttering these last
33490 words; his face twitched and the calf of his left leg began to quiver
33491 rhythmically. Without moving from where he stood he began speaking in a
33492 louder tone and more hurriedly than before. During the speech that
33493 followed, Balashev, who more than once lowered his eyes, involuntarily
33494 noticed the quivering of Napoleon's left leg which increased the more
33495 Napoleon raised his voice.
33497 "I desire peace, no less than the Emperor Alexander," he began. "Have I
33498 not for eighteen months been doing everything to obtain it? I have
33499 waited eighteen months for explanations. But in order to begin
33500 negotiations, what is demanded of me?" he said, frowning and making an
33501 energetic gesture of inquiry with his small white plump hand.
33503 "The withdrawal of your army beyond the Niemen, sire," replied Balashev.
33505 "The Niemen?" repeated Napoleon. "So now you want me to retire beyond
33506 the Niemen--only the Niemen?" repeated Napoleon, looking straight at
33509 The latter bowed his head respectfully.
33511 Instead of the demand of four months earlier to withdraw from Pomerania,
33512 only a withdrawal beyond the Niemen was now demanded. Napoleon turned
33513 quickly and began to pace the room.
33515 "You say the demand now is that I am to withdraw beyond the Niemen
33516 before commencing negotiations, but in just the same way two months ago
33517 the demand was that I should withdraw beyond the Vistula and the Oder,
33518 and yet you are willing to negotiate."
33520 He went in silence from one corner of the room to the other and again
33521 stopped in front of Balashev. Balashev noticed that his left leg was
33522 quivering faster than before and his face seemed petrified in its stern
33523 expression. This quivering of his left leg was a thing Napoleon was
33524 conscious of. "The vibration of my left calf is a great sign with me,"
33525 he remarked at a later date.
33527 "Such demands as to retreat beyond the Vistula and Oder may be made to a
33528 Prince of Baden, but not to me!" Napoleon almost screamed, quite to his
33529 own surprise. "If you gave me Petersburg and Moscow I could not accept
33530 such conditions. You say I have begun this war! But who first joined his
33531 army? The Emperor Alexander, not I! And you offer me negotiations when I
33532 have expended millions, when you are in alliance with England, and when
33533 your position is a bad one. You offer me negotiations! But what is the
33534 aim of your alliance with England? What has she given you?" he continued
33535 hurriedly, evidently no longer trying to show the advantages of peace
33536 and discuss its possibility, but only to prove his own rectitude and
33537 power and Alexander's errors and duplicity.
33539 The commencement of his speech had obviously been made with the
33540 intention of demonstrating the advantages of his position and showing
33541 that he was nevertheless willing to negotiate. But he had begun talking,
33542 and the more he talked the less could he control his words.
33544 The whole purport of his remarks now was evidently to exalt himself and
33545 insult Alexander--just what he had least desired at the commencement of
33548 "I hear you have made peace with Turkey?"
33550 Balashev bowed his head affirmatively.
33552 "Peace has been concluded..." he began.
33554 But Napoleon did not let him speak. He evidently wanted to do all the
33555 talking himself, and continued to talk with the sort of eloquence and
33556 unrestrained irritability to which spoiled people are so prone.
33558 "Yes, I know you have made peace with the Turks without obtaining
33559 Moldavia and Wallachia; I would have given your sovereign those
33560 provinces as I gave him Finland. Yes," he went on, "I promised and would
33561 have given the Emperor Alexander Moldavia and Wallachia, and now he
33562 won't have those splendid provinces. Yet he might have united them to
33563 his empire and in a single reign would have extended Russia from the
33564 Gulf of Bothnia to the mouths of the Danube. Catherine the Great could
33565 not have done more," said Napoleon, growing more and more excited as he
33566 paced up and down the room, repeating to Balashev almost the very words
33567 he had used to Alexander himself at Tilsit. "All that, he would have
33568 owed to my friendship. Oh, what a splendid reign!" he repeated several
33569 times, then paused, drew from his pocket a gold snuffbox, lifted it to
33570 his nose, and greedily sniffed at it.
33572 "What a splendid reign the Emperor Alexander's might have been!"
33574 He looked compassionately at Balashev, and as soon as the latter tried
33575 to make some rejoinder hastily interrupted him.
33577 "What could he wish or look for that he would not have obtained through
33578 my friendship?" demanded Napoleon, shrugging his shoulders in
33579 perplexity. "But no, he has preferred to surround himself with my
33580 enemies, and with whom? With Steins, Armfeldts, Bennigsens, and
33581 Wintzingerodes! Stein, a traitor expelled from his own country;
33582 Armfeldt, a rake and an intriguer; Wintzingerode, a fugitive French
33583 subject; Bennigsen, rather more of a soldier than the others, but all
33584 the same an incompetent who was unable to do anything in 1807 and who
33585 should awaken terrible memories in the Emperor Alexander's mind....
33586 Granted that were they competent they might be made use of," continued
33587 Napoleon--hardly able to keep pace in words with the rush of thoughts
33588 that incessantly sprang up, proving how right and strong he was (in his
33589 perception the two were one and the same)--"but they are not even that!
33590 They are neither fit for war nor peace! Barclay is said to be the most
33591 capable of them all, but I cannot say so, judging by his first
33592 movements. And what are they doing, all these courtiers? Pfuel proposes,
33593 Armfeldt disputes, Bennigsen considers, and Barclay, called on to act,
33594 does not know what to decide on, and time passes bringing no result.
33595 Bagration alone is a military man. He's stupid, but he has experience, a
33596 quick eye, and resolution.... And what role is your young monarch
33597 playing in that monstrous crowd? They compromise him and throw on him
33598 the responsibility for all that happens. A sovereign should not be with
33599 the army unless he is a general!" said Napoleon, evidently uttering
33600 these words as a direct challenge to the Emperor. He knew how Alexander
33601 desired to be a military commander.
33603 "The campaign began only a week ago, and you haven't even been able to
33604 defend Vilna. You are cut in two and have been driven out of the Polish
33605 provinces. Your army is grumbling."
33607 "On the contrary, Your Majesty," said Balashev, hardly able to remember
33608 what had been said to him and following these verbal fireworks with
33609 difficulty, "the troops are burning with eagerness..."
33611 "I know everything!" Napoleon interrupted him. "I know everything. I
33612 know the number of your battalions as exactly as I know my own. You have
33613 not two hundred thousand men, and I have three times that number. I give
33614 you my word of honor," said Napoleon, forgetting that his word of honor
33615 could carry no weight--"I give you my word of honor that I have five
33616 hundred and thirty thousand men this side of the Vistula. The Turks will
33617 be of no use to you; they are worth nothing and have shown it by making
33618 peace with you. As for the Swedes--it is their fate to be governed by
33619 mad kings. Their king was insane and they changed him for another--
33620 Bernadotte, who promptly went mad--for no Swede would ally himself with
33621 Russia unless he were mad."
33623 Napoleon grinned maliciously and again raised his snuffbox to his nose.
33625 Balashev knew how to reply to each of Napoleon's remarks, and would have
33626 done so; he continually made the gesture of a man wishing to say
33627 something, but Napoleon always interrupted him. To the alleged insanity
33628 of the Swedes, Balashev wished to reply that when Russia is on her side
33629 Sweden is practically an island: but Napoleon gave an angry exclamation
33630 to drown his voice. Napoleon was in that state of irritability in which
33631 a man has to talk, talk, and talk, merely to convince himself that he is
33632 in the right. Balashev began to feel uncomfortable: as envoy he feared
33633 to demean his dignity and felt the necessity of replying; but, as a man,
33634 he shrank before the transport of groundless wrath that had evidently
33635 seized Napoleon. He knew that none of the words now uttered by Napoleon
33636 had any significance, and that Napoleon himself would be ashamed of them
33637 when he came to his senses. Balashev stood with downcast eyes, looking
33638 at the movements of Napoleon's stout legs and trying to avoid meeting
33641 "But what do I care about your allies?" said Napoleon. "I have allies--
33642 the Poles. There are eighty thousand of them and they fight like lions.
33643 And there will be two hundred thousand of them."
33645 And probably still more perturbed by the fact that he had uttered this
33646 obvious falsehood, and that Balashev still stood silently before him in
33647 the same attitude of submission to fate, Napoleon abruptly turned round,
33648 drew close to Balashev's face, and, gesticulating rapidly and
33649 energetically with his white hands, almost shouted:
33651 "Know that if you stir up Prussia against me, I'll wipe it off the map
33652 of Europe!" he declared, his face pale and distorted by anger, and he
33653 struck one of his small hands energetically with the other. "Yes, I will
33654 throw you back beyond the Dvina and beyond the Dnieper, and will re-
33655 erect against you that barrier which it was criminal and blind of Europe
33656 to allow to be destroyed. Yes, that is what will happen to you. That is
33657 what you have gained by alienating me!" And he walked silently several
33658 times up and down the room, his fat shoulders twitching.
33660 He put his snuffbox into his waistcoat pocket, took it out again, lifted
33661 it several times to his nose, and stopped in front of Balashev. He
33662 paused, looked ironically straight into Balashev's eyes, and said in a
33665 "And yet what a splendid reign your master might have had!"
33667 Balashev, feeling it incumbent on him to reply, said that from the
33668 Russian side things did not appear in so gloomy a light. Napoleon was
33669 silent, still looking derisively at him and evidently not listening to
33670 him. Balashev said that in Russia the best results were expected from
33671 the war. Napoleon nodded condescendingly, as if to say, "I know it's
33672 your duty to say that, but you don't believe it yourself. I have
33675 When Balashev had ended, Napoleon again took out his snuffbox, sniffed
33676 at it, and stamped his foot twice on the floor as a signal. The door
33677 opened, a gentleman-in-waiting, bending respectfully, handed the Emperor
33678 his hat and gloves; another brought him a pocket handkerchief. Napoleon,
33679 without giving them a glance, turned to Balashev:
33681 "Assure the Emperor Alexander from me," said he, taking his hat, "that I
33682 am as devoted to him as before: I know him thoroughly and very highly
33683 esteem his lofty qualities. I will detain you no longer, General; you
33684 shall receive my letter to the Emperor."
33686 And Napoleon went quickly to the door. Everyone in the reception room
33687 rushed forward and descended the staircase.
33694 After all that Napoleon had said to him--those bursts of anger and the
33695 last dryly spoken words: "I will detain you no longer, General; you
33696 shall receive my letter," Balashev felt convinced that Napoleon would
33697 not wish to see him, and would even avoid another meeting with him--an
33698 insulted envoy--especially as he had witnessed his unseemly anger. But,
33699 to his surprise, Balashev received, through Duroc, an invitation to dine
33700 with the Emperor that day.
33702 Bessieres, Caulaincourt, and Berthier were present at that dinner.
33704 Napoleon met Balashev cheerfully and amiably. He not only showed no sign
33705 of constraint or self-reproach on account of his outburst that morning,
33706 but, on the contrary, tried to reassure Balashev. It was evident that he
33707 had long been convinced that it was impossible for him to make a
33708 mistake, and that in his perception whatever he did was right, not
33709 because it harmonized with any idea of right and wrong, but because he
33712 The Emperor was in very good spirits after his ride through Vilna, where
33713 crowds of people had rapturously greeted and followed him. From all the
33714 windows of the streets through which he rode, rugs, flags, and his
33715 monogram were displayed, and the Polish ladies, welcoming him, waved
33716 their handkerchiefs to him.
33718 At dinner, having placed Balashev beside him, Napoleon not only treated
33719 him amiably but behaved as if Balashev were one of his own courtiers,
33720 one of those who sympathized with his plans and ought to rejoice at his
33721 success. In the course of conversation he mentioned Moscow and
33722 questioned Balashev about the Russian capital, not merely as an
33723 interested traveler asks about a new city he intends to visit, but as if
33724 convinced that Balashev, as a Russian, must be flattered by his
33727 "How many inhabitants are there in Moscow? How many houses? Is it true
33728 that Moscow is called 'Holy Moscow'? How many churches are there in
33731 And receiving the reply that there were more than two hundred churches,
33734 "Why such a quantity of churches?"
33736 "The Russians are very devout," replied Balashev.
33738 "But a large number of monasteries and churches is always a sign of the
33739 backwardness of a people," said Napoleon, turning to Caulaincourt for
33740 appreciation of this remark.
33742 Balashev respectfully ventured to disagree with the French Emperor.
33744 "Every country has its own character," said he.
33746 "But nowhere in Europe is there anything like that," said Napoleon.
33748 "I beg your Majesty's pardon," returned Balashev, "besides Russia there
33749 is Spain, where there are also many churches and monasteries."
33751 This reply of Balashev's, which hinted at the recent defeats of the
33752 French in Spain, was much appreciated when he related it at Alexander's
33753 court, but it was not much appreciated at Napoleon's dinner, where it
33756 The uninterested and perplexed faces of the marshals showed that they
33757 were puzzled as to what Balashev's tone suggested. "If there is a point
33758 we don't see it, or it is not at all witty," their expressions seemed to
33759 say. So little was his rejoinder appreciated that Napoleon did not
33760 notice it at all and naively asked Balashev through what towns the
33761 direct road from there to Moscow passed. Balashev, who was on the alert
33762 all through the dinner, replied that just as "all roads lead to Rome,"
33763 so all roads lead to Moscow: there were many roads, and "among them the
33764 road through Poltava, which Charles XII chose." Balashev involuntarily
33765 flushed with pleasure at the aptitude of this reply, but hardly had he
33766 uttered the word Poltava before Caulaincourt began speaking of the
33767 badness of the road from Petersburg to Moscow and of his Petersburg
33770 After dinner they went to drink coffee in Napoleon's study, which four
33771 days previously had been that of the Emperor Alexander. Napoleon sat
33772 down, toying with his Sevres coffee cup, and motioned Balashev to a
33775 Napoleon was in that well-known after-dinner mood which, more than any
33776 reasoned cause, makes a man contented with himself and disposed to
33777 consider everyone his friend. It seemed to him that he was surrounded by
33778 men who adored him: and he felt convinced that, after his dinner,
33779 Balashev too was his friend and worshiper. Napoleon turned to him with a
33780 pleasant, though slightly ironic, smile.
33782 "They tell me this is the room the Emperor Alexander occupied? Strange,
33783 isn't it, General?" he said, evidently not doubting that this remark
33784 would be agreeable to his hearer since it went to prove his, Napoleon's,
33785 superiority to Alexander.
33787 Balashev made no reply and bowed his head in silence.
33789 "Yes. Four days ago in this room, Wintzingerode and Stein were
33790 deliberating," continued Napoleon with the same derisive and self-
33791 confident smile. "What I can't understand," he went on, "is that the
33792 Emperor Alexander has surrounded himself with my personal enemies. That
33793 I do not... understand. Has he not thought that I may do the same?" and
33794 he turned inquiringly to Balashev, and evidently this thought turned him
33795 back on to the track of his morning's anger, which was still fresh in
33798 "And let him know that I will do so!" said Napoleon, rising and pushing
33799 his cup away with his hand. "I'll drive all his Wurttemberg, Baden, and
33800 Weimar relations out of Germany.... Yes. I'll drive them out. Let him
33801 prepare an asylum for them in Russia!"
33803 Balashev bowed his head with an air indicating that he would like to
33804 make his bow and leave, and only listened because he could not help
33805 hearing what was said to him. Napoleon did not notice this expression;
33806 he treated Balashev not as an envoy from his enemy, but as a man now
33807 fully devoted to him and who must rejoice at his former master's
33810 "And why has the Emperor Alexander taken command of the armies? What is
33811 the good of that? War is my profession, but his business is to reign and
33812 not to command armies! Why has he taken on himself such a
33815 Again Napoleon brought out his snuffbox, paced several times up and down
33816 the room in silence, and then, suddenly and unexpectedly, went up to
33817 Balashev and with a slight smile, as confidently, quickly, and simply as
33818 if he were doing something not merely important but pleasing to
33819 Balashev, he raised his hand to the forty-year-old Russian general's
33820 face and, taking him by the ear, pulled it gently, smiling with his lips
33823 To have one's ear pulled by the Emperor was considered the greatest
33824 honor and mark of favor at the French court.
33826 "Well, adorer and courtier of the Emperor Alexander, why don't you say
33827 anything?" said he, as if it was ridiculous, in his presence, to be the
33828 adorer and courtier of anyone but himself, Napoleon. "Are the horses
33829 ready for the general?" he added, with a slight inclination of his head
33830 in reply to Balashev's bow. "Let him have mine, he has a long way to
33833 The letter taken by Balashev was the last Napoleon sent to Alexander.
33834 Every detail of the interview was communicated to the Russian monarch,
33835 and the war began...
33842 After his interview with Pierre in Moscow, Prince Andrew went to
33843 Petersburg, on business as he told his family, but really to meet
33844 Anatole Kuragin whom he felt it necessary to encounter. On reaching
33845 Petersburg he inquired for Kuragin but the latter had already left the
33846 city. Pierre had warned his brother-in-law that Prince Andrew was on his
33847 track. Anatole Kuragin promptly obtained an appointment from the
33848 Minister of War and went to join the army in Moldavia. While in
33849 Petersburg Prince Andrew met Kutuzov, his former commander who was
33850 always well disposed toward him, and Kutuzov suggested that he should
33851 accompany him to the army in Moldavia, to which the old general had been
33852 appointed commander-in-chief. So Prince Andrew, having received an
33853 appointment on the headquarters staff, left for Turkey.
33855 Prince Andrew did not think it proper to write and challenge Kuragin. He
33856 thought that if he challenged him without some fresh cause it might
33857 compromise the young Countess Rostova and so he wanted to meet Kuragin
33858 personally in order to find a fresh pretext for a duel. But he again
33859 failed to meet Kuragin in Turkey, for soon after Prince Andrew arrived,
33860 the latter returned to Russia. In a new country, amid new conditions,
33861 Prince Andrew found life easier to bear. After his betrothed had broken
33862 faith with him--which he felt the more acutely the more he tried to
33863 conceal its effects--the surroundings in which he had been happy became
33864 trying to him, and the freedom and independence he had once prized so
33865 highly were still more so. Not only could he no longer think the
33866 thoughts that had first come to him as he lay gazing at the sky on the
33867 field of Austerlitz and had later enlarged upon with Pierre, and which
33868 had filled his solitude at Bogucharovo and then in Switzerland and Rome,
33869 but he even dreaded to recall them and the bright and boundless horizons
33870 they had revealed. He was now concerned only with the nearest practical
33871 matters unrelated to his past interests, and he seized on these the more
33872 eagerly the more those past interests were closed to him. It was as if
33873 that lofty, infinite canopy of heaven that had once towered above him
33874 had suddenly turned into a low, solid vault that weighed him down, in
33875 which all was clear, but nothing eternal or mysterious.
33877 Of the activities that presented themselves to him, army service was the
33878 simplest and most familiar. As a general on duty on Kutuzov's staff, he
33879 applied himself to business with zeal and perseverance and surprised
33880 Kutuzov by his willingness and accuracy in work. Not having found
33881 Kuragin in Turkey, Prince Andrew did not think it necessary to rush back
33882 to Russia after him, but all the same he knew that however long it might
33883 be before he met Kuragin, despite his contempt for him and despite all
33884 the proofs he deduced to convince himself that it was not worth stooping
33885 to a conflict with him--he knew that when he did meet him he would not
33886 be able to resist calling him out, any more than a ravenous man can help
33887 snatching at food. And the consciousness that the insult was not yet
33888 avenged, that his rancor was still unspent, weighed on his heart and
33889 poisoned the artificial tranquillity which he managed to obtain in
33890 Turkey by means of restless, plodding, and rather vainglorious and
33891 ambitious activity.
33893 In the year 1812, when news of the war with Napoleon reached Bucharest--
33894 where Kutuzov had been living for two months, passing his days and
33895 nights with a Wallachian woman--Prince Andrew asked Kutuzov to transfer
33896 him to the Western Army. Kutuzov, who was already weary of Bolkonski's
33897 activity which seemed to reproach his own idleness, very readily let him
33898 go and gave him a mission to Barclay de Tolly.
33900 Before joining the Western Army which was then, in May, encamped at
33901 Drissa, Prince Andrew visited Bald Hills which was directly on his way,
33902 being only two miles off the Smolensk highroad. During the last three
33903 years there had been so many changes in his life, he had thought, felt,
33904 and seen so much (having traveled both in the east and the west), that
33905 on reaching Bald Hills it struck him as strange and unexpected to find
33906 the way of life there unchanged and still the same in every detail. He
33907 entered through the gates with their stone pillars and drove up the
33908 avenue leading to the house as if he were entering an enchanted,
33909 sleeping castle. The same old stateliness, the same cleanliness, the
33910 same stillness reigned there, and inside there was the same furniture,
33911 the same walls, sounds, and smell, and the same timid faces, only
33912 somewhat older. Princess Mary was still the same timid, plain maiden
33913 getting on in years, uselessly and joylessly passing the best years of
33914 her life in fear and constant suffering. Mademoiselle Bourienne was the
33915 same coquettish, self-satisfied girl, enjoying every moment of her
33916 existence and full of joyous hopes for the future. She had merely become
33917 more self-confident, Prince Andrew thought. Dessalles, the tutor he had
33918 brought from Switzerland, was wearing a coat of Russian cut and talking
33919 broken Russian to the servants, but was still the same narrowly
33920 intelligent, conscientious, and pedantic preceptor. The old prince had
33921 changed in appearance only by the loss of a tooth, which left a
33922 noticeable gap on one side of his mouth; in character he was the same as
33923 ever, only showing still more irritability and skepticism as to what was
33924 happening in the world. Little Nicholas alone had changed. He had grown,
33925 become rosier, had curly dark hair, and, when merry and laughing, quite
33926 unconsciously lifted the upper lip of his pretty little mouth just as
33927 the little princess used to do. He alone did not obey the law of
33928 immutability in the enchanted, sleeping castle. But though externally
33929 all remained as of old, the inner relations of all these people had
33930 changed since Prince Andrew had seen them last. The household was
33931 divided into two alien and hostile camps, who changed their habits for
33932 his sake and only met because he was there. To the one camp belonged the
33933 old prince, Mademoiselle Bourienne, and the architect; to the other
33934 Princess Mary, Dessalles, little Nicholas, and all the old nurses and
33937 During his stay at Bald Hills all the family dined together, but they
33938 were ill at ease and Prince Andrew felt that he was a visitor for whose
33939 sake an exception was being made and that his presence made them all
33940 feel awkward. Involuntarily feeling this at dinner on the first day, he
33941 was taciturn, and the old prince noticing this also became morosely dumb
33942 and retired to his apartments directly after dinner. In the evening,
33943 when Prince Andrew went to him and, trying to rouse him, began to tell
33944 him of the young Count Kamensky's campaign, the old prince began
33945 unexpectedly to talk about Princess Mary, blaming her for her
33946 superstitions and her dislike of Mademoiselle Bourienne, who, he said,
33947 was the only person really attached to him.
33949 The old prince said that if he was ill it was only because of Princess
33950 Mary: that she purposely worried and irritated him, and that by
33951 indulgence and silly talk she was spoiling little Prince Nicholas. The
33952 old prince knew very well that he tormented his daughter and that her
33953 life was very hard, but he also knew that he could not help tormenting
33954 her and that she deserved it. "Why does Prince Andrew, who sees this,
33955 say nothing to me about his sister? Does he think me a scoundrel, or an
33956 old fool who, without any reason, keeps his own daughter at a distance
33957 and attaches this Frenchwoman to himself? He doesn't understand, so I
33958 must explain it, and he must hear me out," thought the old prince. And
33959 he began explaining why he could not put up with his daughter's
33960 unreasonable character.
33962 "If you ask me," said Prince Andrew, without looking up (he was
33963 censuring his father for the first time in his life), "I did not wish to
33964 speak about it, but as you ask me I will give you my frank opinion. If
33965 there is any misunderstanding and discord between you and Mary, I can't
33966 blame her for it at all. I know how she loves and respects you. Since
33967 you ask me," continued Prince Andrew, becoming irritable--as he was
33968 always liable to do of late--"I can only say that if there are any
33969 misunderstandings they are caused by that worthless woman, who is not
33970 fit to be my sister's companion."
33972 The old man at first stared fixedly at his son, and an unnatural smile
33973 disclosed the fresh gap between his teeth to which Prince Andrew could
33974 not get accustomed.
33976 "What companion, my dear boy? Eh? You've already been talking it over!
33979 "Father, I did not want to judge," said Prince Andrew, in a hard and
33980 bitter tone, "but you challenged me, and I have said, and always shall
33981 say, that Mary is not to blame, but those to blame--the one to blame--is
33984 "Ah, he has passed judgment... passed judgement!" said the old man in a
33985 low voice and, as it seemed to Prince Andrew, with some embarrassment,
33986 but then he suddenly jumped up and cried: "Be off, be off! Let not a
33987 trace of you remain here!..."
33989 Prince Andrew wished to leave at once, but Princess Mary persuaded him
33990 to stay another day. That day he did not see his father, who did not
33991 leave his room and admitted no one but Mademoiselle Bourienne and
33992 Tikhon, but asked several times whether his son had gone. Next day,
33993 before leaving, Prince Andrew went to his son's rooms. The boy, curly-
33994 headed like his mother and glowing with health, sat on his knee, and
33995 Prince Andrew began telling him the story of Bluebeard, but fell into a
33996 reverie without finishing the story. He thought not of this pretty
33997 child, his son whom he held on his knee, but of himself. He sought in
33998 himself either remorse for having angered his father or regret at
33999 leaving home for the first time in his life on bad terms with him, and
34000 was horrified to find neither. What meant still more to him was that he
34001 sought and did not find in himself the former tenderness for his son
34002 which he had hoped to reawaken by caressing the boy and taking him on
34005 "Well, go on!" said his son.
34007 Prince Andrew, without replying, put him down from his knee and went out
34010 As soon as Prince Andrew had given up his daily occupations, and
34011 especially on returning to the old conditions of life amid which he had
34012 been happy, weariness of life overcame him with its former intensity,
34013 and he hastened to escape from these memories and to find some work as
34016 "So you've decided to go, Andrew?" asked his sister.
34018 "Thank God that I can," replied Prince Andrew. "I am very sorry you
34021 "Why do you say that?" replied Princess Mary. "Why do you say that, when
34022 you are going to this terrible war, and he is so old? Mademoiselle
34023 Bourienne says he has been asking about you...."
34025 As soon as she began to speak of that, her lips trembled and her tears
34026 began to fall. Prince Andrew turned away and began pacing the room.
34028 "Ah, my God! my God! When one thinks who and what--what trash--can cause
34029 people misery!" he said with a malignity that alarmed Princess Mary.
34031 She understood that when speaking of "trash" he referred not only to
34032 Mademoiselle Bourienne, the cause of her misery, but also to the man who
34033 had ruined his own happiness.
34035 "Andrew! One thing I beg, I entreat of you!" she said, touching his
34036 elbow and looking at him with eyes that shone through her tears. "I
34037 understand you" (she looked down). "Don't imagine that sorrow is the
34038 work of men. Men are His tools." She looked a little above Prince
34039 Andrew's head with the confident, accustomed look with which one looks
34040 at the place where a familiar portrait hangs. "Sorrow is sent by Him,
34041 not by men. Men are His instruments, they are not to blame. If you think
34042 someone has wronged you, forget it and forgive! We have no right to
34043 punish. And then you will know the happiness of forgiving."
34045 "If I were a woman I would do so, Mary. That is a woman's virtue. But a
34046 man should not and cannot forgive and forget," he replied, and though
34047 till that moment he had not been thinking of Kuragin, all his unexpended
34048 anger suddenly swelled up in his heart.
34050 "If Mary is already persuading me to forgive, it means that I ought long
34051 ago to have punished him," he thought. And giving her no further reply,
34052 he began thinking of the glad vindictive moment when he would meet
34053 Kuragin who he knew was now in the army.
34055 Princess Mary begged him to stay one day more, saying that she knew how
34056 unhappy her father would be if Andrew left without being reconciled to
34057 him, but Prince Andrew replied that he would probably soon be back again
34058 from the army and would certainly write to his father, but that the
34059 longer he stayed now the more embittered their differences would become.
34061 "Good-bye, Andrew! Remember that misfortunes come from God, and men are
34062 never to blame," were the last words he heard from his sister when he
34065 "Then it must be so!" thought Prince Andrew as he drove out of the
34066 avenue from the house at Bald Hills. "She, poor innocent creature, is
34067 left to be victimized by an old man who has outlived his wits. The old
34068 man feels he is guilty, but cannot change himself. My boy is growing up
34069 and rejoices in life, in which like everybody else he will deceive or be
34070 deceived. And I am off to the army. Why? I myself don't know. I want to
34071 meet that man whom I despise, so as to give him a chance to kill and
34074 These conditions of life had been the same before, but then they were
34075 all connected, while now they had all tumbled to pieces. Only senseless
34076 things, lacking coherence, presented themselves one after another to
34077 Prince Andrew's mind.
34084 Prince Andrew reached the general headquarters of the army at the end of
34085 June. The first army, with which was the Emperor, occupied the fortified
34086 camp at Drissa; the second army was retreating, trying to effect a
34087 junction with the first one from which it was said to be cut off by
34088 large French forces. Everyone was dissatisfied with the general course
34089 of affairs in the Russian army, but no one anticipated any danger of
34090 invasion of the Russian provinces, and no one thought the war would
34091 extend farther than the western, the Polish, provinces.
34093 Prince Andrew found Barclay de Tolly, to whom he had been assigned, on
34094 the bank of the Drissa. As there was not a single town or large village
34095 in the vicinity of the camp, the immense number of generals and
34096 courtiers accompanying the army were living in the best houses of the
34097 villages on both sides of the river, over a radius of six miles. Barclay
34098 de Tolly was quartered nearly three miles from the Emperor. He received
34099 Bolkonski stiffly and coldly and told him in his foreign accent that he
34100 would mention him to the Emperor for a decision as to his employment,
34101 but asked him meanwhile to remain on his staff. Anatole Kuragin, whom
34102 Prince Andrew had hoped to find with the army, was not there. He had
34103 gone to Petersburg, but Prince Andrew was glad to hear this. His mind
34104 was occupied by the interests of the center that was conducting a
34105 gigantic war, and he was glad to be free for a while from the
34106 distraction caused by the thought of Kuragin. During the first four
34107 days, while no duties were required of him, Prince Andrew rode round the
34108 whole fortified camp and, by the aid of his own knowledge and by talks
34109 with experts, tried to form a definite opinion about it. But the
34110 question whether the camp was advantageous or disadvantageous remained
34111 for him undecided. Already from his military experience and what he had
34112 seen in the Austrian campaign, he had come to the conclusion that in war
34113 the most deeply considered plans have no significance and that all
34114 depends on the way unexpected movements of the enemy--that cannot be
34115 foreseen--are met, and on how and by whom the whole matter is handled.
34116 To clear up this last point for himself, Prince Andrew, utilizing his
34117 position and acquaintances, tried to fathom the character of the control
34118 of the army and of the men and parties engaged in it, and he deduced for
34119 himself the following of the state of affairs.
34121 While the Emperor had still been at Vilna, the forces had been divided
34122 into three armies. First, the army under Barclay de Tolly, secondly, the
34123 army under Bagration, and thirdly, the one commanded by Tormasov. The
34124 Emperor was with the first army, but not as commander-in-chief. In the
34125 orders issued it was stated, not that the Emperor would take command,
34126 but only that he would be with the army. The Emperor, moreover, had with
34127 him not a commander-in-chief's staff but the imperial headquarters
34128 staff. In attendance on him was the head of the imperial staff,
34129 Quartermaster General Prince Volkonski, as well as generals, imperial
34130 aides-de-camp, diplomatic officials, and a large number of foreigners,
34131 but not the army staff. Besides these, there were in attendance on the
34132 Emperor without any definite appointments: Arakcheev, the ex-Minister of
34133 War; Count Bennigsen, the senior general in rank; the Grand Duke
34134 Tsarevich Constantine Pavlovich; Count Rumyantsev, the Chancellor;
34135 Stein, a former Prussian minister; Armfeldt, a Swedish general; Pfuel,
34136 the chief author of the plan of campaign; Paulucci, an adjutant general
34137 and Sardinian emigre; Wolzogen--and many others. Though these men had no
34138 military appointment in the army, their position gave them influence,
34139 and often a corps commander, or even the commander-in-chief, did not
34140 know in what capacity he was questioned by Bennigsen, the Grand Duke,
34141 Arakcheev, or Prince Volkonski, or was given this or that advice and did
34142 not know whether a certain order received in the form of advice emanated
34143 from the man who gave it or from the Emperor and whether it had to be
34144 executed or not. But this was only the external condition; the essential
34145 significance of the presence of the Emperor and of all these people,
34146 from a courtier's point of view (and in an Emperor's vicinity all became
34147 courtiers), was clear to everyone. It was this: the Emperor did not
34148 assume the title of commander-in-chief, but disposed of all the armies;
34149 the men around him were his assistants. Arakcheev was a faithful
34150 custodian to enforce order and acted as the sovereign's bodyguard.
34151 Bennigsen was a landlord in the Vilna province who appeared to be doing
34152 the honors of the district, but was in reality a good general, useful as
34153 an adviser and ready at hand to replace Barclay. The Grand Duke was
34154 there because it suited him to be. The ex-Minister Stein was there
34155 because his advice was useful and the Emperor Alexander held him in high
34156 esteem personally. Armfeldt virulently hated Napoleon and was a general
34157 full of self-confidence, a quality that always influenced Alexander.
34158 Paulucci was there because he was bold and decided in speech. The
34159 adjutants general were there because they always accompanied the
34160 Emperor, and lastly and chiefly Pfuel was there because he had drawn up
34161 the plan of campaign against Napoleon and, having induced Alexander to
34162 believe in the efficacy of that plan, was directing the whole business
34163 of the war. With Pfuel was Wolzogen, who expressed Pfuel's thoughts in a
34164 more comprehensible way than Pfuel himself (who was a harsh, bookish
34165 theorist, self-confident to the point of despising everyone else) was
34168 Besides these Russians and foreigners who propounded new and unexpected
34169 ideas every day--especially the foreigners, who did so with a boldness
34170 characteristic of people employed in a country not their own--there were
34171 many secondary personages accompanying the army because their principals
34174 Among the opinions and voices in this immense, restless, brilliant, and
34175 proud sphere, Prince Andrew noticed the following sharply defined
34176 subdivisions of tendencies and parties:
34178 The first party consisted of Pfuel and his adherents--military theorists
34179 who believed in a science of war with immutable laws--laws of oblique
34180 movements, outflankings, and so forth. Pfuel and his adherents demanded
34181 a retirement into the depths of the country in accordance with precise
34182 laws defined by a pseudo-theory of war, and they saw only barbarism,
34183 ignorance, or evil intention in every deviation from that theory. To
34184 this party belonged the foreign nobles, Wolzogen, Wintzingerode, and
34185 others, chiefly Germans.
34187 The second party was directly opposed to the first; one extreme, as
34188 always happens, was met by representatives of the other. The members of
34189 this party were those who had demanded an advance from Vilna into Poland
34190 and freedom from all prearranged plans. Besides being advocates of bold
34191 action, this section also represented nationalism, which made them still
34192 more one-sided in the dispute. They were Russians: Bagration, Ermolov
34193 (who was beginning to come to the front), and others. At that time a
34194 famous joke of Ermolov's was being circulated, that as a great favor he
34195 had petitioned the Emperor to make him a German. The men of that party,
34196 remembering Suvorov, said that what one had to do was not to reason, or
34197 stick pins into maps, but to fight, beat the enemy, keep him out of
34198 Russia, and not let the army get discouraged.
34200 To the third party--in which the Emperor had most confidence--belonged
34201 the courtiers who tried to arrange compromises between the other two.
34202 The members of this party, chiefly civilians and to whom Arakcheev
34203 belonged, thought and said what men who have no convictions but wish to
34204 seem to have some generally say. They said that undoubtedly war,
34205 particularly against such a genius as Bonaparte (they called him
34206 Bonaparte now), needs most deeply devised plans and profound scientific
34207 knowledge and in that respect Pfuel was a genius, but at the same time
34208 it had to be acknowledged that the theorists are often one-sided, and
34209 therefore one should not trust them absolutely, but should also listen
34210 to what Pfuel's opponents and practical men of experience in warfare had
34211 to say, and then choose a middle course. They insisted on the retention
34212 of the camp at Drissa, according to Pfuel's plan, but on changing the
34213 movements of the other armies. Though, by this course, neither one aim
34214 nor the other could be attained, yet it seemed best to the adherents of
34217 Of a fourth opinion the most conspicuous representative was the
34218 Tsarevich, who could not forget his disillusionment at Austerlitz, where
34219 he had ridden out at the head of the Guards, in his casque and cavalry
34220 uniform as to a review, expecting to crush the French gallantly; but
34221 unexpectedly finding himself in the front line had narrowly escaped amid
34222 the general confusion. The men of this party had both the quality and
34223 the defect of frankness in their opinions. They feared Napoleon,
34224 recognized his strength and their own weakness, and frankly said so.
34225 They said: "Nothing but sorrow, shame, and ruin will come of all this!
34226 We have abandoned Vilna and Vitebsk and shall abandon Drissa. The only
34227 reasonable thing left to do is to conclude peace as soon as possible,
34228 before we are turned out of Petersburg."
34230 This view was very general in the upper army circles and found support
34231 also in Petersburg and from the chancellor, Rumyantsev, who, for other
34232 reasons of state, was in favor of peace.
34234 The fifth party consisted of those who were adherents of Barclay de
34235 Tolly, not so much as a man but as minister of war and commander-in-
34236 chief. "Be he what he may" (they always began like that), "he is an
34237 honest, practical man and we have nobody better. Give him real power,
34238 for war cannot be conducted successfully without unity of command, and
34239 he will show what he can do, as he did in Finland. If our army is well
34240 organized and strong and has withdrawn to Drissa without suffering any
34241 defeats, we owe this entirely to Barclay. If Barclay is now to be
34242 superseded by Bennigsen all will be lost, for Bennigsen showed his
34243 incapacity already in 1807."
34245 The sixth party, the Bennigsenites, said, on the contrary, that at any
34246 rate there was no one more active and experienced than Bennigsen: "and
34247 twist about as you may, you will have to come to Bennigsen eventually.
34248 Let the others make mistakes now!" said they, arguing that our
34249 retirement to Drissa was a most shameful reverse and an unbroken series
34250 of blunders. "The more mistakes that are made the better. It will at any
34251 rate be understood all the sooner that things cannot go on like this.
34252 What is wanted is not some Barclay or other, but a man like Bennigsen,
34253 who made his mark in 1807, and to whom Napoleon himself did justice--a
34254 man whose authority would be willingly recognized, and Bennigsen is the
34257 The seventh party consisted of the sort of people who are always to be
34258 found, especially around young sovereigns, and of whom there were
34259 particularly many round Alexander--generals and imperial aides-de-camp
34260 passionately devoted to the Emperor, not merely as a monarch but as a
34261 man, adoring him sincerely and disinterestedly, as Rostov had done in
34262 1805, and who saw in him not only all the virtues but all human
34263 capabilities as well. These men, though enchanted with the sovereign for
34264 refusing the command of the army, yet blamed him for such excessive
34265 modesty, and only desired and insisted that their adored sovereign
34266 should abandon his diffidence and openly announce that he would place
34267 himself at the head of the army, gather round him a commander-in-chief's
34268 staff, and, consulting experienced theoreticians and practical men where
34269 necessary, would himself lead the troops, whose spirits would thereby be
34270 raised to the highest pitch.
34272 The eighth and largest group, which in its enormous numbers was to the
34273 others as ninety-nine to one, consisted of men who desired neither peace
34274 nor war, neither an advance nor a defensive camp at the Drissa or
34275 anywhere else, neither Barclay nor the Emperor, neither Pfuel nor
34276 Bennigsen, but only the one most essential thing--as much advantage and
34277 pleasure for themselves as possible. In the troubled waters of
34278 conflicting and intersecting intrigues that eddied about the Emperor's
34279 headquarters, it was possible to succeed in many ways unthinkable at
34280 other times. A man who simply wished to retain his lucrative post would
34281 today agree with Pfuel, tomorrow with his opponent, and the day after,
34282 merely to avoid responsibility or to please the Emperor, would declare
34283 that he had no opinion at all on the matter. Another who wished to gain
34284 some advantage would attract the Emperor's attention by loudly
34285 advocating the very thing the Emperor had hinted at the day before, and
34286 would dispute and shout at the council, beating his breast and
34287 challenging those who did not agree with him to duels, thereby proving
34288 that he was prepared to sacrifice himself for the common good. A third,
34289 in the absence of opponents, between two councils would simply solicit a
34290 special gratuity for his faithful services, well knowing that at that
34291 moment people would be too busy to refuse him. A fourth while seemingly
34292 overwhelmed with work would often come accidentally under the Emperor's
34293 eye. A fifth, to achieve his long-cherished aim of dining with the
34294 Emperor, would stubbornly insist on the correctness or falsity of some
34295 newly emerging opinion and for this object would produce arguments more
34296 or less forcible and correct.
34298 All the men of this party were fishing for rubles, decorations, and
34299 promotions, and in this pursuit watched only the weathercock of imperial
34300 favor, and directly they noticed it turning in any direction, this whole
34301 drone population of the army began blowing hard that way, so that it was
34302 all the harder for the Emperor to turn it elsewhere. Amid the
34303 uncertainties of the position, with the menace of serious danger giving
34304 a peculiarly threatening character to everything, amid this vortex of
34305 intrigue, egotism, conflict of views and feelings, and the diversity of
34306 race among these people--this eighth and largest party of those
34307 preoccupied with personal interests imparted great confusion and
34308 obscurity to the common task. Whatever question arose, a swarm of these
34309 drones, without having finished their buzzing on a previous theme, flew
34310 over to the new one and by their hum drowned and obscured the voices of
34311 those who were disputing honestly.
34313 From among all these parties, just at the time Prince Andrew reached the
34314 army, another, a ninth party, was being formed and was beginning to
34315 raise its voice. This was the party of the elders, reasonable men
34316 experienced and capable in state affairs, who, without sharing any of
34317 those conflicting opinions, were able to take a detached view of what
34318 was going on at the staff at headquarters and to consider means of
34319 escape from this muddle, indecision, intricacy, and weakness.
34321 The men of this party said and thought that what was wrong resulted
34322 chiefly from the Emperor's presence in the army with his military court
34323 and from the consequent presence there of an indefinite, conditional,
34324 and unsteady fluctuation of relations, which is in place at court but
34325 harmful in an army; that a sovereign should reign but not command the
34326 army, and that the only way out of the position would be for the Emperor
34327 and his court to leave the army; that the mere presence of the Emperor
34328 paralyzed the action of fifty thousand men required to secure his
34329 personal safety, and that the worst commander-in-chief, if independent,
34330 would be better than the very best one trammeled by the presence and
34331 authority of the monarch.
34333 Just at the time Prince Andrew was living unoccupied at Drissa,
34334 Shishkov, the Secretary of State and one of the chief representatives of
34335 this party, wrote a letter to the Emperor which Arakcheev and Balashev
34336 agreed to sign. In this letter, availing himself of permission given him
34337 by the Emperor to discuss the general course of affairs, he respectfully
34338 suggested--on the plea that it was necessary for the sovereign to arouse
34339 a warlike spirit in the people of the capital--that the Emperor should
34342 That arousing of the people by their sovereign and his call to them to
34343 defend their country--the very incitement which was the chief cause of
34344 Russia's triumph in so far as it was produced by the Tsar's personal
34345 presence in Moscow--was suggested to the Emperor, and accepted by him,
34346 as a pretext for quitting the army.
34353 This letter had not yet been presented to the Emperor when Barclay, one
34354 day at dinner, informed Bolkonski that the sovereign wished to see him
34355 personally, to question him about Turkey, and that Prince Andrew was to
34356 present himself at Bennigsen's quarters at six that evening.
34358 News was received at the Emperor's quarters that very day of a fresh
34359 movement by Napoleon which might endanger the army--news subsequently
34360 found to be false. And that morning Colonel Michaud had ridden round the
34361 Drissa fortifications with the Emperor and had pointed out to him that
34362 this fortified camp constructed by Pfuel, and till then considered a
34363 chef-d'oeuvre of tactical science which would ensure Napoleon's
34364 destruction, was an absurdity, threatening the destruction of the
34367 Prince Andrew arrived at Bennigsen's quarters--a country gentleman's
34368 house of moderate size, situated on the very banks of the river. Neither
34369 Bennigsen nor the Emperor was there, but Chernyshev, the Emperor's aide-
34370 de-camp, received Bolkonski and informed him that the Emperor,
34371 accompanied by General Bennigsen and Marquis Paulucci, had gone a second
34372 time that day to inspect the fortifications of the Drissa camp, of the
34373 suitability of which serious doubts were beginning to be felt.
34375 Chernyshev was sitting at a window in the first room with a French novel
34376 in his hand. This room had probably been a music room; there was still
34377 an organ in it on which some rugs were piled, and in one corner stood
34378 the folding bedstead of Bennigsen's adjutant. This adjutant was also
34379 there and sat dozing on the rolled-up bedding, evidently exhausted by
34380 work or by feasting. Two doors led from the room, one straight on into
34381 what had been the drawing room, and another, on the right, to the study.
34382 Through the first door came the sound of voices conversing in German and
34383 occasionally in French. In that drawing room were gathered, by the
34384 Emperor's wish, not a military council (the Emperor preferred
34385 indefiniteness), but certain persons whose opinions he wished to know in
34386 view of the impending difficulties. It was not a council of war, but, as
34387 it were, a council to elucidate certain questions for the Emperor
34388 personally. To this semicouncil had been invited the Swedish General
34389 Armfeldt, Adjutant General Wolzogen, Wintzingerode (whom Napoleon had
34390 referred to as a renegade French subject), Michaud, Toll, Count Stein
34391 who was not a military man at all, and Pfuel himself, who, as Prince
34392 Andrew had heard, was the mainspring of the whole affair. Prince Andrew
34393 had an opportunity of getting a good look at him, for Pfuel arrived soon
34394 after himself and, in passing through to the drawing room, stopped a
34395 minute to speak to Chernyshev.
34397 At first sight, Pfuel, in his ill-made uniform of a Russian general,
34398 which fitted him badly like a fancy costume, seemed familiar to Prince
34399 Andrew, though he saw him now for the first time. There was about him
34400 something of Weyrother, Mack, and Schmidt, and many other German
34401 theorist-generals whom Prince Andrew had seen in 1805, but he was more
34402 typical than any of them. Prince Andrew had never yet seen a German
34403 theorist in whom all the characteristics of those others were united to
34406 Pfuel was short and very thin but broad-boned, of coarse, robust build,
34407 broad in the hips, and with prominent shoulder blades. His face was much
34408 wrinkled and his eyes deep set. His hair had evidently been hastily
34409 brushed smooth in front of the temples, but stuck up behind in quaint
34410 little tufts. He entered the room, looking restlessly and angrily
34411 around, as if afraid of everything in that large apartment. Awkwardly
34412 holding up his sword, he addressed Chernyshev and asked in German where
34413 the Emperor was. One could see that he wished to pass through the rooms
34414 as quickly as possible, finish with the bows and greetings, and sit down
34415 to business in front of a map, where he would feel at home. He nodded
34416 hurriedly in reply to Chernyshev, and smiled ironically on hearing that
34417 the sovereign was inspecting the fortifications that he, Pfuel, had
34418 planned in accord with his theory. He muttered something to himself
34419 abruptly and in a bass voice, as self-assured Germans do--it might have
34420 been "stupid fellow"... or "the whole affair will be ruined," or
34421 "something absurd will come of it."... Prince Andrew did not catch what
34422 he said and would have passed on, but Chernyshev introduced him to
34423 Pfuel, remarking that Prince Andrew was just back from Turkey where the
34424 war had terminated so fortunately. Pfuel barely glanced--not so much at
34425 Prince Andrew as past him--and said, with a laugh: "That must have been
34426 a fine tactical war"; and, laughing contemptuously, went on into the
34427 room from which the sound of voices was heard.
34429 Pfuel, always inclined to be irritably sarcastic, was particularly
34430 disturbed that day, evidently by the fact that they had dared to inspect
34431 and criticize his camp in his absence. From this short interview with
34432 Pfuel, Prince Andrew, thanks to his Austerlitz experiences, was able to
34433 form a clear conception of the man. Pfuel was one of those hopelessly
34434 and immutably self-confident men, self-confident to the point of
34435 martyrdom as only Germans are, because only Germans are self-confident
34436 on the basis of an abstract notion--science, that is, the supposed
34437 knowledge of absolute truth. A Frenchman is self-assured because he
34438 regards himself personally, both in mind and body, as irresistibly
34439 attractive to men and women. An Englishman is self-assured, as being a
34440 citizen of the best-organized state in the world, and therefore as an
34441 Englishman always knows what he should do and knows that all he does as
34442 an Englishman is undoubtedly correct. An Italian is self-assured because
34443 he is excitable and easily forgets himself and other people. A Russian
34444 is self-assured just because he knows nothing and does not want to know
34445 anything, since he does not believe that anything can be known. The
34446 German's self-assurance is worst of all, stronger and more repulsive
34447 than any other, because he imagines that he knows the truth--science--
34448 which he himself has invented but which is for him the absolute truth.
34450 Pfuel was evidently of that sort. He had a science--the theory of
34451 oblique movements deduced by him from the history of Frederick the
34452 Great's wars, and all he came across in the history of more recent
34453 warfare seemed to him absurd and barbarous--monstrous collisions in
34454 which so many blunders were committed by both sides that these wars
34455 could not be called wars, they did not accord with the theory, and
34456 therefore could not serve as material for science.
34458 In 1806 Pfuel had been one of those responsible, for the plan of
34459 campaign that ended in Jena and Auerstadt, but he did not see the least
34460 proof of the fallibility of his theory in the disasters of that war. On
34461 the contrary, the deviations made from his theory were, in his opinion,
34462 the sole cause of the whole disaster, and with characteristically
34463 gleeful sarcasm he would remark, "There, I said the whole affair would
34464 go to the devil!" Pfuel was one of those theoreticians who so love their
34465 theory that they lose sight of the theory's object--its practical
34466 application. His love of theory made him hate everything practical, and
34467 he would not listen to it. He was even pleased by failures, for failures
34468 resulting from deviations in practice from the theory only proved to him
34469 the accuracy of his theory.
34471 He said a few words to Prince Andrew and Chernyshev about the present
34472 war, with the air of a man who knows beforehand that all will go wrong,
34473 and who is not displeased that it should be so. The unbrushed tufts of
34474 hair sticking up behind and the hastily brushed hair on his temples
34475 expressed this most eloquently.
34477 He passed into the next room, and the deep, querulous sounds of his
34478 voice were at once heard from there.
34485 Prince Andrew's eyes were still following Pfuel out of the room when
34486 Count Bennigsen entered hurriedly, and nodding to Bolkonski, but not
34487 pausing, went into the study, giving instructions to his adjutant as he
34488 went. The Emperor was following him, and Bennigsen had hastened on to
34489 make some preparations and to be ready to receive the sovereign.
34490 Chernyshev and Prince Andrew went out into the porch, where the Emperor,
34491 who looked fatigued, was dismounting. Marquis Paulucci was talking to
34492 him with particular warmth and the Emperor, with his head bent to the
34493 left, was listening with a dissatisfied air. The Emperor moved forward
34494 evidently wishing to end the conversation, but the flushed and excited
34495 Italian, oblivious of decorum, followed him and continued to speak.
34497 "And as for the man who advised forming this camp--the Drissa camp,"
34498 said Paulucci, as the Emperor mounted the steps and noticing Prince
34499 Andrew scanned his unfamiliar face, "as to that person, sire..."
34500 continued Paulucci, desperately, apparently unable to restrain himself,
34501 "the man who advised the Drissa camp--I see no alternative but the
34502 lunatic asylum or the gallows!"
34504 Without heeding the end of the Italian's remarks, and as though not
34505 hearing them, the Emperor, recognizing Bolkonski, addressed him
34508 "I am very glad to see you! Go in there where they are meeting, and wait
34511 The Emperor went into the study. He was followed by Prince Peter
34512 Mikhaylovich Volkonski and Baron Stein, and the door closed behind them.
34513 Prince Andrew, taking advantage of the Emperor's permission, accompanied
34514 Paulucci, whom he had known in Turkey, into the drawing room where the
34515 council was assembled.
34517 Prince Peter Mikhaylovich Volkonski occupied the position, as it were,
34518 of chief of the Emperor's staff. He came out of the study into the
34519 drawing room with some maps which he spread on a table, and put
34520 questions on which he wished to hear the opinion of the gentlemen
34521 present. What had happened was that news (which afterwards proved to be
34522 false) had been received during the night of a movement by the French to
34523 outflank the Drissa camp.
34525 The first to speak was General Armfeldt who, to meet the difficulty that
34526 presented itself, unexpectedly proposed a perfectly new position away
34527 from the Petersburg and Moscow roads. The reason for this was
34528 inexplicable (unless he wished to show that he, too, could have an
34529 opinion), but he urged that at this point the army should unite and
34530 there await the enemy. It was plain that Armfeldt had thought out that
34531 plan long ago and now expounded it not so much to answer the questions
34532 put--which, in fact, his plan did not answer--as to avail himself of the
34533 opportunity to air it. It was one of the millions of proposals, one as
34534 good as another, that could be made as long as it was quite unknown what
34535 character the war would take. Some disputed his arguments, others
34536 defended them. Young Count Toll objected to the Swedish general's views
34537 more warmly than anyone else, and in the course of the dispute drew from
34538 his side pocket a well-filled notebook, which he asked permission to
34539 read to them. In these voluminous notes Toll suggested another scheme,
34540 totally different from Armfeldt's or Pfuel's plan of campaign. In answer
34541 to Toll, Paulucci suggested an advance and an attack, which, he urged,
34542 could alone extricate us from the present uncertainty and from the trap
34543 (as he called the Drissa camp) in which we were situated.
34545 During all these discussions Pfuel and his interpreter, Wolzogen (his
34546 "bridge" in court relations), were silent. Pfuel only snorted
34547 contemptuously and turned away, to show that he would never demean
34548 himself by replying to such nonsense as he was now hearing. So when
34549 Prince Volkonski, who was in the chair, called on him to give his
34550 opinion, he merely said:
34552 "Why ask me? General Armfeldt has proposed a splendid position with an
34553 exposed rear, or why not this Italian gentleman's attack--very fine, or
34554 a retreat, also good! Why ask me?" said he. "Why, you yourselves know
34555 everything better than I do."
34557 But when Volkonski said, with a frown, that it was in the Emperor's name
34558 that he asked his opinion, Pfuel rose and, suddenly growing animated,
34561 "Everything has been spoiled, everything muddled, everybody thought they
34562 knew better than I did, and now you come to me! How mend matters? There
34563 is nothing to mend! The principles laid down by me must be strictly
34564 adhered to," said he, drumming on the table with his bony fingers. "What
34565 is the difficulty? Nonsense, childishness!"
34567 He went up to the map and speaking rapidly began proving that no
34568 eventuality could alter the efficiency of the Drissa camp, that
34569 everything had been foreseen, and that if the enemy were really going to
34570 outflank it, the enemy would inevitably be destroyed.
34572 Paulucci, who did not know German, began questioning him in French.
34573 Wolzogen came to the assistance of his chief, who spoke French badly,
34574 and began translating for him, hardly able to keep pace with Pfuel, who
34575 was rapidly demonstrating that not only all that had happened, but all
34576 that could happen, had been foreseen in his scheme, and that if there
34577 were now any difficulties the whole fault lay in the fact that his plan
34578 had not been precisely executed. He kept laughing sarcastically, he
34579 demonstrated, and at last contemptuously ceased to demonstrate, like a
34580 mathematician who ceases to prove in various ways the accuracy of a
34581 problem that has already been proved. Wolzogen took his place and
34582 continued to explain his views in French, every now and then turning to
34583 Pfuel and saying, "Is it not so, your excellency?" But Pfuel, like a man
34584 heated in a fight who strikes those on his own side, shouted angrily at
34585 his own supporter, Wolzogen:
34587 "Well, of course, what more is there to explain?"
34589 Paulucci and Michaud both attacked Wolzogen simultaneously in French.
34590 Armfeldt addressed Pfuel in German. Toll explained to Volkonski in
34591 Russian. Prince Andrew listened and observed in silence.
34593 Of all these men Prince Andrew sympathized most with Pfuel, angry,
34594 determined, and absurdly self-confident as he was. Of all those present,
34595 evidently he alone was not seeking anything for himself, nursed no
34596 hatred against anyone, and only desired that the plan, formed on a
34597 theory arrived at by years of toil, should be carried out. He was
34598 ridiculous, and unpleasantly sarcastic, but yet he inspired involuntary
34599 respect by his boundless devotion to an idea. Besides this, the remarks
34600 of all except Pfuel had one common trait that had not been noticeable at
34601 the council of war in 1805: there was now a panic fear of Napoleon's
34602 genius, which, though concealed, was noticeable in every rejoinder.
34603 Everything was assumed to be possible for Napoleon, they expected him
34604 from every side, and invoked his terrible name to shatter each other's
34605 proposals. Pfuel alone seemed to consider Napoleon a barbarian like
34606 everyone else who opposed his theory. But besides this feeling of
34607 respect, Pfuel evoked pity in Prince Andrew. From the tone in which the
34608 courtiers addressed him and the way Paulucci had allowed himself to
34609 speak of him to the Emperor, but above all from a certain desperation in
34610 Pfuel's own expressions, it was clear that the others knew, and Pfuel
34611 himself felt, that his fall was at hand. And despite his self-confidence
34612 and grumpy German sarcasm he was pitiable, with his hair smoothly
34613 brushed on the temples and sticking up in tufts behind. Though he
34614 concealed the fact under a show of irritation and contempt, he was
34615 evidently in despair that the sole remaining chance of verifying his
34616 theory by a huge experiment and proving its soundness to the whole world
34617 was slipping away from him.
34619 The discussions continued a long time, and the longer they lasted the
34620 more heated became the disputes, culminating in shouts and
34621 personalities, and the less was it possible to arrive at any general
34622 conclusion from all that had been said. Prince Andrew, listening to this
34623 polyglot talk and to these surmises, plans, refutations, and shouts,
34624 felt nothing but amazement at what they were saying. A thought that had
34625 long since and often occurred to him during his military activities--the
34626 idea that there is not and cannot be any science of war, and that
34627 therefore there can be no such thing as a military genius--now appeared
34628 to him an obvious truth. "What theory and science is possible about a
34629 matter the conditions and circumstances of which are unknown and cannot
34630 be defined, especially when the strength of the acting forces cannot be
34631 ascertained? No one was or is able to foresee in what condition our or
34632 the enemy's armies will be in a day's time, and no one can gauge the
34633 force of this or that detachment. Sometimes--when there is not a coward
34634 at the front to shout, 'We are cut off!' and start running, but a brave
34635 and jolly lad who shouts, 'Hurrah!'--a detachment of five thousand is
34636 worth thirty thousand, as at Schon Grabern, while at times fifty
34637 thousand run from eight thousand, as at Austerlitz. What science can
34638 there be in a matter in which, as in all practical matters, nothing can
34639 be defined and everything depends on innumerable conditions, the
34640 significance of which is determined at a particular moment which arrives
34641 no one knows when? Armfeldt says our army is cut in half, and Paulucci
34642 says we have got the French army between two fires; Michaud says that
34643 the worthlessness of the Drissa camp lies in having the river behind it,
34644 and Pfuel says that is what constitutes its strength; Toll proposes one
34645 plan, Armfeldt another, and they are all good and all bad, and the
34646 advantages of any suggestions can be seen only at the moment of trial.
34647 And why do they all speak of a 'military genius'? Is a man a genius who
34648 can order bread to be brought up at the right time and say who is to go
34649 to the right and who to the left? It is only because military men are
34650 invested with pomp and power and crowds of sychophants flatter power,
34651 attributing to it qualities of genius it does not possess. The best
34652 generals I have known were, on the contrary, stupid or absent-minded
34653 men. Bagration was the best, Napoleon himself admitted that. And of
34654 Bonaparte himself! I remember his limited, self-satisfied face on the
34655 field of Austerlitz. Not only does a good army commander not need any
34656 special qualities, on the contrary he needs the absence of the highest
34657 and best human attributes--love, poetry, tenderness, and philosophic
34658 inquiring doubt. He should be limited, firmly convinced that what he is
34659 doing is very important (otherwise he will not have sufficient
34660 patience), and only then will he be a brave leader. God forbid that he
34661 should be humane, should love, or pity, or think of what is just and
34662 unjust. It is understandable that a theory of their 'genius' was
34663 invented for them long ago because they have power! The success of a
34664 military action depends not on them, but on the man in the ranks who
34665 shouts, 'We are lost!' or who shouts, 'Hurrah!' And only in the ranks
34666 can one serve with assurance of being useful."
34668 So thought Prince Andrew as he listened to the talking, and he roused
34669 himself only when Paulucci called him and everyone was leaving.
34671 At the review next day the Emperor asked Prince Andrew where he would
34672 like to serve, and Prince Andrew lost his standing in court circles
34673 forever by not asking to remain attached to the sovereign's person, but
34674 for permission to serve in the army.
34681 Before the beginning of the campaign, Rostov had received a letter from
34682 his parents in which they told him briefly of Natasha's illness and the
34683 breaking off of her engagement to Prince Andrew (which they explained by
34684 Natasha's having rejected him) and again asked Nicholas to retire from
34685 the army and return home. On receiving this letter, Nicholas did not
34686 even make any attempt to get leave of absence or to retire from the
34687 army, but wrote to his parents that he was sorry Natasha was ill and her
34688 engagement broken off, and that he would do all he could to meet their
34689 wishes. To Sonya he wrote separately.
34691 "Adored friend of my soul!" he wrote. "Nothing but honor could keep me
34692 from returning to the country. But now, at the commencement of the
34693 campaign, I should feel dishonored, not only in my comrades' eyes but in
34694 my own, if I preferred my own happiness to my love and duty to the
34695 Fatherland. But this shall be our last separation. Believe me, directly
34696 the war is over, if I am still alive and still loved by you, I will
34697 throw up everything and fly to you, to press you forever to my ardent
34700 It was, in fact, only the commencement of the campaign that prevented
34701 Rostov from returning home as he had promised and marrying Sonya. The
34702 autumn in Otradnoe with the hunting, and the winter with the Christmas
34703 holidays and Sonya's love, had opened out to him a vista of tranquil
34704 rural joys and peace such as he had never known before, and which now
34705 allured him. "A splendid wife, children, a good pack of hounds, a dozen
34706 leashes of smart borzois, agriculture, neighbors, service by
34707 election..." thought he. But now the campaign was beginning, and he had
34708 to remain with his regiment. And since it had to be so, Nicholas Rostov,
34709 as was natural to him, felt contented with the life he led in the
34710 regiment and was able to find pleasure in that life.
34712 On his return from his furlough Nicholas, having been joyfully welcomed
34713 by his comrades, was sent to obtain remounts and brought back from the
34714 Ukraine excellent horses which pleased him and earned him commendation
34715 from his commanders. During his absence he had been promoted captain,
34716 and when the regiment was put on war footing with an increase in
34717 numbers, he was again allotted his old squadron.
34719 The campaign began, the regiment was moved into Poland on double pay,
34720 new officers arrived, new men and horses, and above all everybody was
34721 infected with the merrily excited mood that goes with the commencement
34722 of a war, and Rostov, conscious of his advantageous position in the
34723 regiment, devoted himself entirely to the pleasures and interests of
34724 military service, though he knew that sooner or later he would have to
34727 The troops retired from Vilna for various complicated reasons of state,
34728 political and strategic. Each step of the retreat was accompanied by a
34729 complicated interplay of interests, arguments, and passions at
34730 headquarters. For the Pavlograd hussars, however, the whole of this
34731 retreat during the finest period of summer and with sufficient supplies
34732 was a very simple and agreeable business.
34734 It was only at headquarters that there was depression, uneasiness, and
34735 intriguing; in the body of the army they did not ask themselves where
34736 they were going or why. If they regretted having to retreat, it was only
34737 because they had to leave billets they had grown accustomed to, or some
34738 pretty young Polish lady. If the thought that things looked bad chanced
34739 to enter anyone's head, he tried to be as cheerful as befits a good
34740 soldier and not to think of the general trend of affairs, but only of
34741 the task nearest to hand. First they camped gaily before Vilna, making
34742 acquaintance with the Polish landowners, preparing for reviews and being
34743 reviewed by the Emperor and other high commanders. Then came an order to
34744 retreat to Sventsyani and destroy any provisions they could not carry
34745 away with them. Sventsyani was remembered by the hussars only as the
34746 drunken camp, a name the whole army gave to their encampment there, and
34747 because many complaints were made against the troops, who, taking
34748 advantage of the order to collect provisions, took also horses,
34749 carriages, and carpets from the Polish proprietors. Rostov remembered
34750 Sventsyani, because on the first day of their arrival at that small town
34751 he changed his sergeant major and was unable to manage all the drunken
34752 men of his squadron who, unknown to him, had appropriated five barrels
34753 of old beer. From Sventsyani they retired farther and farther to Drissa,
34754 and thence again beyond Drissa, drawing near to the frontier of Russia
34757 On the thirteenth of July the Pavlograds took part in a serious action
34758 for the first time.
34760 On the twelfth of July, on the eve of that action, there was a heavy
34761 storm of rain and hail. In general, the summer of 1812 was remarkable
34764 The two Pavlograd squadrons were bivouacking on a field of rye, which
34765 was already in ear but had been completely trodden down by cattle and
34766 horses. The rain was descending in torrents, and Rostov, with a young
34767 officer named Ilyin, his protege, was sitting in a hastily constructed
34768 shelter. An officer of their regiment, with long mustaches extending
34769 onto his cheeks, who after riding to the staff had been overtaken by the
34770 rain, entered Rostov's shelter.
34772 "I have come from the staff, Count. Have you heard of Raevski's
34775 And the officer gave them details of the Saltanov battle, which he had
34776 heard at the staff.
34778 Rostov, smoking his pipe and turning his head about as the water
34779 trickled down his neck, listened inattentively, with an occasional
34780 glance at Ilyin, who was pressing close to him. This officer, a lad of
34781 sixteen who had recently joined the regiment, was now in the same
34782 relation to Nicholas that Nicholas had been to Denisov seven years
34783 before. Ilyin tried to imitate Rostov in everything and adored him as a
34784 girl might have done.
34786 Zdrzhinski, the officer with the long mustache, spoke grandiloquently of
34787 the Saltanov dam being "a Russian Thermopylae," and of how a deed worthy
34788 of antiquity had been performed by General Raevski. He recounted how
34789 Raevski had led his two sons onto the dam under terrific fire and had
34790 charged with them beside him. Rostov heard the story and not only said
34791 nothing to encourage Zdrzhinski's enthusiasm but, on the contrary,
34792 looked like a man ashamed of what he was hearing, though with no
34793 intention of contradicting it. Since the campaigns of Austerlitz and of
34794 1807 Rostov knew by experience that men always lie when describing
34795 military exploits, as he himself had done when recounting them; besides
34796 that, he had experience enough to know that nothing happens in war at
34797 all as we can imagine or relate it. And so he did not like Zdrzhinski's
34798 tale, nor did he like Zdrzhinski himself who, with his mustaches
34799 extending over his cheeks, bent low over the face of his hearer, as was
34800 his habit, and crowded Rostov in the narrow shanty. Rostov looked at him
34801 in silence. "In the first place, there must have been such a confusion
34802 and crowding on the dam that was being attacked that if Raevski did lead
34803 his sons there, it could have had no effect except perhaps on some dozen
34804 men nearest to him," thought he, "the rest could not have seen how or
34805 with whom Raevski came onto the dam. And even those who did see it would
34806 not have been much stimulated by it, for what had they to do with
34807 Raevski's tender paternal feelings when their own skins were in danger?
34808 And besides, the fate of the Fatherland did not depend on whether they
34809 took the Saltanov dam or not, as we are told was the case at
34810 Thermopylae. So why should he have made such a sacrifice? And why expose
34811 his own children in the battle? I would not have taken my brother Petya
34812 there, or even Ilyin, who's a stranger to me but a nice lad, but would
34813 have tried to put them somewhere under cover," Nicholas continued to
34814 think, as he listened to Zdrzhinski. But he did not express his
34815 thoughts, for in such matters, too, he had gained experience. He knew
34816 that this tale redounded to the glory of our arms and so one had to
34817 pretend not to doubt it. And he acted accordingly.
34819 "I can't stand this any more," said Ilyin, noticing that Rostov did not
34820 relish Zdrzhinski's conversation. "My stockings and shirt... and the
34821 water is running on my seat! I'll go and look for shelter. The rain
34824 Ilyin went out and Zdrzhinski rode away.
34826 Five minutes later Ilyin, splashing through the mud, came running back
34829 "Hurrah! Rostov, come quick! I've found it! About two hundred yards away
34830 there's a tavern where ours have already gathered. We can at least get
34831 dry there, and Mary Hendrikhovna's there."
34833 Mary Hendrikhovna was the wife of the regimental doctor, a pretty young
34834 German woman he had married in Poland. The doctor, whether from lack of
34835 means or because he did not like to part from his young wife in the
34836 early days of their marriage, took her about with him wherever the
34837 hussar regiment went and his jealousy had become a standing joke among
34838 the hussar officers.
34840 Rostov threw his cloak over his shoulders, shouted to Lavrushka to
34841 follow with the things, and--now slipping in the mud, now splashing
34842 right through it--set off with Ilyin in the lessening rain and the
34843 darkness that was occasionally rent by distant lightning.
34845 "Rostov, where are you?"
34847 "Here. What lightning!" they called to one another.
34854 In the tavern, before which stood the doctor's covered cart, there were
34855 already some five officers. Mary Hendrikhovna, a plump little blonde
34856 German, in a dressing jacket and nightcap, was sitting on a broad bench
34857 in the front corner. Her husband, the doctor, lay asleep behind her.
34858 Rostov and Ilyin, on entering the room, were welcomed with merry shouts
34861 "Dear me, how jolly we are!" said Rostov laughing.
34863 "And why do you stand there gaping?"
34865 "What swells they are! Why, the water streams from them! Don't make our
34866 drawing room so wet."
34868 "Don't mess Mary Hendrikhovna's dress!" cried other voices.
34870 Rostov and Ilyin hastened to find a corner where they could change into
34871 dry clothes without offending Mary Hendrikhovna's modesty. They were
34872 going into a tiny recess behind a partition to change, but found it
34873 completely filled by three officers who sat playing cards by the light
34874 of a solitary candle on an empty box, and these officers would on no
34875 account yield their position. Mary Hendrikhovna obliged them with the
34876 loan of a petticoat to be used as a curtain, and behind that screen
34877 Rostov and Ilyin, helped by Lavrushka who had brought their kits,
34878 changed their wet things for dry ones.
34880 A fire was made up in the dilapidated brick stove. A board was found,
34881 fixed on two saddles and covered with a horsecloth, a small samovar was
34882 produced and a cellaret and half a bottle of rum, and having asked Mary
34883 Hendrikhovna to preside, they all crowded round her. One offered her a
34884 clean handkerchief to wipe her charming hands, another spread a jacket
34885 under her little feet to keep them from the damp, another hung his coat
34886 over the window to keep out the draft, and yet another waved the flies
34887 off her husband's face, lest he should wake up.
34889 "Leave him alone," said Mary Hendrikhovna, smiling timidly and happily.
34890 "He is sleeping well as it is, after a sleepless night."
34892 "Oh, no, Mary Hendrikhovna," replied the officer, "one must look after
34893 the doctor. Perhaps he'll take pity on me someday, when it comes to
34894 cutting off a leg or an arm for me."
34896 There were only three tumblers, the water was so muddy that one could
34897 not make out whether the tea was strong or weak, and the samovar held
34898 only six tumblers of water, but this made it all the pleasanter to take
34899 turns in order of seniority to receive one's tumbler from Mary
34900 Hendrikhovna's plump little hands with their short and not overclean
34901 nails. All the officers appeared to be, and really were, in love with
34902 her that evening. Even those playing cards behind the partition soon
34903 left their game and came over to the samovar, yielding to the general
34904 mood of courting Mary Hendrikhovna. She, seeing herself surrounded by
34905 such brilliant and polite young men, beamed with satisfaction, try as
34906 she might to hide it, and perturbed as she evidently was each time her
34907 husband moved in his sleep behind her.
34909 There was only one spoon, sugar was more plentiful than anything else,
34910 but it took too long to dissolve, so it was decided that Mary
34911 Hendrikhovna should stir the sugar for everyone in turn. Rostov received
34912 his tumbler, and adding some rum to it asked Mary Hendrikhovna to stir
34915 "But you take it without sugar?" she said, smiling all the time, as if
34916 everything she said and everything the others said was very amusing and
34917 had a double meaning.
34919 "It is not the sugar I want, but only that your little hand should stir
34922 Mary Hendrikhovna assented and began looking for the spoon which someone
34923 meanwhile had pounced on.
34925 "Use your finger, Mary Hendrikhovna, it will be still nicer," said
34928 "Too hot!" she replied, blushing with pleasure.
34930 Ilyin put a few drops of rum into the bucket of water and brought it to
34931 Mary Hendrikhovna, asking her to stir it with her finger.
34933 "This is my cup," said he. "Only dip your finger in it and I'll drink it
34936 When they had emptied the samovar, Rostov took a pack of cards and
34937 proposed that they should play "Kings" with Mary Hendrikhovna. They drew
34938 lots to settle who should make up her set. At Rostov's suggestion it was
34939 agreed that whoever became "King" should have the right to kiss Mary
34940 Hendrikhovna's hand, and that the "Booby" should go to refill and reheat
34941 the samovar for the doctor when the latter awoke.
34943 "Well, but supposing Mary Hendrikhovna is 'King'?" asked Ilyin.
34945 "As it is, she is Queen, and her word is law!"
34947 They had hardly begun to play before the doctor's disheveled head
34948 suddenly appeared from behind Mary Hendrikhovna. He had been awake for
34949 some time, listening to what was being said, and evidently found nothing
34950 entertaining or amusing in what was going on. His face was sad and
34951 depressed. Without greeting the officers, he scratched himself and asked
34952 to be allowed to pass as they were blocking the way. As soon as he had
34953 left the room all the officers burst into loud laughter and Mary
34954 Hendrikhovna blushed till her eyes filled with tears and thereby became
34955 still more attractive to them. Returning from the yard, the doctor told
34956 his wife (who had ceased to smile so happily, and looked at him in
34957 alarm, awaiting her sentence) that the rain had ceased and they must go
34958 to sleep in their covered cart, or everything in it would be stolen.
34960 "But I'll send an orderly.... Two of them!" said Rostov. "What an idea,
34963 "I'll stand guard on it myself!" said Ilyin.
34965 "No, gentlemen, you have had your sleep, but I have not slept for two
34966 nights," replied the doctor, and he sat down morosely beside his wife,
34967 waiting for the game to end.
34969 Seeing his gloomy face as he frowned at his wife, the officers grew
34970 still merrier, and some of them could not refrain from laughter, for
34971 which they hurriedly sought plausible pretexts. When he had gone, taking
34972 his wife with him, and had settled down with her in their covered cart,
34973 the officers lay down in the tavern, covering themselves with their wet
34974 cloaks, but they did not sleep for a long time; now they exchanged
34975 remarks, recalling the doctor's uneasiness and his wife's delight, now
34976 they ran out into the porch and reported what was taking place in the
34977 covered trap. Several times Rostov, covering his head, tried to go to
34978 sleep, but some remark would arouse him and conversation would be
34979 resumed, to the accompaniment of unreasoning, merry, childlike laughter.
34986 It was nearly three o'clock but no one was yet asleep, when the
34987 quartermaster appeared with an order to move on to the little town of
34988 Ostrovna. Still laughing and talking, the officers began hurriedly
34989 getting ready and again boiled some muddy water in the samovar. But
34990 Rostov went off to his squadron without waiting for tea. Day was
34991 breaking, the rain had ceased, and the clouds were dispersing. It felt
34992 damp and cold, especially in clothes that were still moist. As they left
34993 the tavern in the twilight of the dawn, Rostov and Ilyin both glanced
34994 under the wet and glistening leather hood of the doctor's cart, from
34995 under the apron of which his feet were sticking out, and in the middle
34996 of which his wife's nightcap was visible and her sleepy breathing
34999 "She really is a dear little thing," said Rostov to Ilyin, who was
35002 "A charming woman!" said Ilyin, with all the gravity of a boy of
35005 Half an hour later the squadron was lined up on the road. The command
35006 was heard to "mount" and the soldiers crossed themselves and mounted.
35007 Rostov riding in front gave the order "Forward!" and the hussars, with
35008 clanking sabers and subdued talk, their horses' hoofs splashing in the
35009 mud, defiled in fours and moved along the broad road planted with birch
35010 trees on each side, following the infantry and a battery that had gone
35013 Tattered, blue-purple clouds, reddening in the east, were scudding
35014 before the wind. It was growing lighter and lighter. That curly grass
35015 which always grows by country roadsides became clearly visible, still
35016 wet with the night's rain; the drooping branches of the birches, also
35017 wet, swayed in the wind and flung down bright drops of water to one
35018 side. The soldiers' faces were more and more clearly visible. Rostov,
35019 always closely followed by Ilyin, rode along the side of the road
35020 between two rows of birch trees.
35022 When campaigning, Rostov allowed himself the indulgence of riding not a
35023 regimental but a Cossack horse. A judge of horses and a sportsman, he
35024 had lately procured himself a large, fine, mettlesome, Donets horse,
35025 dun-colored, with light mane and tail, and when he rode it no one could
35026 outgallop him. To ride this horse was a pleasure to him, and he thought
35027 of the horse, of the morning, of the doctor's wife, but not once of the
35030 Formerly, when going into action, Rostov had felt afraid; now he had not
35031 the least feeling of fear. He was fearless, not because he had grown
35032 used to being under fire (one cannot grow used to danger), but because
35033 he had learned how to manage his thoughts when in danger. He had grown
35034 accustomed when going into action to think about anything but what would
35035 seem most likely to interest him--the impending danger. During the first
35036 period of his service, hard as he tried and much as he reproached
35037 himself with cowardice, he had not been able to do this, but with time
35038 it had come of itself. Now he rode beside Ilyin under the birch trees,
35039 occasionally plucking leaves from a branch that met his hand, sometimes
35040 touching his horse's side with his foot, or, without turning round,
35041 handing a pipe he had finished to an hussar riding behind him, with as
35042 calm and careless an air as though he were merely out for a ride. He
35043 glanced with pity at the excited face of Ilyin, who talked much and in
35044 great agitation. He knew from experience the tormenting expectation of
35045 terror and death the cornet was suffering and knew that only time could
35048 As soon as the sun appeared in a clear strip of sky beneath the clouds,
35049 the wind fell, as if it dared not spoil the beauty of the summer morning
35050 after the storm; drops still continued to fall, but vertically now, and
35051 all was still. The whole sun appeared on the horizon and disappeared
35052 behind a long narrow cloud that hung above it. A few minutes later it
35053 reappeared brighter still from behind the top of the cloud, tearing its
35054 edge. Everything grew bright and glittered. And with that light, and as
35055 if in reply to it, came the sound of guns ahead of them.
35057 Before Rostov had had time to consider and determine the distance of
35058 that firing, Count Ostermann-Tolstoy's adjutant came galloping from
35059 Vitebsk with orders to advance at a trot along the road.
35061 The squadron overtook and passed the infantry and the battery--which had
35062 also quickened their pace--rode down a hill, and passing through an
35063 empty and deserted village again ascended. The horses began to lather
35064 and the men to flush.
35066 "Halt! Dress your ranks!" the order of the regimental commander was
35067 heard ahead. "Forward by the left. Walk, march!" came the order from in
35070 And the hussars, passing along the line of troops on the left flank of
35071 our position, halted behind our uhlans who were in the front line. To
35072 the right stood our infantry in a dense column: they were the reserve.
35073 Higher up the hill, on the very horizon, our guns were visible through
35074 the wonderfully clear air, brightly illuminated by slanting morning
35075 sunbeams. In front, beyond a hollow dale, could be seen the enemy's
35076 columns and guns. Our advanced line, already in action, could be heard
35077 briskly exchanging shots with the enemy in the dale.
35079 At these sounds, long unheard, Rostov's spirits rose, as at the strains
35080 of the merriest music. Trap-ta-ta-tap! cracked the shots, now together,
35081 now several quickly one after another. Again all was silent and then
35082 again it sounded as if someone were walking on detonators and exploding
35085 The hussars remained in the same place for about an hour. A cannonade
35086 began. Count Ostermann with his suite rode up behind the squadron,
35087 halted, spoke to the commander of the regiment, and rode up the hill to
35090 After Ostermann had gone, a command rang out to the uhlans.
35092 "Form column! Prepare to charge!"
35094 The infantry in front of them parted into platoons to allow the cavalry
35095 to pass. The uhlans started, the streamers on their spears fluttering,
35096 and trotted downhill toward the French cavalry which was seen below to
35099 As soon as the uhlans descended the hill, the hussars were ordered up
35100 the hill to support the battery. As they took the places vacated by the
35101 uhlans, bullets came from the front, whining and whistling, but fell
35102 spent without taking effect.
35104 The sounds, which he had not heard for so long, had an even more
35105 pleasurable and exhilarating effect on Rostov than the previous sounds
35106 of firing. Drawing himself up, he viewed the field of battle opening out
35107 before him from the hill, and with his whole soul followed the movement
35108 of the uhlans. They swooped down close to the French dragoons, something
35109 confused happened there amid the smoke, and five minutes later our
35110 uhlans were galloping back, not to the place they had occupied but more
35111 to the left, and among the orange-colored uhlans on chestnut horses and
35112 behind them, in a large group, blue French dragoons on gray horses could
35120 Rostov, with his keen sportsman's eye, was one of the first to catch
35121 sight of these blue French dragoons pursuing our uhlans. Nearer and
35122 nearer in disorderly crowds came the uhlans and the French dragoons
35123 pursuing them. He could already see how these men, who looked so small
35124 at the foot of the hill, jostled and overtook one another, waving their
35125 arms and their sabers in the air.
35127 Rostov gazed at what was happening before him as at a hunt. He felt
35128 instinctively that if the hussars struck at the French dragoons now, the
35129 latter could not withstand them, but if a charge was to be made it must
35130 be done now, at that very moment, or it would be too late. He looked
35131 around. A captain, standing beside him, was gazing like himself with
35132 eyes fixed on the cavalry below them.
35134 "Andrew Sevastyanych!" said Rostov. "You know, we could crush them...."
35136 "A fine thing too!" replied the captain, "and really..."
35138 Rostov, without waiting to hear him out, touched his horse, galloped to
35139 the front of his squadron, and before he had time to finish giving the
35140 word of command, the whole squadron, sharing his feeling, was following
35141 him. Rostov himself did not know how or why he did it. He acted as he
35142 did when hunting, without reflecting or considering. He saw the dragoons
35143 near and that they were galloping in disorder; he knew they could not
35144 withstand an attack--knew there was only that moment and that if he let
35145 it slip it would not return. The bullets were whining and whistling so
35146 stimulatingly around him and his horse was so eager to go that he could
35147 not restrain himself. He touched his horse, gave the word of command,
35148 and immediately, hearing behind him the tramp of the horses of his
35149 deployed squadron, rode at full trot downhill toward the dragoons.
35150 Hardly had they reached the bottom of the hill before their pace
35151 instinctively changed to a gallop, which grew faster and faster as they
35152 drew nearer to our uhlans and the French dragoons who galloped after
35153 them. The dragoons were now close at hand. On seeing the hussars, the
35154 foremost began to turn, while those behind began to halt. With the same
35155 feeling with which he had galloped across the path of a wolf, Rostov
35156 gave rein to his Donets horse and galloped to intersect the path of the
35157 dragoons' disordered lines. One Uhlan stopped, another who was on foot
35158 flung himself to the ground to avoid being knocked over, and a riderless
35159 horse fell in among the hussars. Nearly all the French dragoons were
35160 galloping back. Rostov, picking out one on a gray horse, dashed after
35161 him. On the way he came upon a bush, his gallant horse cleared it, and
35162 almost before he had righted himself in his saddle he saw that he would
35163 immediately overtake the enemy he had selected. That Frenchman, by his
35164 uniform an officer, was going at a gallop, crouching on his gray horse
35165 and urging it on with his saber. In another moment Rostov's horse dashed
35166 its breast against the hindquarters of the officer's horse, almost
35167 knocking it over, and at the same instant Rostov, without knowing why,
35168 raised his saber and struck the Frenchman with it.
35170 The instant he had done this, all Rostov's animation vanished. The
35171 officer fell, not so much from the blow--which had but slightly cut his
35172 arm above the elbow--as from the shock to his horse and from fright.
35173 Rostov reined in his horse, and his eyes sought his foe to see whom he
35174 had vanquished. The French dragoon officer was hopping with one foot on
35175 the ground, the other being caught in the stirrup. His eyes, screwed up
35176 with fear as if he every moment expected another blow, gazed up at
35177 Rostov with shrinking terror. His pale and mud-stained face--fair and
35178 young, with a dimple in the chin and light-blue eyes--was not an enemy's
35179 face at all suited to a battlefield, but a most ordinary, homelike face.
35180 Before Rostov had decided what to do with him, the officer cried, "I
35181 surrender!" He hurriedly but vainly tried to get his foot out of the
35182 stirrup and did not remove his frightened blue eyes from Rostov's face.
35183 Some hussars who galloped up disengaged his foot and helped him into the
35184 saddle. On all sides, the hussars were busy with the dragoons; one was
35185 wounded, but though his face was bleeding, he would not give up his
35186 horse; another was perched up behind an hussar with his arms round him;
35187 a third was being helped by an hussar to mount his horse. In front, the
35188 French infantry were firing as they ran. The hussars galloped hastily
35189 back with their prisoners. Rostov galloped back with the rest, aware of
35190 an unpleasant feeling of depression in his heart. Something vague and
35191 confused, which he could not at all account for, had come over him with
35192 the capture of that officer and the blow he had dealt him.
35194 Count Ostermann-Tolstoy met the returning hussars, sent for Rostov,
35195 thanked him, and said he would report his gallant deed to the Emperor
35196 and would recommend him for a St. George's Cross. When sent for by Count
35197 Ostermann, Rostov, remembering that he had charged without orders, felt
35198 sure his commander was sending for him to punish him for breach of
35199 discipline. Ostermann's flattering words and promise of a reward should
35200 therefore have struck him all the more pleasantly, but he still felt
35201 that same vaguely disagreeable feeling of moral nausea. "But what on
35202 earth is worrying me?" he asked himself as he rode back from the
35203 general. "Ilyin? No, he's safe. Have I disgraced myself in any way? No,
35204 that's not it." Something else, resembling remorse, tormented him. "Yes,
35205 oh yes, that French officer with the dimple. And I remember how my arm
35206 paused when I raised it."
35208 Rostov saw the prisoners being led away and galloped after them to have
35209 a look at his Frenchman with the dimple on his chin. He was sitting in
35210 his foreign uniform on an hussar packhorse and looked anxiously about
35211 him; The sword cut on his arm could scarcely be called a wound. He
35212 glanced at Rostov with a feigned smile and waved his hand in greeting.
35213 Rostov still had the same indefinite feeling, as of shame.
35215 All that day and the next his friends and comrades noticed that Rostov,
35216 without being dull or angry, was silent, thoughtful, and preoccupied. He
35217 drank reluctantly, tried to remain alone, and kept turning something
35220 Rostov was always thinking about that brilliant exploit of his, which to
35221 his amazement had gained him the St. George's Cross and even given him a
35222 reputation for bravery, and there was something he could not at all
35223 understand. "So others are even more afraid than I am!" he thought. "So
35224 that's all there is in what is called heroism! And did I do it for my
35225 country's sake? And how was he to blame, with his dimple and blue eyes?
35226 And how frightened he was! He thought that I should kill him. Why should
35227 I kill him? My hand trembled. And they have given me a St. George's
35228 Cross.... I can't make it out at all."
35230 But while Nicholas was considering these questions and still could reach
35231 no clear solution of what puzzled him so, the wheel of fortune in the
35232 service, as often happens, turned in his favor. After the affair at
35233 Ostrovna he was brought into notice, received command of an hussar
35234 battalion, and when a brave officer was needed he was chosen.
35241 On receiving news of Natasha's illness, the countess, though not quite
35242 well yet and still weak, went to Moscow with Petya and the rest of the
35243 household, and the whole family moved from Marya Dmitrievna's house to
35244 their own and settled down in town.
35246 Natasha's illness was so serious that, fortunately for her and for her
35247 parents, the consideration of all that had caused the illness, her
35248 conduct and the breaking off of her engagement, receded into the
35249 background. She was so ill that it was impossible for them to consider
35250 in how far she was to blame for what had happened. She could not eat or
35251 sleep, grew visibly thinner, coughed, and, as the doctors made them
35252 feel, was in danger. They could not think of anything but how to help
35253 her. Doctors came to see her singly and in consultation, talked much in
35254 French, German, and Latin, blamed one another, and prescribed a great
35255 variety of medicines for all the diseases known to them, but the simple
35256 idea never occurred to any of them that they could not know the disease
35257 Natasha was suffering from, as no disease suffered by a live man can be
35258 known, for every living person has his own peculiarities and always has
35259 his own peculiar, personal, novel, complicated disease, unknown to
35260 medicine--not a disease of the lungs, liver, skin, heart, nerves, and so
35261 on mentioned in medical books, but a disease consisting of one of the
35262 innumerable combinations of the maladies of those organs. This simple
35263 thought could not occur to the doctors (as it cannot occur to a wizard
35264 that he is unable to work his charms) because the business of their
35265 lives was to cure, and they received money for it and had spent the best
35266 years of their lives on that business. But, above all, that thought was
35267 kept out of their minds by the fact that they saw they were really
35268 useful, as in fact they were to the whole Rostov family. Their
35269 usefulness did not depend on making the patient swallow substances for
35270 the most part harmful (the harm was scarcely perceptible, as they were
35271 given in small doses), but they were useful, necessary, and
35272 indispensable because they satisfied a mental need of the invalid and of
35273 those who loved her--and that is why there are, and always will be,
35274 pseudo-healers, wise women, homeopaths, and allopaths. They satisfied
35275 that eternal human need for hope of relief, for sympathy, and that
35276 something should be done, which is felt by those who are suffering. They
35277 satisfied the need seen in its most elementary form in a child, when it
35278 wants to have a place rubbed that has been hurt. A child knocks itself
35279 and runs at once to the arms of its mother or nurse to have the aching
35280 spot rubbed or kissed, and it feels better when this is done. The child
35281 cannot believe that the strongest and wisest of its people have no
35282 remedy for its pain, and the hope of relief and the expression of its
35283 mother's sympathy while she rubs the bump comforts it. The doctors were
35284 of use to Natasha because they kissed and rubbed her bump, assuring her
35285 that it would soon pass if only the coachman went to the chemist's in
35286 the Arbat and got a powder and some pills in a pretty box for a ruble
35287 and seventy kopeks, and if she took those powders in boiled water at
35288 intervals of precisely two hours, neither more nor less.
35290 What would Sonya and the count and countess have done, how would they
35291 have looked, if nothing had been done, if there had not been those pills
35292 to give by the clock, the warm drinks, the chicken cutlets, and all the
35293 other details of life ordered by the doctors, the carrying out of which
35294 supplied an occupation and consolation to the family circle? How would
35295 the count have borne his dearly loved daughter's illness had he not
35296 known that it was costing him a thousand rubles, and that he would not
35297 grudge thousands more to benefit her, or had he not known that if her
35298 illness continued he would not grudge yet other thousands and would take
35299 her abroad for consultations there, and had he not been able to explain
35300 the details of how Metivier and Feller had not understood the symptoms,
35301 but Frise had, and Mudrov had diagnosed them even better? What would the
35302 countess have done had she not been able sometimes to scold the invalid
35303 for not strictly obeying the doctor's orders?
35305 "You'll never get well like that," she would say, forgetting her grief
35306 in her vexation, "if you won't obey the doctor and take your medicine at
35307 the right time! You mustn't trifle with it, you know, or it may turn to
35308 pneumonia," she would go on, deriving much comfort from the utterance of
35309 that foreign word, incomprehensible to others as well as to herself.
35311 What would Sonya have done without the glad consciousness that she had
35312 not undressed during the first three nights, in order to be ready to
35313 carry out all the doctor's injunctions with precision, and that she
35314 still kept awake at night so as not to miss the proper time when the
35315 slightly harmful pills in the little gilt box had to be administered?
35316 Even to Natasha herself it was pleasant to see that so many sacrifices
35317 were being made for her sake, and to know that she had to take medicine
35318 at certain hours, though she declared that no medicine would cure her
35319 and that it was all nonsense. And it was even pleasant to be able to
35320 show, by disregarding the orders, that she did not believe in medical
35321 treatment and did not value her life.
35323 The doctor came every day, felt her pulse, looked at her tongue, and
35324 regardless of her grief-stricken face joked with her. But when he had
35325 gone into another room, to which the countess hurriedly followed him, he
35326 assumed a grave air and thoughtfully shaking his head said that though
35327 there was danger, he had hopes of the effect of this last medicine and
35328 one must wait and see, that the malady was chiefly mental, but... And
35329 the countess, trying to conceal the action from herself and from him,
35330 slipped a gold coin into his hand and always returned to the patient
35331 with a more tranquil mind.
35333 The symptoms of Natasha's illness were that she ate little, slept
35334 little, coughed, and was always low-spirited. The doctors said that she
35335 could not get on without medical treatment, so they kept her in the
35336 stifling atmosphere of the town, and the Rostovs did not move to the
35337 country that summer of 1812.
35339 In spite of the many pills she swallowed and the drops and powders out
35340 of the little bottles and boxes of which Madame Schoss who was fond of
35341 such things made a large collection, and in spite of being deprived of
35342 the country life to which she was accustomed, youth prevailed. Natasha's
35343 grief began to be overlaid by the impressions of daily life, it ceased
35344 to press so painfully on her heart, it gradually faded into the past,
35345 and she began to recover physically.
35352 Natasha was calmer but no happier. She not merely avoided all external
35353 forms of pleasure--balls, promenades, concerts, and theaters--but she
35354 never laughed without a sound of tears in her laughter. She could not
35355 sing. As soon as she began to laugh, or tried to sing by herself, tears
35356 choked her: tears of remorse, tears at the recollection of those pure
35357 times which could never return, tears of vexation that she should so
35358 uselessly have ruined her young life which might have been so happy.
35359 Laughter and singing in particular seemed to her like a blasphemy, in
35360 face of her sorrow. Without any need of self-restraint, no wish to
35361 coquet ever entered her head. She said and felt at that time that no man
35362 was more to her than Nastasya Ivanovna, the buffoon. Something stood
35363 sentinel within her and forbade her every joy. Besides, she had lost all
35364 the old interests of her carefree girlish life that had been so full of
35365 hope. The previous autumn, the hunting, "Uncle," and the Christmas
35366 holidays spent with Nicholas at Otradnoe were what she recalled oftenest
35367 and most painfully. What would she not have given to bring back even a
35368 single day of that time! But it was gone forever. Her presentiment at
35369 the time had not deceived her--that that state of freedom and readiness
35370 for any enjoyment would not return again. Yet it was necessary to live
35373 It comforted her to reflect that she was not better as she had formerly
35374 imagined, but worse, much worse, than anybody else in the world. But
35375 this was not enough. She knew that, and asked herself, "What next?" But
35376 there was nothing to come. There was no joy in life, yet life was
35377 passing. Natasha apparently tried not to be a burden or a hindrance to
35378 anyone, but wanted nothing for herself. She kept away from everyone in
35379 the house and felt at ease only with her brother Petya. She liked to be
35380 with him better than with the others, and when alone with him she
35381 sometimes laughed. She hardly ever left the house and of those who came
35382 to see them was glad to see only one person, Pierre. It would have been
35383 impossible to treat her with more delicacy, greater care, and at the
35384 same time more seriously than did Count Bezukhov. Natasha unconsciously
35385 felt this delicacy and so found great pleasure in his society. But she
35386 was not even grateful to him for it; nothing good on Pierre's part
35387 seemed to her to be an effort, it seemed so natural for him to be kind
35388 to everyone that there was no merit in his kindness. Sometimes Natasha
35389 noticed embarrassment and awkwardness on his part in her presence,
35390 especially when he wanted to do something to please her, or feared that
35391 something they spoke of would awaken memories distressing to her. She
35392 noticed this and attributed it to his general kindness and shyness,
35393 which she imagined must be the same toward everyone as it was to her.
35394 After those involuntary words--that if he were free he would have asked
35395 on his knees for her hand and her love--uttered at a moment when she was
35396 so strongly agitated, Pierre never spoke to Natasha of his feelings; and
35397 it seemed plain to her that those words, which had then so comforted
35398 her, were spoken as all sorts of meaningless words are spoken to comfort
35399 a crying child. It was not because Pierre was a married man, but because
35400 Natasha felt very strongly with him that moral barrier the absence of
35401 which she had experienced with Kuragin that it never entered her head
35402 that the relations between him and herself could lead to love on her
35403 part, still less on his, or even to the kind of tender, self-conscious,
35404 romantic friendship between a man and a woman of which she had known
35407 Before the end of the fast of St. Peter, Agrafena Ivanovna Belova, a
35408 country neighbor of the Rostovs, came to Moscow to pay her devotions at
35409 the shrines of the Moscow saints. She suggested that Natasha should fast
35410 and prepare for Holy Communion, and Natasha gladly welcomed the idea.
35411 Despite the doctor's orders that she should not go out early in the
35412 morning, Natasha insisted on fasting and preparing for the sacrament,
35413 not as they generally prepared for it in the Rostov family by attending
35414 three services in their own house, but as Agrafena Ivanovna did, by
35415 going to church every day for a week and not once missing Vespers,
35418 The countess was pleased with Natasha's zeal; after the poor results of
35419 the medical treatment, in the depths of her heart she hoped that prayer
35420 might help her daughter more than medicines and, though not without fear
35421 and concealing it from the doctor, she agreed to Natasha's wish and
35422 entrusted her to Belova. Agrafena Ivanovna used to come to wake Natasha
35423 at three in the morning, but generally found her already awake. She was
35424 afraid of being late for Matins. Hastily washing, and meekly putting on
35425 her shabbiest dress and an old mantilla, Natasha, shivering in the fresh
35426 air, went out into the deserted streets lit by the clear light of dawn.
35427 By Agrafena Ivanovna's advice Natasha prepared herself not in their own
35428 parish, but at a church where, according to the devout Agrafena
35429 Ivanovna, the priest was a man of very severe and lofty life. There were
35430 never many people in the church; Natasha always stood beside Belova in
35431 the customary place before an icon of the Blessed Virgin, let into the
35432 screen before the choir on the left side, and a feeling, new to her, of
35433 humility before something great and incomprehensible, seized her when at
35434 that unusual morning hour, gazing at the dark face of the Virgin
35435 illuminated by the candles burning before it and by the morning light
35436 falling from the window, she listened to the words of the service which
35437 she tried to follow with understanding. When she understood them her
35438 personal feeling became interwoven in the prayers with shades of its
35439 own. When she did not understand, it was sweeter still to think that the
35440 wish to understand everything is pride, that it is impossible to
35441 understand all, that it is only necessary to believe and to commit
35442 oneself to God, whom she felt guiding her soul at those moments. She
35443 crossed herself, bowed low, and when she did not understand, in horror
35444 at her own vileness, simply asked God to forgive her everything,
35445 everything, to have mercy upon her. The prayers to which she surrendered
35446 herself most of all were those of repentance. On her way home at an
35447 early hour when she met no one but bricklayers going to work or men
35448 sweeping the street, and everybody within the houses was still asleep,
35449 Natasha experienced a feeling new to her, a sense of the possibility of
35450 correcting her faults, the possibility of a new, clean life, and of
35453 During the whole week she spent in this way, that feeling grew every
35454 day. And the happiness of taking communion, or "communing" as Agrafena
35455 Ivanovna, joyously playing with the word, called it, seemed to Natasha
35456 so great that she felt she should never live till that blessed Sunday.
35458 But the happy day came, and on that memorable Sunday, when, dressed in
35459 white muslin, she returned home after communion, for the first time for
35460 many months she felt calm and not oppressed by the thought of the life
35461 that lay before her.
35463 The doctor who came to see her that day ordered her to continue the
35464 powders he had prescribed a fortnight previously.
35466 "She must certainly go on taking them morning and evening," said he,
35467 evidently sincerely satisfied with his success. "Only, please be
35468 particular about it.
35470 "Be quite easy," he continued playfully, as he adroitly took the gold
35471 coin in his palm. "She will soon be singing and frolicking about. The
35472 last medicine has done her a very great deal of good. She has freshened
35475 The countess, with a cheerful expression on her face, looked down at her
35476 nails and spat a little for luck as she returned to the drawing room.
35483 At the beginning of July more and more disquieting reports about the war
35484 began to spread in Moscow; people spoke of an appeal by the Emperor to
35485 the people, and of his coming himself from the army to Moscow. And as up
35486 to the eleventh of July no manifesto or appeal had been received,
35487 exaggerated reports became current about them and about the position of
35488 Russia. It was said that the Emperor was leaving the army because it was
35489 in danger, it was said that Smolensk had surrendered, that Napoleon had
35490 an army of a million and only a miracle could save Russia.
35492 On the eleventh of July, which was Saturday, the manifesto was received
35493 but was not yet in print, and Pierre, who was at the Rostovs', promised
35494 to come to dinner next day, Sunday, and bring a copy of the manifesto
35495 and appeal, which he would obtain from Count Rostopchin.
35497 That Sunday, the Rostovs went to Mass at the Razumovskis' private chapel
35498 as usual. It was a hot July day. Even at ten o'clock, when the Rostovs
35499 got out of their carriage at the chapel, the sultry air, the shouts of
35500 hawkers, the light and gay summer clothes of the crowd, the dusty leaves
35501 of the trees on the boulevard, the sounds of the band and the white
35502 trousers of a battalion marching to parade, the rattling of wheels on
35503 the cobblestones, and the brilliant, hot sunshine were all full of that
35504 summer languor, that content and discontent with the present, which is
35505 most strongly felt on a bright, hot day in town. All the Moscow
35506 notabilities, all the Rostovs' acquaintances, were at the Razumovskis'
35507 chapel, for, as if expecting something to happen, many wealthy families
35508 who usually left town for their country estates had not gone away that
35509 summer. As Natasha, at her mother's side, passed through the crowd
35510 behind a liveried footman who cleared the way for them, she heard a
35511 young man speaking about her in too loud a whisper.
35513 "That's Rostova, the one who..."
35515 "She's much thinner, but all the same she's pretty!"
35517 She heard, or thought she heard, the names of Kuragin and Bolkonski. But
35518 she was always imagining that. It always seemed to her that everyone who
35519 looked at her was thinking only of what had happened to her. With a
35520 sinking heart, wretched as she always was now when she found herself in
35521 a crowd, Natasha in her lilac silk dress trimmed with black lace walked-
35522 -as women can walk--with the more repose and stateliness the greater the
35523 pain and shame in her soul. She knew for certain that she was pretty,
35524 but this no longer gave her satisfaction as it used to. On the contrary
35525 it tormented her more than anything else of late, and particularly so on
35526 this bright, hot summer day in town. "It's Sunday again--another week
35527 past," she thought, recalling that she had been here the Sunday before,
35528 "and always the same life that is no life, and the same surroundings in
35529 which it used to be so easy to live. I'm pretty, I'm young, and I know
35530 that now I am good. I used to be bad, but now I know I am good," she
35531 thought, "but yet my best years are slipping by and are no good to
35532 anyone." She stood by her mother's side and exchanged nods with
35533 acquaintances near her. From habit she scrutinized the ladies' dresses,
35534 condemned the bearing of a lady standing close by who was not crossing
35535 herself properly but in a cramped manner, and again she thought with
35536 vexation that she was herself being judged and was judging others, and
35537 suddenly, at the sound of the service, she felt horrified at her own
35538 vileness, horrified that the former purity of her soul was again lost to
35541 A comely, fresh-looking old man was conducting the service with that
35542 mild solemnity which has so elevating and soothing an effect on the
35543 souls of the worshipers. The gates of the sanctuary screen were closed,
35544 the curtain was slowly drawn, and from behind it a soft mysterious voice
35545 pronounced some words. Tears, the cause of which she herself did not
35546 understand, made Natasha's breast heave, and a joyous but oppressive
35547 feeling agitated her.
35549 "Teach me what I should do, how to live my life, how I may grow good
35550 forever, forever!" she pleaded.
35552 The deacon came out onto the raised space before the altar screen and,
35553 holding his thumb extended, drew his long hair from under his dalmatic
35554 and, making the sign of the cross on his breast, began in a loud and
35555 solemn voice to recite the words of the prayer...
35557 "In peace let us pray unto the Lord."
35559 "As one community, without distinction of class, without enmity, united
35560 by brotherly love--let us pray!" thought Natasha.
35562 "For the peace that is from above, and for the salvation of our souls."
35564 "For the world of angels and all the spirits who dwell above us," prayed
35567 When they prayed for the warriors, she thought of her brother and
35568 Denisov. When they prayed for all traveling by land and sea, she
35569 remembered Prince Andrew, prayed for him, and asked God to forgive her
35570 all the wrongs she had done him. When they prayed for those who love us,
35571 she prayed for the members of her own family, her father and mother and
35572 Sonya, realizing for the first time how wrongly she had acted toward
35573 them, and feeling all the strength of her love for them. When they
35574 prayed for those who hate us, she tried to think of her enemies and
35575 people who hated her, in order to pray for them. She included among her
35576 enemies the creditors and all who had business dealings with her father,
35577 and always at the thought of enemies and those who hated her she
35578 remembered Anatole who had done her so much harm--and though he did not
35579 hate her she gladly prayed for him as for an enemy. Only at prayer did
35580 she feel able to think clearly and calmly of Prince Andrew and Anatole,
35581 as men for whom her feelings were as nothing compared with her awe and
35582 devotion to God. When they prayed for the Imperial family and the Synod,
35583 she bowed very low and made the sign of the cross, saying to herself
35584 that even if she did not understand, still she could not doubt, and at
35585 any rate loved the governing Synod and prayed for it.
35587 When he had finished the Litany the deacon crossed the stole over his
35588 breast and said, "Let us commit ourselves and our whole lives to Christ
35591 "Commit ourselves to God," Natasha inwardly repeated. "Lord God, I
35592 submit myself to Thy will!" she thought. "I want nothing, wish for
35593 nothing; teach me what to do and how to use my will! Take me, take me!"
35594 prayed Natasha, with impatient emotion in her heart, not crossing
35595 herself but letting her slender arms hang down as if expecting some
35596 invisible power at any moment to take her and deliver her from herself,
35597 from her regrets, desires, remorse, hopes, and sins.
35599 The countess looked round several times at her daughter's softened face
35600 and shining eyes and prayed God to help her.
35602 Unexpectedly, in the middle of the service, and not in the usual order
35603 Natasha knew so well, the deacon brought out a small stool, the one he
35604 knelt on when praying on Trinity Sunday, and placed it before the doors
35605 of the sanctuary screen. The priest came out with his purple velvet
35606 biretta on his head, adjusted his hair, and knelt down with an effort.
35607 Everybody followed his example and they looked at one another in
35608 surprise. Then came the prayer just received from the Synod--a prayer
35609 for the deliverance of Russia from hostile invasion.
35611 "Lord God of might, God of our salvation!" began the priest in that
35612 voice, clear, not grandiloquent but mild, in which only the Slav clergy
35613 read and which acts so irresistibly on a Russian heart.
35615 "Lord God of might, God of our salvation! Look this day in mercy and
35616 blessing on Thy humble people, and graciously hear us, spare us, and
35617 have mercy upon us! This foe confounding Thy land, desiring to lay waste
35618 the whole world, rises against us; these lawless men are gathered
35619 together to overthrow Thy kingdom, to destroy Thy dear Jerusalem, Thy
35620 beloved Russia; to defile Thy temples, to overthrow Thine altars, and to
35621 desecrate our holy shrines. How long, O Lord, how long shall the wicked
35622 triumph? How long shall they wield unlawful power?
35624 "Lord God! Hear us when we pray to Thee; strengthen with Thy might our
35625 most gracious sovereign lord, the Emperor Alexander Pavlovich; be
35626 mindful of his uprightness and meekness, reward him according to his
35627 righteousness, and let it preserve us, Thy chosen Israel! Bless his
35628 counsels, his undertakings, and his work; strengthen his kingdom by
35629 Thine almighty hand, and give him victory over his enemy, even as Thou
35630 gavest Moses the victory over Amalek, Gideon over Midian, and David over
35631 Goliath. Preserve his army, put a bow of brass in the hands of those who
35632 have armed themselves in Thy Name, and gird their loins with strength
35633 for the fight. Take up the spear and shield and arise to help us;
35634 confound and put to shame those who have devised evil against us, may
35635 they be before the faces of Thy faithful warriors as dust before the
35636 wind, and may Thy mighty Angel confound them and put them to flight; may
35637 they be ensnared when they know it not, and may the plots they have laid
35638 in secret be turned against them; let them fall before Thy servants'
35639 feet and be laid low by our hosts! Lord, Thou art able to save both
35640 great and small; Thou art God, and man cannot prevail against Thee!
35642 "God of our fathers! Remember Thy bounteous mercy and loving-kindness
35643 which are from of old; turn not Thy face from us, but be gracious to our
35644 unworthiness, and in Thy great goodness and Thy many mercies regard not
35645 our transgressions and iniquities! Create in us a clean heart and renew
35646 a right spirit within us, strengthen us all in Thy faith, fortify our
35647 hope, inspire us with true love one for another, arm us with unity of
35648 spirit in the righteous defense of the heritage Thou gavest to us and to
35649 our fathers, and let not the scepter of the wicked be exalted against
35650 the destiny of those Thou hast sanctified.
35652 "O Lord our God, in whom we believe and in whom we put our trust, let us
35653 not be confounded in our hope of Thy mercy, and give us a token of Thy
35654 blessing, that those who hate us and our Orthodox faith may see it and
35655 be put to shame and perish, and may all the nations know that Thou art
35656 the Lord and we are Thy people. Show Thy mercy upon us this day, O Lord,
35657 and grant us Thy salvation; make the hearts of Thy servants to rejoice
35658 in Thy mercy; smite down our enemies and destroy them swiftly beneath
35659 the feet of Thy faithful servants! For Thou art the defense, the succor,
35660 and the victory of them that put their trust in Thee, and to Thee be all
35661 glory, to Father, Son, and Holy Ghost, now and forever, world without
35664 In Natasha's receptive condition of soul this prayer affected her
35665 strongly. She listened to every word about the victory of Moses over
35666 Amalek, of Gideon over Midian, and of David over Goliath, and about the
35667 destruction of "Thy Jerusalem," and she prayed to God with the
35668 tenderness and emotion with which her heart was overflowing, but without
35669 fully understanding what she was asking of God in that prayer. She
35670 shared with all her heart in the prayer for the spirit of righteousness,
35671 for the strengthening of the heart by faith and hope, and its animation
35672 by love. But she could not pray that her enemies might be trampled under
35673 foot when but a few minutes before she had been wishing she had more of
35674 them that she might pray for them. But neither could she doubt the
35675 righteousness of the prayer that was being read on bended knees. She
35676 felt in her heart a devout and tremulous awe at the thought of the
35677 punishment that overtakes men for their sins, and especially of her own
35678 sins, and she prayed to God to forgive them all, and her too, and to
35679 give them all, and her too, peace and happiness. And it seemed to her
35680 that God heard her prayer.
35687 From the day when Pierre, after leaving the Rostovs' with Natasha's
35688 grateful look fresh in his mind, had gazed at the comet that seemed to
35689 be fixed in the sky and felt that something new was appearing on his own
35690 horizon--from that day the problem of the vanity and uselessness of all
35691 earthly things, that had incessantly tormented him, no longer presented
35692 itself. That terrible question "Why?" "Wherefore?" which had come to him
35693 amid every occupation, was now replaced, not by another question or by a
35694 reply to the former question, but by her image. When he listened to, or
35695 himself took part in, trivial conversations, when he read or heard of
35696 human baseness or folly, he was not horrified as formerly, and did not
35697 ask himself why men struggled so about these things when all is so
35698 transient and incomprehensible--but he remembered her as he had last
35699 seen her, and all his doubts vanished--not because she had answered the
35700 questions that had haunted him, but because his conception of her
35701 transferred him instantly to another, a brighter, realm of spiritual
35702 activity in which no one could be justified or guilty--a realm of beauty
35703 and love which it was worth living for. Whatever worldly baseness
35704 presented itself to him, he said to himself:
35706 "Well, supposing N. N. swindled the country and the Tsar, and the
35707 country and the Tsar confer honors upon him, what does that matter? She
35708 smiled at me yesterday and asked me to come again, and I love her, and
35709 no one will ever know it." And his soul felt calm and peaceful.
35711 Pierre still went into society, drank as much and led the same idle and
35712 dissipated life, because besides the hours he spent at the Rostovs'
35713 there were other hours he had to spend somehow, and the habits and
35714 acquaintances he had made in Moscow formed a current that bore him along
35715 irresistibly. But latterly, when more and more disquieting reports came
35716 from the seat of war and Natasha's health began to improve and she no
35717 longer aroused in him the former feeling of careful pity, an ever-
35718 increasing restlessness, which he could not explain, took possession of
35719 him. He felt that the condition he was in could not continue long, that
35720 a catastrophe was coming which would change his whole life, and he
35721 impatiently sought everywhere for signs of that approaching catastrophe.
35722 One of his brother Masons had revealed to Pierre the following prophecy
35723 concerning Napoleon, drawn from the Revelation of St. John.
35725 In chapter 13, verse 18, of the Apocalypse, it is said:
35727 Here is wisdom. Let him that hath understanding count the number of the
35728 beast: for it is the number of a man; and his number is Six hundred
35729 threescore and six.
35731 And in the fifth verse of the same chapter:
35733 And there was given unto him a mouth speaking great things and
35734 blasphemies; and power was given unto him to continue forty and two
35737 The French alphabet, written out with the same numerical values as the
35738 Hebrew, in which the first nine letters denote units and the others
35739 tens, will have the following significance:
35742 a b c d e f g h i k 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9
35743 10 l m n o p q r s 20 30 40 50 60 70 80
35744 90 t u v w x y 100 110 120 130 140 150 z 160
35746 Writing the words L'Empereur Napoleon in numbers, it appears that the
35747 sum of them is 666, and that Napoleon was therefore the beast foretold
35748 in the Apocalypse. Moreover, by applying the same system to the words
35749 quarante-deux, * which was the term allowed to the beast that "spoke
35750 great things and blasphemies," the same number 666 was obtained; from
35751 which it followed that the limit fixed for Napoleon's power had come in
35752 the year 1812 when the French emperor was forty-two. This prophecy
35753 pleased Pierre very much and he often asked himself what would put an
35754 end to the power of the beast, that is, of Napoleon, and tried by the
35755 same system of using letters as numbers and adding them up, to find an
35756 answer to the question that engrossed him. He wrote the words L'Empereur
35757 Alexandre, La nation russe and added up their numbers, but the sums were
35758 either more or less than 666. Once when making such calculations he
35759 wrote down his own name in French, Comte Pierre Besouhoff, but the sum
35760 of the numbers did not come right. Then he changed the spelling,
35761 substituting a z for the s and adding de and the article le, still
35762 without obtaining the desired result. Then it occurred to him: if the
35763 answer to the question were contained in his name, his nationality would
35764 also be given in the answer. So he wrote Le russe Besuhof and adding up
35765 the numbers got 671. This was only five too much, and five was
35766 represented by e, the very letter elided from the article le before the
35767 word Empereur. By omitting the e, though incorrectly, Pierre got the
35768 answer he sought. L'russe Besuhof made 666. This discovery excited him.
35769 How, or by what means, he was connected with the great event foretold in
35770 the Apocalypse he did not know, but he did not doubt that connection for
35771 a moment. His love for Natasha, Antichrist, Napoleon, the invasion, the
35772 comet, 666, L'Empereur Napoleon, and L'russe Besuhof--all this had to
35773 mature and culminate, to lift him out of that spellbound, petty sphere
35774 of Moscow habits in which he felt himself held captive and lead him to a
35775 great achievement and great happiness.
35780 On the eve of the Sunday when the special prayer was read, Pierre had
35781 promised the Rostovs to bring them, from Count Rostopchin whom he knew
35782 well, both the appeal to the people and the news from the army. In the
35783 morning, when he went to call at Rostopchin's he met there a courier
35784 fresh from the army, an acquaintance of his own, who often danced at
35787 "Do, please, for heaven's sake, relieve me of something!" said the
35788 courier. "I have a sackful of letters to parents."
35790 Among these letters was one from Nicholas Rostov to his father. Pierre
35791 took that letter, and Rostopchin also gave him the Emperor's appeal to
35792 Moscow, which had just been printed, the last army orders, and his own
35793 most recent bulletin. Glancing through the army orders, Pierre found in
35794 one of them, in the lists of killed, wounded, and rewarded, the name of
35795 Nicholas Rostov, awarded a St. George's Cross of the Fourth Class for
35796 courage shown in the Ostrovna affair, and in the same order the name of
35797 Prince Andrew Bolkonski, appointed to the command of a regiment of
35798 Chasseurs. Though he did not want to remind the Rostovs of Bolkonski,
35799 Pierre could not refrain from making them happy by the news of their
35800 son's having received a decoration, so he sent that printed army order
35801 and Nicholas' letter to the Rostovs, keeping the appeal, the bulletin,
35802 and the other orders to take with him when he went to dinner.
35804 His conversation with Count Rostopchin and the latter's tone of anxious
35805 hurry, the meeting with the courier who talked casually of how badly
35806 things were going in the army, the rumors of the discovery of spies in
35807 Moscow and of a leaflet in circulation stating that Napoleon promised to
35808 be in both the Russian capitals by the autumn, and the talk of the
35809 Emperor's being expected to arrive next day--all aroused with fresh
35810 force that feeling of agitation and expectation in Pierre which he had
35811 been conscious of ever since the appearance of the comet, and especially
35812 since the beginning of the war.
35814 He had long been thinking of entering the army and would have done so
35815 had he not been hindered, first, by his membership of the Society of
35816 Freemasons to which he was bound by oath and which preached perpetual
35817 peace and the abolition of war, and secondly, by the fact that when he
35818 saw the great mass of Muscovites who had donned uniform and were talking
35819 patriotism, he somehow felt ashamed to take the step. But the chief
35820 reason for not carrying out his intention to enter the army lay in the
35821 vague idea that he was L'russe Besuhof who had the number of the beast,
35822 666; that his part in the great affair of setting a limit to the power
35823 of the beast that spoke great and blasphemous things had been
35824 predestined from eternity, and that therefore he ought not to undertake
35825 anything, but wait for what was bound to come to pass.
35832 A few intimate friends were dining with the Rostovs that day, as usual
35835 Pierre came early so as to find them alone.
35837 He had grown so stout this year that he would have been abnormal had he
35838 not been so tall, so broad of limb, and so strong that he carried his
35839 bulk with evident ease.
35841 He went up the stairs, puffing and muttering something. His coachman did
35842 not even ask whether he was to wait. He knew that when his master was at
35843 the Rostovs' he stayed till midnight. The Rostovs' footman rushed
35844 eagerly forward to help him off with his cloak and take his hat and
35845 stick. Pierre, from club habit, always left both hat and stick in the
35848 The first person he saw in the house was Natasha. Even before he saw
35849 her, while taking off his cloak, he heard her. She was practicing solfa
35850 exercises in the music room. He knew that she had not sung since her
35851 illness, and so the sound of her voice surprised and delighted him. He
35852 opened the door softly and saw her, in the lilac dress she had worn at
35853 church, walking about the room singing. She had her back to him when he
35854 opened the door, but when, turning quickly, she saw his broad, surprised
35855 face, she blushed and came rapidly up to him.
35857 "I want to try to sing again," she said, adding as if by way of excuse,
35858 "it is, at least, something to do."
35862 "How glad I am you've come! I am so happy today," she said, with the old
35863 animation Pierre had not seen in her for a long time. "You know Nicholas
35864 has received a St. George's Cross? I am so proud of him."
35866 "Oh yes, I sent that announcement. But I don't want to interrupt you,"
35867 he added, and was about to go to the drawing room.
35869 Natasha stopped him.
35871 "Count, is it wrong of me to sing?" she said blushing, and fixing her
35872 eyes inquiringly on him.
35874 "No... Why should it be? On the contrary... But why do you ask me?"
35876 "I don't know myself," Natasha answered quickly, "but I should not like
35877 to do anything you disapproved of. I believe in you completely. You
35878 don't know how important you are to me, how much you've done for me...."
35879 She spoke rapidly and did not notice how Pierre flushed at her words. "I
35880 saw in that same army order that he, Bolkonski" (she whispered the name
35881 hastily), "is in Russia, and in the army again. What do you think?"--she
35882 was speaking hurriedly, evidently afraid her strength might fail her--
35883 "Will he ever forgive me? Will he not always have a bitter feeling
35884 toward me? What do you think? What do you think?"
35886 "I think..." Pierre replied, "that he has nothing to forgive.... If I
35887 were in his place..."
35889 By association of ideas, Pierre was at once carried back to the day
35890 when, trying to comfort her, he had said that if he were not himself but
35891 the best man in the world and free, he would ask on his knees for her
35892 hand; and the same feeling of pity, tenderness, and love took possession
35893 of him and the same words rose to his lips. But she did not give him
35896 "Yes, you... you..." she said, uttering the word you rapturously--
35897 "that's a different thing. I know no one kinder, more generous, or
35898 better than you; nobody could be! Had you not been there then, and now
35899 too, I don't know what would have become of me, because..."
35901 Tears suddenly rose in her eyes, she turned away, lifted her music
35902 before her eyes, began singing again, and again began walking up and
35905 Just then Petya came running in from the drawing room.
35907 Petya was now a handsome rosy lad of fifteen with full red lips and
35908 resembled Natasha. He was preparing to enter the university, but he and
35909 his friend Obolenski had lately, in secret, agreed to join the hussars.
35911 Petya had come rushing out to talk to his namesake about this affair. He
35912 had asked Pierre to find out whether he would be accepted in the
35915 Pierre walked up and down the drawing room, not listening to what Petya
35918 Petya pulled him by the arm to attract his attention.
35920 "Well, what about my plan? Peter Kirilych, for heaven's sake! You are my
35921 only hope," said Petya.
35923 "Oh yes, your plan. To join the hussars? I'll mention it, I'll bring it
35926 "Well, mon cher, have you got the manifesto?" asked the old count. "The
35927 countess has been to Mass at the Razumovskis' and heard the new prayer.
35928 She says it's very fine."
35930 "Yes, I've got it," said Pierre. "The Emperor is to be here tomorrow...
35931 there's to be an Extraordinary Meeting of the nobility, and they are
35932 talking of a levy of ten men per thousand. Oh yes, let me congratulate
35935 "Yes, yes, thank God! Well, and what news from the army?"
35937 "We are again retreating. They say we're already near Smolensk," replied
35940 "O Lord, O Lord!" exclaimed the count. "Where is the manifesto?"
35942 "The Emperor's appeal? Oh yes!"
35944 Pierre began feeling in his pockets for the papers, but could not find
35945 them. Still slapping his pockets, he kissed the hand of the countess who
35946 entered the room and glanced uneasily around, evidently expecting
35947 Natasha, who had left off singing but had not yet come into the drawing
35950 "On my word, I don't know what I've done with it," he said.
35952 "There he is, always losing everything!" remarked the countess.
35954 Natasha entered with a softened and agitated expression of face and sat
35955 down looking silently at Pierre. As soon as she entered, Pierre's
35956 features, which had been gloomy, suddenly lighted up, and while still
35957 searching for the papers he glanced at her several times.
35959 "No, really! I'll drive home, I must have left them there. I'll
35962 "But you'll be late for dinner."
35964 "Oh! And my coachman has gone."
35966 But Sonya, who had gone to look for the papers in the anteroom, had
35967 found them in Pierre's hat, where he had carefully tucked them under the
35968 lining. Pierre was about to begin reading.
35970 "No, after dinner," said the old count, evidently expecting much
35971 enjoyment from that reading.
35973 At dinner, at which champagne was drunk to the health of the new
35974 chevalier of St. George, Shinshin told them the town news, of the
35975 illness of the old Georgian princess, of Metivier's disappearance from
35976 Moscow, and of how some German fellow had been brought to Rostopchin and
35977 accused of being a French "spyer" (so Count Rostopchin had told the
35978 story), and how Rostopchin let him go and assured the people that he was
35979 "not a spire at all, but only an old German ruin."
35981 "People are being arrested..." said the count. "I've told the countess
35982 she should not speak French so much. It's not the time for it now."
35984 "And have you heard?" Shinshin asked. "Prince Golitsyn has engaged a
35985 master to teach him Russian. It is becoming dangerous to speak French in
35988 "And how about you, Count Peter Kirilych? If they call up the militia,
35989 you too will have to mount a horse," remarked the old count, addressing
35992 Pierre had been silent and preoccupied all through dinner, seeming not
35993 to grasp what was said. He looked at the count.
35995 "Oh yes, the war," he said. "No! What sort of warrior should I make? And
35996 yet everything is so strange, so strange! I can't make it out. I don't
35997 know, I am very far from having military tastes, but in these times no
35998 one can answer for himself."
36000 After dinner the count settled himself comfortably in an easy chair and
36001 with a serious face asked Sonya, who was considered an excellent reader,
36002 to read the appeal.
36004 "To Moscow, our ancient Capital!
36006 "The enemy has entered the borders of Russia with immense forces. He
36007 comes to despoil our beloved country."
36009 Sonya read painstakingly in her high-pitched voice. The count listened
36010 with closed eyes, heaving abrupt sighs at certain passages.
36012 Natasha sat erect, gazing with a searching look now at her father and
36015 Pierre felt her eyes on him and tried not to look round. The countess
36016 shook her head disapprovingly and angrily at every solemn expression in
36017 the manifesto. In all these words she saw only that the danger
36018 threatening her son would not soon be over. Shinshin, with a sarcastic
36019 smile on his lips, was evidently preparing to make fun of anything that
36020 gave him the opportunity: Sonya's reading, any remark of the count's, or
36021 even the manifesto itself should no better pretext present itself.
36023 After reading about the dangers that threatened Russia, the hopes the
36024 Emperor placed on Moscow and especially on its illustrious nobility,
36025 Sonya, with a quiver in her voice due chiefly to the attention that was
36026 being paid to her, read the last words:
36028 "We ourselves will not delay to appear among our people in that Capital
36029 and in other parts of our realm for consultation, and for the direction
36030 of all our levies, both those now barring the enemy's path and those
36031 freshly formed to defeat him wherever he may appear. May the ruin he
36032 hopes to bring upon us recoil on his own head, and may Europe delivered
36033 from bondage glorify the name of Russia!"
36035 "Yes, that's it!" cried the count, opening his moist eyes and sniffing
36036 repeatedly, as if a strong vinaigrette had been held to his nose; and he
36037 added, "Let the Emperor but say the word and we'll sacrifice everything
36038 and begrudge nothing."
36040 Before Shinshin had time to utter the joke he was ready to make on the
36041 count's patriotism, Natasha jumped up from her place and ran to her
36044 "What a darling our Papa is!" she cried, kissing him, and she again
36045 looked at Pierre with the unconscious coquetry that had returned to her
36046 with her better spirits.
36048 "There! Here's a patriot for you!" said Shinshin.
36050 "Not a patriot at all, but simply..." Natasha replied in an injured
36051 tone. "Everything seems funny to you, but this isn't at all a joke...."
36053 "A joke indeed!" put in the count. "Let him but say the word and we'll
36054 all go.... We're not Germans!"
36056 "But did you notice, it says, 'for consultation'?" said Pierre.
36058 "Never mind what it's for...."
36060 At this moment, Petya, to whom nobody was paying any attention, came up
36061 to his father with a very flushed face and said in his breaking voice
36062 that was now deep and now shrill:
36064 "Well, Papa, I tell you definitely, and Mamma too, it's as you please,
36065 but I say definitely that you must let me enter the army, because I
36066 can't... that's all...."
36068 The countess, in dismay, looked up to heaven, clasped her hands, and
36069 turned angrily to her husband.
36071 "That comes of your talking!" said she.
36073 But the count had already recovered from his excitement.
36075 "Come, come!" said he. "Here's a fine warrior! No! Nonsense! You must
36078 "It's not nonsense, Papa. Fedya Obolenski is younger than I, and he's
36079 going too. Besides, all the same I can't study now when..." Petya
36080 stopped short, flushed till he perspired, but still got out the words,
36081 "when our Fatherland is in danger."
36083 "That'll do, that'll do--nonsense...."
36085 "But you said yourself that we would sacrifice everything."
36087 "Petya! Be quiet, I tell you!" cried the count, with a glance at his
36088 wife, who had turned pale and was staring fixedly at her son.
36090 "And I tell you--Peter Kirilych here will also tell you..."
36092 "Nonsense, I tell you. Your mother's milk has hardly dried on your lips
36093 and you want to go into the army! There, there, I tell you," and the
36094 count moved to go out of the room, taking the papers, probably to reread
36095 them in his study before having a nap.
36097 "Well, Peter Kirilych, let's go and have a smoke," he said.
36099 Pierre was agitated and undecided. Natasha's unwontedly brilliant eyes,
36100 continually glancing at him with a more than cordial look, had reduced
36101 him to this condition.
36103 "No, I think I'll go home."
36105 "Home? Why, you meant to spend the evening with us.... You don't often
36106 come nowadays as it is, and this girl of mine," said the count good-
36107 naturedly, pointing to Natasha, "only brightens up when you're here."
36109 "Yes, I had forgotten... I really must go home... business..." said
36112 "Well, then, au revoir!" said the count, and went out of the room.
36114 "Why are you going? Why are you upset?" asked Natasha, and she looked
36115 challengingly into Pierre's eyes.
36117 "Because I love you!" was what he wanted to say, but he did not say it,
36118 and only blushed till the tears came, and lowered his eyes.
36120 "Because it is better for me to come less often... because... No, simply
36121 I have business...."
36123 "Why? No, tell me!" Natasha began resolutely and suddenly stopped.
36125 They looked at each other with dismayed and embarrassed faces. He tried
36126 to smile but could not: his smile expressed suffering, and he silently
36127 kissed her hand and went out.
36129 Pierre made up his mind not to go to the Rostovs' any more.
36136 After the definite refusal he had received, Petya went to his room and
36137 there locked himself in and wept bitterly. When he came in to tea,
36138 silent, morose, and with tear-stained face, everybody pretended not to
36141 Next day the Emperor arrived in Moscow, and several of the Rostovs'
36142 domestic serfs begged permission to go to have a look at him. That
36143 morning Petya was a long time dressing and arranging his hair and collar
36144 to look like a grown-up man. He frowned before his looking glass,
36145 gesticulated, shrugged his shoulders, and finally, without saying a word
36146 to anyone, took his cap and left the house by the back door, trying to
36147 avoid notice. Petya decided to go straight to where the Emperor was and
36148 to explain frankly to some gentleman-in-waiting (he imagined the Emperor
36149 to be always surrounded by gentlemen-in-waiting) that he, Count Rostov,
36150 in spite of his youth wished to serve his country; that youth could be
36151 no hindrance to loyalty, and that he was ready to... While dressing,
36152 Petya had prepared many fine things he meant to say to the gentleman-in-
36155 It was on the very fact of being so young that Petya counted for success
36156 in reaching the Emperor--he even thought how surprised everyone would be
36157 at his youthfulness--and yet in the arrangement of his collar and hair
36158 and by his sedate deliberate walk he wished to appear a grown-up man.
36159 But the farther he went and the more his attention was diverted by the
36160 ever-increasing crowds moving toward the Kremlin, the less he remembered
36161 to walk with the sedateness and deliberation of a man. As he approached
36162 the Kremlin he even began to avoid being crushed and resolutely stuck
36163 out his elbows in a menacing way. But within the Trinity Gateway he was
36164 so pressed to the wall by people who probably were unaware of the
36165 patriotic intentions with which he had come that in spite of all his
36166 determination he had to give in, and stop while carriages passed in,
36167 rumbling beneath the archway. Beside Petya stood a peasant woman, a
36168 footman, two tradesmen, and a discharged soldier. After standing some
36169 time in the gateway, Petya tried to move forward in front of the others
36170 without waiting for all the carriages to pass, and he began resolutely
36171 working his way with his elbows, but the woman just in front of him, who
36172 was the first against whom he directed his efforts, angrily shouted at
36175 "What are you shoving for, young lordling? Don't you see we're all
36176 standing still? Then why push?"
36178 "Anybody can shove," said the footman, and also began working his elbows
36179 to such effect that he pushed Petya into a very filthy corner of the
36182 Petya wiped his perspiring face with his hands and pulled up the damp
36183 collar which he had arranged so well at home to seem like a man's.
36185 He felt that he no longer looked presentable, and feared that if he were
36186 now to approach the gentlemen-in-waiting in that plight he would not be
36187 admitted to the Emperor. But it was impossible to smarten oneself up or
36188 move to another place, because of the crowd. One of the generals who
36189 drove past was an acquaintance of the Rostovs', and Petya thought of
36190 asking his help, but came to the conclusion that that would not be a
36191 manly thing to do. When the carriages had all passed in, the crowd,
36192 carrying Petya with it, streamed forward into the Kremlin Square which
36193 was already full of people. There were people not only in the square,
36194 but everywhere--on the slopes and on the roofs. As soon as Petya found
36195 himself in the square he clearly heard the sound of bells and the joyous
36196 voices of the crowd that filled the whole Kremlin.
36198 For a while the crowd was less dense, but suddenly all heads were bared,
36199 and everyone rushed forward in one direction. Petya was being pressed so
36200 that he could scarcely breathe, and everybody shouted, "Hurrah! hurrah!
36201 hurrah!" Petya stood on tiptoe and pushed and pinched, but could see
36202 nothing except the people about him.
36204 All the faces bore the same expression of excitement and enthusiasm. A
36205 tradesman's wife standing beside Petya sobbed, and the tears ran down
36208 "Father! Angel! Dear one!" she kept repeating, wiping away her tears
36211 "Hurrah!" was heard on all sides.
36213 For a moment the crowd stood still, but then it made another rush
36216 Quite beside himself, Petya, clinching his teeth and rolling his eyes
36217 ferociously, pushed forward, elbowing his way and shouting "hurrah!" as
36218 if he were prepared that instant to kill himself and everyone else, but
36219 on both sides of him other people with similarly ferocious faces pushed
36220 forward and everybody shouted "hurrah!"
36222 "So this is what the Emperor is!" thought Petya. "No, I can't petition
36223 him myself--that would be too bold." But in spite of this he continued
36224 to struggle desperately forward, and from between the backs of those in
36225 front he caught glimpses of an open space with a strip of red cloth
36226 spread out on it; but just then the crowd swayed back--the police in
36227 front were pushing back those who had pressed too close to the
36228 procession: the Emperor was passing from the palace to the Cathedral of
36229 the Assumption--and Petya unexpectedly received such a blow on his side
36230 and ribs and was squeezed so hard that suddenly everything grew dim
36231 before his eyes and he lost consciousness. When he came to himself, a
36232 man of clerical appearance with a tuft of gray hair at the back of his
36233 head and wearing a shabby blue cassock--probably a church clerk and
36234 chanter--was holding him under the arm with one hand while warding off
36235 the pressure of the crowd with the other.
36237 "You've crushed the young gentleman!" said the clerk. "What are you up
36238 to? Gently!... They've crushed him, crushed him!"
36240 The Emperor entered the Cathedral of the Assumption. The crowd spread
36241 out again more evenly, and the clerk led Petya--pale and breathless--to
36242 the Tsar-cannon. Several people were sorry for Petya, and suddenly a
36243 crowd turned toward him and pressed round him. Those who stood nearest
36244 him attended to him, unbuttoned his coat, seated him on the raised
36245 platform of the cannon, and reproached those others (whoever they might
36246 be) who had crushed him.
36248 "One might easily get killed that way! What do they mean by it? Killing
36249 people! Poor dear, he's as white as a sheet!"--various voices were heard
36252 Petya soon came to himself, the color returned to his face, the pain had
36253 passed, and at the cost of that temporary unpleasantness he had obtained
36254 a place by the cannon from where he hoped to see the Emperor who would
36255 be returning that way. Petya no longer thought of presenting his
36256 petition. If he could only see the Emperor he would be happy!
36258 While the service was proceeding in the Cathedral of the Assumption--it
36259 was a combined service of prayer on the occasion of the Emperor's
36260 arrival and of thanksgiving for the conclusion of peace with the Turks--
36261 the crowd outside spread out and hawkers appeared, selling kvas,
36262 gingerbread, and poppyseed sweets (of which Petya was particularly
36263 fond), and ordinary conversation could again be heard. A tradesman's
36264 wife was showing a rent in her shawl and telling how much the shawl had
36265 cost; another was saying that all silk goods had now got dear. The clerk
36266 who had rescued Petya was talking to a functionary about the priests who
36267 were officiating that day with the bishop. The clerk several times used
36268 the word "plenary" (of the service), a word Petya did not understand.
36269 Two young citizens were joking with some serf girls who were cracking
36270 nuts. All these conversations, especially the joking with the girls,
36271 were such as might have had a particular charm for Petya at his age, but
36272 they did not interest him now. He sat on his elevation--the pedestal of
36273 the cannon--still agitated as before by the thought of the Emperor and
36274 by his love for him. The feeling of pain and fear he had experienced
36275 when he was being crushed, together with that of rapture, still further
36276 intensified his sense of the importance of the occasion.
36278 Suddenly the sound of a firing of cannon was heard from the embankment,
36279 to celebrate the signing of peace with the Turks, and the crowd rushed
36280 impetuously toward the embankment to watch the firing. Petya too would
36281 have run there, but the clerk who had taken the young gentleman under
36282 his protection stopped him. The firing was still proceeding when
36283 officers, generals, and gentlemen-in-waiting came running out of the
36284 cathedral, and after them others in a more leisurely manner: caps were
36285 again raised, and those who had run to look at the cannon ran back
36286 again. At last four men in uniforms and sashes emerged from the
36287 cathedral doors. "Hurrah! hurrah!" shouted the crowd again.
36289 "Which is he? Which?" asked Petya in a tearful voice, of those around
36290 him, but no one answered him, everybody was too excited; and Petya,
36291 fixing on one of those four men, whom he could not clearly see for the
36292 tears of joy that filled his eyes, concentrated all his enthusiasm on
36293 him--though it happened not to be the Emperor--frantically shouted
36294 "Hurrah!" and resolved that tomorrow, come what might, he would join the
36297 The crowd ran after the Emperor, followed him to the palace, and began
36298 to disperse. It was already late, and Petya had not eaten anything and
36299 was drenched with perspiration, yet he did not go home but stood with
36300 that diminishing, but still considerable, crowd before the palace while
36301 the Emperor dined--looking in at the palace windows, expecting he knew
36302 not what, and envying alike the notables he saw arriving at the entrance
36303 to dine with the Emperor and the court footmen who served at table,
36304 glimpses of whom could be seen through the windows.
36306 While the Emperor was dining, Valuev, looking out of the window, said:
36308 "The people are still hoping to see Your Majesty again."
36310 The dinner was nearly over, and the Emperor, munching a biscuit, rose
36311 and went out onto the balcony. The people, with Petya among them, rushed
36312 toward the balcony.
36314 "Angel! Dear one! Hurrah! Father!..." cried the crowd, and Petya with
36315 it, and again the women and men of weaker mold, Petya among them, wept
36318 A largish piece of the biscuit the Emperor was holding in his hand broke
36319 off, fell on the balcony parapet, and then to the ground. A coachman in
36320 a jerkin, who stood nearest, sprang forward and snatched it up. Several
36321 people in the crowd rushed at the coachman. Seeing this the Emperor had
36322 a plateful of biscuits brought him and began throwing them down from the
36323 balcony. Petya's eyes grew bloodshot, and still more excited by the
36324 danger of being crushed, he rushed at the biscuits. He did not know why,
36325 but he had to have a biscuit from the Tsar's hand and he felt that he
36326 must not give way. He sprang forward and upset an old woman who was
36327 catching at a biscuit; the old woman did not consider herself defeated
36328 though she was lying on the ground--she grabbed at some biscuits but her
36329 hand did not reach them. Petya pushed her hand away with his knee,
36330 seized a biscuit, and as if fearing to be too late, again shouted
36331 "Hurrah!" with a voice already hoarse.
36333 The Emperor went in, and after that the greater part of the crowd began
36336 "There! I said if only we waited--and so it was!" was being joyfully
36337 said by various people.
36339 Happy as Petya was, he felt sad at having to go home knowing that all
36340 the enjoyment of that day was over. He did not go straight home from the
36341 Kremlin, but called on his friend Obolenski, who was fifteen and was
36342 also entering the regiment. On returning home Petya announced resolutely
36343 and firmly that if he was not allowed to enter the service he would run
36344 away. And next day, Count Ilya Rostov--though he had not yet quite
36345 yielded--went to inquire how he could arrange for Petya to serve where
36346 there would be least danger.
36353 Two days later, on the fifteenth of July, an immense number of carriages
36354 were standing outside the Sloboda Palace.
36356 The great halls were full. In the first were the nobility and gentry in
36357 their uniforms, in the second bearded merchants in full-skirted coats of
36358 blue cloth and wearing medals. In the noblemen's hall there was an
36359 incessant movement and buzz of voices. The chief magnates sat on high-
36360 backed chairs at a large table under the portrait of the Emperor, but
36361 most of the gentry were strolling about the room.
36363 All these nobles, whom Pierre met every day at the club or in their own
36364 houses, were in uniform--some in that of Catherine's day, others in that
36365 of Emperor Paul, others again in the new uniforms of Alexander's time or
36366 the ordinary uniform of the nobility, and the general characteristic of
36367 being in uniform imparted something strange and fantastic to these
36368 diverse and familiar personalities, both old and young. The old men,
36369 dim-eyed, toothless, bald, sallow, and bloated, or gaunt and wrinkled,
36370 were especially striking. For the most part they sat quietly in their
36371 places and were silent, or, if they walked about and talked, attached
36372 themselves to someone younger. On all these faces, as on the faces of
36373 the crowd Petya had seen in the Square, there was a striking
36374 contradiction: the general expectation of a solemn event, and at the
36375 same time the everyday interests in a boston card party, Peter the cook,
36376 Zinaida Dmitrievna's health, and so on.
36378 Pierre was there too, buttoned up since early morning in a nobleman's
36379 uniform that had become too tight for him. He was agitated; this
36380 extraordinary gathering not only of nobles but also of the merchant-
36381 class--les etats generaux (States-General)--evoked in him a whole series
36382 of ideas he had long laid aside but which were deeply graven in his
36383 soul: thoughts of the Contrat Social and the French Revolution. The
36384 words that had struck him in the Emperor's appeal--that the sovereign
36385 was coming to the capital for consultation with his people--strengthened
36386 this idea. And imagining that in this direction something important
36387 which he had long awaited was drawing near, he strolled about watching
36388 and listening to conversations, but nowhere finding any confirmation of
36389 the ideas that occupied him.
36391 The Emperor's manifesto was read, evoking enthusiasm, and then all moved
36392 about discussing it. Besides the ordinary topics of conversation, Pierre
36393 heard questions of where the marshals of the nobility were to stand when
36394 the Emperor entered, when a ball should be given in the Emperor's honor,
36395 whether they should group themselves by districts or by whole
36396 provinces... and so on; but as soon as the war was touched on, or what
36397 the nobility had been convened for, the talk became undecided and
36398 indefinite. Then all preferred listening to speaking.
36400 A middle-aged man, handsome and virile, in the uniform of a retired
36401 naval officer, was speaking in one of the rooms, and a small crowd was
36402 pressing round him. Pierre went up to the circle that had formed round
36403 the speaker and listened. Count Ilya Rostov, in a military uniform of
36404 Catherine's time, was sauntering with a pleasant smile among the crowd,
36405 with all of whom he was acquainted. He too approached that group and
36406 listened with a kindly smile and nods of approval, as he always did, to
36407 what the speaker was saying. The retired naval man was speaking very
36408 boldly, as was evident from the expression on the faces of the listeners
36409 and from the fact that some people Pierre knew as the meekest and
36410 quietest of men walked away disapprovingly or expressed disagreement
36411 with him. Pierre pushed his way into the middle of the group, listened,
36412 and convinced himself that the man was indeed a liberal, but of views
36413 quite different from his own. The naval officer spoke in a particularly
36414 sonorous, musical, and aristocratic baritone voice, pleasantly
36415 swallowing his r's and generally slurring his consonants: the voice of a
36416 man calling out to his servant, "Heah! Bwing me my pipe!" It was
36417 indicative of dissipation and the exercise of authority.
36419 "What if the Smolensk people have offahd to waise militia for the
36420 Empewah? Ah we to take Smolensk as our patte'n? If the noble awistocwacy
36421 of the pwovince of Moscow thinks fit, it can show its loyalty to our
36422 sov'weign the Empewah in other ways. Have we fo'gotten the waising of
36423 the militia in the yeah 'seven? All that did was to enwich the pwiests'
36424 sons and thieves and wobbahs...."
36426 Count Ilya Rostov smiled blandly and nodded approval.
36428 "And was our militia of any use to the Empia? Not at all! It only wuined
36429 our farming! Bettah have another conscwiption... o' ou' men will wetu'n
36430 neithah soldiers no' peasants, and we'll get only depwavity fwom them.
36431 The nobility don't gwudge theah lives--evewy one of us will go and bwing
36432 in more wecwuits, and the sov'weign" (that was the way he referred to
36433 the Emperor) "need only say the word and we'll all die fo' him!" added
36434 the orator with animation.
36436 Count Rostov's mouth watered with pleasure and he nudged Pierre, but
36437 Pierre wanted to speak himself. He pushed forward, feeling stirred, but
36438 not yet sure what stirred him or what he would say. Scarcely had he
36439 opened his mouth when one of the senators, a man without a tooth in his
36440 head, with a shrewd though angry expression, standing near the first
36441 speaker, interrupted him. Evidently accustomed to managing debates and
36442 to maintaining an argument, he began in low but distinct tones:
36444 "I imagine, sir," said he, mumbling with his toothless mouth, "that we
36445 have been summoned here not to discuss whether it's best for the empire
36446 at the present moment to adopt conscription or to call out the militia.
36447 We have been summoned to reply to the appeal with which our sovereign
36448 the Emperor has honored us. But to judge what is best--conscription or
36449 the militia--we can leave to the supreme authority...."
36451 Pierre suddenly saw an outlet for his excitement. He hardened his heart
36452 against the senator who was introducing this set and narrow attitude
36453 into the deliberations of the nobility. Pierre stepped forward and
36454 interrupted him. He himself did not yet know what he would say, but he
36455 began to speak eagerly, occasionally lapsing into French or expressing
36456 himself in bookish Russian.
36458 "Excuse me, your excellency," he began. (He was well acquainted with the
36459 senator, but thought it necessary on this occasion to address him
36460 formally.) "Though I don't agree with the gentleman..." (he hesitated:
36461 he wished to say, "Mon tres honorable preopinant"--"My very honorable
36462 opponent") "with the gentleman... whom I have not the honor of knowing,
36463 I suppose that the nobility have been summoned not merely to express
36464 their sympathy and enthusiasm but also to consider the means by which we
36465 can assist our Fatherland! I imagine," he went on, warming to his
36466 subject, "that the Emperor himself would not be satisfied to find in us
36467 merely owners of serfs whom we are willing to devote to his service, and
36468 chair a canon * we are ready to make of ourselves--and not to obtain
36469 from us any co-co-counsel."
36472 * "Food for cannon."
36474 Many persons withdrew from the circle, noticing the senator's sarcastic
36475 smile and the freedom of Pierre's remarks. Only Count Rostov was pleased
36476 with them as he had been pleased with those of the naval officer, the
36477 senator, and in general with whatever speech he had last heard.
36479 "I think that before discussing these questions," Pierre continued, "we
36480 should ask the Emperor--most respectfully ask His Majesty--to let us
36481 know the number of our troops and the position in which our army and our
36482 forces now are, and then..."
36484 But scarcely had Pierre uttered these words before he was attacked from
36485 three sides. The most vigorous attack came from an old acquaintance, a
36486 boston player who had always been well disposed toward him, Stepan
36487 Stepanovich Adraksin. Adraksin was in uniform, and whether as a result
36488 of the uniform or from some other cause Pierre saw before him quite a
36489 different man. With a sudden expression of malevolence on his aged face,
36490 Adraksin shouted at Pierre:
36492 "In the first place, I tell you we have no right to question the Emperor
36493 about that, and secondly, if the Russian nobility had that right, the
36494 Emperor could not answer such a question. The troops are moved according
36495 to the enemy's movements and the number of men increases and
36498 Another voice, that of a nobleman of medium height and about forty years
36499 of age, whom Pierre had formerly met at the gypsies' and knew as a bad
36500 cardplayer, and who, also transformed by his uniform, came up to Pierre,
36501 interrupted Adraksin.
36503 "Yes, and this is not a time for discussing," he continued, "but for
36504 acting: there is war in Russia! The enemy is advancing to destroy
36505 Russia, to desecrate the tombs of our fathers, to carry off our wives
36506 and children." The nobleman smote his breast. "We will all arise, every
36507 one of us will go, for our father the Tsar!" he shouted, rolling his
36508 bloodshot eyes. Several approving voices were heard in the crowd. "We
36509 are Russians and will not grudge our blood in defense of our faith, the
36510 throne, and the Fatherland! We must cease raving if we are sons of our
36511 Fatherland! We will show Europe how Russia rises to the defense of
36514 Pierre wished to reply, but could not get in a word. He felt that his
36515 words, apart from what meaning they conveyed, were less audible than the
36516 sound of his opponent's voice.
36518 Count Rostov at the back of the crowd was expressing approval; several
36519 persons, briskly turning a shoulder to the orator at the end of a
36522 "That's right, quite right! Just so!"
36524 Pierre wished to say that he was ready to sacrifice his money, his
36525 serfs, or himself, only one ought to know the state of affairs in order
36526 to be able to improve it, but he was unable to speak. Many voices
36527 shouted and talked at the same time, so that Count Rostov had not time
36528 to signify his approval of them all, and the group increased, dispersed,
36529 re-formed, and then moved with a hum of talk into the largest hall and
36530 to the big table. Not only was Pierre's attempt to speak unsuccessful,
36531 but he was rudely interrupted, pushed aside, and people turned away from
36532 him as from a common enemy. This happened not because they were
36533 displeased by the substance of his speech, which had even been forgotten
36534 after the many subsequent speeches, but to animate it the crowd needed a
36535 tangible object to love and a tangible object to hate. Pierre became the
36536 latter. Many other orators spoke after the excited nobleman, and all in
36537 the same tone. Many spoke eloquently and with originality.
36539 Glinka, the editor of the Russian Messenger, who was recognized (cries
36540 of "author! author!" were heard in the crowd), said that "hell must be
36541 repulsed by hell," and that he had seen a child smiling at lightning
36542 flashes and thunderclaps, but "we will not be that child."
36544 "Yes, yes, at thunderclaps!" was repeated approvingly in the back rows
36547 The crowd drew up to the large table, at which sat gray-haired or bald
36548 seventy-year-old magnates, uniformed and besashed almost all of whom
36549 Pierre had seen in their own homes with their buffoons, or playing
36550 boston at the clubs. With an incessant hum of voices the crowd advanced
36551 to the table. Pressed by the throng against the high backs of the
36552 chairs, the orators spoke one after another and sometimes two together.
36553 Those standing behind noticed what a speaker omitted to say and hastened
36554 to supply it. Others in that heat and crush racked their brains to find
36555 some thought and hastened to utter it. The old magnates, whom Pierre
36556 knew, sat and turned to look first at one and then at another, and their
36557 faces for the most part only expressed the fact that they found it very
36558 hot. Pierre, however, felt excited, and the general desire to show that
36559 they were ready to go to all lengths--which found expression in the
36560 tones and looks more than in the substance of the speeches--infected him
36561 too. He did not renounce his opinions, but felt himself in some way to
36562 blame and wished to justify himself.
36564 "I only said that it would be more to the purpose to make sacrifices
36565 when we know what is needed!" said he, trying to be heard above the
36568 One of the old men nearest to him looked round, but his attention was
36569 immediately diverted by an exclamation at the other side of the table.
36571 "Yes, Moscow will be surrendered! She will be our expiation!" shouted
36574 "He is the enemy of mankind!" cried another. "Allow me to speak...."
36575 "Gentlemen, you are crushing me!..."
36582 At that moment Count Rostopchin with his protruding chin and alert eyes,
36583 wearing the uniform of a general with sash over his shoulder, entered
36584 the room, stepping briskly to the front of the crowd of gentry.
36586 "Our sovereign the Emperor will be here in a moment," said Rostopchin.
36587 "I am straight from the palace. Seeing the position we are in, I think
36588 there is little need for discussion. The Emperor has deigned to summon
36589 us and the merchants. Millions will pour forth from there"--he pointed
36590 to the merchants' hall--"but our business is to supply men and not spare
36591 ourselves... That is the least we can do!"
36593 A conference took place confined to the magnates sitting at the table.
36594 The whole consultation passed more than quietly. After all the preceding
36595 noise the sound of their old voices saying one after another, "I agree,"
36596 or for variety, "I too am of that opinion," and so on had even a
36599 The secretary was told to write down the resolution of the Moscow
36600 nobility and gentry, that they would furnish ten men, fully equipped,
36601 out of every thousand serfs, as the Smolensk gentry had done. Their
36602 chairs made a scraping noise as the gentlemen who had conferred rose
36603 with apparent relief, and began walking up and down, arm in arm, to
36604 stretch their legs and converse in couples.
36606 "The Emperor! The Emperor!" a sudden cry resounded through the halls and
36607 the whole throng hurried to the entrance.
36609 The Emperor entered the hall through a broad path between two lines of
36610 nobles. Every face expressed respectful, awe-struck curiosity. Pierre
36611 stood rather far off and could not hear all that the Emperor said. From
36612 what he did hear he understood that the Emperor spoke of the danger
36613 threatening the empire and of the hopes he placed on the Moscow
36614 nobility. He was answered by a voice which informed him of the
36615 resolution just arrived at.
36617 "Gentlemen!" said the Emperor with a quivering voice.
36619 There was a rustling among the crowd and it again subsided, so that
36620 Pierre distinctly heard the pleasantly human voice of the Emperor saying
36623 "I never doubted the devotion of the Russian nobles, but today it has
36624 surpassed my expectations. I thank you in the name of the Fatherland!
36625 Gentlemen, let us act! Time is most precious..."
36627 The Emperor ceased speaking, the crowd began pressing round him, and
36628 rapturous exclamations were heard from all sides.
36630 "Yes, most precious... a royal word," said Count Rostov, with a sob. He
36631 stood at the back, and, though he had heard hardly anything, understood
36632 everything in his own way.
36634 From the hall of the nobility the Emperor went to that of the merchants.
36635 There he remained about ten minutes. Pierre was among those who saw him
36636 come out from the merchants' hall with tears of emotion in his eyes. As
36637 became known later, he had scarcely begun to address the merchants
36638 before tears gushed from his eyes and he concluded in a trembling voice.
36639 When Pierre saw the Emperor he was coming out accompanied by two
36640 merchants, one of whom Pierre knew, a fat otkupshchik. The other was the
36641 mayor, a man with a thin sallow face and narrow beard. Both were
36642 weeping. Tears filled the thin man's eyes, and the fat otkupshchik
36643 sobbed outright like a child and kept repeating:
36645 "Our lives and property--take them, Your Majesty!"
36647 Pierre's one feeling at the moment was a desire to show that he was
36648 ready to go all lengths and was prepared to sacrifice everything. He now
36649 felt ashamed of his speech with its constitutional tendency and sought
36650 an opportunity of effacing it. Having heard that Count Mamonov was
36651 furnishing a regiment, Bezukhov at once informed Rostopchin that he
36652 would give a thousand men and their maintenance.
36654 Old Rostov could not tell his wife of what had passed without tears, and
36655 at once consented to Petya's request and went himself to enter his name.
36657 Next day the Emperor left Moscow. The assembled nobles all took off
36658 their uniforms and settled down again in their homes and clubs, and not
36659 without some groans gave orders to their stewards about the enrollment,
36660 feeling amazed themselves at what they had done.
36669 Napoleon began the war with Russia because he could not resist going to
36670 Dresden, could not help having his head turned by the homage he
36671 received, could not help donning a Polish uniform and yielding to the
36672 stimulating influence of a June morning, and could not refrain from
36673 bursts of anger in the presence of Kurakin and then of Balashev.
36675 Alexander refused negotiations because he felt himself to be personally
36676 insulted. Barclay de Tolly tried to command the army in the best way,
36677 because he wished to fulfill his duty and earn fame as a great
36678 commander. Rostov charged the French because he could not restrain his
36679 wish for a gallop across a level field; and in the same way the
36680 innumerable people who took part in the war acted in accord with their
36681 personal characteristics, habits, circumstances, and aims. They were
36682 moved by fear or vanity, rejoiced or were indignant, reasoned, imagining
36683 that they knew what they were doing and did it of their own free will,
36684 but they all were involuntary tools of history, carrying on a work
36685 concealed from them but comprehensible to us. Such is the inevitable
36686 fate of men of action, and the higher they stand in the social hierarchy
36687 the less are they free.
36689 The actors of 1812 have long since left the stage, their personal
36690 interests have vanished leaving no trace, and nothing remains of that
36691 time but its historic results.
36693 Providence compelled all these men, striving to attain personal aims, to
36694 further the accomplishment of a stupendous result no one of them at all
36695 expected--neither Napoleon, nor Alexander, nor still less any of those
36696 who did the actual fighting.
36698 The cause of the destruction of the French army in 1812 is clear to us
36699 now. No one will deny that that cause was, on the one hand, its advance
36700 into the heart of Russia late in the season without any preparation for
36701 a winter campaign and, on the other, the character given to the war by
36702 the burning of Russian towns and the hatred of the foe this aroused
36703 among the Russian people. But no one at the time foresaw (what now seems
36704 so evident) that this was the only way an army of eight hundred thousand
36705 men--the best in the world and led by the best general--could be
36706 destroyed in conflict with a raw army of half its numerical strength,
36707 and led by inexperienced commanders as the Russian army was. Not only
36708 did no one see this, but on the Russian side every effort was made to
36709 hinder the only thing that could save Russia, while on the French side,
36710 despite Napoleon's experience and so-called military genius, every
36711 effort was directed to pushing on to Moscow at the end of the summer,
36712 that is, to doing the very thing that was bound to lead to destruction.
36714 In historical works on the year 1812 French writers are very fond of
36715 saying that Napoleon felt the danger of extending his line, that he
36716 sought a battle and that his marshals advised him to stop at Smolensk,
36717 and of making similar statements to show that the danger of the campaign
36718 was even then understood. Russian authors are still fonder of telling us
36719 that from the commencement of the campaign a Scythian war plan was
36720 adopted to lure Napoleon into the depths of Russia, and this plan some
36721 of them attribute to Pfuel, others to a certain Frenchman, others to
36722 Toll, and others again to Alexander himself--pointing to notes,
36723 projects, and letters which contain hints of such a line of action. But
36724 all these hints at what happened, both from the French side and the
36725 Russian, are advanced only because they fit in with the event. Had that
36726 event not occurred these hints would have been forgotten, as we have
36727 forgotten the thousands and millions of hints and expectations to the
36728 contrary which were current then but have now been forgotten because the
36729 event falsified them. There are always so many conjectures as to the
36730 issue of any event that however it may end there will always be people
36731 to say: "I said then that it would be so," quite forgetting that amid
36732 their innumerable conjectures many were to quite the contrary effect.
36734 Conjectures as to Napoleon's awareness of the danger of extending his
36735 line, and (on the Russian side) as to luring the enemy into the depths
36736 of Russia, are evidently of that kind, and only by much straining can
36737 historians attribute such conceptions to Napoleon and his marshals, or
36738 such plans to the Russian commanders. All the facts are in flat
36739 contradiction to such conjectures. During the whole period of the war
36740 not only was there no wish on the Russian side to draw the French into
36741 the heart of the country, but from their first entry into Russia
36742 everything was done to stop them. And not only was Napoleon not afraid
36743 to extend his line, but he welcomed every step forward as a triumph and
36744 did not seek battle as eagerly as in former campaigns, but very lazily.
36746 At the very beginning of the war our armies were divided, and our sole
36747 aim was to unite them, though uniting the armies was no advantage if we
36748 meant to retire and lure the enemy into the depths of the country. Our
36749 Emperor joined the army to encourage it to defend every inch of Russian
36750 soil and not to retreat. The enormous Drissa camp was formed on Pfuel's
36751 plan, and there was no intention of retiring farther. The Emperor
36752 reproached the commanders in chief for every step they retired. He could
36753 not bear the idea of letting the enemy even reach Smolensk, still less
36754 could he contemplate the burning of Moscow, and when our armies did
36755 unite he was displeased that Smolensk was abandoned and burned without a
36756 general engagement having been fought under its walls.
36758 So thought the Emperor, and the Russian commanders and people were still
36759 more provoked at the thought that our forces were retreating into the
36760 depths of the country.
36762 Napoleon having cut our armies apart advanced far into the country and
36763 missed several chances of forcing an engagement. In August he was at
36764 Smolensk and thought only of how to advance farther, though as we now
36765 see that advance was evidently ruinous to him.
36767 The facts clearly show that Napoleon did not foresee the danger of the
36768 advance on Moscow, nor did Alexander and the Russian commanders then
36769 think of luring Napoleon on, but quite the contrary. The luring of
36770 Napoleon into the depths of the country was not the result of any plan,
36771 for no one believed it to be possible; it resulted from a most complex
36772 interplay of intrigues, aims, and wishes among those who took part in
36773 the war and had no perception whatever of the inevitable, or of the one
36774 way of saving Russia. Everything came about fortuitously. The armies
36775 were divided at the commencement of the campaign. We tried to unite
36776 them, with the evident intention of giving battle and checking the
36777 enemy's advance, and by this effort to unite them while avoiding battle
36778 with a much stronger enemy, and necessarily withdrawing the armies at an
36779 acute angle--we led the French on to Smolensk. But we withdrew at an
36780 acute angle not only because the French advanced between our two armies;
36781 the angle became still more acute and we withdrew still farther, because
36782 Barclay de Tolly was an unpopular foreigner disliked by Bagration (who
36783 would come under his command), and Bagration--being in command of the
36784 second army--tried to postpone joining up and coming under Barclay's
36785 command as long as he could. Bagration was slow in effecting the
36786 junction--though that was the chief aim of all at headquarters--because,
36787 as he alleged, he exposed his army to danger on this march, and it was
36788 best for him to retire more to the left and more to the south, worrying
36789 the enemy from flank and rear and securing from the Ukraine recruits for
36790 his army; and it looks as if he planned this in order not to come under
36791 the command of the detested foreigner Barclay, whose rank was inferior
36794 The Emperor was with the army to encourage it, but his presence and
36795 ignorance of what steps to take, and the enormous number of advisers and
36796 plans, destroyed the first army's energy and it retired.
36798 The intention was to make a stand at the Drissa camp, but Paulucci,
36799 aiming at becoming commander-in-chief, unexpectedly employed his energy
36800 to influence Alexander, and Pfuel's whole plan was abandoned and the
36801 command entrusted to Barclay. But as Barclay did not inspire confidence
36802 his power was limited. The armies were divided, there was no unity of
36803 command, and Barclay was unpopular; but from this confusion, division,
36804 and the unpopularity of the foreign commander-in-chief, there resulted
36805 on the one hand indecision and the avoidance of a battle (which we could
36806 not have refrained from had the armies been united and had someone else,
36807 instead of Barclay, been in command) and on the other an ever-increasing
36808 indignation against the foreigners and an increase in patriotic zeal.
36810 At last the Emperor left the army, and as the most convenient and indeed
36811 the only pretext for his departure it was decided that it was necessary
36812 for him to inspire the people in the capitals and arouse the nation in
36813 general to a patriotic war. And by this visit of the Emperor to Moscow
36814 the strength of the Russian army was trebled.
36816 He left in order not to obstruct the commander-in-chief's undivided
36817 control of the army, and hoping that more decisive action would then be
36818 taken, but the command of the armies became still more confused and
36819 enfeebled. Bennigsen, the Tsarevich, and a swarm of adjutants general
36820 remained with the army to keep the commander-in-chief under observation
36821 and arouse his energy, and Barclay, feeling less free than ever under
36822 the observation of all these "eyes of the Emperor," became still more
36823 cautious of undertaking any decisive action and avoided giving battle.
36825 Barclay stood for caution. The Tsarevich hinted at treachery and
36826 demanded a general engagement. Lubomirski, Bronnitski, Wlocki, and the
36827 others of that group stirred up so much trouble that Barclay, under
36828 pretext of sending papers to the Emperor, dispatched these Polish
36829 adjutants general to Petersburg and plunged into an open struggle with
36830 Bennigsen and the Tsarevich.
36832 At Smolensk the armies at last reunited, much as Bagration disliked it.
36834 Bagration drove up in a carriage to the house occupied by Barclay.
36835 Barclay donned his sash and came out to meet and report to his senior
36838 Despite his seniority in rank Bagration, in this contest of magnanimity,
36839 took his orders from Barclay, but, having submitted, agreed with him
36840 less than ever. By the Emperor's orders Bagration reported direct to
36841 him. He wrote to Arakcheev, the Emperor's confidant: "It must be as my
36842 sovereign pleases, but I cannot work with the Minister (meaning
36843 Barclay). For God's sake send me somewhere else if only in command of a
36844 regiment. I cannot stand it here. Headquarters are so full of Germans
36845 that a Russian cannot exist and there is no sense in anything. I thought
36846 I was really serving my sovereign and the Fatherland, but it turns out
36847 that I am serving Barclay. I confess I do not want to."
36849 The swarm of Bronnitskis and Wintzingerodes and their like still further
36850 embittered the relations between the commanders in chief, and even less
36851 unity resulted. Preparations were made to fight the French before
36852 Smolensk. A general was sent to survey the position. This general,
36853 hating Barclay, rode to visit a friend of his own, a corps commander,
36854 and, having spent the day with him, returned to Barclay and condemned,
36855 as unsuitable from every point of view, the battleground he had not
36858 While disputes and intrigues were going on about the future field of
36859 battle, and while we were looking for the French--having lost touch with
36860 them--the French stumbled upon Neverovski's division and reached the
36863 It was necessary to fight an unexpected battle at Smolensk to save our
36864 lines of communication. The battle was fought and thousands were killed
36867 Smolensk was abandoned contrary to the wishes of the Emperor and of the
36868 whole people. But Smolensk was burned by its own inhabitants-who had
36869 been misled by their governor. And these ruined inhabitants, setting an
36870 example to other Russians, went to Moscow thinking only of their own
36871 losses but kindling hatred of the foe. Napoleon advanced farther and we
36872 retired, thus arriving at the very result which caused his destruction.
36879 The day after his son had left, Prince Nicholas sent for Princess Mary
36880 to come to his study.
36882 "Well? Are you satisfied now?" said he. "You've made me quarrel with my
36883 son! Satisfied, are you? That's all you wanted! Satisfied?... It hurts
36884 me, it hurts. I'm old and weak and this is what you wanted. Well then,
36885 gloat over it! Gloat over it!"
36887 After that Princess Mary did not see her father for a whole week. He was
36888 ill and did not leave his study.
36890 Princess Mary noticed to her surprise that during this illness the old
36891 prince not only excluded her from his room, but did not admit
36892 Mademoiselle Bourienne either. Tikhon alone attended him.
36894 At the end of the week the prince reappeared and resumed his former way
36895 of life, devoting himself with special activity to building operations
36896 and the arrangement of the gardens and completely breaking off his
36897 relations with Mademoiselle Bourienne. His looks and cold tone to his
36898 daughter seemed to say: "There, you see? You plotted against me, you
36899 lied to Prince Andrew about my relations with that Frenchwoman and made
36900 me quarrel with him, but you see I need neither her nor you!"
36902 Princess Mary spent half of every day with little Nicholas, watching his
36903 lessons, teaching him Russian and music herself, and talking to
36904 Dessalles; the rest of the day she spent over her books, with her old
36905 nurse, or with "God's folk" who sometimes came by the back door to see
36908 Of the war Princess Mary thought as women do think about wars. She
36909 feared for her brother who was in it, was horrified by and amazed at the
36910 strange cruelty that impels men to kill one another, but she did not
36911 understand the significance of this war, which seemed to her like all
36912 previous wars. She did not realize the significance of this war, though
36913 Dessalles with whom she constantly conversed was passionately interested
36914 in its progress and tried to explain his own conception of it to her,
36915 and though the "God's folk" who came to see her reported, in their own
36916 way, the rumors current among the people of an invasion by Antichrist,
36917 and though Julie (now Princess Drubetskaya), who had resumed
36918 correspondence with her, wrote patriotic letters from Moscow.
36920 "I write you in Russian, my good friend," wrote Julie in her Frenchified
36921 Russian, "because I have a detestation for all the French, and the same
36922 for their language which I cannot support to hear spoken.... We in
36923 Moscow are elated by enthusiasm for our adored Emperor.
36925 "My poor husband is enduring pains and hunger in Jewish taverns, but the
36926 news which I have inspires me yet more.
36928 "You heard probably of the heroic exploit of Raevski, embracing his two
36929 sons and saying: 'I will perish with them but we will not be shaken!'
36930 And truly though the enemy was twice stronger than we, we were
36931 unshakable. We pass the time as we can, but in war as in war! The
36932 princesses Aline and Sophie sit whole days with me, and we, unhappy
36933 widows of live men, make beautiful conversations over our 'charpie',
36934 only you, my friend, are missing..." and so on.
36936 The chief reason Princess Mary did not realize the full significance of
36937 this war was that the old prince never spoke of it, did not recognize
36938 it, and laughed at Dessalles when he mentioned it at dinner. The
36939 prince's tone was so calm and confident that Princess Mary
36940 unhesitatingly believed him.
36942 All that July the old prince was exceedingly active and even animated.
36943 He planned another garden and began a new building for the domestic
36944 serfs. The only thing that made Princess Mary anxious about him was that
36945 he slept very little and, instead of sleeping in his study as usual,
36946 changed his sleeping place every day. One day he would order his camp
36947 bed to be set up in the glass gallery, another day he remained on the
36948 couch or on the lounge chair in the drawing room and dozed there without
36949 undressing, while--instead of Mademoiselle Bourienne--a serf boy read to
36950 him. Then again he would spend a night in the dining room.
36952 On August 1, a second letter was received from Prince Andrew. In his
36953 first letter which came soon after he had left home, Prince Andrew had
36954 dutifully asked his father's forgiveness for what he had allowed himself
36955 to say and begged to be restored to his favor. To this letter the old
36956 prince had replied affectionately, and from that time had kept the
36957 Frenchwoman at a distance. Prince Andrew's second letter, written near
36958 Vitebsk after the French had occupied that town, gave a brief account of
36959 the whole campaign, enclosed for them a plan he had drawn and forecasts
36960 as to the further progress of the war. In this letter Prince Andrew
36961 pointed out to his father the danger of staying at Bald Hills, so near
36962 the theater of war and on the army's direct line of march, and advised
36963 him to move to Moscow.
36965 At dinner that day, on Dessalles' mentioning that the French were said
36966 to have already entered Vitebsk, the old prince remembered his son's
36969 "There was a letter from Prince Andrew today," he said to Princess Mary-
36970 -"Haven't you read it?"
36972 "No, Father," she replied in a frightened voice.
36974 She could not have read the letter as she did not even know it had
36977 "He writes about this war," said the prince, with the ironic smile that
36978 had become habitual to him in speaking of the present war.
36980 "That must be very interesting," said Dessalles. "Prince Andrew is in a
36981 position to know..."
36983 "Oh, very interesting!" said Mademoiselle Bourienne.
36985 "Go and get it for me," said the old prince to Mademoiselle Bourienne.
36986 "You know--under the paperweight on the little table."
36988 Mademoiselle Bourienne jumped up eagerly.
36990 "No, don't!" he exclaimed with a frown. "You go, Michael Ivanovich."
36992 Michael Ivanovich rose and went to the study. But as soon as he had left
36993 the room the old prince, looking uneasily round, threw down his napkin
36996 "They can't do anything... always make some muddle," he muttered.
36998 While he was away Princess Mary, Dessalles, Mademoiselle Bourienne, and
36999 even little Nicholas exchanged looks in silence. The old prince returned
37000 with quick steps, accompanied by Michael Ivanovich, bringing the letter
37001 and a plan. These he put down beside him--not letting anyone read them
37004 On moving to the drawing room he handed the letter to Princess Mary and,
37005 spreading out before him the plan of the new building and fixing his
37006 eyes upon it, told her to read the letter aloud. When she had done so
37007 Princess Mary looked inquiringly at her father. He was examining the
37008 plan, evidently engrossed in his own ideas.
37010 "What do you think of it, Prince?" Dessalles ventured to ask.
37012 "I? I?..." said the prince as if unpleasantly awakened, and not taking
37013 his eyes from the plan of the building.
37015 "Very possibly the theater of war will move so near to us that..."
37017 "Ha ha ha! The theater of war!" said the prince. "I have said and still
37018 say that the theater of war is Poland and the enemy will never get
37019 beyond the Niemen."
37021 Dessalles looked in amazement at the prince, who was talking of the
37022 Niemen when the enemy was already at the Dnieper, but Princess Mary,
37023 forgetting the geographical position of the Niemen, thought that what
37024 her father was saying was correct.
37026 "When the snow melts they'll sink in the Polish swamps. Only they could
37027 fail to see it," the prince continued, evidently thinking of the
37028 campaign of 1807 which seemed to him so recent. "Bennigsen should have
37029 advanced into Prussia sooner, then things would have taken a different
37032 "But, Prince," Dessalles began timidly, "the letter mentions
37035 "Ah, the letter? Yes..." replied the prince peevishly. "Yes... yes..."
37036 His face suddenly took on a morose expression. He paused. "Yes, he
37037 writes that the French were beaten at... at... what river is it?"
37039 Dessalles dropped his eyes.
37041 "The prince says nothing about that," he remarked gently.
37043 "Doesn't he? But I didn't invent it myself."
37045 No one spoke for a long time.
37047 "Yes... yes... Well, Michael Ivanovich," he suddenly went on, raising
37048 his head and pointing to the plan of the building, "tell me how you mean
37051 Michael Ivanovich went up to the plan, and the prince after speaking to
37052 him about the building looked angrily at Princess Mary and Dessalles and
37053 went to his own room.
37055 Princess Mary saw Dessalles' embarrassed and astonished look fixed on
37056 her father, noticed his silence, and was struck by the fact that her
37057 father had forgotten his son's letter on the drawing-room table; but she
37058 was not only afraid to speak of it and ask Dessalles the reason of his
37059 confusion and silence, but was afraid even to think about it.
37061 In the evening Michael Ivanovich, sent by the prince, came to Princess
37062 Mary for Prince Andrew's letter which had been forgotten in the drawing
37063 room. She gave it to him and, unpleasant as it was to her to do so,
37064 ventured to ask him what her father was doing.
37066 "Always busy," replied Michael Ivanovich with a respectfully ironic
37067 smile which caused Princess Mary to turn pale. "He's worrying very much
37068 about the new building. He has been reading a little, but now"--Michael
37069 Ivanovich went on, lowering his voice--"now he's at his desk, busy with
37070 his will, I expect." (One of the prince's favorite occupations of late
37071 had been the preparation of some papers he meant to leave at his death
37072 and which he called his "will.")
37074 "And Alpatych is being sent to Smolensk?" asked Princess Mary.
37076 "Oh, yes, he has been waiting to start for some time."
37083 When Michael Ivanovich returned to the study with the letter, the old
37084 prince, with spectacles on and a shade over his eyes, was sitting at his
37085 open bureau with screened candles, holding a paper in his outstretched
37086 hand, and in a somewhat dramatic attitude was reading his manuscript--
37087 his "Remarks" as he termed it--which was to be transmitted to the
37088 Emperor after his death.
37090 When Michael Ivanovich went in there were tears in the prince's eyes
37091 evoked by the memory of the time when the paper he was now reading had
37092 been written. He took the letter from Michael Ivanovich's hand, put it
37093 in his pocket, folded up his papers, and called in Alpatych who had long
37096 The prince had a list of things to be bought in Smolensk and, walking up
37097 and down the room past Alpatych who stood by the door, he gave his
37100 "First, notepaper--do you hear? Eight quires, like this sample, gilt-
37101 edged... it must be exactly like the sample. Varnish, sealing wax, as in
37102 Michael Ivanovich's list."
37104 He paced up and down for a while and glanced at his notes.
37106 "Then hand to the governor in person a letter about the deed."
37108 Next, bolts for the doors of the new building were wanted and had to be
37109 of a special shape the prince had himself designed, and a leather case
37110 had to be ordered to keep the "will" in.
37112 The instructions to Alpatych took over two hours and still the prince
37113 did not let him go. He sat down, sank into thought, closed his eyes, and
37114 dozed off. Alpatych made a slight movement.
37116 "Well, go, go! If anything more is wanted I'll send after you."
37118 Alpatych went out. The prince again went to his bureau, glanced into it,
37119 fingered his papers, closed the bureau again, and sat down at the table
37120 to write to the governor.
37122 It was already late when he rose after sealing the letter. He wished to
37123 sleep, but he knew he would not be able to and that most depressing
37124 thoughts came to him in bed. So he called Tikhon and went through the
37125 rooms with him to show him where to set up the bed for that night.
37127 He went about looking at every corner. Every place seemed
37128 unsatisfactory, but worst of all was his customary couch in the study.
37129 That couch was dreadful to him, probably because of the oppressive
37130 thoughts he had had when lying there. It was unsatisfactory everywhere,
37131 but the corner behind the piano in the sitting room was better than
37132 other places: he had never slept there yet.
37134 With the help of a footman Tikhon brought in the bedstead and began
37137 "That's not right! That's not right!" cried the prince, and himself
37138 pushed it a few inches from the corner and then closer in again.
37140 "Well, at last I've finished, now I'll rest," thought the prince, and
37141 let Tikhon undress him.
37143 Frowning with vexation at the effort necessary to divest himself of his
37144 coat and trousers, the prince undressed, sat down heavily on the bed,
37145 and appeared to be meditating as he looked contemptuously at his
37146 withered yellow legs. He was not meditating, but only deferring the
37147 moment of making the effort to lift those legs up and turn over on the
37148 bed. "Ugh, how hard it is! Oh, that this toil might end and you would
37149 release me!" thought he. Pressing his lips together he made that effort
37150 for the twenty-thousandth time and lay down. But hardly had he done so
37151 before he felt the bed rocking backwards and forwards beneath him as if
37152 it were breathing heavily and jolting. This happened to him almost every
37153 night. He opened his eyes as they were closing.
37155 "No peace, damn them!" he muttered, angry he knew not with whom. "Ah
37156 yes, there was something else important, very important, that I was
37157 keeping till I should be in bed. The bolts? No, I told him about them.
37158 No, it was something, something in the drawing room. Princess Mary
37159 talked some nonsense. Dessalles, that fool, said something. Something in
37160 my pocket--can't remember..."
37162 "Tikhon, what did we talk about at dinner?"
37164 "About Prince Michael..."
37166 "Be quiet, quiet!" The prince slapped his hand on the table. "Yes, I
37167 know, Prince Andrew's letter! Princess Mary read it. Dessalles said
37168 something about Vitebsk. Now I'll read it."
37170 He had the letter taken from his pocket and the table--on which stood a
37171 glass of lemonade and a spiral wax candle--moved close to the bed, and
37172 putting on his spectacles he began reading. Only now in the stillness of
37173 the night, reading it by the faint light under the green shade, did he
37174 grasp its meaning for a moment.
37176 "The French at Vitebsk, in four days' march they may be at Smolensk;
37177 perhaps are already there! Tikhon!" Tikhon jumped up. "No, no, I don't
37178 want anything!" he shouted.
37180 He put the letter under the candlestick and closed his eyes. And there
37181 rose before him the Danube at bright noonday: reeds, the Russian camp,
37182 and himself a young general without a wrinkle on his ruddy face,
37183 vigorous and alert, entering Potemkin's gaily colored tent, and a
37184 burning sense of jealousy of "the favorite" agitated him now as strongly
37185 as it had done then. He recalled all the words spoken at that first
37186 meeting with Potemkin. And he saw before him a plump, rather sallow-
37187 faced, short, stout woman, the Empress Mother, with her smile and her
37188 words at her first gracious reception of him, and then that same face on
37189 the catafalque, and the encounter he had with Zubov over her coffin
37190 about his right to kiss her hand.
37192 "Oh, quicker, quicker! To get back to that time and have done with all
37193 the present! Quicker, quicker--and that they should leave me in peace!"
37200 Bald Hills, Prince Nicholas Bolkonski's estate, lay forty miles east
37201 from Smolensk and two miles from the main road to Moscow.
37203 The same evening that the prince gave his instructions to Alpatych,
37204 Dessalles, having asked to see Princess Mary, told her that, as the
37205 prince was not very well and was taking no steps to secure his safety,
37206 though from Prince Andrew's letter it was evident that to remain at Bald
37207 Hills might be dangerous, he respectfully advised her to send a letter
37208 by Alpatych to the Provincial Governor at Smolensk, asking him to let
37209 her know the state of affairs and the extent of the danger to which Bald
37210 Hills was exposed. Dessalles wrote this letter to the Governor for
37211 Princess Mary, she signed it, and it was given to Alpatych with
37212 instructions to hand it to the Governor and to come back as quickly as
37213 possible if there was danger.
37215 Having received all his orders Alpatych, wearing a white beaver hat--a
37216 present from the prince--and carrying a stick as the prince did, went
37217 out accompanied by his family. Three well-fed roans stood ready
37218 harnessed to a small conveyance with a leather hood.
37220 The larger bell was muffled and the little bells on the harness stuffed
37221 with paper. The prince allowed no one at Bald Hills to drive with
37222 ringing bells; but on a long journey Alpatych liked to have them. His
37223 satellites--the senior clerk, a countinghouse clerk, a scullery maid, a
37224 cook, two old women, a little pageboy, the coachman, and various
37225 domestic serfs--were seeing him off.
37227 His daughter placed chintz-covered down cushions for him to sit on and
37228 behind his back. His old sister-in-law popped in a small bundle, and one
37229 of the coachmen helped him into the vehicle.
37231 "There! There! Women's fuss! Women, women!" said Alpatych, puffing and
37232 speaking rapidly just as the prince did, and he climbed into the trap.
37234 After giving the clerk orders about the work to be done, Alpatych, not
37235 trying to imitate the prince now, lifted the hat from his bald head and
37236 crossed himself three times.
37238 "If there is anything... come back, Yakov Alpatych! For Christ's sake
37239 think of us!" cried his wife, referring to the rumors of war and the
37242 "Women, women! Women's fuss!" muttered Alpatych to himself and started
37243 on his journey, looking round at the fields of yellow rye and the still-
37244 green, thickly growing oats, and at other quite black fields just being
37245 plowed a second time.
37247 As he went along he looked with pleasure at the year's splendid crop of
37248 corn, scrutinized the strips of ryefield which here and there were
37249 already being reaped, made his calculations as to the sowing and the
37250 harvest, and asked himself whether he had not forgotten any of the
37253 Having baited the horses twice on the way, he arrived at the town toward
37254 evening on the fourth of August.
37256 Alpatych kept meeting and overtaking baggage trains and troops on the
37257 road. As he approached Smolensk he heard the sounds of distant firing,
37258 but these did not impress him. What struck him most was the sight of a
37259 splendid field of oats in which a camp had been pitched and which was
37260 being mown down by the soldiers, evidently for fodder. This fact
37261 impressed Alpatych, but in thinking about his own business he soon
37264 All the interests of his life for more than thirty years had been
37265 bounded by the will of the prince, and he never went beyond that limit.
37266 Everything not connected with the execution of the prince's orders did
37267 not interest and did not even exist for Alpatych.
37269 On reaching Smolensk on the evening of the fourth of August he put up in
37270 the Gachina suburb across the Dnieper, at the inn kept by Ferapontov,
37271 where he had been in the habit of putting up for the last thirty years.
37272 Some thirty years ago Ferapontov, by Alpatych's advice, had bought a
37273 wood from the prince, had begun to trade, and now had a house, an inn,
37274 and a corn dealer's shop in that province. He was a stout, dark, red-
37275 faced peasant in the forties, with thick lips, a broad knob of a nose,
37276 similar knobs over his black frowning brows, and a round belly.
37278 Wearing a waistcoat over his cotton shirt, Ferapontov was standing
37279 before his shop which opened onto the street. On seeing Alpatych he went
37282 "You're welcome, Yakov Alpatych. Folks are leaving the town, but you
37283 have come to it," said he.
37285 "Why are they leaving the town?" asked Alpatych.
37287 "That's what I say. Folks are foolish! Always afraid of the French."
37289 "Women's fuss, women's fuss!" said Alpatych.
37291 "Just what I think, Yakov Alpatych. What I say is: orders have been
37292 given not to let them in, so that must be right. And the peasants are
37293 asking three rubles for carting--it isn't Christian!"
37295 Yakov Alpatych heard without heeding. He asked for a samovar and for hay
37296 for his horses, and when he had had his tea he went to bed.
37298 All night long troops were moving past the inn. Next morning Alpatych
37299 donned a jacket he wore only in town and went out on business. It was a
37300 sunny morning and by eight o'clock it was already hot. "A good day for
37301 harvesting," thought Alpatych.
37303 From beyond the town firing had been heard since early morning. At eight
37304 o'clock the booming of cannon was added to the sound of musketry. Many
37305 people were hurrying through the streets and there were many soldiers,
37306 but cabs were still driving about, tradesmen stood at their shops, and
37307 service was being held in the churches as usual. Alpatych went to the
37308 shops, to government offices, to the post office, and to the Governor's.
37309 In the offices and shops and at the post office everyone was talking
37310 about the army and about the enemy who was already attacking the town,
37311 everybody was asking what should be done, and all were trying to calm
37314 In front of the Governor's house Alpatych found a large number of
37315 people, Cossacks, and a traveling carriage of the Governor's. At the
37316 porch he met two of the landed gentry, one of whom he knew. This man, an
37317 ex-captain of police, was saying angrily:
37319 "It's no joke, you know! It's all very well if you're single. 'One man
37320 though undone is but one,' as the proverb says, but with thirteen in
37321 your family and all the property... They've brought us to utter ruin!
37322 What sort of governors are they to do that? They ought to be hanged--the
37325 "Oh come, that's enough!" said the other.
37327 "What do I care? Let him hear! We're not dogs," said the ex-captain of
37328 police, and looking round he noticed Alpatych.
37330 "Oh, Yakov Alpatych! What have you come for?"
37332 "To see the Governor by his excellency's order," answered Alpatych,
37333 lifting his head and proudly thrusting his hand into the bosom of his
37334 coat as he always did when he mentioned the prince.... "He has ordered
37335 me to inquire into the position of affairs," he added.
37337 "Yes, go and find out!" shouted the angry gentleman. "They've brought
37338 things to such a pass that there are no carts or anything!... There it
37339 is again, do you hear?" said he, pointing in the direction whence came
37340 the sounds of firing.
37342 "They've brought us all to ruin... the brigands!" he repeated, and
37343 descended the porch steps.
37345 Alpatych swayed his head and went upstairs. In the waiting room were
37346 tradesmen, women, and officials, looking silently at one another. The
37347 door of the Governor's room opened and they all rose and moved forward.
37348 An official ran out, said some words to a merchant, called a stout
37349 official with a cross hanging on his neck to follow him, and vanished
37350 again, evidently wishing to avoid the inquiring looks and questions
37351 addressed to him. Alpatych moved forward and next time the official came
37352 out addressed him, one hand placed in the breast of his buttoned coat,
37353 and handed him two letters.
37355 "To his Honor Baron Asch, from General-in-Chief Prince Bolkonski," he
37356 announced with such solemnity and significance that the official turned
37357 to him and took the letters.
37359 A few minutes later the Governor received Alpatych and hurriedly said to
37362 "Inform the prince and princess that I knew nothing: I acted on the
37363 highest instructions--here..." and he handed a paper to Alpatych.
37364 "Still, as the prince is unwell my advice is that they should go to
37365 Moscow. I am just starting myself. Inform them..."
37367 But the Governor did not finish: a dusty perspiring officer ran into the
37368 room and began to say something in French. The Governor's face expressed
37371 "Go," he said, nodding his head to Alpatych, and began questioning the
37374 Eager, frightened, helpless glances were turned on Alpatych when he came
37375 out of the Governor's room. Involuntarily listening now to the firing,
37376 which had drawn nearer and was increasing in strength, Alpatych hurried
37377 to his inn. The paper handed to him by the Governor said this:
37379 "I assure you that the town of Smolensk is not in the slightest danger
37380 as yet and it is unlikely that it will be threatened with any. I from
37381 the one side and Prince Bagration from the other are marching to unite
37382 our forces before Smolensk, which junction will be effected on the 22nd
37383 instant, and both armies with their united forces will defend our
37384 compatriots of the province entrusted to your care till our efforts
37385 shall have beaten back the enemies of our Fatherland, or till the last
37386 warrior in our valiant ranks has perished. From this you will see that
37387 you have a perfect right to reassure the inhabitants of Smolensk, for
37388 those defended by two such brave armies may feel assured of victory."
37389 (Instructions from Barclay de Tolly to Baron Asch, the civil governor of
37392 People were anxiously roaming about the streets.
37394 Carts piled high with household utensils, chairs, and cupboards kept
37395 emerging from the gates of the yards and moving along the streets.
37396 Loaded carts stood at the house next to Ferapontov's and women were
37397 wailing and lamenting as they said good-by. A small watchdog ran round
37398 barking in front of the harnessed horses.
37400 Alpatych entered the innyard at a quicker pace than usual and went
37401 straight to the shed where his horses and trap were. The coachman was
37402 asleep. He woke him up, told him to harness, and went into the passage.
37403 From the host's room came the sounds of a child crying, the despairing
37404 sobs of a woman, and the hoarse angry shouting of Ferapontov. The cook
37405 began running hither and thither in the passage like a frightened hen,
37406 just as Alpatych entered.
37408 "He's done her to death. Killed the mistress!... Beat her... dragged her
37411 "What for?" asked Alpatych.
37413 "She kept begging to go away. She's a woman! 'Take me away,' says she,
37414 'don't let me perish with my little children! Folks,' she says, 'are all
37415 gone, so why,' she says, 'don't we go?' And he began beating and pulling
37418 At these words Alpatych nodded as if in approval, and not wishing to
37419 hear more went to the door of the room opposite the innkeeper's, where
37420 he had left his purchases.
37422 "You brute, you murderer!" screamed a thin, pale woman who, with a baby
37423 in her arms and her kerchief torn from her head, burst through the door
37424 at that moment and down the steps into the yard.
37426 Ferapontov came out after her, but on seeing Alpatych adjusted his
37427 waistcoat, smoothed his hair, yawned, and followed Alpatych into the
37430 "Going already?" said he.
37432 Alpatych, without answering or looking at his host, sorted his packages
37433 and asked how much he owed.
37435 "We'll reckon up! Well, have you been to the Governor's?" asked
37436 Ferapontov. "What has been decided?"
37438 Alpatych replied that the Governor had not told him anything definite.
37440 "With our business, how can we get away?" said Ferapontov. "We'd have to
37441 pay seven rubles a cartload to Dorogobuzh and I tell them they're not
37442 Christians to ask it! Selivanov, now, did a good stroke last Thursday--
37443 sold flour to the army at nine rubles a sack. Will you have some tea?"
37446 While the horses were being harnessed Alpatych and Ferapontov over their
37447 tea talked of the price of corn, the crops, and the good weather for
37450 "Well, it seems to be getting quieter," remarked Ferapontov, finishing
37451 his third cup of tea and getting up. "Ours must have got the best of it.
37452 The orders were not to let them in. So we're in force, it seems.... They
37453 say the other day Matthew Ivanych Platov drove them into the river
37454 Marina and drowned some eighteen thousand in one day."
37456 Alpatych collected his parcels, handed them to the coachman who had come
37457 in, and settled up with the innkeeper. The noise of wheels, hoofs, and
37458 bells was heard from the gateway as a little trap passed out.
37460 It was by now late in the afternoon. Half the street was in shadow, the
37461 other half brightly lit by the sun. Alpatych looked out of the window
37462 and went to the door. Suddenly the strange sound of a far-off whistling
37463 and thud was heard, followed by a boom of cannon blending into a dull
37464 roar that set the windows rattling.
37466 He went out into the street: two men were running past toward the
37467 bridge. From different sides came whistling sounds and the thud of
37468 cannon balls and bursting shells falling on the town. But these sounds
37469 were hardly heard in comparison with the noise of the firing outside the
37470 town and attracted little attention from the inhabitants. The town was
37471 being bombarded by a hundred and thirty guns which Napoleon had ordered
37472 up after four o'clock. The people did not at once realize the meaning of
37475 At first the noise of the falling bombs and shells only aroused
37476 curiosity. Ferapontov's wife, who till then had not ceased wailing under
37477 the shed, became quiet and with the baby in her arms went to the gate,
37478 listening to the sounds and looking in silence at the people.
37480 The cook and a shop assistant came to the gate. With lively curiosity
37481 everyone tried to get a glimpse of the projectiles as they flew over
37482 their heads. Several people came round the corner talking eagerly.
37484 "What force!" remarked one. "Knocked the roof and ceiling all to
37487 "Routed up the earth like a pig," said another.
37489 "That's grand, it bucks one up!" laughed the first. "Lucky you jumped
37490 aside, or it would have wiped you out!"
37492 Others joined those men and stopped and told how cannon balls had fallen
37493 on a house close to them. Meanwhile still more projectiles, now with the
37494 swift sinister whistle of a cannon ball, now with the agreeable
37495 intermittent whistle of a shell, flew over people's heads incessantly,
37496 but not one fell close by, they all flew over. Alpatych was getting into
37497 his trap. The innkeeper stood at the gate.
37499 "What are you staring at?" he shouted to the cook, who in her red skirt,
37500 with sleeves rolled up, swinging her bare elbows, had stepped to the
37501 corner to listen to what was being said.
37503 "What marvels!" she exclaimed, but hearing her master's voice she turned
37504 back, pulling down her tucked-up skirt.
37506 Once more something whistled, but this time quite close, swooping
37507 downwards like a little bird; a flame flashed in the middle of the
37508 street, something exploded, and the street was shrouded in smoke.
37510 "Scoundrel, what are you doing?" shouted the innkeeper, rushing to the
37513 At that moment the pitiful wailing of women was heard from different
37514 sides, the frightened baby began to cry, and people crowded silently
37515 with pale faces round the cook. The loudest sound in that crowd was her
37518 "Oh-h-h! Dear souls, dear kind souls! Don't let me die! My good
37521 Five minutes later no one remained in the street. The cook, with her
37522 thigh broken by a shell splinter, had been carried into the kitchen.
37523 Alpatych, his coachman, Ferapontov's wife and children and the house
37524 porter were all sitting in the cellar, listening. The roar of guns, the
37525 whistling of projectiles, and the piteous moaning of the cook, which
37526 rose above the other sounds, did not cease for a moment. The mistress
37527 rocked and hushed her baby and when anyone came into the cellar asked in
37528 a pathetic whisper what had become of her husband who had remained in
37529 the street. A shopman who entered told her that her husband had gone
37530 with others to the cathedral, whence they were fetching the wonder-
37531 working icon of Smolensk.
37533 Toward dusk the cannonade began to subside. Alpatych left the cellar and
37534 stopped in the doorway. The evening sky that had been so clear was
37535 clouded with smoke, through which, high up, the sickle of the new moon
37536 shone strangely. Now that the terrible din of the guns had ceased a hush
37537 seemed to reign over the town, broken only by the rustle of footsteps,
37538 the moaning, the distant cries, and the crackle of fires which seemed
37539 widespread everywhere. The cook's moans had now subsided. On two sides
37540 black curling clouds of smoke rose and spread from the fires. Through
37541 the streets soldiers in various uniforms walked or ran confusedly in
37542 different directions like ants from a ruined ant-hill. Several of them
37543 ran into Ferapontov's yard before Alpatych's eyes. Alpatych went out to
37544 the gate. A retreating regiment, thronging and hurrying, blocked the
37547 Noticing him, an officer said: "The town is being abandoned. Get away,
37548 get away!" and then, turning to the soldiers, shouted:
37550 "I'll teach you to run into the yards!"
37552 Alpatych went back to the house, called the coachman, and told him to
37553 set off. Ferapontov's whole household came out too, following Alpatych
37554 and the coachman. The women, who had been silent till then, suddenly
37555 began to wail as they looked at the fires--the smoke and even the flames
37556 of which could be seen in the failing twilight--and as if in reply the
37557 same kind of lamentation was heard from other parts of the street.
37558 Inside the shed Alpatych and the coachman arranged the tangled reins and
37559 traces of their horses with trembling hands.
37561 As Alpatych was driving out of the gate he saw some ten soldiers in
37562 Ferapontov's open shop, talking loudly and filling their bags and
37563 knapsacks with flour and sunflower seeds. Just then Ferapontov returned
37564 and entered his shop. On seeing the soldiers he was about to shout at
37565 them, but suddenly stopped and, clutching at his hair, burst into sobs
37568 "Loot everything, lads! Don't let those devils get it!" he cried, taking
37569 some bags of flour himself and throwing them into the street.
37571 Some of the soldiers were frightened and ran away, others went on
37572 filling their bags. On seeing Alpatych, Ferapontov turned to him:
37574 "Russia is done for!" he cried. "Alpatych, I'll set the place on fire
37575 myself. We're done for!..." and Ferapontov ran into the yard.
37577 Soldiers were passing in a constant stream along the street blocking it
37578 completely, so that Alpatych could not pass out and had to wait.
37579 Ferapontov's wife and children were also sitting in a cart waiting till
37580 it was possible to drive out.
37582 Night had come. There were stars in the sky and the new moon shone out
37583 amid the smoke that screened it. On the sloping descent to the Dnieper
37584 Alpatych's cart and that of the innkeeper's wife, which were slowly
37585 moving amid the rows of soldiers and of other vehicles, had to stop. In
37586 a side street near the crossroads where the vehicles had stopped, a
37587 house and some shops were on fire. This fire was already burning itself
37588 out. The flames now died down and were lost in the black smoke, now
37589 suddenly flared up again brightly, lighting up with strange distinctness
37590 the faces of the people crowding at the crossroads. Black figures
37591 flitted about before the fire, and through the incessant crackling of
37592 the flames talking and shouting could be heard. Seeing that his trap
37593 would not be able to move on for some time, Alpatych got down and turned
37594 into the side street to look at the fire. Soldiers were continually
37595 rushing backwards and forwards near it, and he saw two of them and a man
37596 in a frieze coat dragging burning beams into another yard across the
37597 street, while others carried bundles of hay.
37599 Alpatych went up to a large crowd standing before a high barn which was
37600 blazing briskly. The walls were all on fire and the back wall had fallen
37601 in, the wooden roof was collapsing, and the rafters were alight. The
37602 crowd was evidently watching for the roof to fall in, and Alpatych
37603 watched for it too.
37605 "Alpatych!" a familiar voice suddenly hailed the old man.
37607 "Mercy on us! Your excellency!" answered Alpatych, immediately
37608 recognizing the voice of his young prince.
37610 Prince Andrew in his riding cloak, mounted on a black horse, was looking
37611 at Alpatych from the back of the crowd.
37613 "Why are you here?" he asked.
37615 "Your... your excellency," stammered Alpatych and broke into sobs. "Are
37616 we really lost? Master!..."
37618 "Why are you here?" Prince Andrew repeated.
37620 At that moment the flames flared up and showed his young master's pale
37621 worn face. Alpatych told how he had been sent there and how difficult it
37624 "Are we really quite lost, your excellency?" he asked again.
37626 Prince Andrew without replying took out a notebook and raising his knee
37627 began writing in pencil on a page he tore out. He wrote to his sister:
37629 "Smolensk is being abandoned. Bald Hills will be occupied by the enemy
37630 within a week. Set off immediately for Moscow. Let me know at once when
37631 you will start. Send by special messenger to Usvyazh."
37633 Having written this and given the paper to Alpatych, he told him how to
37634 arrange for departure of the prince, the princess, his son, and the
37635 boy's tutor, and how and where to let him know immediately. Before he
37636 had had time to finish giving these instructions, a chief of staff
37637 followed by a suite galloped up to him.
37639 "You are a colonel?" shouted the chief of staff with a German accent, in
37640 a voice familiar to Prince Andrew. "Houses are set on fire in your
37641 presence and you stand by! What does this mean? You will answer for it!"
37642 shouted Berg, who was now assistant to the chief of staff of the
37643 commander of the left flank of the infantry of the first army, a place,
37644 as Berg said, "very agreeable and well en evidence."
37646 Prince Andrew looked at him and without replying went on speaking to
37649 "So tell them that I shall await a reply till the tenth, and if by the
37650 tenth I don't receive news that they have all got away I shall have to
37651 throw up everything and come myself to Bald Hills."
37653 "Prince," said Berg, recognizing Prince Andrew, "I only spoke because I
37654 have to obey orders, because I always do obey exactly.... You must
37655 please excuse me," he went on apologetically.
37657 Something cracked in the flames. The fire died down for a moment and
37658 wreaths of black smoke rolled from under the roof. There was another
37659 terrible crash and something huge collapsed.
37661 "Ou-rou-rou!" yelled the crowd, echoing the crash of the collapsing roof
37662 of the barn, the burning grain in which diffused a cakelike aroma all
37663 around. The flames flared up again, lighting the animated, delighted,
37664 exhausted faces of the spectators.
37666 The man in the frieze coat raised his arms and shouted:
37668 "It's fine, lads! Now it's raging... It's fine!"
37670 "That's the owner himself," cried several voices.
37672 "Well then," continued Prince Andrew to Alpatych, "report to them as I
37673 have told you"; and not replying a word to Berg who was now mute beside
37674 him, he touched his horse and rode down the side street.
37681 From Smolensk the troops continued to retreat, followed by the enemy. On
37682 the tenth of August the regiment Prince Andrew commanded was marching
37683 along the highroad past the avenue leading to Bald Hills. Heat and
37684 drought had continued for more than three weeks. Each day fleecy clouds
37685 floated across the sky and occasionally veiled the sun, but toward
37686 evening the sky cleared again and the sun set in reddish-brown mist.
37687 Heavy night dews alone refreshed the earth. The unreaped corn was
37688 scorched and shed its grain. The marshes dried up. The cattle lowed from
37689 hunger, finding no food on the sun-parched meadows. Only at night and in
37690 the forests while the dew lasted was there any freshness. But on the
37691 road, the highroad along which the troops marched, there was no such
37692 freshness even at night or when the road passed through the forest; the
37693 dew was imperceptible on the sandy dust churned up more than six inches
37694 deep. As soon as day dawned the march began. The artillery and baggage
37695 wagons moved noiselessly through the deep dust that rose to the very
37696 hubs of the wheels, and the infantry sank ankle-deep in that soft,
37697 choking, hot dust that never cooled even at night. Some of this dust was
37698 kneaded by the feet and wheels, while the rest rose and hung like a
37699 cloud over the troops, settling in eyes, ears, hair, and nostrils, and
37700 worst of all in the lungs of the men and beasts as they moved along that
37701 road. The higher the sun rose the higher rose that cloud of dust, and
37702 through the screen of its hot fine particles one could look with naked
37703 eye at the sun, which showed like a huge crimson ball in the unclouded
37704 sky. There was no wind, and the men choked in that motionless
37705 atmosphere. They marched with handkerchiefs tied over their noses and
37706 mouths. When they passed through a village they all rushed to the wells
37707 and fought for the water and drank it down to the mud.
37709 Prince Andrew was in command of a regiment, and the management of that
37710 regiment, the welfare of the men and the necessity of receiving and
37711 giving orders, engrossed him. The burning of Smolensk and its
37712 abandonment made an epoch in his life. A novel feeling of anger against
37713 the foe made him forget his own sorrow. He was entirely devoted to the
37714 affairs of his regiment and was considerate and kind to his men and
37715 officers. In the regiment they called him "our prince," were proud of
37716 him and loved him. But he was kind and gentle only to those of his
37717 regiment, to Timokhin and the like--people quite new to him, belonging
37718 to a different world and who could not know and understand his past. As
37719 soon as he came across a former acquaintance or anyone from the staff,
37720 he bristled up immediately and grew spiteful, ironical, and
37721 contemptuous. Everything that reminded him of his past was repugnant to
37722 him, and so in his relations with that former circle he confined himself
37723 to trying to do his duty and not to be unfair.
37725 In truth everything presented itself in a dark and gloomy light to
37726 Prince Andrew, especially after the abandonment of Smolensk on the sixth
37727 of August (he considered that it could and should have been defended)
37728 and after his sick father had had to flee to Moscow, abandoning to
37729 pillage his dearly beloved Bald Hills which he had built and peopled.
37730 But despite this, thanks to his regiment, Prince Andrew had something to
37731 think about entirely apart from general questions. Two days previously
37732 he had received news that his father, son, and sister had left for
37733 Moscow; and though there was nothing for him to do at Bald Hills, Prince
37734 Andrew with a characteristic desire to foment his own grief decided that
37735 he must ride there.
37737 He ordered his horse to be saddled and, leaving his regiment on the
37738 march, rode to his father's estate where he had been born and spent his
37739 childhood. Riding past the pond where there used always to be dozens of
37740 women chattering as they rinsed their linen or beat it with wooden
37741 beetles, Prince Andrew noticed that there was not a soul about and that
37742 the little washing wharf, torn from its place and half submerged, was
37743 floating on its side in the middle of the pond. He rode to the keeper's
37744 lodge. No one at the stone entrance gates of the drive and the door
37745 stood open. Grass had already begun to grow on the garden paths, and
37746 horses and calves were straying in the English park. Prince Andrew rode
37747 up to the hothouse; some of the glass panes were broken, and of the
37748 trees in tubs some were overturned and others dried up. He called for
37749 Taras the gardener, but no one replied. Having gone round the corner of
37750 the hothouse to the ornamental garden, he saw that the carved garden
37751 fence was broken and branches of the plum trees had been torn off with
37752 the fruit. An old peasant whom Prince Andrew in his childhood had often
37753 seen at the gate was sitting on a green garden seat, plaiting a bast
37756 He was deaf and did not hear Prince Andrew ride up. He was sitting on
37757 the seat the old prince used to like to sit on, and beside him strips of
37758 bast were hanging on the broken and withered branch of a magnolia.
37760 Prince Andrew rode up to the house. Several limes in the old garden had
37761 been cut down and a piebald mare and her foal were wandering in front of
37762 the house among the rosebushes. The shutters were all closed, except at
37763 one window which was open. A little serf boy, seeing Prince Andrew, ran
37764 into the house. Alpatych, having sent his family away, was alone at Bald
37765 Hills and was sitting indoors reading the Lives of the Saints. On
37766 hearing that Prince Andrew had come, he went out with his spectacles on
37767 his nose, buttoning his coat, and, hastily stepping up, without a word
37768 began weeping and kissing Prince Andrew's knee.
37770 Then, vexed at his own weakness, he turned away and began to report on
37771 the position of affairs. Everything precious and valuable had been
37772 removed to Bogucharovo. Seventy quarters of grain had also been carted
37773 away. The hay and the spring corn, of which Alpatych said there had been
37774 a remarkable crop that year, had been commandeered by the troops and
37775 mown down while still green. The peasants were ruined; some of them too
37776 had gone to Bogucharovo, only a few remained.
37778 Without waiting to hear him out, Prince Andrew asked:
37780 "When did my father and sister leave?" meaning when did they leave for
37783 Alpatych, understanding the question to refer to their departure for
37784 Bogucharovo, replied that they had left on the seventh and again went
37785 into details concerning the estate management, asking for instructions.
37787 "Am I to let the troops have the oats, and to take a receipt for them?
37788 We have still six hundred quarters left," he inquired.
37790 "What am I to say to him?" thought Prince Andrew, looking down on the
37791 old man's bald head shining in the sun and seeing by the expression on
37792 his face that the old man himself understood how untimely such questions
37793 were and only asked them to allay his grief.
37795 "Yes, let them have it," replied Prince Andrew.
37797 "If you noticed some disorder in the garden," said Alpatych, "it was
37798 impossible to prevent it. Three regiments have been here and spent the
37799 night, dragoons mostly. I took down the name and rank of their
37800 commanding officer, to hand in a complaint about it."
37802 "Well, and what are you going to do? Will you stay here if the enemy
37803 occupies the place?" asked Prince Andrew.
37805 Alpatych turned his face to Prince Andrew, looked at him, and suddenly
37806 with a solemn gesture raised his arm.
37808 "He is my refuge! His will be done!" he exclaimed.
37810 A group of bareheaded peasants was approaching across the meadow toward
37813 "Well, good-by!" said Prince Andrew, bending over to Alpatych. "You must
37814 go away too, take away what you can and tell the serfs to go to the
37815 Ryazan estate or to the one near Moscow."
37817 Alpatych clung to Prince Andrew's leg and burst into sobs. Gently
37818 disengaging himself, the prince spurred his horse and rode down the
37819 avenue at a gallop.
37821 The old man was still sitting in the ornamental garden, like a fly
37822 impassive on the face of a loved one who is dead, tapping the last on
37823 which he was making the bast shoe, and two little girls, running out
37824 from the hot house carrying in their skirts plums they had plucked from
37825 the trees there, came upon Prince Andrew. On seeing the young master,
37826 the elder one with frightened look clutched her younger companion by the
37827 hand and hid with her behind a birch tree, not stopping to pick up some
37828 green plums they had dropped.
37830 Prince Andrew turned away with startled haste, unwilling to let them see
37831 that they had been observed. He was sorry for the pretty frightened
37832 little girl, was afraid of looking at her, and yet felt an irresistible
37833 desire to do so. A new sensation of comfort and relief came over him
37834 when, seeing these girls, he realized the existence of other human
37835 interests entirely aloof from his own and just as legitimate as those
37836 that occupied him. Evidently these girls passionately desired one thing-
37837 -to carry away and eat those green plums without being caught--and
37838 Prince Andrew shared their wish for the success of their enterprise. He
37839 could not resist looking at them once more. Believing their danger past,
37840 they sprang from their ambush and, chirruping something in their shrill
37841 little voices and holding up their skirts, their bare little sunburned
37842 feet scampered merrily and quickly across the meadow grass.
37844 Prince Andrew was somewhat refreshed by having ridden off the dusty
37845 highroad along which the troops were moving. But not far from Bald Hills
37846 he again came out on the road and overtook his regiment at its halting
37847 place by the dam of a small pond. It was past one o'clock. The sun, a
37848 red ball through the dust, burned and scorched his back intolerably
37849 through his black coat. The dust always hung motionless above the buzz
37850 of talk that came from the resting troops. There was no wind. As he
37851 crossed the dam Prince Andrew smelled the ooze and freshness of the
37852 pond. He longed to get into that water, however dirty it might be, and
37853 he glanced round at the pool from whence came sounds of shrieks and
37854 laughter. The small, muddy, green pond had risen visibly more than a
37855 foot, flooding the dam, because it was full of the naked white bodies of
37856 soldiers with brick-red hands, necks, and faces, who were splashing
37857 about in it. All this naked white human flesh, laughing and shrieking,
37858 floundered about in that dirty pool like carp stuffed into a watering
37859 can, and the suggestion of merriment in that floundering mass rendered
37860 it specially pathetic.
37862 One fair-haired young soldier of the third company, whom Prince Andrew
37863 knew and who had a strap round the calf of one leg, crossed himself,
37864 stepped back to get a good run, and plunged into the water; another, a
37865 dark noncommissioned officer who was always shaggy, stood up to his
37866 waist in the water joyfully wriggling his muscular figure and snorted
37867 with satisfaction as he poured the water over his head with hands
37868 blackened to the wrists. There were sounds of men slapping one another,
37869 yelling, and puffing.
37871 Everywhere on the bank, on the dam, and in the pond, there was healthy,
37872 white, muscular flesh. The officer, Timokhin, with his red little nose,
37873 standing on the dam wiping himself with a towel, felt confused at seeing
37874 the prince, but made up his mind to address him nevertheless.
37876 "It's very nice, your excellency! Wouldn't you like to?" said he.
37878 "It's dirty," replied Prince Andrew, making a grimace.
37880 "We'll clear it out for you in a minute," said Timokhin, and, still
37881 undressed, ran off to clear the men out of the pond.
37883 "The prince wants to bathe."
37885 "What prince? Ours?" said many voices, and the men were in such haste to
37886 clear out that the prince could hardly stop them. He decided that he
37887 would rather wash himself with water in the barn.
37889 "Flesh, bodies, cannon fodder!" he thought, and he looked at his own
37890 naked body and shuddered, not from cold but from a sense of disgust and
37891 horror he did not himself understand, aroused by the sight of that
37892 immense number of bodies splashing about in the dirty pond.
37894 On the seventh of August Prince Bagration wrote as follows from his
37895 quarters at Mikhaylovna on the Smolensk road:
37897 Dear Count Alexis Andreevich--(He was writing to Arakcheev but knew that
37898 his letter would be read by the Emperor, and therefore weighed every
37899 word in it to the best of his ability.)
37901 I expect the Minister (Barclay de Tolly) has already reported the
37902 abandonment of Smolensk to the enemy. It is pitiable and sad, and the
37903 whole army is in despair that this most important place has been
37904 wantonly abandoned. I, for my part, begged him personally most urgently
37905 and finally wrote him, but nothing would induce him to consent. I swear
37906 to you on my honor that Napoleon was in such a fix as never before and
37907 might have lost half his army but could not have taken Smolensk. Our
37908 troops fought, and are fighting, as never before. With fifteen thousand
37909 men I held the enemy at bay for thirty-five hours and beat him; but he
37910 would not hold out even for fourteen hours. It is disgraceful, a stain
37911 on our army, and as for him, he ought, it seems to me, not to live. If
37912 he reports that our losses were great, it is not true; perhaps about
37913 four thousand, not more, and not even that; but even were they ten
37914 thousand, that's war! But the enemy has lost masses...
37916 What would it have cost him to hold out for another two days? They would
37917 have had to retire of their own accord, for they had no water for men or
37918 horses. He gave me his word he would not retreat, but suddenly sent
37919 instructions that he was retiring that night. We cannot fight in this
37920 way, or we may soon bring the enemy to Moscow...
37922 There is a rumor that you are thinking of peace. God forbid that you
37923 should make peace after all our sacrifices and such insane retreats! You
37924 would set all Russia against you and every one of us would feel ashamed
37925 to wear the uniform. If it has come to this--we must fight as long as
37926 Russia can and as long as there are men able to stand...
37928 One man ought to be in command, and not two. Your Minister may perhaps
37929 be good as a Minister, but as a general he is not merely bad but
37930 execrable, yet to him is entrusted the fate of our whole country.... I
37931 am really frantic with vexation; forgive my writing boldly. It is clear
37932 that the man who advocates the conclusion of a peace, and that the
37933 Minister should command the army, does not love our sovereign and
37934 desires the ruin of us all. So I write you frankly: call out the
37935 militia. For the Minister is leading these visitors after him to Moscow
37936 in a most masterly way. The whole army feels great suspicion of the
37937 Imperial aide-de-camp Wolzogen. He is said to be more Napoleon's man
37938 than ours, and he is always advising the Minister. I am not merely civil
37939 to him but obey him like a corporal, though I am his senior. This is
37940 painful, but, loving my benefactor and sovereign, I submit. Only I am
37941 sorry for the Emperor that he entrusts our fine army to such as he.
37942 Consider that on our retreat we have lost by fatigue and left in the
37943 hospital more than fifteen thousand men, and had we attacked this would
37944 not have happened. Tell me, for God's sake, what will Russia, our mother
37945 Russia, say to our being so frightened, and why are we abandoning our
37946 good and gallant Fatherland to such rabble and implanting feelings of
37947 hatred and shame in all our subjects? What are we scared at and of whom
37948 are we afraid? I am not to blame that the Minister is vacillating, a
37949 coward, dense, dilatory, and has all bad qualities. The whole army
37950 bewails it and calls down curses upon him...
37957 Among the innumerable categories applicable to the phenomena of human
37958 life one may discriminate between those in which substance prevails and
37959 those in which form prevails. To the latter--as distinguished from
37960 village, country, provincial, or even Moscow life--we may allot
37961 Petersburg life, and especially the life of its salons. That life of the
37962 salons is unchanging. Since the year 1805 we had made peace and had
37963 again quarreled with Bonaparte and had made constitutions and unmade
37964 them again, but the salons of Anna Pavlovna and Helene remained just as
37965 they had been--the one seven and the other five years before. At Anna
37966 Pavlovna's they talked with perplexity of Bonaparte's successes just as
37967 before and saw in them and in the subservience shown to him by the
37968 European sovereigns a malicious conspiracy, the sole object of which was
37969 to cause unpleasantness and anxiety to the court circle of which Anna
37970 Pavlovna was the representative. And in Helene's salon, which Rumyantsev
37971 himself honored with his visits, regarding Helene as a remarkably
37972 intelligent woman, they talked with the same ecstasy in 1812 as in 1808
37973 of the "great nation" and the "great man," and regretted our rupture
37974 with France, a rupture which, according to them, ought to be promptly
37975 terminated by peace.
37977 Of late, since the Emperor's return from the army, there had been some
37978 excitement in these conflicting salon circles and some demonstrations of
37979 hostility to one another, but each camp retained its own tendency. In
37980 Anna Pavlovna's circle only those Frenchmen were admitted who were deep-
37981 rooted legitimists, and patriotic views were expressed to the effect
37982 that one ought not to go to the French theater and that to maintain the
37983 French troupe was costing the government as much as a whole army corps.
37984 The progress of the war was eagerly followed, and only the reports most
37985 flattering to our army were circulated. In the French circle of Helene
37986 and Rumyantsev the reports of the cruelty of the enemy and of the war
37987 were contradicted and all Napoleon's attempts at conciliation were
37988 discussed. In that circle they discountenanced those who advised hurried
37989 preparations for a removal to Kazan of the court and the girls'
37990 educational establishments under the patronage of the Dowager Empress.
37991 In Helene's circle the war in general was regarded as a series of formal
37992 demonstrations which would very soon end in peace, and the view
37993 prevailed expressed by Bilibin--who now in Petersburg was quite at home
37994 in Helene's house, which every clever man was obliged to visit--that not
37995 by gunpowder but by those who invented it would matters be settled. In
37996 that circle the Moscow enthusiasm--news of which had reached Petersburg
37997 simultaneously with the Emperor's return--was ridiculed sarcastically
37998 and very cleverly, though with much caution.
38000 Anna Pavlovna's circle on the contrary was enraptured by this enthusiasm
38001 and spoke of it as Plutarch speaks of the deeds of the ancients. Prince
38002 Vasili, who still occupied his former important posts, formed a
38003 connecting link between these two circles. He visited his "good friend
38004 Anna Pavlovna" as well as his daughter's "diplomatic salon," and often
38005 in his constant comings and goings between the two camps became confused
38006 and said at Helene's what he should have said at Anna Pavlovna's and
38009 Soon after the Emperor's return Prince Vasili in a conversation about
38010 the war at Anna Pavlovna's severely condemned Barclay de Tolly, but was
38011 undecided as to who ought to be appointed commander-in-chief. One of the
38012 visitors, usually spoken of as "a man of great merit," having described
38013 how he had that day seen Kutuzov, the newly chosen chief of the
38014 Petersburg militia, presiding over the enrollment of recruits at the
38015 Treasury, cautiously ventured to suggest that Kutuzov would be the man
38016 to satisfy all requirements.
38018 Anna Pavlovna remarked with a melancholy smile that Kutuzov had done
38019 nothing but cause the Emperor annoyance.
38021 "I have talked and talked at the Assembly of the Nobility," Prince
38022 Vasili interrupted, "but they did not listen to me. I told them his
38023 election as chief of the militia would not please the Emperor. They did
38026 "It's all this mania for opposition," he went on. "And who for? It is
38027 all because we want to ape the foolish enthusiasm of those Muscovites,"
38028 Prince Vasili continued, forgetting for a moment that though at Helene's
38029 one had to ridicule the Moscow enthusiasm, at Anna Pavlovna's one had to
38030 be ecstatic about it. But he retrieved his mistake at once. "Now, is it
38031 suitable that Count Kutuzov, the oldest general in Russia, should
38032 preside at that tribunal? He will get nothing for his pains! How could
38033 they make a man commander-in-chief who cannot mount a horse, who drops
38034 asleep at a council, and has the very worst morals! A good reputation he
38035 made for himself at Bucharest! I don't speak of his capacity as a
38036 general, but at a time like this how they appoint a decrepit, blind old
38037 man, positively blind? A fine idea to have a blind general! He can't see
38038 anything. To play blindman's bluff? He can't see at all!"
38040 No one replied to his remarks.
38042 This was quite correct on the twenty-fourth of July. But on the twenty-
38043 ninth of July Kutuzov received the title of Prince. This might indicate
38044 a wish to get rid of him, and therefore Prince Vasili's opinion
38045 continued to be correct though he was not now in any hurry to express
38046 it. But on the eighth of August a committee, consisting of Field Marshal
38047 Saltykov, Arakcheev, Vyazmitinov, Lopukhin, and Kochubey met to consider
38048 the progress of the war. This committee came to the conclusion that our
38049 failures were due to a want of unity in the command and though the
38050 members of the committee were aware of the Emperor's dislike of Kutuzov,
38051 after a short deliberation they agreed to advise his appointment as
38052 commander in chief. That same day Kutuzov was appointed commander-in-
38053 chief with full powers over the armies and over the whole region
38056 On the ninth of August Prince Vasili at Anna Pavlovna's again met the
38057 "man of great merit." The latter was very attentive to Anna Pavlovna
38058 because he wanted to be appointed director of one of the educational
38059 establishments for young ladies. Prince Vasili entered the room with the
38060 air of a happy conqueror who has attained the object of his desires.
38062 "Well, have you heard the great news? Prince Kutuzov is field marshal!
38063 All dissensions are at an end! I am so glad, so delighted! At last we
38064 have a man!" said he, glancing sternly and significantly round at
38065 everyone in the drawing room.
38067 The "man of great merit," despite his desire to obtain the post of
38068 director, could not refrain from reminding Prince Vasili of his former
38069 opinion. Though this was impolite to Prince Vasili in Anna Pavlovna's
38070 drawing room, and also to Anna Pavlovna herself who had received the
38071 news with delight, he could not resist the temptation.
38073 "But, Prince, they say he is blind!" said he, reminding Prince Vasili of
38076 "Eh? Nonsense! He sees well enough," said Prince Vasili rapidly, in a
38077 deep voice and with a slight cough--the voice and cough with which he
38078 was wont to dispose of all difficulties.
38080 "He sees well enough," he added. "And what I am so pleased about," he
38081 went on, "is that our sovereign has given him full powers over all the
38082 armies and the whole region--powers no commander-in-chief ever had
38083 before. He is a second autocrat," he concluded with a victorious smile.
38085 "God grant it! God grant it!" said Anna Pavlovna.
38087 The "man of great merit," who was still a novice in court circles,
38088 wishing to flatter Anna Pavlovna by defending her former position on
38089 this question, observed:
38091 "It is said that the Emperor was reluctant to give Kutuzov those powers.
38092 They say he blushed like a girl to whom Joconde is read, when he said to
38093 Kutuzov: 'Your Emperor and the Fatherland award you this honor.'"
38095 "Perhaps the heart took no part in that speech," said Anna Pavlovna.
38097 "Oh, no, no!" warmly rejoined Prince Vasili, who would not now yield
38098 Kutuzov to anyone; in his opinion Kutuzov was not only admirable
38099 himself, but was adored by everybody. "No, that's impossible," said he,
38100 "for our sovereign appreciated him so highly before."
38102 "God grant only that Prince Kutuzov assumes real power and does not
38103 allow anyone to put a spoke in his wheel," observed Anna Pavlovna.
38105 Understanding at once to whom she alluded, Prince Vasili said in a
38108 "I know for a fact that Kutuzov made it an absolute condition that the
38109 Tsarevich should not be with the army. Do you know what he said to the
38112 And Prince Vasili repeated the words supposed to have been spoken by
38113 Kutuzov to the Emperor. "I can neither punish him if he does wrong nor
38114 reward him if he does right."
38116 "Oh, a very wise man is Prince Kutuzov! I have known him a long time!"
38118 "They even say," remarked the "man of great merit" who did not yet
38119 possess courtly tact, "that his excellency made it an express condition
38120 that the sovereign himself should not be with the army."
38122 As soon as he said this both Prince Vasili and Anna Pavlovna turned away
38123 from him and glanced sadly at one another with a sigh at his naivete.
38130 While this was taking place in Petersburg the French had already passed
38131 Smolensk and were drawing nearer and nearer to Moscow. Napoleon's
38132 historian Thiers, like other of his historians, trying to justify his
38133 hero says that he was drawn to the walls of Moscow against his will. He
38134 is as right as other historians who look for the explanation of historic
38135 events in the will of one man; he is as right as the Russian historians
38136 who maintain that Napoleon was drawn to Moscow by the skill of the
38137 Russian commanders. Here besides the law of retrospection, which regards
38138 all the past as a preparation for events that subsequently occur, the
38139 law of reciprocity comes in, confusing the whole matter. A good
38140 chessplayer having lost a game is sincerely convinced that his loss
38141 resulted from a mistake he made and looks for that mistake in the
38142 opening, but forgets that at each stage of the game there were similar
38143 mistakes and that none of his moves were perfect. He only notices the
38144 mistake to which he pays attention, because his opponent took advantage
38145 of it. How much more complex than this is the game of war, which occurs
38146 under certain limits of time, and where it is not one will that
38147 manipulates lifeless objects, but everything results from innumerable
38148 conflicts of various wills!
38150 After Smolensk Napoleon sought a battle beyond Dorogobuzh at Vyazma, and
38151 then at Tsarevo-Zaymishche, but it happened that owing to a conjunction
38152 of innumerable circumstances the Russians could not give battle till
38153 they reached Borodino, seventy miles from Moscow. From Vyazma Napoleon
38154 ordered a direct advance on Moscow.
38156 Moscou, la capitale asiatique de ce grand empire, la ville sacree des
38157 peuples d'Alexandre, Moscou avec ses innombrables eglises en forme de
38158 pagodes chinoises, * this Moscow gave Napoleon's imagination no rest. On
38159 the march from Vyazma to Tsarevo-Zaymishche he rode his light bay
38160 bobtailed ambler accompanied by his Guards, his bodyguard, his pages,
38161 and aides-de-camp. Berthier, his chief of staff, dropped behind to
38162 question a Russian prisoner captured by the cavalry. Followed by
38163 Lelorgne d'Ideville, an interpreter, he overtook Napoleon at a gallop
38164 and reined in his horse with an amused expression.
38167 * "Moscow, the Asiatic capital of this great empire, the sacred city of
38168 Alexander's people, Moscow with its innumerable churches shaped like
38171 "Well?" asked Napoleon.
38173 "One of Platov's Cossacks says that Platov's corps is joining up with
38174 the main army and that Kutuzov has been appointed commander-in-chief. He
38175 is a very shrewd and garrulous fellow."
38177 Napoleon smiled and told them to give the Cossack a horse and bring the
38178 man to him. He wished to talk to him himself. Several adjutants galloped
38179 off, and an hour later, Lavrushka, the serf Denisov had handed over to
38180 Rostov, rode up to Napoleon in an orderly's jacket and on a French
38181 cavalry saddle, with a merry, and tipsy face. Napoleon told him to ride
38182 by his side and began questioning him.
38184 "You are a Cossack?"
38186 "Yes, a Cossack, your Honor."
38188 "The Cossack, not knowing in what company he was, for Napoleon's plain
38189 appearance had nothing about it that would reveal to an Oriental mind
38190 the presence of a monarch, talked with extreme familiarity of the
38191 incidents of the war," says Thiers, narrating this episode. In reality
38192 Lavrushka, having got drunk the day before and left his master
38193 dinnerless, had been whipped and sent to the village in quest of
38194 chickens, where he engaged in looting till the French took him prisoner.
38195 Lavrushka was one of those coarse, bare-faced lackeys who have seen all
38196 sorts of things, consider it necessary to do everything in a mean and
38197 cunning way, are ready to render any sort of service to their master,
38198 and are keen at guessing their master's baser impulses, especially those
38199 prompted by vanity and pettiness.
38201 Finding himself in the company of Napoleon, whose identity he had easily
38202 and surely recognized, Lavrushka was not in the least abashed but merely
38203 did his utmost to gain his new master's favor.
38205 He knew very well that this was Napoleon, but Napoleon's presence could
38206 no more intimidate him than Rostov's, or a sergeant major's with the
38207 rods, would have done, for he had nothing that either the sergeant major
38208 or Napoleon could deprive him of.
38210 So he rattled on, telling all the gossip he had heard among the
38211 orderlies. Much of it true. But when Napoleon asked him whether the
38212 Russians thought they would beat Bonaparte or not, Lavrushka screwed up
38213 his eyes and considered.
38215 In this question he saw subtle cunning, as men of his type see cunning
38216 in everything, so he frowned and did not answer immediately.
38218 "It's like this," he said thoughtfully, "if there's a battle soon, yours
38219 will win. That's right. But if three days pass, then after that, well,
38220 then that same battle will not soon be over."
38222 Lelorgne d'Ideville smilingly interpreted this speech to Napoleon thus:
38223 "If a battle takes place within the next three days the French will win,
38224 but if later, God knows what will happen." Napoleon did not smile,
38225 though he was evidently in high good humor, and he ordered these words
38228 Lavrushka noticed this and to entertain him further, pretending not to
38229 know who Napoleon was, added:
38231 "We know that you have Bonaparte and that he has beaten everybody in the
38232 world, but we are a different matter..."--without knowing why or how
38233 this bit of boastful patriotism slipped out at the end.
38235 The interpreter translated these words without the last phrase, and
38236 Bonaparte smiled. "The young Cossack made his mighty interlocutor
38237 smile," says Thiers. After riding a few paces in silence, Napoleon
38238 turned to Berthier and said he wished to see how the news that he was
38239 talking to the Emperor himself, to that very Emperor who had written his
38240 immortally victorious name on the Pyramids, would affect this enfant du
38244 * "Child of the Don."
38246 The fact was accordingly conveyed to Lavrushka.
38248 Lavrushka, understanding that this was done to perplex him and that
38249 Napoleon expected him to be frightened, to gratify his new masters
38250 promptly pretended to be astonished and awe-struck, opened his eyes
38251 wide, and assumed the expression he usually put on when taken to be
38252 whipped. "As soon as Napoleon's interpreter had spoken," says Thiers,
38253 "the Cossack, seized by amazement, did not utter another word, but rode
38254 on, his eyes fixed on the conqueror whose fame had reached him across
38255 the steppes of the East. All his loquacity was suddenly arrested and
38256 replaced by a naive and silent feeling of admiration. Napoleon, after
38257 making the Cossack a present, had him set free like a bird restored to
38258 its native fields."
38260 Napoleon rode on, dreaming of the Moscow that so appealed to his
38261 imagination, and "the bird restored to its native fields" galloped to
38262 our outposts, inventing on the way all that had not taken place but that
38263 he meant to relate to his comrades. What had really taken place he did
38264 not wish to relate because it seemed to him not worth telling. He found
38265 the Cossacks, inquired for the regiment operating with Platov's
38266 detachment and by evening found his master, Nicholas Rostov, quartered
38267 at Yankovo. Rostov was just mounting to go for a ride round the
38268 neighboring villages with Ilyin; he let Lavrushka have another horse and
38269 took him along with him.
38276 Princess Mary was not in Moscow and out of danger as Prince Andrew
38279 After the return of Alpatych from Smolensk the old prince suddenly
38280 seemed to awake as from a dream. He ordered the militiamen to be called
38281 up from the villages and armed, and wrote a letter to the commander-in-
38282 chief informing him that he had resolved to remain at Bald Hills to the
38283 last extremity and to defend it, leaving to the commander-in-chief's
38284 discretion to take measures or not for the defense of Bald Hills, where
38285 one of Russia's oldest generals would be captured or killed, and he
38286 announced to his household that he would remain at Bald Hills.
38288 But while himself remaining, he gave instructions for the departure of
38289 the princess and Dessalles with the little prince to Bogucharovo and
38290 thence to Moscow. Princess Mary, alarmed by her father's feverish and
38291 sleepless activity after his previous apathy, could not bring herself to
38292 leave him alone and for the first time in her life ventured to disobey
38293 him. She refused to go away and her father's fury broke over her in a
38294 terrible storm. He repeated every injustice he had ever inflicted on
38295 her. Trying to convict her, he told her she had worn him out, had caused
38296 his quarrel with his son, had harbored nasty suspicions of him, making
38297 it the object of her life to poison his existence, and he drove her from
38298 his study telling her that if she did not go away it was all the same to
38299 him. He declared that he did not wish to remember her existence and
38300 warned her not to dare to let him see her. The fact that he did not, as
38301 she had feared, order her to be carried away by force but only told her
38302 not to let him see her cheered Princess Mary. She knew it was a proof
38303 that in the depth of his soul he was glad she was remaining at home and
38306 The morning after little Nicholas had left, the old prince donned his
38307 full uniform and prepared to visit the commander-in-chief. His caleche
38308 was already at the door. Princess Mary saw him walk out of the house in
38309 his uniform wearing all his orders and go down the garden to review his
38310 armed peasants and domestic serfs. She sat by the window listening to
38311 his voice which reached her from the garden. Suddenly several men came
38312 running up the avenue with frightened faces.
38314 Princess Mary ran out to the porch, down the flower-bordered path, and
38315 into the avenue. A large crowd of militiamen and domestics were moving
38316 toward her, and in their midst several men were supporting by the
38317 armpits and dragging along a little old man in a uniform and
38318 decorations. She ran up to him and, in the play of the sunlight that
38319 fell in small round spots through the shade of the lime-tree avenue,
38320 could not be sure what change there was in his face. All she could see
38321 was that his former stern and determined expression had altered to one
38322 of timidity and submission. On seeing his daughter he moved his helpless
38323 lips and made a hoarse sound. It was impossible to make out what he
38324 wanted. He was lifted up, carried to his study, and laid on the very
38325 couch he had so feared of late.
38327 The doctor, who was fetched that same night, bled him and said that the
38328 prince had had a seizure paralyzing his right side.
38330 It was becoming more and more dangerous to remain at Bald Hills, and
38331 next day they moved the prince to Bogucharovo, the doctor accompanying
38334 By the time they reached Bogucharovo, Dessalles and the little prince
38335 had already left for Moscow.
38337 For three weeks the old prince lay stricken by paralysis in the new
38338 house Prince Andrew had built at Bogucharovo, ever in the same state,
38339 getting neither better nor worse. He was unconscious and lay like a
38340 distorted corpse. He muttered unceasingly, his eyebrows and lips
38341 twitching, and it was impossible to tell whether he understood what was
38342 going on around him or not. One thing was certain--that he was suffering
38343 and wished to say something. But what it was, no one could tell: it
38344 might be some caprice of a sick and half-crazy man, or it might relate
38345 to public affairs, or possibly to family concerns.
38347 The doctor said this restlessness did not mean anything and was due to
38348 physical causes; but Princess Mary thought he wished to tell her
38349 something, and the fact that her presence always increased his
38350 restlessness confirmed her opinion.
38352 He was evidently suffering both physically and mentally. There was no
38353 hope of recovery. It was impossible for him to travel, it would not do
38354 to let him die on the road. "Would it not be better if the end did come,
38355 the very end?" Princess Mary sometimes thought. Night and day, hardly
38356 sleeping at all, she watched him and, terrible to say, often watched him
38357 not with hope of finding signs of improvement but wishing to find
38358 symptoms of the approach of the end.
38360 Strange as it was to her to acknowledge this feeling in herself, yet
38361 there it was. And what seemed still more terrible to her was that since
38362 her father's illness began (perhaps even sooner, when she stayed with
38363 him expecting something to happen), all the personal desires and hopes
38364 that had been forgotten or sleeping within her had awakened. Thoughts
38365 that had not entered her mind for years--thoughts of a life free from
38366 the fear of her father, and even the possibility of love and of family
38367 happiness--floated continually in her imagination like temptations of
38368 the devil. Thrust them aside as she would, questions continually
38369 recurred to her as to how she would order her life now, after that.
38370 These were temptations of the devil and Princess Mary knew it. She knew
38371 that the sole weapon against him was prayer, and she tried to pray. She
38372 assumed an attitude of prayer, looked at the icons, repeated the words
38373 of a prayer, but she could not pray. She felt that a different world had
38374 now taken possession of her--the life of a world of strenuous and free
38375 activity, quite opposed to the spiritual world in which till now she had
38376 been confined and in which her greatest comfort had been prayer. She
38377 could not pray, could not weep, and worldly cares took possession of
38380 It was becoming dangerous to remain in Bogucharovo. News of the approach
38381 of the French came from all sides, and in one village, ten miles from
38382 Bogucharovo, a homestead had been looted by French marauders.
38384 The doctor insisted on the necessity of moving the prince; the
38385 provincial Marshal of the Nobility sent an official to Princess Mary to
38386 persuade her to get away as quickly as possible, and the head of the
38387 rural police having come to Bogucharovo urged the same thing, saying
38388 that the French were only some twenty-five miles away, that French
38389 proclamations were circulating in the villages, and that if the princess
38390 did not take her father away before the fifteenth, he could not answer
38391 for the consequences.
38393 The princess decided to leave on the fifteenth. The cares of preparation
38394 and giving orders, for which everyone came to her, occupied her all day.
38395 She spent the night of the fourteenth as usual, without undressing, in
38396 the room next to the one where the prince lay. Several times, waking up,
38397 she heard his groans and muttering, the creak of his bed, and the steps
38398 of Tikhon and the doctor when they turned him over. Several times she
38399 listened at the door, and it seemed to her that his mutterings were
38400 louder than usual and that they turned him over oftener. She could not
38401 sleep and several times went to the door and listened, wishing to enter
38402 but not deciding to do so. Though he did not speak, Princess Mary saw
38403 and knew how unpleasant every sign of anxiety on his account was to him.
38404 She had noticed with what dissatisfaction he turned from the look she
38405 sometimes involuntarily fixed on him. She knew that her going in during
38406 the night at an unusual hour would irritate him.
38408 But never had she felt so grieved for him or so much afraid of losing
38409 him. She recalled all her life with him and in every word and act of his
38410 found an expression of his love of her. Occasionally amid these memories
38411 temptations of the devil would surge into her imagination: thoughts of
38412 how things would be after his death, and how her new, liberated life
38413 would be ordered. But she drove these thoughts away with disgust. Toward
38414 morning he became quiet and she fell asleep.
38416 She woke late. That sincerity which often comes with waking showed her
38417 clearly what chiefly concerned her about her father's illness. On waking
38418 she listened to what was going on behind the door and, hearing him
38419 groan, said to herself with a sigh that things were still the same.
38421 "But what could have happened? What did I want? I want his death!" she
38422 cried with a feeling of loathing for herself.
38424 She washed, dressed, said her prayers, and went out to the porch. In
38425 front of it stood carriages without horses and things were being packed
38428 It was a warm, gray morning. Princess Mary stopped at the porch, still
38429 horrified by her spiritual baseness and trying to arrange her thoughts
38430 before going to her father. The doctor came downstairs and went out to
38433 "He is a little better today," said he. "I was looking for you. One can
38434 make out something of what he is saying. His head is clearer. Come in,
38435 he is asking for you..."
38437 Princess Mary's heart beat so violently at this news that she grew pale
38438 and leaned against the wall to keep from falling. To see him, talk to
38439 him, feel his eyes on her now that her whole soul was overflowing with
38440 those dreadful, wicked temptations, was a torment of joy and terror.
38442 "Come," said the doctor.
38444 Princess Mary entered her father's room and went up to his bed. He was
38445 lying on his back propped up high, and his small bony hands with their
38446 knotted purple veins were lying on the quilt; his left eye gazed
38447 straight before him, his right eye was awry, and his brows and lips
38448 motionless. He seemed altogether so thin, small, and pathetic. His face
38449 seemed to have shriveled or melted; his features had grown smaller.
38450 Princess Mary went up and kissed his hand. His left hand pressed hers so
38451 that she understood that he had long been waiting for her to come. He
38452 twitched her hand, and his brows and lips quivered angrily.
38454 She looked at him in dismay trying to guess what he wanted of her. When
38455 she changed her position so that his left eye could see her face he
38456 calmed down, not taking his eyes off her for some seconds. Then his lips
38457 and tongue moved, sounds came, and he began to speak, gazing timidly and
38458 imploringly at her, evidently afraid that she might not understand.
38460 Straining all her faculties Princess Mary looked at him. The comic
38461 efforts with which he moved his tongue made her drop her eyes and with
38462 difficulty repress the sobs that rose to her throat. He said something,
38463 repeating the same words several times. She could not understand them,
38464 but tried to guess what he was saying and inquiringly repeated the words
38467 "Mmm...ar...ate...ate..." he repeated several times.
38469 It was quite impossible to understand these sounds. The doctor thought
38470 he had guessed them, and inquiringly repeated: "Mary, are you afraid?"
38471 The prince shook his head, again repeated the same sounds.
38473 "My mind, my mind aches?" questioned Princess Mary.
38475 He made a mumbling sound in confirmation of this, took her hand, and
38476 began pressing it to different parts of his breast as if trying to find
38477 the right place for it.
38479 "Always thoughts... about you... thoughts..." he then uttered much more
38480 clearly than he had done before, now that he was sure of being
38483 Princess Mary pressed her head against his hand, trying to hide her sobs
38486 He moved his hand over her hair.
38488 "I have been calling you all night..." he brought out.
38490 "If only I had known..." she said through her tears. "I was afraid to
38493 He pressed her hand.
38495 "Weren't you asleep?"
38497 "No, I did not sleep," said Princess Mary, shaking her head.
38499 Unconsciously imitating her father, she now tried to express herself as
38500 he did, as much as possible by signs, and her tongue too seemed to move
38503 "Dear one... Dearest..." Princess Mary could not quite make out what he
38504 had said, but from his look it was clear that he had uttered a tender
38505 caressing word such as he had never used to her before. "Why didn't you
38508 "And I was wishing for his death!" thought Princess Mary.
38510 He was silent awhile.
38512 "Thank you... daughter dear!... for all, for all... forgive!... thank
38513 you!... forgive!... thank you!..." and tears began to flow from his
38514 eyes. "Call Andrew!" he said suddenly, and a childish, timid expression
38515 of doubt showed itself on his face as he spoke.
38517 He himself seemed aware that his demand was meaningless. So at least it
38518 seemed to Princess Mary.
38520 "I have a letter from him," she replied.
38522 He glanced at her with timid surprise.
38526 "He's with the army, Father, at Smolensk."
38528 He closed his eyes and remained silent a long time. Then as if in answer
38529 to his doubts and to confirm the fact that now he understood and
38530 remembered everything, he nodded his head and reopened his eyes.
38532 "Yes," he said, softly and distinctly. "Russia has perished. They've
38535 And he began to sob, and again tears flowed from his eyes. Princess Mary
38536 could no longer restrain herself and wept while she gazed at his face.
38538 Again he closed his eyes. His sobs ceased, he pointed to his eyes, and
38539 Tikhon, understanding him, wiped away the tears.
38541 Then he again opened his eyes and said something none of them could
38542 understand for a long time, till at last Tikhon understood and repeated
38543 it. Princess Mary had sought the meaning of his words in the mood in
38544 which he had just been speaking. She thought he was speaking of Russia,
38545 or Prince Andrew, of herself, of his grandson, or of his own death, and
38546 so she could not guess his words.
38548 "Put on your white dress. I like it," was what he said.
38550 Having understood this Princess Mary sobbed still louder, and the doctor
38551 taking her arm led her out to the veranda, soothing her and trying to
38552 persuade her to prepare for her journey. When she had left the room the
38553 prince again began speaking about his son, about the war, and about the
38554 Emperor, angrily twitching his brows and raising his hoarse voice, and
38555 then he had a second and final stroke.
38557 Princess Mary stayed on the veranda. The day had cleared, it was hot and
38558 sunny. She could understand nothing, think of nothing and feel nothing,
38559 except passionate love for her father, love such as she thought she had
38560 never felt till that moment. She ran out sobbing into the garden and as
38561 far as the pond, along the avenues of young lime trees Prince Andrew had
38564 "Yes... I... I... I wished for his death! Yes, I wanted it to end
38565 quicker.... I wished to be at peace.... And what will become of me? What
38566 use will peace be when he is no longer here?" Princess Mary murmured,
38567 pacing the garden with hurried steps and pressing her hands to her bosom
38568 which heaved with convulsive sobs.
38570 When she had completed the tour of the garden, which brought her again
38571 to the house, she saw Mademoiselle Bourienne--who had remained at
38572 Bogucharovo and did not wish to leave it--coming toward her with a
38573 stranger. This was the Marshal of the Nobility of the district, who had
38574 come personally to point out to the princess the necessity for her
38575 prompt departure. Princess Mary listened without understanding him; she
38576 led him to the house, offered him lunch, and sat down with him. Then,
38577 excusing herself, she went to the door of the old prince's room. The
38578 doctor came out with an agitated face and said she could not enter.
38580 "Go away, Princess! Go away... go away!"
38582 She returned to the garden and sat down on the grass at the foot of the
38583 slope by the pond, where no one could see her. She did not know how long
38584 she had been there when she was aroused by the sound of a woman's
38585 footsteps running along the path. She rose and saw Dunyasha her maid,
38586 who was evidently looking for her, and who stopped suddenly as if in
38587 alarm on seeing her mistress.
38589 "Please come, Princess... The Prince," said Dunyasha in a breaking
38592 "Immediately, I'm coming, I'm coming!" replied the princess hurriedly,
38593 not giving Dunyasha time to finish what she was saying, and trying to
38594 avoid seeing the girl she ran toward the house.
38596 "Princess, it's God's will! You must be prepared for everything," said
38597 the Marshal, meeting her at the house door.
38599 "Let me alone; it's not true!" she cried angrily to him.
38601 The doctor tried to stop her. She pushed him aside and ran to her
38602 father's door. "Why are these people with frightened faces stopping me?
38603 I don't want any of them! And what are they doing here?" she thought.
38604 She opened the door and the bright daylight in that previously darkened
38605 room startled her. In the room were her nurse and other women. They all
38606 drew back from the bed, making way for her. He was still lying on the
38607 bed as before, but the stern expression of his quiet face made Princess
38608 Mary stop short on the threshold.
38610 "No, he's not dead--it's impossible!" she told herself and approached
38611 him, and repressing the terror that seized her, she pressed her lips to
38612 his cheek. But she stepped back immediately. All the force of the
38613 tenderness she had been feeling for him vanished instantly and was
38614 replaced by a feeling of horror at what lay there before her. "No, he is
38615 no more! He is not, but here where he was is something unfamiliar and
38616 hostile, some dreadful, terrifying, and repellent mystery!" And hiding
38617 her face in her hands, Princess Mary sank into the arms of the doctor,
38620 In the presence of Tikhon and the doctor the women washed what had been
38621 the prince, tied his head up with a handkerchief that the mouth should
38622 not stiffen while open, and with another handkerchief tied together the
38623 legs that were already spreading apart. Then they dressed him in uniform
38624 with his decorations and placed his shriveled little body on a table.
38625 Heaven only knows who arranged all this and when, but it all got done as
38626 if of its own accord. Toward night candles were burning round his
38627 coffin, a pall was spread over it, the floor was strewn with sprays of
38628 juniper, a printed band was tucked in under his shriveled head, and in a
38629 corner of the room sat a chanter reading the psalms.
38631 Just as horses shy and snort and gather about a dead horse, so the
38632 inmates of the house and strangers crowded into the drawing room round
38633 the coffin--the Marshal, the village Elder, peasant women--and all with
38634 fixed and frightened eyes, crossing themselves, bowed and kissed the old
38635 prince's cold and stiffened hand.
38642 Until Prince Andrew settled in Bogucharovo its owners had always been
38643 absentees, and its peasants were of quite a different character from
38644 those of Bald Hills. They differed from them in speech, dress, and
38645 disposition. They were called steppe peasants. The old prince used to
38646 approve of them for their endurance at work when they came to Bald Hills
38647 to help with the harvest or to dig ponds, and ditches, but he disliked
38648 them for their boorishness.
38650 Prince Andrew's last stay at Bogucharovo, when he introduced hospitals
38651 and schools and reduced the quitrent the peasants had to pay, had not
38652 softened their disposition but had on the contrary strengthened in them
38653 the traits of character the old prince called boorishness. Various
38654 obscure rumors were always current among them: at one time a rumor that
38655 they would all be enrolled as Cossacks; at another of a new religion to
38656 which they were all to be converted; then of some proclamation of the
38657 Tsar's and of an oath to the Tsar Paul in 1797 (in connection with which
38658 it was rumored that freedom had been granted them but the landowners had
38659 stopped it), then of Peter Fedorovich's return to the throne in seven
38660 years' time, when everything would be made free and so "simple" that
38661 there would be no restrictions. Rumors of the war with Bonaparte and his
38662 invasion were connected in their minds with the same sort of vague
38663 notions of Antichrist, the end of the world, and "pure freedom."
38665 In the vicinity of Bogucharovo were large villages belonging to the
38666 crown or to owners whose serfs paid quitrent and could work where they
38667 pleased. There were very few resident landlords in the neighborhood and
38668 also very few domestic or literate serfs, and in the lives of the
38669 peasantry of those parts the mysterious undercurrents in the life of the
38670 Russian people, the causes and meaning of which are so baffling to
38671 contemporaries, were more clearly and strongly noticeable than among
38672 others. One instance, which had occurred some twenty years before, was a
38673 movement among the peasants to emigrate to some unknown "warm rivers."
38674 Hundreds of peasants, among them the Bogucharovo folk, suddenly began
38675 selling their cattle and moving in whole families toward the southeast.
38676 As birds migrate to somewhere beyond the sea, so these men with their
38677 wives and children streamed to the southeast, to parts where none of
38678 them had ever been. They set off in caravans, bought their freedom one
38679 by one or ran away, and drove or walked toward the "warm rivers." Many
38680 of them were punished, some sent to Siberia, many died of cold and
38681 hunger on the road, many returned of their own accord, and the movement
38682 died down of itself just as it had sprung up, without apparent reason.
38683 But such undercurrents still existed among the people and gathered new
38684 forces ready to manifest themselves just as strangely, unexpectedly, and
38685 at the same time simply, naturally, and forcibly. Now in 1812, to anyone
38686 living in close touch with these people it was apparent that these
38687 undercurrents were acting strongly and nearing an eruption.
38689 Alpatych, who had reached Bogucharovo shortly before the old prince's
38690 death, noticed an agitation among the peasants, and that contrary to
38691 what was happening in the Bald Hills district, where over a radius of
38692 forty miles all the peasants were moving away and leaving their villages
38693 to be devastated by the Cossacks, the peasants in the steppe region
38694 round Bogucharovo were, it was rumored, in touch with the French,
38695 received leaflets from them that passed from hand to hand, and did not
38696 migrate. He learned from domestic serfs loyal to him that the peasant
38697 Karp, who possessed great influence in the village commune and had
38698 recently been away driving a government transport, had returned with
38699 news that the Cossacks were destroying deserted villages, but that the
38700 French did not harm them. Alpatych also knew that on the previous day
38701 another peasant had even brought from the village of Visloukhovo, which
38702 was occupied by the French, a proclamation by a French general that no
38703 harm would be done to the inhabitants, and if they remained they would
38704 be paid for anything taken from them. As proof of this the peasant had
38705 brought from Visloukhovo a hundred rubles in notes (he did not know that
38706 they were false) paid to him in advance for hay.
38708 More important still, Alpatych learned that on the morning of the very
38709 day he gave the village Elder orders to collect carts to move the
38710 princess' luggage from Bogucharovo, there had been a village meeting at
38711 which it had been decided not to move but to wait. Yet there was no time
38712 to waste. On the fifteenth, the day of the old prince's death, the
38713 Marshal had insisted on Princess Mary's leaving at once, as it was
38714 becoming dangerous. He had told her that after the sixteenth he could
38715 not be responsible for what might happen. On the evening of the day the
38716 old prince died the Marshal went away, promising to return next day for
38717 the funeral. But this he was unable to do, for he received tidings that
38718 the French had unexpectedly advanced, and had barely time to remove his
38719 own family and valuables from his estate.
38721 For some thirty years Bogucharovo had been managed by the village Elder,
38722 Dron, whom the old prince called by the diminutive "Dronushka."
38724 Dron was one of those physically and mentally vigorous peasants who grow
38725 big beards as soon as they are of age and go on unchanged till they are
38726 sixty or seventy, without a gray hair or the loss of a tooth, as
38727 straight and strong at sixty as at thirty.
38729 Soon after the migration to the "warm rivers," in which he had taken
38730 part like the rest, Dron was made village Elder and overseer of
38731 Bogucharovo, and had since filled that post irreproachably for twenty-
38732 three years. The peasants feared him more than they did their master.
38733 The masters, both the old prince and the young, and the steward
38734 respected him and jestingly called him "the Minister." During the whole
38735 time of his service Dron had never been drunk or ill, never after
38736 sleepless nights or the hardest tasks had he shown the least fatigue,
38737 and though he could not read he had never forgotten a single money
38738 account or the number of quarters of flour in any of the endless
38739 cartloads he sold for the prince, nor a single shock of the whole corn
38740 crop on any single acre of the Bogucharovo fields.
38742 Alpatych, arriving from the devastated Bald Hills estate, sent for his
38743 Dron on the day of the prince's funeral and told him to have twelve
38744 horses got ready for the princess' carriages and eighteen carts for the
38745 things to be removed from Bogucharovo. Though the peasants paid
38746 quitrent, Alpatych thought no difficulty would be made about complying
38747 with this order, for there were two hundred and thirty households at
38748 work in Bogucharovo and the peasants were well to do. But on hearing the
38749 order Dron lowered his eyes and remained silent. Alpatych named certain
38750 peasants he knew, from whom he told him to take the carts.
38752 Dron replied that the horses of these peasants were away carting.
38753 Alpatych named others, but they too, according to Dron, had no horses
38754 available: some horses were carting for the government, others were too
38755 weak, and others had died for want of fodder. It seemed that no horses
38756 could be had even for the carriages, much less for the carting.
38758 Alpatych looked intently at Dron and frowned. Just as Dron was a model
38759 village Elder, so Alpatych had not managed the prince's estates for
38760 twenty years in vain. He was a model steward, possessing in the highest
38761 degree the faculty of divining the needs and instincts of those he dealt
38762 with. Having glanced at Dron he at once understood that his answers did
38763 not express his personal views but the general mood of the Bogucharovo
38764 commune, by which the Elder had already been carried away. But he also
38765 knew that Dron, who had acquired property and was hated by the commune,
38766 must be hesitating between the two camps: the masters' and the serfs'.
38767 He noticed this hesitation in Dron's look and therefore frowned and
38768 moved closer up to him.
38770 "Now just listen, Dronushka," said he. "Don't talk nonsense to me. His
38771 excellency Prince Andrew himself gave me orders to move all the people
38772 away and not leave them with the enemy, and there is an order from the
38773 Tsar about it too. Anyone who stays is a traitor to the Tsar. Do you
38776 "I hear," Dron answered without lifting his eyes.
38778 Alpatych was not satisfied with this reply.
38780 "Eh, Dron, it will turn out badly!" he said, shaking his head.
38782 "The power is in your hands," Dron rejoined sadly.
38784 "Eh, Dron, drop it!" Alpatych repeated, withdrawing his hand from his
38785 bosom and solemnly pointing to the floor at Dron's feet. "I can see
38786 through you and three yards into the ground under you," he continued,
38787 gazing at the floor in front of Dron.
38789 Dron was disconcerted, glanced furtively at Alpatych and again lowered
38792 "You drop this nonsense and tell the people to get ready to leave their
38793 homes and go to Moscow and to get carts ready for tomorrow morning for
38794 the princess' things. And don't go to any meeting yourself, do you
38797 Dron suddenly fell on his knees.
38799 "Yakov Alpatych, discharge me! Take the keys from me and discharge me,
38800 for Christ's sake!"
38802 "Stop that!" cried Alpatych sternly. "I see through you and three yards
38803 under you," he repeated, knowing that his skill in beekeeping, his
38804 knowledge of the right time to sow the oats, and the fact that he had
38805 been able to retain the old prince's favor for twenty years had long
38806 since gained him the reputation of being a wizard, and that the power of
38807 seeing three yards under a man is considered an attribute of wizards.
38809 Dron got up and was about to say something, but Alpatych interrupted
38812 "What is it you have got into your heads, eh?... What are you thinking
38815 "What am I to do with the people?" said Dron. "They're quite beside
38816 themselves; I have already told them..."
38818 "'Told them,' I dare say!" said Alpatych. "Are they drinking?" he asked
38821 "Quite beside themselves, Yakov Alpatych; they've fetched another
38824 "Well, then, listen! I'll go to the police officer, and you tell them
38825 so, and that they must stop this and the carts must be got ready."
38829 Alpatych did not insist further. He had managed people for a long time
38830 and knew that the chief way to make them obey is to show no suspicion
38831 that they can possibly disobey. Having wrung a submissive "I understand"
38832 from Dron, Alpatych contented himself with that, though he not only
38833 doubted but felt almost certain that without the help of troops the
38834 carts would not be forthcoming.
38836 And so it was, for when evening came no carts had been provided. In the
38837 village, outside the drink shop, another meeting was being held, which
38838 decided that the horses should be driven out into the woods and the
38839 carts should not be provided. Without saying anything of this to the
38840 princess, Alpatych had his own belongings taken out of the carts which
38841 had arrived from Bald Hills and had those horses got ready for the
38842 princess' carriages. Meanwhile he went himself to the police
38850 After her father's funeral Princess Mary shut herself up in her room and
38851 did not admit anyone. A maid came to the door to say that Alpatych was
38852 asking for orders about their departure. (This was before his talk with
38853 Dron.) Princess Mary raised herself on the sofa on which she had been
38854 lying and replied through the closed door that she did not mean to go
38855 away and begged to be left in peace.
38857 The windows of the room in which she was lying looked westward. She lay
38858 on the sofa with her face to the wall, fingering the buttons of the
38859 leather cushion and seeing nothing but that cushion, and her confused
38860 thoughts were centered on one subject--the irrevocability of death and
38861 her own spiritual baseness, which she had not suspected, but which had
38862 shown itself during her father's illness. She wished to pray but did not
38863 dare to, dared not in her present state of mind address herself to God.
38864 She lay for a long time in that position.
38866 The sun had reached the other side of the house, and its slanting rays
38867 shone into the open window, lighting up the room and part of the morocco
38868 cushion at which Princess Mary was looking. The flow of her thoughts
38869 suddenly stopped. Unconsciously she sat up, smoothed her hair, got up,
38870 and went to the window, involuntarily inhaling the freshness of the
38871 clear but windy evening.
38873 "Yes, you can well enjoy the evening now! He is gone and no one will
38874 hinder you," she said to herself, and sinking into a chair she let her
38875 head fall on the window sill.
38877 Someone spoke her name in a soft and tender voice from the garden and
38878 kissed her head. She looked up. It was Mademoiselle Bourienne in a black
38879 dress and weepers. She softly approached Princess Mary, sighed, kissed
38880 her, and immediately began to cry. The princess looked up at her. All
38881 their former disharmony and her own jealousy recurred to her mind. But
38882 she remembered too how he had changed of late toward Mademoiselle
38883 Bourienne and could not bear to see her, thereby showing how unjust were
38884 the reproaches Princess Mary had mentally addressed to her. "Besides, is
38885 it for me, for me who desired his death, to condemn anyone?" she
38888 Princess Mary vividly pictured to herself the position of Mademoiselle
38889 Bourienne, whom she had of late kept at a distance, but who yet was
38890 dependent on her and living in her house. She felt sorry for her and
38891 held out her hand with a glance of gentle inquiry. Mademoiselle
38892 Bourienne at once began crying again and kissed that hand, speaking of
38893 the princess' sorrow and making herself a partner in it. She said her
38894 only consolation was the fact that the princess allowed her to share her
38895 sorrow, that all the old misunderstandings should sink into nothing but
38896 this great grief; that she felt herself blameless in regard to everyone,
38897 and that he, from above, saw her affection and gratitude. The princess
38898 heard her, not heeding her words but occasionally looking up at her and
38899 listening to the sound of her voice.
38901 "Your position is doubly terrible, dear princess," said Mademoiselle
38902 Bourienne after a pause. "I understand that you could not, and cannot,
38903 think of yourself, but with my love for you I must do so.... Has
38904 Alpatych been to you? Has he spoken to you of going away?" she asked.
38906 Princess Mary did not answer. She did not understand who was to go or
38907 where to. "Is it possible to plan or think of anything now? Is it not
38908 all the same?" she thought, and did not reply.
38910 "You know, chere Marie," said Mademoiselle Bourienne, "that we are in
38911 danger--are surrounded by the French. It would be dangerous to move now.
38912 If we go we are almost sure to be taken prisoners, and God knows..."
38914 Princess Mary looked at her companion without understanding what she was
38917 "Oh, if anyone knew how little anything matters to me now," she said.
38918 "Of course I would on no account wish to go away from him.... Alpatych
38919 did say something about going.... Speak to him; I can do nothing,
38920 nothing, and don't want to...."
38922 "I've spoken to him. He hopes we should be in time to get away tomorrow,
38923 but I think it would now be better to stay here," said Mademoiselle
38924 Bourienne. "Because, you will agree, chere Marie, to fall into the hands
38925 of the soldiers or of riotous peasants would be terrible."
38927 Mademoiselle Bourienne took from her reticule a proclamation (not
38928 printed on ordinary Russian paper) of General Rameau's, telling people
38929 not to leave their homes and that the French authorities would afford
38930 them proper protection. She handed this to the princess.
38932 "I think it would be best to appeal to that general," she continued,
38933 "and I am sure that all due respect would be shown you."
38935 Princess Mary read the paper, and her face began to quiver with stifled
38938 "From whom did you get this?" she asked.
38940 "They probably recognized that I am French, by my name," replied
38941 Mademoiselle Bourienne blushing.
38943 Princess Mary, with the paper in her hand, rose from the window and with
38944 a pale face went out of the room and into what had been Prince Andrew's
38947 "Dunyasha, send Alpatych, or Dronushka, or somebody to me!" she said,
38948 "and tell Mademoiselle Bourienne not to come to me," she added, hearing
38949 Mademoiselle Bourienne's voice. "We must go at once, at once!" she said,
38950 appalled at the thought of being left in the hands of the French.
38952 "If Prince Andrew heard that I was in the power of the French! That I,
38953 the daughter of Prince Nicholas Bolkonski, asked General Rameau for
38954 protection and accepted his favor!" This idea horrified her, made her
38955 shudder, blush, and feel such a rush of anger and pride as she had never
38956 experienced before. All that was distressing, and especially all that
38957 was humiliating, in her position rose vividly to her mind. "They, the
38958 French, would settle in this house: M. le General Rameau would occupy
38959 Prince Andrew's study and amuse himself by looking through and reading
38960 his letters and papers. Mademoiselle Bourienne would do the honors of
38961 Bogucharovo for him. I should be given a small room as a favor, the
38962 soldiers would violate my father's newly dug grave to steal his crosses
38963 and stars, they would tell me of their victories over the Russians, and
38964 would pretend to sympathize with my sorrow..." thought Princess Mary,
38965 not thinking her own thoughts but feeling bound to think like her father
38966 and her brother. For herself she did not care where she remained or what
38967 happened to her, but she felt herself the representative of her dead
38968 father and of Prince Andrew. Involuntarily she thought their thoughts
38969 and felt their feelings. What they would have said and what they would
38970 have done she felt bound to say and do. She went into Prince Andrew's
38971 study, trying to enter completely into his ideas, and considered her
38974 The demands of life, which had seemed to her annihilated by her father's
38975 death, all at once rose before her with a new, previously unknown force
38976 and took possession of her.
38978 Agitated and flushed she paced the room, sending now for Michael
38979 Ivanovich and now for Tikhon or Dron. Dunyasha, the nurse, and the other
38980 maids could not say in how far Mademoiselle Bourienne's statement was
38981 correct. Alpatych was not at home, he had gone to the police. Neither
38982 could the architect Michael Ivanovich, who on being sent for came in
38983 with sleepy eyes, tell Princess Mary anything. With just the same smile
38984 of agreement with which for fifteen years he had been accustomed to
38985 answer the old prince without expressing views of his own, he now
38986 replied to Princess Mary, so that nothing definite could be got from his
38987 answers. The old valet Tikhon, with sunken, emaciated face that bore the
38988 stamp of inconsolable grief, replied: "Yes, Princess" to all Princess
38989 Mary's questions and hardly refrained from sobbing as he looked at her.
38991 At length Dron, the village Elder, entered the room and with a deep bow
38992 to Princess Mary came to a halt by the doorpost.
38994 Princess Mary walked up and down the room and stopped in front of him.
38996 "Dronushka," she said, regarding as a sure friend this Dronushka who
38997 always used to bring a special kind of gingerbread from his visit to the
38998 fair at Vyazma every year and smilingly offer it to her, "Dronushka, now
38999 since our misfortune..." she began, but could not go on.
39001 "We are all in God's hands," said he, with a sigh.
39003 They were silent for a while.
39005 "Dronushka, Alpatych has gone off somewhere and I have no one to turn
39006 to. Is it true, as they tell me, that I can't even go away?"
39008 "Why shouldn't you go away, your excellency? You can go," said Dron.
39010 "I was told it would be dangerous because of the enemy. Dear friend, I
39011 can do nothing. I understand nothing. I have nobody! I want to go away
39012 tonight or early tomorrow morning."
39014 Dron paused. He looked askance at Princess Mary and said: "There are no
39015 horses; I told Yakov Alpatych so."
39017 "Why are there none?" asked the princess.
39019 "It's all God's scourge," said Dron. "What horses we had have been taken
39020 for the army or have died--this is such a year! It's not a case of
39021 feeding horses--we may die of hunger ourselves! As it is, some go three
39022 days without eating. We've nothing, we've been ruined."
39024 Princess Mary listened attentively to what he told her.
39026 "The peasants are ruined? They have no bread?" she asked.
39028 "They're dying of hunger," said Dron. "It's not a case of carting."
39030 "But why didn't you tell me, Dronushka? Isn't it possible to help them?
39031 I'll do all I can...."
39033 To Princess Mary it was strange that now, at a moment when such sorrow
39034 was filling her soul, there could be rich people and poor, and the rich
39035 could refrain from helping the poor. She had heard vaguely that there
39036 was such a thing as "landlord's corn" which was sometimes given to the
39037 peasants. She also knew that neither her father nor her brother would
39038 refuse to help the peasants in need, she only feared to make some
39039 mistake in speaking about the distribution of the grain she wished to
39040 give. She was glad such cares presented themselves, enabling her without
39041 scruple to forget her own grief. She began asking Dron about the
39042 peasants' needs and what there was in Bogucharovo that belonged to the
39045 "But we have grain belonging to my brother?" she said.
39047 "The landlord's grain is all safe," replied Dron proudly. "Our prince
39048 did not order it to be sold."
39050 "Give it to the peasants, let them have all they need; I give you leave
39051 in my brother's name," said she.
39053 Dron made no answer but sighed deeply.
39055 "Give them that corn if there is enough of it. Distribute it all. I give
39056 this order in my brother's name; and tell them that what is ours is
39057 theirs. We do not grudge them anything. Tell them so."
39059 Dron looked intently at the princess while she was speaking.
39061 "Discharge me, little mother, for God's sake! Order the keys to be taken
39062 from me," said he. "I have served twenty-three years and have done no
39063 wrong. Discharge me, for God's sake!"
39065 Princess Mary did not understand what he wanted of her or why he was
39066 asking to be discharged. She replied that she had never doubted his
39067 devotion and that she was ready to do anything for him and for the
39075 An hour later Dunyasha came to tell the princess that Dron had come, and
39076 all the peasants had assembled at the barn by the princess' order and
39077 wished to have word with their mistress.
39079 "But I never told them to come," said Princess Mary. "I only told Dron
39080 to let them have the grain."
39082 "Only, for God's sake, Princess dear, have them sent away and don't go
39083 out to them. It's all a trick," said Dunyasha, "and when Yakov Alpatych
39084 returns let us get away... and please don't..."
39086 "What is a trick?" asked Princess Mary in surprise.
39088 "I know it is, only listen to me for God's sake! Ask nurse too. They say
39089 they don't agree to leave Bogucharovo as you ordered."
39091 "You're making some mistake. I never ordered them to go away," said
39092 Princess Mary. "Call Dronushka."
39094 Dron came and confirmed Dunyasha's words; the peasants had come by the
39097 "But I never sent for them," declared the princess. "You must have given
39098 my message wrong. I only said that you were to give them the grain."
39100 Dron only sighed in reply.
39102 "If you order it they will go away," said he.
39104 "No, no. I'll go out to them," said Princess Mary, and in spite of the
39105 nurse's and Dunyasha's protests she went out into the porch; Dron,
39106 Dunyasha, the nurse, and Michael Ivanovich following her.
39108 "They probably think I am offering them the grain to bribe them to
39109 remain here, while I myself go away leaving them to the mercy of the
39110 French," thought Princess Mary. "I will offer them monthly rations and
39111 housing at our Moscow estate. I am sure Andrew would do even more in my
39112 place," she thought as she went out in the twilight toward the crowd
39113 standing on the pasture by the barn.
39115 The men crowded closer together, stirred, and rapidly took off their
39116 hats. Princess Mary lowered her eyes and, tripping over her skirt, came
39117 close up to them. So many different eyes, old and young, were fixed on
39118 her, and there were so many different faces, that she could not
39119 distinguish any of them and, feeling that she must speak to them all at
39120 once, did not know how to do it. But again the sense that she
39121 represented her father and her brother gave her courage, and she boldly
39124 "I am very glad you have come," she said without raising her eyes, and
39125 feeling her heart beating quickly and violently. "Dronushka tells me
39126 that the war has ruined you. That is our common misfortune, and I shall
39127 grudge nothing to help you. I am myself going away because it is
39128 dangerous here... the enemy is near... because... I am giving you
39129 everything, my friends, and I beg you to take everything, all our grain,
39130 so that you may not suffer want! And if you have been told that I am
39131 giving you the grain to keep you here--that is not true. On the
39132 contrary, I ask you to go with all your belongings to our estate near
39133 Moscow, and I promise you I will see to it that there you shall want for
39134 nothing. You shall be given food and lodging."
39136 The princess stopped. Sighs were the only sound heard in the crowd.
39138 "I am not doing this on my own account," she continued, "I do it in the
39139 name of my dead father, who was a good master to you, and of my brother
39142 Again she paused. No one broke the silence.
39144 "Ours is a common misfortune and we will share it together. All that is
39145 mine is yours," she concluded, scanning the faces before her.
39147 All eyes were gazing at her with one and the same expression. She could
39148 not fathom whether it was curiosity, devotion, gratitude, or
39149 apprehension and distrust--but the expression on all the faces was
39152 "We are all very thankful for your bounty, but it won't do for us to
39153 take the landlord's grain," said a voice at the back of the crowd.
39155 "But why not?" asked the princess.
39157 No one replied and Princess Mary, looking round at the crowd, found that
39158 every eye she met now was immediately dropped.
39160 "But why don't you want to take it?" she asked again.
39164 The silence began to oppress the princess and she tried to catch
39167 "Why don't you speak?" she inquired of a very old man who stood just in
39168 front of her leaning on his stick. "If you think something more is
39169 wanted, tell me! I will do anything," said she, catching his eye.
39171 But as if this angered him, he bent his head quite low and muttered:
39173 "Why should we agree? We don't want the grain."
39175 "Why should we give up everything? We don't agree. Don't agree.... We
39176 are sorry for you, but we're not willing. Go away yourself, alone..."
39177 came from various sides of the crowd.
39179 And again all the faces in that crowd bore an identical expression,
39180 though now it was certainly not an expression of curiosity or gratitude,
39181 but of angry resolve.
39183 "But you can't have understood me," said Princess Mary with a sad smile.
39184 "Why don't you want to go? I promise to house and feed you, while here
39185 the enemy would ruin you..."
39187 But her voice was drowned by the voices of the crowd.
39189 "We're not willing. Let them ruin us! We won't take your grain. We don't
39192 Again Princess Mary tried to catch someone's eye, but not a single eye
39193 in the crowd was turned to her; evidently they were all trying to avoid
39194 her look. She felt strange and awkward.
39196 "Oh yes, an artful tale! Follow her into slavery! Pull down your houses
39197 and go into bondage! I dare say! 'I'll give you grain, indeed!' she
39198 says," voices in the crowd were heard saying.
39200 With drooping head Princess Mary left the crowd and went back to the
39201 house. Having repeated her order to Dron to have horses ready for her
39202 departure next morning, she went to her room and remained alone with her
39210 For a long time that night Princess Mary sat by the open window of her
39211 room hearing the sound of the peasants' voices that reached her from the
39212 village, but it was not of them she was thinking. She felt that she
39213 could not understand them however much she might think about them. She
39214 thought only of one thing, her sorrow, which, after the break caused by
39215 cares for the present, seemed already to belong to the past. Now she
39216 could remember it and weep or pray.
39218 After sunset the wind had dropped. The night was calm and fresh. Toward
39219 midnight the voices began to subside, a cock crowed, the full moon began
39220 to show from behind the lime trees, a fresh white dewy mist began to
39221 rise, and stillness reigned over the village and the house.
39223 Pictures of the near past--her father's illness and last moments--rose
39224 one after another to her memory. With mournful pleasure she now lingered
39225 over these images, repelling with horror only the last one, the picture
39226 of his death, which she felt she could not contemplate even in
39227 imagination at this still and mystic hour of night. And these pictures
39228 presented themselves to her so clearly and in such detail that they
39229 seemed now present, now past, and now future.
39231 She vividly recalled the moment when he had his first stroke and was
39232 being dragged along by his armpits through the garden at Bald Hills,
39233 muttering something with his helpless tongue, twitching his gray
39234 eyebrows and looking uneasily and timidly at her.
39236 "Even then he wanted to tell me what he told me the day he died," she
39237 thought. "He had always thought what he said then." And she recalled in
39238 all its detail the night at Bald Hills before he had the last stroke,
39239 when with a foreboding of disaster she had remained at home against his
39240 will. She had not slept and had stolen downstairs on tiptoe, and going
39241 to the door of the conservatory where he slept that night had listened
39242 at the door. In a suffering and weary voice he was saying something to
39243 Tikhon, speaking of the Crimea and its warm nights and of the Empress.
39244 Evidently he had wanted to talk. "And why didn't he call me? Why didn't
39245 he let me be there instead of Tikhon?" Princess Mary had thought and
39246 thought again now. "Now he will never tell anyone what he had in his
39247 soul. Never will that moment return for him or for me when he might have
39248 said all he longed to say, and not Tikhon but I might have heard and
39249 understood him. Why didn't I enter the room?" she thought. "Perhaps he
39250 would then have said to me what he said the day he died. While talking
39251 to Tikhon he asked about me twice. He wanted to see me, and I was
39252 standing close by, outside the door. It was sad and painful for him to
39253 talk to Tikhon who did not understand him. I remember how he began
39254 speaking to him about Lise as if she were alive--he had forgotten she
39255 was dead--and Tikhon reminded him that she was no more, and he shouted,
39256 'Fool!' He was greatly depressed. From behind the door I heard how he
39257 lay down on his bed groaning and loudly exclaimed, 'My God!' Why didn't
39258 I go in then? What could he have done to me? What could I have lost? And
39259 perhaps he would then have been comforted and would have said that word
39260 to me." And Princess Mary uttered aloud the caressing word he had said
39261 to her on the day of his death. "Dear-est!" she repeated, and began
39262 sobbing, with tears that relieved her soul. She now saw his face before
39263 her. And not the face she had known ever since she could remember and
39264 had always seen at a distance, but the timid, feeble face she had seen
39265 for the first time quite closely, with all its wrinkles and details,
39266 when she stooped near to his mouth to catch what he said.
39268 "Dear-est!" she repeated again.
39270 "What was he thinking when he uttered that word? What is he thinking
39271 now?" This question suddenly presented itself to her, and in answer she
39272 saw him before her with the expression that was on his face as he lay in
39273 his coffin with his chin bound up with a white handkerchief. And the
39274 horror that had seized her when she touched him and convinced herself
39275 that that was not he, but something mysterious and horrible, seized her
39276 again. She tried to think of something else and to pray, but could do
39277 neither. With wide-open eyes she gazed at the moonlight and the shadows,
39278 expecting every moment to see his dead face, and she felt that the
39279 silence brooding over the house and within it held her fast.
39281 "Dunyasha," she whispered. "Dunyasha!" she screamed wildly, and tearing
39282 herself out of this silence she ran to the servants' quarters to meet
39283 her old nurse and the maidservants who came running toward her.
39290 On the seventeenth of August Rostov and Ilyin, accompanied by Lavrushka
39291 who had just returned from captivity and by an hussar orderly, left
39292 their quarters at Yankovo, ten miles from Bogucharovo, and went for a
39293 ride--to try a new horse Ilyin had bought and to find out whether there
39294 was any hay to be had in the villages.
39296 For the last three days Bogucharovo had lain between the two hostile
39297 armies, so that it was as easy for the Russian rearguard to get to it as
39298 for the French vanguard; Rostov, as a careful squadron commander, wished
39299 to take such provisions as remained at Bogucharovo before the French
39302 Rostov and Ilyin were in the merriest of moods. On the way to
39303 Bogucharovo, a princely estate with a dwelling house and farm where they
39304 hoped to find many domestic serfs and pretty girls, they questioned
39305 Lavrushka about Napoleon and laughed at his stories, and raced one
39306 another to try Ilyin's horse.
39308 Rostov had no idea that the village he was entering was the property of
39309 that very Bolkonski who had been engaged to his sister.
39311 Rostov and Ilyin gave rein to their horses for a last race along the
39312 incline before reaching Bogucharovo, and Rostov, outstripping Ilyin, was
39313 the first to gallop into the village street.
39315 "You're first!" cried Ilyin, flushed.
39317 "Yes, always first both on the grassland and here," answered Rostov,
39318 stroking his heated Donets horse.
39320 "And I'd have won on my Frenchy, your excellency," said Lavrushka from
39321 behind, alluding to his shabby cart horse, "only I didn't wish to
39324 They rode at a footpace to the barn, where a large crowd of peasants was
39327 Some of the men bared their heads, others stared at the new arrivals
39328 without doffing their caps. Two tall old peasants with wrinkled faces
39329 and scanty beards emerged from the tavern, smiling, staggering, and
39330 singing some incoherent song, and approached the officers.
39332 "Fine fellows!" said Rostov laughing. "Is there any hay here?"
39334 "And how like one another," said Ilyin.
39336 "A mo-o-st me-r-r-y co-o-m-pa...!" sang one of the peasants with a
39339 One of the men came out of the crowd and went up to Rostov.
39341 "Who do you belong to?" he asked.
39343 "The French," replied Ilyin jestingly, "and here is Napoleon himself"--
39344 and he pointed to Lavrushka.
39346 "Then you are Russians?" the peasant asked again.
39348 "And is there a large force of you here?" said another, a short man,
39351 "Very large," answered Rostov. "But why have you collected here?" he
39352 added. "Is it a holiday?"
39354 "The old men have met to talk over the business of the commune," replied
39355 the peasant, moving away.
39357 At that moment, on the road leading from the big house, two women and a
39358 man in a white hat were seen coming toward the officers.
39360 "The one in pink is mine, so keep off!" said Ilyin on seeing Dunyasha
39361 running resolutely toward him.
39363 "She'll be ours!" said Lavrushka to Ilyin, winking.
39365 "What do you want, my pretty?" said Ilyin with a smile.
39367 "The princess ordered me to ask your regiment and your name."
39369 "This is Count Rostov, squadron commander, and I am your humble
39372 "Co-o-om-pa-ny!" roared the tipsy peasant with a beatific smile as he
39373 looked at Ilyin talking to the girl. Following Dunyasha, Alpatych
39374 advanced to Rostov, having bared his head while still at a distance.
39376 "May I make bold to trouble your honor?" said he respectfully, but with
39377 a shade of contempt for the youthfulness of this officer and with a hand
39378 thrust into his bosom. "My mistress, daughter of General in Chief Prince
39379 Nicholas Bolkonski who died on the fifteenth of this month, finding
39380 herself in difficulties owing to the boorishness of these people"--he
39381 pointed to the peasants--"asks you to come up to the house.... Won't
39382 you, please, ride on a little farther," said Alpatych with a melancholy
39383 smile, "as it is not convenient in the presence of...?" He pointed to
39384 the two peasants who kept as close to him as horseflies to a horse.
39386 "Ah!... Alpatych... Ah, Yakov Alpatych... Grand! Forgive us for Christ's
39387 sake, eh?" said the peasants, smiling joyfully at him.
39389 Rostov looked at the tipsy peasants and smiled.
39391 "Or perhaps they amuse your honor?" remarked Alpatych with a staid air,
39392 as he pointed at the old men with his free hand.
39394 "No, there's not much to be amused at here," said Rostov, and rode on a
39395 little way. "What's the matter?" he asked.
39397 "I make bold to inform your honor that the rude peasants here don't wish
39398 to let the mistress leave the estate, and threaten to unharness her
39399 horses, so that though everything has been packed up since morning, her
39400 excellency cannot get away."
39402 "Impossible!" exclaimed Rostov.
39404 "I have the honor to report to you the actual truth," said Alpatych.
39406 Rostov dismounted, gave his horse to the orderly, and followed Alpatych
39407 to the house, questioning him as to the state of affairs. It appeared
39408 that the princess' offer of corn to the peasants the previous day, and
39409 her talk with Dron and at the meeting, had actually had so bad an effect
39410 that Dron had finally given up the keys and joined the peasants and had
39411 not appeared when Alpatych sent for him; and that in the morning when
39412 the princess gave orders to harness for her journey, the peasants had
39413 come in a large crowd to the barn and sent word that they would not let
39414 her leave the village: that there was an order not to move, and that
39415 they would unharness the horses. Alpatych had gone out to admonish them,
39416 but was told (it was chiefly Karp who did the talking, Dron not showing
39417 himself in the crowd) that they could not let the princess go, that
39418 there was an order to the contrary, but that if she stayed they would
39419 serve her as before and obey her in everything.
39421 At the moment when Rostov and Ilyin were galloping along the road,
39422 Princess Mary, despite the dissuasions of Alpatych, her nurse, and the
39423 maids, had given orders to harness and intended to start, but when the
39424 cavalrymen were espied they were taken for Frenchmen, the coachman ran
39425 away, and the women in the house began to wail.
39427 "Father! Benefactor! God has sent you!" exclaimed deeply moved voices as
39428 Rostov passed through the anteroom.
39430 Princess Mary was sitting helpless and bewildered in the large sitting
39431 room, when Rostov was shown in. She could not grasp who he was and why
39432 he had come, or what was happening to her. When she saw his Russian
39433 face, and by his walk and the first words he uttered recognized him as a
39434 man of her own class, she glanced at him with her deep radiant look and
39435 began speaking in a voice that faltered and trembled with emotion. This
39436 meeting immediately struck Rostov as a romantic event. "A helpless girl
39437 overwhelmed with grief, left to the mercy of coarse, rioting peasants!
39438 And what a strange fate sent me here! What gentleness and nobility there
39439 are in her features and expression!" thought he as he looked at her and
39440 listened to her timid story.
39442 When she began to tell him that all this had happened the day after her
39443 father's funeral, her voice trembled. She turned away, and then, as if
39444 fearing he might take her words as meant to move him to pity, looked at
39445 him with an apprehensive glance of inquiry. There were tears in Rostov's
39446 eyes. Princess Mary noticed this and glanced gratefully at him with that
39447 radiant look which caused the plainness of her face to be forgotten.
39449 "I cannot express, Princess, how glad I am that I happened to ride here
39450 and am able to show my readiness to serve you," said Rostov, rising. "Go
39451 when you please, and I give you my word of honor that no one shall dare
39452 to cause you annoyance if only you will allow me to act as your escort."
39453 And bowing respectfully, as if to a lady of royal blood, he moved toward
39456 Rostov's deferential tone seemed to indicate that though he would
39457 consider himself happy to be acquainted with her, he did not wish to
39458 take advantage of her misfortunes to intrude upon her.
39460 Princess Mary understood this and appreciated his delicacy.
39462 "I am very, very grateful to you," she said in French, "but I hope it
39463 was all a misunderstanding and that no one is to blame for it." She
39464 suddenly began to cry.
39466 "Excuse me!" she said.
39468 Rostov, knitting his brows, left the room with another low bow.
39475 "Well, is she pretty? Ah, friend--my pink one is delicious; her name is
39478 But on glancing at Rostov's face Ilyin stopped short. He saw that his
39479 hero and commander was following quite a different train of thought.
39481 Rostov glanced angrily at Ilyin and without replying strode off with
39482 rapid steps to the village.
39484 "I'll show them; I'll give it to them, the brigands!" said he to
39487 Alpatych at a gliding trot, only just managing not to run, kept up with
39488 him with difficulty.
39490 "What decision have you been pleased to come to?" said he.
39492 Rostov stopped and, clenching his fists, suddenly and sternly turned on
39495 "Decision? What decision? Old dotard!..." cried he. "What have you been
39496 about? Eh? The peasants are rioting, and you can't manage them? You're a
39497 traitor yourself! I know you. I'll flay you all alive!..." And as if
39498 afraid of wasting his store of anger, he left Alpatych and went rapidly
39499 forward. Alpatych, mastering his offended feelings, kept pace with
39500 Rostov at a gliding gait and continued to impart his views. He said the
39501 peasants were obdurate and that at the present moment it would be
39502 imprudent to "overresist" them without an armed force, and would it not
39503 be better first to send for the military?
39505 "I'll give them armed force... I'll 'overresist' them!" uttered Rostov
39506 meaninglessly, breathless with irrational animal fury and the need to
39509 Without considering what he would do he moved unconciously with quick,
39510 resolute steps toward the crowd. And the nearer he drew to it the more
39511 Alpatych felt that this unreasonable action might produce good results.
39512 The peasants in the crowd were similarly impressed when they saw
39513 Rostov's rapid, firm steps and resolute, frowning face.
39515 After the hussars had come to the village and Rostov had gone to see the
39516 princess, a certain confusion and dissension had arisen among the crowd.
39517 Some of the peasants said that these new arrivals were Russians and
39518 might take it amiss that the mistress was being detained. Dron was of
39519 this opinion, but as soon as he expressed it Karp and others attacked
39522 "How many years have you been fattening on the commune?" Karp shouted at
39523 him. "It's all one to you! You'll dig up your pot of money and take it
39524 away with you.... What does it matter to you whether our homes are
39527 "We've been told to keep order, and that no one is to leave their homes
39528 or take away a single grain, and that's all about it!" cried another.
39530 "It was your son's turn to be conscripted, but no fear! You begrudged
39531 your lump of a son," a little old man suddenly began attacking Dron--
39532 "and so they took my Vanka to be shaved for a soldier! But we all have
39535 "To be sure, we all have to die. I'm not against the commune," said
39538 "That's it--not against it! You've filled your belly...."
39540 The two tall peasants had their say. As soon as Rostov, followed by
39541 Ilyin, Lavrushka, and Alpatych, came up to the crowd, Karp, thrusting
39542 his fingers into his belt and smiling a little, walked to the front.
39543 Dron on the contrary retired to the rear and the crowd drew closer
39546 "Who is your Elder here? Hey?" shouted Rostov, coming up to the crowd
39549 "The Elder? What do you want with him?..." asked Karp.
39551 But before the words were well out of his mouth, his cap flew off and a
39552 fierce blow jerked his head to one side.
39554 "Caps off, traitors!" shouted Rostov in a wrathful voice. "Where's the
39555 Elder?" he cried furiously.
39557 "The Elder.... He wants the Elder!... Dron Zakharych, you!" meek and
39558 flustered voices here and there were heard calling and caps began to
39559 come off their heads.
39561 "We don't riot, we're following the orders," declared Karp, and at that
39562 moment several voices began speaking together.
39564 "It's as the old men have decided--there's too many of you giving
39567 "Arguing? Mutiny!... Brigands! Traitors!" cried Rostov unmeaningly in a
39568 voice not his own, gripping Karp by the collar. "Bind him, bind him!" he
39569 shouted, though there was no one to bind him but Lavrushka and Alpatych.
39571 Lavrushka, however, ran up to Karp and seized him by the arms from
39574 "Shall I call up our men from beyond the hill?" he called out.
39576 Alpatych turned to the peasants and ordered two of them by name to come
39577 and bind Karp. The men obediently came out of the crowd and began taking
39580 "Where's the Elder?" demanded Rostov in a loud voice.
39582 With a pale and frowning face Dron stepped out of the crowd.
39584 "Are you the Elder? Bind him, Lavrushka!" shouted Rostov, as if that
39585 order, too, could not possibly meet with any opposition.
39587 And in fact two more peasants began binding Dron, who took off his own
39588 belt and handed it to them, as if to aid them.
39590 "And you all listen to me!" said Rostov to the peasants. "Be off to your
39591 houses at once, and don't let one of your voices be heard!"
39593 "Why, we've not done any harm! We did it just out of foolishness. It's
39594 all nonsense... I said then that it was not in order," voices were heard
39595 bickering with one another.
39598 "There! What did I say?" said Alpatych, coming into his own again. "It's
39601 "All our stupidity, Yakov Alpatych," came the answers, and the crowd
39602 began at once to disperse through the village.
39604 The two bound men were led off to the master's house. The two drunken
39605 peasants followed them.
39607 "Aye, when I look at you!..." said one of them to Karp.
39609 "How can one talk to the masters like that? What were you thinking of,
39610 you fool?" added the other--"A real fool!"
39612 Two hours later the carts were standing in the courtyard of the
39613 Bogucharovo house. The peasants were briskly carrying out the
39614 proprietor's goods and packing them on the carts, and Dron, liberated at
39615 Princess Mary's wish from the cupboard where he had been confined, was
39616 standing in the yard directing the men.
39618 "Don't put it in so carelessly," said one of the peasants, a man with a
39619 round smiling face, taking a casket from a housemaid. "You know it has
39620 cost money! How can you chuck it in like that or shove it under the cord
39621 where it'll get rubbed? I don't like that way of doing things. Let it
39622 all be done properly, according to rule. Look here, put it under the
39623 bast matting and cover it with hay--that's the way!"
39625 "Eh, books, books!" said another peasant, bringing out Prince Andrew's
39626 library cupboards. "Don't catch up against it! It's heavy, lads--solid
39629 "Yes, they worked all day and didn't play!" remarked the tall, round-
39630 faced peasant gravely, pointing with a significant wink at the
39631 dictionaries that were on the top.
39633 Unwilling to obtrude himself on the princess, Rostov did not go back to
39634 the house but remained in the village awaiting her departure. When her
39635 carriage drove out of the house, he mounted and accompanied her eight
39636 miles from Bogucharovo to where the road was occupied by our troops. At
39637 the inn at Yankovo he respectfully took leave of her, for the first time
39638 permitting himself to kiss her hand.
39640 "How can you speak so!" he blushingly replied to Princess Mary's
39641 expressions of gratitude for her deliverance, as she termed what had
39642 occurred. "Any police officer would have done as much! If we had had
39643 only peasants to fight, we should not have let the enemy come so far,"
39644 said he with a sense of shame and wishing to change the subject. "I am
39645 only happy to have had the opportunity of making your acquaintance.
39646 Good-bye, Princess. I wish you happiness and consolation and hope to
39647 meet you again in happier circumstances. If you don't want to make me
39648 blush, please don't thank me!"
39650 But the princess, if she did not again thank him in words, thanked him
39651 with the whole expression of her face, radiant with gratitude and
39652 tenderness. She could not believe that there was nothing to thank him
39653 for. On the contrary, it seemed to her certain that had he not been
39654 there she would have perished at the hands of the mutineers and of the
39655 French, and that he had exposed himself to terrible and obvious danger
39656 to save her, and even more certain was it that he was a man of lofty and
39657 noble soul, able to understand her position and her sorrow. His kind,
39658 honest eyes, with the tears rising in them when she herself had begun to
39659 cry as she spoke of her loss, did not leave her memory.
39661 When she had taken leave of him and remained alone she suddenly felt her
39662 eyes filling with tears, and then not for the first time the strange
39663 question presented itself to her: did she love him?
39665 On the rest of the way to Moscow, though the princess' position was not
39666 a cheerful one, Dunyasha, who went with her in the carriage, more than
39667 once noticed that her mistress leaned out of the window and smiled at
39668 something with an expression of mingled joy and sorrow.
39670 "Well, supposing I do love him?" thought Princess Mary.
39672 Ashamed as she was of acknowledging to herself that she had fallen in
39673 love with a man who would perhaps never love her, she comforted herself
39674 with the thought that no one would ever know it and that she would not
39675 be to blame if, without ever speaking of it to anyone, she continued to
39676 the end of her life to love the man with whom she had fallen in love for
39677 the first and last time in her life.
39679 Sometimes when she recalled his looks, his sympathy, and his words,
39680 happiness did not appear impossible to her. It was at those moments that
39681 Dunyasha noticed her smiling as she looked out of the carriage window.
39683 "Was it not fate that brought him to Bogucharovo, and at that very
39684 moment?" thought Princess Mary. "And that caused his sister to refuse my
39685 brother?" And in all this Princess Mary saw the hand of Providence.
39687 The impression the princess made on Rostov was a very agreeable one. To
39688 remember her gave him pleasure, and when his comrades, hearing of his
39689 adventure at Bogucharovo, rallied him on having gone to look for hay and
39690 having picked up one of the wealthiest heiresses in Russia, he grew
39691 angry. It made him angry just because the idea of marrying the gentle
39692 Princess Mary, who was attractive to him and had an enormous fortune,
39693 had against his will more than once entered his head. For himself
39694 personally Nicholas could not wish for a better wife: by marrying her he
39695 would make the countess his mother happy, would be able to put his
39696 father's affairs in order, and would even--he felt it--ensure Princess
39699 But Sonya? And his plighted word? That was why Rostov grew angry when he
39700 was rallied about Princess Bolkonskaya.
39707 On receiving command of the armies Kutuzov remembered Prince Andrew and
39708 sent an order for him to report at headquarters.
39710 Prince Andrew arrived at Tsarevo-Zaymishche on the very day and at the
39711 very hour that Kutuzov was reviewing the troops for the first time. He
39712 stopped in the village at the priest's house in front of which stood the
39713 commander-in-chief's carriage, and he sat down on the bench at the gate
39714 awaiting his Serene Highness, as everyone now called Kutuzov. From the
39715 field beyond the village came now sounds of regimental music and now the
39716 roar of many voices shouting "Hurrah!" to the new commander-in-chief.
39717 Two orderlies, a courier and a major-domo, stood near by, some ten paces
39718 from Prince Andrew, availing themselves of Kutuzov's absence and of the
39719 fine weather. A short, swarthy lieutenant colonel of hussars with thick
39720 mustaches and whiskers rode up to the gate and, glancing at Prince
39721 Andrew, inquired whether his Serene Highness was putting up there and
39722 whether he would soon be back.
39724 Prince Andrew replied that he was not on his Serene Highness' staff but
39725 was himself a new arrival. The lieutenant colonel turned to a smart
39726 orderly, who, with the peculiar contempt with which a commander-in-
39727 chief's orderly speaks to officers, replied:
39729 "What? His Serene Highness? I expect he'll be here soon. What do you
39732 The lieutenant colonel of hussars smiled beneath his mustache at the
39733 orderly's tone, dismounted, gave his horse to a dispatch runner, and
39734 approached Bolkonski with a slight bow. Bolkonski made room for him on
39735 the bench and the lieutenant colonel sat down beside him.
39737 "You're also waiting for the commander-in-chief?" said he. "They say he
39738 weceives evewyone, thank God!... It's awful with those sausage eaters!
39739 Ermolov had weason to ask to be pwomoted to be a German! Now p'waps
39740 Wussians will get a look in. As it was, devil only knows what was
39741 happening. We kept wetweating and wetweating. Did you take part in the
39742 campaign?" he asked.
39744 "I had the pleasure," replied Prince Andrew, "not only of taking part in
39745 the retreat but of losing in that retreat all I held dear--not to
39746 mention the estate and home of my birth--my father, who died of grief. I
39747 belong to the province of Smolensk."
39749 "Ah? You're Pwince Bolkonski? Vewy glad to make your acquaintance! I'm
39750 Lieutenant Colonel Denisov, better known as 'Vaska,'" said Denisov,
39751 pressing Prince Andrew's hand and looking into his face with a
39752 particularly kindly attention. "Yes, I heard," said he sympathetically,
39753 and after a short pause added: "Yes, it's Scythian warfare. It's all
39754 vewy well--only not for those who get it in the neck. So you are Pwince
39755 Andwew Bolkonski?" He swayed his head. "Vewy pleased, Pwince, to make
39756 your acquaintance!" he repeated again, smiling sadly, and he again
39757 pressed Prince Andrew's hand.
39759 Prince Andrew knew Denisov from what Natasha had told him of her first
39760 suitor. This memory carried him sadly and sweetly back to those painful
39761 feelings of which he had not thought lately, but which still found place
39762 in his soul. Of late he had received so many new and very serious
39763 impressions--such as the retreat from Smolensk, his visit to Bald Hills,
39764 and the recent news of his father's death--and had experienced so many
39765 emotions, that for a long time past those memories had not entered his
39766 mind, and now that they did, they did not act on him with nearly their
39767 former strength. For Denisov, too, the memories awakened by the name of
39768 Bolkonski belonged to a distant, romantic past, when after supper and
39769 after Natasha's singing he had proposed to a little girl of fifteen
39770 without realizing what he was doing. He smiled at the recollection of
39771 that time and of his love for Natasha, and passed at once to what now
39772 interested him passionately and exclusively. This was a plan of campaign
39773 he had devised while serving at the outposts during the retreat. He had
39774 proposed that plan to Barclay de Tolly and now wished to propose it to
39775 Kutuzov. The plan was based on the fact that the French line of
39776 operation was too extended, and it proposed that instead of, or
39777 concurrently with, action on the front to bar the advance of the French,
39778 we should attack their line of communication. He began explaining his
39779 plan to Prince Andrew.
39781 "They can't hold all that line. It's impossible. I will undertake to
39782 bweak thwough. Give me five hundwed men and I will bweak the line,
39783 that's certain! There's only one way--guewilla warfare!"
39785 Denisov rose and began gesticulating as he explained his plan to
39786 Bolkonski. In the midst of his explanation shouts were heard from the
39787 army, growing more incoherent and more diffused, mingling with music and
39788 songs and coming from the field where the review was held. Sounds of
39789 hoofs and shouts were nearing the village.
39791 "He's coming! He's coming!" shouted a Cossack standing at the gate.
39793 Bolkonski and Denisov moved to the gate, at which a knot of soldiers (a
39794 guard of honor) was standing, and they saw Kutuzov coming down the
39795 street mounted on a rather small sorrel horse. A huge suite of generals
39796 rode behind him. Barclay was riding almost beside him, and a crowd of
39797 officers ran after and around them shouting, "Hurrah!"
39799 His adjutants galloped into the yard before him. Kutuzov was impatiently
39800 urging on his horse, which ambled smoothly under his weight, and he
39801 raised his hand to his white Horse Guard's cap with a red band and no
39802 peak, nodding his head continually. When he came up to the guard of
39803 honor, a fine set of Grenadiers mostly wearing decorations, who were
39804 giving him the salute, he looked at them silently and attentively for
39805 nearly a minute with the steady gaze of a commander and then turned to
39806 the crowd of generals and officers surrounding him. Suddenly his face
39807 assumed a subtle expression, he shrugged his shoulders with an air of
39810 "And with such fine fellows to retreat and retreat! Well, good-by,
39811 General," he added, and rode into the yard past Prince Andrew and
39814 "Hurrah! hurrah! hurrah!" shouted those behind him.
39816 Since Prince Andrew had last seen him Kutuzov had grown still more
39817 corpulent, flaccid, and fat. But the bleached eyeball, the scar, and the
39818 familiar weariness of his expression were still the same. He was wearing
39819 the white Horse Guard's cap and a military overcoat with a whip hanging
39820 over his shoulder by a thin strap. He sat heavily and swayed limply on
39821 his brisk little horse.
39823 "Whew... whew... whew!" he whistled just audibly as he rode into the
39824 yard. His face expressed the relief of relaxed strain felt by a man who
39825 means to rest after a ceremony. He drew his left foot out of the stirrup
39826 and, lurching with his whole body and puckering his face with the
39827 effort, raised it with difficulty onto the saddle, leaned on his knee,
39828 groaned, and slipped down into the arms of the Cossacks and adjutants
39829 who stood ready to assist him.
39831 He pulled himself together, looked round, screwing up his eyes, glanced
39832 at Prince Andrew, and, evidently not recognizing him, moved with his
39833 waddling gait to the porch. "Whew... whew... whew!" he whistled, and
39834 again glanced at Prince Andrew. As often occurs with old men, it was
39835 only after some seconds that the impression produced by Prince Andrew's
39836 face linked itself up with Kutuzov's remembrance of his personality.
39838 "Ah, how do you do, my dear prince? How do you do, my dear boy? Come
39839 along..." said he, glancing wearily round, and he stepped onto the porch
39840 which creaked under his weight.
39842 He unbuttoned his coat and sat down on a bench in the porch.
39844 "And how's your father?"
39846 "I received news of his death, yesterday," replied Prince Andrew
39849 Kutuzov looked at him with eyes wide open with dismay and then took off
39850 his cap and crossed himself:
39852 "May the kingdom of Heaven be his! God's will be done to us all!" He
39853 sighed deeply, his whole chest heaving, and was silent for a while. "I
39854 loved him and respected him, and sympathize with you with all my heart."
39856 He embraced Prince Andrew, pressing him to his fat breast, and for some
39857 time did not let him go. When he released him Prince Andrew saw that
39858 Kutuzov's flabby lips were trembling and that tears were in his eyes. He
39859 sighed and pressed on the bench with both hands to raise himself.
39861 "Come! Come with me, we'll have a talk," said he.
39863 But at that moment Denisov, no more intimidated by his superiors than by
39864 the enemy, came with jingling spurs up the steps of the porch, despite
39865 the angry whispers of the adjutants who tried to stop him. Kutuzov, his
39866 hands still pressed on the seat, glanced at him glumly. Denisov, having
39867 given his name, announced that he had to communicate to his Serene
39868 Highness a matter of great importance for their country's welfare.
39869 Kutuzov looked wearily at him and, lifting his hands with a gesture of
39870 annoyance, folded them across his stomach, repeating the words: "For our
39871 country's welfare? Well, what is it? Speak!" Denisov blushed like a girl
39872 (it was strange to see the color rise in that shaggy, bibulous, time-
39873 worn face) and boldly began to expound his plan of cutting the enemy's
39874 lines of communication between Smolensk and Vyazma. Denisov came from
39875 those parts and knew the country well. His plan seemed decidedly a good
39876 one, especially from the strength of conviction with which he spoke.
39877 Kutuzov looked down at his own legs, occasionally glancing at the door
39878 of the adjoining hut as if expecting something unpleasant to emerge from
39879 it. And from that hut, while Denisov was speaking, a general with a
39880 portfolio under his arm really did appear.
39882 "What?" said Kutuzov, in the midst of Denisov's explanations, "are you
39885 "Ready, your Serene Highness," replied the general.
39887 Kutuzov swayed his head, as much as to say: "How is one man to deal with
39888 it all?" and again listened to Denisov.
39890 "I give my word of honor as a Wussian officer," said Denisov, "that I
39891 can bweak Napoleon's line of communication!"
39893 "What relation are you to Intendant General Kiril Andreevich Denisov?"
39894 asked Kutuzov, interrupting him.
39896 "He is my uncle, your Sewene Highness."
39898 "Ah, we were friends," said Kutuzov cheerfully. "All right, all right,
39899 friend, stay here at the staff and tomorrow we'll have a talk."
39901 With a nod to Denisov he turned away and put out his hand for the papers
39902 Konovnitsyn had brought him.
39904 "Would not your Serene Highness like to come inside?" said the general
39905 on duty in a discontented voice, "the plans must be examined and several
39906 papers have to be signed."
39908 An adjutant came out and announced that everything was in readiness
39909 within. But Kutuzov evidently did not wish to enter that room till he
39910 was disengaged. He made a grimace...
39912 "No, tell them to bring a small table out here, my dear boy. I'll look
39913 at them here," said he. "Don't go away," he added, turning to Prince
39914 Andrew, who remained in the porch and listened to the general's report.
39916 While this was being given, Prince Andrew heard the whisper of a woman's
39917 voice and the rustle of a silk dress behind the door. Several times on
39918 glancing that way he noticed behind that door a plump, rosy, handsome
39919 woman in a pink dress with a lilac silk kerchief on her head, holding a
39920 dish and evidently awaiting the entrance of the commander-in-chief.
39921 Kutuzov's adjutant whispered to Prince Andrew that this was the wife of
39922 the priest whose home it was, and that she intended to offer his Serene
39923 Highness bread and salt. "Her husband has welcomed his Serene Highness
39924 with the cross at the church, and she intends to welcome him in the
39925 house.... She's very pretty," added the adjutant with a smile. At those
39926 words Kutuzov looked round. He was listening to the general's report--
39927 which consisted chiefly of a criticism of the position at Tsarevo-
39928 Zaymishche--as he had listened to Denisov, and seven years previously
39929 had listened to the discussion at the Austerlitz council of war. He
39930 evidently listened only because he had ears which, though there was a
39931 piece of tow in one of them, could not help hearing; but it was evident
39932 that nothing the general could say would surprise or even interest him,
39933 that he knew all that would be said beforehand, and heard it all only
39934 because he had to, as one has to listen to the chanting of a service of
39935 prayer. All that Denisov had said was clever and to the point. What the
39936 general was saying was even more clever and to the point, but it was
39937 evident that Kutuzov despised knowledge and cleverness, and knew of
39938 something else that would decide the matter--something independent of
39939 cleverness and knowledge. Prince Andrew watched the commander-in-chief's
39940 face attentively, and the only expression he could see there was one of
39941 boredom, curiosity as to the meaning of the feminine whispering behind
39942 the door, and a desire to observe propriety. It was evident that Kutuzov
39943 despised cleverness and learning and even the patriotic feeling shown by
39944 Denisov, but despised them not because of his own intellect, feelings,
39945 or knowledge--he did not try to display any of these--but because of
39946 something else. He despised them because of his old age and experience
39947 of life. The only instruction Kutuzov gave of his own accord during that
39948 report referred to looting by the Russian troops. At the end of the
39949 report the general put before him for signature a paper relating to the
39950 recovery of payment from army commanders for green oats mown down by the
39951 soldiers, when landowners lodged petitions for compensation.
39953 After hearing the matter, Kutuzov smacked his lips together and shook
39956 "Into the stove... into the fire with it! I tell you once for all, my
39957 dear fellow," said he, "into the fire with all such things! Let them cut
39958 the crops and burn wood to their hearts' content. I don't order it or
39959 allow it, but I don't exact compensation either. One can't get on
39960 without it. 'When wood is chopped the chips will fly.'" He looked at the
39961 paper again. "Oh, this German precision!" he muttered, shaking his head.
39968 "Well, that's all!" said Kutuzov as he signed the last of the documents,
39969 and rising heavily and smoothing out the folds in his fat white neck he
39970 moved toward the door with a more cheerful expression.
39972 The priest's wife, flushing rosy red, caught up the dish she had after
39973 all not managed to present at the right moment, though she had so long
39974 been preparing for it, and with a low bow offered it to Kutuzov.
39976 He screwed up his eyes, smiled, lifted her chin with his hand, and said:
39978 "Ah, what a beauty! Thank you, sweetheart!"
39980 He took some gold pieces from his trouser pocket and put them on the
39981 dish for her. "Well, my dear, and how are we getting on?" he asked,
39982 moving to the door of the room assigned to him. The priest's wife
39983 smiled, and with dimples in her rosy cheeks followed him into the room.
39984 The adjutant came out to the porch and asked Prince Andrew to lunch with
39985 him. Half an hour later Prince Andrew was again called to Kutuzov. He
39986 found him reclining in an armchair, still in the same unbuttoned
39987 overcoat. He had in his hand a French book which he closed as Prince
39988 Andrew entered, marking the place with a knife. Prince Andrew saw by the
39989 cover that it was Les Chevaliers du Cygne by Madame de Genlis.
39991 "Well, sit down, sit down here. Let's have a talk," said Kutuzov. "It's
39992 sad, very sad. But remember, my dear fellow, that I am a father to you,
39993 a second father...."
39995 Prince Andrew told Kutuzov all he knew of his father's death, and what
39996 he had seen at Bald Hills when he passed through it.
39998 "What... what they have brought us to!" Kutuzov suddenly cried in an
39999 agitated voice, evidently picturing vividly to himself from Prince
40000 Andrew's story the condition Russia was in. "But give me time, give me
40001 time!" he said with a grim look, evidently not wishing to continue this
40002 agitating conversation, and added: "I sent for you to keep you with me."
40004 "I thank your Serene Highness, but I fear I am no longer fit for the
40005 staff," replied Prince Andrew with a smile which Kutuzov noticed.
40007 Kutuzov glanced inquiringly at him.
40009 "But above all," added Prince Andrew, "I have grown used to my regiment,
40010 am fond of the officers, and I fancy the men also like me. I should be
40011 sorry to leave the regiment. If I decline the honor of being with you,
40014 A shrewd, kindly, yet subtly derisive expression lit up Kutuzov's podgy
40015 face. He cut Bolkonski short.
40017 "I am sorry, for I need you. But you're right, you're right! It's not
40018 here that men are needed. Advisers are always plentiful, but men are
40019 not. The regiments would not be what they are if the would-be advisers
40020 served there as you do. I remember you at Austerlitz.... I remember,
40021 yes, I remember you with the standard!" said Kutuzov, and a flush of
40022 pleasure suffused Prince Andrew's face at this recollection.
40024 Taking his hand and drawing him downwards, Kutuzov offered his cheek to
40025 be kissed, and again Prince Andrew noticed tears in the old man's eyes.
40026 Though Prince Andrew knew that Kutuzov's tears came easily, and that he
40027 was particularly tender to and considerate of him from a wish to show
40028 sympathy with his loss, yet this reminder of Austerlitz was both
40029 pleasant and flattering to him.
40031 "Go your way and God be with you. I know your path is the path of
40032 honor!" He paused. "I missed you at Bucharest, but I needed someone to
40033 send." And changing the subject, Kutuzov began to speak of the Turkish
40034 war and the peace that had been concluded. "Yes, I have been much
40035 blamed," he said, "both for that war and the peace... but everything
40036 came at the right time. Tout vient a point a celui qui sait attendre. *
40037 And there were as many advisers there as here..." he went on, returning
40038 to the subject of "advisers" which evidently occupied him. "Ah, those
40039 advisers!" said he. "If we had listened to them all we should not have
40040 made peace with Turkey and should not have been through with that war.
40041 Everything in haste, but more haste, less speed. Kamenski would have
40042 been lost if he had not died. He stormed fortresses with thirty thousand
40043 men. It is not difficult to capture a fortress but it is difficult to
40044 win a campaign. For that, not storming and attacking but patience and
40045 time are wanted. Kamenski sent soldiers to Rustchuk, but I only employed
40046 these two things and took more fortresses than Kamenski and made them
40047 Turks eat horseflesh!" He swayed his head. "And the French shall too,
40048 believe me," he went on, growing warmer and beating his chest, "I'll
40049 make them eat horseflesh!" And tears again dimmed his eyes.
40052 * "Everything comes in time to him who knows how to wait."
40054 "But shan't we have to accept battle?" remarked Prince Andrew.
40056 "We shall if everybody wants it; it can't be helped.... But believe me,
40057 my dear boy, there is nothing stronger than those two: patience and
40058 time, they will do it all. But the advisers n'entendent pas de cette
40059 oreille, voila le mal. * Some want a thing--others don't. What's one to
40060 do?" he asked, evidently expecting an answer. "Well, what do you want us
40061 to do?" he repeated and his eye shone with a deep, shrewd look. "I'll
40062 tell you what to do," he continued, as Prince Andrew still did not
40063 reply: "I will tell you what to do, and what I do. Dans le doute, mon
40064 cher," he paused, "abstiens-toi" *(2)--he articulated the French proverb
40068 * "Don't see it that way, that's the trouble."
40070 * (2) "When in doubt, my dear fellow, do nothing."
40072 "Well, good-by, my dear fellow; remember that with all my heart I share
40073 your sorrow, and that for you I am not a Serene Highness, nor a prince,
40074 nor a commander-in-chief, but a father! If you want anything come
40075 straight to me. Good-bye, my dear boy."
40077 Again he embraced and kissed Prince Andrew, but before the latter had
40078 left the room Kutuzov gave a sigh of relief and went on with his
40079 unfinished novel, Les Chevaliers du Cygne by Madame de Genlis.
40081 Prince Andrew could not have explained how or why it was, but after that
40082 interview with Kutuzov he went back to his regiment reassured as to the
40083 general course of affairs and as to the man to whom it had been
40084 entrusted. The more he realized the absence of all personal motive in
40085 that old man--in whom there seemed to remain only the habit of passions,
40086 and in place of an intellect (grouping events and drawing conclusions)
40087 only the capacity calmly to contemplate the course of events--the more
40088 reassured he was that everything would be as it should. "He will not
40089 bring in any plan of his own. He will not devise or undertake anything,"
40090 thought Prince Andrew, "but he will hear everything, remember
40091 everything, and put everything in its place. He will not hinder anything
40092 useful nor allow anything harmful. He understands that there is
40093 something stronger and more important than his own will--the inevitable
40094 course of events, and he can see them and grasp their significance, and
40095 seeing that significance can refrain from meddling and renounce his
40096 personal wish directed to something else. And above all," thought Prince
40097 Andrew, "one believes in him because he's Russian, despite the novel by
40098 Genlis and the French proverbs, and because his voice shook when he
40099 said: 'What they have brought us to!' and had a sob in it when he said
40100 he would 'make them eat horseflesh!'"
40102 On such feelings, more or less dimly shared by all, the unanimity and
40103 general approval were founded with which, despite court influences, the
40104 popular choice of Kutuzov as commander-in-chief was received.
40111 After the Emperor had left Moscow, life flowed on there in its usual
40112 course, and its course was so very usual that it was difficult to
40113 remember the recent days of patriotic elation and ardor, hard to believe
40114 that Russia was really in danger and that the members of the English
40115 Club were also sons of the Fatherland ready to sacrifice everything for
40116 it. The one thing that recalled the patriotic fervor everyone had
40117 displayed during the Emperor's stay was the call for contributions of
40118 men and money, a necessity that as soon as the promises had been made
40119 assumed a legal, official form and became unavoidable.
40121 With the enemy's approach to Moscow, the Moscovites' view of their
40122 situation did not grow more serious but on the contrary became even more
40123 frivolous, as always happens with people who see a great danger
40124 approaching. At the approach of danger there are always two voices that
40125 speak with equal power in the human soul: one very reasonably tells a
40126 man to consider the nature of the danger and the means of escaping it;
40127 the other, still more reasonably, says that it is too depressing and
40128 painful to think of the danger, since it is not in man's power to
40129 foresee everything and avert the general course of events, and it is
40130 therefore better to disregard what is painful till it comes, and to
40131 think about what is pleasant. In solitude a man generally listens to the
40132 first voice, but in society to the second. So it was now with the
40133 inhabitants of Moscow. It was long since people had been as gay in
40134 Moscow as that year.
40136 Rostopchin's broadsheets, headed by woodcuts of a drink shop, a potman,
40137 and a Moscow burgher called Karpushka Chigirin, "who--having been a
40138 militiaman and having had rather too much at the pub--heard that
40139 Napoleon wished to come to Moscow, grew angry, abused the French in very
40140 bad language, came out of the drink shop, and, under the sign of the
40141 eagle, began to address the assembled people," were read and discussed,
40142 together with the latest of Vasili Lvovich Pushkin's bouts rimes.
40144 In the corner room at the club, members gathered to read these
40145 broadsheets, and some liked the way Karpushka jeered at the French,
40146 saying: "They will swell up with Russian cabbage, burst with our
40147 buckwheat porridge, and choke themselves with cabbage soup. They are all
40148 dwarfs and one peasant woman will toss three of them with a hayfork."
40149 Others did not like that tone and said it was stupid and vulgar. It was
40150 said that Rostopchin had expelled all Frenchmen and even all foreigners
40151 from Moscow, and that there had been some spies and agents of Napoleon
40152 among them; but this was told chiefly to introduce Rostopchin's witty
40153 remark on that occasion. The foreigners were deported to Nizhni by boat,
40154 and Rostopchin had said to them in French: "Rentrez en vousmemes; entrez
40155 dans la barque, et n'en faites pas une barque de Charon." * There was
40156 talk of all the government offices having been already removed from
40157 Moscow, and to this Shinshin's witticism was added--that for that alone
40158 Moscow ought to be grateful to Napoleon. It was said that Mamonov's
40159 regiment would cost him eight hundred thousand rubles, and that Bezukhov
40160 had spent even more on his, but that the best thing about Bezukhov's
40161 action was that he himself was going to don a uniform and ride at the
40162 head of his regiment without charging anything for the show.
40165 * "Think it over; get into the barque, and take care not to make it a
40168 "You don't spare anyone," said Julie Drubetskaya as she collected and
40169 pressed together a bunch of raveled lint with her thin, beringed
40172 Julie was preparing to leave Moscow next day and was giving a farewell
40175 "Bezukhov est ridicule, but he is so kind and good-natured. What
40176 pleasure is there to be so caustique?"
40178 "A forfeit!" cried a young man in militia uniform whom Julie called "mon
40179 chevalier," and who was going with her to Nizhni.
40181 In Julie's set, as in many other circles in Moscow, it had been agreed
40182 that they would speak nothing but Russian and that those who made a slip
40183 and spoke French should pay fines to the Committee of Voluntary
40186 "Another forfeit for a Gallicism," said a Russian writer who was
40187 present. "'What pleasure is there to be' is not Russian!"
40189 "You spare no one," continued Julie to the young man without heeding the
40192 "For caustique--I am guilty and will pay, and I am prepared to pay again
40193 for the pleasure of telling you the truth. For Gallicisms I won't be
40194 responsible," she remarked, turning to the author: "I have neither the
40195 money nor the time, like Prince Galitsyn, to engage a master to teach me
40198 "Ah, here he is!" she added. "Quand on... No, no," she said to the
40199 militia officer, "you won't catch me. Speak of the sun and you see its
40200 rays!" and she smiled amiably at Pierre. "We were just talking of you,"
40201 she said with the facility in lying natural to a society woman. "We were
40202 saying that your regiment would be sure to be better than Mamonov's."
40204 "Oh, don't talk to me of my regiment," replied Pierre, kissing his
40205 hostess' hand and taking a seat beside her. "I am so sick of it."
40207 "You will, of course, command it yourself?" said Julie, directing a sly,
40208 sarcastic glance toward the militia officer.
40210 The latter in Pierre's presence had ceased to be caustic, and his face
40211 expressed perplexity as to what Julie's smile might mean. In spite of
40212 his absent-mindedness and good nature, Pierre's personality immediately
40213 checked any attempt to ridicule him to his face.
40215 "No," said Pierre, with a laughing glance at his big, stout body. "I
40216 should make too good a target for the French, besides I am afraid I
40217 should hardly be able to climb onto a horse."
40219 Among those whom Julie's guests happened to choose to gossip about were
40222 "I hear that their affairs are in a very bad way," said Julie. "And he
40223 is so unreasonable, the count himself I mean. The Razumovskis wanted to
40224 buy his house and his estate near Moscow, but it drags on and on. He
40227 "No, I think the sale will come off in a few days," said someone.
40228 "Though it is madness to buy anything in Moscow now."
40230 "Why?" asked Julie. "You don't think Moscow is in danger?"
40232 "Then why are you leaving?"
40234 "I? What a question! I am going because... well, because everyone is
40235 going: and besides--I am not Joan of Arc or an Amazon."
40237 "Well, of course, of course! Let me have some more strips of linen."
40239 "If he manages the business properly he will be able to pay off all his
40240 debts," said the militia officer, speaking of Rostov.
40242 "A kindly old man but not up to much. And why do they stay on so long in
40243 Moscow? They meant to leave for the country long ago. Natalie is quite
40244 well again now, isn't she?" Julie asked Pierre with a knowing smile.
40246 "They are waiting for their younger son," Pierre replied. "He joined
40247 Obolenski's Cossacks and went to Belaya Tserkov where the regiment is
40248 being formed. But now they have had him transferred to my regiment and
40249 are expecting him every day. The count wanted to leave long ago, but the
40250 countess won't on any account leave Moscow till her son returns."
40252 "I met them the day before yesterday at the Arkharovs'. Natalie has
40253 recovered her looks and is brighter. She sang a song. How easily some
40254 people get over everything!"
40256 "Get over what?" inquired Pierre, looking displeased.
40260 "You know, Count, such knights as you are only found in Madame de
40263 "What knights? What do you mean?" demanded Pierre, blushing.
40265 "Oh, come, my dear count! C'est la fable de tout Moscou. Je vous admire,
40266 ma parole d'honneur!" *
40269 * "It is the talk of all Moscow. My word, I admire you!"
40271 "Forfeit, forfeit!" cried the militia officer.
40273 "All right, one can't talk--how tiresome!"
40275 "What is 'the talk of all Moscow'?" Pierre asked angrily, rising to his
40278 "Come now, Count, you know!"
40280 "I don't know anything about it," said Pierre.
40282 "I know you were friendly with Natalie, and so... but I was always more
40283 friendly with Vera--that dear Vera."
40285 "No, madame!" Pierre continued in a tone of displeasure, "I have not
40286 taken on myself the role of Natalie Rostova's knight at all, and have
40287 not been to their house for nearly a month. But I cannot understand the
40290 "Qui s'excuse s'accuse," * said Julie, smiling and waving the lint
40291 triumphantly, and to have the last word she promptly changed the
40292 subject. "Do you know what I heard today? Poor Mary Bolkonskaya arrived
40293 in Moscow yesterday. Do you know that she has lost her father?"
40296 * "Who excuses himself, accuses himself."
40298 "Really? Where is she? I should like very much to see her," said Pierre.
40300 "I spent the evening with her yesterday. She is going to their estate
40301 near Moscow either today or tomorrow morning, with her nephew."
40303 "Well, and how is she?" asked Pierre.
40305 "She is well, but sad. But do you know who rescued her? It is quite a
40306 romance. Nicholas Rostov! She was surrounded, and they wanted to kill
40307 her and had wounded some of her people. He rushed in and saved her...."
40309 "Another romance," said the militia officer. "Really, this general
40310 flight has been arranged to get all the old maids married off. Catiche
40311 is one and Princess Bolkonskaya another."
40313 "Do you know, I really believe she is un petit peu amoureuse du jeune
40317 * "A little bit in love with the young man."
40319 "Forfeit, forfeit, forfeit!"
40321 "But how could one say that in Russian?"
40328 When Pierre returned home he was handed two of Rostopchin's broadsheets
40329 that had been brought that day.
40331 The first declared that the report that Count Rostopchin had forbidden
40332 people to leave Moscow was false; on the contrary he was glad that
40333 ladies and tradesmen's wives were leaving the city. "There will be less
40334 panic and less gossip," ran the broadsheet "but I will stake my life on
40335 it that scoundrel will not enter Moscow." These words showed Pierre
40336 clearly for the first time that the French would enter Moscow. The
40337 second broadsheet stated that our headquarters were at Vyazma, that
40338 Count Wittgenstein had defeated the French, but that as many of the
40339 inhabitants of Moscow wished to be armed, weapons were ready for them at
40340 the arsenal: sabers, pistols, and muskets which could be had at a low
40341 price. The tone of the proclamation was not as jocose as in the former
40342 Chigirin talks. Pierre pondered over these broadsheets. Evidently the
40343 terrible stormcloud he had desired with the whole strength of his soul
40344 but which yet aroused involuntary horror in him was drawing near.
40346 "Shall I join the army and enter the service, or wait?" he asked himself
40347 for the hundredth time. He took a pack of cards that lay on the table
40348 and began to lay them out for a game of patience.
40350 "If this patience comes out," he said to himself after shuffling the
40351 cards, holding them in his hand, and lifting his head, "if it comes out,
40352 it means... what does it mean?"
40354 He had not decided what it should mean when he heard the voice of the
40355 eldest princess at the door asking whether she might come in.
40357 "Then it will mean that I must go to the army," said Pierre to himself.
40358 "Come in, come in!" he added to the princess.
40360 Only the eldest princess, the one with the stony face and long waist,
40361 was still living in Pierre's house. The two younger ones had both
40364 "Excuse my coming to you, cousin," she said in a reproachful and
40365 agitated voice. "You know some decision must be come to. What is going
40366 to happen? Everyone has left Moscow and the people are rioting. How is
40367 it that we are staying on?"
40369 "On the contrary, things seem satisfactory, ma cousine," said Pierre in
40370 the bantering tone he habitually adopted toward her, always feeling
40371 uncomfortable in the role of her benefactor.
40373 "Satisfactory, indeed! Very satisfactory! Barbara Ivanovna told me today
40374 how our troops are distinguishing themselves. It certainly does them
40375 credit! And the people too are quite mutinous--they no longer obey, even
40376 my maid has taken to being rude. At this rate they will soon begin
40377 beating us. One can't walk in the streets. But, above all, the French
40378 will be here any day now, so what are we waiting for? I ask just one
40379 thing of you, cousin," she went on, "arrange for me to be taken to
40380 Petersburg. Whatever I may be, I can't live under Bonaparte's rule."
40382 "Oh, come, ma cousine! Where do you get your information from? On the
40385 "I won't submit to your Napoleon! Others may if they please.... If you
40386 don't want to do this..."
40388 "But I will, I'll give the order at once."
40390 The princess was apparently vexed at not having anyone to be angry with.
40391 Muttering to herself, she sat down on a chair.
40393 "But you have been misinformed," said Pierre. "Everything is quiet in
40394 the city and there is not the slightest danger. See! I've just been
40395 reading..." He showed her the broadsheet. "Count Rostopchin writes that
40396 he will stake his life on it that the enemy will not enter Moscow."
40398 "Oh, that count of yours!" said the princess malevolently. "He is a
40399 hypocrite, a rascal who has himself roused the people to riot. Didn't he
40400 write in those idiotic broadsheets that anyone, 'whoever it might be,
40401 should be dragged to the lockup by his hair'? (How silly!) 'And honor
40402 and glory to whoever captures him,' he says. This is what his cajolery
40403 has brought us to! Barbara Ivanovna told me the mob near killed her
40404 because she said something in French."
40406 "Oh, but it's so... You take everything so to heart," said Pierre, and
40407 began laying out his cards for patience.
40409 Although that patience did come out, Pierre did not join the army, but
40410 remained in deserted Moscow ever in the same state of agitation,
40411 irresolution, and alarm, yet at the same time joyfully expecting
40412 something terrible.
40414 Next day toward evening the princess set off, and Pierre's head steward
40415 came to inform him that the money needed for the equipment of his
40416 regiment could not be found without selling one of the estates. In
40417 general the head steward made out to Pierre that his project of raising
40418 a regiment would ruin him. Pierre listened to him, scarcely able to
40421 "Well then, sell it," said he. "What's to be done? I can't draw back
40424 The worse everything became, especially his own affairs, the better was
40425 Pierre pleased and the more evident was it that the catastrophe he
40426 expected was approaching. Hardly anyone he knew was left in town. Julie
40427 had gone, and so had Princess Mary. Of his intimate friends only the
40428 Rostovs remained, but he did not go to see them.
40430 To distract his thoughts he drove that day to the village of Vorontsovo
40431 to see the great balloon Leppich was constructing to destroy the foe,
40432 and a trial balloon that was to go up next day. The balloon was not yet
40433 ready, but Pierre learned that it was being constructed by the Emperor's
40434 desire. The Emperor had written to Count Rostopchin as follows:
40436 As soon as Leppich is ready, get together a crew of reliable and
40437 intelligent men for his car and send a courier to General Kutuzov to let
40438 him know. I have informed him of the matter.
40440 Please impress upon Leppich to be very careful where he descends for the
40441 first time, that he may not make a mistake and fall into the enemy's
40442 hands. It is essential for him to combine his movements with those of
40443 the commander-in-chief.
40445 On his way home from Vorontsovo, as he was passing the Bolotnoe Place
40446 Pierre, seeing a large crowd round the Lobnoe Place, stopped and got out
40447 of his trap. A French cook accused of being a spy was being flogged. The
40448 flogging was only just over, and the executioner was releasing from the
40449 flogging bench a stout man with red whiskers, in blue stockings and a
40450 green jacket, who was moaning piteously. Another criminal, thin and
40451 pale, stood near. Judging by their faces they were both Frenchmen. With
40452 a frightened and suffering look resembling that on the thin Frenchman's
40453 face, Pierre pushed his way in through the crowd.
40455 "What is it? Who is it? What is it for?" he kept asking.
40457 But the attention of the crowd--officials, burghers, shopkeepers,
40458 peasants, and women in cloaks and in pelisses--was so eagerly centered
40459 on what was passing in Lobnoe Place that no one answered him. The stout
40460 man rose, frowned, shrugged his shoulders, and evidently trying to
40461 appear firm began to pull on his jacket without looking about him, but
40462 suddenly his lips trembled and he began to cry, in the way full-blooded
40463 grown-up men cry, though angry with himself for doing so. In the crowd
40464 people began talking loudly, to stifle their feelings of pity as it
40467 "He's cook to some prince."
40469 "Eh, mounseer, Russian sauce seems to be sour to a Frenchman... sets his
40470 teeth on edge!" said a wrinkled clerk who was standing behind Pierre,
40471 when the Frenchman began to cry.
40473 The clerk glanced round, evidently hoping that his joke would be
40474 appreciated. Some people began to laugh, others continued to watch in
40475 dismay the executioner who was undressing the other man.
40477 Pierre choked, his face puckered, and he turned hastily away, went back
40478 to his trap muttering something to himself as he went, and took his
40479 seat. As they drove along he shuddered and exclaimed several times so
40480 audibly that the coachman asked him:
40482 "What is your pleasure?"
40484 "Where are you going?" shouted Pierre to the man, who was driving to
40487 "To the Governor's, as you ordered," answered the coachman.
40489 "Fool! Idiot!" shouted Pierre, abusing his coachman--a thing he rarely
40490 did. "Home, I told you! And drive faster, blockhead!" "I must get away
40491 this very day," he murmured to himself.
40493 At the sight of the tortured Frenchman and the crowd surrounding the
40494 Lobnoe Place, Pierre had so definitely made up his mind that he could no
40495 longer remain in Moscow and would leave for the army that very day that
40496 it seemed to him that either he had told the coachman this or that the
40497 man ought to have known it for himself.
40499 On reaching home Pierre gave orders to Evstafey--his head coachman who
40500 knew everything, could do anything, and was known to all Moscow--that he
40501 would leave that night for the army at Mozhaysk, and that his saddle
40502 horses should be sent there. This could not all be arranged that day, so
40503 on Evstafey's representation Pierre had to put off his departure till
40504 next day to allow time for the relay horses to be sent on in advance.
40506 On the twenty-fourth the weather cleared up after a spell of rain, and
40507 after dinner Pierre left Moscow. When changing horses that night in
40508 Perkhushkovo, he learned that there had been a great battle that
40509 evening. (This was the battle of Shevardino.) He was told that there in
40510 Perkhushkovo the earth trembled from the firing, but nobody could answer
40511 his questions as to who had won. At dawn next day Pierre was approaching
40514 Every house in Mozhaysk had soldiers quartered in it, and at the hostel
40515 where Pierre was met by his groom and coachman there was no room to be
40516 had. It was full of officers.
40518 Everywhere in Mozhaysk and beyond it, troops were stationed or on the
40519 march. Cossacks, foot and horse soldiers, wagons, caissons, and cannon
40520 were everywhere. Pierre pushed forward as fast as he could, and the
40521 farther he left Moscow behind and the deeper he plunged into that sea of
40522 troops the more was he overcome by restless agitation and a new and
40523 joyful feeling he had not experienced before. It was a feeling akin to
40524 what he had felt at the Sloboda Palace during the Emperor's visit--a
40525 sense of the necessity of undertaking something and sacrificing
40526 something. He now experienced a glad consciousness that everything that
40527 constitutes men's happiness--the comforts of life, wealth, even life
40528 itself--is rubbish it is pleasant to throw away, compared with
40529 something... With what? Pierre could not say, and he did not try to
40530 determine for whom and for what he felt such particular delight in
40531 sacrificing everything. He was not occupied with the question of what to
40532 sacrifice for; the fact of sacrificing in itself afforded him a new and
40540 On the twenty-fourth of August the battle of the Shevardino Redoubt was
40541 fought, on the twenty-fifth not a shot was fired by either side, and on
40542 the twenty-sixth the battle of Borodino itself took place.
40544 Why and how were the battles of Shevardino and Borodino given and
40545 accepted? Why was the battle of Borodino fought? There was not the least
40546 sense in it for either the French or the Russians. Its immediate result
40547 for the Russians was, and was bound to be, that we were brought nearer
40548 to the destruction of Moscow--which we feared more than anything in the
40549 world; and for the French its immediate result was that they were
40550 brought nearer to the destruction of their whole army--which they feared
40551 more than anything in the world. What the result must be was quite
40552 obvious, and yet Napoleon offered and Kutuzov accepted that battle.
40554 If the commanders had been guided by reason, it would seem that it must
40555 have been obvious to Napoleon that by advancing thirteen hundred miles
40556 and giving battle with a probability of losing a quarter of his army, he
40557 was advancing to certain destruction, and it must have been equally
40558 clear to Kutuzov that by accepting battle and risking the loss of a
40559 quarter of his army he would certainly lose Moscow. For Kutuzov this was
40560 mathematically clear, as it is that if when playing draughts I have one
40561 man less and go on exchanging, I shall certainly lose, and therefore
40562 should not exchange. When my opponent has sixteen men and I have
40563 fourteen, I am only one eighth weaker than he, but when I have exchanged
40564 thirteen more men he will be three times as strong as I am.
40566 Before the battle of Borodino our strength in proportion to the French
40567 was about as five to six, but after that battle it was little more than
40568 one to two: previously we had a hundred thousand against a hundred and
40569 twenty thousand; afterwards little more than fifty thousand against a
40570 hundred thousand. Yet the shrewd and experienced Kutuzov accepted the
40571 battle, while Napoleon, who was said to be a commander of genius, gave
40572 it, losing a quarter of his army and lengthening his lines of
40573 communication still more. If it is said that he expected to end the
40574 campaign by occupying Moscow as he had ended a previous campaign by
40575 occupying Vienna, there is much evidence to the contrary. Napoleon's
40576 historians themselves tell us that from Smolensk onwards he wished to
40577 stop, knew the danger of his extended position, and knew that the
40578 occupation of Moscow would not be the end of the campaign, for he had
40579 seen at Smolensk the state in which Russian towns were left to him, and
40580 had not received a single reply to his repeated announcements of his
40583 In giving and accepting battle at Borodino, Kutuzov acted involuntarily
40584 and irrationally. But later on, to fit what had occurred, the historians
40585 provided cunningly devised evidence of the foresight and genius of the
40586 generals who, of all the blind tools of history were the most enslaved
40589 The ancients have left us model heroic poems in which the heroes furnish
40590 the whole interest of the story, and we are still unable to accustom
40591 ourselves to the fact that for our epoch histories of that kind are
40594 On the other question, how the battle of Borodino and the preceding
40595 battle of Shevardino were fought, there also exists a definite and well-
40596 known, but quite false, conception. All the historians describe the
40599 The Russian army, they say, in its retreat from Smolensk sought out for
40600 itself the best position for a general engagement and found such a
40601 position at Borodino.
40603 The Russians, they say, fortified this position in advance on the left
40604 of the highroad (from Moscow to Smolensk) and almost at a right angle to
40605 it, from Borodino to Utitsa, at the very place where the battle was
40608 In front of this position, they say, a fortified outpost was set up on
40609 the Shevardino mound to observe the enemy. On the twenty-fourth, we are
40610 told, Napoleon attacked this advanced post and took it, and, on the
40611 twenty-sixth, attacked the whole Russian army, which was in position on
40612 the field of Borodino.
40614 So the histories say, and it is all quite wrong, as anyone who cares to
40615 look into the matter can easily convince himself.
40617 The Russians did not seek out the best position but, on the contrary,
40618 during the retreat passed many positions better than Borodino. They did
40619 not stop at any one of these positions because Kutuzov did not wish to
40620 occupy a position he had not himself chosen, because the popular demand
40621 for a battle had not yet expressed itself strongly enough, and because
40622 Miloradovich had not yet arrived with the militia, and for many other
40623 reasons. The fact is that other positions they had passed were stronger,
40624 and that the position at Borodino (the one where the battle was fought),
40625 far from being strong, was no more a position than any other spot one
40626 might find in the Russian Empire by sticking a pin into the map at
40629 Not only did the Russians not fortify the position on the field of
40630 Borodino to the left of, and at a right angle to, the highroad (that is,
40631 the position on which the battle took place), but never till the twenty-
40632 fifth of August, 1812, did they think that a battle might be fought
40633 there. This was shown first by the fact that there were no entrenchments
40634 there by the twenty fifth and that those begun on the twenty-fifth and
40635 twenty-sixth were not completed, and secondly, by the position of the
40636 Shevardino Redoubt. That redoubt was quite senseless in front of the
40637 position where the battle was accepted. Why was it more strongly
40638 fortified than any other post? And why were all efforts exhausted and
40639 six thousand men sacrificed to defend it till late at night on the
40640 twenty-fourth? A Cossack patrol would have sufficed to observe the
40641 enemy. Thirdly, as proof that the position on which the battle was
40642 fought had not been foreseen and that the Shevardino Redoubt was not an
40643 advanced post of that position, we have the fact that up to the twenty-
40644 fifth, Barclay de Tolly and Bagration were convinced that the Shevardino
40645 Redoubt was the left flank of the position, and that Kutuzov himself in
40646 his report, written in hot haste after the battle, speaks of the
40647 Shevardino Redoubt as the left flank of the position. It was much later,
40648 when reports on the battle of Borodino were written at leisure, that the
40649 incorrect and extraordinary statement was invented (probably to justify
40650 the mistakes of a commander-in-chief who had to be represented as
40651 infallible) that the Shevardino Redoubt was an advanced post--whereas in
40652 reality it was simply a fortified point on the left flank--and that the
40653 battle of Borodino was fought by us on an entrenched position previously
40654 selected, where as it was fought on a quite unexpected spot which was
40655 almost unentrenched.
40657 The case was evidently this: a position was selected along the river
40658 Kolocha--which crosses the highroad not at a right angle but at an acute
40659 angle--so that the left flank was at Shevardino, the right flank near
40660 the village of Novoe, and the center at Borodino at the confluence of
40661 the rivers Kolocha and Voyna.
40663 To anyone who looks at the field of Borodino without thinking of how the
40664 battle was actually fought, this position, protected by the river
40665 Kolocha, presents itself as obvious for an army whose object was to
40666 prevent an enemy from advancing along the Smolensk road to Moscow.
40668 Napoleon, riding to Valuevo on the twenty-fourth, did not see (as the
40669 history books say he did) the position of the Russians from Utitsa to
40670 Borodino (he could not have seen that position because it did not
40671 exist), nor did he see an advanced post of the Russian army, but while
40672 pursuing the Russian rearguard he came upon the left flank of the
40673 Russian position--at the Shevardino Redoubt--and unexpectedly for the
40674 Russians moved his army across the Kolocha. And the Russians, not having
40675 time to begin a general engagement, withdrew their left wing from the
40676 position they had intended to occupy and took up a new position which
40677 had not been foreseen and was not fortified. By crossing to the other
40678 side of the Kolocha to the left of the highroad, Napoleon shifted the
40679 whole forthcoming battle from right to left (looking from the Russian
40680 side) and transferred it to the plain between Utitsa, Semenovsk, and
40681 Borodino--a plain no more advantageous as a position than any other
40682 plain in Russia--and there the whole battle of the twenty-sixth of
40685 Had Napoleon not ridden out on the evening of the twenty-fourth to the
40686 Kolocha, and had he not then ordered an immediate attack on the redoubt
40687 but had begun the attack next morning, no one would have doubted that
40688 the Shevardino Redoubt was the left flank of our position, and the
40689 battle would have taken place where we expected it. In that case we
40690 should probably have defended the Shevardino Redoubt--our left flank--
40691 still more obstinately. We should have attacked Napoleon in the center
40692 or on the right, and the engagement would have taken place on the
40693 twenty-fifth, in the position we intended and had fortified. But as the
40694 attack on our left flank took place in the evening after the retreat of
40695 our rear guard (that is, immediately after the fight at Gridneva), and
40696 as the Russian commanders did not wish, or were not in time, to begin a
40697 general engagement then on the evening of the twenty-fourth, the first
40698 and chief action of the battle of Borodino was already lost on the
40699 twenty-fourth, and obviously led to the loss of the one fought on the
40702 After the loss of the Shevardino Redoubt, we found ourselves on the
40703 morning of the twenty-fifth without a position for our left flank, and
40704 were forced to bend it back and hastily entrench it where it chanced to
40707 Not only was the Russian army on the twenty-sixth defended by weak,
40708 unfinished entrenchments, but the disadvantage of that position was
40709 increased by the fact that the Russian commanders--not having fully
40710 realized what had happened, namely the loss of our position on the left
40711 flank and the shifting of the whole field of the forthcoming battle from
40712 right to left--maintained their extended position from the village of
40713 Novoe to Utitsa, and consequently had to move their forces from right to
40714 left during the battle. So it happened that throughout the whole battle
40715 the Russians opposed the entire French army launched against our left
40716 flank with but half as many men. (Poniatowski's action against Utitsa,
40717 and Uvarov's on the right flank against the French, were actions
40718 distinct from the main course of the battle.) So the battle of Borodino
40719 did not take place at all as (in an effort to conceal our commanders'
40720 mistakes even at the cost of diminishing the glory due to the Russian
40721 army and people) it has been described. The battle of Borodino was not
40722 fought on a chosen and entrenched position with forces only slightly
40723 weaker than those of the enemy, but, as a result of the loss of the
40724 Shevardino Redoubt, the Russians fought the battle of Borodino on an
40725 open and almost unentrenched position, with forces only half as numerous
40726 as the French; that is to say, under conditions in which it was not
40727 merely unthinkable to fight for ten hours and secure an indecisive
40728 result, but unthinkable to keep an army even from complete
40729 disintegration and flight.
40736 On the morning of the twenty-fifth Pierre was leaving Mozhaysk. At the
40737 descent of the high steep hill, down which a winding road led out of the
40738 town past the cathedral on the right, where a service was being held and
40739 the bells were ringing, Pierre got out of his vehicle and proceeded on
40740 foot. Behind him a cavalry regiment was coming down the hill preceded by
40741 its singers. Coming up toward him was a train of carts carrying men who
40742 had been wounded in the engagement the day before. The peasant drivers,
40743 shouting and lashing their horses, kept crossing from side to side. The
40744 carts, in each of which three or four wounded soldiers were lying or
40745 sitting, jolted over the stones that had been thrown on the steep
40746 incline to make it something like a road. The wounded, bandaged with
40747 rags, with pale cheeks, compressed lips, and knitted brows, held on to
40748 the sides of the carts as they were jolted against one another. Almost
40749 all of them stared with naive, childlike curiosity at Pierre's white hat
40750 and green swallow-tail coat.
40752 Pierre's coachman shouted angrily at the convoy of wounded to keep to
40753 one side of the road. The cavalry regiment, as it descended the hill
40754 with its singers, surrounded Pierre's carriage and blocked the road.
40755 Pierre stopped, being pressed against the side of the cutting in which
40756 the road ran. The sunshine from behind the hill did not penetrate into
40757 the cutting and there it was cold and damp, but above Pierre's head was
40758 the bright August sunshine and the bells sounded merrily. One of the
40759 carts with wounded stopped by the side of the road close to Pierre. The
40760 driver in his bast shoes ran panting up to it, placed a stone under one
40761 of its tireless hind wheels, and began arranging the breech-band on his
40764 One of the wounded, an old soldier with a bandaged arm who was following
40765 the cart on foot, caught hold of it with his sound hand and turned to
40768 "I say, fellow countryman! Will they set us down here or take us on to
40771 Pierre was so deep in thought that he did not hear the question. He was
40772 looking now at the cavalry regiment that had met the convoy of wounded,
40773 now at the cart by which he was standing, in which two wounded men were
40774 sitting and one was lying. One of those sitting up in the cart had
40775 probably been wounded in the cheek. His whole head was wrapped in rags
40776 and one cheek was swollen to the size of a baby's head. His nose and
40777 mouth were twisted to one side. This soldier was looking at the
40778 cathedral and crossing himself. Another, a young lad, a fair-haired
40779 recruit as white as though there was no blood in his thin face, looked
40780 at Pierre kindly, with a fixed smile. The third lay prone so that his
40781 face was not visible. The cavalry singers were passing close by:
40784 Ah lost, quite lost... is my head so keen, Living in a foreign land.
40786 they sang their soldiers' dance song.
40788 As if responding to them but with a different sort of merriment, the
40789 metallic sound of the bells reverberated high above and the hot rays of
40790 the sun bathed the top of the opposite slope with yet another sort of
40791 merriment. But beneath the slope, by the cart with the wounded near the
40792 panting little nag where Pierre stood, it was damp, somber, and sad.
40794 The soldier with the swollen cheek looked angrily at the cavalry
40797 "Oh, the coxcombs!" he muttered reproachfully.
40799 "It's not the soldiers only, but I've seen peasants today, too.... The
40800 peasants--even they have to go," said the soldier behind the cart,
40801 addressing Pierre with a sad smile. "No distinctions made nowadays....
40802 They want the whole nation to fall on them--in a word, it's Moscow! They
40803 want to make an end of it."
40805 In spite of the obscurity of the soldier's words Pierre understood what
40806 he wanted to say and nodded approval.
40808 The road was clear again; Pierre descended the hill and drove on.
40810 He kept looking to either side of the road for familiar faces, but only
40811 saw everywhere the unfamiliar faces of various military men of different
40812 branches of the service, who all looked with astonishment at his white
40813 hat and green tail coat.
40815 Having gone nearly three miles he at last met an acquaintance and
40816 eagerly addressed him. This was one of the head army doctors. He was
40817 driving toward Pierre in a covered gig, sitting beside a young surgeon,
40818 and on recognizing Pierre he told the Cossack who occupied the driver's
40821 "Count! Your excellency, how come you to be here?" asked the doctor.
40823 "Well, you know, I wanted to see..."
40825 "Yes, yes, there will be something to see...."
40827 Pierre got out and talked to the doctor, explaining his intention of
40828 taking part in a battle.
40830 The doctor advised him to apply direct to Kutuzov.
40832 "Why should you be God knows where out of sight, during the battle?" he
40833 said, exchanging glances with his young companion. "Anyhow his Serene
40834 Highness knows you and will receive you graciously. That's what you must
40837 The doctor seemed tired and in a hurry.
40839 "You think so?... Ah, I also wanted to ask you where our position is
40840 exactly?" said Pierre.
40842 "The position?" repeated the doctor. "Well, that's not my line. Drive
40843 past Tatarinova, a lot of digging is going on there. Go up the hillock
40846 "Can one see from there?... If you would..."
40848 But the doctor interrupted him and moved toward his gig.
40850 "I would go with you but on my honor I'm up to here"--and he pointed to
40851 his throat. "I'm galloping to the commander of the corps. How do matters
40852 stand?... You know, Count, there'll be a battle tomorrow. Out of an army
40853 of a hundred thousand we must expect at least twenty thousand wounded,
40854 and we haven't stretchers, or bunks, or dressers, or doctors enough for
40855 six thousand. We have ten thousand carts, but we need other things as
40856 well--we must manage as best we can!"
40858 The strange thought that of the thousands of men, young and old, who had
40859 stared with merry surprise at his hat (perhaps the very men he had
40860 noticed), twenty thousand were inevitably doomed to wounds and death
40863 "They may die tomorrow; why are they thinking of anything but death?"
40864 And by some latent sequence of thought the descent of the Mozhaysk hill,
40865 the carts with the wounded, the ringing bells, the slanting rays of the
40866 sun, and the songs of the cavalrymen vividly recurred to his mind.
40868 "The cavalry ride to battle and meet the wounded and do not for a moment
40869 think of what awaits them, but pass by, winking at the wounded. Yet from
40870 among these men twenty thousand are doomed to die, and they wonder at my
40871 hat! Strange!" thought Pierre, continuing his way to Tatarinova.
40873 In front of a landowner's house to the left of the road stood carriages,
40874 wagons, and crowds of orderlies and sentinels. The commander-in-chief
40875 was putting up there, but just when Pierre arrived he was not in and
40876 hardly any of the staff were there--they had gone to the church service.
40877 Pierre drove on toward Gorki.
40879 When he had ascended the hill and reached the little village street, he
40880 saw for the first time peasant militiamen in their white shirts and with
40881 crosses on their caps, who, talking and laughing loudly, animated and
40882 perspiring, were at work on a huge knoll overgrown with grass to the
40885 Some of them were digging, others were wheeling barrowloads of earth
40886 along planks, while others stood about doing nothing.
40888 Two officers were standing on the knoll, directing the men. On seeing
40889 these peasants, who were evidently still amused by the novelty of their
40890 position as soldiers, Pierre once more thought of the wounded men at
40891 Mozhaysk and understood what the soldier had meant when he said: "They
40892 want the whole nation to fall on them." The sight of these bearded
40893 peasants at work on the battlefield, with their queer, clumsy boots and
40894 perspiring necks, and their shirts opening from the left toward the
40895 middle, unfastened, exposing their sunburned collarbones, impressed
40896 Pierre more strongly with the solemnity and importance of the moment
40897 than anything he had yet seen or heard.
40904 Pierre stepped out of his carriage and, passing the toiling militiamen,
40905 ascended the knoll from which, according to the doctor, the battlefield
40908 It was about eleven o'clock. The sun shone somewhat to the left and
40909 behind him and brightly lit up the enormous panorama which, rising like
40910 an amphitheater, extended before him in the clear rarefied atmosphere.
40912 From above on the left, bisecting that amphitheater, wound the Smolensk
40913 highroad, passing through a village with a white church some five
40914 hundred paces in front of the knoll and below it. This was Borodino.
40915 Below the village the road crossed the river by a bridge and, winding
40916 down and up, rose higher and higher to the village of Valuevo visible
40917 about four miles away, where Napoleon was then stationed. Beyond Valuevo
40918 the road disappeared into a yellowing forest on the horizon. Far in the
40919 distance in that birch and fir forest to the right of the road, the
40920 cross and belfry of the Kolocha Monastery gleamed in the sun. Here and
40921 there over the whole of that blue expanse, to right and left of the
40922 forest and the road, smoking campfires could be seen and indefinite
40923 masses of troops--ours and the enemy's. The ground to the right--along
40924 the course of the Kolocha and Moskva rivers--was broken and hilly.
40925 Between the hollows the villages of Bezubova and Zakharino showed in the
40926 distance. On the left the ground was more level; there were fields of
40927 grain, and the smoking ruins of Semenovsk, which had been burned down,
40930 All that Pierre saw was so indefinite that neither the left nor the
40931 right side of the field fully satisfied his expectations. Nowhere could
40932 he see the battlefield he had expected to find, but only fields,
40933 meadows, troops, woods, the smoke of campfires, villages, mounds, and
40934 streams; and try as he would he could descry no military "position" in
40935 this place which teemed with life, nor could he even distinguish our
40936 troops from the enemy's.
40938 "I must ask someone who knows," he thought, and addressed an officer who
40939 was looking with curiosity at his huge unmilitary figure.
40941 "May I ask you," said Pierre, "what village that is in front?"
40943 "Burdino, isn't it?" said the officer, turning to his companion.
40945 "Borodino," the other corrected him.
40947 The officer, evidently glad of an opportunity for a talk, moved up to
40950 "Are those our men there?" Pierre inquired.
40952 "Yes, and there, further on, are the French," said the officer. "There
40953 they are, there... you can see them."
40955 "Where? Where?" asked Pierre.
40957 "One can see them with the naked eye... Why, there!"
40959 The officer pointed with his hand to the smoke visible on the left
40960 beyond the river, and the same stern and serious expression that Pierre
40961 had noticed on many of the faces he had met came into his face.
40963 "Ah, those are the French! And over there?..." Pierre pointed to a knoll
40964 on the left, near which some troops could be seen.
40968 "Ah, ours! And there?..." Pierre pointed to another knoll in the
40969 distance with a big tree on it, near a village that lay in a hollow
40970 where also some campfires were smoking and something black was visible.
40972 "That's his again," said the officer. (It was the Shevardino Redoubt.)
40973 "It was ours yesterday, but now it is his."
40975 "Then how about our position?"
40977 "Our position?" replied the officer with a smile of satisfaction. "I can
40978 tell you quite clearly, because I constructed nearly all our
40979 entrenchments. There, you see? There's our center, at Borodino, just
40980 there," and he pointed to the village in front of them with the white
40981 church. "That's where one crosses the Kolocha. You see down there where
40982 the rows of hay are lying in the hollow, there's the bridge. That's our
40983 center. Our right flank is over there"--he pointed sharply to the right,
40984 far away in the broken ground--"That's where the Moskva River is, and we
40985 have thrown up three redoubts there, very strong ones. The left
40986 flank..." here the officer paused. "Well, you see, that's difficult to
40987 explain.... Yesterday our left flank was there at Shevardino, you see,
40988 where the oak is, but now we have withdrawn our left wing--now it is
40989 over there, do you see that village and the smoke? That's Semenovsk,
40990 yes, there," he pointed to Raevski's knoll. "But the battle will hardly
40991 be there. His having moved his troops there is only a ruse; he will
40992 probably pass round to the right of the Moskva. But wherever it may be,
40993 many a man will be missing tomorrow!" he remarked.
40995 An elderly sergeant who had approached the officer while he was giving
40996 these explanations had waited in silence for him to finish speaking, but
40997 at this point, evidently not liking the officer's remark, interrupted
41000 "Gabions must be sent for," said he sternly.
41002 The officer appeared abashed, as though he understood that one might
41003 think of how many men would be missing tomorrow but ought not to speak
41006 "Well, send number three company again," the officer replied hurriedly.
41008 "And you, are you one of the doctors?"
41010 "No, I've come on my own," answered Pierre, and he went down the hill
41011 again, passing the militiamen.
41013 "Oh, those damned fellows!" muttered the officer who followed him,
41014 holding his nose as he ran past the men at work.
41016 "There they are... bringing her, coming... There they are... They'll be
41017 here in a minute..." voices were suddenly heard saying; and officers,
41018 soldiers, and militiamen began running forward along the road.
41020 A church procession was coming up the hill from Borodino. First along
41021 the dusty road came the infantry in ranks, bareheaded and with arms
41022 reversed. From behind them came the sound of church singing.
41024 Soldiers and militiamen ran bareheaded past Pierre toward the
41027 "They are bringing her, our Protectress!... The Iberian Mother of God!"
41030 "The Smolensk Mother of God," another corrected him.
41032 The militiamen, both those who had been in the village and those who had
41033 been at work on the battery, threw down their spades and ran to meet the
41034 church procession. Following the battalion that marched along the dusty
41035 road came priests in their vestments--one little old man in a hood with
41036 attendants and singers. Behind them soldiers and officers bore a large,
41037 dark-faced icon with an embossed metal cover. This was the icon that had
41038 been brought from Smolensk and had since accompanied the army. Behind,
41039 before, and on both sides, crowds of militiamen with bared heads walked,
41040 ran, and bowed to the ground.
41042 At the summit of the hill they stopped with the icon; the men who had
41043 been holding it up by the linen bands attached to it were relieved by
41044 others, the chanters relit their censers, and service began. The hot
41045 rays of the sun beat down vertically and a fresh soft wind played with
41046 the hair of the bared heads and with the ribbons decorating the icon.
41047 The singing did not sound loud under the open sky. An immense crowd of
41048 bareheaded officers, soldiers, and militiamen surrounded the icon.
41049 Behind the priest and a chanter stood the notabilities on a spot
41050 reserved for them. A bald general with a St. George's Cross on his neck
41051 stood just behind the priest's back, and without crossing himself (he
41052 was evidently a German) patiently awaited the end of the service, which
41053 he considered it necessary to hear to the end, probably to arouse the
41054 patriotism of the Russian people. Another general stood in a martial
41055 pose, crossing himself by shaking his hand in front of his chest while
41056 looking about him. Standing among the crowd of peasants, Pierre
41057 recognized several acquaintances among these notables, but did not look
41058 at them--his whole attention was absorbed in watching the serious
41059 expression on the faces of the crowd of soldiers and militiamen who were
41060 all gazing eagerly at the icon. As soon as the tired chanters, who were
41061 singing the service for the twentieth time that day, began lazily and
41062 mechanically to sing: "Save from calamity Thy servants, O Mother of
41063 God," and the priest and deacon chimed in: "For to Thee under God we all
41064 flee as to an inviolable bulwark and protection," there again kindled in
41065 all those faces the same expression of consciousness of the solemnity of
41066 the impending moment that Pierre had seen on the faces at the foot of
41067 the hill at Mozhaysk and momentarily on many and many faces he had met
41068 that morning; and heads were bowed more frequently and hair tossed back,
41069 and sighs and the sound men made as they crossed themselves were heard.
41071 The crowd round the icon suddenly parted and pressed against Pierre.
41072 Someone, a very important personage judging by the haste with which way
41073 was made for him, was approaching the icon.
41075 It was Kutuzov, who had been riding round the position and on his way
41076 back to Tatarinova had stopped where the service was being held. Pierre
41077 recognized him at once by his peculiar figure, which distinguished him
41078 from everybody else.
41080 With a long overcoat on his exceedingly stout, round-shouldered body,
41081 with uncovered white head and puffy face showing the white ball of the
41082 eye he had lost, Kutuzov walked with plunging, swaying gait into the
41083 crowd and stopped behind the priest. He crossed himself with an
41084 accustomed movement, bent till he touched the ground with his hand, and
41085 bowed his white head with a deep sigh. Behind Kutuzov was Bennigsen and
41086 the suite. Despite the presence of the commander-in-chief, who attracted
41087 the attention of all the superior officers, the militiamen and soldiers
41088 continued their prayers without looking at him.
41090 When the service was over, Kutuzov stepped up to the icon, sank heavily
41091 to his knees, bowed to the ground, and for a long time tried vainly to
41092 rise, but could not do so on account of his weakness and weight. His
41093 white head twitched with the effort. At last he rose, kissed the icon as
41094 a child does with naively pouting lips, and again bowed till he touched
41095 the ground with his hand. The other generals followed his example, then
41096 the officers, and after them with excited faces, pressing on one
41097 another, crowding, panting, and pushing, scrambled the soldiers and
41105 Staggering amid the crush, Pierre looked about him.
41107 "Count Peter Kirilovich! How did you get here?" said a voice.
41109 Pierre looked round. Boris Drubetskoy, brushing his knees with his hand
41110 (he had probably soiled them when he, too, had knelt before the icon),
41111 came up to him smiling. Boris was elegantly dressed, with a slightly
41112 martial touch appropriate to a campaign. He wore a long coat and like
41113 Kutuzov had a whip slung across his shoulder.
41115 Meanwhile Kutuzov had reached the village and seated himself in the
41116 shade of the nearest house, on a bench which one Cossack had run to
41117 fetch and another had hastily covered with a rug. An immense and
41118 brilliant suite surrounded him.
41120 The icon was carried further, accompanied by the throng. Pierre stopped
41121 some thirty paces from Kutuzov, talking to Boris.
41123 He explained his wish to be present at the battle and to see the
41126 "This is what you must do," said Boris. "I will do the honors of the
41127 camp to you. You will see everything best from where Count Bennigsen
41128 will be. I am in attendance on him, you know; I'll mention it to him.
41129 But if you want to ride round the position, come along with us. We are
41130 just going to the left flank. Then when we get back, do spend the night
41131 with me and we'll arrange a game of cards. Of course you know Dmitri
41132 Sergeevich? Those are his quarters," and he pointed to the third house
41133 in the village of Gorki.
41135 "But I should like to see the right flank. They say it's very strong,"
41136 said Pierre. "I should like to start from the Moskva River and ride
41137 round the whole position."
41139 "Well, you can do that later, but the chief thing is the left flank."
41141 "Yes, yes. But where is Prince Bolkonski's regiment? Can you point it
41144 "Prince Andrew's? We shall pass it and I'll take you to him."
41146 "What about the left flank?" asked Pierre
41148 "To tell you the truth, between ourselves, God only knows what state our
41149 left flank is in," said Boris confidentially lowering his voice. "It is
41150 not at all what Count Bennigsen intended. He meant to fortify that knoll
41151 quite differently, but..." Boris shrugged his shoulders, "his Serene
41152 Highness would not have it, or someone persuaded him. You see..." but
41153 Boris did not finish, for at that moment Kaysarov, Kutuzov's adjutant,
41154 came up to Pierre. "Ah, Kaysarov!" said Boris, addressing him with an
41155 unembarrassed smile, "I was just trying to explain our position to the
41156 count. It is amazing how his Serene Highness could so foresee the
41157 intentions of the French!"
41159 "You mean the left flank?" asked Kaysarov.
41161 "Yes, exactly; the left flank is now extremely strong."
41163 Though Kutuzov had dismissed all unnecessary men from the staff, Boris
41164 had contrived to remain at headquarters after the changes. He had
41165 established himself with Count Bennigsen, who, like all on whom Boris
41166 had been in attendance, considered young Prince Drubetskoy an invaluable
41169 In the higher command there were two sharply defined parties: Kutuzov's
41170 party and that of Bennigsen, the chief of staff. Boris belonged to the
41171 latter and no one else, while showing servile respect to Kutuzov, could
41172 so create an impression that the old fellow was not much good and that
41173 Bennigsen managed everything. Now the decisive moment of battle had come
41174 when Kutuzov would be destroyed and the power pass to Bennigsen, or even
41175 if Kutuzov won the battle it would be felt that everything was done by
41176 Bennigsen. In any case many great rewards would have to be given for
41177 tomorrow's action, and new men would come to the front. So Boris was
41178 full of nervous vivacity all day.
41180 After Kaysarov, others whom Pierre knew came up to him, and he had not
41181 time to reply to all the questions about Moscow that were showered upon
41182 him, or to listen to all that was told him. The faces all expressed
41183 animation and apprehension, but it seemed to Pierre that the cause of
41184 the excitement shown in some of these faces lay chiefly in questions of
41185 personal success; his mind, however, was occupied by the different
41186 expression he saw on other faces--an expression that spoke not of
41187 personal matters but of the universal questions of life and death.
41188 Kutuzov noticed Pierre's figure and the group gathered round him.
41190 "Call him to me," said Kutuzov.
41192 An adjutant told Pierre of his Serene Highness' wish, and Pierre went
41193 toward Kutuzov's bench. But a militiaman got there before him. It was
41196 "How did that fellow get here?" asked Pierre.
41198 "He's a creature that wriggles in anywhere!" was the answer. "He has
41199 been degraded, you know. Now he wants to bob up again. He's been
41200 proposing some scheme or other and has crawled into the enemy's picket
41201 line at night.... He's a brave fellow."
41203 Pierre took off his hat and bowed respectfully to Kutuzov.
41205 "I concluded that if I reported to your Serene Highness you might send
41206 me away or say that you knew what I was reporting, but then I shouldn't
41207 lose anything..." Dolokhov was saying.
41211 "But if I were right, I should be rendering a service to my Fatherland
41212 for which I am ready to die."
41216 "And should your Serene Highness require a man who will not spare his
41217 skin, please think of me.... Perhaps I may prove useful to your Serene
41220 "Yes... Yes..." Kutuzov repeated, his laughing eye narrowing more and
41221 more as he looked at Pierre.
41223 Just then Boris, with his courtierlike adroitness, stepped up to
41224 Pierre's side near Kutuzov and in a most natural manner, without raising
41225 his voice, said to Pierre, as though continuing an interrupted
41228 "The militia have put on clean white shirts to be ready to die. What
41231 Boris evidently said this to Pierre in order to be overheard by his
41232 Serene Highness. He knew Kutuzov's attention would be caught by those
41233 words, and so it was.
41235 "What are you saying about the militia?" he asked Boris.
41237 "Preparing for tomorrow, your Serene Highness--for death--they have put
41240 "Ah... a wonderful, a matchless people!" said Kutuzov; and he closed his
41241 eyes and swayed his head. "A matchless people!" he repeated with a sigh.
41243 "So you want to smell gunpowder?" he said to Pierre. "Yes, it's a
41244 pleasant smell. I have the honor to be one of your wife's adorers. Is
41245 she well? My quarters are at your service."
41247 And as often happens with old people, Kutuzov began looking about
41248 absent-mindedly as if forgetting all he wanted to say or do.
41250 Then, evidently remembering what he wanted, he beckoned to Andrew
41251 Kaysarov, his adjutant's brother.
41253 "Those verses... those verses of Marin's... how do they go, eh? Those he
41254 wrote about Gerakov: 'Lectures for the corps inditing'... Recite them,
41255 recite them!" said he, evidently preparing to laugh.
41257 Kaysarov recited.... Kutuzov smilingly nodded his head to the rhythm of
41260 When Pierre had left Kutuzov, Dolokhov came up to him and took his hand.
41262 "I am very glad to meet you here, Count," he said aloud, regardless of
41263 the presence of strangers and in a particularly resolute and solemn
41264 tone. "On the eve of a day when God alone knows who of us is fated to
41265 survive, I am glad of this opportunity to tell you that I regret the
41266 misunderstandings that occurred between us and should wish you not to
41267 have any ill feeling for me. I beg you to forgive me."
41269 Pierre looked at Dolokhov with a smile, not knowing what to say to him.
41270 With tears in his eyes Dolokhov embraced Pierre and kissed him.
41272 Boris said a few words to his general, and Count Bennigsen turned to
41273 Pierre and proposed that he should ride with him along the line.
41275 "It will interest you," said he.
41277 "Yes, very much," replied Pierre.
41279 Half an hour later Kutuzov left for Tatarinova, and Bennigsen and his
41280 suite, with Pierre among them, set out on their ride along the line.
41287 From Gorki, Bennigsen descended the highroad to the bridge which, when
41288 they had looked at it from the hill, the officer had pointed out as
41289 being the center of our position and where rows of fragrant new-mown hay
41290 lay by the riverside. They rode across that bridge into the village of
41291 Borodino and thence turned to the left, passing an enormous number of
41292 troops and guns, and came to a high knoll where militiamen were digging.
41293 This was the redoubt, as yet unnamed, which afterwards became known as
41294 the Raevski Redoubt, or the Knoll Battery, but Pierre paid no special
41295 attention to it. He did not know that it would become more memorable to
41296 him than any other spot on the plain of Borodino.
41298 They then crossed the hollow to Semenovsk, where the soldiers were
41299 dragging away the last logs from the huts and barns. Then they rode
41300 downhill and uphill, across a ryefield trodden and beaten down as if by
41301 hail, following a track freshly made by the artillery over the furrows
41302 of the plowed land, and reached some fleches * which were still being
41306 * A kind of entrenchment.
41308 At the fleches Bennigsen stopped and began looking at the Shevardino
41309 Redoubt opposite, which had been ours the day before and where several
41310 horsemen could be descried. The officers said that either Napoleon or
41311 Murat was there, and they all gazed eagerly at this little group of
41312 horsemen. Pierre also looked at them, trying to guess which of the
41313 scarcely discernible figures was Napoleon. At last those mounted men
41314 rode away from the mound and disappeared.
41316 Bennigsen spoke to a general who approached him, and began explaining
41317 the whole position of our troops. Pierre listened to him, straining each
41318 faculty to understand the essential points of the impending battle, but
41319 was mortified to feel that his mental capacity was inadequate for the
41320 task. He could make nothing of it. Bennigsen stopped speaking and,
41321 noticing that Pierre was listening, suddenly said to him:
41323 "I don't think this interests you?"
41325 "On the contrary it's very interesting!" replied Pierre not quite
41328 From the fleches they rode still farther to the left, along a road
41329 winding through a thick, low-growing birch wood. In the middle of the
41330 wood a brown hare with white feet sprang out and, scared by the tramp of
41331 the many horses, grew so confused that it leaped along the road in front
41332 of them for some time, arousing general attention and laughter, and only
41333 when several voices shouted at it did it dart to one side and disappear
41334 in the thicket. After going through the wood for about a mile and a half
41335 they came out on a glade where troops of Tuchkov's corps were stationed
41336 to defend the left flank.
41338 Here, at the extreme left flank, Bennigsen talked a great deal and with
41339 much heat, and, as it seemed to Pierre, gave orders of great military
41340 importance. In front of Tuchkov's troops was some high ground not
41341 occupied by troops. Bennigsen loudly criticized this mistake, saying
41342 that it was madness to leave a height which commanded the country around
41343 unoccupied and to place troops below it. Some of the generals expressed
41344 the same opinion. One in particular declared with martial heat that they
41345 were put there to be slaughtered. Bennigsen on his own authority ordered
41346 the troops to occupy the high ground. This disposition on the left flank
41347 increased Pierre's doubt of his own capacity to understand military
41348 matters. Listening to Bennigsen and the generals criticizing the
41349 position of the troops behind the hill, he quite understood them and
41350 shared their opinion, but for that very reason he could not understand
41351 how the man who put them there behind the hill could have made so gross
41352 and palpable a blunder.
41354 Pierre did not know that these troops were not, as Bennigsen supposed,
41355 put there to defend the position, but were in a concealed position as an
41356 ambush, that they should not be seen and might be able to strike an
41357 approaching enemy unexpectedly. Bennigsen did not know this and moved
41358 the troops forward according to his own ideas without mentioning the
41359 matter to the commander-in-chief.
41366 On that bright evening of August 25, Prince Andrew lay leaning on his
41367 elbow in a broken-down shed in the village of Knyazkovo at the further
41368 end of his regiment's encampment. Through a gap in the broken wall he
41369 could see, beside the wooden fence, a row of thirty year-old birches
41370 with their lower branches lopped off, a field on which shocks of oats
41371 were standing, and some bushes near which rose the smoke of campfires--
41372 the soldiers' kitchens.
41374 Narrow and burdensome and useless to anyone as his life now seemed to
41375 him, Prince Andrew on the eve of battle felt agitated and irritable as
41376 he had done seven years before at Austerlitz.
41378 He had received and given the orders for next day's battle and had
41379 nothing more to do. But his thoughts--the simplest, clearest, and
41380 therefore most terrible thoughts--would give him no peace. He knew that
41381 tomorrow's battle would be the most terrible of all he had taken part
41382 in, and for the first time in his life the possibility of death
41383 presented itself to him--not in relation to any worldly matter or with
41384 reference to its effect on others, but simply in relation to himself, to
41385 his own soul--vividly, plainly, terribly, and almost as a certainty. And
41386 from the height of this perception all that had previously tormented and
41387 preoccupied him suddenly became illumined by a cold white light without
41388 shadows, without perspective, without distinction of outline. All life
41389 appeared to him like magic-lantern pictures at which he had long been
41390 gazing by artificial light through a glass. Now he suddenly saw those
41391 badly daubed pictures in clear daylight and without a glass. "Yes, yes!
41392 There they are, those false images that agitated, enraptured, and
41393 tormented me," said he to himself, passing in review the principal
41394 pictures of the magic lantern of life and regarding them now in the cold
41395 white daylight of his clear perception of death. "There they are, those
41396 rudely painted figures that once seemed splendid and mysterious. Glory,
41397 the good of society, love of a woman, the Fatherland itself--how
41398 important these pictures appeared to me, with what profound meaning they
41399 seemed to be filled! And it is all so simple, pale, and crude in the
41400 cold white light of this morning which I feel is dawning for me." The
41401 three great sorrows of his life held his attention in particular: his
41402 love for a woman, his father's death, and the French invasion which had
41403 overrun half Russia. "Love... that little girl who seemed to me brimming
41404 over with mystic forces! Yes, indeed, I loved her. I made romantic plans
41405 of love and happiness with her! Oh, what a boy I was!" he said aloud
41406 bitterly. "Ah me! I believed in some ideal love which was to keep her
41407 faithful to me for the whole year of my absence! Like the gentle dove in
41408 the fable she was to pine apart from me.... But it was much simpler
41409 really.... It was all very simple and horrible."
41411 "When my father built Bald Hills he thought the place was his: his land,
41412 his air, his peasants. But Napoleon came and swept him aside,
41413 unconscious of his existence, as he might brush a chip from his path,
41414 and his Bald Hills and his whole life fell to pieces. Princess Mary says
41415 it is a trial sent from above. What is the trial for, when he is not
41416 here and will never return? He is not here! For whom then is the trial
41417 intended? The Fatherland, the destruction of Moscow! And tomorrow I
41418 shall be killed, perhaps not even by a Frenchman but by one of our own
41419 men, by a soldier discharging a musket close to my ear as one of them
41420 did yesterday, and the French will come and take me by head and heels
41421 and fling me into a hole that I may not stink under their noses, and new
41422 conditions of life will arise, which will seem quite ordinary to others
41423 and about which I shall know nothing. I shall not exist..."
41425 He looked at the row of birches shining in the sunshine, with their
41426 motionless green and yellow foliage and white bark. "To die... to be
41427 killed tomorrow... That I should not exist... That all this should still
41430 And the birches with their light and shade, the curly clouds, the smoke
41431 of the campfires, and all that was around him changed and seemed
41432 terrible and menacing. A cold shiver ran down his spine. He rose
41433 quickly, went out of the shed, and began to walk about.
41435 After he had returned, voices were heard outside the shed. "Who's that?"
41438 The red-nosed Captain Timokhin, formerly Dolokhov's squadron commander,
41439 but now from lack of officers a battalion commander, shyly entered the
41440 shed followed by an adjutant and the regimental paymaster.
41442 Prince Andrew rose hastily, listened to the business they had come
41443 about, gave them some further instructions, and was about to dismiss
41444 them when he heard a familiar, lisping, voice behind the shed.
41446 "Devil take it!" said the voice of a man stumbling over something.
41448 Prince Andrew looked out of the shed and saw Pierre, who had tripped
41449 over a pole on the ground and had nearly fallen, coming his way. It was
41450 unpleasant to Prince Andrew to meet people of his own set in general,
41451 and Pierre especially, for he reminded him of all the painful moments of
41452 his last visit to Moscow.
41454 "You? What a surprise!" said he. "What brings you here? This is
41457 As he said this his eyes and face expressed more than coldness--they
41458 expressed hostility, which Pierre noticed at once. He had approached the
41459 shed full of animation, but on seeing Prince Andrew's face he felt
41460 constrained and ill at ease.
41462 "I have come... simply... you know... come... it interests me," said
41463 Pierre, who had so often that day senselessly repeated that word
41464 "interesting." "I wish to see the battle."
41466 "Oh yes, and what do the masonic brothers say about war? How would they
41467 stop it?" said Prince Andrew sarcastically. "Well, and how's Moscow? And
41468 my people? Have they reached Moscow at last?" he asked seriously.
41470 "Yes, they have. Julie Drubetskaya told me so. I went to see them, but
41471 missed them. They have gone to your estate near Moscow."
41478 The officers were about to take leave, but Prince Andrew, apparently
41479 reluctant to be left alone with his friend, asked them to stay and have
41480 tea. Seats were brought in and so was the tea. The officers gazed with
41481 surprise at Pierre's huge stout figure and listened to his talk of
41482 Moscow and the position of our army, round which he had ridden. Prince
41483 Andrew remained silent, and his expression was so forbidding that Pierre
41484 addressed his remarks chiefly to the good-natured battalion commander.
41486 "So you understand the whole position of our troops?" Prince Andrew
41489 "Yes--that is, how do you mean?" said Pierre. "Not being a military man
41490 I can't say I have understood it fully, but I understand the general
41493 "Well, then, you know more than anyone else, be it who it may," said
41496 "Oh!" said Pierre, looking over his spectacles in perplexity at Prince
41497 Andrew. "Well, and what do you think of Kutuzov's appointment?" he
41500 "I was very glad of his appointment, that's all I know," replied Prince
41503 "And tell me your opinion of Barclay de Tolly. In Moscow they are saying
41504 heaven knows what about him.... What do you think of him?"
41506 "Ask them," replied Prince Andrew, indicating the officers.
41508 Pierre looked at Timokhin with the condescendingly interrogative smile
41509 with which everybody involuntarily addressed that officer.
41511 "We see light again, since his Serenity has been appointed, your
41512 excellency," said Timokhin timidly, and continually turning to glance at
41515 "Why so?" asked Pierre.
41517 "Well, to mention only firewood and fodder, let me inform you. Why, when
41518 we were retreating from Sventsyani we dare not touch a stick or a wisp
41519 of hay or anything. You see, we were going away, so he would get it all;
41520 wasn't it so, your excellency?" and again Timokhin turned to the prince.
41521 "But we daren't. In our regiment two officers were court-martialed for
41522 that kind of thing. But when his Serenity took command everything became
41523 straight forward. Now we see light..."
41525 "Then why was it forbidden?"
41527 Timokhin looked about in confusion, not knowing what or how to answer
41528 such a question. Pierre put the same question to Prince Andrew.
41530 "Why, so as not to lay waste the country we were abandoning to the
41531 enemy," said Prince Andrew with venomous irony. "It is very sound: one
41532 can't permit the land to be pillaged and accustom the troops to
41533 marauding. At Smolensk too he judged correctly that the French might
41534 outflank us, as they had larger forces. But he could not understand
41535 this," cried Prince Andrew in a shrill voice that seemed to escape him
41536 involuntarily: "he could not understand that there, for the first time,
41537 we were fighting for Russian soil, and that there was a spirit in the
41538 men such as I had never seen before, that we had held the French for two
41539 days, and that that success had increased our strength tenfold. He
41540 ordered us to retreat, and all our efforts and losses went for nothing.
41541 He had no thought of betraying us, he tried to do the best he could, he
41542 thought out everything, and that is why he is unsuitable. He is
41543 unsuitable now, just because he plans out everything very thoroughly and
41544 accurately as every German has to. How can I explain?... Well, say your
41545 father has a German valet, and he is a splendid valet and satisfies your
41546 father's requirements better than you could, then it's all right to let
41547 him serve. But if your father is mortally sick you'll send the valet
41548 away and attend to your father with your own unpracticed, awkward hands,
41549 and will soothe him better than a skilled man who is a stranger could.
41550 So it has been with Barclay. While Russia was well, a foreigner could
41551 serve her and be a splendid minister; but as soon as she is in danger
41552 she needs one of her own kin. But in your club they have been making him
41553 out a traitor! They slander him as a traitor, and the only result will
41554 be that afterwards, ashamed of their false accusations, they will make
41555 him out a hero or a genius instead of a traitor, and that will be still
41556 more unjust. He is an honest and very punctilious German."
41558 "And they say he's a skillful commander," rejoined Pierre.
41560 "I don't understand what is meant by 'a skillful commander,'" replied
41561 Prince Andrew ironically.
41563 "A skillful commander?" replied Pierre. "Why, one who foresees all
41564 contingencies... and foresees the adversary's intentions."
41566 "But that's impossible," said Prince Andrew as if it were a matter
41569 Pierre looked at him in surprise.
41571 "And yet they say that war is like a game of chess?" he remarked.
41573 "Yes," replied Prince Andrew, "but with this little difference, that in
41574 chess you may think over each move as long as you please and are not
41575 limited for time, and with this difference too, that a knight is always
41576 stronger than a pawn, and two pawns are always stronger than one, while
41577 in war a battalion is sometimes stronger than a division and sometimes
41578 weaker than a company. The relative strength of bodies of troops can
41579 never be known to anyone. Believe me," he went on, "if things depended
41580 on arrangements made by the staff, I should be there making
41581 arrangements, but instead of that I have the honor to serve here in the
41582 regiment with these gentlemen, and I consider that on us tomorrow's
41583 battle will depend and not on those others.... Success never depends,
41584 and never will depend, on position, or equipment, or even on numbers,
41585 and least of all on position."
41587 "But on what then?"
41589 "On the feeling that is in me and in him," he pointed to Timokhin, "and
41592 Prince Andrew glanced at Timokhin, who looked at his commander in alarm
41593 and bewilderment. In contrast to his former reticent taciturnity Prince
41594 Andrew now seemed excited. He could apparently not refrain from
41595 expressing the thoughts that had suddenly occurred to him.
41597 "A battle is won by those who firmly resolve to win it! Why did we lose
41598 the battle at Austerlitz? The French losses were almost equal to ours,
41599 but very early we said to ourselves that we were losing the battle, and
41600 we did lose it. And we said so because we had nothing to fight for
41601 there, we wanted to get away from the battlefield as soon as we could.
41602 'We've lost, so let us run,' and we ran. If we had not said that till
41603 the evening, heaven knows what might not have happened. But tomorrow we
41604 shan't say it! You talk about our position, the left flank weak and the
41605 right flank too extended," he went on. "That's all nonsense, there's
41606 nothing of the kind. But what awaits us tomorrow? A hundred million most
41607 diverse chances which will be decided on the instant by the fact that
41608 our men or theirs run or do not run, and that this man or that man is
41609 killed, but all that is being done at present is only play. The fact is
41610 that those men with whom you have ridden round the position not only do
41611 not help matters, but hinder. They are only concerned with their own
41614 "At such a moment?" said Pierre reproachfully.
41616 "At such a moment!" Prince Andrew repeated. "To them it is only a moment
41617 affording opportunities to undermine a rival and obtain an extra cross
41618 or ribbon. For me tomorrow means this: a Russian army of a hundred
41619 thousand and a French army of a hundred thousand have met to fight, and
41620 the thing is that these two hundred thousand men will fight and the side
41621 that fights more fiercely and spares itself least will win. And if you
41622 like I will tell you that whatever happens and whatever muddles those at
41623 the top may make, we shall win tomorrow's battle. Tomorrow, happen what
41624 may, we shall win!"
41626 "There now, your excellency! That's the truth, the real truth," said
41627 Timokhin. "Who would spare himself now? The soldiers in my battalion,
41628 believe me, wouldn't drink their vodka! 'It's not the day for that!'
41631 All were silent. The officers rose. Prince Andrew went out of the shed
41632 with them, giving final orders to the adjutant. After they had gone
41633 Pierre approached Prince Andrew and was about to start a conversation
41634 when they heard the clatter of three horses' hoofs on the road not far
41635 from the shed, and looking in that direction Prince Andrew recognized
41636 Wolzogen and Clausewitz accompanied by a Cossack. They rode close by
41637 continuing to converse, and Prince Andrew involuntarily heard these
41640 "Der Krieg muss in Raum verlegt werden. Der Ansicht kann ich nicht genug
41641 Preis geben," * said one of them.
41644 * "The war must be extended widely. I cannot sufficiently commend that
41647 "Oh, ja," said the other, "der Zweck ist nur den Feind zu schwächen, so
41648 kann man gewiss nicht den Verlust der Privat-Personen in Achtung
41652 * "Oh, yes, the only aim is to weaken the enemy, so of course one cannot
41653 take into account the loss of private individuals."
41655 "Oh, no," agreed the other.
41657 "Extend widely!" said Prince Andrew with an angry snort, when they had
41658 ridden past. "In that 'extend' were my father, son, and sister, at Bald
41659 Hills. That's all the same to him! That's what I was saying to you--
41660 those German gentlemen won't win the battle tomorrow but will only make
41661 all the mess they can, because they have nothing in their German heads
41662 but theories not worth an empty eggshell and haven't in their hearts the
41663 one thing needed tomorrow--that which Timokhin has. They have yielded up
41664 all Europe to him, and have now come to teach us. Fine teachers!" and
41665 again his voice grew shrill.
41667 "So you think we shall win tomorrow's battle?" asked Pierre.
41669 "Yes, yes," answered Prince Andrew absently. "One thing I would do if I
41670 had the power," he began again, "I would not take prisoners. Why take
41671 prisoners? It's chivalry! The French have destroyed my home and are on
41672 their way to destroy Moscow, they have outraged and are outraging me
41673 every moment. They are my enemies. In my opinion they are all criminals.
41674 And so thinks Timokhin and the whole army. They should be executed!
41675 Since they are my foes they cannot be my friends, whatever may have been
41678 "Yes, yes," muttered Pierre, looking with shining eyes at Prince Andrew.
41679 "I quite agree with you!"
41681 The question that had perturbed Pierre on the Mozhaysk hill and all that
41682 day now seemed to him quite clear and completely solved. He now
41683 understood the whole meaning and importance of this war and of the
41684 impending battle. All he had seen that day, all the significant and
41685 stern expressions on the faces he had seen in passing, were lit up for
41686 him by a new light. He understood that latent heat (as they say in
41687 physics) of patriotism which was present in all these men he had seen,
41688 and this explained to him why they all prepared for death calmly, and as
41689 it were lightheartedly.
41691 "Not take prisoners," Prince Andrew continued: "That by itself would
41692 quite change the whole war and make it less cruel. As it is we have
41693 played at war--that's what's vile! We play at magnanimity and all that
41694 stuff. Such magnanimity and sensibility are like the magnanimity and
41695 sensibility of a lady who faints when she sees a calf being killed: she
41696 is so kindhearted that she can't look at blood, but enjoys eating the
41697 calf served up with sauce. They talk to us of the rules of war, of
41698 chivalry, of flags of truce, of mercy to the unfortunate and so on. It's
41699 all rubbish! I saw chivalry and flags of truce in 1805; they humbugged
41700 us and we humbugged them. They plunder other people's houses, issue
41701 false paper money, and worst of all they kill my children and my father,
41702 and then talk of rules of war and magnanimity to foes! Take no
41703 prisoners, but kill and be killed! He who has come to this as I have
41704 through the same sufferings..."
41706 Prince Andrew, who had thought it was all the same to him whether or not
41707 Moscow was taken as Smolensk had been, was suddenly checked in his
41708 speech by an unexpected cramp in his throat. He paced up and down a few
41709 times in silence, but his eyes glittered feverishly and his lips
41710 quivered as he began speaking.
41712 "If there was none of this magnanimity in war, we should go to war only
41713 when it was worth while going to certain death, as now. Then there would
41714 not be war because Paul Ivanovich had offended Michael Ivanovich. And
41715 when there was a war, like this one, it would be war! And then the
41716 determination of the troops would be quite different. Then all these
41717 Westphalians and Hessians whom Napoleon is leading would not follow him
41718 into Russia, and we should not go to fight in Austria and Prussia
41719 without knowing why. War is not courtesy but the most horrible thing in
41720 life; and we ought to understand that and not play at war. We ought to
41721 accept this terrible necessity sternly and seriously. It all lies in
41722 that: get rid of falsehood and let war be war and not a game. As it is
41723 now, war is the favorite pastime of the idle and frivolous. The military
41724 calling is the most highly honored.
41726 "But what is war? What is needed for success in warfare? What are the
41727 habits of the military? The aim of war is murder; the methods of war are
41728 spying, treachery, and their encouragement, the ruin of a country's
41729 inhabitants, robbing them or stealing to provision the army, and fraud
41730 and falsehood termed military craft. The habits of the military class
41731 are the absence of freedom, that is, discipline, idleness, ignorance,
41732 cruelty, debauchery, and drunkenness. And in spite of all this it is the
41733 highest class, respected by everyone. All the kings, except the Chinese,
41734 wear military uniforms, and he who kills most people receives the
41737 "They meet, as we shall meet tomorrow, to murder one another; they kill
41738 and maim tens of thousands, and then have thanksgiving services for
41739 having killed so many people (they even exaggerate the number), and they
41740 announce a victory, supposing that the more people they have killed the
41741 greater their achievement. How does God above look at them and hear
41742 them?" exclaimed Prince Andrew in a shrill, piercing voice. "Ah, my
41743 friend, it has of late become hard for me to live. I see that I have
41744 begun to understand too much. And it doesn't do for man to taste of the
41745 tree of knowledge of good and evil.... Ah, well, it's not for long!" he
41748 "However, you're sleepy, and it's time for me to sleep. Go back to
41749 Gorki!" said Prince Andrew suddenly.
41751 "Oh no!" Pierre replied, looking at Prince Andrew with frightened,
41752 compassionate eyes.
41754 "Go, go! Before a battle one must have one's sleep out," repeated Prince
41757 He came quickly up to Pierre and embraced and kissed him. "Good-bye, be
41758 off!" he shouted. "Whether we meet again or not..." and turning away
41759 hurriedly he entered the shed.
41761 It was already dark, and Pierre could not make out whether the
41762 expression of Prince Andrew's face was angry or tender.
41764 For some time he stood in silence considering whether he should follow
41765 him or go away. "No, he does not want it!" Pierre concluded. "And I know
41766 that this is our last meeting!" He sighed deeply and rode back to Gorki.
41768 On re-entering the shed Prince Andrew lay down on a rug, but he could
41771 He closed his eyes. One picture succeeded another in his imagination. On
41772 one of them he dwelt long and joyfully. He vividly recalled an evening
41773 in Petersburg. Natasha with animated and excited face was telling him
41774 how she had gone to look for mushrooms the previous summer and had lost
41775 her way in the big forest. She incoherently described the depths of the
41776 forest, her feelings, and a talk with a beekeeper she met, and
41777 constantly interrupted her story to say: "No, I can't! I'm not telling
41778 it right; no, you don't understand," though he encouraged her by saying
41779 that he did understand, and he really had understood all she wanted to
41780 say. But Natasha was not satisfied with her own words: she felt that
41781 they did not convey the passionately poetic feeling she had experienced
41782 that day and wished to convey. "He was such a delightful old man, and it
41783 was so dark in the forest... and he had such kind... No, I can't
41784 describe it," she had said, flushed and excited. Prince Andrew smiled
41785 now the same happy smile as then when he had looked into her eyes. "I
41786 understood her," he thought. "I not only understood her, but it was just
41787 that inner, spiritual force, that sincerity, that frankness of soul--
41788 that very soul of hers which seemed to be fettered by her body--it was
41789 that soul I loved in her... loved so strongly and happily..." and
41790 suddenly he remembered how his love had ended. "He did not need anything
41791 of that kind. He neither saw nor understood anything of the sort. He
41792 only saw in her a pretty and fresh young girl, with whom he did not
41793 deign to unite his fate. And I?... and he is still alive and gay!"
41795 Prince Andrew jumped up as if someone had burned him, and again began
41796 pacing up and down in front of the shed.
41803 On August 25, the eve of the battle of Borodino, M. de Beausset, prefect
41804 of the French Emperor's palace, arrived at Napoleon's quarters at
41805 Valuevo with Colonel Fabvier, the former from Paris and the latter from
41808 Donning his court uniform, M. de Beausset ordered a box he had brought
41809 for the Emperor to be carried before him and entered the first
41810 compartment of Napoleon's tent, where he began opening the box while
41811 conversing with Napoleon's aides-de-camp who surrounded him.
41813 Fabvier, not entering the tent, remained at the entrance talking to some
41814 generals of his acquaintance.
41816 The Emperor Napoleon had not yet left his bedroom and was finishing his
41817 toilet. Slightly snorting and grunting, he presented now his back and
41818 now his plump hairy chest to the brush with which his valet was rubbing
41819 him down. Another valet, with his finger over the mouth of a bottle, was
41820 sprinkling Eau de Cologne on the Emperor's pampered body with an
41821 expression which seemed to say that he alone knew where and how much Eau
41822 de Cologne should be sprinkled. Napoleon's short hair was wet and matted
41823 on the forehead, but his face, though puffy and yellow, expressed
41824 physical satisfaction. "Go on, harder, go on!" he muttered to the valet
41825 who was rubbing him, slightly twitching and grunting. An aide-de-camp,
41826 who had entered the bedroom to report to the Emperor the number of
41827 prisoners taken in yesterday's action, was standing by the door after
41828 delivering his message, awaiting permission to withdraw. Napoleon,
41829 frowning, looked at him from under his brows.
41831 "No prisoners!" said he, repeating the aide-de-camp's words. "They are
41832 forcing us to exterminate them. So much the worse for the Russian
41833 army.... Go on... harder, harder!" he muttered, hunching his back and
41834 presenting his fat shoulders.
41836 "All right. Let Monsieur de Beausset enter, and Fabvier too," he said,
41837 nodding to the aide-de-camp.
41839 "Yes, sire," and the aide-de-camp disappeared through the door of the
41842 Two valets rapidly dressed His Majesty, and wearing the blue uniform of
41843 the Guards he went with firm quick steps to the reception room.
41845 De Beausset's hands meanwhile were busily engaged arranging the present
41846 he had brought from the Empress, on two chairs directly in front of the
41847 entrance. But Napoleon had dressed and come out with such unexpected
41848 rapidity that he had not time to finish arranging the surprise.
41850 Napoleon noticed at once what they were about and guessed that they were
41851 not ready. He did not wish to deprive them of the pleasure of giving him
41852 a surprise, so he pretended not to see de Beausset and called Fabvier to
41853 him, listening silently and with a stern frown to what Fabvier told him
41854 of the heroism and devotion of his troops fighting at Salamanca, at the
41855 other end of Europe, with but one thought--to be worthy of their
41856 Emperor--and but one fear--to fail to please him. The result of that
41857 battle had been deplorable. Napoleon made ironic remarks during
41858 Fabvier's account, as if he had not expected that matters could go
41859 otherwise in his absence.
41861 "I must make up for that in Moscow," said Napoleon. "I'll see you
41862 later," he added, and summoned de Beausset, who by that time had
41863 prepared the surprise, having placed something on the chairs and covered
41866 De Beausset bowed low, with that courtly French bow which only the old
41867 retainers of the Bourbons knew how to make, and approached him,
41868 presenting an envelope.
41870 Napoleon turned to him gaily and pulled his ear.
41872 "You have hurried here. I am very glad. Well, what is Paris saying?" he
41873 asked, suddenly changing his former stern expression for a most cordial
41876 "Sire, all Paris regrets your absence," replied de Beausset as was
41879 But though Napoleon knew that de Beausset had to say something of this
41880 kind, and though in his lucid moments he knew it was untrue, he was
41881 pleased to hear it from him. Again he honored him by touching his ear.
41883 "I am very sorry to have made you travel so far," said he.
41885 "Sire, I expected nothing less than to find you at the gates of Moscow,"
41886 replied de Beausset.
41888 Napoleon smiled and, lifting his head absent-mindedly, glanced to the
41889 right. An aide-de-camp approached with gliding steps and offered him a
41890 gold snuffbox, which he took.
41892 "Yes, it has happened luckily for you," he said, raising the open
41893 snuffbox to his nose. "You are fond of travel, and in three days you
41894 will see Moscow. You surely did not expect to see that Asiatic capital.
41895 You will have a pleasant journey."
41897 De Beausset bowed gratefully at this regard for his taste for travel (of
41898 which he had not till then been aware).
41900 "Ha, what's this?" asked Napoleon, noticing that all the courtiers were
41901 looking at something concealed under a cloth.
41903 With courtly adroitness de Beausset half turned and without turning his
41904 back to the Emperor retired two steps, twitching off the cloth at the
41905 same time, and said:
41907 "A present to Your Majesty from the Empress."
41909 It was a portrait, painted in bright colors by Gerard, of the son borne
41910 to Napoleon by the daughter of the Emperor of Austria, the boy whom for
41911 some reason everyone called "The King of Rome."
41913 A very pretty curly-headed boy with a look of the Christ in the Sistine
41914 Madonna was depicted playing at stick and ball. The ball represented the
41915 terrestrial globe and the stick in his other hand a scepter.
41917 Though it was not clear what the artist meant to express by depicting
41918 the so-called King of Rome spiking the earth with a stick, the allegory
41919 apparently seemed to Napoleon, as it had done to all who had seen it in
41920 Paris, quite clear and very pleasing.
41922 "The King of Rome!" he said, pointing to the portrait with a graceful
41923 gesture. "Admirable!"
41925 With the natural capacity of an Italian for changing the expression of
41926 his face at will, he drew nearer to the portrait and assumed a look of
41927 pensive tenderness. He felt that what he now said and did would be
41928 historical, and it seemed to him that it would now be best for him--
41929 whose grandeur enabled his son to play stick and ball with the
41930 terrestrial globe--to show, in contrast to that grandeur, the simplest
41931 paternal tenderness. His eyes grew dim, he moved forward, glanced round
41932 at a chair (which seemed to place itself under him), and sat down on it
41933 before the portrait. At a single gesture from him everyone went out on
41934 tiptoe, leaving the great man to himself and his emotion.
41936 Having sat still for a while he touched--himself not knowing why--the
41937 thick spot of paint representing the highest light in the portrait,
41938 rose, and recalled de Beausset and the officer on duty. He ordered the
41939 portrait to be carried outside his tent, that the Old Guard, stationed
41940 round it, might not be deprived of the pleasure of seeing the King of
41941 Rome, the son and heir of their adored monarch.
41943 And while he was doing M. de Beausset the honor of breakfasting with
41944 him, they heard, as Napoleon had anticipated, the rapturous cries of the
41945 officers and men of the Old Guard who had run up to see the portrait.
41947 "Vive l'Empereur! Vive le roi de Rome! Vive l'Empereur!" came those
41950 After breakfast Napoleon in de Beausset's presence dictated his order of
41951 the day to the army.
41953 "Short and energetic!" he remarked when he had read over the
41954 proclamation which he had dictated straight off without corrections. It
41957 Soldiers! This is the battle you have so longed for. Victory depends on
41958 you. It is essential for us; it will give us all we need: comfortable
41959 quarters and a speedy return to our country. Behave as you did at
41960 Austerlitz, Friedland, Vitebsk, and Smolensk. Let our remotest posterity
41961 recall your achievements this day with pride. Let it be said of each of
41962 you: "He was in the great battle before Moscow!"
41964 "Before Moscow!" repeated Napoleon, and inviting M. de Beausset, who was
41965 so fond of travel, to accompany him on his ride, he went out of the tent
41966 to where the horses stood saddled.
41968 "Your Majesty is too kind!" replied de Beausset to the invitation to
41969 accompany the Emperor; he wanted to sleep, did not know how to ride and
41970 was afraid of doing so.
41972 But Napoleon nodded to the traveler, and de Beausset had to mount. When
41973 Napoleon came out of the tent the shouting of the Guards before his
41974 son's portrait grew still louder. Napoleon frowned.
41976 "Take him away!" he said, pointing with a gracefully majestic gesture to
41977 the portrait. "It is too soon for him to see a field of battle."
41979 De Beausset closed his eyes, bowed his head, and sighed deeply, to
41980 indicate how profoundly he valued and comprehended the Emperor's words.
41987 On the twenty-fifth of August, so his historians tell us, Napoleon spent
41988 the whole day on horseback inspecting the locality, considering plans
41989 submitted to him by his marshals, and personally giving commands to his
41992 The original line of the Russian forces along the river Kolocha had been
41993 dislocated by the capture of the Shevardino Redoubt on the twenty-
41994 fourth, and part of the line--the left flank--had been drawn back. That
41995 part of the line was not entrenched and in front of it the ground was
41996 more open and level than elsewhere. It was evident to anyone, military
41997 or not, that it was here the French should attack. It would seem that
41998 not much consideration was needed to reach this conclusion, nor any
41999 particular care or trouble on the part of the Emperor and his marshals,
42000 nor was there any need of that special and supreme quality called genius
42001 that people are so apt to ascribe to Napoleon; yet the historians who
42002 described the event later and the men who then surrounded Napoleon, and
42003 he himself, thought otherwise.
42005 Napoleon rode over the plain and surveyed the locality with a profound
42006 air and in silence, nodded with approval or shook his head dubiously,
42007 and without communicating to the generals around him the profound course
42008 of ideas which guided his decisions merely gave them his final
42009 conclusions in the form of commands. Having listened to a suggestion
42010 from Davout, who was now called Prince d'Eckmuhl, to turn the Russian
42011 left wing, Napoleon said it should not be done, without explaining why
42012 not. To a proposal made by General Campan (who was to attack the
42013 fleches) to lead his division through the woods, Napoleon agreed, though
42014 the so-called Duke of Elchingen (Ney) ventured to remark that a movement
42015 through the woods was dangerous and might disorder the division.
42017 Having inspected the country opposite the Shevardino Redoubt, Napoleon
42018 pondered a little in silence and then indicated the spots where two
42019 batteries should be set up by the morrow to act against the Russian
42020 entrenchments, and the places where, in line with them, the field
42021 artillery should be placed.
42023 After giving these and other commands he returned to his tent, and the
42024 dispositions for the battle were written down from his dictation.
42026 These dispositions, of which the French historians write with enthusiasm
42027 and other historians with profound respect, were as follows:
42029 At dawn the two new batteries established during the night on the plain
42030 occupied by the Prince d'Eckmuhl will open fire on the opposing
42031 batteries of the enemy.
42033 At the same time the commander of the artillery of the 1st Corps,
42034 General Pernetti, with thirty cannon of Campan's division and all the
42035 howitzers of Dessaix's and Friant's divisions, will move forward, open
42036 fire, and overwhelm with shellfire the enemy's battery, against which
42040 24 guns of the artillery of the Guards 30 guns of Campan's division
42042 and 8 guns of Friant's and Dessaix's divisions --
42046 The commander of the artillery of the 3rd Corps, General Fouche, will
42047 place the howitzers of the 3rd and 8th Corps, sixteen in all, on the
42048 flanks of the battery that is to bombard the entrenchment on the left,
42049 which will have forty guns in all directed against it.
42051 General Sorbier must be ready at the first order to advance with all the
42052 howitzers of the Guard's artillery against either one or other of the
42055 During the cannonade Prince Poniatowski is to advance through the wood
42056 on the village and turn the enemy's position.
42058 General Campan will move through the wood to seize the first
42061 After the advance has begun in this manner, orders will be given in
42062 accordance with the enemy's movements.
42064 The cannonade on the left flank will begin as soon as the guns of the
42065 right wing are heard. The sharpshooters of Morand's division and of the
42066 vice-King's division will open a heavy fire on seeing the attack
42067 commence on the right wing.
42069 The vice-King will occupy the village and cross by its three bridges,
42070 advancing to the same heights as Morand's and Gibrard's divisions, which
42071 under his leadership will be directed against the redoubt and come into
42072 line with the rest of the forces.
42074 All this must be done in good order (le tout se fera avec ordre et
42075 methode) as far as possible retaining troops in reserve.
42077 The Imperial Camp near Mozhaysk,
42079 September, 6, 1812.
42081 These dispositions, which are very obscure and confused if one allows
42082 oneself to regard the arrangements without religious awe of his genius,
42083 related to Napoleon's orders to deal with four points--four different
42084 orders. Not one of these was, or could be, carried out.
42086 In the disposition it is said first that the batteries placed on the
42087 spot chosen by Napoleon, with the guns of Pernetti and Fouche; which
42088 were to come in line with them, 102 guns in all, were to open fire and
42089 shower shells on the Russian fleches and redoubts. This could not be
42090 done, as from the spots selected by Napoleon the projectiles did not
42091 carry to the Russian works, and those 102 guns shot into the air until
42092 the nearest commander, contrary to Napoleon's instructions, moved them
42095 The second order was that Poniatowski, moving to the village through the
42096 wood, should turn the Russian left flank. This could not be done and was
42097 not done, because Poniatowski, advancing on the village through the
42098 wood, met Tuchkov there barring his way, and could not and did not turn
42099 the Russian position.
42101 The third order was: General Campan will move through the wood to seize
42102 the first fortification. General Campan's division did not seize the
42103 first fortification but was driven back, for on emerging from the wood
42104 it had to reform under grapeshot, of which Napoleon was unaware.
42106 The fourth order was: The vice-King will occupy the village (Borodino)
42107 and cross by its three bridges, advancing to the same heights as
42108 Morand's and Gdrard's divisions (for whose movements no directions are
42109 given), which under his leadership will be directed against the redoubt
42110 and come into line with the rest of the forces.
42112 As far as one can make out, not so much from this unintelligible
42113 sentence as from the attempts the vice-King made to execute the orders
42114 given him, he was to advance from the left through Borodino to the
42115 redoubt while the divisions of Morand and Gerard were to advance
42116 simultaneously from the front.
42118 All this, like the other parts of the disposition, was not and could not
42119 be executed. After passing through Borodino the vice-King was driven
42120 back to the Kolocha and could get no farther; while the divisions of
42121 Morand and Gerard did not take the redoubt but were driven back, and the
42122 redoubt was only taken at the end of the battle by the cavalry (a thing
42123 probably unforeseen and not heard of by Napoleon). So not one of the
42124 orders in the disposition was, or could be, executed. But in the
42125 disposition it is said that, after the fight has commenced in this
42126 manner, orders will be given in accordance with the enemy's movements,
42127 and so it might be supposed that all necessary arrangements would be
42128 made by Napoleon during the battle. But this was not and could not be
42129 done, for during the whole battle Napoleon was so far away that, as
42130 appeared later, he could not know the course of the battle and not one
42131 of his orders during the fight could be executed.
42138 Many historians say that the French did not win the battle of Borodino
42139 because Napoleon had a cold, and that if he had not had a cold the
42140 orders he gave before and during the battle would have been still more
42141 full of genius and Russia would have been lost and the face of the world
42142 have been changed. To historians who believe that Russia was shaped by
42143 the will of one man--Peter the Great--and that France from a republic
42144 became an empire and French armies went to Russia at the will of one
42145 man--Napoleon--to say that Russia remained a power because Napoleon had
42146 a bad cold on the twenty-fourth of August may seem logical and
42149 If it had depended on Napoleon's will to fight or not to fight the
42150 battle of Borodino, and if this or that other arrangement depended on
42151 his will, then evidently a cold affecting the manifestation of his will
42152 might have saved Russia, and consequently the valet who omitted to bring
42153 Napoleon his waterproof boots on the twenty-fourth would have been the
42154 savior of Russia. Along that line of thought such a deduction is
42155 indubitable, as indubitable as the deduction Voltaire made in jest
42156 (without knowing what he was jesting at) when he saw that the Massacre
42157 of St. Bartholomew was due to Charles IX's stomach being deranged. But
42158 to men who do not admit that Russia was formed by the will of one man,
42159 Peter I, or that the French Empire was formed and the war with Russia
42160 begun by the will of one man, Napoleon, that argument seems not merely
42161 untrue and irrational, but contrary to all human reality. To the
42162 question of what causes historic events another answer presents itself,
42163 namely, that the course of human events is predetermined from on high--
42164 depends on the coincidence of the wills of all who take part in the
42165 events, and that a Napoleon's influence on the course of these events is
42166 purely external and fictitious.
42168 Strange as at first glance it may seem to suppose that the Massacre of
42169 St. Bartholomew was not due to Charles IX's will, though he gave the
42170 order for it and thought it was done as a result of that order; and
42171 strange as it may seem to suppose that the slaughter of eighty thousand
42172 men at Borodino was not due to Napoleon's will, though he ordered the
42173 commencement and conduct of the battle and thought it was done because
42174 he ordered it; strange as these suppositions appear, yet human dignity--
42175 which tells me that each of us is, if not more at least not less a man
42176 than the great Napoleon--demands the acceptance of that solution of the
42177 question, and historic investigation abundantly confirms it.
42179 At the battle of Borodino Napoleon shot at no one and killed no one.
42180 That was all done by the soldiers. Therefore it was not he who killed
42183 The French soldiers went to kill and be killed at the battle of Borodino
42184 not because of Napoleon's orders but by their own volition. The whole
42185 army--French, Italian, German, Polish, and Dutch--hungry, ragged, and
42186 weary of the campaign, felt at the sight of an army blocking their road
42187 to Moscow that the wine was drawn and must be drunk. Had Napoleon then
42188 forbidden them to fight the Russians, they would have killed him and
42189 have proceeded to fight the Russians because it was inevitable.
42191 When they heard Napoleon's proclamation offering them, as compensation
42192 for mutilation and death, the words of posterity about their having been
42193 in the battle before Moscow, they cried "Vive l'Empereur!" just as they
42194 had cried "Vive l'Empereur!" at the sight of the portrait of the boy
42195 piercing the terrestrial globe with a toy stick, and just as they would
42196 have cried "Vive l'Empereur!" at any nonsense that might be told them.
42197 There was nothing left for them to do but cry "Vive l'Empereur!" and go
42198 to fight, in order to get food and rest as conquerors in Moscow. So it
42199 was not because of Napoleon's commands that they killed their fellow
42202 And it was not Napoleon who directed the course of the battle, for none
42203 of his orders were executed and during the battle he did not know what
42204 was going on before him. So the way in which these people killed one
42205 another was not decided by Napoleon's will but occurred independently of
42206 him, in accord with the will of hundreds of thousands of people who took
42207 part in the common action. It only seemed to Napoleon that it all took
42208 place by his will. And so the question whether he had or had not a cold
42209 has no more historic interest than the cold of the least of the
42210 transport soldiers.
42212 Moreover, the assertion made by various writers that his cold was the
42213 cause of his dispositions not being as well-planned as on former
42214 occasions, and of his orders during the battle not being as good as
42215 previously, is quite baseless, which again shows that Napoleon's cold on
42216 the twenty-sixth of August was unimportant.
42218 The dispositions cited above are not at all worse, but are even better,
42219 than previous dispositions by which he had won victories. His pseudo-
42220 orders during the battle were also no worse than formerly, but much the
42221 same as usual. These dispositions and orders only seem worse than
42222 previous ones because the battle of Borodino was the first Napoleon did
42223 not win. The profoundest and most excellent dispositions and orders seem
42224 very bad, and every learned militarist criticizes them with looks of
42225 importance, when they relate to a battle that has been lost, and the
42226 very worst dispositions and orders seem very good, and serious people
42227 fill whole volumes to demonstrate their merits, when they relate to a
42228 battle that has been won.
42230 The dispositions drawn up by Weyrother for the battle of Austerlitz were
42231 a model of perfection for that kind of composition, but still they were
42232 criticized--criticized for their very perfection, for their excessive
42235 Napoleon at the battle of Borodino fulfilled his office as
42236 representative of authority as well as, and even better than, at other
42237 battles. He did nothing harmful to the progress of the battle; he
42238 inclined to the most reasonable opinions, he made no confusion, did not
42239 contradict himself, did not get frightened or run away from the field of
42240 battle, but with his great tact and military experience carried out his
42241 role of appearing to command, calmly and with dignity.
42248 On returning from a second inspection of the lines, Napoleon remarked:
42250 "The chessmen are set up, the game will begin tomorrow!"
42252 Having ordered punch and summoned de Beausset, he began to talk to him
42253 about Paris and about some changes he meant to make in the Empress'
42254 household, surprising the prefect by his memory of minute details
42255 relating to the court.
42257 He showed an interest in trifles, joked about de Beausset's love of
42258 travel, and chatted carelessly, as a famous, self-confident surgeon who
42259 knows his job does when turning up his sleeves and putting on his apron
42260 while a patient is being strapped to the operating table. "The matter is
42261 in my hands and is clear and definite in my head. When the time comes to
42262 set to work I shall do it as no one else could, but now I can jest, and
42263 the more I jest and the calmer I am the more tranquil and confident you
42264 ought to be, and the more amazed at my genius."
42266 Having finished his second glass of punch, Napoleon went to rest before
42267 the serious business which, he considered, awaited him next day. He was
42268 so much interested in that task that he was unable to sleep, and in
42269 spite of his cold which had grown worse from the dampness of the
42270 evening, he went into the large division of the tent at three o'clock in
42271 the morning, loudly blowing his nose. He asked whether the Russians had
42272 not withdrawn, and was told that the enemy's fires were still in the
42273 same places. He nodded approval.
42275 The adjutant in attendance came into the tent.
42277 "Well, Rapp, do you think we shall do good business today?" Napoleon
42280 "Without doubt, sire," replied Rapp.
42282 Napoleon looked at him.
42284 "Do you remember, sire, what you did me the honor to say at Smolensk?"
42285 continued Rapp. "The wine is drawn and must be drunk."
42287 Napoleon frowned and sat silent for a long time leaning his head on his
42290 "This poor army!" he suddenly remarked. "It has diminished greatly since
42291 Smolensk. Fortune is frankly a courtesan, Rapp. I have always said so
42292 and I am beginning to experience it. But the Guards, Rapp, the Guards
42293 are intact?" he remarked interrogatively.
42295 "Yes, sire," replied Rapp.
42297 Napoleon took a lozenge, put it in his mouth, and glanced at his watch.
42298 He was not sleepy and it was still not nearly morning. It was impossible
42299 to give further orders for the sake of killing time, for the orders had
42300 all been given and were now being executed.
42302 "Have the biscuits and rice been served out to the regiments of the
42303 Guards?" asked Napoleon sternly.
42309 Rapp replied that he had given the Emperor's order about the rice, but
42310 Napoleon shook his head in dissatisfaction as if not believing that his
42311 order had been executed. An attendant came in with punch. Napoleon
42312 ordered another glass to be brought for Rapp, and silently sipped his
42315 "I have neither taste nor smell," he remarked, sniffing at his glass.
42316 "This cold is tiresome. They talk about medicine--what is the good of
42317 medicine when it can't cure a cold! Corvisart gave me these lozenges but
42318 they don't help at all. What can doctors cure? One can't cure anything.
42319 Our body is a machine for living. It is organized for that, it is its
42320 nature. Let life go on in it unhindered and let it defend itself, it
42321 will do more than if you paralyze it by encumbering it with remedies.
42322 Our body is like a perfect watch that should go for a certain time; the
42323 watchmaker cannot open it, he can only adjust it by fumbling, and that
42324 blindfold.... Yes, our body is just a machine for living, that is all."
42326 And having entered on the path of definition, of which he was fond,
42327 Napoleon suddenly and unexpectedly gave a new one.
42329 "Do you know, Rapp, what military art is?" asked he. "It is the art of
42330 being stronger than the enemy at a given moment. That's all."
42332 Rapp made no reply.
42334 "Tomorrow we shall have to deal with Kutuzov!" said Napoleon. "We shall
42335 see! Do you remember at Braunau he commanded an army for three weeks and
42336 did not once mount a horse to inspect his entrenchments.... We shall
42339 He looked at his watch. It was still only four o'clock. He did not feel
42340 sleepy. The punch was finished and there was still nothing to do. He
42341 rose, walked to and fro, put on a warm overcoat and a hat, and went out
42342 of the tent. The night was dark and damp, a scarcely perceptible
42343 moisture was descending from above. Near by, the campfires were dimly
42344 burning among the French Guards, and in the distance those of the
42345 Russian line shone through the smoke. The weather was calm, and the
42346 rustle and tramp of the French troops already beginning to move to take
42347 up their positions were clearly audible.
42349 Napoleon walked about in front of his tent, looked at the fires and
42350 listened to these sounds, and as he was passing a tall guardsman in a
42351 shaggy cap, who was standing sentinel before his tent and had drawn
42352 himself up like a black pillar at sight of the Emperor, Napoleon stopped
42355 "What year did you enter the service?" he asked with that affectation of
42356 military bluntness and geniality with which he always addressed the
42359 The man answered the question.
42361 "Ah! One of the old ones! Has your regiment had its rice?"
42363 "It has, Your Majesty."
42365 Napoleon nodded and walked away.
42367 At half-past five Napoleon rode to the village of Shevardino.
42369 It was growing light, the sky was clearing, only a single cloud lay in
42370 the east. The abandoned campfires were burning themselves out in the
42371 faint morning light.
42373 On the right a single deep report of a cannon resounded and died away in
42374 the prevailing silence. Some minutes passed. A second and a third report
42375 shook the air, then a fourth and a fifth boomed solemnly near by on the
42378 The first shots had not yet ceased to reverberate before others rang out
42379 and yet more were heard mingling with and overtaking one another.
42381 Napoleon with his suite rode up to the Shevardino Redoubt where he
42382 dismounted. The game had begun.
42389 On returning to Gorki after having seen Prince Andrew, Pierre ordered
42390 his groom to get the horses ready and to call him early in the morning,
42391 and then immediately fell asleep behind a partition in a corner Boris
42392 had given up to him.
42394 Before he was thoroughly awake next morning everybody had already left
42395 the hut. The panes were rattling in the little windows and his groom was
42398 "Your excellency! Your excellency! Your excellency!" he kept repeating
42399 pertinaciously while he shook Pierre by the shoulder without looking at
42400 him, having apparently lost hope of getting him to wake up.
42402 "What? Has it begun? Is it time?" Pierre asked, waking up.
42404 "Hear the firing," said the groom, a discharged soldier. "All the
42405 gentlemen have gone out, and his Serene Highness himself rode past long
42408 Pierre dressed hastily and ran out to the porch. Outside all was bright,
42409 fresh, dewy, and cheerful. The sun, just bursting forth from behind a
42410 cloud that had concealed it, was shining, with rays still half broken by
42411 the clouds, over the roofs of the street opposite, on the dew-
42412 besprinkled dust of the road, on the walls of the houses, on the
42413 windows, the fence, and on Pierre's horses standing before the hut. The
42414 roar of guns sounded more distinct outside. An adjutant accompanied by a
42415 Cossack passed by at a sharp trot.
42417 "It's time, Count; it's time!" cried the adjutant.
42419 Telling the groom to follow him with the horses, Pierre went down the
42420 street to the knoll from which he had looked at the field of battle the
42421 day before. A crowd of military men was assembled there, members of the
42422 staff could be heard conversing in French, and Kutuzov's gray head in a
42423 white cap with a red band was visible, his gray nape sunk between his
42424 shoulders. He was looking through a field glass down the highroad before
42427 Mounting the steps to the knoll Pierre looked at the scene before him,
42428 spellbound by beauty. It was the same panorama he had admired from that
42429 spot the day before, but now the whole place was full of troops and
42430 covered by smoke clouds from the guns, and the slanting rays of the
42431 bright sun, rising slightly to the left behind Pierre, cast upon it
42432 through the clear morning air penetrating streaks of rosy, golden-tinted
42433 light and long dark shadows. The forest at the farthest extremity of the
42434 panorama seemed carved in some precious stone of a yellowish-green
42435 color; its undulating outline was silhouetted against the horizon and
42436 was pierced beyond Valuevo by the Smolensk highroad crowded with troops.
42437 Nearer at hand glittered golden cornfields interspersed with copses.
42438 There were troops to be seen everywhere, in front and to the right and
42439 left. All this was vivid, majestic, and unexpected; but what impressed
42440 Pierre most of all was the view of the battlefield itself, of Borodino
42441 and the hollows on both sides of the Kolocha.
42443 Above the Kolocha, in Borodino and on both sides of it, especially to
42444 the left where the Voyna flowing between its marshy banks falls into the
42445 Kolocha, a mist had spread which seemed to melt, to dissolve, and to
42446 become translucent when the brilliant sun appeared and magically colored
42447 and outlined everything. The smoke of the guns mingled with this mist,
42448 and over the whole expanse and through that mist the rays of the morning
42449 sun were reflected, flashing back like lightning from the water, from
42450 the dew, and from the bayonets of the troops crowded together by the
42451 riverbanks and in Borodino. A white church could be seen through the
42452 mist, and here and there the roofs of huts in Borodino as well as dense
42453 masses of soldiers, or green ammunition chests and ordnance. And all
42454 this moved, or seemed to move, as the smoke and mist spread out over the
42455 whole space. Just as in the mist-enveloped hollow near Borodino, so
42456 along the entire line outside and above it and especially in the woods
42457 and fields to the left, in the valleys and on the summits of the high
42458 ground, clouds of powder smoke seemed continually to spring up out of
42459 nothing, now singly, now several at a time, some translucent, others
42460 dense, which, swelling, growing, rolling, and blending, extended over
42463 These puffs of smoke and (strange to say) the sound of the firing
42464 produced the chief beauty of the spectacle.
42466 "Puff!"--suddenly a round compact cloud of smoke was seen merging from
42467 violet into gray and milky white, and "boom!" came the report a second
42470 "Puff! puff!"--and two clouds arose pushing one another and blending
42471 together; and "boom, boom!" came the sounds confirming what the eye had
42474 Pierre glanced round at the first cloud, which he had seen as a round
42475 compact ball, and in its place already were balloons of smoke floating
42476 to one side, and--"puff" (with a pause)--"puff, puff!" three and then
42477 four more appeared and then from each, with the same interval--"boom--
42478 boom, boom!" came the fine, firm, precise sounds in reply. It seemed as
42479 if those smoke clouds sometimes ran and sometimes stood still while
42480 woods, fields, and glittering bayonets ran past them. From the left,
42481 over fields and bushes, those large balls of smoke were continually
42482 appearing followed by their solemn reports, while nearer still, in the
42483 hollows and woods, there burst from the muskets small cloudlets that had
42484 no time to become balls, but had their little echoes in just the same
42485 way. "Trakh-ta-ta-takh!" came the frequent crackle of musketry, but it
42486 was irregular and feeble in comparison with the reports of the cannon.
42488 Pierre wished to be there with that smoke, those shining bayonets, that
42489 movement, and those sounds. He turned to look at Kutuzov and his suite,
42490 to compare his impressions with those of others. They were all looking
42491 at the field of battle as he was, and, as it seemed to him, with the
42492 same feelings. All their faces were now shining with that latent warmth
42493 of feeling Pierre had noticed the day before and had fully understood
42494 after his talk with Prince Andrew.
42496 "Go, my dear fellow, go... and Christ be with you!" Kutuzov was saying
42497 to a general who stood beside him, not taking his eye from the
42500 Having received this order the general passed by Pierre on his way down
42503 "To the crossing!" said the general coldly and sternly in reply to one
42504 of the staff who asked where he was going.
42506 "I'll go there too, I too!" thought Pierre, and followed the general.
42508 The general mounted a horse a Cossack had brought him. Pierre went to
42509 his groom who was holding his horses and, asking which was the quietest,
42510 clambered onto it, seized it by the mane, and turning out his toes
42511 pressed his heels against its sides and, feeling that his spectacles
42512 were slipping off but unable to let go of the mane and reins, he
42513 galloped after the general, causing the staff officers to smile as they
42514 watched him from the knoll.
42521 Having descended the hill the general after whom Pierre was galloping
42522 turned sharply to the left, and Pierre, losing sight of him, galloped in
42523 among some ranks of infantry marching ahead of him. He tried to pass
42524 either in front of them or to the right or left, but there were soldiers
42525 everywhere, all with the same preoccupied expression and busy with some
42526 unseen but evidently important task. They all gazed with the same
42527 dissatisfied and inquiring expression at this stout man in a white hat,
42528 who for some unknown reason threatened to trample them under his horse's
42531 "Why ride into the middle of the battalion?" one of them shouted at him.
42533 Another prodded his horse with the butt end of a musket, and Pierre,
42534 bending over his saddlebow and hardly able to control his shying horse,
42535 galloped ahead of the soldiers where there was a free space.
42537 There was a bridge ahead of him, where other soldiers stood firing.
42538 Pierre rode up to them. Without being aware of it he had come to the
42539 bridge across the Kolocha between Gorki and Borodino, which the French
42540 (having occupied Borodino) were attacking in the first phase of the
42541 battle. Pierre saw that there was a bridge in front of him and that
42542 soldiers were doing something on both sides of it and in the meadow,
42543 among the rows of new-mown hay which he had taken no notice of amid the
42544 smoke of the campfires the day before; but despite the incessant firing
42545 going on there he had no idea that this was the field of battle. He did
42546 not notice the sound of the bullets whistling from every side, or the
42547 projectiles that flew over him, did not see the enemy on the other side
42548 of the river, and for a long time did not notice the killed and wounded,
42549 though many fell near him. He looked about him with a smile which did
42550 not leave his face.
42552 "Why's that fellow in front of the line?" shouted somebody at him again.
42554 "To the left!... Keep to the right!" the men shouted to him.
42556 Pierre went to the right, and unexpectedly encountered one of Raevski's
42557 adjutants whom he knew. The adjutant looked angrily at him, evidently
42558 also intending to shout at him, but on recognizing him he nodded.
42560 "How have you got here?" he said, and galloped on.
42562 Pierre, feeling out of place there, having nothing to do, and afraid of
42563 getting in someone's way again, galloped after the adjutant.
42565 "What's happening here? May I come with you?" he asked.
42567 "One moment, one moment!" replied the adjutant, and riding up to a stout
42568 colonel who was standing in the meadow, he gave him some message and
42569 then addressed Pierre.
42571 "Why have you come here, Count?" he asked with a smile. "Still
42574 "Yes, yes," assented Pierre.
42576 But the adjutant turned his horse about and rode on.
42578 "Here it's tolerable," said he, "but with Bagration on the left flank
42579 they're getting it frightfully hot."
42581 "Really?" said Pierre. "Where is that?"
42583 "Come along with me to our knoll. We can get a view from there and in
42584 our battery it is still bearable," said the adjutant. "Will you come?"
42586 "Yes, I'll come with you," replied Pierre, looking round for his groom.
42588 It was only now that he noticed wounded men staggering along or being
42589 carried on stretchers. On that very meadow he had ridden over the day
42590 before, a soldier was lying athwart the rows of scented hay, with his
42591 head thrown awkwardly back and his shako off.
42593 "Why haven't they carried him away?" Pierre was about to ask, but seeing
42594 the stern expression of the adjutant who was also looking that way, he
42597 Pierre did not find his groom and rode along the hollow with the
42598 adjutant to Raevski's Redoubt. His horse lagged behind the adjutant's
42599 and jolted him at every step.
42601 "You don't seem to be used to riding, Count?" remarked the adjutant.
42603 "No it's not that, but her action seems so jerky," said Pierre in a
42606 "Why... she's wounded!" said the adjutant. "In the off foreleg above the
42607 knee. A bullet, no doubt. I congratulate you, Count, on your baptism of
42610 Having ridden in the smoke past the Sixth Corps, behind the artillery
42611 which had been moved forward and was in action, deafening them with the
42612 noise of firing, they came to a small wood. There it was cool and quiet,
42613 with a scent of autumn. Pierre and the adjutant dismounted and walked up
42616 "Is the general here?" asked the adjutant on reaching the knoll.
42618 "He was here a minute ago but has just gone that way," someone told him,
42619 pointing to the right.
42621 The adjutant looked at Pierre as if puzzled what to do with him now.
42623 "Don't trouble about me," said Pierre. "I'll go up onto the knoll if I
42626 "Yes, do. You'll see everything from there and it's less dangerous, and
42627 I'll come for you."
42629 Pierre went to the battery and the adjutant rode on. They did not meet
42630 again, and only much later did Pierre learn that he lost an arm that
42633 The knoll to which Pierre ascended was that famous one afterwards known
42634 to the Russians as the Knoll Battery or Raevski's Redoubt, and to the
42635 French as la grande redoute, la fatale redoute, la redoute du centre,
42636 around which tens of thousands fell, and which the French regarded as
42637 the key to the whole position.
42639 This redoubt consisted of a knoll, on three sides of which trenches had
42640 been dug. Within the entrenchment stood ten guns that were being fired
42641 through openings in the earthwork.
42643 In line with the knoll on both sides stood other guns which also fired
42644 incessantly. A little behind the guns stood infantry. When ascending
42645 that knoll Pierre had no notion that this spot, on which small trenches
42646 had been dug and from which a few guns were firing, was the most
42647 important point of the battle.
42649 On the contrary, just because he happened to be there he thought it one
42650 of the least significant parts of the field.
42652 Having reached the knoll, Pierre sat down at one end of a trench
42653 surrounding the battery and gazed at what was going on around him with
42654 an unconsciously happy smile. Occasionally he rose and walked about the
42655 battery still with that same smile, trying not to obstruct the soldiers
42656 who were loading, hauling the guns, and continually running past him
42657 with bags and charges. The guns of that battery were being fired
42658 continually one after another with a deafening roar, enveloping the
42659 whole neighborhood in powder smoke.
42661 In contrast with the dread felt by the infantrymen placed in support,
42662 here in the battery where a small number of men busy at their work were
42663 separated from the rest by a trench, everyone experienced a common and
42664 as it were family feeling of animation.
42666 The intrusion of Pierre's nonmilitary figure in a white hat made an
42667 unpleasant impression at first. The soldiers looked askance at him with
42668 surprise and even alarm as they went past him. The senior artillery
42669 officer, a tall, long-legged, pockmarked man, moved over to Pierre as if
42670 to see the action of the farthest gun and looked at him with curiosity.
42672 A young round-faced officer, quite a boy still and evidently only just
42673 out of the Cadet College, who was zealously commanding the two guns
42674 entrusted to him, addressed Pierre sternly.
42676 "Sir," he said, "permit me to ask you to stand aside. You must not be
42679 The soldiers shook their heads disapprovingly as they looked at Pierre.
42680 But when they had convinced themselves that this man in the white hat
42681 was doing no harm, but either sat quietly on the slope of the trench
42682 with a shy smile or, politely making way for the soldiers, paced up and
42683 down the battery under fire as calmly as if he were on a boulevard,
42684 their feeling of hostile distrust gradually began to change into a
42685 kindly and bantering sympathy, such as soldiers feel for their dogs,
42686 cocks, goats, and in general for the animals that live with the
42687 regiment. The men soon accepted Pierre into their family, adopted him,
42688 gave him a nickname ("our gentleman"), and made kindly fun of him among
42691 A shell tore up the earth two paces from Pierre and he looked around
42692 with a smile as he brushed from his clothes some earth it had thrown up.
42694 "And how's it you're not afraid, sir, really now?" a red-faced, broad-
42695 shouldered soldier asked Pierre, with a grin that disclosed a set of
42696 sound, white teeth.
42698 "Are you afraid, then?" said Pierre.
42700 "What else do you expect?" answered the soldier. "She has no mercy, you
42701 know! When she comes spluttering down, out go your innards. One can't
42702 help being afraid," he said laughing.
42704 Several of the men, with bright kindly faces, stopped beside Pierre.
42705 They seemed not to have expected him to talk like anybody else, and the
42706 discovery that he did so delighted them.
42708 "It's the business of us soldiers. But in a gentleman it's wonderful!
42709 There's a gentleman for you!"
42711 "To your places!" cried the young officer to the men gathered round
42714 The young officer was evidently exercising his duties for the first or
42715 second time and therefore treated both his superiors and the men with
42716 great precision and formality.
42718 The booming cannonade and the fusillade of musketry were growing more
42719 intense over the whole field, especially to the left where Bagration's
42720 fleches were, but where Pierre was the smoke of the firing made it
42721 almost impossible to distinguish anything. Moreover, his whole attention
42722 was engrossed by watching the family circle--separated from all else--
42723 formed by the men in the battery. His first unconscious feeling of
42724 joyful animation produced by the sights and sounds of the battlefield
42725 was now replaced by another, especially since he had seen that soldier
42726 lying alone in the hayfield. Now, seated on the slope of the trench, he
42727 observed the faces of those around him.
42729 By ten o'clock some twenty men had already been carried away from the
42730 battery; two guns were smashed and cannon balls fell more and more
42731 frequently on the battery and spent bullets buzzed and whistled around.
42732 But the men in the battery seemed not to notice this, and merry voices
42733 and jokes were heard on all sides.
42735 "A live one!" shouted a man as a whistling shell approached.
42737 "Not this way! To the infantry!" added another with loud laughter,
42738 seeing the shell fly past and fall into the ranks of the supports.
42740 "Are you bowing to a friend, eh?" remarked another, chaffing a peasant
42741 who ducked low as a cannon ball flew over.
42743 Several soldiers gathered by the wall of the trench, looking out to see
42744 what was happening in front.
42746 "They've withdrawn the front line, it has retired," said they, pointing
42747 over the earthwork.
42749 "Mind your own business," an old sergeant shouted at them. "If they've
42750 retired it's because there's work for them to do farther back."
42752 And the sergeant, taking one of the men by the shoulders, gave him a
42753 shove with his knee. This was followed by a burst of laughter.
42755 "To the fifth gun, wheel it up!" came shouts from one side.
42757 "Now then, all together, like bargees!" rose the merry voices of those
42758 who were moving the gun.
42760 "Oh, she nearly knocked our gentleman's hat off!" cried the red-faced
42761 humorist, showing his teeth chaffing Pierre. "Awkward baggage!" he added
42762 reproachfully to a cannon ball that struck a cannon wheel and a man's
42765 "Now then, you foxes!" said another, laughing at some militiamen who,
42766 stooping low, entered the battery to carry away the wounded man.
42768 "So this gruel isn't to your taste? Oh, you crows! You're scared!" they
42769 shouted at the militiamen who stood hesitating before the man whose leg
42772 "There, lads... oh, oh!" they mimicked the peasants, "they don't like it
42775 Pierre noticed that after every ball that hit the redoubt, and after
42776 every loss, the liveliness increased more and more.
42778 As the flames of the fire hidden within come more and more vividly and
42779 rapidly from an approaching thundercloud, so, as if in opposition to
42780 what was taking place, the lightning of hidden fire growing more and
42781 more intense glowed in the faces of these men.
42783 Pierre did not look out at the battlefield and was not concerned to know
42784 what was happening there; he was entirely absorbed in watching this fire
42785 which burned ever more brightly and which he felt was flaming up in the
42786 same way in his own soul.
42788 At ten o'clock the infantry that had been among the bushes in front of
42789 the battery and along the Kamenka streamlet retreated. From the battery
42790 they could be seen running back past it carrying their wounded on their
42791 muskets. A general with his suite came to the battery, and after
42792 speaking to the colonel gave Pierre an angry look and went away again
42793 having ordered the infantry supports behind the battery to lie down, so
42794 as to be less exposed to fire. After this from amid the ranks of
42795 infantry to the right of the battery came the sound of a drum and shouts
42796 of command, and from the battery one saw how those ranks of infantry
42799 Pierre looked over the wall of the trench and was particularly struck by
42800 a pale young officer who, letting his sword hang down, was walking
42801 backwards and kept glancing uneasily around.
42803 The ranks of the infantry disappeared amid the smoke but their long-
42804 drawn shout and rapid musketry firing could still be heard. A few
42805 minutes later crowds of wounded men and stretcher-bearers came back from
42806 that direction. Projectiles began to fall still more frequently in the
42807 battery. Several men were lying about who had not been removed. Around
42808 the cannon the men moved still more briskly and busily. No one any
42809 longer took notice of Pierre. Once or twice he was shouted at for being
42810 in the way. The senior officer moved with big, rapid strides from one
42811 gun to another with a frowning face. The young officer, with his face
42812 still more flushed, commanded the men more scrupulously than ever. The
42813 soldiers handed up the charges, turned, loaded, and did their business
42814 with strained smartness. They gave little jumps as they walked, as
42815 though they were on springs.
42817 The stormcloud had come upon them, and in every face the fire which
42818 Pierre had watched kindle burned up brightly. Pierre standing beside the
42819 commanding officer. The young officer, his hand to his shako, ran up to
42822 "I have the honor to report, sir, that only eight rounds are left. Are
42823 we to continue firing?" he asked.
42825 "Grapeshot!" the senior shouted, without answering the question, looking
42826 over the wall of the trench.
42828 Suddenly something happened: the young officer gave a gasp and bending
42829 double sat down on the ground like a bird shot on the wing. Everything
42830 became strange, confused, and misty in Pierre's eyes.
42832 One cannon ball after another whistled by and struck the earthwork, a
42833 soldier, or a gun. Pierre, who had not noticed these sounds before, now
42834 heard nothing else. On the right of the battery soldiers shouting
42835 "Hurrah!" were running not forwards but backwards, it seemed to Pierre.
42837 A cannon ball struck the very end of the earth work by which he was
42838 standing, crumbling down the earth; a black ball flashed before his eyes
42839 and at the same instant plumped into something. Some militiamen who were
42840 entering the battery ran back.
42842 "All with grapeshot!" shouted the officer.
42844 The sergeant ran up to the officer and in a frightened whisper informed
42845 him (as a butler at dinner informs his master that there is no more of
42846 some wine asked for) that there were no more charges.
42848 "The scoundrels! What are they doing?" shouted the officer, turning to
42851 The officer's face was red and perspiring and his eyes glittered under
42854 "Run to the reserves and bring up the ammunition boxes!" he yelled,
42855 angrily avoiding Pierre with his eyes and speaking to his men.
42857 "I'll go," said Pierre.
42859 The officer, without answering him, strode across to the opposite side.
42861 "Don't fire.... Wait!" he shouted.
42863 The man who had been ordered to go for ammunition stumbled against
42866 "Eh, sir, this is no place for you," said he, and ran down the slope.
42868 Pierre ran after him, avoiding the spot where the young officer was
42871 One cannon ball, another, and a third flew over him, falling in front,
42872 beside, and behind him. Pierre ran down the slope. "Where am I going?"
42873 he suddenly asked himself when he was already near the green ammunition
42874 wagons. He halted irresolutely, not knowing whether to return or go on.
42875 Suddenly a terrible concussion threw him backwards to the ground. At the
42876 same instant he was dazzled by a great flash of flame, and immediately a
42877 deafening roar, crackling, and whistling made his ears tingle.
42879 When he came to himself he was sitting on the ground leaning on his
42880 hands; the ammunition wagons he had been approaching no longer existed,
42881 only charred green boards and rags littered the scorched grass, and a
42882 horse, dangling fragments of its shaft behind it, galloped past, while
42883 another horse lay, like Pierre, on the ground, uttering prolonged and
42891 Beside himself with terror Pierre jumped up and ran back to the battery,
42892 as to the only refuge from the horrors that surrounded him.
42894 On entering the earthwork he noticed that there were men doing something
42895 there but that no shots were being fired from the battery. He had no
42896 time to realize who these men were. He saw the senior officer lying on
42897 the earth wall with his back turned as if he were examining something
42898 down below and that one of the soldiers he had noticed before was
42899 struggling forward shouting "Brothers!" and trying to free himself from
42900 some men who were holding him by the arm. He also saw something else
42903 But he had not time to realize that the colonel had been killed, that
42904 the soldier shouting "Brothers!" was a prisoner, and that another man
42905 had been bayoneted in the back before his eyes, for hardly had he run
42906 into the redoubt before a thin, sallow-faced, perspiring man in a blue
42907 uniform rushed on him sword in hand, shouting something. Instinctively
42908 guarding against the shock--for they had been running together at full
42909 speed before they saw one another--Pierre put out his hands and seized
42910 the man (a French officer) by the shoulder with one hand and by the
42911 throat with the other. The officer, dropping his sword, seized Pierre by
42914 For some seconds they gazed with frightened eyes at one another's
42915 unfamiliar faces and both were perplexed at what they had done and what
42916 they were to do next. "Am I taken prisoner or have I taken him
42917 prisoner?" each was thinking. But the French officer was evidently more
42918 inclined to think he had been taken prisoner because Pierre's strong
42919 hand, impelled by instinctive fear, squeezed his throat ever tighter and
42920 tighter. The Frenchman was about to say something, when just above their
42921 heads, terrible and low, a cannon ball whistled, and it seemed to Pierre
42922 that the French officer's head had been torn off, so swiftly had he
42925 Pierre too bent his head and let his hands fall. Without further thought
42926 as to who had taken whom prisoner, the Frenchman ran back to the battery
42927 and Pierre ran down the slope stumbling over the dead and wounded who,
42928 it seemed to him, caught at his feet. But before he reached the foot of
42929 the knoll he was met by a dense crowd of Russian soldiers who,
42930 stumbling, tripping up, and shouting, ran merrily and wildly toward the
42931 battery. (This was the attack for which Ermolov claimed the credit,
42932 declaring that only his courage and good luck made such a feat possible:
42933 it was the attack in which he was said to have thrown some St. George's
42934 Crosses he had in his pocket into the battery for the first soldiers to
42935 take who got there.)
42937 The French who had occupied the battery fled, and our troops shouting
42938 "Hurrah!" pursued them so far beyond the battery that it was difficult
42941 The prisoners were brought down from the battery and among them was a
42942 wounded French general, whom the officers surrounded. Crowds of wounded-
42943 -some known to Pierre and some unknown--Russians and French, with faces
42944 distorted by suffering, walked, crawled, and were carried on stretchers
42945 from the battery. Pierre again went up onto the knoll where he had spent
42946 over an hour, and of that family circle which had received him as a
42947 member he did not find a single one. There were many dead whom he did
42948 not know, but some he recognized. The young officer still sat in the
42949 same way, bent double, in a pool of blood at the edge of the earth wall.
42950 The red-faced man was still twitching, but they did not carry him away.
42952 Pierre ran down the slope once more.
42954 "Now they will stop it, now they will be horrified at what they have
42955 done!" he thought, aimlessly going toward a crowd of stretcher bearers
42956 moving from the battlefield.
42958 But behind the veil of smoke the sun was still high, and in front and
42959 especially to the left, near Semenovsk, something seemed to be seething
42960 in the smoke, and the roar of cannon and musketry did not diminish, but
42961 even increased to desperation like a man who, straining himself, shrieks
42962 with all his remaining strength.
42969 The chief action of the battle of Borodino was fought within the seven
42970 thousand feet between Borodino and Bagration's fleches. Beyond that
42971 space there was, on the one side, a demonstration made by the Russians
42972 with Uvarov's cavalry at midday, and on the other side, beyond Utitsa,
42973 Poniatowski's collision with Tuchkov; but these two were detached and
42974 feeble actions in comparison with what took place in the center of the
42975 battlefield. On the field between Borodino and the fleches, beside the
42976 wood, the chief action of the day took place on an open space visible
42977 from both sides and was fought in the simplest and most artless way.
42979 The battle began on both sides with a cannonade from several hundred
42982 Then when the whole field was covered with smoke, two divisions,
42983 Campan's and Dessaix's, advanced from the French right, while Murat's
42984 troops advanced on Borodino from their left.
42986 From the Shevardino Redoubt where Napoleon was standing the fleches were
42987 two thirds of a mile away, and it was more than a mile as the crow flies
42988 to Borodino, so that Napoleon could not see what was happening there,
42989 especially as the smoke mingling with the mist hid the whole locality.
42990 The soldiers of Dessaix's division advancing against the fleches could
42991 only be seen till they had entered the hollow that lay between them and
42992 the fleches. As soon as they had descended into that hollow, the smoke
42993 of the guns and musketry on the fleches grew so dense that it covered
42994 the whole approach on that side of it. Through the smoke glimpses could
42995 be caught of something black--probably men--and at times the glint of
42996 bayonets. But whether they were moving or stationary, whether they were
42997 French or Russian, could not be discovered from the Shevardino Redoubt.
42999 The sun had risen brightly and its slanting rays struck straight into
43000 Napoleon's face as, shading his eyes with his hand, he looked at the
43001 fleches. The smoke spread out before them, and at times it looked as if
43002 the smoke were moving, at times as if the troops moved. Sometimes shouts
43003 were heard through the firing, but it was impossible to tell what was
43006 Napoleon, standing on the knoll, looked through a field glass, and in
43007 its small circlet saw smoke and men, sometimes his own and sometimes
43008 Russians, but when he looked again with the naked eye, he could not tell
43009 where what he had seen was.
43011 He descended the knoll and began walking up and down before it.
43013 Occasionally he stopped, listened to the firing, and gazed intently at
43016 But not only was it impossible to make out what was happening from where
43017 he was standing down below, or from the knoll above on which some of his
43018 generals had taken their stand, but even from the fleches themselves--in
43019 which by this time there were now Russian and now French soldiers,
43020 alternately or together, dead, wounded, alive, frightened, or maddened--
43021 even at those fleches themselves it was impossible to make out what was
43022 taking place. There for several hours amid incessant cannon and musketry
43023 fire, now Russians were seen alone, now Frenchmen alone, now infantry,
43024 and now cavalry: they appeared, fired, fell, collided, not knowing what
43025 to do with one another, screamed, and ran back again.
43027 From the battlefield adjutants he had sent out, and orderlies from his
43028 marshals, kept galloping up to Napoleon with reports of the progress of
43029 the action, but all these reports were false, both because it was
43030 impossible in the heat of battle to say what was happening at any given
43031 moment and because many of the adjutants did not go to the actual place
43032 of conflict but reported what they had heard from others; and also
43033 because while an adjutant was riding more than a mile to Napoleon
43034 circumstances changed and the news he brought was already becoming
43035 false. Thus an adjutant galloped up from Murat with tidings that
43036 Borodino had been occupied and the bridge over the Kolocha was in the
43037 hands of the French. The adjutant asked whether Napoleon wished the
43038 troops to cross it? Napoleon gave orders that the troops should form up
43039 on the farther side and wait. But before that order was given--almost as
43040 soon in fact as the adjutant had left Borodino--the bridge had been
43041 retaken by the Russians and burned, in the very skirmish at which Pierre
43042 had been present at the beginning of the battle.
43044 An adjutant galloped up from the fleches with a pale and frightened face
43045 and reported to Napoleon that their attack had been repulsed, Campan
43046 wounded, and Davout killed; yet at the very time the adjutant had been
43047 told that the French had been repulsed, the fleches had in fact been
43048 recaptured by other French troops, and Davout was alive and only
43049 slightly bruised. On the basis of these necessarily untrustworthy
43050 reports Napoleon gave his orders, which had either been executed before
43051 he gave them or could not be and were not executed.
43053 The marshals and generals, who were nearer to the field of battle but,
43054 like Napoleon, did not take part in the actual fighting and only
43055 occasionally went within musket range, made their own arrangements
43056 without asking Napoleon and issued orders where and in what direction to
43057 fire and where cavalry should gallop and infantry should run. But even
43058 their orders, like Napoleon's, were seldom carried out, and then but
43059 partially. For the most part things happened contrary to their orders.
43060 Soldiers ordered to advance ran back on meeting grapeshot; soldiers
43061 ordered to remain where they were, suddenly, seeing Russians
43062 unexpectedly before them, sometimes rushed back and sometimes forward,
43063 and the cavalry dashed without orders in pursuit of the flying Russians.
43064 In this way two cavalry regiments galloped through the Semenovsk hollow
43065 and as soon as they reached the top of the incline turned round and
43066 galloped full speed back again. The infantry moved in the same way,
43067 sometimes running to quite other places than those they were ordered to
43068 go to. All orders as to where and when to move the guns, when to send
43069 infantry to shoot or horsemen to ride down the Russian infantry--all
43070 such orders were given by the officers on the spot nearest to the units
43071 concerned, without asking either Ney, Davout, or Murat, much less
43072 Napoleon. They did not fear getting into trouble for not fulfilling
43073 orders or for acting on their own initiative, for in battle what is at
43074 stake is what is dearest to man--his own life--and it sometimes seems
43075 that safety lies in running back, sometimes in running forward; and
43076 these men who were right in the heat of the battle acted according to
43077 the mood of the moment. In reality, however, all these movements forward
43078 and backward did not improve or alter the position of the troops. All
43079 their rushing and galloping at one another did little harm, the harm of
43080 disablement and death was caused by the balls and bullets that flew over
43081 the fields on which these men were floundering about. As soon as they
43082 left the place where the balls and bullets were flying about, their
43083 superiors, located in the background, re-formed them and brought them
43084 under discipline and under the influence of that discipline led them
43085 back to the zone of fire, where under the influence of fear of death
43086 they lost their discipline and rushed about according to the chance
43087 promptings of the throng.
43094 Napoleon's generals--Davout, Ney, and Murat, who were near that region
43095 of fire and sometimes even entered it--repeatedly led into it huge
43096 masses of well-ordered troops. But contrary to what had always happened
43097 in their former battles, instead of the news they expected of the
43098 enemy's flight, these orderly masses returned thence as disorganized and
43099 terrified mobs. The generals re-formed them, but their numbers
43100 constantly decreased. In the middle of the day Murat sent his adjutant
43101 to Napoleon to demand reinforcements.
43103 Napoleon sat at the foot of the knoll, drinking punch, when Murat's
43104 adjutant galloped up with an assurance that the Russians would be routed
43105 if His Majesty would let him have another division.
43107 "Reinforcements?" said Napoleon in a tone of stern surprise, looking at
43108 the adjutant--a handsome lad with long black curls arranged like Murat's
43109 own--as though he did not understand his words.
43111 "Reinforcements!" thought Napoleon to himself. "How can they need
43112 reinforcements when they already have half the army directed against a
43113 weak, unentrenched Russian wing?"
43115 "Tell the King of Naples," said he sternly, "that it is not noon yet,
43116 and I don't yet see my chessboard clearly. Go!..."
43118 The handsome boy adjutant with the long hair sighed deeply without
43119 removing his hand from his hat and galloped back to where men were being
43122 Napoleon rose and having summoned Caulaincourt and Berthier began
43123 talking to them about matters unconnected with the battle.
43125 In the midst of this conversation, which was beginning to interest
43126 Napoleon, Berthier's eyes turned to look at a general with a suite, who
43127 was galloping toward the knoll on a lathering horse. It was Belliard.
43128 Having dismounted he went up to the Emperor with rapid strides and in a
43129 loud voice began boldly demonstrating the necessity of sending
43130 reinforcements. He swore on his honor that the Russians were lost if the
43131 Emperor would give another division.
43133 Napoleon shrugged his shoulders and continued to pace up and down
43134 without replying. Belliard began talking loudly and eagerly to the
43135 generals of the suite around him.
43137 "You are very fiery, Belliard," said Napoleon, when he again came up to
43138 the general. "In the heat of a battle it is easy to make a mistake. Go
43139 and have another look and then come back to me."
43141 Before Belliard was out of sight, a messenger from another part of the
43142 battlefield galloped up.
43144 "Now then, what do you want?" asked Napoleon in the tone of a man
43145 irritated at being continually disturbed.
43147 "Sire, the prince..." began the adjutant.
43149 "Asks for reinforcements?" said Napoleon with an angry gesture.
43151 The adjutant bent his head affirmatively and began to report, but the
43152 Emperor turned from him, took a couple of steps, stopped, came back, and
43155 "We must give reserves," he said, moving his arms slightly apart. "Who
43156 do you think should be sent there?" he asked of Berthier (whom he
43157 subsequently termed "that gosling I have made an eagle").
43159 "Send Claparede's division, sire," replied Berthier, who knew all the
43160 division's regiments, and battalions by heart.
43162 Napoleon nodded assent.
43164 The adjutant galloped to Claparede's division and a few minutes later
43165 the Young Guards stationed behind the knoll moved forward. Napoleon
43166 gazed silently in that direction.
43168 "No!" he suddenly said to Berthier. "I can't send Claparede. Send
43169 Friant's division."
43171 Though there was no advantage in sending Friant's division instead of
43172 Claparede's, and even an obvious inconvenience and delay in stopping
43173 Claparede and sending Friant now, the order was carried out exactly.
43174 Napoleon did not notice that in regard to his army he was playing the
43175 part of a doctor who hinders by his medicines--a role he so justly
43176 understood and condemned.
43178 Friant's division disappeared as the others had done into the smoke of
43179 the battlefield. From all sides adjutants continued to arrive at a
43180 gallop and as if by agreement all said the same thing. They all asked
43181 for reinforcements and all said that the Russians were holding their
43182 positions and maintaining a hellish fire under which the French army was
43185 Napoleon sat on a campstool, wrapped in thought.
43187 M. de Beausset, the man so fond of travel, having fasted since morning,
43188 came up to the Emperor and ventured respectfully to suggest lunch to His
43191 "I hope I may now congratulate Your Majesty on a victory?" said he.
43193 Napoleon silently shook his head in negation. Assuming the negation to
43194 refer only to the victory and not to the lunch, M. de Beausset ventured
43195 with respectful jocularity to remark that there is no reason for not
43196 having lunch when one can get it.
43198 "Go away..." exclaimed Napoleon suddenly and morosely, and turned aside.
43200 A beatific smile of regret, repentance, and ecstasy beamed on M. de
43201 Beausset's face and he glided away to the other generals.
43203 Napoleon was experiencing a feeling of depression like that of an ever-
43204 lucky gambler who, after recklessly flinging money about and always
43205 winning, suddenly just when he has calculated all the chances of the
43206 game, finds that the more he considers his play the more surely he
43209 His troops were the same, his generals the same, the same preparations
43210 had been made, the same dispositions, and the same proclamation courte
43211 et energique, he himself was still the same: he knew that and knew that
43212 he was now even more experienced and skillful than before. Even the
43213 enemy was the same as at Austerlitz and Friedland--yet the terrible
43214 stroke of his arm had supernaturally become impotent.
43216 All the old methods that had been unfailingly crowned with success: the
43217 concentration of batteries on one point, an attack by reserves to break
43218 the enemy's line, and a cavalry attack by "the men of iron," all these
43219 methods had already been employed, yet not only was there no victory,
43220 but from all sides came the same news of generals killed and wounded, of
43221 reinforcements needed, of the impossibility of driving back the
43222 Russians, and of disorganization among his own troops.
43224 Formerly, after he had given two or three orders and uttered a few
43225 phrases, marshals and adjutants had come galloping up with
43226 congratulations and happy faces, announcing the trophies taken, the
43227 corps of prisoners, bundles of enemy eagles and standards, cannon and
43228 stores, and Murat had only begged leave to loose the cavalry to gather
43229 in the baggage wagons. So it had been at Lodi, Marengo, Arcola, Jena,
43230 Austerlitz, Wagram, and so on. But now something strange was happening
43233 Despite news of the capture of the fleches, Napoleon saw that this was
43234 not the same, not at all the same, as what had happened in his former
43235 battles. He saw that what he was feeling was felt by all the men about
43236 him experienced in the art of war. All their faces looked dejected, and
43237 they all shunned one another's eyes--only a de Beausset could fail to
43238 grasp the meaning of what was happening.
43240 But Napoleon with his long experience of war well knew the meaning of a
43241 battle not gained by the attacking side in eight hours, after all
43242 efforts had been expended. He knew that it was a lost battle and that
43243 the least accident might now--with the fight balanced on such a strained
43244 center--destroy him and his army.
43246 When he ran his mind over the whole of this strange Russian campaign in
43247 which not one battle had been won, and in which not a flag, or cannon,
43248 or army corps had been captured in two months, when he looked at the
43249 concealed depression on the faces around him and heard reports of the
43250 Russians still holding their ground--a terrible feeling like a nightmare
43251 took possession of him, and all the unlucky accidents that might destroy
43252 him occurred to his mind. The Russians might fall on his left wing,
43253 might break through his center, he himself might be killed by a stray
43254 cannon ball. All this was possible. In former battles he had only
43255 considered the possibilities of success, but now innumerable unlucky
43256 chances presented themselves, and he expected them all. Yes, it was like
43257 a dream in which a man fancies that a ruffian is coming to attack him,
43258 and raises his arm to strike that ruffian a terrible blow which he knows
43259 should annihilate him, but then feels that his arm drops powerless and
43260 limp like a rag, and the horror of unavoidable destruction seizes him in
43263 The news that the Russians were attacking the left flank of the French
43264 army aroused that horror in Napoleon. He sat silently on a campstool
43265 below the knoll, with head bowed and elbows on his knees. Berthier
43266 approached and suggested that they should ride along the line to
43267 ascertain the position of affairs.
43269 "What? What do you say?" asked Napoleon. "Yes, tell them to bring me my
43272 He mounted and rode toward Semenovsk.
43274 Amid the powder smoke, slowly dispersing over the whole space through
43275 which Napoleon rode, horses and men were lying in pools of blood, singly
43276 or in heaps. Neither Napoleon nor any of his generals had ever before
43277 seen such horrors or so many slain in such a small area. The roar of
43278 guns, that had not ceased for ten hours, wearied the ear and gave a
43279 peculiar significance to the spectacle, as music does to tableaux
43280 vivants. Napoleon rode up the high ground at Semenovsk, and through the
43281 smoke saw ranks of men in uniforms of a color unfamiliar to him. They
43284 The Russians stood in serried ranks behind Semenovsk village and its
43285 knoll, and their guns boomed incessantly along their line and sent forth
43286 clouds of smoke. It was no longer a battle: it was a continuous
43287 slaughter which could be of no avail either to the French or the
43288 Russians. Napoleon stopped his horse and again fell into the reverie
43289 from which Berthier had aroused him. He could not stop what was going on
43290 before him and around him and was supposed to be directed by him and to
43291 depend on him, and from its lack of success this affair, for the first
43292 time, seemed to him unnecessary and horrible.
43294 One of the generals rode up to Napoleon and ventured to offer to lead
43295 the Old Guard into action. Ney and Berthier, standing near Napoleon,
43296 exchanged looks and smiled contemptuously at this general's senseless
43299 Napoleon bowed his head and remained silent a long time.
43301 "At eight hundred leagues from France, I will not have my Guard
43302 destroyed!" he said, and turning his horse rode back to Shevardino.
43309 On the rug-covered bench where Pierre had seen him in the morning sat
43310 Kutuzov, his gray head hanging, his heavy body relaxed. He gave no
43311 orders, but only assented to or dissented from what others suggested.
43313 "Yes, yes, do that," he replied to various proposals. "Yes, yes: go,
43314 dear boy, and have a look," he would say to one or another of those
43315 about him; or, "No, don't, we'd better wait!" He listened to the reports
43316 that were brought him and gave directions when his subordinates demanded
43317 that of him; but when listening to the reports it seemed as if he were
43318 not interested in the import of the words spoken, but rather in
43319 something else--in the expression of face and tone of voice of those who
43320 were reporting. By long years of military experience he knew, and with
43321 the wisdom of age understood, that it is impossible for one man to
43322 direct hundreds of thousands of others struggling with death, and he
43323 knew that the result of a battle is decided not by the orders of a
43324 commander-in-chief, nor the place where the troops are stationed, nor by
43325 the number of cannon or of slaughtered men, but by that intangible force
43326 called the spirit of the army, and he watched this force and guided it
43327 in as far as that was in his power.
43329 Kutuzov's general expression was one of concentrated quiet attention,
43330 and his face wore a strained look as if he found it difficult to master
43331 the fatigue of his old and feeble body.
43333 At eleven o'clock they brought him news that the fleches captured by the
43334 French had been retaken, but that Prince Bagration was wounded. Kutuzov
43335 groaned and swayed his head.
43337 "Ride over to Prince Peter Ivanovich and find out about it exactly," he
43338 said to one of his adjutants, and then turned to the Duke of Wurttemberg
43339 who was standing behind him.
43341 "Will Your Highness please take command of the first army?"
43343 Soon after the duke's departure--before he could possibly have reached
43344 Semenovsk--his adjutant came back from him and told Kutuzov that the
43345 duke asked for more troops.
43347 Kutuzov made a grimace and sent an order to Dokhturov to take over the
43348 command of the first army, and a request to the duke--whom he said he
43349 could not spare at such an important moment--to return to him. When they
43350 brought him news that Murat had been taken prisoner, and the staff
43351 officers congratulated him, Kutuzov smiled.
43353 "Wait a little, gentlemen," said he. "The battle is won, and there is
43354 nothing extraordinary in the capture of Murat. Still, it is better to
43355 wait before we rejoice."
43357 But he sent an adjutant to take the news round the army.
43359 When Scherbinin came galloping from the left flank with news that the
43360 French had captured the fleches and the village of Semenovsk, Kutuzov,
43361 guessing by the sounds of the battle and by Scherbinin's looks that the
43362 news was bad, rose as if to stretch his legs and, taking Scherbinin's
43363 arm, led him aside.
43365 "Go, my dear fellow," he said to Ermolov, "and see whether something
43368 Kutuzov was in Gorki, near the center of the Russian position. The
43369 attack directed by Napoleon against our left flank had been several
43370 times repulsed. In the center the French had not got beyond Borodino,
43371 and on their left flank Uvarov's cavalry had put the French to flight.
43373 Toward three o'clock the French attacks ceased. On the faces of all who
43374 came from the field of battle, and of those who stood around him,
43375 Kutuzov noticed an expression of extreme tension. He was satisfied with
43376 the day's success--a success exceeding his expectations, but the old
43377 man's strength was failing him. Several times his head dropped low as if
43378 it were falling and he dozed off. Dinner was brought him.
43380 Adjutant General Wolzogen, the man who when riding past Prince Andrew
43381 had said, "the war should be extended widely," and whom Bagration so
43382 detested, rode up while Kutuzov was at dinner. Wolzogen had come from
43383 Barclay de Tolly to report on the progress of affairs on the left flank.
43384 The sagacious Barclay de Tolly, seeing crowds of wounded men running
43385 back and the disordered rear of the army, weighed all the circumstances,
43386 concluded that the battle was lost, and sent his favorite officer to the
43387 commander in chief with that news.
43389 Kutuzov was chewing a piece of roast chicken with difficulty and glanced
43390 at Wolzogen with eyes that brightened under their puckering lids.
43392 Wolzogen, nonchalantly stretching his legs, approached Kutuzov with a
43393 half-contemptuous smile on his lips, scarcely touching the peak of his
43396 He treated his Serene Highness with a somewhat affected nonchalance
43397 intended to show that, as a highly trained military man, he left it to
43398 Russians to make an idol of this useless old man, but that he knew whom
43399 he was dealing with. "Der alte Herr" (as in their own set the Germans
43400 called Kutuzov) "is making himself very comfortable," thought Wolzogen,
43401 and looking severely at the dishes in front of Kutuzov he began to
43402 report to "the old gentleman" the position of affairs on the left flank
43403 as Barclay had ordered him to and as he himself had seen and understood
43406 "All the points of our position are in the enemy's hands and we cannot
43407 dislodge them for lack of troops, the men are running away and it is
43408 impossible to stop them," he reported.
43410 Kutuzov ceased chewing and fixed an astonished gaze on Wolzogen, as if
43411 not understanding what was said to him. Wolzogen, noticing "the old
43412 gentleman's" agitation, said with a smile:
43414 "I have not considered it right to conceal from your Serene Highness
43415 what I have seen. The troops are in complete disorder..."
43417 "You have seen? You have seen?..." Kutuzov shouted. Frowning and rising
43418 quickly, he went up to Wolzogen.
43420 "How... how dare you!..." he shouted, choking and making a threatening
43421 gesture with his trembling arms: "How dare you, sir, say that to me? You
43422 know nothing about it. Tell General Barclay from me that his information
43423 is incorrect and that the real course of the battle is better known to
43424 me, the commander-in-chief, than to him."
43426 Wolzogen was about to make a rejoinder, but Kutuzov interrupted him.
43428 "The enemy has been repulsed on the left and defeated on the right
43429 flank. If you have seen amiss, sir, do not allow yourself to say what
43430 you don't know! Be so good as to ride to General Barclay and inform him
43431 of my firm intention to attack the enemy tomorrow," said Kutuzov
43434 All were silent, and the only sound audible was the heavy breathing of
43435 the panting old general.
43437 "They are repulsed everywhere, for which I thank God and our brave army!
43438 The enemy is beaten, and tomorrow we shall drive him from the sacred
43439 soil of Russia," said Kutuzov crossing himself, and he suddenly sobbed
43440 as his eyes filled with tears.
43442 Wolzogen, shrugging his shoulders and curling his lips, stepped silently
43443 aside, marveling at "the old gentleman's" conceited stupidity.
43445 "Ah, here he is, my hero!" said Kutuzov to a portly, handsome, dark-
43446 haired general who was just ascending the knoll.
43448 This was Raevski, who had spent the whole day at the most important part
43449 of the field of Borodino.
43451 Raevski reported that the troops were firmly holding their ground and
43452 that the French no longer ventured to attack.
43454 After hearing him, Kutuzov said in French:
43456 "Then you do not think, like some others, that we must retreat?"
43458 "On the contrary, your Highness, in indecisive actions it is always the
43459 most stubborn who remain victors," replied Raevski, "and in my
43462 "Kaysarov!" Kutuzov called to his adjutant. "Sit down and write out the
43463 order of the day for tomorrow. And you," he continued, addressing
43464 another, "ride along the line and announce that tomorrow we attack."
43466 While Kutuzov was talking to Raevski and dictating the order of the day,
43467 Wolzogen returned from Barclay and said that General Barclay wished to
43468 have written confirmation of the order the field marshal had given.
43470 Kutuzov, without looking at Wolzogen, gave directions for the order to
43471 be written out which the former commander-in-chief, to avoid personal
43472 responsibility, very judiciously wished to receive.
43474 And by means of that mysterious indefinable bond which maintains
43475 throughout an army one and the same temper, known as "the spirit of the
43476 army," and which constitutes the sinew of war, Kutuzov's words, his
43477 order for a battle next day, immediately became known from one end of
43478 the army to the other.
43480 It was far from being the same words or the same order that reached the
43481 farthest links of that chain. The tales passing from mouth to mouth at
43482 different ends of the army did not even resemble what Kutuzov had said,
43483 but the sense of his words spread everywhere because what he said was
43484 not the outcome of cunning calculations, but of a feeling that lay in
43485 the commander-in-chief's soul as in that of every Russian.
43487 And on learning that tomorrow they were to attack the enemy, and hearing
43488 from the highest quarters a confirmation of what they wanted to believe,
43489 the exhausted, wavering men felt comforted and inspirited.
43496 Prince Andrew's regiment was among the reserves which till after one
43497 o'clock were stationed inactive behind Semenovsk, under heavy artillery
43498 fire. Toward two o'clock the regiment, having already lost more than two
43499 hundred men, was moved forward into a trampled oatfield in the gap
43500 between Semenovsk and the Knoll Battery, where thousands of men perished
43501 that day and on which an intense, concentrated fire from several hundred
43502 enemy guns was directed between one and two o'clock.
43504 Without moving from that spot or firing a single shot the regiment here
43505 lost another third of its men. From in front and especially from the
43506 right, in the unlifting smoke the guns boomed, and out of the mysterious
43507 domain of smoke that overlay the whole space in front, quick hissing
43508 cannon balls and slow whistling shells flew unceasingly. At times, as if
43509 to allow them a respite, a quarter of an hour passed during which the
43510 cannon balls and shells all flew overhead, but sometimes several men
43511 were torn from the regiment in a minute and the slain were continually
43512 being dragged away and the wounded carried off.
43514 With each fresh blow less and less chance of life remained for those not
43515 yet killed. The regiment stood in columns of battalion, three hundred
43516 paces apart, but nevertheless the men were always in one and the same
43517 mood. All alike were taciturn and morose. Talk was rarely heard in the
43518 ranks, and it ceased altogether every time the thud of a successful shot
43519 and the cry of "stretchers!" was heard. Most of the time, by their
43520 officers' order, the men sat on the ground. One, having taken off his
43521 shako, carefully loosened the gathers of its lining and drew them tight
43522 again; another, rubbing some dry clay between his palms, polished his
43523 bayonet; another fingered the strap and pulled the buckle of his
43524 bandolier, while another smoothed and refolded his leg bands and put his
43525 boots on again. Some built little houses of the tufts in the plowed
43526 ground, or plaited baskets from the straw in the cornfield. All seemed
43527 fully absorbed in these pursuits. When men were killed or wounded, when
43528 rows of stretchers went past, when some troops retreated, and when great
43529 masses of the enemy came into view through the smoke, no one paid any
43530 attention to these things. But when our artillery or cavalry advanced or
43531 some of our infantry were seen to move forward, words of approval were
43532 heard on all sides. But the liveliest attention was attracted by
43533 occurrences quite apart from, and unconnected with, the battle. It was
43534 as if the minds of these morally exhausted men found relief in everyday,
43535 commonplace occurrences. A battery of artillery was passing in front of
43536 the regiment. The horse of an ammunition cart put its leg over a trace.
43537 "Hey, look at the trace horse!... Get her leg out! She'll fall.... Ah,
43538 they don't see it!" came identical shouts from the ranks all along the
43539 regiment. Another time, general attention was attracted by a small brown
43540 dog, coming heaven knows whence, which trotted in a preoccupied manner
43541 in front of the ranks with tail stiffly erect till suddenly a shell fell
43542 close by, when it yelped, tucked its tail between its legs, and darted
43543 aside. Yells and shrieks of laughter rose from the whole regiment. But
43544 such distractions lasted only a moment, and for eight hours the men had
43545 been inactive, without food, in constant fear of death, and their pale
43546 and gloomy faces grew ever paler and gloomier.
43548 Prince Andrew, pale and gloomy like everyone in the regiment, paced up
43549 and down from the border of one patch to another, at the edge of the
43550 meadow beside an oatfield, with head bowed and arms behind his back.
43551 There was nothing for him to do and no orders to be given. Everything
43552 went on of itself. The killed were dragged from the front, the wounded
43553 carried away, and the ranks closed up. If any soldiers ran to the rear
43554 they returned immediately and hastily. At first Prince Andrew,
43555 considering it his duty to rouse the courage of the men and to set them
43556 an example, walked about among the ranks, but he soon became convinced
43557 that this was unnecessary and that there was nothing he could teach
43558 them. All the powers of his soul, as of every soldier there, were
43559 unconsciously bent on avoiding the contemplation of the horrors of their
43560 situation. He walked along the meadow, dragging his feet, rustling the
43561 grass, and gazing at the dust that covered his boots; now he took big
43562 strides trying to keep to the footprints left on the meadow by the
43563 mowers, then he counted his steps, calculating how often he must walk
43564 from one strip to another to walk a mile, then he stripped the flowers
43565 from the wormwood that grew along a boundary rut, rubbed them in his
43566 palms, and smelled their pungent, sweetly bitter scent. Nothing remained
43567 of the previous day's thoughts. He thought of nothing. He listened with
43568 weary ears to the ever-recurring sounds, distinguishing the whistle of
43569 flying projectiles from the booming of the reports, glanced at the
43570 tiresomely familiar faces of the men of the first battalion, and waited.
43571 "Here it comes... this one is coming our way again!" he thought,
43572 listening to an approaching whistle in the hidden region of smoke. "One,
43573 another! Again! It has hit...." He stopped and looked at the ranks. "No,
43574 it has gone over. But this one has hit!" And again he started trying to
43575 reach the boundary strip in sixteen paces. A whizz and a thud! Five
43576 paces from him, a cannon ball tore up the dry earth and disappeared. A
43577 chill ran down his back. Again he glanced at the ranks. Probably many
43578 had been hit--a large crowd had gathered near the second battalion.
43580 "Adjutant!" he shouted. "Order them not to crowd together."
43582 The adjutant, having obeyed this instruction, approached Prince Andrew.
43583 From the other side a battalion commander rode up.
43585 "Look out!" came a frightened cry from a soldier and, like a bird
43586 whirring in rapid flight and alighting on the ground, a shell dropped
43587 with little noise within two steps of Prince Andrew and close to the
43588 battalion commander's horse. The horse first, regardless of whether it
43589 was right or wrong to show fear, snorted, reared almost throwing the
43590 major, and galloped aside. The horse's terror infected the men.
43592 "Lie down!" cried the adjutant, throwing himself flat on the ground.
43594 Prince Andrew hesitated. The smoking shell spun like a top between him
43595 and the prostrate adjutant, near a wormwood plant between the field and
43598 "Can this be death?" thought Prince Andrew, looking with a quite new,
43599 envious glance at the grass, the wormwood, and the streamlet of smoke
43600 that curled up from the rotating black ball. "I cannot, I do not wish to
43601 die. I love life--I love this grass, this earth, this air...." He
43602 thought this, and at the same time remembered that people were looking
43605 "It's shameful, sir!" he said to the adjutant. "What..."
43607 He did not finish speaking. At one and the same moment came the sound of
43608 an explosion, a whistle of splinters as from a breaking window frame, a
43609 suffocating smell of powder, and Prince Andrew started to one side,
43610 raising his arm, and fell on his chest. Several officers ran up to him.
43611 From the right side of his abdomen, blood was welling out making a large
43612 stain on the grass.
43614 The militiamen with stretchers who were called up stood behind the
43615 officers. Prince Andrew lay on his chest with his face in the grass,
43616 breathing heavily and noisily.
43618 "What are you waiting for? Come along!"
43620 The peasants went up and took him by his shoulders and legs, but he
43621 moaned piteously and, exchanging looks, they set him down again.
43623 "Pick him up, lift him, it's all the same!" cried someone.
43625 They again took him by the shoulders and laid him on the stretcher.
43627 "Ah, God! My God! What is it? The stomach? That means death! My God!"--
43628 voices among the officers were heard saying.
43630 "It flew a hair's breadth past my ear," said the adjutant.
43632 The peasants, adjusting the stretcher to their shoulders, started
43633 hurriedly along the path they had trodden down, to the dressing station.
43635 "Keep in step! Ah... those peasants!" shouted an officer, seizing by
43636 their shoulders and checking the peasants, who were walking unevenly and
43637 jolting the stretcher.
43639 "Get into step, Fedor... I say, Fedor!" said the foremost peasant.
43641 "Now that's right!" said the one behind joyfully, when he had got into
43644 "Your excellency! Eh, Prince!" said the trembling voice of Timokhin, who
43645 had run up and was looking down on the stretcher.
43647 Prince Andrew opened his eyes and looked up at the speaker from the
43648 stretcher into which his head had sunk deep and again his eyelids
43651 The militiamen carried Prince Andrew to the dressing station by the
43652 wood, where wagons were stationed. The dressing station consisted of
43653 three tents with flaps turned back, pitched at the edge of a birch wood.
43654 In the wood, wagons and horses were standing. The horses were eating
43655 oats from their movable troughs and sparrows flew down and pecked the
43656 grains that fell. Some crows, scenting blood, flew among the birch trees
43657 cawing impatiently. Around the tents, over more than five acres,
43658 bloodstained men in various garbs stood, sat, or lay. Around the wounded
43659 stood crowds of soldier stretcher-bearers with dismal and attentive
43660 faces, whom the officers keeping order tried in vain to drive from the
43661 spot. Disregarding the officers' orders, the soldiers stood leaning
43662 against their stretchers and gazing intently, as if trying to comprehend
43663 the difficult problem of what was taking place before them. From the
43664 tents came now loud angry cries and now plaintive groans. Occasionally
43665 dressers ran out to fetch water, or to point out those who were to be
43666 brought in next. The wounded men awaiting their turn outside the tents
43667 groaned, sighed, wept, screamed, swore, or asked for vodka. Some were
43668 delirious. Prince Andrew's bearers, stepping over the wounded who had
43669 not yet been bandaged, took him, as a regimental commander, close up to
43670 one of the tents and there stopped, awaiting instructions. Prince Andrew
43671 opened his eyes and for a long time could not make out what was going on
43672 around him. He remembered the meadow, the wormwood, the field, the
43673 whirling black ball, and his sudden rush of passionate love of life. Two
43674 steps from him, leaning against a branch and talking loudly and
43675 attracting general attention, stood a tall, handsome, black-haired
43676 noncommissioned officer with a bandaged head. He had been wounded in the
43677 head and leg by bullets. Around him, eagerly listening to his talk, a
43678 crowd of wounded and stretcher-bearers was gathered.
43680 "We kicked him out from there so that he chucked everything, we grabbed
43681 the King himself!" cried he, looking around him with eyes that glittered
43682 with fever. "If only reserves had come up just then, lads, there
43683 wouldn't have been nothing left of him! I tell you surely..."
43685 Like all the others near the speaker, Prince Andrew looked at him with
43686 shining eyes and experienced a sense of comfort. "But isn't it all the
43687 same now?" thought he. "And what will be there, and what has there been
43688 here? Why was I so reluctant to part with life? There was something in
43689 this life I did not and do not understand."
43696 One of the doctors came out of the tent in a bloodstained apron, holding
43697 a cigar between the thumb and little finger of one of his small
43698 bloodstained hands, so as not to smear it. He raised his head and looked
43699 about him, but above the level of the wounded men. He evidently wanted a
43700 little respite. After turning his head from right to left for some time,
43701 he sighed and looked down.
43703 "All right, immediately," he replied to a dresser who pointed Prince
43704 Andrew out to him, and he told them to carry him into the tent.
43706 Murmurs arose among the wounded who were waiting.
43708 "It seems that even in the next world only the gentry are to have a
43709 chance!" remarked one.
43711 Prince Andrew was carried in and laid on a table that had only just been
43712 cleared and which a dresser was washing down. Prince Andrew could not
43713 make out distinctly what was in that tent. The pitiful groans from all
43714 sides and the torturing pain in his thigh, stomach, and back distracted
43715 him. All he saw about him merged into a general impression of naked,
43716 bleeding human bodies that seemed to fill the whole of the low tent, as
43717 a few weeks previously, on that hot August day, such bodies had filled
43718 the dirty pond beside the Smolensk road. Yes, it was the same flesh, the
43719 same chair a canon, the sight of which had even then filled him with
43720 horror, as by a presentiment.
43722 There were three operating tables in the tent. Two were occupied, and on
43723 the third they placed Prince Andrew. For a little while he was left
43724 alone and involuntarily witnessed what was taking place on the other two
43725 tables. On the nearest one sat a Tartar, probably a Cossack, judging by
43726 the uniform thrown down beside him. Four soldiers were holding him, and
43727 a spectacled doctor was cutting into his muscular brown back.
43729 "Ooh, ooh, ooh!" grunted the Tartar, and suddenly lifting up his swarthy
43730 snub-nosed face with its high cheekbones, and baring his white teeth, he
43731 began to wriggle and twitch his body and utter piercing, ringing, and
43732 prolonged yells. On the other table, round which many people were
43733 crowding, a tall well-fed man lay on his back with his head thrown back.
43734 His curly hair, its color, and the shape of his head seemed strangely
43735 familiar to Prince Andrew. Several dressers were pressing on his chest
43736 to hold him down. One large, white, plump leg twitched rapidly all the
43737 time with a feverish tremor. The man was sobbing and choking
43738 convulsively. Two doctors--one of whom was pale and trembling--were
43739 silently doing something to this man's other, gory leg. When he had
43740 finished with the Tartar, whom they covered with an overcoat, the
43741 spectacled doctor came up to Prince Andrew, wiping his hands.
43743 He glanced at Prince Andrew's face and quickly turned away.
43745 "Undress him! What are you waiting for?" he cried angrily to the
43748 His very first, remotest recollections of childhood came back to Prince
43749 Andrew's mind when the dresser with sleeves rolled up began hastily to
43750 undo the buttons of his clothes and undressed him. The doctor bent down
43751 over the wound, felt it, and sighed deeply. Then he made a sign to
43752 someone, and the torturing pain in his abdomen caused Prince Andrew to
43753 lose consciousness. When he came to himself the splintered portions of
43754 his thighbone had been extracted, the torn flesh cut away, and the wound
43755 bandaged. Water was being sprinkled on his face. As soon as Prince
43756 Andrew opened his eyes, the doctor bent over, kissed him silently on the
43757 lips, and hurried away.
43759 After the sufferings he had been enduring, Prince Andrew enjoyed a
43760 blissful feeling such as he had not experienced for a long time. All the
43761 best and happiest moments of his life--especially his earliest
43762 childhood, when he used to be undressed and put to bed, and when leaning
43763 over him his nurse sang him to sleep and he, burying his head in the
43764 pillow, felt happy in the mere consciousness of life--returned to his
43765 memory, not merely as something past but as something present.
43767 The doctors were busily engaged with the wounded man the shape of whose
43768 head seemed familiar to Prince Andrew: they were lifting him up and
43769 trying to quiet him.
43771 "Show it to me.... Oh, ooh... Oh! Oh, ooh!" his frightened moans could
43772 be heard, subdued by suffering and broken by sobs.
43774 Hearing those moans Prince Andrew wanted to weep. Whether because he was
43775 dying without glory, or because he was sorry to part with life, or
43776 because of those memories of a childhood that could not return, or
43777 because he was suffering and others were suffering and that man near him
43778 was groaning so piteously--he felt like weeping childlike, kindly, and
43779 almost happy tears.
43781 The wounded man was shown his amputated leg stained with clotted blood
43782 and with the boot still on.
43784 "Oh! Oh, ooh!" he sobbed, like a woman.
43786 The doctor who had been standing beside him, preventing Prince Andrew
43787 from seeing his face, moved away.
43789 "My God! What is this? Why is he here?" said Prince Andrew to himself.
43791 In the miserable, sobbing, enfeebled man whose leg had just been
43792 amputated, he recognized Anatole Kuragin. Men were supporting him in
43793 their arms and offering him a glass of water, but his trembling, swollen
43794 lips could not grasp its rim. Anatole was sobbing painfully. "Yes, it is
43795 he! Yes, that man is somehow closely and painfully connected with me,"
43796 thought Prince Andrew, not yet clearly grasping what he saw before him.
43797 "What is the connection of that man with my childhood and life?" he
43798 asked himself without finding an answer. And suddenly a new unexpected
43799 memory from that realm of pure and loving childhood presented itself to
43800 him. He remembered Natasha as he had seen her for the first time at the
43801 ball in 1810, with her slender neck and arms and with a frightened happy
43802 face ready for rapture, and love and tenderness for her, stronger and
43803 more vivid than ever, awoke in his soul. He now remembered the
43804 connection that existed between himself and this man who was dimly
43805 gazing at him through tears that filled his swollen eyes. He remembered
43806 everything, and ecstatic pity and love for that man overflowed his happy
43809 Prince Andrew could no longer restrain himself and wept tender loving
43810 tears for his fellow men, for himself, and for his own and their errors.
43812 "Compassion, love of our brothers, for those who love us and for those
43813 who hate us, love of our enemies; yes, that love which God preached on
43814 earth and which Princess Mary taught me and I did not understand--that
43815 is what made me sorry to part with life, that is what remained for me
43816 had I lived. But now it is too late. I know it!"
43823 The terrible spectacle of the battlefield covered with dead and wounded,
43824 together with the heaviness of his head and the news that some twenty
43825 generals he knew personally had been killed or wounded, and the
43826 consciousness of the impotence of his once mighty arm, produced an
43827 unexpected impression on Napoleon who usually liked to look at the
43828 killed and wounded, thereby, he considered, testing his strength of
43829 mind. This day the horrible appearance of the battlefield overcame that
43830 strength of mind which he thought constituted his merit and his
43831 greatness. He rode hurriedly from the battlefield and returned to the
43832 Shevardino knoll, where he sat on his campstool, his sallow face swollen
43833 and heavy, his eyes dim, his nose red, and his voice hoarse,
43834 involuntarily listening, with downcast eyes, to the sounds of firing.
43835 With painful dejection he awaited the end of this action, in which he
43836 regarded himself as a participant and which he was unable to arrest. A
43837 personal, human feeling for a brief moment got the better of the
43838 artificial phantasm of life he had served so long. He felt in his own
43839 person the sufferings and death he had witnessed on the battlefield. The
43840 heaviness of his head and chest reminded him of the possibility of
43841 suffering and death for himself. At that moment he did not desire
43842 Moscow, or victory, or glory (what need had he for any more glory?). The
43843 one thing he wished for was rest, tranquillity, and freedom. But when he
43844 had been on the Semenovsk heights the artillery commander had proposed
43845 to him to bring several batteries of artillery up to those heights to
43846 strengthen the fire on the Russian troops crowded in front of Knyazkovo.
43847 Napoleon had assented and had given orders that news should be brought
43848 to him of the effect those batteries produced.
43850 An adjutant came now to inform him that the fire of two hundred guns had
43851 been concentrated on the Russians, as he had ordered, but that they
43852 still held their ground.
43854 "Our fire is mowing them down by rows, but still they hold on," said the
43857 "They want more!..." said Napoleon in a hoarse voice.
43859 "Sire?" asked the adjutant who had not heard the remark.
43861 "They want more!" croaked Napoleon frowning. "Let them have it!"
43863 Even before he gave that order the thing he did not desire, and for
43864 which he gave the order only because he thought it was expected of him,
43865 was being done. And he fell back into that artificial realm of imaginary
43866 greatness, and again--as a horse walking a treadmill thinks it is doing
43867 something for itself--he submissively fulfilled the cruel, sad, gloomy,
43868 and inhuman role predestined for him.
43870 And not for that day and hour alone were the mind and conscience
43871 darkened of this man on whom the responsibility for what was happening
43872 lay more than on all the others who took part in it. Never to the end of
43873 his life could he understand goodness, beauty, or truth, or the
43874 significance of his actions which were too contrary to goodness and
43875 truth, too remote from everything human, for him ever to be able to
43876 grasp their meaning. He could not disavow his actions, belauded as they
43877 were by half the world, and so he had to repudiate truth, goodness, and
43880 Not only on that day, as he rode over the battlefield strewn with men
43881 killed and maimed (by his will as he believed), did he reckon as he
43882 looked at them how many Russians there were for each Frenchman and,
43883 deceiving himself, find reason for rejoicing in the calculation that
43884 there were five Russians for every Frenchman. Not on that day alone did
43885 he write in a letter to Paris that "the battle field was superb,"
43886 because fifty thousand corpses lay there, but even on the island of St.
43887 Helena in the peaceful solitude where he said he intended to devote his
43888 leisure to an account of the great deeds he had done, he wrote:
43890 The Russian war should have been the most popular war of modern times:
43891 it was a war of good sense, for real interests, for the tranquillity and
43892 security of all; it was purely pacific and conservative.
43894 It was a war for a great cause, the end of uncertainties and the
43895 beginning of security. A new horizon and new labors were opening out,
43896 full of well-being and prosperity for all. The European system was
43897 already founded; all that remained was to organize it.
43899 Satisfied on these great points and with tranquility everywhere, I too
43900 should have had my Congress and my Holy Alliance. Those ideas were
43901 stolen from me. In that reunion of great sovereigns we should have
43902 discussed our interests like one family, and have rendered account to
43903 the peoples as clerk to master.
43905 Europe would in this way soon have been, in fact, but one people, and
43906 anyone who traveled anywhere would have found himself always in the
43907 common fatherland. I should have demanded the freedom of all navigable
43908 rivers for everybody, that the seas should be common to all, and that
43909 the great standing armies should be reduced henceforth to mere guards
43910 for the sovereigns.
43912 On returning to France, to the bosom of the great, strong, magnificent,
43913 peaceful, and glorious fatherland, I should have proclaimed her
43914 frontiers immutable; all future wars purely defensive, all
43915 aggrandizement antinational. I should have associated my son in the
43916 Empire; my dictatorship would have been finished, and his constitutional
43917 reign would have begun.
43919 Paris would have been the capital of the world, and the French the envy
43922 My leisure then, and my old age, would have been devoted, in company
43923 with the Empress and during the royal apprenticeship of my son, to
43924 leisurely visiting, with our own horses and like a true country couple,
43925 every corner of the Empire, receiving complaints, redressing wrongs, and
43926 scattering public buildings and benefactions on all sides and
43929 Napoleon, predestined by Providence for the gloomy role of executioner
43930 of the peoples, assured himself that the aim of his actions had been the
43931 peoples' welfare and that he could control the fate of millions and by
43932 the employment of power confer benefactions.
43934 "Of four hundred thousand who crossed the Vistula," he wrote further of
43935 the Russian war, "half were Austrians, Prussians, Saxons, Poles,
43936 Bavarians, Wurttembergers, Mecklenburgers, Spaniards, Italians, and
43937 Neapolitans. The Imperial army, strictly speaking, was one third
43938 composed of Dutch, Belgians, men from the borders of the Rhine,
43939 Piedmontese, Swiss, Genevese, Tuscans, Romans, inhabitants of the
43940 Thirty-second Military Division, of Bremen, of Hamburg, and so on: it
43941 included scarcely a hundred and forty thousand who spoke French. The
43942 Russian expedition actually cost France less than fifty thousand men;
43943 the Russian army in its retreat from Vilna to Moscow lost in the various
43944 battles four times more men than the French army; the burning of Moscow
43945 cost the lives of a hundred thousand Russians who died of cold and want
43946 in the woods; finally, in its march from Moscow to the Oder the Russian
43947 army also suffered from the severity of the season; so that by the time
43948 it reached Vilna it numbered only fifty thousand, and at Kalisch less
43949 than eighteen thousand."
43951 He imagined that the war with Russia came about by his will, and the
43952 horrors that occurred did not stagger his soul. He boldly took the whole
43953 responsibility for what happened, and his darkened mind found
43954 justification in the belief that among the hundreds of thousands who
43955 perished there were fewer Frenchmen than Hessians and Bavarians.
43962 Several tens of thousands of the slain lay in diverse postures and
43963 various uniforms on the fields and meadows belonging to the Davydov
43964 family and to the crown serfs--those fields and meadows where for
43965 hundreds of years the peasants of Borodino, Gorki, Shevardino, and
43966 Semenovsk had reaped their harvests and pastured their cattle. At the
43967 dressing stations the grass and earth were soaked with blood for a space
43968 of some three acres around. Crowds of men of various arms, wounded and
43969 unwounded, with frightened faces, dragged themselves back to Mozhaysk
43970 from the one army and back to Valuevo from the other. Other crowds,
43971 exhausted and hungry, went forward led by their officers. Others held
43972 their ground and continued to fire.
43974 Over the whole field, previously so gaily beautiful with the glitter of
43975 bayonets and cloudlets of smoke in the morning sun, there now spread a
43976 mist of damp and smoke and a strange acid smell of saltpeter and blood.
43977 Clouds gathered and drops of rain began to fall on the dead and wounded,
43978 on the frightened, exhausted, and hesitating men, as if to say: "Enough,
43979 men! Enough! Cease... bethink yourselves! What are you doing?"
43981 To the men of both sides alike, worn out by want of food and rest, it
43982 began equally to appear doubtful whether they should continue to
43983 slaughter one another; all the faces expressed hesitation, and the
43984 question arose in every soul: "For what, for whom, must I kill and be
43985 killed?... You may go and kill whom you please, but I don't want to do
43986 so anymore!" By evening this thought had ripened in every soul. At any
43987 moment these men might have been seized with horror at what they were
43988 doing and might have thrown up everything and run away anywhere.
43990 But though toward the end of the battle the men felt all the horror of
43991 what they were doing, though they would have been glad to leave off,
43992 some incomprehensible, mysterious power continued to control them, and
43993 they still brought up the charges, loaded, aimed, and applied the match,
43994 though only one artilleryman survived out of every three, and though
43995 they stumbled and panted with fatigue, perspiring and stained with blood
43996 and powder. The cannon balls flew just as swiftly and cruelly from both
43997 sides, crushing human bodies, and that terrible work which was not done
43998 by the will of a man but at the will of Him who governs men and worlds
44001 Anyone looking at the disorganized rear of the Russian army would have
44002 said that, if only the French made one more slight effort, it would
44003 disappear; and anyone looking at the rear of the French army would have
44004 said that the Russians need only make one more slight effort and the
44005 French would be destroyed. But neither the French nor the Russians made
44006 that effort, and the flame of battle burned slowly out.
44008 The Russians did not make that effort because they were not attacking
44009 the French. At the beginning of the battle they stood blocking the way
44010 to Moscow and they still did so at the end of the battle as at the
44011 beginning. But even had the aim of the Russians been to drive the French
44012 from their positions, they could not have made this last effort, for all
44013 the Russian troops had been broken up, there was no part of the Russian
44014 army that had not suffered in the battle, and though still holding their
44015 positions they had lost ONE HALF of their army.
44017 The French, with the memory of all their former victories during fifteen
44018 years, with the assurance of Napoleon's invincibility, with the
44019 consciousness that they had captured part of the battlefield and had
44020 lost only a quarter of their men and still had their Guards intact,
44021 twenty thousand strong, might easily have made that effort. The French
44022 who had attacked the Russian army in order to drive it from its position
44023 ought to have made that effort, for as long as the Russians continued to
44024 block the road to Moscow as before, the aim of the French had not been
44025 attained and all their efforts and losses were in vain. But the French
44026 did not make that effort. Some historians say that Napoleon need only
44027 have used his Old Guards, who were intact, and the battle would have
44028 been won. To speak of what would have happened had Napoleon sent his
44029 Guards is like talking of what would happen if autumn became spring. It
44030 could not be. Napoleon did not give his Guards, not because he did not
44031 want to, but because it could not be done. All the generals, officers,
44032 and soldiers of the French army knew it could not be done, because the
44033 flagging spirit of the troops would not permit it.
44035 It was not Napoleon alone who had experienced that nightmare feeling of
44036 the mighty arm being stricken powerless, but all the generals and
44037 soldiers of his army whether they had taken part in the battle or not,
44038 after all their experience of previous battles--when after one tenth of
44039 such efforts the enemy had fled--experienced a similar feeling of terror
44040 before an enemy who, after losing HALF his men, stood as threateningly
44041 at the end as at the beginning of the battle. The moral force of the
44042 attacking French army was exhausted. Not that sort of victory which is
44043 defined by the capture of pieces of material fastened to sticks, called
44044 standards, and of the ground on which the troops had stood and were
44045 standing, but a moral victory that convinces the enemy of the moral
44046 superiority of his opponent and of his own impotence was gained by the
44047 Russians at Borodino. The French invaders, like an infuriated animal
44048 that has in its onslaught received a mortal wound, felt that they were
44049 perishing, but could not stop, any more than the Russian army, weaker by
44050 one half, could help swerving. By impetus gained, the French army was
44051 still able to roll forward to Moscow, but there, without further effort
44052 on the part of the Russians, it had to perish, bleeding from the mortal
44053 wound it had received at Borodino. The direct consequence of the battle
44054 of Borodino was Napoleon's senseless flight from Moscow, his retreat
44055 along the old Smolensk road, the destruction of the invading army of
44056 five hundred thousand men, and the downfall of Napoleonic France, on
44057 which at Borodino for the first time the hand of an opponent of stronger
44058 spirit had been laid.
44067 Absolute continuity of motion is not comprehensible to the human mind.
44068 Laws of motion of any kind become comprehensible to man only when he
44069 examines arbitrarily selected elements of that motion; but at the same
44070 time, a large proportion of human error comes from the arbitrary
44071 division of continuous motion into discontinuous elements. There is a
44072 well known, so-called sophism of the ancients consisting in this, that
44073 Achilles could never catch up with a tortoise he was following, in spite
44074 of the fact that he traveled ten times as fast as the tortoise. By the
44075 time Achilles has covered the distance that separated him from the
44076 tortoise, the tortoise has covered one tenth of that distance ahead of
44077 him: when Achilles has covered that tenth, the tortoise has covered
44078 another one hundredth, and so on forever. This problem seemed to the
44079 ancients insoluble. The absurd answer (that Achilles could never
44080 overtake the tortoise) resulted from this: that motion was arbitrarily
44081 divided into discontinuous elements, whereas the motion both of Achilles
44082 and of the tortoise was continuous.
44084 By adopting smaller and smaller elements of motion we only approach a
44085 solution of the problem, but never reach it. Only when we have admitted
44086 the conception of the infinitely small, and the resulting geometrical
44087 progression with a common ratio of one tenth, and have found the sum of
44088 this progression to infinity, do we reach a solution of the problem.
44090 A modern branch of mathematics having achieved the art of dealing with
44091 the infinitely small can now yield solutions in other more complex
44092 problems of motion which used to appear insoluble.
44094 This modern branch of mathematics, unknown to the ancients, when dealing
44095 with problems of motion admits the conception of the infinitely small,
44096 and so conforms to the chief condition of motion (absolute continuity)
44097 and thereby corrects the inevitable error which the human mind cannot
44098 avoid when it deals with separate elements of motion instead of
44099 examining continuous motion.
44101 In seeking the laws of historical movement just the same thing happens.
44102 The movement of humanity, arising as it does from innumerable arbitrary
44103 human wills, is continuous.
44105 To understand the laws of this continuous movement is the aim of
44106 history. But to arrive at these laws, resulting from the sum of all
44107 those human wills, man's mind postulates arbitrary and disconnected
44108 units. The first method of history is to take an arbitrarily selected
44109 series of continuous events and examine it apart from others, though
44110 there is and can be no beginning to any event, for one event always
44111 flows uninterruptedly from another.
44113 The second method is to consider the actions of some one man--a king or
44114 a commander--as equivalent to the sum of many individual wills; whereas
44115 the sum of individual wills is never expressed by the activity of a
44116 single historic personage.
44118 Historical science in its endeavor to draw nearer to truth continually
44119 takes smaller and smaller units for examination. But however small the
44120 units it takes, we feel that to take any unit disconnected from others,
44121 or to assume a beginning of any phenomenon, or to say that the will of
44122 many men is expressed by the actions of any one historic personage, is
44125 It needs no critical exertion to reduce utterly to dust any deductions
44126 drawn from history. It is merely necessary to select some larger or
44127 smaller unit as the subject of observation--as criticism has every right
44128 to do, seeing that whatever unit history observes must always be
44129 arbitrarily selected.
44131 Only by taking infinitesimally small units for observation (the
44132 differential of history, that is, the individual tendencies of men) and
44133 attaining to the art of integrating them (that is, finding the sum of
44134 these infinitesimals) can we hope to arrive at the laws of history.
44136 The first fifteen years of the nineteenth century in Europe present an
44137 extraordinary movement of millions of people. Men leave their customary
44138 pursuits, hasten from one side of Europe to the other, plunder and
44139 slaughter one another, triumph and are plunged in despair, and for some
44140 years the whole course of life is altered and presents an intensive
44141 movement which first increases and then slackens. What was the cause of
44142 this movement, by what laws was it governed? asks the mind of man.
44144 The historians, replying to this question, lay before us the sayings and
44145 doings of a few dozen men in a building in the city of Paris, calling
44146 these sayings and doings "the Revolution"; then they give a detailed
44147 biography of Napoleon and of certain people favorable or hostile to him;
44148 tell of the influence some of these people had on others, and say: that
44149 is why this movement took place and those are its laws.
44151 But the mind of man not only refuses to believe this explanation, but
44152 plainly says that this method of explanation is fallacious, because in
44153 it a weaker phenomenon is taken as the cause of a stronger. The sum of
44154 human wills produced the Revolution and Napoleon, and only the sum of
44155 those wills first tolerated and then destroyed them.
44157 "But every time there have been conquests there have been conquerors;
44158 every time there has been a revolution in any state there have been
44159 great men," says history. And, indeed, human reason replies: every time
44160 conquerors appear there have been wars, but this does not prove that the
44161 conquerors caused the wars and that it is possible to find the laws of a
44162 war in the personal activity of a single man. Whenever I look at my
44163 watch and its hands point to ten, I hear the bells of the neighboring
44164 church; but because the bells begin to ring when the hands of the clock
44165 reach ten, I have no right to assume that the movement of the bells is
44166 caused by the position of the hands of the watch.
44168 Whenever I see the movement of a locomotive I hear the whistle and see
44169 the valves opening and wheels turning; but I have no right to conclude
44170 that the whistling and the turning of wheels are the cause of the
44171 movement of the engine.
44173 The peasants say that a cold wind blows in late spring because the oaks
44174 are budding, and really every spring cold winds do blow when the oak is
44175 budding. But though I do not know what causes the cold winds to blow
44176 when the oak buds unfold, I cannot agree with the peasants that the
44177 unfolding of the oak buds is the cause of the cold wind, for the force
44178 of the wind is beyond the influence of the buds. I see only a
44179 coincidence of occurrences such as happens with all the phenomena of
44180 life, and I see that however much and however carefully I observe the
44181 hands of the watch, and the valves and wheels of the engine, and the
44182 oak, I shall not discover the cause of the bells ringing, the engine
44183 moving, or of the winds of spring. To that I must entirely change my
44184 point of view and study the laws of the movement of steam, of the bells,
44185 and of the wind. History must do the same. And attempts in this
44186 direction have already been made.
44188 To study the laws of history we must completely change the subject of
44189 our observation, must leave aside kings, ministers, and generals, and
44190 study the common, infinitesimally small elements by which the masses are
44191 moved. No one can say in how far it is possible for man to advance in
44192 this way toward an understanding of the laws of history; but it is
44193 evident that only along that path does the possibility of discovering
44194 the laws of history lie, and that as yet not a millionth part as much
44195 mental effort has been applied in this direction by historians as has
44196 been devoted to describing the actions of various kings, commanders, and
44197 ministers and propounding the historians' own reflections concerning
44205 The forces of a dozen European nations burst into Russia. The Russian
44206 army and people avoided a collision till Smolensk was reached, and again
44207 from Smolensk to Borodino. The French army pushed on to Moscow, its
44208 goal, its impetus ever increasing as it neared its aim, just as the
44209 velocity of a falling body increases as it approaches the earth. Behind
44210 it were seven hundred miles of hunger-stricken, hostile country; ahead
44211 were a few dozen miles separating it from its goal. Every soldier in
44212 Napoleon's army felt this and the invasion moved on by its own momentum.
44214 The more the Russian army retreated the more fiercely a spirit of hatred
44215 of the enemy flared up, and while it retreated the army increased and
44216 consolidated. At Borodino a collision took place. Neither army was
44217 broken up, but the Russian army retreated immediately after the
44218 collision as inevitably as a ball recoils after colliding with another
44219 having a greater momentum, and with equal inevitability the ball of
44220 invasion that had advanced with such momentum rolled on for some
44221 distance, though the collision had deprived it of all its force.
44223 The Russians retreated eighty miles--to beyond Moscow--and the French
44224 reached Moscow and there came to a standstill. For five weeks after that
44225 there was not a single battle. The French did not move. As a bleeding,
44226 mortally wounded animal licks its wounds, they remained inert in Moscow
44227 for five weeks, and then suddenly, with no fresh reason, fled back: they
44228 made a dash for the Kaluga road, and (after a victory--for at Malo-
44229 Yaroslavets the field of conflict again remained theirs) without
44230 undertaking a single serious battle, they fled still more rapidly back
44231 to Smolensk, beyond Smolensk, beyond the Berezina, beyond Vilna, and
44234 On the evening of the twenty-sixth of August, Kutuzov and the whole
44235 Russian army were convinced that the battle of Borodino was a victory.
44236 Kutuzov reported so to the Emperor. He gave orders to prepare for a
44237 fresh conflict to finish the enemy and did this not to deceive anyone,
44238 but because he knew that the enemy was beaten, as everyone who had taken
44239 part in the battle knew it.
44241 But all that evening and next day reports came in one after another of
44242 unheard-of losses, of the loss of half the army, and a fresh battle
44243 proved physically impossible.
44245 It was impossible to give battle before information had been collected,
44246 the wounded gathered in, the supplies of ammunition replenished, the
44247 slain reckoned up, new officers appointed to replace those who had been
44248 killed, and before the men had had food and sleep. And meanwhile, the
44249 very next morning after the battle, the French army advanced of itself
44250 upon the Russians, carried forward by the force of its own momentum now
44251 seemingly increased in inverse proportion to the square of the distance
44252 from its aim. Kutuzov's wish was to attack next day, and the whole army
44253 desired to do so. But to make an attack the wish to do so is not
44254 sufficient, there must also be a possibility of doing it, and that
44255 possibility did not exist. It was impossible not to retreat a day's
44256 march, and then in the same way it was impossible not to retreat another
44257 and a third day's march, and at last, on the first of September when the
44258 army drew near Moscow--despite the strength of the feeling that had
44259 arisen in all ranks--the force of circumstances compelled it to retire
44260 beyond Moscow. And the troops retired one more, last, day's march, and
44261 abandoned Moscow to the enemy.
44263 For people accustomed to think that plans of campaign and battles are
44264 made by generals--as any one of us sitting over a map in his study may
44265 imagine how he would have arranged things in this or that battle--the
44266 questions present themselves: Why did Kutuzov during the retreat not do
44267 this or that? Why did he not take up a position before reaching Fili?
44268 Why did he not retire at once by the Kaluga road, abandoning Moscow? and
44269 so on. People accustomed to think in that way forget, or do not know,
44270 the inevitable conditions which always limit the activities of any
44271 commander in chief. The activity of a commander-in-chief does not at all
44272 resemble the activity we imagine to ourselves when we sit at ease in our
44273 studies examining some campaign on the map, with a certain number of
44274 troops on this and that side in a certain known locality, and begin our
44275 plans from some given moment. A commander-in-chief is never dealing with
44276 the beginning of any event--the position from which we always
44277 contemplate it. The commander-in-chief is always in the midst of a
44278 series of shifting events and so he never can at any moment consider the
44279 whole import of an event that is occurring. Moment by moment the event
44280 is imperceptibly shaping itself, and at every moment of this continuous,
44281 uninterrupted shaping of events the commander-in-chief is in the midst
44282 of a most complex play of intrigues, worries, contingencies,
44283 authorities, projects, counsels, threats, and deceptions and is
44284 continually obliged to reply to innumerable questions addressed to him,
44285 which constantly conflict with one another.
44287 Learned military authorities quite seriously tell us that Kutuzov should
44288 have moved his army to the Kaluga road long before reaching Fili, and
44289 that somebody actually submitted such a proposal to him. But a commander
44290 in chief, especially at a difficult moment, has always before him not
44291 one proposal but dozens simultaneously. And all these proposals, based
44292 on strategics and tactics, contradict each other.
44294 A commander-in-chief's business, it would seem, is simply to choose one
44295 of these projects. But even that he cannot do. Events and time do not
44296 wait. For instance, on the twenty-eighth it is suggested to him to cross
44297 to the Kaluga road, but just then an adjutant gallops up from
44298 Miloradovich asking whether he is to engage the French or retire. An
44299 order must be given him at once, that instant. And the order to retreat
44300 carries us past the turn to the Kaluga road. And after the adjutant
44301 comes the commissary general asking where the stores are to be taken,
44302 and the chief of the hospitals asks where the wounded are to go, and a
44303 courier from Petersburg brings a letter from the sovereign which does
44304 not admit of the possibility of abandoning Moscow, and the commander-in-
44305 chief's rival, the man who is undermining him (and there are always not
44306 merely one but several such), presents a new project diametrically
44307 opposed to that of turning to the Kaluga road, and the commander-in-
44308 chief himself needs sleep and refreshment to maintain his energy and a
44309 respectable general who has been overlooked in the distribution of
44310 rewards comes to complain, and the inhabitants of the district pray to
44311 be defended, and an officer sent to inspect the locality comes in and
44312 gives a report quite contrary to what was said by the officer previously
44313 sent; and a spy, a prisoner, and a general who has been on
44314 reconnaissance, all describe the position of the enemy's army
44315 differently. People accustomed to misunderstand or to forget these
44316 inevitable conditions of a commander-in-chief's actions describe to us,
44317 for instance, the position of the army at Fili and assume that the
44318 commander-in-chief could, on the first of September, quite freely decide
44319 whether to abandon Moscow or defend it; whereas, with the Russian army
44320 less than four miles from Moscow, no such question existed. When had
44321 that question been settled? At Drissa and at Smolensk and most palpably
44322 of all on the twenty-fourth of August at Shevardino and on the twenty-
44323 sixth at Borodino, and each day and hour and minute of the retreat from
44331 When Ermolov, having been sent by Kutuzov to inspect the position, told
44332 the field marshal that it was impossible to fight there before Moscow
44333 and that they must retreat, Kutuzov looked at him in silence.
44335 "Give me your hand," said he and, turning it over so as to feel the
44336 pulse, added: "You are not well, my dear fellow. Think what you are
44339 Kutuzov could not yet admit the possibility of retreating beyond Moscow
44342 On the Poklonny Hill, four miles from the Dorogomilov gate of Moscow,
44343 Kutuzov got out of his carriage and sat down on a bench by the roadside.
44344 A great crowd of generals gathered round him, and Count Rostopchin, who
44345 had come out from Moscow, joined them. This brilliant company separated
44346 into several groups who all discussed the advantages and disadvantages
44347 of the position, the state of the army, the plans suggested, the
44348 situation of Moscow, and military questions generally. Though they had
44349 not been summoned for the purpose, and though it was not so called, they
44350 all felt that this was really a council of war. The conversations all
44351 dealt with public questions. If anyone gave or asked for personal news,
44352 it was done in a whisper and they immediately reverted to general
44353 matters. No jokes, or laughter, or smiles even, were seen among all
44354 these men. They evidently all made an effort to hold themselves at the
44355 height the situation demanded. And all these groups, while talking among
44356 themselves, tried to keep near the commander-in-chief (whose bench
44357 formed the center of the gathering) and to speak so that he might
44358 overhear them. The commander in chief listened to what was being said
44359 and sometimes asked them to repeat their remarks, but did not himself
44360 take part in the conversations or express any opinion. After hearing
44361 what was being said by one or other of these groups he generally turned
44362 away with an air of disappointment, as though they were not speaking of
44363 anything he wished to hear. Some discussed the position that had been
44364 chosen, criticizing not the position itself so much as the mental
44365 capacity of those who had chosen it. Others argued that a mistake had
44366 been made earlier and that a battle should have been fought two days
44367 before. Others again spoke of the battle of Salamanca, which was
44368 described by Crosart, a newly arrived Frenchman in a Spanish uniform.
44369 (This Frenchman and one of the German princes serving with the Russian
44370 army were discussing the siege of Saragossa and considering the
44371 possibility of defending Moscow in a similar manner.) Count Rostopchin
44372 was telling a fourth group that he was prepared to die with the city
44373 train bands under the walls of the capital, but that he still could not
44374 help regretting having been left in ignorance of what was happening, and
44375 that had he known it sooner things would have been different.... A fifth
44376 group, displaying the profundity of their strategic perceptions,
44377 discussed the direction the troops would now have to take. A sixth group
44378 was talking absolute nonsense. Kutuzov's expression grew more and more
44379 preoccupied and gloomy. From all this talk he saw only one thing: that
44380 to defend Moscow was a physical impossibility in the full meaning of
44381 those words, that is to say, so utterly impossible that if any senseless
44382 commander were to give orders to fight, confusion would result but the
44383 battle would still not take place. It would not take place because the
44384 commanders not merely all recognized the position to be impossible, but
44385 in their conversations were only discussing what would happen after its
44386 inevitable abandonment. How could the commanders lead their troops to a
44387 field of battle they considered impossible to hold? The lower-grade
44388 officers and even the soldiers (who too reason) also considered the
44389 position impossible and therefore could not go to fight, fully convinced
44390 as they were of defeat. If Bennigsen insisted on the position being
44391 defended and others still discussed it, the question was no longer
44392 important in itself but only as a pretext for disputes and intrigue.
44393 This Kutuzov knew well.
44395 Bennigsen, who had chosen the position, warmly displayed his Russian
44396 patriotism (Kutuzov could not listen to this without wincing) by
44397 insisting that Moscow must be defended. His aim was as clear as daylight
44398 to Kutuzov: if the defense failed, to throw the blame on Kutuzov who had
44399 brought the army as far as the Sparrow Hills without giving battle; if
44400 it succeeded, to claim the success as his own; or if battle were not
44401 given, to clear himself of the crime of abandoning Moscow. But this
44402 intrigue did not now occupy the old man's mind. One terrible question
44403 absorbed him and to that question he heard no reply from anyone. The
44404 question for him now was: "Have I really allowed Napoleon to reach
44405 Moscow, and when did I do so? When was it decided? Can it have been
44406 yesterday when I ordered Platov to retreat, or was it the evening
44407 before, when I had a nap and told Bennigsen to issue orders? Or was it
44408 earlier still?... When, when was this terrible affair decided? Moscow
44409 must be abandoned. The army must retreat and the order to do so must be
44410 given." To give that terrible order seemed to him equivalent to
44411 resigning the command of the army. And not only did he love power to
44412 which he was accustomed (the honours awarded to Prince Prozorovski,
44413 under whom he had served in Turkey, galled him), but he was convinced
44414 that he was destined to save Russia and that that was why, against the
44415 Emperor's wish and by the will of the people, he had been chosen
44416 commander-in-chief. He was convinced that he alone could maintain
44417 command of the army in these difficult circumstances, and that in all
44418 the world he alone could encounter the invincible Napoleon without fear,
44419 and he was horrified at the thought of the order he had to issue. But
44420 something had to be decided, and these conversations around him which
44421 were assuming too free a character must be stopped.
44423 He called the most important generals to him.
44425 "My head, be it good or bad, must depend on itself," said he, rising
44426 from the bench, and he rode to Fili where his carriages were waiting.
44433 The Council of War began to assemble at two in the afternoon in the
44434 better and roomier part of Andrew Savostyanov's hut. The men, women, and
44435 children of the large peasant family crowded into the back room across
44436 the passage. Only Malasha, Andrew's six-year-old granddaughter whom his
44437 Serene Highness had petted and to whom he had given a lump of sugar
44438 while drinking his tea, remained on the top of the brick oven in the
44439 larger room. Malasha looked down from the oven with shy delight at the
44440 faces, uniforms, and decorations of the generals, who one after another
44441 came into the room and sat down on the broad benches in the corner under
44442 the icons. "Granddad" himself, as Malasha in her own mind called
44443 Kutuzov, sat apart in a dark corner behind the oven. He sat, sunk deep
44444 in a folding armchair, and continually cleared his throat and pulled at
44445 the collar of his coat which, though it was unbuttoned, still seemed to
44446 pinch his neck. Those who entered went up one by one to the field
44447 marshal; he pressed the hands of some and nodded to others. His adjutant
44448 Kaysarov was about to draw back the curtain of the window facing
44449 Kutuzov, but the latter moved his hand angrily and Kaysarov understood
44450 that his Serene Highness did not wish his face to be seen.
44452 Round the peasant's deal table, on which lay maps, plans, pencils, and
44453 papers, so many people gathered that the orderlies brought in another
44454 bench and put it beside the table. Ermolov, Kaysarov, and Toll, who had
44455 just arrived, sat down on this bench. In the foremost place, immediately
44456 under the icons, sat Barclay de Tolly, his high forehead merging into
44457 his bald crown. He had a St. George's Cross round his neck and looked
44458 pale and ill. He had been feverish for two days and was now shivering
44459 and in pain. Beside him sat Uvarov, who with rapid gesticulations was
44460 giving him some information, speaking in low tones as they all did.
44461 Chubby little Dokhturov was listening attentively with eyebrows raised
44462 and arms folded on his stomach. On the other side sat Count Ostermann-
44463 Tolstoy, seemingly absorbed in his own thoughts. His broad head with its
44464 bold features and glittering eyes was resting on his hand. Raevski,
44465 twitching forward the black hair on his temples as was his habit,
44466 glanced now at Kutuzov and now at the door with a look of impatience.
44467 Konovnitsyn's firm, handsome, and kindly face was lit up by a tender,
44468 sly smile. His glance met Malasha's, and the expression of his eyes
44469 caused the little girl to smile.
44471 They were all waiting for Bennigsen, who on the pretext of inspecting
44472 the position was finishing his savory dinner. They waited for him from
44473 four till six o'clock and did not begin their deliberations all that
44474 time but talked in low tones of other matters.
44476 Only when Bennigsen had entered the hut did Kutuzov leave his corner and
44477 draw toward the table, but not near enough for the candles that had been
44478 placed there to light up his face.
44480 Bennigsen opened the council with the question: "Are we to abandon
44481 Russia's ancient and sacred capital without a struggle, or are we to
44482 defend it?" A prolonged and general silence followed. There was a frown
44483 on every face and only Kutuzov's angry grunts and occasional cough broke
44484 the silence. All eyes were gazing at him. Malasha too looked at
44485 "Granddad." She was nearest to him and saw how his face puckered; he
44486 seemed about to cry, but this did not last long.
44488 "Russia's ancient and sacred capital!" he suddenly said, repeating
44489 Bennigsen's words in an angry voice and thereby drawing attention to the
44490 false note in them. "Allow me to tell you, your excellency, that that
44491 question has no meaning for a Russian." (He lurched his heavy body
44492 forward.) "Such a question cannot be put; it is senseless! The question
44493 I have asked these gentlemen to meet to discuss is a military one. The
44494 question is that of saving Russia. Is it better to give up Moscow
44495 without a battle, or by accepting battle to risk losing the army as well
44496 as Moscow? That is the question on which I want your opinion," and he
44497 sank back in his chair.
44499 The discussion began. Bennigsen did not yet consider his game lost.
44500 Admitting the view of Barclay and others that a defensive battle at Fili
44501 was impossible, but imbued with Russian patriotism and the love of
44502 Moscow, he proposed to move troops from the right to the left flank
44503 during the night and attack the French right flank the following day.
44504 Opinions were divided, and arguments were advanced for and against that
44505 project. Ermolov, Dokhturov, and Raevski agreed with Bennigsen. Whether
44506 feeling it necessary to make a sacrifice before abandoning the capital
44507 or guided by other, personal considerations, these generals seemed not
44508 to understand that this council could not alter the inevitable course of
44509 events and that Moscow was in effect already abandoned. The other
44510 generals, however, understood it and, leaving aside the question of
44511 Moscow, spoke of the direction the army should take in its retreat.
44512 Malasha, who kept her eyes fixed on what was going on before her,
44513 understood the meaning of the council differently. It seemed to her that
44514 it was only a personal struggle between "Granddad" and "Long-coat" as
44515 she termed Bennigsen. She saw that they grew spiteful when they spoke to
44516 one another, and in her heart she sided with "Granddad." In the midst of
44517 the conversation she noticed "Granddad" give Bennigsen a quick, subtle
44518 glance, and then to her joys he saw that "Granddad" said something to
44519 "Long-coat" which settled him. Bennigsen suddenly reddened and paced
44520 angrily up and down the room. What so affected him was Kutuzov's calm
44521 and quiet comment on the advantage or disadvantage of Bennigsen's
44522 proposal to move troops by night from the right to the left flank to
44523 attack the French right wing.
44525 "Gentlemen," said Kutuzov, "I cannot approve of the count's plan. Moving
44526 troops in close proximity to an enemy is always dangerous, and military
44527 history supports that view. For instance..." Kutuzov seemed to reflect,
44528 searching for an example, then with a clear, naive look at Bennigsen he
44529 added: "Oh yes; take the battle of Friedland, which I think the count
44530 well remembers, and which was... not fully successful, only because our
44531 troops were rearranged too near the enemy..."
44533 There followed a momentary pause, which seemed very long to them all.
44535 The discussion recommenced, but pauses frequently occurred and they all
44536 felt that there was no more to be said.
44538 During one of these pauses Kutuzov heaved a deep sigh as if preparing to
44539 speak. They all looked at him.
44541 "Well, gentlemen, I see that it is I who will have to pay for the broken
44542 crockery," said he, and rising slowly he moved to the table. "Gentlemen,
44543 I have heard your views. Some of you will not agree with me. But I," he
44544 paused, "by the authority entrusted to me by my Sovereign and country,
44547 After that the generals began to disperse with the solemnity and
44548 circumspect silence of people who are leaving, after a funeral.
44550 Some of the generals, in low tones and in a strain very different from
44551 the way they had spoken during the council, communicated something to
44552 their commander-in-chief.
44554 Malasha, who had long been expected for supper, climbed carefully
44555 backwards down from the oven, her bare little feet catching at its
44556 projections, and slipping between the legs of the generals she darted
44559 When he had dismissed the generals Kutuzov sat a long time with his
44560 elbows on the table, thinking always of the same terrible question:
44561 "When, when did the abandonment of Moscow become inevitable? When was
44562 that done which settled the matter? And who was to blame for it?"
44564 "I did not expect this," said he to his adjutant Schneider when the
44565 latter came in late that night. "I did not expect this! I did not think
44566 this would happen."
44568 "You should take some rest, your Serene Highness," replied Schneider.
44570 "But no! They shall eat horseflesh yet, like the Turks!" exclaimed
44571 Kutuzov without replying, striking the table with his podgy fist. "They
44572 shall too, if only..."
44579 At that very time, in circumstances even more important than retreating
44580 without a battle, namely the evacuation and burning of Moscow,
44581 Rostopchin, who is usually represented as being the instigator of that
44582 event, acted in an altogether different manner from Kutuzov.
44584 After the battle of Borodino the abandonment and burning of Moscow was
44585 as inevitable as the retreat of the army beyond Moscow without fighting.
44587 Every Russian might have predicted it, not by reasoning but by the
44588 feeling implanted in each of us and in our fathers.
44590 The same thing that took place in Moscow had happened in all the towns
44591 and villages on Russian soil beginning with Smolensk, without the
44592 participation of Count Rostopchin and his broadsheets. The people
44593 awaited the enemy unconcernedly, did not riot or become excited or tear
44594 anyone to pieces, but faced its fate, feeling within it the strength to
44595 find what it should do at that most difficult moment. And as soon as the
44596 enemy drew near the wealthy classes went away abandoning their property,
44597 while the poorer remained and burned and destroyed what was left.
44599 The consciousness that this would be so and would always be so was and
44600 is present in the heart of every Russian. And a consciousness of this,
44601 and a foreboding that Moscow would be taken, was present in Russian
44602 Moscow society in 1812. Those who had quitted Moscow already in July and
44603 at the beginning of August showed that they expected this. Those who
44604 went away, taking what they could and abandoning their houses and half
44605 their belongings, did so from the latent patriotism which expresses
44606 itself not by phrases or by giving one's children to save the fatherland
44607 and similar unnatural exploits, but unobtrusively, simply, organically,
44608 and therefore in the way that always produces the most powerful results.
44610 "It is disgraceful to run away from danger; only cowards are running
44611 away from Moscow," they were told. In his broadsheets Rostopchin
44612 impressed on them that to leave Moscow was shameful. They were ashamed
44613 to be called cowards, ashamed to leave, but still they left, knowing it
44614 had to be done. Why did they go? It is impossible to suppose that
44615 Rostopchin had scared them by his accounts of horrors Napoleon had
44616 committed in conquered countries. The first people to go away were the
44617 rich educated people who knew quite well that Vienna and Berlin had
44618 remained intact and that during Napoleon's occupation the inhabitants
44619 had spent their time pleasantly in the company of the charming Frenchmen
44620 whom the Russians, and especially the Russian ladies, then liked so
44623 They went away because for Russians there could be no question as to
44624 whether things would go well or ill under French rule in Moscow. It was
44625 out of the question to be under French rule, it would be the worst thing
44626 that could happen. They went away even before the battle of Borodino and
44627 still more rapidly after it, despite Rostopchin's calls to defend Moscow
44628 or the announcement of his intention to take the wonder-working icon of
44629 the Iberian Mother of God and go to fight, or of the balloons that were
44630 to destroy the French, and despite all the nonsense Rostopchin wrote in
44631 his broadsheets. They knew that it was for the army to fight, and that
44632 if it could not succeed it would not do to take young ladies and house
44633 serfs to the Three Hills quarter of Moscow to fight Napoleon, and that
44634 they must go away, sorry as they were to abandon their property to
44635 destruction. They went away without thinking of the tremendous
44636 significance of that immense and wealthy city being given over to
44637 destruction, for a great city with wooden buildings was certain when
44638 abandoned by its inhabitants to be burned. They went away each on his
44639 own account, and yet it was only in consequence of their going away that
44640 the momentous event was accomplished that will always remain the
44641 greatest glory of the Russian people. The lady who, afraid of being
44642 stopped by Count Rostopchin's orders, had already in June moved with her
44643 Negroes and her women jesters from Moscow to her Saratov estate, with a
44644 vague consciousness that she was not Bonaparte's servant, was really,
44645 simply, and truly carrying out the great work which saved Russia. But
44646 Count Rostopchin, who now taunted those who left Moscow and now had the
44647 government offices removed; now distributed quite useless weapons to the
44648 drunken rabble; now had processions displaying the icons, and now
44649 forbade Father Augustin to remove icons or the relics of saints; now
44650 seized all the private carts in Moscow and on one hundred and thirty-six
44651 of them removed the balloon that was being constructed by Leppich; now
44652 hinted that he would burn Moscow and related how he had set fire to his
44653 own house; now wrote a proclamation to the French solemnly upbraiding
44654 them for having destroyed his Orphanage; now claimed the glory of having
44655 hinted that he would burn Moscow and now repudiated the deed; now
44656 ordered the people to catch all spies and bring them to him, and now
44657 reproached them for doing so; now expelled all the French residents from
44658 Moscow, and now allowed Madame Aubert-Chalme (the center of the whole
44659 French colony in Moscow) to remain, but ordered the venerable old
44660 postmaster Klyucharev to be arrested and exiled for no particular
44661 offense; now assembled the people at the Three Hills to fight the French
44662 and now, to get rid of them, handed over to them a man to be killed and
44663 himself drove away by a back gate; now declared that he would not
44664 survive the fall of Moscow, and now wrote French verses in albums
44665 concerning his share in the affair--this man did not understand the
44666 meaning of what was happening but merely wanted to do something himself
44667 that would astonish people, to perform some patriotically heroic feat;
44668 and like a child he made sport of the momentous, and unavoidable event--
44669 the abandonment and burning of Moscow--and tried with his puny hand now
44670 to speed and now to stay the enormous, popular tide that bore him along
44678 Helene, having returned with the court from Vilna to Petersburg, found
44679 herself in a difficult position.
44681 In Petersburg she had enjoyed the special protection of a grandee who
44682 occupied one of the highest posts in the Empire. In Vilna she had formed
44683 an intimacy with a young foreign prince. When she returned to Petersburg
44684 both the magnate and the prince were there, and both claimed their
44685 rights. Helene was faced by a new problem--how to preserve her intimacy
44686 with both without offending either.
44688 What would have seemed difficult or even impossible to another woman did
44689 not cause the least embarrassment to Countess Bezukhova, who evidently
44690 deserved her reputation of being a very clever woman. Had she attempted
44691 concealment, or tried to extricate herself from her awkward position by
44692 cunning, she would have spoiled her case by acknowledging herself
44693 guilty. But Helene, like a really great man who can do whatever he
44694 pleases, at once assumed her own position to be correct, as she
44695 sincerely believed it to be, and that everyone else was to blame.
44697 The first time the young foreigner allowed himself to reproach her, she
44698 lifted her beautiful head and, half turning to him, said firmly: "That's
44699 just like a man--selfish and cruel! I expected nothing else. A woman
44700 sacrifices herself for you, she suffers, and this is her reward! What
44701 right have you, monseigneur, to demand an account of my attachments and
44702 friendships? He is a man who has been more than a father to me!" The
44703 prince was about to say something, but Helene interrupted him.
44705 "Well, yes," said she, "it may be that he has other sentiments for me
44706 than those of a father, but that is not a reason for me to shut my door
44707 on him. I am not a man, that I should repay kindness with ingratitude!
44708 Know, monseigneur, that in all that relates to my intimate feelings I
44709 render account only to God and to my conscience," she concluded, laying
44710 her hand on her beautiful, fully expanded bosom and looking up to
44713 "But for heaven's sake listen to me!"
44715 "Marry me, and I will be your slave!"
44717 "But that's impossible."
44719 "You won't deign to demean yourself by marrying me, you..." said Helene,
44722 The prince tried to comfort her, but Helene, as if quite distraught,
44723 said through her tears that there was nothing to prevent her marrying,
44724 that there were precedents (there were up to that time very few, but she
44725 mentioned Napoleon and some other exalted personages), that she had
44726 never been her husband's wife, and that she had been sacrificed.
44728 "But the law, religion..." said the prince, already yielding.
44730 "The law, religion... What have they been invented for if they can't
44731 arrange that?" said Helene.
44733 The prince was surprised that so simple an idea had not occurred to him,
44734 and he applied for advice to the holy brethren of the Society of Jesus,
44735 with whom he was on intimate terms.
44737 A few days later at one of those enchanting fetes which Helene gave at
44738 her country house on the Stone Island, the charming Monsieur de Jobert,
44739 a man no longer young, with snow white hair and brilliant black eyes, a
44740 Jesuit a robe courte * was presented to her, and in the garden by the
44741 light of the illuminations and to the sound of music talked to her for a
44742 long time of the love of God, of Christ, of the Sacred Heart, and of the
44743 consolations the one true Catholic religion affords in this world and
44744 the next. Helene was touched, and more than once tears rose to her eyes
44745 and to those of Monsieur de Jobert and their voices trembled. A dance,
44746 for which her partner came to seek her, put an end to her discourse with
44747 her future directeur de conscience, but the next evening Monsieur de
44748 Jobert came to see Helene when she was alone, and after that often came
44752 * Lay member of the Society of Jesus.
44754 One day he took the countess to a Roman Catholic church, where she knelt
44755 down before the altar to which she was led. The enchanting, middle-aged
44756 Frenchman laid his hands on her head and, as she herself afterward
44757 described it, she felt something like a fresh breeze wafted into her
44758 soul. It was explained to her that this was la grace.
44760 After that a long-frocked abbe was brought to her. She confessed to him,
44761 and he absolved her from her sins. Next day she received a box
44762 containing the Sacred Host, which was left at her house for her to
44763 partake of. A few days later Helene learned with pleasure that she had
44764 now been admitted to the true Catholic Church and that in a few days the
44765 Pope himself would hear of her and would send her a certain document.
44767 All that was done around her and to her at this time, all the attention
44768 devoted to her by so many clever men and expressed in such pleasant,
44769 refined ways, and the state of dove-like purity she was now in (she wore
44770 only white dresses and white ribbons all that time) gave her pleasure,
44771 but her pleasure did not cause her for a moment to forget her aim. And
44772 as it always happens in contests of cunning that a stupid person gets
44773 the better of cleverer ones, Helene--having realized that the main
44774 object of all these words and all this trouble was, after converting her
44775 to Catholicism, to obtain money from her for Jesuit institutions (as to
44776 which she received indications)-before parting with her money insisted
44777 that the various operations necessary to free her from her husband
44778 should be performed. In her view the aim of every religion was merely to
44779 preserve certain proprieties while affording satisfaction to human
44780 desires. And with this aim, in one of her talks with her Father
44781 Confessor, she insisted on an answer to the question, in how far was she
44782 bound by her marriage?
44784 They were sitting in the twilight by a window in the drawing room. The
44785 scent of flowers came in at the window. Helene was wearing a white
44786 dress, transparent over her shoulders and bosom. The abbe, a well-fed
44787 man with a plump, clean-shaven chin, a pleasant firm mouth, and white
44788 hands meekly folded on his knees, sat close to Helene and, with a subtle
44789 smile on his lips and a peaceful look of delight at her beauty,
44790 occasionally glanced at her face as he explained his opinion on the
44791 subject. Helene with an uneasy smile looked at his curly hair and his
44792 plump, clean-shaven, blackish cheeks and every moment expected the
44793 conversation to take a fresh turn. But the abbe, though he evidently
44794 enjoyed the beauty of his companion, was absorbed in his mastery of the
44797 The course of the Father Confessor's arguments ran as follows: "Ignorant
44798 of the import of what you were undertaking, you made a vow of conjugal
44799 fidelity to a man who on his part, by entering the married state without
44800 faith in the religious significance of marriage, committed an act of
44801 sacrilege. That marriage lacked the dual significance it should have
44802 had. Yet in spite of this your vow was binding. You swerved from it.
44803 What did you commit by so acting? A venial, or a mortal, sin? A venial
44804 sin, for you acted without evil intention. If now you married again with
44805 the object of bearing children, your sin might be forgiven. But the
44806 question is again a twofold one: firstly..."
44808 But suddenly Helene, who was getting bored, said with one of her
44809 bewitching smiles: "But I think that having espoused the true religion I
44810 cannot be bound by what a false religion laid upon me."
44812 The director of her conscience was astounded at having the case
44813 presented to him thus with the simplicity of Columbus' egg. He was
44814 delighted at the unexpected rapidity of his pupil's progress, but could
44815 not abandon the edifice of argument he had laboriously constructed.
44817 "Let us understand one another, Countess," said he with a smile, and
44818 began refuting his spiritual daughter's arguments.
44825 Helene understood that the question was very simple and easy from the
44826 ecclesiastical point of view, and that her directors were making
44827 difficulties only because they were apprehensive as to how the matter
44828 would be regarded by the secular authorities.
44830 So she decided that it was necessary to prepare the opinion of society.
44831 She provoked the jealousy of the elderly magnate and told him what she
44832 had told her other suitor; that is, she put the matter so that the only
44833 way for him to obtain a right over her was to marry her. The elderly
44834 magnate was at first as much taken aback by this suggestion of marriage
44835 with a woman whose husband was alive, as the younger man had been, but
44836 Helene's imperturbable conviction that it was as simple and natural as
44837 marrying a maiden had its effect on him too. Had Helene herself shown
44838 the least sign of hesitation, shame, or secrecy, her cause would
44839 certainly have been lost; but not only did she show no signs of secrecy
44840 or shame, on the contrary, with good-natured naivete she told her
44841 intimate friends (and these were all Petersburg) that both the prince
44842 and the magnate had proposed to her and that she loved both and was
44843 afraid of grieving either.
44845 A rumor immediately spread in Petersburg, not that Helene wanted to be
44846 divorced from her husband (had such a report spread many would have
44847 opposed so illegal an intention) but simply that the unfortunate and
44848 interesting Helene was in doubt which of the two men she should marry.
44849 The question was no longer whether this was possible, but only which was
44850 the better match and how the matter would be regarded at court. There
44851 were, it is true, some rigid individuals unable to rise to the height of
44852 such a question, who saw in the project a desecration of the sacrament
44853 of marriage, but there were not many such and they remained silent,
44854 while the majority were interested in Helene's good fortune and in the
44855 question which match would be the more advantageous. Whether it was
44856 right or wrong to remarry while one had a husband living they did not
44857 discuss, for that question had evidently been settled by people "wiser
44858 than you or me," as they said, and to doubt the correctness of that
44859 decision would be to risk exposing one's stupidity and incapacity to
44862 Only Marya Dmitrievna Akhrosimova, who had come to Petersburg that
44863 summer to see one of her sons, allowed herself plainly to express an
44864 opinion contrary to the general one. Meeting Helene at a ball she
44865 stopped her in the middle of the room and, amid general silence, said in
44866 her gruff voice: "So wives of living men have started marrying again!
44867 Perhaps you think you have invented a novelty? You have been
44868 forestalled, my dear! It was thought of long ago. It is done in all the
44869 brothels," and with these words Marya Dmitrievna, turning up her wide
44870 sleeves with her usual threatening gesture and glancing sternly round,
44871 moved across the room.
44873 Though people were afraid of Marya Dmitrievna she was regarded in
44874 Petersburg as a buffoon, and so of what she had said they only noticed,
44875 and repeated in a whisper, the one coarse word she had used, supposing
44876 the whole sting of her remark to lie in that word.
44878 Prince Vasili, who of late very often forgot what he had said and
44879 repeated one and the same thing a hundred times, remarked to his
44880 daughter whenever he chanced to see her:
44882 "Helene, I have a word to say to you," and he would lead her aside,
44883 drawing her hand downward. "I have heard of certain projects
44884 concerning... you know. Well my dear child, you know how your father's
44885 heart rejoices to know that you... You have suffered so much.... But, my
44886 dear child, consult only your own heart. That is all I have to say," and
44887 concealing his unvarying emotion he would press his cheek against his
44888 daughter's and move away.
44890 Bilibin, who had not lost his reputation of an exceedingly clever man,
44891 and who was one of the disinterested friends so brilliant a woman as
44892 Helene always has--men friends who can never change into lovers--once
44893 gave her his view of the matter at a small and intimate gathering.
44895 "Listen, Bilibin," said Helene (she always called friends of that sort
44896 by their surnames), and she touched his coat sleeve with her white,
44897 beringed fingers. "Tell me, as you would a sister, what I ought to do.
44900 Bilibin wrinkled up the skin over his eyebrows and pondered, with a
44903 "You are not taking me unawares, you know," said he. "As a true friend,
44904 I have thought and thought again about your affair. You see, if you
44905 marry the prince"--he meant the younger man--and he crooked one finger,
44906 "you forever lose the chance of marrying the other, and you will
44907 displease the court besides. (You know there is some kind of
44908 connection.) But if you marry the old count you will make his last days
44909 happy, and as widow of the Grand... the prince would no longer be making
44910 a mesalliance by marrying you," and Bilibin smoothed out his forehead.
44912 "That's a true friend!" said Helene beaming, and again touching
44913 Bilibin's sleeve. "But I love them, you know, and don't want to distress
44914 either of them. I would give my life for the happiness of them both."
44916 Bilibin shrugged his shoulders, as much as to say that not even he could
44917 help in that difficulty.
44919 "Une maitresse-femme! * That's what is called putting things squarely.
44920 She would like to be married to all three at the same time," thought he.
44923 * A masterly woman.
44925 "But tell me, how will your husband look at the matter?" Bilibin asked,
44926 his reputation being so well established that he did not fear to ask so
44927 naive a question. "Will he agree?"
44929 "Oh, he loves me so!" said Helene, who for some reason imagined that
44930 Pierre too loved her. "He will do anything for me."
44932 Bilibin puckered his skin in preparation for something witty.
44934 "Even divorce you?" said he.
44938 Among those who ventured to doubt the justifiability of the proposed
44939 marriage was Helene's mother, Princess Kuragina. She was continually
44940 tormented by jealousy of her daughter, and now that jealousy concerned a
44941 subject near to her own heart, she could not reconcile herself to the
44942 idea. She consulted a Russian priest as to the possibility of divorce
44943 and remarriage during a husband's lifetime, and the priest told her that
44944 it was impossible, and to her delight showed her a text in the Gospel
44945 which (as it seemed to him) plainly forbids remarriage while the husband
44948 Armed with these arguments, which appeared to her unanswerable, she
44949 drove to her daughter's early one morning so as to find her alone.
44951 Having listened to her mother's objections, Helene smiled blandly and
44954 "But it says plainly: 'Whosoever shall marry her that is divorced...'"
44955 said the old princess.
44957 "Ah, Maman, ne dites pas de betises. Vous ne comprenez rien. Dans ma
44958 position j'ai des devoirs," * said Helene changing from Russian, in
44959 which language she always felt that her case did not sound quite clear,
44960 into French which suited it better.
44963 * "Oh, Mamma, don't talk nonsense! You don't understand anything. In my
44964 position I have obligations."
44968 "Oh, Mamma, how is it you don't understand that the Holy Father, who has
44969 the right to grant dispensations..."
44971 Just then the lady companion who lived with Helene came in to announce
44972 that His Highness was in the ballroom and wished to see her.
44974 "Non, dites-lui que je ne veux pas le voir, que je suis furieuse contre
44975 lui, parce qu'il m'a manque parole." *
44978 * "No, tell him I don't wish to see him, I am furious with him for not
44979 keeping his word to me."
44981 "Comtesse, a tout peche misericorde," * said a fair-haired young man
44982 with a long face and nose, as he entered the room.
44985 * "Countess, there is mercy for every sin."
44987 The old princess rose respectfully and curtsied. The young man who had
44988 entered took no notice of her. The princess nodded to her daughter and
44989 sidled out of the room.
44991 "Yes, she is right," thought the old princess, all her convictions
44992 dissipated by the appearance of His Highness. "She is right, but how is
44993 it that we in our irrecoverable youth did not know it? Yet it is so
44994 simple," she thought as she got into her carriage.
44996 By the beginning of August Helene's affairs were clearly defined and she
44997 wrote a letter to her husband--who, as she imagined, loved her very
44998 much--informing him of her intention to marry N.N. and of her having
44999 embraced the one true faith, and asking him to carry out all the
45000 formalities necessary for a divorce, which would be explained to him by
45001 the bearer of the letter.
45003 And so I pray God to have you, my friend, in His holy and powerful
45004 keeping--Your friend Helene.
45006 This letter was brought to Pierre's house when he was on the field of
45014 Toward the end of the battle of Borodino, Pierre, having run down from
45015 Raevski's battery a second time, made his way through a gully to
45016 Knyazkovo with a crowd of soldiers, reached the dressing station, and
45017 seeing blood and hearing cries and groans hurried on, still entangled in
45018 the crowds of soldiers.
45020 The one thing he now desired with his whole soul was to get away quickly
45021 from the terrible sensations amid which he had lived that day and return
45022 to ordinary conditions of life and sleep quietly in a room in his own
45023 bed. He felt that only in the ordinary conditions of life would he be
45024 able to understand himself and all he had seen and felt. But such
45025 ordinary conditions of life were nowhere to be found.
45027 Though shells and bullets did not whistle over the road along which he
45028 was going, still on all sides there was what there had been on the field
45029 of battle. There were still the same suffering, exhausted, and sometimes
45030 strangely indifferent faces, the same blood, the same soldiers'
45031 overcoats, the same sounds of firing which, though distant now, still
45032 aroused terror, and besides this there were the foul air and the dust.
45034 Having gone a couple of miles along the Mozhaysk road, Pierre sat down
45037 Dusk had fallen, and the roar of guns died away. Pierre lay leaning on
45038 his elbow for a long time, gazing at the shadows that moved past him in
45039 the darkness. He was continually imagining that a cannon ball was flying
45040 toward him with a terrific whizz, and then he shuddered and sat up. He
45041 had no idea how long he had been there. In the middle of the night three
45042 soldiers, having brought some firewood, settled down near him and began
45045 The soldiers, who threw sidelong glances at Pierre, got the fire to burn
45046 and placed an iron pot on it into which they broke some dried bread and
45047 put a little dripping. The pleasant odor of greasy viands mingled with
45048 the smell of smoke. Pierre sat up and sighed. The three soldiers were
45049 eating and talking among themselves, taking no notice of him.
45051 "And who may you be?" one of them suddenly asked Pierre, evidently
45052 meaning what Pierre himself had in mind, namely: "If you want to eat
45053 we'll give you some food, only let us know whether you are an honest
45056 "I, I..." said Pierre, feeling it necessary to minimize his social
45057 position as much as possible so as to be nearer to the soldiers and
45058 better understood by them. "By rights I am a militia officer, but my men
45059 are not here. I came to the battle and have lost them."
45061 "There now!" said one of the soldiers.
45063 Another shook his head.
45065 "Would you like a little mash?" the first soldier asked, and handed
45066 Pierre a wooden spoon after licking it clean.
45068 Pierre sat down by the fire and began eating the mash, as they called
45069 the food in the cauldron, and he thought it more delicious than any food
45070 he had ever tasted. As he sat bending greedily over it, helping himself
45071 to large spoonfuls and chewing one after another, his face was lit up by
45072 the fire and the soldiers looked at him in silence.
45074 "Where have you to go to? Tell us!" said one of them.
45078 "You're a gentleman, aren't you?"
45082 "And what's your name?"
45086 "Well then, Peter Kirilych, come along with us, we'll take you there."
45088 In the total darkness the soldiers walked with Pierre to Mozhaysk.
45090 By the time they got near Mozhaysk and began ascending the steep hill
45091 into the town, the cocks were already crowing. Pierre went on with the
45092 soldiers, quite forgetting that his inn was at the bottom of the hill
45093 and that he had already passed it. He would not soon have remembered
45094 this, such was his state of forgetfulness, had he not halfway up the
45095 hill stumbled upon his groom, who had been to look for him in the town
45096 and was returning to the inn. The groom recognized Pierre in the
45097 darkness by his white hat.
45099 "Your excellency!" he said. "Why, we were beginning to despair! How is
45100 it you are on foot? And where are you going, please?"
45102 "Oh, yes!" said Pierre.
45104 The soldiers stopped.
45106 "So you've found your folk?" said one of them. "Well, good-by, Peter
45107 Kirilych--isn't it?"
45109 "Good-bye, Peter Kirilych!" Pierre heard the other voices repeat.
45111 "Good-bye!" he said and turned with his groom toward the inn.
45113 "I ought to give them something!" he thought, and felt in his pocket.
45114 "No, better not!" said another, inner voice.
45116 There was not a room to be had at the inn, they were all occupied.
45117 Pierre went out into the yard and, covering himself up head and all, lay
45118 down in his carriage.
45125 Scarcely had Pierre laid his head on the pillow before he felt himself
45126 falling asleep, but suddenly, almost with the distinctness of reality,
45127 he heard the boom, boom, boom of firing, the thud of projectiles, groans
45128 and cries, and smelled blood and powder, and a feeling of horror and
45129 dread of death seized him. Filled with fright he opened his eyes and
45130 lifted his head from under his cloak. All was tranquil in the yard. Only
45131 someone's orderly passed through the gateway, splashing through the mud,
45132 and talked to the innkeeper. Above Pierre's head some pigeons, disturbed
45133 by the movement he had made in sitting up, fluttered under the dark roof
45134 of the penthouse. The whole courtyard was permeated by a strong peaceful
45135 smell of stable yards, delightful to Pierre at that moment. He could see
45136 the clear starry sky between the dark roofs of two penthouses.
45138 "Thank God, there is no more of that!" he thought, covering up his head
45139 again. "Oh, what a terrible thing is fear, and how shamefully I yielded
45140 to it! But they... they were steady and calm all the time, to the
45141 end..." thought he.
45143 They, in Pierre's mind, were the soldiers, those who had been at the
45144 battery, those who had given him food, and those who had prayed before
45145 the icon. They, those strange men he had not previously known, stood out
45146 clearly and sharply from everyone else.
45148 "To be a soldier, just a soldier!" thought Pierre as he fell asleep, "to
45149 enter communal life completely, to be imbued by what makes them what
45150 they are. But how cast off all the superfluous, devilish burden of my
45151 outer man? There was a time when I could have done it. I could have run
45152 away from my father, as I wanted to. Or I might have been sent to serve
45153 as a soldier after the duel with Dolokhov." And the memory of the dinner
45154 at the English Club when he had challenged Dolokhov flashed through
45155 Pierre's mind, and then he remembered his benefactor at Torzhok. And now
45156 a picture of a solemn meeting of the lodge presented itself to his mind.
45157 It was taking place at the English Club and someone near and dear to him
45158 sat at the end of the table. "Yes, that is he! It is my benefactor. But
45159 he died!" thought Pierre. "Yes, he died, and I did not know he was
45160 alive. How sorry I am that he died, and how glad I am that he is alive
45161 again!" On one side of the table sat Anatole, Dolokhov, Nesvitski,
45162 Denisov, and others like them (in his dream the category to which these
45163 men belonged was as clearly defined in his mind as the category of those
45164 he termed they), and he heard those people, Anatole and Dolokhov,
45165 shouting and singing loudly; yet through their shouting the voice of his
45166 benefactor was heard speaking all the time and the sound of his words
45167 was as weighty and uninterrupted as the booming on the battlefield, but
45168 pleasant and comforting. Pierre did not understand what his benefactor
45169 was saying, but he knew (the categories of thoughts were also quite
45170 distinct in his dream) that he was talking of goodness and the
45171 possibility of being what they were. And they with their simple, kind,
45172 firm faces surrounded his benefactor on all sides. But though they were
45173 kindly they did not look at Pierre and did not know him. Wishing to
45174 speak and to attract their attention, he got up, but at that moment his
45175 legs grew cold and bare.
45177 He felt ashamed, and with one arm covered his legs from which his cloak
45178 had in fact slipped. For a moment as he was rearranging his cloak Pierre
45179 opened his eyes and saw the same penthouse roofs, posts, and yard, but
45180 now they were all bluish, lit up, and glittering with frost or dew.
45182 "It is dawn," thought Pierre. "But that's not what I want. I want to
45183 hear and understand my benefactor's words." Again he covered himself up
45184 with his cloak, but now neither the lodge nor his benefactor was there.
45185 There were only thoughts clearly expressed in words, thoughts that
45186 someone was uttering or that he himself was formulating.
45188 Afterwards when he recalled those thoughts Pierre was convinced that
45189 someone outside himself had spoken them, though the impressions of that
45190 day had evoked them. He had never, it seemed to him, been able to think
45191 and express his thoughts like that when awake.
45193 "To endure war is the most difficult subordination of man's freedom to
45194 the law of God," the voice had said. "Simplicity is submission to the
45195 will of God; you cannot escape from Him. And they are simple. They do
45196 not talk, but act. The spoken word is silver but the unspoken is golden.
45197 Man can be master of nothing while he fears death, but he who does not
45198 fear it possesses all. If there were no suffering, man would not know
45199 his limitations, would not know himself. The hardest thing (Pierre went
45200 on thinking, or hearing, in his dream) is to be able in your soul to
45201 unite the meaning of all. To unite all?" he asked himself. "No, not to
45202 unite. Thoughts cannot be united, but to harness all these thoughts
45203 together is what we need! Yes, one must harness them, must harness
45204 them!" he repeated to himself with inward rapture, feeling that these
45205 words and they alone expressed what he wanted to say and solved the
45206 question that tormented him.
45208 "Yes, one must harness, it is time to harness."
45210 "Time to harness, time to harness, your excellency! Your excellency!"
45211 some voice was repeating. "We must harness, it is time to harness...."
45213 It was the voice of the groom, trying to wake him. The sun shone
45214 straight into Pierre's face. He glanced at the dirty innyard in the
45215 middle of which soldiers were watering their lean horses at the pump
45216 while carts were passing out of the gate. Pierre turned away with
45217 repugnance, and closing his eyes quickly fell back on the carriage seat.
45218 "No, I don't want that, I don't want to see and understand that. I want
45219 to understand what was revealing itself to me in my dream. One second
45220 more and I should have understood it all! But what am I to do? Harness,
45221 but how can I harness everything?" and Pierre felt with horror that the
45222 meaning of all he had seen and thought in the dream had been destroyed.
45224 The groom, the coachman, and the innkeeper told Pierre that an officer
45225 had come with news that the French were already near Mozhaysk and that
45226 our men were leaving it.
45228 Pierre got up and, having told them to harness and overtake him, went on
45229 foot through the town.
45231 The troops were moving on, leaving about ten thousand wounded behind
45232 them. There were wounded in the yards, at the windows of the houses, and
45233 the streets were crowded with them. In the streets, around carts that
45234 were to take some of the wounded away, shouts, curses, and blows could
45235 be heard. Pierre offered the use of his carriage, which had overtaken
45236 him, to a wounded general he knew, and drove with him to Moscow. On the
45237 way Pierre was told of the death of his brother-in-law Anatole and of
45238 that of Prince Andrew.
45245 On the thirteenth of August Pierre reached Moscow. Close to the gates of
45246 the city he was met by Count Rostopchin's adjutant.
45248 "We have been looking for you everywhere," said the adjutant. "The count
45249 wants to see you particularly. He asks you to come to him at once on a
45250 very important matter."
45252 Without going home, Pierre took a cab and drove to see the Moscow
45253 commander-in-chief.
45255 Count Rostopchin had only that morning returned to town from his summer
45256 villa at Sokolniki. The anteroom and reception room of his house were
45257 full of officials who had been summoned or had come for orders.
45258 Vasilchikov and Platov had already seen the count and explained to him
45259 that it was impossible to defend Moscow and that it would have to be
45260 surrendered. Though this news was being concealed from the inhabitants,
45261 the officials--the heads of the various government departments--knew
45262 that Moscow would soon be in the enemy's hands, just as Count Rostopchin
45263 himself knew it, and to escape personal responsibility they had all come
45264 to the governor to ask how they were to deal with their various
45267 As Pierre was entering the reception room a courier from the army came
45268 out of Rostopchin's private room.
45270 In answer to questions with which he was greeted, the courier made a
45271 despairing gesture with his hand and passed through the room.
45273 While waiting in the reception room Pierre with weary eyes watched the
45274 various officials, old and young, military and civilian, who were there.
45275 They all seemed dissatisfied and uneasy. Pierre went up to a group of
45276 men, one of whom he knew. After greeting Pierre they continued their
45279 "If they're sent out and brought back again later on it will do no harm,
45280 but as things are now one can't answer for anything."
45282 "But you see what he writes..." said another, pointing to a printed
45283 sheet he held in his hand.
45285 "That's another matter. That's necessary for the people," said the
45288 "What is it?" asked Pierre.
45290 "Oh, it's a fresh broadsheet."
45292 Pierre took it and began reading.
45294 His Serene Highness has passed through Mozhaysk in order to join up with
45295 the troops moving toward him and has taken up a strong position where
45296 the enemy will not soon attack him. Forty eight guns with ammunition
45297 have been sent him from here, and his Serene Highness says he will
45298 defend Moscow to the last drop of blood and is even ready to fight in
45299 the streets. Do not be upset, brothers, that the law courts are closed;
45300 things have to be put in order, and we will deal with villains in our
45301 own way! When the time comes I shall want both town and peasant lads and
45302 will raise the cry a day or two beforehand, but they are not wanted yet
45303 so I hold my peace. An ax will be useful, a hunting spear not bad, but a
45304 three-pronged fork will be best of all: a Frenchman is no heavier than a
45305 sheaf of rye. Tomorrow after dinner I shall take the Iberian icon of the
45306 Mother of God to the wounded in the Catherine Hospital where we will
45307 have some water blessed. That will help them to get well quicker. I,
45308 too, am well now: one of my eyes was sore but now I am on the lookout
45311 "But military men have told me that it is impossible to fight in the
45312 town," said Pierre, "and that the position..."
45314 "Well, of course! That's what we were saying," replied the first
45317 "And what does he mean by 'One of my eyes was sore but now I am on the
45318 lookout with both'?" asked Pierre.
45320 "The count had a sty," replied the adjutant smiling, "and was very much
45321 upset when I told him people had come to ask what was the matter with
45322 him. By the by, Count," he added suddenly, addressing Pierre with a
45323 smile, "we heard that you have family troubles and that the countess,
45326 "I have heard nothing," Pierre replied unconcernedly. "But what have you
45329 "Oh, well, you know people often invent things. I only say what I
45332 "But what did you hear?"
45334 "Well, they say," continued the adjutant with the same smile, "that the
45335 countess, your wife, is preparing to go abroad. I expect it's
45338 "Possibly," remarked Pierre, looking about him absent-mindedly. "And who
45339 is that?" he asked, indicating a short old man in a clean blue peasant
45340 overcoat, with a big snow-white beard and eyebrows and a ruddy face.
45342 "He? That's a tradesman, that is to say, he's the restaurant keeper,
45343 Vereshchagin. Perhaps you have heard of that affair with the
45346 "Oh, so that is Vereshchagin!" said Pierre, looking at the firm, calm
45347 face of the old man and seeking any indication of his being a traitor.
45349 "That's not he himself, that's the father of the fellow who wrote the
45350 proclamation," said the adjutant. "The young man is in prison and I
45351 expect it will go hard with him."
45353 An old gentleman wearing a star and another official, a German wearing a
45354 cross round his neck, approached the speaker.
45357 "It's a complicated story, you know," said the adjutant. "That
45358 proclamation appeared about two months ago. The count was informed of
45359 it. He gave orders to investigate the matter. Gabriel Ivanovich here
45360 made the inquiries. The proclamation had passed through exactly sixty-
45361 three hands. He asked one, 'From whom did you get it?' 'From so-and-so.'
45362 He went to the next one. 'From whom did you get it?' and so on till he
45363 reached Vereshchagin, a half educated tradesman, you know, 'a pet of a
45364 trader,'" said the adjutant smiling. "They asked him, 'Who gave it you?'
45365 And the point is that we knew whom he had it from. He could only have
45366 had it from the Postmaster. But evidently they had come to some
45367 understanding. He replied: 'From no one; I made it up myself.' They
45368 threatened and questioned him, but he stuck to that: 'I made it up
45369 myself.' And so it was reported to the count, who sent for the man.
45370 'From whom did you get the proclamation?' 'I wrote it myself.' Well, you
45371 know the count," said the adjutant cheerfully, with a smile of pride,
45372 "he flared up dreadfully--and just think of the fellow's audacity,
45373 lying, and obstinacy!"
45375 "And the count wanted him to say it was from Klyucharev? I understand!"
45378 "Not at all," rejoined the adjutant in dismay. "Klyucharev had his own
45379 sins to answer for without that and that is why he has been banished.
45380 But the point is that the count was much annoyed. 'How could you have
45381 written it yourself?' said he, and he took up the Hamburg Gazette that
45382 was lying on the table. 'Here it is! You did not write it yourself but
45383 translated it, and translated it abominably, because you don't even know
45384 French, you fool.' And what do you think? 'No,' said he, 'I have not
45385 read any papers, I made it up myself.' 'If that's so, you're a traitor
45386 and I'll have you tried, and you'll be hanged! Say from whom you had
45387 it.' 'I have seen no papers, I made it up myself.' And that was the end
45388 of it. The count had the father fetched, but the fellow stuck to it. He
45389 was sent for trial and condemned to hard labor, I believe. Now the
45390 father has come to intercede for him. But he's a good-for-nothing lad!
45391 You know that sort of tradesman's son, a dandy and lady-killer. He
45392 attended some lectures somewhere and imagines that the devil is no match
45393 for him. That's the sort of fellow he is. His father keeps a cookshop
45394 here by the Stone Bridge, and you know there was a large icon of God
45395 Almighty painted with a scepter in one hand and an orb in the other.
45396 Well, he took that icon home with him for a few days and what did he do?
45397 He found some scoundrel of a painter..."
45404 In the middle of this fresh tale Pierre was summoned to the commander in
45407 When he entered the private room Count Rostopchin, puckering his face,
45408 was rubbing his forehead and eyes with his hand. A short man was saying
45409 something, but when Pierre entered he stopped speaking and went out.
45411 "Ah, how do you do, great warrior?" said Rostopchin as soon as the short
45412 man had left the room. "We have heard of your prowess. But that's not
45413 the point. Between ourselves, mon cher, do you belong to the Masons?" he
45414 went on severely, as though there were something wrong about it which he
45415 nevertheless intended to pardon. Pierre remained silent. "I am well
45416 informed, my friend, but I am aware that there are Masons and I hope
45417 that you are not one of those who on pretense of saving mankind wish to
45420 "Yes, I am a Mason," Pierre replied.
45422 "There, you see, mon cher! I expect you know that Messrs. Speranski and
45423 Magnitski have been deported to their proper place. Mr. Klyucharev has
45424 been treated in the same way, and so have others who on the plea of
45425 building up the temple of Solomon have tried to destroy the temple of
45426 their fatherland. You can understand that there are reasons for this and
45427 that I could not have exiled the Postmaster had he not been a harmful
45428 person. It has now come to my knowledge that you lent him your carriage
45429 for his removal from town, and that you have even accepted papers from
45430 him for safe custody. I like you and don't wish you any harm and--as you
45431 are only half my age--I advise you, as a father would, to cease all
45432 communication with men of that stamp and to leave here as soon as
45435 "But what did Klyucharev do wrong, Count?" asked Pierre.
45437 "That is for me to know, but not for you to ask," shouted Rostopchin.
45439 "If he is accused of circulating Napoleon's proclamation it is not
45440 proved that he did so," said Pierre without looking at Rostopchin, "and
45443 "There we are!" Rostopchin shouted at Pierre louder than before,
45444 frowning suddenly. "Vereshchagin is a renegade and a traitor who will be
45445 punished as he deserves," said he with the vindictive heat with which
45446 people speak when recalling an insult. "But I did not summon you to
45447 discuss my actions, but to give you advice--or an order if you prefer
45448 it. I beg you to leave the town and break off all communication with
45449 such men as Klyucharev. And I will knock the nonsense out of anybody"--
45450 but probably realizing that he was shouting at Bezukhov who so far was
45451 not guilty of anything, he added, taking Pierre's hand in a friendly
45452 manner, "We are on the eve of a public disaster and I haven't time to be
45453 polite to everybody who has business with me. My head is sometimes in a
45454 whirl. Well, mon cher, what are you doing personally?"
45456 "Why, nothing," answered Pierre without raising his eyes or changing the
45457 thoughtful expression of his face.
45461 "A word of friendly advice, mon cher. Be off as soon as you can, that's
45462 all I have to tell you. Happy he who has ears to hear. Good-bye, my dear
45463 fellow. Oh, by the by!" he shouted through the doorway after Pierre, "is
45464 it true that the countess has fallen into the clutches of the holy
45465 fathers of the Society of Jesus?"
45467 Pierre did not answer and left Rostopchin's room more sullen and angry
45468 than he had ever before shown himself.
45470 When he reached home it was already getting dark. Some eight people had
45471 come to see him that evening: the secretary of a committee, the colonel
45472 of his battalion, his steward, his major-domo, and various petitioners.
45473 They all had business with Pierre and wanted decisions from him. Pierre
45474 did not understand and was not interested in any of these questions and
45475 only answered them in order to get rid of these people. When left alone
45476 at last he opened and read his wife's letter.
45478 "They, the soldiers at the battery, Prince Andrew killed... that old
45479 man... Simplicity is submission to God. Suffering is necessary... the
45480 meaning of all... one must harness... my wife is getting married... One
45481 must forget and understand..." And going to his bed he threw himself on
45482 it without undressing and immediately fell asleep.
45484 When he awoke next morning the major-domo came to inform him that a
45485 special messenger, a police officer, had come from Count Rostopchin to
45486 know whether Count Bezukhov had left or was leaving the town.
45488 A dozen persons who had business with Pierre were awaiting him in the
45489 drawing room. Pierre dressed hurriedly and, instead of going to see
45490 them, went to the back porch and out through the gate.
45492 From that time till the end of the destruction of Moscow no one of
45493 Bezukhov's household, despite all the search they made, saw Pierre again
45494 or knew where he was.
45501 The Rostovs remained in Moscow till the first of September, that is,
45502 till the eve of the enemy's entry into the city.
45504 After Petya had joined Obolenski's regiment of Cossacks and left for
45505 Belaya Tserkov where that regiment was forming, the countess was seized
45506 with terror. The thought that both her sons were at the war, had both
45507 gone from under her wing, that today or tomorrow either or both of them
45508 might be killed like the three sons of one of her acquaintances, struck
45509 her that summer for the first time with cruel clearness. She tried to
45510 get Nicholas back and wished to go herself to join Petya, or to get him
45511 an appointment somewhere in Petersburg, but neither of these proved
45512 possible. Petya could not return unless his regiment did so or unless he
45513 was transferred to another regiment on active service. Nicholas was
45514 somewhere with the army and had not sent a word since his last letter,
45515 in which he had given a detailed account of his meeting with Princess
45516 Mary. The countess did not sleep at night, or when she did fall asleep
45517 dreamed that she saw her sons lying dead. After many consultations and
45518 conversations, the count at last devised means to tranquillize her. He
45519 got Petya transferred from Obolenski's regiment to Bezukhov's, which was
45520 in training near Moscow. Though Petya would remain in the service, this
45521 transfer would give the countess the consolation of seeing at least one
45522 of her sons under her wing, and she hoped to arrange matters for her
45523 Petya so as not to let him go again, but always get him appointed to
45524 places where he could not possibly take part in a battle. As long as
45525 Nicholas alone was in danger the countess imagined that she loved her
45526 first-born more than all her other children and even reproached herself
45527 for it; but when her youngest: the scapegrace who had been bad at
45528 lessons, was always breaking things in the house and making himself a
45529 nuisance to everybody, that snub-nosed Petya with his merry black eyes
45530 and fresh rosy cheeks where soft down was just beginning to show--when
45531 he was thrown amid those big, dreadful, cruel men who were fighting
45532 somewhere about something and apparently finding pleasure in it--then
45533 his mother thought she loved him more, much more, than all her other
45534 children. The nearer the time came for Petya to return, the more uneasy
45535 grew the countess. She began to think she would never live to see such
45536 happiness. The presence of Sonya, of her beloved Natasha, or even of her
45537 husband irritated her. "What do I want with them? I want no one but
45538 Petya," she thought.
45540 At the end of August the Rostovs received another letter from Nicholas.
45541 He wrote from the province of Voronezh where he had been sent to procure
45542 remounts, but that letter did not set the countess at ease. Knowing that
45543 one son was out of danger she became the more anxious about Petya.
45545 Though by the twentieth of August nearly all the Rostovs' acquaintances
45546 had left Moscow, and though everybody tried to persuade the countess to
45547 get away as quickly as possible, she would not hear of leaving before
45548 her treasure, her adored Petya, returned. On the twenty-eighth of August
45549 he arrived. The passionate tenderness with which his mother received him
45550 did not please the sixteen-year-old officer. Though she concealed from
45551 him her intention of keeping him under her wing, Petya guessed her
45552 designs, and instinctively fearing that he might give way to emotion
45553 when with her--might "become womanish" as he termed it to himself--he
45554 treated her coldly, avoided her, and during his stay in Moscow attached
45555 himself exclusively to Natasha for whom he had always had a particularly
45556 brotherly tenderness, almost lover-like.
45558 Owing to the count's customary carelessness nothing was ready for their
45559 departure by the twenty-eighth of August and the carts that were to come
45560 from their Ryazan and Moscow estates to remove their household
45561 belongings did not arrive till the thirtieth.
45563 From the twenty-eighth till the thirty-first all Moscow was in a bustle
45564 and commotion. Every day thousands of men wounded at Borodino were
45565 brought in by the Dorogomilov gate and taken to various parts of Moscow,
45566 and thousands of carts conveyed the inhabitants and their possessions
45567 out by the other gates. In spite of Rostopchin's broadsheets, or because
45568 of them or independently of them, the strangest and most contradictory
45569 rumors were current in the town. Some said that no one was to be allowed
45570 to leave the city, others on the contrary said that all the icons had
45571 been taken out of the churches and everybody was to be ordered to leave.
45572 Some said there had been another battle after Borodino at which the
45573 French had been routed, while others on the contrary reported that the
45574 Russian army had been destroyed. Some talked about the Moscow militia
45575 which, preceded by the clergy, would go to the Three Hills; others
45576 whispered that Augustin had been forbidden to leave, that traitors had
45577 been seized, that the peasants were rioting and robbing people on their
45578 way from Moscow, and so on. But all this was only talk; in reality
45579 (though the Council of Fili, at which it was decided to abandon Moscow,
45580 had not yet been held) both those who went away and those who remained
45581 behind felt, though they did not show it, that Moscow would certainly be
45582 abandoned, and that they ought to get away as quickly as possible and
45583 save their belongings. It was felt that everything would suddenly break
45584 up and change, but up to the first of September nothing had done so. As
45585 a criminal who is being led to execution knows that he must die
45586 immediately, but yet looks about him and straightens the cap that is
45587 awry on his head, so Moscow involuntarily continued its wonted life,
45588 though it knew that the time of its destruction was near when the
45589 conditions of life to which its people were accustomed to submit would
45590 be completely upset.
45592 During the three days preceding the occupation of Moscow the whole
45593 Rostov family was absorbed in various activities. The head of the
45594 family, Count Ilya Rostov, continually drove about the city collecting
45595 the current rumors from all sides and gave superficial and hasty orders
45596 at home about the preparations for their departure.
45598 The countess watched the things being packed, was dissatisfied with
45599 everything, was constantly in pursuit of Petya who was always running
45600 away from her, and was jealous of Natasha with whom he spent all his
45601 time. Sonya alone directed the practical side of matters by getting
45602 things packed. But of late Sonya had been particularly sad and silent.
45603 Nicholas' letter in which he mentioned Princess Mary had elicited, in
45604 her presence, joyous comments from the countess, who saw an intervention
45605 of Providence in this meeting of the princess and Nicholas.
45607 "I was never pleased at Bolkonski's engagement to Natasha," said the
45608 countess, "but I always wanted Nicholas to marry the princess, and had a
45609 presentiment that it would happen. What a good thing it would be!"
45611 Sonya felt that this was true: that the only possibility of retrieving
45612 the Rostovs' affairs was by Nicholas marrying a rich woman, and that the
45613 princess was a good match. It was very bitter for her. But despite her
45614 grief, or perhaps just because of it, she took on herself all the
45615 difficult work of directing the storing and packing of their things and
45616 was busy for whole days. The count and countess turned to her when they
45617 had any orders to give. Petya and Natasha on the contrary, far from
45618 helping their parents, were generally a nuisance and a hindrance to
45619 everyone. Almost all day long the house resounded with their running
45620 feet, their cries, and their spontaneous laughter. They laughed and were
45621 gay not because there was any reason to laugh, but because gaiety and
45622 mirth were in their hearts and so everything that happened was a cause
45623 for gaiety and laughter to them. Petya was in high spirits because
45624 having left home a boy he had returned (as everybody told him) a fine
45625 young man, because he was at home, because he had left Belaya Tserkov
45626 where there was no hope of soon taking part in a battle and had come to
45627 Moscow where there was to be fighting in a few days, and chiefly because
45628 Natasha, whose lead he always followed, was in high spirits. Natasha was
45629 gay because she had been sad too long and now nothing reminded her of
45630 the cause of her sadness, and because she was feeling well. She was also
45631 happy because she had someone to adore her: the adoration of others was
45632 a lubricant the wheels of her machine needed to make them run freely--
45633 and Petya adored her. Above all, they were gay because there was a war
45634 near Moscow, there would be fighting at the town gates, arms were being
45635 given out, everybody was escaping--going away somewhere, and in general
45636 something extraordinary was happening, and that is always exciting,
45637 especially to the young.
45644 On Saturday, the thirty-first of August, everything in the Rostovs'
45645 house seemed topsy-turvy. All the doors were open, all the furniture was
45646 being carried out or moved about, and the mirrors and pictures had been
45647 taken down. There were trunks in the rooms, and hay, wrapping paper, and
45648 ropes were scattered about. The peasants and house serfs carrying out
45649 the things were treading heavily on the parquet floors. The yard was
45650 crowded with peasant carts, some loaded high and already corded up,
45651 others still empty.
45653 The voices and footsteps of the many servants and of the peasants who
45654 had come with the carts resounded as they shouted to one another in the
45655 yard and in the house. The count had been out since morning. The
45656 countess had a headache brought on by all the noise and turmoil and was
45657 lying down in the new sitting room with a vinegar compress on her head.
45658 Petya was not at home, he had gone to visit a friend with whom he meant
45659 to obtain a transfer from the militia to the active army. Sonya was in
45660 the ballroom looking after the packing of the glass and china. Natasha
45661 was sitting on the floor of her dismantled room with dresses, ribbons,
45662 and scarves strewn all about her, gazing fixedly at the floor and
45663 holding in her hands the old ball dress (already out of fashion) which
45664 she had worn at her first Petersburg ball.
45666 Natasha was ashamed of doing nothing when everyone else was so busy, and
45667 several times that morning had tried to set to work, but her heart was
45668 not in it, and she could not and did not know how to do anything except
45669 with all her heart and all her might. For a while she had stood beside
45670 Sonya while the china was being packed and tried to help, but soon gave
45671 it up and went to her room to pack her own things. At first she found it
45672 amusing to give away dresses and ribbons to the maids, but when that was
45673 done and what was left had still to be packed, she found it dull.
45675 "Dunyasha, you pack! You will, won't you, dear?" And when Dunyasha
45676 willingly promised to do it all for her, Natasha sat down on the floor,
45677 took her old ball dress, and fell into a reverie quite unrelated to what
45678 ought to have occupied her thoughts now. She was roused from her reverie
45679 by the talk of the maids in the next room (which was theirs) and by the
45680 sound of their hurried footsteps going to the back porch. Natasha got up
45681 and looked out of the window. An enormously long row of carts full of
45682 wounded men had stopped in the street.
45684 The housekeeper, the old nurse, the cooks, coachmen, maids, footmen,
45685 postilions, and scullions stood at the gate, staring at the wounded.
45687 Natasha, throwing a clean pocket handkerchief over her hair and holding
45688 an end of it in each hand, went out into the street.
45690 The former housekeeper, old Mavra Kuzminichna, had stepped out of the
45691 crowd by the gate, gone up to a cart with a hood constructed of bast
45692 mats, and was speaking to a pale young officer who lay inside. Natasha
45693 moved a few steps forward and stopped shyly, still holding her
45694 handkerchief, and listened to what the housekeeper was saying.
45696 "Then you have nobody in Moscow?" she was saying. "You would be more
45697 comfortable somewhere in a house... in ours, for instance... the family
45700 "I don't know if it would be allowed," replied the officer in a weak
45701 voice. "Here is our commanding officer... ask him," and he pointed to a
45702 stout major who was walking back along the street past the row of carts.
45704 Natasha glanced with frightened eyes at the face of the wounded officer
45705 and at once went to meet the major.
45707 "May the wounded men stay in our house?" she asked.
45709 The major raised his hand to his cap with a smile.
45711 "Which one do you want, Ma'am'selle?" said he, screwing up his eyes and
45714 Natasha quietly repeated her question, and her face and whole manner
45715 were so serious, though she was still holding the ends of her
45716 handkerchief, that the major ceased smiling and after some reflection--
45717 as if considering in how far the thing was possible--replied in the
45720 "Oh yes, why not? They may," he said.
45722 With a slight inclination of her head, Natasha stepped back quickly to
45723 Mavra Kuzminichna, who stood talking compassionately to the officer.
45725 "They may. He says they may!" whispered Natasha.
45727 The cart in which the officer lay was turned into the Rostovs' yard, and
45728 dozens of carts with wounded men began at the invitation of the
45729 townsfolk to turn into the yards and to draw up at the entrances of the
45730 houses in Povarskaya Street. Natasha was evidently pleased to be dealing
45731 with new people outside the ordinary routine of her life. She and Mavra
45732 Kuzminichna tried to get as many of the wounded as possible into their
45735 "Your Papa must be told, though," said Mavra Kuzminichna.
45737 "Never mind, never mind, what does it matter? For one day we can move
45738 into the drawing room. They can have all our half of the house."
45740 "There now, young lady, you do take things into your head! Even if we
45741 put them into the wing, the men's room, or the nurse's room, we must ask
45746 Natasha ran into the house and went on tiptoe through the half-open door
45747 into the sitting room, where there was a smell of vinegar and Hoffman's
45750 "Are you asleep, Mamma?"
45752 "Oh, what sleep-?" said the countess, waking up just as she was dropping
45755 "Mamma darling!" said Natasha, kneeling by her mother and bringing her
45756 face close to her mother's, "I am sorry, forgive me, I'll never do it
45757 again; I woke you up! Mavra Kuzminichna has sent me: they have brought
45758 some wounded here--officers. Will you let them come? They have nowhere
45759 to go. I knew you'd let them come!" she said quickly all in one breath.
45761 "What officers? Whom have they brought? I don't understand anything
45762 about it," said the countess.
45764 Natasha laughed, and the countess too smiled slightly.
45766 "I knew you'd give permission... so I'll tell them," and, having kissed
45767 her mother, Natasha got up and went to the door.
45769 In the hall she met her father, who had returned with bad news.
45771 "We've stayed too long!" said the count with involuntary vexation. "The
45772 club is closed and the police are leaving."
45774 "Papa, is it all right--I've invited some of the wounded into the
45775 house?" said Natasha.
45777 "Of course it is," he answered absently. "That's not the point. I beg
45778 you not to indulge in trifles now, but to help to pack, and tomorrow we
45779 must go, go, go!...."
45781 And the count gave a similar order to the major-domo and the servants.
45783 At dinner Petya having returned home told them the news he had heard. He
45784 said the people had been getting arms in the Kremlin, and that though
45785 Rostopchin's broadsheet had said that he would sound a call two or three
45786 days in advance, the order had certainly already been given for everyone
45787 to go armed to the Three Hills tomorrow, and that there would be a big
45790 The countess looked with timid horror at her son's eager, excited face
45791 as he said this. She realized that if she said a word about his not
45792 going to the battle (she knew he enjoyed the thought of the impending
45793 engagement) he would say something about men, honor, and the fatherland-
45794 -something senseless, masculine, and obstinate which there would be no
45795 contradicting, and her plans would be spoiled; and so, hoping to arrange
45796 to leave before then and take Petya with her as their protector and
45797 defender, she did not answer him, but after dinner called the count
45798 aside and implored him with tears to take her away quickly, that very
45799 night if possible. With a woman's involuntary loving cunning she, who
45800 till then had not shown any alarm, said that she would die of fright if
45801 they did not leave that very night. Without any pretense she was now
45802 afraid of everything.
45809 Madame Schoss, who had been out to visit her daughter, increased the
45810 countess' fears still more by telling what she had seen at a spirit
45811 dealer's in Myasnitski Street. When returning by that street she had
45812 been unable to pass because of a drunken crowd rioting in front of the
45813 shop. She had taken a cab and driven home by a side street and the
45814 cabman had told her that the people were breaking open the barrels at
45815 the drink store, having received orders to do so.
45817 After dinner the whole Rostov household set to work with enthusiastic
45818 haste packing their belongings and preparing for their departure. The
45819 old count, suddenly setting to work, kept passing from the yard to the
45820 house and back again, shouting confused instructions to the hurrying
45821 people, and flurrying them still more. Petya directed things in the
45822 yard. Sonya, owing to the count's contradictory orders, lost her head
45823 and did not know what to do. The servants ran noisily about the house
45824 and yard, shouting and disputing. Natasha, with the ardor characteristic
45825 of all she did suddenly set to work too. At first her intervention in
45826 the business of packing was received skeptically. Everybody expected
45827 some prank from her and did not wish to obey her; but she resolutely and
45828 passionately demanded obedience, grew angry and nearly cried because
45829 they did not heed her, and at last succeeded in making them believe her.
45830 Her first exploit, which cost her immense effort and established her
45831 authority, was the packing of the carpets. The count had valuable
45832 Gobelin tapestries and Persian carpets in the house. When Natasha set to
45833 work two cases were standing open in the ballroom, one almost full up
45834 with crockery, the other with carpets. There was also much china
45835 standing on the tables, and still more was being brought in from the
45836 storeroom. A third case was needed and servants had gone to fetch it.
45838 "Sonya, wait a bit--we'll pack everything into these," said Natasha.
45840 "You can't, Miss, we have tried to," said the butler's assistant.
45842 "No, wait a minute, please."
45844 And Natasha began rapidly taking out of the case dishes and plates
45847 "The dishes must go in here among the carpets," said she.
45849 "Why, it's a mercy if we can get the carpets alone into three cases,"
45850 said the butler's assistant.
45852 "Oh, wait, please!" And Natasha began rapidly and deftly sorting out the
45853 things. "These aren't needed," said she, putting aside some plates of
45854 Kiev ware. "These--yes, these must go among the carpets," she said,
45855 referring to the Saxony china dishes.
45857 "Don't, Natasha! Leave it alone! We'll get it all packed," urged Sonya
45860 "What a young lady she is!" remarked the major-domo.
45862 But Natasha would not give in. She turned everything out and began
45863 quickly repacking, deciding that the inferior Russian carpets and
45864 unnecessary crockery should not be taken at all. When everything had
45865 been taken out of the cases, they recommenced packing, and it turned out
45866 that when the cheaper things not worth taking had nearly all been
45867 rejected, the valuable ones really did all go into the two cases. Only
45868 the lid of the case containing the carpets would not shut down. A few
45869 more things might have been taken out, but Natasha insisted on having
45870 her own way. She packed, repacked, pressed, made the butler's assistant
45871 and Petya--whom she had drawn into the business of packing--press on the
45872 lid, and made desperate efforts herself.
45874 "That's enough, Natasha," said Sonya. "I see you were right, but just
45875 take out the top one."
45877 "I won't!" cried Natasha, with one hand holding back the hair that hung
45878 over her perspiring face, while with the other she pressed down the
45879 carpets. "Now press, Petya! Press, Vasilich, press hard!" she cried.
45881 The carpets yielded and the lid closed; Natasha, clapping her hands,
45882 screamed with delight and tears fell from her eyes. But this only lasted
45883 a moment. She at once set to work afresh and they now trusted her
45884 completely. The count was not angry even when they told him that Natasha
45885 had countermanded an order of his, and the servants now came to her to
45886 ask whether a cart was sufficiently loaded, and whether it might be
45887 corded up. Thanks to Natasha's directions the work now went on
45888 expeditiously, unnecessary things were left, and the most valuable
45889 packed as compactly as possible.
45891 But hard as they all worked till quite late that night, they could not
45892 get everything packed. The countess had fallen asleep and the count,
45893 having put off their departure till next morning, went to bed.
45895 Sonya and Natasha slept in the sitting room without undressing.
45897 That night another wounded man was driven down the Povarskaya, and Mavra
45898 Kuzminichna, who was standing at the gate, had him brought into the
45899 Rostovs' yard. Mavra Kuzminichna concluded that he was a very important
45900 man. He was being conveyed in a caleche with a raised hood, and was
45901 quite covered by an apron. On the box beside the driver sat a venerable
45902 old attendant. A doctor and two soldiers followed the carriage in a
45905 "Please come in here. The masters are going away and the whole house
45906 will be empty," said the old woman to the old attendant.
45908 "Well, perhaps," said he with a sigh. "We don't expect to get him home
45909 alive! We have a house of our own in Moscow, but it's a long way from
45910 here, and there's nobody living in it."
45912 "Do us the honor to come in, there's plenty of everything in the
45913 master's house. Come in," said Mavra Kuzminichna. "Is he very ill?" she
45916 The attendant made a hopeless gesture.
45918 "We don't expect to get him home! We must ask the doctor."
45920 And the old servant got down from the box and went up to the cart.
45922 "All right!" said the doctor.
45924 The old servant returned to the caleche, looked into it, shook his head
45925 disconsolately, told the driver to turn into the yard, and stopped
45926 beside Mavra Kuzminichna.
45928 "O, Lord Jesus Christ!" she murmured.
45930 She invited them to take the wounded man into the house.
45932 "The masters won't object..." she said.
45934 But they had to avoid carrying the man upstairs, and so they took him
45935 into the wing and put him in the room that had been Madame Schoss'.
45937 This wounded man was Prince Andrew Bolkonski.
45944 Moscow's last day had come. It was a clear bright autumn day, a Sunday.
45945 The church bells everywhere were ringing for service, just as usual on
45946 Sundays. Nobody seemed yet to realize what awaited the city.
45948 Only two things indicated the social condition of Moscow--the rabble,
45949 that is the poor people, and the price of commodities. An enormous crowd
45950 of factory hands, house serfs, and peasants, with whom some officials,
45951 seminarists, and gentry were mingled, had gone early that morning to the
45952 Three Hills. Having waited there for Rostopchin who did not turn up,
45953 they became convinced that Moscow would be surrendered, and then
45954 dispersed all about the town to the public houses and cookshops. Prices
45955 too that day indicated the state of affairs. The price of weapons, of
45956 gold, of carts and horses, kept rising, but the value of paper money and
45957 city articles kept falling, so that by midday there were instances of
45958 carters removing valuable goods, such as cloth, and receiving in payment
45959 a half of what they carted, while peasant horses were fetching five
45960 hundred rubles each, and furniture, mirrors, and bronzes were being
45961 given away for nothing.
45963 In the Rostovs' staid old-fashioned house the dissolution of former
45964 conditions of life was but little noticeable. As to the serfs the only
45965 indication was that three out of their huge retinue disappeared during
45966 the night, but nothing was stolen; and as to the value of their
45967 possessions, the thirty peasant carts that had come in from their
45968 estates and which many people envied proved to be extremely valuable and
45969 they were offered enormous sums of money for them. Not only were huge
45970 sums offered for the horses and carts, but on the previous evening and
45971 early in the morning of the first of September, orderlies and servants
45972 sent by wounded officers came to the Rostovs' and wounded men dragged
45973 themselves there from the Rostovs' and from neighboring houses where
45974 they were accommodated, entreating the servants to try to get them a
45975 lift out of Moscow. The major-domo to whom these entreaties were
45976 addressed, though he was sorry for the wounded, resolutely refused,
45977 saying that he dare not even mention the matter to the count. Pity these
45978 wounded men as one might, it was evident that if they were given one
45979 cart there would be no reason to refuse another, or all the carts and
45980 one's own carriages as well. Thirty carts could not save all the wounded
45981 and in the general catastrophe one could not disregard oneself and one's
45982 own family. So thought the major-domo on his master's behalf.
45984 On waking up that morning Count Ilya Rostov left his bedroom softly, so
45985 as not to wake the countess who had fallen asleep only toward morning,
45986 and came out to the porch in his lilac silk dressing gown. In the yard
45987 stood the carts ready corded. The carriages were at the front porch. The
45988 major-domo stood at the porch talking to an elderly orderly and to a
45989 pale young officer with a bandaged arm. On seeing the count the major-
45990 domo made a significant and stern gesture to them both to go away.
45992 "Well, Vasilich, is everything ready?" asked the count, and stroking his
45993 bald head he looked good-naturedly at the officer and the orderly and
45994 nodded to them. (He liked to see new faces.)
45996 "We can harness at once, your excellency."
45998 "Well, that's right. As soon as the countess wakes we'll be off, God
45999 willing! What is it, gentlemen?" he added, turning to the officer. "Are
46000 you staying in my house?"
46002 The officer came nearer and suddenly his face flushed crimson.
46004 "Count, be so good as to allow me... for God's sake, to get into some
46005 corner of one of your carts! I have nothing here with me.... I shall be
46006 all right on a loaded cart..."
46008 Before the officer had finished speaking the orderly made the same
46009 request on behalf of his master.
46011 "Oh, yes, yes, yes!" said the count hastily. "I shall be very pleased,
46012 very pleased. Vasilich, you'll see to it. Just unload one or two carts.
46013 Well, what of it... do what's necessary..." said the count, muttering
46014 some indefinite order.
46016 But at the same moment an expression of warm gratitude on the officer's
46017 face had already sealed the order. The count looked around him. In the
46018 yard, at the gates, at the window of the wings, wounded officers and
46019 their orderlies were to be seen. They were all looking at the count and
46020 moving toward the porch.
46022 "Please step into the gallery, your excellency," said the major-domo.
46023 "What are your orders about the pictures?"
46025 The count went into the house with him, repeating his order not to
46026 refuse the wounded who asked for a lift.
46028 "Well, never mind, some of the things can be unloaded," he added in a
46029 soft, confidential voice, as though afraid of being overheard.
46031 At nine o'clock the countess woke up, and Matrena Timofeevna, who had
46032 been her lady's maid before her marriage and now performed a sort of
46033 chief gendarme's duty for her, came to say that Madame Schoss was much
46034 offended and the young ladies' summer dresses could not be left behind.
46035 On inquiry, the countess learned that Madame Schoss was offended because
46036 her trunk had been taken down from its cart, and all the loads were
46037 being uncorded and the luggage taken out of the carts to make room for
46038 wounded men whom the count in the simplicity of his heart had ordered
46039 that they should take with them. The countess sent for her husband.
46041 "What is this, my dear? I hear that the luggage is being unloaded."
46043 "You know, love, I wanted to tell you... Countess dear... an officer
46044 came to me to ask for a few carts for the wounded. After all, ours are
46045 things that can be bought but think what being left behind means to
46046 them!... Really now, in our own yard--we asked them in ourselves and
46047 there are officers among them.... You know, I think, my dear... let them
46048 be taken... where's the hurry?"
46050 The count spoke timidly, as he always did when talking of money matters.
46051 The countess was accustomed to this tone as a precursor of news of
46052 something detrimental to the children's interests, such as the building
46053 of a new gallery or conservatory, the inauguration of a private theater
46054 or an orchestra. She was accustomed always to oppose anything announced
46055 in that timid tone and considered it her duty to do so.
46057 She assumed her dolefully submissive manner and said to her husband:
46058 "Listen to me, Count, you have managed matters so that we are getting
46059 nothing for the house, and now you wish to throw away all our--all the
46060 children's property! You said yourself that we have a hundred thousand
46061 rubles' worth of things in the house. I don't consent, my dear, I don't!
46062 Do as you please! It's the government's business to look after the
46063 wounded; they know that. Look at the Lopukhins opposite, they cleared
46064 out everything two days ago. That's what other people do. It's only we
46065 who are such fools. If you have no pity on me, have some for the
46068 Flourishing his arms in despair the count left the room without
46071 "Papa, what are you doing that for?" asked Natasha, who had followed him
46072 into her mother's room.
46074 "Nothing! What business is it of yours?" muttered the count angrily.
46076 "But I heard," said Natasha. "Why does Mamma object?"
46078 "What business is it of yours?" cried the count.
46080 Natasha stepped up to the window and pondered.
46082 "Papa! Here's Berg coming to see us," said she, looking out of the
46090 Berg, the Rostovs' son-in-law, was already a colonel wearing the orders
46091 of Vladimir and Anna, and he still filled the quiet and agreeable post
46092 of assistant to the head of the staff of the assistant commander of the
46093 first division of the Second Army.
46095 On the first of September he had come to Moscow from the army.
46097 He had nothing to do in Moscow, but he had noticed that everyone in the
46098 army was asking for leave to visit Moscow and had something to do there.
46099 So he considered it necessary to ask for leave of absence for family and
46102 Berg drove up to his father-in-law's house in his spruce little trap
46103 with a pair of sleek roans, exactly like those of a certain prince. He
46104 looked attentively at the carts in the yard and while going up to the
46105 porch took out a clean pocket handkerchief and tied a knot in it.
46107 From the anteroom Berg ran with smooth though impatient steps into the
46108 drawing room, where he embraced the count, kissed the hands of Natasha
46109 and Sonya, and hastened to inquire after "Mamma's" health.
46111 "Health, at a time like this?" said the count. "Come, tell us the news!
46112 Is the army retreating or will there be another battle?"
46114 "God Almighty alone can decide the fate of our fatherland, Papa," said
46115 Berg. "The army is burning with a spirit of heroism and the leaders, so
46116 to say, have now assembled in council. No one knows what is coming. But
46117 in general I can tell you, Papa, that such a heroic spirit, the truly
46118 antique valor of the Russian army, which they--which it" (he corrected
46119 himself) "has shown or displayed in the battle of the twenty-sixth--
46120 there are no words worthy to do it justice! I tell you, Papa" (he smote
46121 himself on the breast as a general he had heard speaking had done, but
46122 Berg did it a trifle late for he should have struck his breast at the
46123 words "Russian army"), "I tell you frankly that we, the commanders, far
46124 from having to urge the men on or anything of that kind, could hardly
46125 restrain those... those... yes, those exploits of antique valor," he
46126 went on rapidly. "General Barclay de Tolly risked his life everywhere at
46127 the head of the troops, I can assure you. Our corps was stationed on a
46128 hillside. You can imagine!"
46130 And Berg related all that he remembered of the various tales he had
46131 heard those days. Natasha watched him with an intent gaze that confused
46132 him, as if she were trying to find in his face the answer to some
46135 "Altogether such heroism as was displayed by the Russian warriors cannot
46136 be imagined or adequately praised!" said Berg, glancing round at
46137 Natasha, and as if anxious to conciliate her, replying to her intent
46138 look with a smile. "'Russia is not in Moscow, she lives in the hearts of
46139 her sons!' Isn't it so, Papa?" said he.
46141 Just then the countess came in from the sitting room with a weary and
46142 dissatisfied expression. Berg hurriedly jumped up, kissed her hand,
46143 asked about her health, and, swaying his head from side to side to
46144 express sympathy, remained standing beside her.
46146 "Yes, Mamma, I tell you sincerely that these are hard and sad times for
46147 every Russian. But why are you so anxious? You have still time to get
46150 "I can't think what the servants are about," said the countess, turning
46151 to her husband. "I have just been told that nothing is ready yet.
46152 Somebody after all must see to things. One misses Mitenka at such times.
46153 There won't be any end to it."
46155 The count was about to say something, but evidently restrained himself.
46156 He got up from his chair and went to the door.
46158 At that moment Berg drew out his handkerchief as if to blow his nose
46159 and, seeing the knot in it, pondered, shaking his head sadly and
46162 "And I have a great favor to ask of you, Papa," said he.
46164 "Hm..." said the count, and stopped.
46166 "I was driving past Yusupov's house just now," said Berg with a laugh,
46167 "when the steward, a man I know, ran out and asked me whether I wouldn't
46168 buy something. I went in out of curiosity, you know, and there is a
46169 small chiffonier and a dressing table. You know how dear Vera wanted a
46170 chiffonier like that and how we had a dispute about it." (At the mention
46171 of the chiffonier and dressing table Berg involuntarily changed his tone
46172 to one of pleasure at his admirable domestic arrangements.) "And it's
46173 such a beauty! It pulls out and has a secret English drawer, you know!
46174 And dear Vera has long wanted one. I wish to give her a surprise, you
46175 see. I saw so many of those peasant carts in your yard. Please let me
46176 have one, I will pay the man well, and..."
46178 The count frowned and coughed.
46180 "Ask the countess, I don't give orders."
46182 "If it's inconvenient, please don't," said Berg. "Only I so wanted it,
46183 for dear Vera's sake."
46185 "Oh, go to the devil, all of you! To the devil, the devil, the devil..."
46186 cried the old count. "My head's in a whirl!"
46188 And he left the room. The countess began to cry.
46190 "Yes, Mamma! Yes, these are very hard times!" said Berg.
46192 Natasha left the room with her father and, as if finding it difficult to
46193 reach some decision, first followed him and then ran downstairs.
46195 Petya was in the porch, engaged in giving out weapons to the servants
46196 who were to leave Moscow. The loaded carts were still standing in the
46197 yard. Two of them had been uncorded and a wounded officer was climbing
46198 into one of them helped by an orderly.
46200 "Do you know what it's about?" Petya asked Natasha.
46202 She understood that he meant what were their parents quarreling about.
46203 She did not answer.
46205 "It's because Papa wanted to give up all the carts to the wounded," said
46206 Petya. "Vasilich told me. I consider..."
46208 "I consider," Natasha suddenly almost shouted, turning her angry face to
46209 Petya, "I consider it so horrid, so abominable, so... I don't know what.
46210 Are we despicable Germans?"
46212 Her throat quivered with convulsive sobs and, afraid of weakening and
46213 letting the force of her anger run to waste, she turned and rushed
46214 headlong up the stairs.
46216 Berg was sitting beside the countess consoling her with the respectful
46217 attention of a relative. The count, pipe in hand, was pacing up and down
46218 the room, when Natasha, her face distorted by anger, burst in like a
46219 tempest and approached her mother with rapid steps.
46221 "It's horrid! It's abominable!" she screamed. "You can't possibly have
46224 Berg and the countess looked at her, perplexed and frightened. The count
46225 stood still at the window and listened.
46227 "Mamma, it's impossible: see what is going on in the yard!" she cried.
46228 "They will be left!..."
46230 "What's the matter with you? Who are 'they'? What do you want?"
46232 "Why, the wounded! It's impossible, Mamma. It's monstrous!... No, Mamma
46233 darling, it's not the thing. Please forgive me, darling.... Mamma, what
46234 does it matter what we take away? Only look what is going on in the
46235 yard... Mamma!... It's impossible!"
46237 The count stood by the window and listened without turning round.
46238 Suddenly he sniffed and put his face closer to the window.
46240 The countess glanced at her daughter, saw her face full of shame for her
46241 mother, saw her agitation, and understood why her husband did not turn
46242 to look at her now, and she glanced round quite disconcerted.
46244 "Oh, do as you like! Am I hindering anyone?" she said, not surrendering
46247 "Mamma, darling, forgive me!"
46249 But the countess pushed her daughter away and went up to her husband.
46251 "My dear, you order what is right.... You know I don't understand about
46252 it," said she, dropping her eyes shamefacedly.
46254 "The eggs... the eggs are teaching the hen," muttered the count through
46255 tears of joy, and he embraced his wife who was glad to hide her look of
46256 shame on his breast.
46258 "Papa! Mamma! May I see to it? May I?..." asked Natasha. "We will still
46259 take all the most necessary things."
46261 The count nodded affirmatively, and Natasha, at the rapid pace at which
46262 she used to run when playing at tag, ran through the ballroom to the
46263 anteroom and downstairs into the yard.
46265 The servants gathered round Natasha, but could not believe the strange
46266 order she brought them until the count himself, in his wife's name,
46267 confirmed the order to give up all the carts to the wounded and take the
46268 trunks to the storerooms. When they understood that order the servants
46269 set to work at this new task with pleasure and zeal. It no longer seemed
46270 strange to them but on the contrary it seemed the only thing that could
46271 be done, just as a quarter of an hour before it had not seemed strange
46272 to anyone that the wounded should be left behind and the goods carted
46273 away but that had seemed the only thing to do.
46275 The whole household, as if to atone for not having done it sooner, set
46276 eagerly to work at the new task of placing the wounded in the carts. The
46277 wounded dragged themselves out of their rooms and stood with pale but
46278 happy faces round the carts. The news that carts were to be had spread
46279 to the neighboring houses, from which wounded men began to come into the
46280 Rostovs' yard. Many of the wounded asked them not to unload the carts
46281 but only to let them sit on the top of the things. But the work of
46282 unloading, once started, could not be arrested. It seemed not to matter
46283 whether all or only half the things were left behind. Cases full of
46284 china, bronzes, pictures, and mirrors that had been so carefully packed
46285 the night before now lay about the yard, and still they went on
46286 searching for and finding possibilities of unloading this or that and
46287 letting the wounded have another and yet another cart.
46289 "We can take four more men," said the steward. "They can have my trap,
46290 or else what is to become of them?"
46292 "Let them have my wardrobe cart," said the countess. "Dunyasha can go
46293 with me in the carriage."
46295 They unloaded the wardrobe cart and sent it to take wounded men from a
46296 house two doors off. The whole household, servants included, was bright
46297 and animated. Natasha was in a state of rapturous excitement such as she
46298 had not known for a long time.
46300 "What could we fasten this onto?" asked the servants, trying to fix a
46301 trunk on the narrow footboard behind a carriage. "We must keep at least
46304 "What's in it?" asked Natasha.
46306 "The count's books."
46308 "Leave it, Vasilich will put it away. It's not wanted."
46310 The phaeton was full of people and there was a doubt as to where Count
46313 "On the box. You'll sit on the box, won't you, Petya?" cried Natasha.
46315 Sonya too was busy all this time, but the aim of her efforts was quite
46316 different from Natasha's. She was putting away the things that had to be
46317 left behind and making a list of them as the countess wished, and she
46318 tried to get as much taken away with them as possible.
46325 Before two o'clock in the afternoon the Rostovs' four carriages, packed
46326 full and with the horses harnessed, stood at the front door. One by one
46327 the carts with the wounded had moved out of the yard.
46329 The caleche in which Prince Andrew was being taken attracted Sonya's
46330 attention as it passed the front porch. With the help of a maid she was
46331 arranging a seat for the countess in the huge high coach that stood at
46334 "Whose caleche is that?" she inquired, leaning out of the carriage
46337 "Why, didn't you know, Miss?" replied the maid. "The wounded prince: he
46338 spent the night in our house and is going with us."
46340 "But who is it? What's his name?"
46342 "It's our intended that was--Prince Bolkonski himself! They say he is
46343 dying," replied the maid with a sigh.
46345 Sonya jumped out of the coach and ran to the countess. The countess,
46346 tired out and already dressed in shawl and bonnet for her journey, was
46347 pacing up and down the drawing room, waiting for the household to
46348 assemble for the usual silent prayer with closed doors before starting.
46349 Natasha was not in the room.
46351 "Mamma," said Sonya, "Prince Andrew is here, mortally wounded. He is
46354 The countess opened her eyes in dismay and, seizing Sonya's arm, glanced
46357 "Natasha?" she murmured.
46359 At that moment this news had only one significance for both of them.
46360 They knew their Natasha, and alarm as to what would happen if she heard
46361 this news stifled all sympathy for the man they both liked.
46363 "Natasha does not know yet, but he is going with us," said Sonya.
46365 "You say he is dying?"
46369 The countess put her arms around Sonya and began to cry.
46371 "The ways of God are past finding out!" she thought, feeling that the
46372 Almighty Hand, hitherto unseen, was becoming manifest in all that was
46375 "Well, Mamma? Everything is ready. What's the matter?" asked Natasha, as
46376 with animated face she ran into the room.
46378 "Nothing," answered the countess. "If everything is ready let us start."
46380 And the countess bent over her reticule to hide her agitated face. Sonya
46381 embraced Natasha and kissed her.
46383 Natasha looked at her inquiringly.
46385 "What is it? What has happened?"
46389 "Is it something very bad for me? What is it?" persisted Natasha with
46390 her quick intuition.
46392 Sonya sighed and made no reply. The count, Petya, Madame Schoss, Mavra
46393 Kuzminichna, and Vasilich came into the drawing room and, having closed
46394 the doors, they all sat down and remained for some moments silently
46395 seated without looking at one another.
46397 The count was the first to rise, and with a loud sigh crossed himself
46398 before the icon. All the others did the same. Then the count embraced
46399 Mavra Kuzminichna and Vasilich, who were to remain in Moscow, and while
46400 they caught at his hand and kissed his shoulder he patted their backs
46401 lightly with some vaguely affectionate and comforting words. The
46402 countess went into the oratory and there Sonya found her on her knees
46403 before the icons that had been left here and there hanging on the wall.
46404 (The most precious ones, with which some family tradition was connected,
46405 were being taken with them.)
46407 In the porch and in the yard the men whom Petya had armed with swords
46408 and daggers, with trousers tucked inside their high boots and with belts
46409 and girdles tightened, were taking leave of those remaining behind.
46411 As is always the case at a departure, much had been forgotten or put in
46412 the wrong place, and for a long time two menservants stood one on each
46413 side of the open door and the carriage steps waiting to help the
46414 countess in, while maids rushed with cushions and bundles from the house
46415 to the carriages, the caleche, the phaeton, and back again.
46417 "They always will forget everything!" said the countess. "Don't you know
46418 I can't sit like that?"
46420 And Dunyasha, with clenched teeth, without replying but with an
46421 aggrieved look on her face, hastily got into the coach to rearrange the
46424 "Oh, those servants!" said the count, swaying his head.
46426 Efim, the old coachman, who was the only one the countess trusted to
46427 drive her, sat perched up high on the box and did not so much as glance
46428 round at what was going on behind him. From thirty years' experience he
46429 knew it would be some time yet before the order, "Be off, in God's
46430 name!" would be given him: and he knew that even when it was said he
46431 would be stopped once or twice more while they sent back to fetch
46432 something that had been forgotten, and even after that he would again be
46433 stopped and the countess herself would lean out of the window and beg
46434 him for the love of heaven to drive carefully down the hill. He knew all
46435 this and therefore waited calmly for what would happen, with more
46436 patience than the horses, especially the near one, the chestnut Falcon,
46437 who was pawing the ground and champing his bit. At last all were seated,
46438 the carriage steps were folded and pulled up, the door was shut,
46439 somebody was sent for a traveling case, and the countess leaned out and
46440 said what she had to say. Then Efim deliberately doffed his hat and
46441 began crossing himself. The postilion and all the other servants did the
46442 same. "Off, in God's name!" said Efim, putting on his hat. "Start!" The
46443 postilion started the horses, the off pole horse tugged at his collar,
46444 the high springs creaked, and the body of the coach swayed. The footman
46445 sprang onto the box of the moving coach which jolted as it passed out of
46446 the yard onto the uneven roadway; the other vehicles jolted in their
46447 turn, and the procession of carriages moved up the street. In the
46448 carriages, the caleche, and the phaeton, all crossed themselves as they
46449 passed the church opposite the house. Those who were to remain in Moscow
46450 walked on either side of the vehicles seeing the travelers off.
46452 Rarely had Natasha experienced so joyful a feeling as now, sitting in
46453 the carriage beside the countess and gazing at the slowly receding walls
46454 of forsaken, agitated Moscow. Occasionally she leaned out of the
46455 carriage window and looked back and then forward at the long train of
46456 wounded in front of them. Almost at the head of the line she could see
46457 the raised hood of Prince Andrew's caleche. She did not know who was in
46458 it, but each time she looked at the procession her eyes sought that
46459 caleche. She knew it was right in front.
46461 In Kudrino, from the Nikitski, Presnya, and Podnovinsk Streets came
46462 several other trains of vehicles similar to the Rostovs', and as they
46463 passed along the Sadovaya Street the carriages and carts formed two rows
46466 As they were going round the Sukharev water tower Natasha, who was
46467 inquisitively and alertly scrutinizing the people driving or walking
46468 past, suddenly cried out in joyful surprise:
46470 "Dear me! Mamma, Sonya, look, it's he!"
46474 "Look! Yes, on my word, it's Bezukhov!" said Natasha, putting her head
46475 out of the carriage and staring at a tall, stout man in a coachman's
46476 long coat, who from his manner of walking and moving was evidently a
46477 gentleman in disguise, and who was passing under the arch of the
46478 Sukharev tower accompanied by a small, sallow-faced, beardless old man
46481 "Yes, it really is Bezukhov in a coachman's coat, with a queer-looking
46482 old boy. Really," said Natasha, "look, look!"
46484 "No, it's not he. How can you talk such nonsense?"
46486 "Mamma," screamed Natasha, "I'll stake my head it's he! I assure you!
46487 Stop, stop!" she cried to the coachman.
46489 But the coachman could not stop, for from the Meshchanski Street came
46490 more carts and carriages, and the Rostovs were being shouted at to move
46491 on and not block the way.
46493 In fact, however, though now much farther off than before, the Rostovs
46494 all saw Pierre--or someone extraordinarily like him--in a coachman's
46495 coat, going down the street with head bent and a serious face beside a
46496 small, beardless old man who looked like a footman. That old man noticed
46497 a face thrust out of the carriage window gazing at them, and
46498 respectfully touching Pierre's elbow said something to him and pointed
46499 to the carriage. Pierre, evidently engrossed in thought, could not at
46500 first understand him. At length when he had understood and looked in the
46501 direction the old man indicated, he recognized Natasha, and following
46502 his first impulse stepped instantly and rapidly toward the coach. But
46503 having taken a dozen steps he seemed to remember something and stopped.
46505 Natasha's face, leaning out of the window, beamed with quizzical
46508 "Peter Kirilovich, come here! We have recognized you! This is
46509 wonderful!" she cried, holding out her hand to him. "What are you doing?
46510 Why are you like this?"
46512 Pierre took her outstretched hand and kissed it awkwardly as he walked
46513 along beside her while the coach still moved on.
46515 "What is the matter, Count?" asked the countess in a surprised and
46516 commiserating tone.
46518 "What? What? Why? Don't ask me," said Pierre, and looked round at
46519 Natasha whose radiant, happy expression--of which he was conscious
46520 without looking at her--filled him with enchantment.
46522 "Are you remaining in Moscow, then?"
46526 "In Moscow?" he said in a questioning tone. "Yes, in Moscow. Good-bye!"
46528 "Ah, if only I were a man? I'd certainly stay with you. How splendid!"
46529 said Natasha. "Mamma, if you'll let me, I'll stay!"
46531 Pierre glanced absently at Natasha and was about to say something, but
46532 the countess interrupted him.
46534 "You were at the battle, we heard."
46536 "Yes, I was," Pierre answered. "There will be another battle
46537 tomorrow..." he began, but Natasha interrupted him.
46539 "But what is the matter with you, Count? You are not like yourself...."
46541 "Oh, don't ask me, don't ask me! I don't know myself. Tomorrow... But
46542 no! Good-bye, good-by!" he muttered. "It's an awful time!" and dropping
46543 behind the carriage he stepped onto the pavement.
46545 Natasha continued to lean out of the window for a long time, beaming at
46546 him with her kindly, slightly quizzical, happy smile.
46553 For the last two days, ever since leaving home, Pierre had been living
46554 in the empty house of his deceased benefactor, Bazdeev. This is how it
46557 When he woke up on the morning after his return to Moscow and his
46558 interview with Count Rostopchin, he could not for some time make out
46559 where he was and what was expected of him. When he was informed that
46560 among others awaiting him in his reception room there was a Frenchman
46561 who had brought a letter from his wife, the Countess Helene, he felt
46562 suddenly overcome by that sense of confusion and hopelessness to which
46563 he was apt to succumb. He felt that everything was now at an end, all
46564 was in confusion and crumbling to pieces, that nobody was right or
46565 wrong, the future held nothing, and there was no escape from this
46566 position. Smiling unnaturally and muttering to himself, he first sat
46567 down on the sofa in an attitude of despair, then rose, went to the door
46568 of the reception room and peeped through the crack, returned flourishing
46569 his arms, and took up a book. His major-domo came in a second time to
46570 say that the Frenchman who had brought the letter from the countess was
46571 very anxious to see him if only for a minute, and that someone from
46572 Bazdeev's widow had called to ask Pierre to take charge of her husband's
46573 books, as she herself was leaving for the country.
46575 "Oh, yes, in a minute; wait... or no! No, of course... go and say I will
46576 come directly," Pierre replied to the major-domo.
46578 But as soon as the man had left the room Pierre took up his hat which
46579 was lying on the table and went out of his study by the other door.
46580 There was no one in the passage. He went along the whole length of this
46581 passage to the stairs and, frowning and rubbing his forehead with both
46582 hands, went down as far as the first landing. The hall porter was
46583 standing at the front door. From the landing where Pierre stood there
46584 was a second staircase leading to the back entrance. He went down that
46585 staircase and out into the yard. No one had seen him. But there were
46586 some carriages waiting, and as soon as Pierre stepped out of the gate
46587 the coachmen and the yard porter noticed him and raised their caps to
46588 him. When he felt he was being looked at he behaved like an ostrich
46589 which hides its head in a bush in order not to be seen: he hung his head
46590 and quickening his pace went down the street.
46592 Of all the affairs awaiting Pierre that day the sorting of Joseph
46593 Bazdeev's books and papers appeared to him the most necessary.
46595 He hired the first cab he met and told the driver to go to the
46596 Patriarch's Ponds, where the widow Bazdeev's house was.
46598 Continually turning round to look at the rows of loaded carts that were
46599 making their way from all sides out of Moscow, and balancing his bulky
46600 body so as not to slip out of the ramshackle old vehicle, Pierre,
46601 experiencing the joyful feeling of a boy escaping from school, began to
46602 talk to his driver.
46604 The man told him that arms were being distributed today at the Kremlin
46605 and that tomorrow everyone would be sent out beyond the Three Hills
46606 gates and a great battle would be fought there.
46608 Having reached the Patriarch's Ponds Pierre found the Bazdeevs' house,
46609 where he had not been for a long time past. He went up to the gate.
46610 Gerasim, that sallow beardless old man Pierre had seen at Torzhok five
46611 years before with Joseph Bazdeev, came out in answer to his knock.
46613 "At home?" asked Pierre.
46615 "Owing to the present state of things Sophia Danilovna has gone to the
46616 Torzhok estate with the children, your excellency."
46618 "I will come in all the same, I have to look through the books," said
46621 "Be so good as to step in. Makar Alexeevich, the brother of my late
46622 master--may the kingdom of heaven be his--has remained here, but he is
46623 in a weak state as you know," said the old servant.
46625 Pierre knew that Makar Alexeevich was Joseph Bazdeev's half-insane
46626 brother and a hard drinker.
46628 "Yes, yes, I know. Let us go in..." said Pierre and entered the house.
46630 A tall, bald-headed old man with a red nose, wearing a dressing gown and
46631 with galoshes on his bare feet, stood in the anteroom. On seeing Pierre
46632 he muttered something angrily and went away along the passage.
46634 "He was a very clever man but has now grown quite feeble, as your honor
46635 sees," said Gerasim. "Will you step into the study?" Pierre nodded. "As
46636 it was sealed up so it has remained, but Sophia Danilovna gave orders
46637 that if anyone should come from you they were to have the books."
46639 Pierre went into that gloomy study which he had entered with such
46640 trepidation in his benefactor's lifetime. The room, dusty and untouched
46641 since the death of Joseph Bazdeev was now even gloomier.
46643 Gerasim opened one of the shutters and left the room on tiptoe. Pierre
46644 went round the study, approached the cupboard in which the manuscripts
46645 were kept, and took out what had once been one of the most important,
46646 the holy of holies of the order. This was the authentic Scotch Acts with
46647 Bazdeev's notes and explanations. He sat down at the dusty writing
46648 table, and, having laid the manuscripts before him, opened them out,
46649 closed them, finally pushed them away, and resting his head on his hand
46650 sank into meditation.
46652 Gerasim looked cautiously into the study several times and saw Pierre
46653 always sitting in the same attitude.
46655 More than two hours passed and Gerasim took the liberty of making a
46656 slight noise at the door to attract his attention, but Pierre did not
46659 "Is the cabman to be discharged, your honor?"
46661 "Oh yes!" said Pierre, rousing himself and rising hurriedly. "Look
46662 here," he added, taking Gerasim by a button of his coat and looking down
46663 at the old man with moist, shining, and ecstatic eyes, "I say, do you
46664 know that there is going to be a battle tomorrow?"
46666 "We heard so," replied the man.
46668 "I beg you not to tell anyone who I am, and to do what I ask you."
46670 "Yes, your excellency," replied Gerasim. "Will you have something to
46673 "No, but I want something else. I want peasant clothes and a pistol,"
46674 said Pierre, unexpectedly blushing.
46676 "Yes, your excellency," said Gerasim after thinking for a moment.
46678 All the rest of that day Pierre spent alone in his benefactor's study,
46679 and Gerasim heard him pacing restlessly from one corner to another and
46680 talking to himself. And he spent the night on a bed made up for him
46683 Gerasim, being a servant who in his time had seen many strange things,
46684 accepted Pierre's taking up his residence in the house without surprise,
46685 and seemed pleased to have someone to wait on. That same evening--
46686 without even asking himself what they were wanted for--he procured a
46687 coachman's coat and cap for Pierre, and promised to get him the pistol
46688 next day. Makar Alexeevich came twice that evening shuffling along in
46689 his galoshes as far as the door and stopped and looked ingratiatingly at
46690 Pierre. But as soon as Pierre turned toward him he wrapped his dressing
46691 gown around him with a shamefaced and angry look and hurried away. It
46692 was when Pierre (wearing the coachman's coat which Gerasim had procured
46693 for him and had disinfected by steam) was on his way with the old man to
46694 buy the pistol at the Sukharev market that he met the Rostovs.
46701 Kutuzov's order to retreat through Moscow to the Ryazan road was issued
46702 at night on the first of September.
46704 The first troops started at once, and during the night they marched
46705 slowly and steadily without hurry. At daybreak, however, those nearing
46706 the town at the Dorogomilov bridge saw ahead of them masses of soldiers
46707 crowding and hurrying across the bridge, ascending on the opposite side
46708 and blocking the streets and alleys, while endless masses of troops were
46709 bearing down on them from behind, and an unreasoning hurry and alarm
46710 overcame them. They all rushed forward to the bridge, onto it, and to
46711 the fords and the boats. Kutuzov himself had driven round by side
46712 streets to the other side of Moscow.
46714 By ten o'clock in the morning of the second of September, only the rear
46715 guard remained in the Dorogomilov suburb, where they had ample room. The
46716 main army was on the other side of Moscow or beyond it.
46718 At that very time, at ten in the morning of the second of September,
46719 Napoleon was standing among his troops on the Poklonny Hill looking at
46720 the panorama spread out before him. From the twenty-sixth of August to
46721 the second of September, that is from the battle of Borodino to the
46722 entry of the French into Moscow, during the whole of that agitating,
46723 memorable week, there had been the extraordinary autumn weather that
46724 always comes as a surprise, when the sun hangs low and gives more heat
46725 than in spring, when everything shines so brightly in the rare clear
46726 atmosphere that the eyes smart, when the lungs are strengthened and
46727 refreshed by inhaling the aromatic autumn air, when even the nights are
46728 warm, and when in those dark warm nights, golden stars startle and
46729 delight us continually by falling from the sky.
46731 At ten in the morning of the second of September this weather still
46734 The brightness of the morning was magical. Moscow seen from the Poklonny
46735 Hill lay spaciously spread out with her river, her gardens, and her
46736 churches, and she seemed to be living her usual life, her cupolas
46737 glittering like stars in the sunlight.
46739 The view of the strange city with its peculiar architecture, such as he
46740 had never seen before, filled Napoleon with the rather envious and
46741 uneasy curiosity men feel when they see an alien form of life that has
46742 no knowledge of them. This city was evidently living with the full force
46743 of its own life. By the indefinite signs which, even at a distance,
46744 distinguish a living body from a dead one, Napoleon from the Poklonny
46745 Hill perceived the throb of life in the town and felt, as it were, the
46746 breathing of that great and beautiful body.
46748 Every Russian looking at Moscow feels her to be a mother; every
46749 foreigner who sees her, even if ignorant of her significance as the
46750 mother city, must feel her feminine character, and Napoleon felt it.
46752 "Cette ville asiatique aux innombrables eglises, Moscou la sainte. La
46753 voila done enfin, cette fameuse ville! Il etait temps," * said he, and
46754 dismounting he ordered a plan of Moscow to be spread out before him, and
46755 summoned Lelorgne d'Ideville, the interpreter.
46758 * "That Asiatic city of the innumerable churches, holy Moscow! Here it
46759 is then at last, that famous city. It was high time."
46761 "A town captured by the enemy is like a maid who has lost her honor,"
46762 thought he (he had said so to Tuchkov at Smolensk). From that point of
46763 view he gazed at the Oriental beauty he had not seen before. It seemed
46764 strange to him that his long-felt wish, which had seemed unattainable,
46765 had at last been realized. In the clear morning light he gazed now at
46766 the city and now at the plan, considering its details, and the assurance
46767 of possessing it agitated and awed him.
46769 "But could it be otherwise?" he thought. "Here is this capital at my
46770 feet. Where is Alexander now, and of what is he thinking? A strange,
46771 beautiful, and majestic city; and a strange and majestic moment! In what
46772 light must I appear to them!" thought he, thinking of his troops. "Here
46773 she is, the reward for all those fainthearted men," he reflected,
46774 glancing at those near him and at the troops who were approaching and
46775 forming up. "One word from me, one movement of my hand, and that ancient
46776 capital of the Tsars would perish. But my clemency is always ready to
46777 descend upon the vanquished. I must be magnanimous and truly great. But
46778 no, it can't be true that I am in Moscow," he suddenly thought. "Yet
46779 here she is lying at my feet, with her golden domes and crosses
46780 scintillating and twinkling in the sunshine. But I shall spare her. On
46781 the ancient monuments of barbarism and despotism I will inscribe great
46782 words of justice and mercy.... It is just this which Alexander will feel
46783 most painfully, I know him." (It seemed to Napoleon that the chief
46784 import of what was taking place lay in the personal struggle between
46785 himself and Alexander.) "From the height of the Kremlin--yes, there is
46786 the Kremlin, yes--I will give them just laws; I will teach them the
46787 meaning of true civilization, I will make generations of boyars remember
46788 their conqueror with love. I will tell the deputation that I did not,
46789 and do not, desire war, that I have waged war only against the false
46790 policy of their court; that I love and respect Alexander and that in
46791 Moscow I will accept terms of peace worthy of myself and of my people. I
46792 do not wish to utilize the fortunes of war to humiliate an honored
46793 monarch. 'Boyars,' I will say to them, 'I do not desire war, I desire
46794 the peace and welfare of all my subjects.' However, I know their
46795 presence will inspire me, and I shall speak to them as I always do:
46796 clearly, impressively, and majestically. But can it be true that I am in
46797 Moscow? Yes, there she lies."
46799 "Qu'on m'amene les boyars," * said he to his suite.
46802 * "Bring the boyars to me."
46804 A general with a brilliant suite galloped off at once to fetch the
46807 Two hours passed. Napoleon had lunched and was again standing in the
46808 same place on the Poklonny Hill awaiting the deputation. His speech to
46809 the boyars had already taken definite shape in his imagination. That
46810 speech was full of dignity and greatness as Napoleon understood it.
46812 He was himself carried away by the tone of magnanimity he intended to
46813 adopt toward Moscow. In his imagination he appointed days for assemblies
46814 at the palace of the Tsars, at which Russian notables and his own would
46815 mingle. He mentally appointed a governor, one who would win the hearts
46816 of the people. Having learned that there were many charitable
46817 institutions in Moscow he mentally decided that he would shower favors
46818 on them all. He thought that, as in Africa he had to put on a burnoose
46819 and sit in a mosque, so in Moscow he must be beneficent like the Tsars.
46820 And in order finally to touch the hearts of the Russians--and being like
46821 all Frenchmen unable to imagine anything sentimental without a reference
46822 to ma chere, ma tendre, ma pauvre mere * --he decided that he would
46823 place an inscription on all these establishments in large letters: "This
46824 establishment is dedicated to my dear mother." Or no, it should be
46825 simply: Maison de ma Mere, *(2) he concluded. "But am I really in
46826 Moscow? Yes, here it lies before me, but why is the deputation from the
46827 city so long in appearing?" he wondered.
46830 * "My dear, my tender, my poor mother."
46832 * (2) "House of my Mother."
46834 Meanwhile an agitated consultation was being carried on in whispers
46835 among his generals and marshals at the rear of his suite. Those sent to
46836 fetch the deputation had returned with the news that Moscow was empty,
46837 that everyone had left it. The faces of those who were not conferring
46838 together were pale and perturbed. They were not alarmed by the fact that
46839 Moscow had been abandoned by its inhabitants (grave as that fact
46840 seemed), but by the question how to tell the Emperor--without putting
46841 him in the terrible position of appearing ridiculous--that he had been
46842 awaiting the boyars so long in vain: that there were drunken mobs left
46843 in Moscow but no one else. Some said that a deputation of some sort must
46844 be scraped together, others disputed that opinion and maintained that
46845 the Emperor should first be carefully and skillfully prepared, and then
46848 "He will have to be told, all the same," said some gentlemen of the
46849 suite. "But, gentlemen..."
46851 The position was the more awkward because the Emperor, meditating upon
46852 his magnanimous plans, was pacing patiently up and down before the
46853 outspread map, occasionally glancing along the road to Moscow from under
46854 his lifted hand with a bright and proud smile.
46856 "But it's impossible..." declared the gentlemen of the suite, shrugging
46857 their shoulders but not venturing to utter the implied word--le
46860 At last the Emperor, tired of futile expectation, his actor's instinct
46861 suggesting to him that the sublime moment having been too long drawn out
46862 was beginning to lose its sublimity, gave a sign with his hand. A single
46863 report of a signaling gun followed, and the troops, who were already
46864 spread out on different sides of Moscow, moved into the city through
46865 Tver, Kaluga, and Dorogomilov gates. Faster and faster, vying with one
46866 another, they moved at the double or at a trot, vanishing amid the
46867 clouds of dust they raised and making the air ring with a deafening roar
46868 of mingling shouts.
46870 Drawn on by the movement of his troops Napoleon rode with them as far as
46871 the Dorogomilov gate, but there again stopped and, dismounting from his
46872 horse, paced for a long time by the Kammer-Kollezski rampart, awaiting
46880 Meanwhile Moscow was empty. There were still people in it, perhaps a
46881 fiftieth part of its former inhabitants had remained, but it was empty.
46882 It was empty in the sense that a dying queenless hive is empty.
46884 In a queenless hive no life is left though to a superficial glance it
46885 seems as much alive as other hives.
46887 The bees circle round a queenless hive in the hot beams of the midday
46888 sun as gaily as around the living hives; from a distance it smells of
46889 honey like the others, and bees fly in and out in the same way. But one
46890 has only to observe that hive to realize that there is no longer any
46891 life in it. The bees do not fly in the same way, the smell and the sound
46892 that meet the beekeeper are not the same. To the beekeeper's tap on the
46893 wall of the sick hive, instead of the former instant unanimous humming
46894 of tens of thousands of bees with their abdomens threateningly
46895 compressed, and producing by the rapid vibration of their wings an
46896 aerial living sound, the only reply is a disconnected buzzing from
46897 different parts of the deserted hive. From the alighting board, instead
46898 of the former spirituous fragrant smell of honey and venom, and the warm
46899 whiffs of crowded life, comes an odor of emptiness and decay mingling
46900 with the smell of honey. There are no longer sentinels sounding the
46901 alarm with their abdomens raised, and ready to die in defense of the
46902 hive. There is no longer the measured quiet sound of throbbing activity,
46903 like the sound of boiling water, but diverse discordant sounds of
46904 disorder. In and out of the hive long black robber bees smeared with
46905 honey fly timidly and shiftily. They do not sting, but crawl away from
46906 danger. Formerly only bees laden with honey flew into the hive, and they
46907 flew out empty; now they fly out laden. The beekeeper opens the lower
46908 part of the hive and peers in. Instead of black, glossy bees--tamed by
46909 toil, clinging to one another's legs and drawing out the wax, with a
46910 ceaseless hum of labor--that used to hang in long clusters down to the
46911 floor of the hive, drowsy shriveled bees crawl about separately in
46912 various directions on the floor and walls of the hive. Instead of a
46913 neatly glued floor, swept by the bees with the fanning of their wings,
46914 there is a floor littered with bits of wax, excrement, dying bees
46915 scarcely moving their legs, and dead ones that have not been cleared
46918 The beekeeper opens the upper part of the hive and examines the super.
46919 Instead of serried rows of bees sealing up every gap in the combs and
46920 keeping the brood warm, he sees the skillful complex structures of the
46921 combs, but no longer in their former state of purity. All is neglected
46922 and foul. Black robber bees are swiftly and stealthily prowling about
46923 the combs, and the short home bees, shriveled and listless as if they
46924 were old, creep slowly about without trying to hinder the robbers,
46925 having lost all motive and all sense of life. Drones, bumblebees, wasps,
46926 and butterflies knock awkwardly against the walls of the hive in their
46927 flight. Here and there among the cells containing dead brood and honey
46928 an angry buzzing can sometimes be heard. Here and there a couple of
46929 bees, by force of habit and custom cleaning out the brood cells, with
46930 efforts beyond their strength laboriously drag away a dead bee or
46931 bumblebee without knowing why they do it. In another corner two old bees
46932 are languidly fighting, or cleaning themselves, or feeding one another,
46933 without themselves knowing whether they do it with friendly or hostile
46934 intent. In a third place a crowd of bees, crushing one another, attack
46935 some victim and fight and smother it, and the victim, enfeebled or
46936 killed, drops from above slowly and lightly as a feather, among the heap
46937 of corpses. The keeper opens the two center partitions to examine the
46938 brood cells. In place of the former close dark circles formed by
46939 thousands of bees sitting back to back and guarding the high mystery of
46940 generation, he sees hundreds of dull, listless, and sleepy shells of
46941 bees. They have almost all died unawares, sitting in the sanctuary they
46942 had guarded and which is now no more. They reek of decay and death. Only
46943 a few of them still move, rise, and feebly fly to settle on the enemy's
46944 hand, lacking the spirit to die stinging him; the rest are dead and fall
46945 as lightly as fish scales. The beekeeper closes the hive, chalks a mark
46946 on it, and when he has time tears out its contents and burns it clean.
46948 So in the same way Moscow was empty when Napoleon, weary, uneasy, and
46949 morose, paced up and down in front of the Kammer-Kollezski rampart,
46950 awaiting what to his mind was a necessary, if but formal, observance of
46951 the proprieties--a deputation.
46953 In various corners of Moscow there still remained a few people aimlessly
46954 moving about, following their old habits and hardly aware of what they
46957 When with due circumspection Napoleon was informed that Moscow was
46958 empty, he looked angrily at his informant, turned away, and silently
46959 continued to walk to and fro.
46961 "My carriage!" he said.
46963 He took his seat beside the aide-de-camp on duty and drove into the
46964 suburb. "Moscow deserted!" he said to himself. "What an incredible
46967 He did not drive into the town, but put up at an inn in the Dorogomilov
46970 The coup de theatre had not come off.
46977 The Russian troops were passing through Moscow from two o'clock at night
46978 till two in the afternoon and bore away with them the wounded and the
46979 last of the inhabitants who were leaving.
46981 The greatest crush during the movement of the troops took place at the
46982 Stone, Moskva, and Yauza bridges.
46984 While the troops, dividing into two parts when passing around the
46985 Kremlin, were thronging the Moskva and the Stone bridges, a great many
46986 soldiers, taking advantage of the stoppage and congestion, turned back
46987 from the bridges and slipped stealthily and silently past the church of
46988 Vasili the Beatified and under the Borovitski gate, back up the hill to
46989 the Red Square where some instinct told them they could easily take
46990 things not belonging to them. Crowds of the kind seen at cheap sales
46991 filled all the passages and alleys of the Bazaar. But there were no
46992 dealers with voices of ingratiating affability inviting customers to
46993 enter; there were no hawkers, nor the usual motley crowd of female
46994 purchasers--but only soldiers, in uniforms and overcoats though without
46995 muskets, entering the Bazaar empty-handed and silently making their way
46996 out through its passages with bundles. Tradesmen and their assistants
46997 (of whom there were but few) moved about among the soldiers quite
46998 bewildered. They unlocked their shops and locked them up again, and
46999 themselves carried goods away with the help of their assistants. On the
47000 square in front of the Bazaar were drummers beating the muster call. But
47001 the roll of the drums did not make the looting soldiers run in the
47002 direction of the drum as formerly, but made them, on the contrary, run
47003 farther away. Among the soldiers in the shops and passages some men were
47004 to be seen in gray coats, with closely shaven heads. Two officers, one
47005 with a scarf over his uniform and mounted on a lean, dark-gray horse,
47006 the other in an overcoat and on foot, stood at the corner of Ilyinka
47007 Street, talking. A third officer galloped up to them.
47009 "The general orders them all to be driven out at once, without fail.
47010 This is outrageous! Half the men have dispersed."
47012 "Where are you off to?... Where?..." he shouted to three infantrymen
47013 without muskets who, holding up the skirts of their overcoats, were
47014 slipping past him into the Bazaar passage. "Stop, you rascals!"
47016 "But how are you going to stop them?" replied another officer. "There is
47017 no getting them together. The army should push on before the rest bolt,
47020 "How can one push on? They are stuck there, wedged on the bridge, and
47021 don't move. Shouldn't we put a cordon round to prevent the rest from
47024 "Come, go in there and drive them out!" shouted the senior officer.
47026 The officer in the scarf dismounted, called up a drummer, and went with
47027 him into the arcade. Some soldiers started running away in a group. A
47028 shopkeeper with red pimples on his cheeks near the nose, and a calm,
47029 persistent, calculating expression on his plump face, hurriedly and
47030 ostentatiously approached the officer, swinging his arms.
47032 "Your honor!" said he. "Be so good as to protect us! We won't grudge
47033 trifles, you are welcome to anything--we shall be delighted! Pray!...
47034 I'll fetch a piece of cloth at once for such an honorable gentleman, or
47035 even two pieces with pleasure. For we feel how it is; but what's all
47036 this--sheer robbery! If you please, could not guards be placed if only
47037 to let us close the shop...."
47039 Several shopkeepers crowded round the officer.
47041 "Eh, what twaddle!" said one of them, a thin, stern-looking man. "When
47042 one's head is gone one doesn't weep for one's hair! Take what any of you
47043 like!" And flourishing his arm energetically he turned sideways to the
47046 "It's all very well for you, Ivan Sidorych, to talk," said the first
47047 tradesman angrily. "Please step inside, your honor!"
47049 "Talk indeed!" cried the thin one. "In my three shops here I have a
47050 hundred thousand rubles' worth of goods. Can they be saved when the army
47051 has gone? Eh, what people! 'Against God's might our hands can't fight.'"
47053 "Come inside, your honor!" repeated the tradesman, bowing.
47055 The officer stood perplexed and his face showed indecision.
47057 "It's not my business!" he exclaimed, and strode on quickly down one of
47060 From one open shop came the sound of blows and vituperation, and just as
47061 the officer came up to it a man in a gray coat with a shaven head was
47062 flung out violently.
47064 This man, bent double, rushed past the tradesman and the officer. The
47065 officer pounced on the soldiers who were in the shops, but at that
47066 moment fearful screams reached them from the huge crowd on the Moskva
47067 bridge and the officer ran out into the square.
47069 "What is it? What is it?" he asked, but his comrade was already
47070 galloping off past Vasili the Beatified in the direction from which the
47073 The officer mounted his horse and rode after him. When he reached the
47074 bridge he saw two unlimbered guns, the infantry crossing the bridge,
47075 several overturned carts, and frightened and laughing faces among the
47076 troops. Beside the cannon a cart was standing to which two horses were
47077 harnessed. Four borzois with collars were pressing close to the wheels.
47078 The cart was loaded high, and at the very top, beside a child's chair
47079 with its legs in the air, sat a peasant woman uttering piercing and
47080 desperate shrieks. He was told by his fellow officers that the screams
47081 of the crowd and the shrieks of the woman were due to the fact that
47082 General Ermolov, coming up to the crowd and learning that soldiers were
47083 dispersing among the shops while crowds of civilians blocked the bridge,
47084 had ordered two guns to be unlimbered and made a show of firing at the
47085 bridge. The crowd, crushing one another, upsetting carts, and shouting
47086 and squeezing desperately, had cleared off the bridge and the troops
47087 were now moving forward.
47094 Meanwhile, the city itself was deserted. There was hardly anyone in the
47095 streets. The gates and shops were all closed, only here and there round
47096 the taverns solitary shouts or drunken songs could be heard. Nobody
47097 drove through the streets and footsteps were rarely heard. The
47098 Povarskaya was quite still and deserted. The huge courtyard of the
47099 Rostovs' house was littered with wisps of hay and with dung from the
47100 horses, and not a soul was to be seen there. In the great drawing room
47101 of the house, which had been left with all it contained, were two
47102 people. They were the yard porter Ignat, and the page boy Mishka,
47103 Vasilich's grandson who had stayed in Moscow with his grandfather.
47104 Mishka had opened the clavichord and was strumming on it with one
47105 finger. The yard porter, his arms akimbo, stood smiling with
47106 satisfaction before the large mirror.
47108 "Isn't it fine, eh, Uncle Ignat?" said the boy, suddenly beginning to
47109 strike the keyboard with both hands.
47111 "Only fancy!" answered Ignat, surprised at the broadening grin on his
47112 face in the mirror.
47114 "Impudence! Impudence!" they heard behind them the voice of Mavra
47115 Kuzminichna who had entered silently. "How he's grinning, the fat mug!
47116 Is that what you're here for? Nothing's cleared away down there and
47117 Vasilich is worn out. Just you wait a bit!"
47119 Ignat left off smiling, adjusted his belt, and went out of the room with
47120 meekly downcast eyes.
47122 "Aunt, I did it gently," said the boy.
47124 "I'll give you something gently, you monkey you!" cried Mavra
47125 Kuzminichna, raising her arm threateningly. "Go and get the samovar to
47126 boil for your grandfather."
47128 Mavra Kuzminichna flicked the dust off the clavichord and closed it, and
47129 with a deep sigh left the drawing room and locked its main door.
47131 Going out into the yard she paused to consider where she should go next-
47132 -to drink tea in the servants' wing with Vasilich, or into the storeroom
47133 to put away what still lay about.
47135 She heard the sound of quick footsteps in the quiet street. Someone
47136 stopped at the gate, and the latch rattled as someone tried to open it.
47137 Mavra Kuzminichna went to the gate.
47141 "The count--Count Ilya Andreevich Rostov."
47145 "An officer, I have to see him," came the reply in a pleasant, well-bred
47148 Mavra Kuzminichna opened the gate and an officer of eighteen, with the
47149 round face of a Rostov, entered the yard.
47151 "They have gone away, sir. Went away yesterday at vespertime," said
47152 Mavra Kuzminichna cordially.
47154 The young officer standing in the gateway, as if hesitating whether to
47155 enter or not, clicked his tongue.
47157 "Ah, how annoying!" he muttered. "I should have come yesterday.... Ah,
47160 Meanwhile, Mavra Kuzminichna was attentively and sympathetically
47161 examining the familiar Rostov features of the young man's face, his
47162 tattered coat and trodden-down boots.
47164 "What did you want to see the count for?" she asked.
47166 "Oh well... it can't be helped!" said he in a tone of vexation and
47167 placed his hand on the gate as if to leave.
47169 He again paused in indecision.
47171 "You see," he suddenly said, "I am a kinsman of the count's and he has
47172 been very kind to me. As you see" (he glanced with an amused air and
47173 good-natured smile at his coat and boots) "my things are worn out and I
47174 have no money, so I was going to ask the count..."
47176 Mavra Kuzminichna did not let him finish.
47178 "Just wait a minute, sir. One little moment," said she.
47180 And as soon as the officer let go of the gate handle she turned and,
47181 hurrying away on her old legs, went through the back yard to the
47182 servants' quarters.
47184 While Mavra Kuzminichna was running to her room the officer walked about
47185 the yard gazing at his worn-out boots with lowered head and a faint
47186 smile on his lips. "What a pity I've missed Uncle! What a nice old
47187 woman! Where has she run off to? And how am I to find the nearest way to
47188 overtake my regiment, which must by now be getting near the Rogozhski
47189 gate?" thought he. Just then Mavra Kuzminichna appeared from behind the
47190 corner of the house with a frightened yet resolute look, carrying a
47191 rolled-up check kerchief in her hand. While still a few steps from the
47192 officer she unfolded the kerchief and took out of it a white twenty-
47193 five-ruble assignat and hastily handed it to him.
47195 "If his excellency had been at home, as a kinsman he would of course...
47198 Mavra Kuzminichna grew abashed and confused. The officer did not
47199 decline, but took the note quietly and thanked her.
47201 "If the count had been at home..." Mavra Kuzminichna went on
47202 apologetically. "Christ be with you, sir! May God preserve you!" said
47203 she, bowing as she saw him out.
47205 Swaying his head and smiling as if amused at himself, the officer ran
47206 almost at a trot through the deserted streets toward the Yauza bridge to
47207 overtake his regiment.
47209 But Mavra Kuzminichna stood at the closed gate for some time with moist
47210 eyes, pensively swaying her head and feeling an unexpected flow of
47211 motherly tenderness and pity for the unknown young officer.
47218 From an unfinished house on the Varvarka, the ground floor of which was
47219 a dramshop, came drunken shouts and songs. On benches round the tables
47220 in a dirty little room sat some ten factory hands. Tipsy and perspiring,
47221 with dim eyes and wide-open mouths, they were all laboriously singing
47222 some song or other. They were singing discordantly, arduously, and with
47223 great effort, evidently not because they wished to sing, but because
47224 they wanted to show they were drunk and on a spree. One, a tall, fair-
47225 haired lad in a clean blue coat, was standing over the others. His face
47226 with its fine straight nose would have been handsome had it not been for
47227 his thin, compressed, twitching lips and dull, gloomy, fixed eyes.
47228 Evidently possessed by some idea, he stood over those who were singing,
47229 and solemnly and jerkily flourished above their heads his white arm with
47230 the sleeve turned up to the elbow, trying unnaturally to spread out his
47231 dirty fingers. The sleeve of his coat kept slipping down and he always
47232 carefully rolled it up again with his left hand, as if it were most
47233 important that the sinewy white arm he was flourishing should be bare.
47234 In the midst of the song cries were heard, and fighting and blows in the
47235 passage and porch. The tall lad waved his arm.
47237 "Stop it!" he exclaimed peremptorily. "There's a fight, lads!" And,
47238 still rolling up his sleeve, he went out to the porch.
47240 The factory hands followed him. These men, who under the leadership of
47241 the tall lad were drinking in the dramshop that morning, had brought the
47242 publican some skins from the factory and for this had had drink served
47243 them. The blacksmiths from a neighboring smithy, hearing the sounds of
47244 revelry in the tavern and supposing it to have been broken into, wished
47245 to force their way in too and a fight in the porch had resulted.
47247 The publican was fighting one of the smiths at the door, and when the
47248 workmen came out the smith, wrenching himself free from the tavern
47249 keeper, fell face downward on the pavement.
47251 Another smith tried to enter the doorway, pressing against the publican
47254 The lad with the turned-up sleeve gave the smith a blow in the face and
47255 cried wildly: "They're fighting us, lads!"
47257 At that moment the first smith got up and, scratching his bruised face
47258 to make it bleed, shouted in a tearful voice: "Police! Murder!...
47259 They've killed a man, lads!"
47261 "Oh, gracious me, a man beaten to death--killed!..." screamed a woman
47262 coming out of a gate close by.
47264 A crowd gathered round the bloodstained smith.
47266 "Haven't you robbed people enough--taking their last shirts?" said a
47267 voice addressing the publican. "What have you killed a man for, you
47270 The tall lad, standing in the porch, turned his bleared eyes from the
47271 publican to the smith and back again as if considering whom he ought to
47274 "Murderer!" he shouted suddenly to the publican. "Bind him, lads!"
47276 "I daresay you would like to bind me!" shouted the publican, pushing
47277 away the men advancing on him, and snatching his cap from his head he
47278 flung it on the ground.
47280 As if this action had some mysterious and menacing significance, the
47281 workmen surrounding the publican paused in indecision.
47283 "I know the law very well, mates! I'll take the matter to the captain of
47284 police. You think I won't get to him? Robbery is not permitted to
47285 anybody now a days!" shouted the publican, picking up his cap.
47287 "Come along then! Come along then!" the publican and the tall young
47288 fellow repeated one after the other, and they moved up the street
47291 The bloodstained smith went beside them. The factory hands and others
47292 followed behind, talking and shouting.
47294 At the corner of the Moroseyka, opposite a large house with closed
47295 shutters and bearing a bootmaker's signboard, stood a score of thin,
47296 worn-out, gloomy-faced bootmakers, wearing overalls and long tattered
47299 "He should pay folks off properly," a thin workingman, with frowning
47300 brows and a straggly beard, was saying.
47302 "But he's sucked our blood and now he thinks he's quit of us. He's been
47303 misleading us all the week and now that he's brought us to this pass
47306 On seeing the crowd and the bloodstained man the workman ceased
47307 speaking, and with eager curiosity all the bootmakers joined the moving
47310 "Where are all the folks going?"
47312 "Why, to the police, of course!"
47314 "I say, is it true that we have been beaten?" "And what did you think?
47315 Look what folks are saying."
47317 Questions and answers were heard. The publican, taking advantage of the
47318 increased crowd, dropped behind and returned to his tavern.
47320 The tall youth, not noticing the disappearance of his foe, waved his
47321 bare arm and went on talking incessantly, attracting general attention
47322 to himself. It was around him that the people chiefly crowded, expecting
47323 answers from him to the questions that occupied all their minds.
47325 "He must keep order, keep the law, that's what the government is there
47326 for. Am I not right, good Christians?" said the tall youth, with a
47327 scarcely perceptible smile. "He thinks there's no government! How can
47328 one do without government? Or else there would be plenty who'd rob us."
47330 "Why talk nonsense?" rejoined voices in the crowd. "Will they give up
47331 Moscow like this? They told you that for fun, and you believed it!
47332 Aren't there plenty of troops on the march? Let him in, indeed! That's
47333 what the government is for. You'd better listen to what people are
47334 saying," said some of the mob pointing to the tall youth.
47336 By the wall of China-Town a smaller group of people were gathered round
47337 a man in a frieze coat who held a paper in his hand.
47339 "An ukase, they are reading an ukase! Reading an ukase!" cried voices in
47340 the crowd, and the people rushed toward the reader.
47342 The man in the frieze coat was reading the broadsheet of August 31. When
47343 the crowd collected round him he seemed confused, but at the demand of
47344 the tall lad who had pushed his way up to him, he began in a rather
47345 tremulous voice to read the sheet from the beginning.
47347 "Early tomorrow I shall go to his Serene Highness," he read ("Sirin
47348 Highness," said the tall fellow with a triumphant smile on his lips and
47349 a frown on his brow), "to consult with him to act, and to aid the army
47350 to exterminate these scoundrels. We too will take part..." the reader
47351 went on, and then paused ("Do you see," shouted the youth victoriously,
47352 "he's going to clear up the whole affair for you...."), "in destroying
47353 them, and will send these visitors to the devil. I will come back to
47354 dinner, and we'll set to work. We will do, completely do, and undo these
47357 The last words were read out in the midst of complete silence. The tall
47358 lad hung his head gloomily. It was evident that no one had understood
47359 the last part. In particular, the words "I will come back to dinner,"
47360 evidently displeased both reader and audience. The people's minds were
47361 tuned to a high pitch and this was too simple and needlessly
47362 comprehensible--it was what any one of them might have said and
47363 therefore was what an ukase emanating from the highest authority should
47366 They all stood despondent and silent. The tall youth moved his lips and
47367 swayed from side to side.
47369 "We should ask him... that's he himself?"... "Yes, ask him indeed!...
47370 Why not? He'll explain"... voices in the rear of the crowd were suddenly
47371 heard saying, and the general attention turned to the police
47372 superintendent's trap which drove into the square attended by two
47375 The superintendent of police, who had gone that morning by Count
47376 Rostopchin's orders to burn the barges and had in connection with that
47377 matter acquired a large sum of money which was at that moment in his
47378 pocket, on seeing a crowd bearing down upon him told his coachman to
47381 "What people are these?" he shouted to the men, who were moving singly
47382 and timidly in the direction of his trap.
47384 "What people are these?" he shouted again, receiving no answer.
47386 "Your honor..." replied the shopman in the frieze coat, "your honor, in
47387 accord with the proclamation of his highest excellency the count, they
47388 desire to serve, not sparing their lives, and it is not any kind of
47389 riot, but as his highest excellence said..."
47391 "The count has not left, he is here, and an order will be issued
47392 concerning you," said the superintendent of police. "Go on!" he ordered
47395 The crowd halted, pressing around those who had heard what the
47396 superintendent had said, and looking at the departing trap.
47398 The superintendent of police turned round at that moment with a scared
47399 look, said something to his coachman, and his horses increased their
47402 "It's a fraud, lads! Lead the way to him, himself!" shouted the tall
47403 youth. "Don't let him go, lads! Let him answer us! Keep him!" shouted
47404 different people and the people dashed in pursuit of the trap.
47406 Following the superintendent of police and talking loudly the crowd went
47407 in the direction of the Lubyanka Street.
47409 "There now, the gentry and merchants have gone away and left us to
47410 perish. Do they think we're dogs?" voices in the crowd were heard saying
47411 more and more frequently.
47418 On the evening of the first of September, after his interview with
47419 Kutuzov, Count Rostopchin had returned to Moscow mortified and offended
47420 because he had not been invited to attend the council of war, and
47421 because Kutuzov had paid no attention to his offer to take part in the
47422 defense of the city; amazed also at the novel outlook revealed to him at
47423 the camp, which treated the tranquillity of the capital and its
47424 patriotic fervor as not merely secondary but quite irrelevant and
47425 unimportant matters. Distressed, offended, and surprised by all this,
47426 Rostopchin had returned to Moscow. After supper he lay down on a sofa
47427 without undressing, and was awakened soon after midnight by a courier
47428 bringing him a letter from Kutuzov. This letter requested the count to
47429 send police officers to guide the troops through the town, as the army
47430 was retreating to the Ryazan road beyond Moscow. This was not news to
47431 Rostopchin. He had known that Moscow would be abandoned not merely since
47432 his interview the previous day with Kutuzov on the Poklonny Hill but
47433 ever since the battle of Borodino, for all the generals who came to
47434 Moscow after that battle had said unanimously that it was impossible to
47435 fight another battle, and since then the government property had been
47436 removed every night, and half the inhabitants had left the city with
47437 Rostopchin's own permission. Yet all the same this information
47438 astonished and irritated the count, coming as it did in the form of a
47439 simple note with an order from Kutuzov, and received at night, breaking
47440 in on his beauty sleep.
47442 When later on in his memoirs Count Rostopchin explained his actions at
47443 this time, he repeatedly says that he was then actuated by two important
47444 considerations: to maintain tranquillity in Moscow and expedite the
47445 departure of the inhabitants. If one accepts this twofold aim all
47446 Rostopchin's actions appear irreproachable. "Why were the holy relics,
47447 the arms, ammunition, gunpowder, and stores of corn not removed? Why
47448 were thousands of inhabitants deceived into believing that Moscow would
47449 not be given up--and thereby ruined?" "To preserve the tranquillity of
47450 the city," explains Count Rostopchin. "Why were bundles of useless
47451 papers from the government offices, and Leppich's balloon and other
47452 articles removed?" "To leave the town empty," explains Count Rostopchin.
47453 One need only admit that public tranquillity is in danger and any action
47454 finds a justification.
47456 All the horrors of the reign of terror were based only on solicitude for
47457 public tranquillity.
47459 On what, then, was Count Rostopchin's fear for the tranquillity of
47460 Moscow based in 1812? What reason was there for assuming any probability
47461 of an uprising in the city? The inhabitants were leaving it and the
47462 retreating troops were filling it. Why should that cause the masses to
47465 Neither in Moscow nor anywhere in Russia did anything resembling an
47466 insurrection ever occur when the enemy entered a town. More than ten
47467 thousand people were still in Moscow on the first and second of
47468 September, and except for a mob in the governor's courtyard, assembled
47469 there at his bidding, nothing happened. It is obvious that there would
47470 have been even less reason to expect a disturbance among the people if
47471 after the battle of Borodino, when the surrender of Moscow became
47472 certain or at least probable, Rostopchin instead of exciting the people
47473 by distributing arms and broadsheets had taken steps to remove all the
47474 holy relics, the gunpowder, munitions, and money, and had told the
47475 population plainly that the town would be abandoned.
47477 Rostopchin, though he had patriotic sentiments, was a sanguine and
47478 impulsive man who had always moved in the highest administrative circles
47479 and had no understanding at all of the people he supposed himself to be
47480 guiding. Ever since the enemy's entry into Smolensk he had in
47481 imagination been playing the role of director of the popular feeling of
47482 "the heart of Russia." Not only did it seem to him (as to all
47483 administrators) that he controlled the external actions of Moscow's
47484 inhabitants, but he also thought he controlled their mental attitude by
47485 means of his broadsheets and posters, written in a coarse tone which the
47486 people despise in their own class and do not understand from those in
47487 authority. Rostopchin was so pleased with the fine role of leader of
47488 popular feeling, and had grown so used to it, that the necessity of
47489 relinquishing that role and abandoning Moscow without any heroic display
47490 took him unawares and he suddenly felt the ground slip away from under
47491 his feet, so that he positively did not know what to do. Though he knew
47492 it was coming, he did not till the last moment wholeheartedly believe
47493 that Moscow would be abandoned, and did not prepare for it. The
47494 inhabitants left against his wishes. If the government offices were
47495 removed, this was only done on the demand of officials to whom the count
47496 yielded reluctantly. He was absorbed in the role he had created for
47497 himself. As is often the case with those gifted with an ardent
47498 imagination, though he had long known that Moscow would be abandoned he
47499 knew it only with his intellect, he did not believe it in his heart and
47500 did not adapt himself mentally to this new position of affairs.
47502 All his painstaking and energetic activity (in how far it was useful and
47503 had any effect on the people is another question) had been simply
47504 directed toward arousing in the masses his own feeling of patriotic
47505 hatred of the French.
47507 But when events assumed their true historical character, when expressing
47508 hatred for the French in words proved insufficient, when it was not even
47509 possible to express that hatred by fighting a battle, when self-
47510 confidence was of no avail in relation to the one question before
47511 Moscow, when the whole population streamed out of Moscow as one man,
47512 abandoning their belongings and proving by that negative action all the
47513 depth of their national feeling, then the role chosen by Rostopchin
47514 suddenly appeared senseless. He unexpectedly felt himself ridiculous,
47515 weak, and alone, with no ground to stand on.
47517 When, awakened from his sleep, he received that cold, peremptory note
47518 from Kutuzov, he felt the more irritated the more he felt himself to
47519 blame. All that he had been specially put in charge of, the state
47520 property which he should have removed, was still in Moscow and it was no
47521 longer possible to take the whole of it away.
47523 "Who is to blame for it? Who has let things come to such a pass?" he
47524 ruminated. "Not I, of course. I had everything ready. I had Moscow
47525 firmly in hand. And this is what they have let it come to! Villains!
47526 Traitors!" he thought, without clearly defining who the villains and
47527 traitors were, but feeling it necessary to hate those traitors whoever
47528 they might be who were to blame for the false and ridiculous position in
47529 which he found himself.
47531 All that night Count Rostopchin issued orders, for which people came to
47532 him from all parts of Moscow. Those about him had never seen the count
47533 so morose and irritable.
47535 "Your excellency, the Director of the Registrar's Department has sent
47536 for instructions... From the Consistory, from the Senate, from the
47537 University, from the Foundling Hospital, the Suffragan has sent...
47538 asking for information.... What are your orders about the Fire Brigade?
47539 From the governor of the prison... from the superintendent of the
47540 lunatic asylum..." All night long such announcements were continually
47541 being received by the count.
47543 To all these inquiries he gave brief and angry replies indicating that
47544 orders from him were not now needed, that the whole affair, carefully
47545 prepared by him, had now been ruined by somebody, and that that somebody
47546 would have to bear the whole responsibility for all that might happen.
47548 "Oh, tell that blockhead," he said in reply to the question from the
47549 Registrar's Department, "that he should remain to guard his documents.
47550 Now why are you asking silly questions about the Fire Brigade? They have
47551 horses, let them be off to Vladimir, and not leave them to the French."
47553 "Your excellency, the superintendent of the lunatic asylum has come:
47554 what are your commands?"
47556 "My commands? Let them go away, that's all.... And let the lunatics out
47557 into the town. When lunatics command our armies God evidently means
47558 these other madmen to be free."
47560 In reply to an inquiry about the convicts in the prison, Count
47561 Rostopchin shouted angrily at the governor:
47563 "Do you expect me to give you two battalions--which we have not got--for
47564 a convoy? Release them, that's all about it!"
47566 "Your excellency, there are some political prisoners, Meshkov,
47569 "Vereshchagin! Hasn't he been hanged yet?" shouted Rostopchin. "Bring
47577 Toward nine o'clock in the morning, when the troops were already moving
47578 through Moscow, nobody came to the count any more for instructions.
47579 Those who were able to get away were going of their own accord, those
47580 who remained behind decided for themselves what they must do.
47582 The count ordered his carriage that he might drive to Sokolniki, and sat
47583 in his study with folded hands, morose, sallow, and taciturn.
47585 In quiet and untroubled times it seems to every administrator that it is
47586 only by his efforts that the whole population under his rule is kept
47587 going, and in this consciousness of being indispensable every
47588 administrator finds the chief reward of his labor and efforts. While the
47589 sea of history remains calm the ruler-administrator in his frail bark,
47590 holding on with a boat hook to the ship of the people and himself
47591 moving, naturally imagines that his efforts move the ship he is holding
47592 on to. But as soon as a storm arises and the sea begins to heave and the
47593 ship to move, such a delusion is no longer possible. The ship moves
47594 independently with its own enormous motion, the boat hook no longer
47595 reaches the moving vessel, and suddenly the administrator, instead of
47596 appearing a ruler and a source of power, becomes an insignificant,
47597 useless, feeble man.
47599 Rostopchin felt this, and it was this which exasperated him.
47601 The superintendent of police, whom the crowd had stopped, went in to see
47602 him at the same time as an adjutant who informed the count that the
47603 horses were harnessed. They were both pale, and the superintendent of
47604 police, after reporting that he had executed the instructions he had
47605 received, informed the count that an immense crowd had collected in the
47606 courtyard and wished to see him.
47608 Without saying a word Rostopchin rose and walked hastily to his light,
47609 luxurious drawing room, went to the balcony door, took hold of the
47610 handle, let it go again, and went to the window from which he had a
47611 better view of the whole crowd. The tall lad was standing in front,
47612 flourishing his arm and saying something with a stern look. The blood-
47613 stained smith stood beside him with a gloomy face. A drone of voices was
47614 audible through the closed window.
47616 "Is my carriage ready?" asked Rostopchin, stepping back from the window.
47618 "It is, your excellency," replied the adjutant.
47620 Rostopchin went again to the balcony door.
47622 "But what do they want?" he asked the superintendent of police.
47624 "Your excellency, they say they have got ready, according to your
47625 orders, to go against the French, and they shouted something about
47626 treachery. But it is a turbulent crowd, your excellency--I hardly
47627 managed to get away from it. Your excellency, I venture to suggest..."
47629 "You may go. I don't need you to tell me what to do!" exclaimed
47630 Rostopchin angrily.
47632 He stood by the balcony door looking at the crowd.
47634 "This is what they have done with Russia! This is what they have done
47635 with me!" thought he, full of an irrepressible fury that welled up
47636 within him against the someone to whom what was happening might be
47637 attributed. As often happens with passionate people, he was mastered by
47638 anger but was still seeking an object on which to vent it. "Here is that
47639 mob, the dregs of the people," he thought as he gazed at the crowd:
47640 "this rabble they have roused by their folly! They want a victim," he
47641 thought as he looked at the tall lad flourishing his arm. And this
47642 thought occurred to him just because he himself desired a victim,
47643 something on which to vent his rage.
47645 "Is the carriage ready?" he asked again.
47647 "Yes, your excellency. What are your orders about Vereshchagin? He is
47648 waiting at the porch," said the adjutant.
47650 "Ah!" exclaimed Rostopchin, as if struck by an unexpected recollection.
47652 And rapidly opening the door he went resolutely out onto the balcony.
47653 The talking instantly ceased, hats and caps were doffed, and all eyes
47654 were raised to the count.
47656 "Good morning, lads!" said the count briskly and loudly. "Thank you for
47657 coming. I'll come out to you in a moment, but we must first settle with
47658 the villain. We must punish the villain who has caused the ruin of
47659 Moscow. Wait for me!"
47661 And the count stepped as briskly back into the room and slammed the door
47664 A murmur of approbation and satisfaction ran through the crowd. "He'll
47665 settle with all the villains, you'll see! And you said the French...
47666 He'll show you what law is!" the mob were saying as if reproving one
47667 another for their lack of confidence.
47669 A few minutes later an officer came hurriedly out of the front door,
47670 gave an order, and the dragoons formed up in line. The crowd moved
47671 eagerly from the balcony toward the porch. Rostopchin, coming out there
47672 with quick angry steps, looked hastily around as if seeking someone.
47674 "Where is he?" he inquired. And as he spoke he saw a young man coming
47675 round the corner of the house between two dragoons. He had a long thin
47676 neck, and his head, that had been half shaved, was again covered by
47677 short hair. This young man was dressed in a threadbare blue cloth coat
47678 lined with fox fur, that had once been smart, and dirty hempen convict
47679 trousers, over which were pulled his thin, dirty, trodden-down boots. On
47680 his thin, weak legs were heavy chains which hampered his irresolute
47683 "Ah!" said Rostopchin, hurriedly turning away his eyes from the young
47684 man in the fur-lined coat and pointing to the bottom step of the porch.
47687 The young man in his clattering chains stepped clumsily to the spot
47688 indicated, holding away with one finger the coat collar which chafed his
47689 neck, turned his long neck twice this way and that, sighed, and
47690 submissively folded before him his thin hands, unused to work.
47692 For several seconds while the young man was taking his place on the step
47693 the silence continued. Only among the back rows of the people, who were
47694 all pressing toward the one spot, could sighs, groans, and the shuffling
47697 While waiting for the young man to take his place on the step Rostopchin
47698 stood frowning and rubbing his face with his hand.
47700 "Lads!" said he, with a metallic ring in his voice. "This man,
47701 Vereshchagin, is the scoundrel by whose doing Moscow is perishing."
47703 The young man in the fur-lined coat, stooping a little, stood in a
47704 submissive attitude, his fingers clasped before him. His emaciated young
47705 face, disfigured by the half-shaven head, hung down hopelessly. At the
47706 count's first words he raised it slowly and looked up at him as if
47707 wishing to say something or at least to meet his eye. But Rostopchin did
47708 not look at him. A vein in the young man's long thin neck swelled like a
47709 cord and went blue behind the ear, and suddenly his face flushed.
47711 All eyes were fixed on him. He looked at the crowd, and rendered more
47712 hopeful by the expression he read on the faces there, he smiled sadly
47713 and timidly, and lowering his head shifted his feet on the step.
47715 "He has betrayed his Tsar and his country, he has gone over to
47716 Bonaparte. He alone of all the Russians has disgraced the Russian name,
47717 he has caused Moscow to perish," said Rostopchin in a sharp, even voice,
47718 but suddenly he glanced down at Vereshchagin who continued to stand in
47719 the same submissive attitude. As if inflamed by the sight, he raised his
47720 arm and addressed the people, almost shouting:
47722 "Deal with him as you think fit! I hand him over to you."
47724 The crowd remained silent and only pressed closer and closer to one
47725 another. To keep one another back, to breathe in that stifling
47726 atmosphere, to be unable to stir, and to await something unknown,
47727 uncomprehended, and terrible, was becoming unbearable. Those standing in
47728 front, who had seen and heard what had taken place before them, all
47729 stood with wide-open eyes and mouths, straining with all their strength,
47730 and held back the crowd that was pushing behind them.
47732 "Beat him!... Let the traitor perish and not disgrace the Russian name!"
47733 shouted Rostopchin. "Cut him down. I command it."
47735 Hearing not so much the words as the angry tone of Rostopchin's voice,
47736 the crowd moaned and heaved forward, but again paused.
47738 "Count!" exclaimed the timid yet theatrical voice of Vereshchagin in the
47739 midst of the momentary silence that ensued, "Count! One God is above us
47740 both...." He lifted his head and again the thick vein in his thin neck
47741 filled with blood and the color rapidly came and went in his face.
47743 He did not finish what he wished to say.
47745 "Cut him down! I command it..." shouted Rostopchin, suddenly growing
47746 pale like Vereshchagin.
47748 "Draw sabers!" cried the dragoon officer, drawing his own.
47750 Another still stronger wave flowed through the crowd and reaching the
47751 front ranks carried it swaying to the very steps of the porch. The tall
47752 youth, with a stony look on his face, and rigid and uplifted arm, stood
47753 beside Vereshchagin.
47755 "Saber him!" the dragoon officer almost whispered.
47757 And one of the soldiers, his face all at once distorted with fury,
47758 struck Vereshchagin on the head with the blunt side of his saber.
47760 "Ah!" cried Vereshchagin in meek surprise, looking round with a
47761 frightened glance as if not understanding why this was done to him. A
47762 similar moan of surprise and horror ran through the crowd. "O Lord!"
47763 exclaimed a sorrowful voice.
47765 But after the exclamation of surprise that had escaped from Vereshchagin
47766 he uttered a plaintive cry of pain, and that cry was fatal. The barrier
47767 of human feeling, strained to the utmost, that had held the crowd in
47768 check suddenly broke. The crime had begun and must now be completed. The
47769 plaintive moan of reproach was drowned by the threatening and angry roar
47770 of the crowd. Like the seventh and last wave that shatters a ship, that
47771 last irresistible wave burst from the rear and reached the front ranks,
47772 carrying them off their feet and engulfing them all. The dragoon was
47773 about to repeat his blow. Vereshchagin with a cry of horror, covering
47774 his head with his hands, rushed toward the crowd. The tall youth,
47775 against whom he stumbled, seized his thin neck with his hands and,
47776 yelling wildly, fell with him under the feet of the pressing, struggling
47779 Some beat and tore at Vereshchagin, others at the tall youth. And the
47780 screams of those that were being trampled on and of those who tried to
47781 rescue the tall lad only increased the fury of the crowd. It was a long
47782 time before the dragoons could extricate the bleeding youth, beaten
47783 almost to death. And for a long time, despite the feverish haste with
47784 which the mob tried to end the work that had been begun, those who were
47785 hitting, throttling, and tearing at Vereshchagin were unable to kill
47786 him, for the crowd pressed from all sides, swaying as one mass with them
47787 in the center and rendering it impossible for them either to kill him or
47790 "Hit him with an ax, eh!... Crushed?... Traitor, he sold Christ....
47791 Still alive... tenacious... serves him right! Torture serves a thief
47792 right. Use the hatchet!... What--still alive?"
47794 Only when the victim ceased to struggle and his cries changed to a long-
47795 drawn, measured death rattle did the crowd around his prostrate,
47796 bleeding corpse begin rapidly to change places. Each one came up,
47797 glanced at what had been done, and with horror, reproach, and
47798 astonishment pushed back again.
47800 "O Lord! The people are like wild beasts! How could he be alive?" voices
47801 in the crowd could be heard saying. "Quite a young fellow too... must
47802 have been a merchant's son. What men!... and they say he's not the right
47803 one.... How not the right one?... O Lord! And there's another has been
47804 beaten too--they say he's nearly done for.... Oh, the people... Aren't
47805 they afraid of sinning?..." said the same mob now, looking with pained
47806 distress at the dead body with its long, thin, half-severed neck and its
47807 livid face stained with blood and dust.
47809 A painstaking police officer, considering the presence of a corpse in
47810 his excellency's courtyard unseemly, told the dragoons to take it away.
47811 Two dragoons took it by its distorted legs and dragged it along the
47812 ground. The gory, dust-stained, half-shaven head with its long neck
47813 trailed twisting along the ground. The crowd shrank back from it.
47815 At the moment when Vereshchagin fell and the crowd closed in with savage
47816 yells and swayed about him, Rostopchin suddenly turned pale and, instead
47817 of going to the back entrance where his carriage awaited him, went with
47818 hurried steps and bent head, not knowing where and why, along the
47819 passage leading to the rooms on the ground floor. The count's face was
47820 white and he could not control the feverish twitching of his lower jaw.
47822 "This way, your excellency... Where are you going?... This way,
47823 please..." said a trembling, frightened voice behind him.
47825 Count Rostopchin was unable to reply and, turning obediently, went in
47826 the direction indicated. At the back entrance stood his caleche. The
47827 distant roar of the yelling crowd was audible even there. He hastily
47828 took his seat and told the coachman to drive him to his country house in
47831 When they reached the Myasnitski Street and could no longer hear the
47832 shouts of the mob, the count began to repent. He remembered with
47833 dissatisfaction the agitation and fear he had betrayed before his
47834 subordinates. "The mob is terrible--disgusting," he said to himself in
47835 French. "They are like wolves whom nothing but flesh can appease."
47836 "Count! One God is above us both!"--Vereshchagin's words suddenly
47837 recurred to him, and a disagreeable shiver ran down his back. But this
47838 was only a momentary feeling and Count Rostopchin smiled disdainfully at
47839 himself. "I had other duties," thought he. "The people had to be
47840 appeased. Many other victims have perished and are perishing for the
47841 public good"--and he began thinking of his social duties to his family
47842 and to the city entrusted to him, and of himself--not himself as
47843 Theodore Vasilyevich Rostopchin (he fancied that Theodore Vasilyevich
47844 Rostopchin was sacrificing himself for the public good) but himself as
47845 governor, the representative of authority and of the Tsar. "Had I been
47846 simply Theodore Vasilyevich my course of action would have been quite
47847 different, but it was my duty to safeguard my life and dignity as
47848 commander-in-chief."
47850 Lightly swaying on the flexible springs of his carriage and no longer
47851 hearing the terrible sounds of the crowd, Rostopchin grew physically
47852 calm and, as always happens, as soon as he became physically tranquil
47853 his mind devised reasons why he should be mentally tranquil too. The
47854 thought which tranquillized Rostopchin was not a new one. Since the
47855 world began and men have killed one another no one has ever committed
47856 such a crime against his fellow man without comforting himself with this
47857 same idea. This idea is le bien public, the hypothetical welfare of
47860 To a man not swayed by passion that welfare is never certain, but he who
47861 commits such a crime always knows just where that welfare lies. And
47862 Rostopchin now knew it.
47864 Not only did his reason not reproach him for what he had done, but he
47865 even found cause for self-satisfaction in having so successfully
47866 contrived to avail himself of a convenient opportunity to punish a
47867 criminal and at the same time pacify the mob.
47869 "Vereshchagin was tried and condemned to death," thought Rostopchin
47870 (though the Senate had only condemned Vereshchagin to hard labor), "he
47871 was a traitor and a spy. I could not let him go unpunished and so I have
47872 killed two birds with one stone: to appease the mob I gave them a victim
47873 and at the same time punished a miscreant."
47875 Having reached his country house and begun to give orders about domestic
47876 arrangements, the count grew quite tranquil.
47878 Half an hour later he was driving with his fast horses across the
47879 Sokolniki field, no longer thinking of what had occurred but considering
47880 what was to come. He was driving to the Yauza bridge where he had heard
47881 that Kutuzov was. Count Rostopchin was mentally preparing the angry and
47882 stinging reproaches he meant to address to Kutuzov for his deception. He
47883 would make that foxy old courtier feel that the responsibility for all
47884 the calamities that would follow the abandonment of the city and the
47885 ruin of Russia (as Rostopchin regarded it) would fall upon his doting
47886 old head. Planning beforehand what he would say to Kutuzov, Rostopchin
47887 turned angrily in his caleche and gazed sternly from side to side.
47889 The Sokolniki field was deserted. Only at the end of it, in front of the
47890 almshouse and the lunatic asylum, could be seen some people in white and
47891 others like them walking singly across the field shouting and
47894 One of these was running to cross the path of Count Rostopchin's
47895 carriage, and the count himself, his coachman, and his dragoons looked
47896 with vague horror and curiosity at these released lunatics and
47897 especially at the one running toward them.
47899 Swaying from side to side on his long, thin legs in his fluttering
47900 dressing gown, this lunatic was running impetuously, his gaze fixed on
47901 Rostopchin, shouting something in a hoarse voice and making signs to him
47902 to stop. The lunatic's solemn, gloomy face was thin and yellow, with its
47903 beard growing in uneven tufts. His black, agate pupils with saffron-
47904 yellow whites moved restlessly near the lower eyelids.
47906 "Stop! Pull up, I tell you!" he cried in a piercing voice, and again
47907 shouted something breathlessly with emphatic intonations and gestures.
47909 Coming abreast of the caleche he ran beside it.
47911 "Thrice have they slain me, thrice have I risen from the dead. They
47912 stoned me, crucified me... I shall rise... shall rise... shall rise.
47913 They have torn my body. The kingdom of God will be overthrown... Thrice
47914 will I overthrow it and thrice re-establish it!" he cried, raising his
47915 voice higher and higher.
47917 Count Rostopchin suddenly grew pale as he had done when the crowd closed
47918 in on Vereshchagin. He turned away. "Go fas... faster!" he cried in a
47919 trembling voice to his coachman. The caleche flew over the ground as
47920 fast as the horses could draw it, but for a long time Count Rostopchin
47921 still heard the insane despairing screams growing fainter in the
47922 distance, while his eyes saw nothing but the astonished, frightened,
47923 bloodstained face of "the traitor" in the fur-lined coat.
47925 Recent as that mental picture was, Rostopchin already felt that it had
47926 cut deep into his heart and drawn blood. Even now he felt clearly that
47927 the gory trace of that recollection would not pass with time, but that
47928 the terrible memory would, on the contrary, dwell in his heart ever more
47929 cruelly and painfully to the end of his life. He seemed still to hear
47930 the sound of his own words: "Cut him down! I command it...."
47932 "Why did I utter those words? It was by some accident I said them.... I
47933 need not have said them," he thought. "And then nothing would have
47934 happened." He saw the frightened and then infuriated face of the dragoon
47935 who dealt the blow, the look of silent, timid reproach that boy in the
47936 fur-lined coat had turned upon him. "But I did not do it for my own
47937 sake. I was bound to act that way.... The mob, the traitor... the public
47938 welfare," thought he.
47940 Troops were still crowding at the Yauza bridge. It was hot. Kutuzov,
47941 dejected and frowning, sat on a bench by the bridge toying with his whip
47942 in the sand when a caleche dashed up noisily. A man in a general's
47943 uniform with plumes in his hat went up to Kutuzov and said something in
47944 French. It was Count Rostopchin. He told Kutuzov that he had come
47945 because Moscow, the capital, was no more and only the army remained.
47947 "Things would have been different if your Serene Highness had not told
47948 me that you would not abandon Moscow without another battle; all this
47949 would not have happened," he said.
47951 Kutuzov looked at Rostopchin as if, not grasping what was said to him,
47952 he was trying to read something peculiar written at that moment on the
47953 face of the man addressing him. Rostopchin grew confused and became
47954 silent. Kutuzov slightly shook his head and not taking his penetrating
47955 gaze from Rostopchin's face muttered softly:
47957 "No! I shall not give up Moscow without a battle!"
47959 Whether Kutuzov was thinking of something entirely different when he
47960 spoke those words, or uttered them purposely, knowing them to be
47961 meaningless, at any rate Rostopchin made no reply and hastily left him.
47962 And strange to say, the Governor of Moscow, the proud Count Rostopchin,
47963 took up a Cossack whip and went to the bridge where he began with shouts
47964 to drive on the carts that blocked the way.
47971 Toward four o'clock in the afternoon Murat's troops were entering
47972 Moscow. In front rode a detachment of Wurttemberg hussars and behind
47973 them rode the King of Naples himself accompanied by a numerous suite.
47975 About the middle of the Arbat Street, near the Church of the Miraculous
47976 Icon of St. Nicholas, Murat halted to await news from the advanced
47977 detachment as to the condition in which they had found the citadel, le
47980 Around Murat gathered a group of those who had remained in Moscow. They
47981 all stared in timid bewilderment at the strange, long-haired commander
47982 dressed up in feathers and gold.
47984 "Is that their Tsar himself? He's not bad!" low voices could be heard
47987 An interpreter rode up to the group.
47989 "Take off your cap... your caps!" These words went from one to another
47990 in the crowd. The interpreter addressed an old porter and asked if it
47991 was far to the Kremlin. The porter, listening in perplexity to the
47992 unfamiliar Polish accent and not realizing that the interpreter was
47993 speaking Russian, did not understand what was being said to him and
47994 slipped behind the others.
47996 Murat approached the interpreter and told him to ask where the Russian
47997 army was. One of the Russians understood what was asked and several
47998 voices at once began answering the interpreter. A French officer,
47999 returning from the advanced detachment, rode up to Murat and reported
48000 that the gates of the citadel had been barricaded and that there was
48001 probably an ambuscade there.
48003 "Good!" said Murat and, turning to one of the gentlemen in his suite,
48004 ordered four light guns to be moved forward to fire at the gates.
48006 The guns emerged at a trot from the column following Murat and advanced
48007 up the Arbat. When they reached the end of the Vozdvizhenka Street they
48008 halted and drew in the Square. Several French officers superintended the
48009 placing of the guns and looked at the Kremlin through field glasses.
48011 The bells in the Kremlin were ringing for vespers, and this sound
48012 troubled the French. They imagined it to be a call to arms. A few
48013 infantrymen ran to the Kutafyev Gate. Beams and wooden screens had been
48014 put there, and two musket shots rang out from under the gate as soon as
48015 an officer and men began to run toward it. A general who was standing by
48016 the guns shouted some words of command to the officer, and the latter
48017 ran back again with his men.
48019 The sound of three more shots came from the gate.
48021 One shot struck a French soldier's foot, and from behind the screens
48022 came the strange sound of a few voices shouting. Instantly as at a word
48023 of command the expression of cheerful serenity on the faces of the
48024 French general, officers, and men changed to one of determined
48025 concentrated readiness for strife and suffering. To all of them from the
48026 marshal to the least soldier, that place was not the Vozdvizhenka,
48027 Mokhavaya, or Kutafyev Street, nor the Troitsa Gate (places familiar in
48028 Moscow), but a new battlefield which would probably prove sanguinary.
48029 And all made ready for that battle. The cries from the gates ceased. The
48030 guns were advanced, the artillerymen blew the ash off their linstocks,
48031 and an officer gave the word "Fire!" This was followed by two whistling
48032 sounds of canister shot, one after another. The shot rattled against the
48033 stone of the gate and upon the wooden beams and screens, and two
48034 wavering clouds of smoke rose over the Square.
48036 A few instants after the echo of the reports resounding over the stone-
48037 built Kremlin had died away the French heard a strange sound above their
48038 head. Thousands of crows rose above the walls and circled in the air,
48039 cawing and noisily flapping their wings. Together with that sound came a
48040 solitary human cry from the gateway and amid the smoke appeared the
48041 figure of a bareheaded man in a peasant's coat. He grasped a musket and
48042 took aim at the French. "Fire!" repeated the officer once more, and the
48043 reports of a musket and of two cannon shots were heard simultaneously.
48044 The gate was again hidden by smoke.
48046 Nothing more stirred behind the screens and the French infantry soldiers
48047 and officers advanced to the gate. In the gateway lay three wounded and
48048 four dead. Two men in peasant coats ran away at the foot of the wall,
48049 toward the Znamenka.
48051 "Clear that away!" said the officer, pointing to the beams and the
48052 corpses, and the French soldiers, after dispatching the wounded, threw
48053 the corpses over the parapet.
48055 Who these men were nobody knew. "Clear that away!" was all that was said
48056 of them, and they were thrown over the parapet and removed later on that
48057 they might not stink. Thiers alone dedicates a few eloquent lines to
48058 their memory: "These wretches had occupied the sacred citadel, having
48059 supplied themselves with guns from the arsenal, and fired" (the
48060 wretches) "at the French. Some of them were sabered and the Kremlin was
48061 purged of their presence."
48063 Murat was informed that the way had been cleared. The French entered the
48064 gates and began pitching their camp in the Senate Square. Out of the
48065 windows of the Senate House the soldiers threw chairs into the Square
48066 for fuel and kindled fires there.
48068 Other detachments passed through the Kremlin and encamped along the
48069 Moroseyka, the Lubyanka, and Pokrovka Streets. Others quartered
48070 themselves along the Vozdvizhenka, the Nikolski, and the Tverskoy
48071 Streets. No masters of the houses being found anywhere, the French were
48072 not billeted on the inhabitants as is usual in towns but lived in it as
48075 Though tattered, hungry, worn out, and reduced to a third of their
48076 original number, the French entered Moscow in good marching order. It
48077 was a weary and famished, but still a fighting and menacing army. But it
48078 remained an army only until its soldiers had dispersed into their
48079 different lodgings. As soon as the men of the various regiments began to
48080 disperse among the wealthy and deserted houses, the army was lost
48081 forever and there came into being something nondescript, neither
48082 citizens nor soldiers but what are known as marauders. When five weeks
48083 later these same men left Moscow, they no longer formed an army. They
48084 were a mob of marauders, each carrying a quantity of articles which
48085 seemed to him valuable or useful. The aim of each man when he left
48086 Moscow was no longer, as it had been, to conquer, but merely to keep
48087 what he had acquired. Like a monkey which puts its paw into the narrow
48088 neck of a jug, and having seized a handful of nuts will not open its
48089 fist for fear of losing what it holds, and therefore perishes, the
48090 French when they left Moscow had inevitably to perish because they
48091 carried their loot with them, yet to abandon what they had stolen was as
48092 impossible for them as it is for the monkey to open its paw and let go
48093 of its nuts. Ten minutes after each regiment had entered a Moscow
48094 district, not a soldier or officer was left. Men in military uniforms
48095 and Hessian boots could be seen through the windows, laughing and
48096 walking through the rooms. In cellars and storerooms similar men were
48097 busy among the provisions, and in the yards unlocking or breaking open
48098 coach house and stable doors, lighting fires in kitchens and kneading
48099 and baking bread with rolled-up sleeves, and cooking; or frightening,
48100 amusing, or caressing women and children. There were many such men both
48101 in the shops and houses--but there was no army.
48103 Order after order was issued by the French commanders that day
48104 forbidding the men to disperse about the town, sternly forbidding any
48105 violence to the inhabitants or any looting, and announcing a roll call
48106 for that very evening. But despite all these measures the men, who had
48107 till then constituted an army, flowed all over the wealthy, deserted
48108 city with its comforts and plentiful supplies. As a hungry herd of
48109 cattle keeps well together when crossing a barren field, but gets out of
48110 hand and at once disperses uncontrollably as soon as it reaches rich
48111 pastures, so did the army disperse all over the wealthy city.
48113 No residents were left in Moscow, and the soldiers--like water
48114 percolating through sand--spread irresistibly through the city in all
48115 directions from the Kremlin into which they had first marched. The
48116 cavalry, on entering a merchant's house that had been abandoned and
48117 finding there stabling more than sufficient for their horses, went on,
48118 all the same, to the next house which seemed to them better. Many of
48119 them appropriated several houses, chalked their names on them, and
48120 quarreled and even fought with other companies for them. Before they had
48121 had time to secure quarters the soldiers ran out into the streets to see
48122 the city and, hearing that everything had been abandoned, rushed to
48123 places where valuables were to be had for the taking. The officers
48124 followed to check the soldiers and were involuntarily drawn into doing
48125 the same. In Carriage Row carriages had been left in the shops, and
48126 generals flocked there to select caleches and coaches for themselves.
48127 The few inhabitants who had remained invited commanding officers to
48128 their houses, hoping thereby to secure themselves from being plundered.
48129 There were masses of wealth and there seemed no end to it. All around
48130 the quarters occupied by the French were other regions still unexplored
48131 and unoccupied where, they thought, yet greater riches might be found.
48132 And Moscow engulfed the army ever deeper and deeper. When water is
48133 spilled on dry ground both the dry ground and the water disappear and
48134 mud results; and in the same way the entry of the famished army into the
48135 rich and deserted city resulted in fires and looting and the destruction
48136 of both the army and the wealthy city.
48138 The French attributed the Fire of Moscow au patriotisme feroce de
48139 Rostopchine, * the Russians to the barbarity of the French. In reality,
48140 however, it was not, and could not be, possible to explain the burning
48141 of Moscow by making any individual, or any group of people, responsible
48142 for it. Moscow was burned because it found itself in a position in which
48143 any town built of wood was bound to burn, quite apart from whether it
48144 had, or had not, a hundred and thirty inferior fire engines. Deserted
48145 Moscow had to burn as inevitably as a heap of shavings has to burn on
48146 which sparks continually fall for several days. A town built of wood,
48147 where scarcely a day passes without conflagrations when the house owners
48148 are in residence and a police force is present, cannot help burning when
48149 its inhabitants have left it and it is occupied by soldiers who smoke
48150 pipes, make campfires of the Senate chairs in the Senate Square, and
48151 cook themselves meals twice a day. In peacetime it is only necessary to
48152 billet troops in the villages of any district and the number of fires in
48153 that district immediately increases. How much then must the probability
48154 of fire be increased in an abandoned, wooden town where foreign troops
48155 are quartered. "Le patriotisme feroce de Rostopchine" and the barbarity
48156 of the French were not to blame in the matter. Moscow was set on fire by
48157 the soldiers' pipes, kitchens, and campfires, and by the carelessness of
48158 enemy soldiers occupying houses they did not own. Even if there was any
48159 arson (which is very doubtful, for no one had any reason to burn the
48160 houses--in any case a troublesome and dangerous thing to do), arson
48161 cannot be regarded as the cause, for the same thing would have happened
48162 without any incendiarism.
48165 * To Rostopchin's ferocious patriotism.
48167 However tempting it might be for the French to blame Rostopchin's
48168 ferocity and for Russians to blame the scoundrel Bonaparte, or later on
48169 to place an heroic torch in the hands of their own people, it is
48170 impossible not to see that there could be no such direct cause of the
48171 fire, for Moscow had to burn as every village, factory, or house must
48172 burn which is left by its owners and in which strangers are allowed to
48173 live and cook their porridge. Moscow was burned by its inhabitants, it
48174 is true, but by those who had abandoned it and not by those who remained
48175 in it. Moscow when occupied by the enemy did not remain intact like
48176 Berlin, Vienna, and other towns, simply because its inhabitants
48177 abandoned it and did not welcome the French with bread and salt, nor
48178 bring them the keys of the city.
48185 The absorption of the French by Moscow, radiating starwise as it did,
48186 only reached the quarter where Pierre was staying by the evening of the
48187 second of September.
48189 After the last two days spent in solitude and unusual circumstances,
48190 Pierre was in a state bordering on insanity. He was completely obsessed
48191 by one persistent thought. He did not know how or when this thought had
48192 taken such possession of him, but he remembered nothing of the past,
48193 understood nothing of the present, and all he saw and heard appeared to
48196 He had left home only to escape the intricate tangle of life's demands
48197 that enmeshed him, and which in his present condition he was unable to
48198 unravel. He had gone to Joseph Alexeevich's house, on the plea of
48199 sorting the deceased's books and papers, only in search of rest from
48200 life's turmoil, for in his mind the memory of Joseph Alexeevich was
48201 connected with a world of eternal, solemn, and calm thoughts, quite
48202 contrary to the restless confusion into which he felt himself being
48203 drawn. He sought a quiet refuge, and in Joseph Alexeevich's study he
48204 really found it. When he sat with his elbows on the dusty writing table
48205 in the deathlike stillness of the study, calm and significant memories
48206 of the last few days rose one after another in his imagination,
48207 particularly of the battle of Borodino and of that vague sense of his
48208 own insignificance and insincerity compared with the truth, simplicity,
48209 and strength of the class of men he mentally classed as they. When
48210 Gerasim roused him from his reverie the idea occurred to him of taking
48211 part in the popular defense of Moscow which he knew was projected. And
48212 with that object he had asked Gerasim to get him a peasant's coat and a
48213 pistol, confiding to him his intentions of remaining in Joseph
48214 Alexeevich's house and keeping his name secret. Then during the first
48215 day spent in inaction and solitude (he tried several times to fix his
48216 attention on the masonic manuscripts, but was unable to do so) the idea
48217 that had previously occurred to him of the cabalistic significance of
48218 his name in connection with Bonaparte's more than once vaguely presented
48219 itself. But the idea that he, L'russe Besuhof, was destined to set a
48220 limit to the power of the Beast was as yet only one of the fancies that
48221 often passed through his mind and left no trace behind.
48223 When, having bought the coat merely with the object of taking part among
48224 the people in the defense of Moscow, Pierre had met the Rostovs and
48225 Natasha had said to him: "Are you remaining in Moscow?... How splendid!"
48226 the thought flashed into his mind that it really would be a good thing,
48227 even if Moscow were taken, for him to remain there and do what he was
48230 Next day, with the sole idea of not sparing himself and not lagging in
48231 any way behind them, Pierre went to the Three Hills gate. But when he
48232 returned to the house convinced that Moscow would not be defended, he
48233 suddenly felt that what before had seemed to him merely a possibility
48234 had now become absolutely necessary and inevitable. He must remain in
48235 Moscow, concealing his name, and must meet Napoleon and kill him, and
48236 either perish or put an end to the misery of all Europe--which it seemed
48237 to him was solely due to Napoleon.
48239 Pierre knew all the details of the attempt on Bonaparte's life in 1809
48240 by a German student in Vienna, and knew that the student had been shot.
48241 And the risk to which he would expose his life by carrying out his
48242 design excited him still more.
48244 Two equally strong feelings drew Pierre irresistibly to this purpose.
48245 The first was a feeling of the necessity of sacrifice and suffering in
48246 view of the common calamity, the same feeling that had caused him to go
48247 to Mozhaysk on the twenty-fifth and to make his way to the very thick of
48248 the battle and had now caused him to run away from his home and, in
48249 place of the luxury and comfort to which he was accustomed, to sleep on
48250 a hard sofa without undressing and eat the same food as Gerasim. The
48251 other was that vague and quite Russian feeling of contempt for
48252 everything conventional, artificial, and human--for everything the
48253 majority of men regard as the greatest good in the world. Pierre had
48254 first experienced this strange and fascinating feeling at the Sloboda
48255 Palace, when he had suddenly felt that wealth, power, and life--all that
48256 men so painstakingly acquire and guard--if it has any worth has so only
48257 by reason of the joy with which it can all be renounced.
48259 It was the feeling that induces a volunteer recruit to spend his last
48260 penny on drink, and a drunken man to smash mirrors or glasses for no
48261 apparent reason and knowing that it will cost him all the money he
48262 possesses: the feeling which causes a man to perform actions which from
48263 an ordinary point of view are insane, to test, as it were, his personal
48264 power and strength, affirming the existence of a higher, nonhuman
48267 From the very day Pierre had experienced this feeling for the first time
48268 at the Sloboda Palace he had been continuously under its influence, but
48269 only now found full satisfaction for it. Moreover, at this moment Pierre
48270 was supported in his design and prevented from renouncing it by what he
48271 had already done in that direction. If he were now to leave Moscow like
48272 everyone else, his flight from home, the peasant coat, the pistol, and
48273 his announcement to the Rostovs that he would remain in Moscow would all
48274 become not merely meaningless but contemptible and ridiculous, and to
48275 this Pierre was very sensitive.
48277 Pierre's physical condition, as is always the case, corresponded to his
48278 mental state. The unaccustomed coarse food, the vodka he drank during
48279 those days, the absence of wine and cigars, his dirty unchanged linen,
48280 two almost sleepless nights passed on a short sofa without bedding--all
48281 this kept him in a state of excitement bordering on insanity.
48283 It was two o'clock in the afternoon. The French had already entered
48284 Moscow. Pierre knew this, but instead of acting he only thought about
48285 his undertaking, going over its minutest details in his mind. In his
48286 fancy he did not clearly picture to himself either the striking of the
48287 blow or the death of Napoleon, but with extraordinary vividness and
48288 melancholy enjoyment imagined his own destruction and heroic endurance.
48290 "Yes, alone, for the sake of all, I must do it or perish!" he thought.
48291 "Yes, I will approach... and then suddenly... with pistol or dagger? But
48292 that is all the same! 'It is not I but the hand of Providence that
48293 punishes thee,' I shall say," thought he, imagining what he would say
48294 when killing Napoleon. "Well then, take me and execute me!" he went on,
48295 speaking to himself and bowing his head with a sad but firm expression.
48297 While Pierre, standing in the middle of the room, was talking to himself
48298 in this way, the study door opened and on the threshold appeared the
48299 figure of Makar Alexeevich, always so timid before but now quite
48302 His dressing gown was unfastened, his face red and distorted. He was
48303 obviously drunk. On seeing Pierre he grew confused at first, but
48304 noticing embarrassment on Pierre's face immediately grew bold and,
48305 staggering on his thin legs, advanced into the middle of the room.
48307 "They're frightened," he said confidentially in a hoarse voice. "I say I
48308 won't surrender, I say... Am I not right, sir?"
48310 He paused and then suddenly seeing the pistol on the table seized it
48311 with unexpected rapidity and ran out into the corridor.
48313 Gerasim and the porter, who had followed Makar Alexeevich, stopped him
48314 in the vestibule and tried to take the pistol from him. Pierre, coming
48315 out into the corridor, looked with pity and repulsion at the half-crazy
48316 old man. Makar Alexeevich, frowning with exertion, held on to the pistol
48317 and screamed hoarsely, evidently with some heroic fancy in his head.
48319 "To arms! Board them! No, you shan't get it," he yelled.
48321 "That will do, please, that will do. Have the goodness--please, sir, to
48322 let go! Please, sir..." pleaded Gerasim, trying carefully to steer Makar
48323 Alexeevich by the elbows back to the door.
48325 "Who are you? Bonaparte!..." shouted Makar Alexeevich.
48327 "That's not right, sir. Come to your room, please, and rest. Allow me to
48330 "Be off, thou base slave! Touch me not! See this?" shouted Makar
48331 Alexeevich, brandishing the pistol. "Board them!"
48333 "Catch hold!" whispered Gerasim to the porter.
48335 They seized Makar Alexeevich by the arms and dragged him to the door.
48337 The vestibule was filled with the discordant sounds of a struggle and of
48338 a tipsy, hoarse voice.
48340 Suddenly a fresh sound, a piercing feminine scream, reverberated from
48341 the porch and the cook came running into the vestibule.
48343 "It's them! Gracious heavens! O Lord, four of them, horsemen!" she
48346 Gerasim and the porter let Makar Alexeevich go, and in the now silent
48347 corridor the sound of several hands knocking at the front door could be
48355 Pierre, having decided that until he had carried out his design he would
48356 disclose neither his identity nor his knowledge of French, stood at the
48357 half-open door of the corridor, intending to conceal himself as soon as
48358 the French entered. But the French entered and still Pierre did not
48359 retire--an irresistible curiosity kept him there.
48361 There were two of them. One was an officer--a tall, soldierly, handsome
48362 man--the other evidently a private or an orderly, sunburned, short, and
48363 thin, with sunken cheeks and a dull expression. The officer walked in
48364 front, leaning on a stick and slightly limping. When he had advanced a
48365 few steps he stopped, having apparently decided that these were good
48366 quarters, turned round to the soldiers standing at the entrance, and in
48367 a loud voice of command ordered them to put up the horses. Having done
48368 that, the officer, lifting his elbow with a smart gesture, stroked his
48369 mustache and lightly touched his hat.
48371 "Bonjour, la compagnie!" * said he gaily, smiling and looking about him.
48374 * "Good day, everybody!"
48376 No one gave any reply.
48378 "Vous etes le bourgeois?" * the officer asked Gerasim.
48381 * "Are you the master here?"
48383 Gerasim gazed at the officer with an alarmed and inquiring look.
48385 "Quartier, quartier, logement!" said the officer, looking down at the
48386 little man with a condescending and good-natured smile. "Les francais
48387 sont de bons enfants. Que diable! Voyons! Ne nous fachons pas, mon
48388 vieux!" * added he, clapping the scared and silent Gerasim on the
48389 shoulder. "Well, does no one speak French in this establishment?" he
48390 asked again in French, looking around and meeting Pierre's eyes. Pierre
48391 moved away from the door.
48394 * "Quarters, quarters, lodgings! The French are good fellows. What the
48395 devil! There, don't let us be cross, old fellow!"
48397 Again the officer turned to Gerasim and asked him to show him the rooms
48400 "Master, not here--don't understand... me, you..." said Gerasim, trying
48401 to render his words more comprehensible by contorting them.
48403 Still smiling, the French officer spread out his hands before Gerasim's
48404 nose, intimating that he did not understand him either, and moved,
48405 limping, to the door at which Pierre was standing. Pierre wished to go
48406 away and conceal himself, but at that moment he saw Makar Alexeevich
48407 appearing at the open kitchen door with the pistol in his hand. With a
48408 madman's cunning, Makar Alexeevich eyed the Frenchman, raised his
48409 pistol, and took aim.
48411 "Board them!" yelled the tipsy man, trying to press the trigger. Hearing
48412 the yell the officer turned round, and at the same moment Pierre threw
48413 himself on the drunkard. Just when Pierre snatched at and struck up the
48414 pistol Makar Alexeevich at last got his fingers on the trigger, there
48415 was a deafening report, and all were enveloped in a cloud of smoke. The
48416 Frenchman turned pale and rushed to the door.
48418 Forgetting his intention of concealing his knowledge of French, Pierre,
48419 snatching away the pistol and throwing it down, ran up to the officer
48420 and addressed him in French.
48422 "You are not wounded?" he asked.
48424 "I think not," answered the Frenchman, feeling himself over. "But I have
48425 had a lucky escape this time," he added, pointing to the damaged plaster
48426 of the wall. "Who is that man?" said he, looking sternly at Pierre.
48428 "Oh, I am really in despair at what has occurred," said Pierre rapidly,
48429 quite forgetting the part he had intended to play. "He is an unfortunate
48430 madman who did not know what he was doing."
48432 The officer went up to Makar Alexeevich and took him by the collar.
48434 Makar Alexeevich was standing with parted lips, swaying, as if about to
48435 fall asleep, as he leaned against the wall.
48437 "Brigand! You shall pay for this," said the Frenchman, letting go of
48438 him. "We French are merciful after victory, but we do not pardon
48439 traitors," he added, with a look of gloomy dignity and a fine energetic
48442 Pierre continued, in French, to persuade the officer not to hold that
48443 drunken imbecile to account. The Frenchman listened in silence with the
48444 same gloomy expression, but suddenly turned to Pierre with a smile. For
48445 a few seconds he looked at him in silence. His handsome face assumed a
48446 melodramatically gentle expression and he held out his hand.
48448 "You have saved my life. You are French," said he.
48450 For a Frenchman that deduction was indubitable. Only a Frenchman could
48451 perform a great deed, and to save his life--the life of M. Ramballe,
48452 captain of the 13th Light Regiment--was undoubtedly a very great deed.
48454 But however indubitable that conclusion and the officer's conviction
48455 based upon it, Pierre felt it necessary to disillusion him.
48457 "I am Russian," he said quickly.
48459 "Tut, tut, tut! Tell that to others," said the officer, waving his
48460 finger before his nose and smiling. "You shall tell me all about that
48461 presently. I am delighted to meet a compatriot. Well, and what are we to
48462 do with this man?" he added, addressing himself to Pierre as to a
48465 Even if Pierre were not a Frenchman, having once received that loftiest
48466 of human appellations he could not renounce it, said the officer's look
48467 and tone. In reply to his last question Pierre again explained who Makar
48468 Alexeevich was and how just before their arrival that drunken imbecile
48469 had seized the loaded pistol which they had not had time to recover from
48470 him, and begged the officer to let the deed go unpunished.
48472 The Frenchman expanded his chest and made a majestic gesture with his
48475 "You have saved my life! You are French. You ask his pardon? I grant it
48476 you. Lead that man away!" said he quickly and energetically, and taking
48477 the arm of Pierre whom he had promoted to be a Frenchman for saving his
48478 life, he went with him into the room.
48480 The soldiers in the yard, hearing the shot, came into the passage asking
48481 what had happened, and expressed their readiness to punish the culprits,
48482 but the officer sternly checked them.
48484 "You will be called in when you are wanted," he said.
48486 The soldiers went out again, and the orderly, who had meanwhile had time
48487 to visit the kitchen, came up to his officer.
48489 "Captain, there is soup and a leg of mutton in the kitchen," said he.
48490 "Shall I serve them up?"
48492 "Yes, and some wine," answered the captain.
48499 When the French officer went into the room with Pierre the latter again
48500 thought it his duty to assure him that he was not French and wished to
48501 go away, but the officer would not hear of it. He was so very polite,
48502 amiable, good-natured, and genuinely grateful to Pierre for saving his
48503 life that Pierre had not the heart to refuse, and sat down with him in
48504 the parlor--the first room they entered. To Pierre's assurances that he
48505 was not a Frenchman, the captain, evidently not understanding how anyone
48506 could decline so flattering an appellation, shrugged his shoulders and
48507 said that if Pierre absolutely insisted on passing for a Russian let it
48508 be so, but for all that he would be forever bound to Pierre by gratitude
48509 for saving his life.
48511 Had this man been endowed with the slightest capacity for perceiving the
48512 feelings of others, and had he at all understood what Pierre's feelings
48513 were, the latter would probably have left him, but the man's animated
48514 obtuseness to everything other than himself disarmed Pierre.
48516 "A Frenchman or a Russian prince incognito," said the officer, looking
48517 at Pierre's fine though dirty linen and at the ring on his finger. "I
48518 owe my life to you and offer you my friendship. A Frenchman never
48519 forgets either an insult or a service. I offer you my friendship. That
48522 There was so much good nature and nobility (in the French sense of the
48523 word) in the officer's voice, in the expression of his face and in his
48524 gestures, that Pierre, unconsciously smiling in response to the
48525 Frenchman's smile, pressed the hand held out to him.
48527 "Captain Ramballe, of the 13th Light Regiment, Chevalier of the Legion
48528 of Honor for the affair on the seventh of September," he introduced
48529 himself, a self-satisfied irrepressible smile puckering his lips under
48530 his mustache. "Will you now be so good as to tell me with whom I have
48531 the honor of conversing so pleasantly, instead of being in the ambulance
48532 with that maniac's bullet in my body?"
48534 Pierre replied that he could not tell him his name and, blushing, began
48535 to try to invent a name and to say something about his reason for
48536 concealing it, but the Frenchman hastily interrupted him.
48538 "Oh, please!" said he. "I understand your reasons. You are an officer...
48539 a superior officer perhaps. You have borne arms against us. That's not
48540 my business. I owe you my life. That is enough for me. I am quite at
48541 your service. You belong to the gentry?" he concluded with a shade of
48542 inquiry in his tone. Pierre bent his head. "Your baptismal name, if you
48543 please. That is all I ask. Monsieur Pierre, you say.... That's all I
48546 When the mutton and an omelet had been served and a samovar and vodka
48547 brought, with some wine which the French had taken from a Russian cellar
48548 and brought with them, Ramballe invited Pierre to share his dinner, and
48549 himself began to eat greedily and quickly like a healthy and hungry man,
48550 munching his food rapidly with his strong teeth, continually smacking
48551 his lips, and repeating--"Excellent! Delicious!" His face grew red and
48552 was covered with perspiration. Pierre was hungry and shared the dinner
48553 with pleasure. Morel, the orderly, brought some hot water in a saucepan
48554 and placed a bottle of claret in it. He also brought a bottle of kvass,
48555 taken from the kitchen for them to try. That beverage was already known
48556 to the French and had been given a special name. They called it limonade
48557 de cochon (pig's lemonade), and Morel spoke well of the limonade de
48558 cochon he had found in the kitchen. But as the captain had the wine they
48559 had taken while passing through Moscow, he left the kvass to Morel and
48560 applied himself to the bottle of Bordeaux. He wrapped the bottle up to
48561 its neck in a table napkin and poured out wine for himself and for
48562 Pierre. The satisfaction of his hunger and the wine rendered the captain
48563 still more lively and he chatted incessantly all through dinner.
48565 "Yes, my dear Monsieur Pierre, I owe you a fine votive candle for saving
48566 me from that maniac.... You see, I have bullets enough in my body
48567 already. Here is one I got at Wagram" (he touched his side) "and a
48568 second at Smolensk"--he showed a scar on his cheek--"and this leg which
48569 as you see does not want to march, I got that on the seventh at the
48570 great battle of la Moskowa. Sacre Dieu! It was splendid! That deluge of
48571 fire was worth seeing. It was a tough job you set us there, my word! You
48572 may be proud of it! And on my honor, in spite of the cough I caught
48573 there, I should be ready to begin again. I pity those who did not see
48576 "I was there," said Pierre.
48578 "Bah, really? So much the better! You are certainly brave foes. The
48579 great redoubt held out well, by my pipe!" continued the Frenchman. "And
48580 you made us pay dear for it. I was at it three times--sure as I sit
48581 here. Three times we reached the guns and three times we were thrown
48582 back like cardboard figures. Oh, it was beautiful, Monsieur Pierre! Your
48583 grenadiers were splendid, by heaven! I saw them close up their ranks six
48584 times in succession and march as if on parade. Fine fellows! Our King of
48585 Naples, who knows what's what, cried 'Bravo!' Ha, ha! So you are one of
48586 us soldiers!" he added, smiling, after a momentary pause. "So much the
48587 better, so much the better, Monsieur Pierre! Terrible in battle...
48588 gallant... with the fair" (he winked and smiled), "that's what the
48589 French are, Monsieur Pierre, aren't they?"
48591 The captain was so naively and good-humoredly gay, so real, and so
48592 pleased with himself that Pierre almost winked back as he looked merrily
48593 at him. Probably the word "gallant" turned the captain's thoughts to the
48596 "Apropos, tell me please, is it true that the women have all left
48597 Moscow? What a queer idea! What had they to be afraid of?"
48599 "Would not the French ladies leave Paris if the Russians entered it?"
48602 "Ha, ha, ha!" The Frenchman emitted a merry, sanguine chuckle, patting
48603 Pierre on the shoulder. "What a thing to say!" he exclaimed. "Paris?...
48604 But Paris, Paris..."
48606 "Paris--the capital of the world," Pierre finished his remark for him.
48608 The captain looked at Pierre. He had a habit of stopping short in the
48609 middle of his talk and gazing intently with his laughing, kindly eyes.
48611 "Well, if you hadn't told me you were Russian, I should have wagered
48612 that you were Parisian! You have that... I don't know what, that..." and
48613 having uttered this compliment, he again gazed at him in silence.
48615 "I have been in Paris. I spent years there," said Pierre.
48617 "Oh yes, one sees that plainly. Paris!... A man who doesn't know Paris
48618 is a savage. You can tell a Parisian two leagues off. Paris is Talma, la
48619 Duchenois, Potier, the Sorbonne, the boulevards," and noticing that his
48620 conclusion was weaker than what had gone before, he added quickly:
48621 "There is only one Paris in the world. You have been to Paris and have
48622 remained Russian. Well, I don't esteem you the less for it."
48624 Under the influence of the wine he had drunk, and after the days he had
48625 spent alone with his depressing thoughts, Pierre involuntarily enjoyed
48626 talking with this cheerful and good-natured man.
48628 "To return to your ladies--I hear they are lovely. What a wretched idea
48629 to go and bury themselves in the steppes when the French army is in
48630 Moscow. What a chance those girls have missed! Your peasants, now--
48631 that's another thing; but you civilized people, you ought to know us
48632 better than that. We took Vienna, Berlin, Madrid, Naples, Rome, Warsaw,
48633 all the world's capitals.... We are feared, but we are loved. We are
48634 nice to know. And then the Emperor..." he began, but Pierre interrupted
48637 "The Emperor," Pierre repeated, and his face suddenly became sad and
48638 embarrassed, "is the Emperor...?"
48640 "The Emperor? He is generosity, mercy, justice, order, genius--that's
48641 what the Emperor is! It is I, Ramballe, who tell you so.... I assure you
48642 I was his enemy eight years ago. My father was an emigrant count.... But
48643 that man has vanquished me. He has taken hold of me. I could not resist
48644 the sight of the grandeur and glory with which he has covered France.
48645 When I understood what he wanted--when I saw that he was preparing a bed
48646 of laurels for us, you know, I said to myself: 'That is a monarch,' and
48647 I devoted myself to him! So there! Oh yes, mon cher, he is the greatest
48648 man of the ages past or future."
48650 "Is he in Moscow?" Pierre stammered with a guilty look.
48652 The Frenchman looked at his guilty face and smiled.
48654 "No, he will make his entry tomorrow," he replied, and continued his
48657 Their conversation was interrupted by the cries of several voices at the
48658 gate and by Morel, who came to say that some Wurttemberg hussars had
48659 come and wanted to put up their horses in the yard where the captain's
48660 horses were. This difficulty had arisen chiefly because the hussars did
48661 not understand what was said to them in French.
48663 The captain had their senior sergeant called in, and in a stern voice
48664 asked him to what regiment he belonged, who was his commanding officer,
48665 and by what right he allowed himself to claim quarters that were already
48666 occupied. The German who knew little French, answered the two first
48667 questions by giving the names of his regiment and of his commanding
48668 officer, but in reply to the third question which he did not understand
48669 said, introducing broken French into his own German, that he was the
48670 quartermaster of the regiment and his commander had ordered him to
48671 occupy all the houses one after another. Pierre, who knew German,
48672 translated what the German said to the captain and gave the captain's
48673 reply to the Wurttemberg hussar in German. When he had understood what
48674 was said to him, the German submitted and took his men elsewhere. The
48675 captain went out into the porch and gave some orders in a loud voice.
48677 When he returned to the room Pierre was sitting in the same place as
48678 before, with his head in his hands. His face expressed suffering. He
48679 really was suffering at that moment. When the captain went out and he
48680 was left alone, suddenly he came to himself and realized the position he
48681 was in. It was not that Moscow had been taken or that the happy
48682 conquerors were masters in it and were patronizing him. Painful as that
48683 was it was not that which tormented Pierre at the moment. He was
48684 tormented by the consciousness of his own weakness. The few glasses of
48685 wine he had drunk and the conversation with this good-natured man had
48686 destroyed the mood of concentrated gloom in which he had spent the last
48687 few days and which was essential for the execution of his design. The
48688 pistol, dagger, and peasant coat were ready. Napoleon was to enter the
48689 town next day. Pierre still considered that it would be a useful and
48690 worthy action to slay the evildoer, but now he felt that he would not do
48691 it. He did not know why, but he felt a foreboding that he would not
48692 carry out his intention. He struggled against the confession of his
48693 weakness but dimly felt that he could not overcome it and that his
48694 former gloomy frame of mind, concerning vengeance, killing, and self-
48695 sacrifice, had been dispersed like dust by contact with the first man he
48698 The captain returned to the room, limping slightly and whistling a tune.
48700 The Frenchman's chatter which had previously amused Pierre now repelled
48701 him. The tune he was whistling, his gait, and the gesture with which he
48702 twirled his mustache, all now seemed offensive. "I will go away
48703 immediately. I won't say another word to him," thought Pierre. He
48704 thought this, but still sat in the same place. A strange feeling of
48705 weakness tied him to the spot; he wished to get up and go away, but
48708 The captain, on the other hand, seemed very cheerful. He paced up and
48709 down the room twice. His eyes shone and his mustache twitched as if he
48710 were smiling to himself at some amusing thought.
48712 "The colonel of those Wurttembergers is delightful," he suddenly said.
48713 "He's a German, but a nice fellow all the same.... But he's a German."
48714 He sat down facing Pierre. "By the way, you know German, then?"
48716 Pierre looked at him in silence.
48718 "What is the German for 'shelter'?"
48720 "Shelter?" Pierre repeated. "The German for shelter is Unterkunft."
48722 "How do you say it?" the captain asked quickly and doubtfully.
48724 "Unterkunft," Pierre repeated.
48726 "Onterkoff," said the captain and looked at Pierre for some seconds with
48727 laughing eyes. "These Germans are first-rate fools, don't you think so,
48728 Monsieur Pierre?" he concluded.
48730 "Well, let's have another bottle of this Moscow Bordeaux, shall we?
48731 Morel will warm us up another little bottle. Morel!" he called out
48734 Morel brought candles and a bottle of wine. The captain looked at Pierre
48735 by the candlelight and was evidently struck by the troubled expression
48736 on his companion's face. Ramballe, with genuine distress and sympathy in
48737 his face, went up to Pierre and bent over him.
48739 "There now, we're sad," said he, touching Pierre's hand. "Have I upset
48740 you? No, really, have you anything against me?" he asked Pierre.
48741 "Perhaps it's the state of affairs?"
48743 Pierre did not answer, but looked cordially into the Frenchman's eyes
48744 whose expression of sympathy was pleasing to him.
48746 "Honestly, without speaking of what I owe you, I feel friendship for
48747 you. Can I do anything for you? Dispose of me. It is for life and death.
48748 I say it with my hand on my heart!" said he, striking his chest.
48750 "Thank you," said Pierre.
48752 The captain gazed intently at him as he had done when he learned that
48753 "shelter" was Unterkunft in German, and his face suddenly brightened.
48755 "Well, in that case, I drink to our friendship!" he cried gaily, filling
48756 two glasses with wine.
48758 Pierre took one of the glasses and emptied it. Ramballe emptied his too,
48759 again pressed Pierre's hand, and leaned his elbows on the table in a
48762 "Yes, my dear friend," he began, "such is fortune's caprice. Who would
48763 have said that I should be a soldier and a captain of dragoons in the
48764 service of Bonaparte, as we used to call him? Yet here I am in Moscow
48765 with him. I must tell you, mon cher," he continued in the sad and
48766 measured tones of a man who intends to tell a long story, "that our name
48767 is one of the most ancient in France."
48769 And with a Frenchman's easy and naive frankness the captain told Pierre
48770 the story of his ancestors, his childhood, youth, and manhood, and all
48771 about his relations and his financial and family affairs, "ma pauvre
48772 mere" playing of course an important part in the story.
48774 "But all that is only life's setting, the real thing is love--love! Am I
48775 not right, Monsieur Pierre?" said he, growing animated. "Another glass?"
48777 Pierre again emptied his glass and poured himself out a third.
48779 "Oh, women, women!" and the captain, looking with glistening eyes at
48780 Pierre, began talking of love and of his love affairs.
48782 There were very many of these, as one could easily believe, looking at
48783 the officer's handsome, self-satisfied face, and noting the eager
48784 enthusiasm with which he spoke of women. Though all Ramballe's love
48785 stories had the sensual character which Frenchmen regard as the special
48786 charm and poetry of love, yet he told his story with such sincere
48787 conviction that he alone had experienced and known all the charm of love
48788 and he described women so alluringly that Pierre listened to him with
48791 It was plain that l'amour which the Frenchman was so fond of was not
48792 that low and simple kind that Pierre had once felt for his wife, nor was
48793 it the romantic love stimulated by himself that he experienced for
48794 Natasha. (Ramballe despised both these kinds of love equally: the one he
48795 considered the "love of clodhoppers" and the other the "love of
48796 simpletons.") L'amour which the Frenchman worshiped consisted
48797 principally in the unnaturalness of his relation to the woman and in a
48798 combination of incongruities giving the chief charm to the feeling.
48800 Thus the captain touchingly recounted the story of his love for a
48801 fascinating marquise of thirty-five and at the same time for a charming,
48802 innocent child of seventeen, daughter of the bewitching marquise. The
48803 conflict of magnanimity between the mother and the daughter, ending in
48804 the mother's sacrificing herself and offering her daughter in marriage
48805 to her lover, even now agitated the captain, though it was the memory of
48806 a distant past. Then he recounted an episode in which the husband played
48807 the part of the lover, and he--the lover--assumed the role of the
48808 husband, as well as several droll incidents from his recollections of
48809 Germany, where "shelter" is called Unterkunft and where the husbands eat
48810 sauerkraut and the young girls are "too blonde."
48812 Finally, the latest episode in Poland still fresh in the captain's
48813 memory, and which he narrated with rapid gestures and glowing face, was
48814 of how he had saved the life of a Pole (in general, the saving of life
48815 continually occurred in the captain's stories) and the Pole had
48816 entrusted to him his enchanting wife (parisienne de coeur) while himself
48817 entering the French service. The captain was happy, the enchanting
48818 Polish lady wished to elope with him, but, prompted by magnanimity, the
48819 captain restored the wife to the husband, saying as he did so: "I have
48820 saved your life, and I save your honor!" Having repeated these words the
48821 captain wiped his eyes and gave himself a shake, as if driving away the
48822 weakness which assailed him at this touching recollection.
48824 Listening to the captain's tales, Pierre--as often happens late in the
48825 evening and under the influence of wine--followed all that was told him,
48826 understood it all, and at the same time followed a train of personal
48827 memories which, he knew not why, suddenly arose in his mind. While
48828 listening to these love stories his own love for Natasha unexpectedly
48829 rose to his mind, and going over the pictures of that love in his
48830 imagination he mentally compared them with Ramballe's tales. Listening
48831 to the story of the struggle between love and duty, Pierre saw before
48832 his eyes every minutest detail of his last meeting with the object of
48833 his love at the Sukharev water tower. At the time of that meeting it had
48834 not produced an effect upon him--he had not even once recalled it. But
48835 now it seemed to him that that meeting had had in it something very
48836 important and poetic.
48838 "Peter Kirilovich, come here! We have recognized you," he now seemed to
48839 hear the words she had uttered and to see before him her eyes, her
48840 smile, her traveling hood, and a stray lock of her hair... and there
48841 seemed to him something pathetic and touching in all this.
48843 Having finished his tale about the enchanting Polish lady, the captain
48844 asked Pierre if he had ever experienced a similar impulse to sacrifice
48845 himself for love and a feeling of envy of the legitimate husband.
48847 Challenged by this question Pierre raised his head and felt a need to
48848 express the thoughts that filled his mind. He began to explain that he
48849 understood love for a women somewhat differently. He said that in all
48850 his life he had loved and still loved only one woman, and that she could
48853 "Tiens!" said the captain.
48855 Pierre then explained that he had loved this woman from his earliest
48856 years, but that he had not dared to think of her because she was too
48857 young, and because he had been an illegitimate son without a name.
48858 Afterwards when he had received a name and wealth he dared not think of
48859 her because he loved her too well, placing her far above everything in
48860 the world, and especially therefore above himself.
48862 When he had reached this point, Pierre asked the captain whether he
48865 The captain made a gesture signifying that even if he did not understand
48866 it he begged Pierre to continue.
48868 "Platonic love, clouds..." he muttered.
48870 Whether it was the wine he had drunk, or an impulse of frankness, or the
48871 thought that this man did not, and never would, know any of those who
48872 played a part in his story, or whether it was all these things together,
48873 something loosened Pierre's tongue. Speaking thickly and with a faraway
48874 look in his shining eyes, he told the whole story of his life: his
48875 marriage, Natasha's love for his best friend, her betrayal of him, and
48876 all his own simple relations with her. Urged on by Ramballe's questions
48877 he also told what he had at first concealed--his own position and even
48880 More than anything else in Pierre's story the captain was impressed by
48881 the fact that Pierre was very rich, had two mansions in Moscow, and that
48882 he had abandoned everything and not left the city, but remained there
48883 concealing his name and station.
48885 When it was late at night they went out together into the street. The
48886 night was warm and light. To the left of the house on the Pokrovka a
48887 fire glowed--the first of those that were beginning in Moscow. To the
48888 right and high up in the sky was the sickle of the waning moon and
48889 opposite to it hung that bright comet which was connected in Pierre's
48890 heart with his love. At the gate stood Gerasim, the cook, and two
48891 Frenchmen. Their laughter and their mutually incomprehensible remarks in
48892 two languages could be heard. They were looking at the glow seen in the
48895 There was nothing terrible in the one small, distant fire in the immense
48898 Gazing at the high starry sky, at the moon, at the comet, and at the
48899 glow from the fire, Pierre experienced a joyful emotion. "There now, how
48900 good it is, what more does one need?" thought he. And suddenly
48901 remembering his intention he grew dizzy and felt so faint that he leaned
48902 against the fence to save himself from falling.
48904 Without taking leave of his new friend, Pierre left the gate with
48905 unsteady steps and returning to his room lay down on the sofa and
48906 immediately fell asleep.
48913 The glow of the first fire that began on the second of September was
48914 watched from the various roads by the fugitive Muscovites and by the
48915 retreating troops, with many different feelings.
48917 The Rostov party spent the night at Mytishchi, fourteen miles from
48918 Moscow. They had started so late on the first of September, the road had
48919 been so blocked by vehicles and troops, so many things had been
48920 forgotten for which servants were sent back, that they had decided to
48921 spend that night at a place three miles out of Moscow. The next morning
48922 they woke late and were again delayed so often that they only got as far
48923 as Great Mytishchi. At ten o'clock that evening the Rostov family and
48924 the wounded traveling with them were all distributed in the yards and
48925 huts of that large village. The Rostovs' servants and coachmen and the
48926 orderlies of the wounded officers, after attending to their masters, had
48927 supper, fed the horses, and came out into the porches.
48929 In a neighboring hut lay Raevski's adjutant with a fractured wrist. The
48930 awful pain he suffered made him moan incessantly and piteously, and his
48931 moaning sounded terrible in the darkness of the autumn night. He had
48932 spent the first night in the same yard as the Rostovs. The countess said
48933 she had been unable to close her eyes on account of his moaning, and at
48934 Mytishchi she moved into a worse hut simply to be farther away from the
48937 In the darkness of the night one of the servants noticed, above the high
48938 body of a coach standing before the porch, the small glow of another
48939 fire. One glow had long been visible and everybody knew that it was
48940 Little Mytishchi burning--set on fire by Mamonov's Cossacks.
48942 "But look here, brothers, there's another fire!" remarked an orderly.
48944 All turned their attention to the glow.
48946 "But they told us Little Mytishchi had been set on fire by Mamonov's
48949 "But that's not Mytishchi, it's farther away."
48951 "Look, it must be in Moscow!"
48953 Two of the gazers went round to the other side of the coach and sat down
48956 "It's more to the left, why, Little Mytishchi is over there, and this is
48957 right on the other side."
48959 Several men joined the first two.
48961 "See how it's flaring," said one. "That's a fire in Moscow: either in
48962 the Sushchevski or the Rogozhski quarter."
48964 No one replied to this remark and for some time they all gazed silently
48965 at the spreading flames of the second fire in the distance.
48967 Old Daniel Terentich, the count's valet (as he was called), came up to
48968 the group and shouted at Mishka.
48970 "What are you staring at, you good-for-nothing?... The count will be
48971 calling and there's nobody there; go and gather the clothes together."
48973 "I only ran out to get some water," said Mishka.
48975 "But what do you think, Daniel Terentich? Doesn't it look as if that
48976 glow were in Moscow?" remarked one of the footmen.
48978 Daniel Terentich made no reply, and again for a long time they were all
48979 silent. The glow spread, rising and falling, farther and farther still.
48981 "God have mercy.... It's windy and dry..." said another voice.
48983 "Just look! See what it's doing now. O Lord! You can even see the crows
48984 flying. Lord have mercy on us sinners!"
48986 "They'll put it out, no fear!"
48988 "Who's to put it out?" Daniel Terentich, who had hitherto been silent,
48989 was heard to say. His voice was calm and deliberate. "Moscow it is,
48990 brothers," said he. "Mother Moscow, the white..." his voice faltered,
48991 and he gave way to an old man's sob.
48993 And it was as if they had all only waited for this to realize the
48994 significance for them of the glow they were watching. Sighs were heard,
48995 words of prayer, and the sobbing of the count's old valet.
49002 The valet, returning to the cottage, informed the count that Moscow was
49003 burning. The count donned his dressing gown and went out to look. Sonya
49004 and Madame Schoss, who had not yet undressed, went out with him. Only
49005 Natasha and the countess remained in the room. Petya was no longer with
49006 the family, he had gone on with his regiment which was making for
49009 The countess, on hearing that Moscow was on fire, began to cry. Natasha,
49010 pale, with a fixed look, was sitting on the bench under the icons just
49011 where she had sat down on arriving and paid no attention to her father's
49012 words. She was listening to the ceaseless moaning of the adjutant, three
49015 "Oh, how terrible," said Sonya returning from the yard chilled and
49016 frightened. "I believe the whole of Moscow will burn, there's an awful
49017 glow! Natasha, do look! You can see it from the window," she said to her
49018 cousin, evidently wishing to distract her mind.
49020 But Natasha looked at her as if not understanding what was said to her
49021 and again fixed her eyes on the corner of the stove. She had been in
49022 this condition of stupor since the morning, when Sonya, to the surprise
49023 and annoyance of the countess, had for some unaccountable reason found
49024 it necessary to tell Natasha of Prince Andrew's wound and of his being
49025 with their party. The countess had seldom been so angry with anyone as
49026 she was with Sonya. Sonya had cried and begged to be forgiven and now,
49027 as if trying to atone for her fault, paid unceasing attention to her
49030 "Look, Natasha, how dreadfully it is burning!" said she.
49032 "What's burning?" asked Natasha. "Oh, yes, Moscow."
49034 And as if in order not to offend Sonya and to get rid of her, she turned
49035 her face to the window, looked out in such a way that it was evident
49036 that she could not see anything, and again settled down in her former
49039 "But you didn't see it!"
49041 "Yes, really I did," Natasha replied in a voice that pleaded to be left
49044 Both the countess and Sonya understood that, naturally, neither Moscow
49045 nor the burning of Moscow nor anything else could seem of importance to
49048 The count returned and lay down behind the partition. The countess went
49049 up to her daughter and touched her head with the back of her hand as she
49050 was wont to do when Natasha was ill, then touched her forehead with her
49051 lips as if to feel whether she was feverish, and finally kissed her.
49053 "You are cold. You are trembling all over. You'd better lie down," said
49056 "Lie down? All right, I will. I'll lie down at once," said Natasha.
49058 When Natasha had been told that morning that Prince Andrew was seriously
49059 wounded and was traveling with their party, she had at first asked many
49060 questions: Where was he going? How was he wounded? Was it serious? And
49061 could she see him? But after she had been told that she could not see
49062 him, that he was seriously wounded but that his life was not in danger,
49063 she ceased to ask questions or to speak at all, evidently disbelieving
49064 what they told her, and convinced that say what she might she would
49065 still be told the same. All the way she had sat motionless in a corner
49066 of the coach with wide open eyes, and the expression in them which the
49067 countess knew so well and feared so much, and now she sat in the same
49068 way on the bench where she had seated herself on arriving. She was
49069 planning something and either deciding or had already decided something
49070 in her mind. The countess knew this, but what it might be she did not
49071 know, and this alarmed and tormented her.
49073 "Natasha, undress, darling; lie down on my bed."
49075 A bed had been made on a bedstead for the countess only. Madame Schoss
49076 and the two girls were to sleep on some hay on the floor.
49078 "No, Mamma, I will lie down here on the floor," Natasha replied
49079 irritably and she went to the window and opened it. Through the open
49080 window the moans of the adjutant could be heard more distinctly. She put
49081 her head out into the damp night air, and the countess saw her slim neck
49082 shaking with sobs and throbbing against the window frame. Natasha knew
49083 it was not Prince Andrew who was moaning. She knew Prince Andrew was in
49084 the same yard as themselves and in a part of the hut across the passage;
49085 but this dreadful incessant moaning made her sob. The countess exchanged
49088 "Lie down, darling; lie down, my pet," said the countess, softly
49089 touching Natasha's shoulders. "Come, lie down."
49091 "Oh, yes... I'll lie down at once," said Natasha, and began hurriedly
49092 undressing, tugging at the tapes of her petticoat.
49094 When she had thrown off her dress and put on a dressing jacket, she sat
49095 down with her foot under her on the bed that had been made up on the
49096 floor, jerked her thin and rather short plait of hair to the front, and
49097 began replaiting it. Her long, thin, practiced fingers rapidly
49098 unplaited, replaited, and tied up her plait. Her head moved from side to
49099 side from habit, but her eyes, feverishly wide, looked fixedly before
49100 her. When her toilet for the night was finished she sank gently onto the
49101 sheet spread over the hay on the side nearest the door.
49103 "Natasha, you'd better lie in the middle," said Sonya.
49105 "I'll stay here," muttered Natasha. "Do lie down," she added crossly,
49106 and buried her face in the pillow.
49108 The countess, Madame Schoss, and Sonya undressed hastily and lay down.
49109 The small lamp in front of the icons was the only light left in the
49110 room. But in the yard there was a light from the fire at Little
49111 Mytishchi a mile and a half away, and through the night came the noise
49112 of people shouting at a tavern Mamonov's Cossacks had set up across the
49113 street, and the adjutant's unceasing moans could still be heard.
49115 For a long time Natasha listened attentively to the sounds that reached
49116 her from inside and outside the room and did not move. First she heard
49117 her mother praying and sighing and the creaking of her bed under her,
49118 then Madame Schoss' familiar whistling snore and Sonya's gentle
49119 breathing. Then the countess called to Natasha. Natasha did not answer.
49121 "I think she's asleep, Mamma," said Sonya softly.
49123 After a short silence the countess spoke again but this time no one
49126 Soon after that Natasha heard her mother's even breathing. Natasha did
49127 not move, though her little bare foot, thrust out from under the quilt,
49128 was growing cold on the bare floor.
49130 As if to celebrate a victory over everybody, a cricket chirped in a
49131 crack in the wall. A cock crowed far off and another replied near by.
49132 The shouting in the tavern had died down; only the moaning of the
49133 adjutant was heard. Natasha sat up.
49135 "Sonya, are you asleep? Mamma?" she whispered.
49137 No one replied. Natasha rose slowly and carefully, crossed herself, and
49138 stepped cautiously on the cold and dirty floor with her slim, supple,
49139 bare feet. The boards of the floor creaked. Stepping cautiously from one
49140 foot to the other she ran like a kitten the few steps to the door and
49141 grasped the cold door handle.
49143 It seemed to her that something heavy was beating rhythmically against
49144 all the walls of the room: it was her own heart, sinking with alarm and
49145 terror and overflowing with love.
49147 She opened the door and stepped across the threshold and onto the cold,
49148 damp earthen floor of the passage. The cold she felt refreshed her. With
49149 her bare feet she touched a sleeping man, stepped over him, and opened
49150 the door into the part of the hut where Prince Andrew lay. It was dark
49151 in there. In the farthest corner, on a bench beside a bed on which
49152 something was lying, stood a tallow candle with a long, thick, and
49155 From the moment she had been told that morning of Prince Andrew's wound
49156 and his presence there, Natasha had resolved to see him. She did not
49157 know why she had to, she knew the meeting would be painful, but felt the
49158 more convinced that it was necessary.
49160 All day she had lived only in hope of seeing him that night. But now
49161 that the moment had come she was filled with dread of what she might
49162 see. How was he maimed? What was left of him? Was he like that incessant
49163 moaning of the adjutant's? Yes, he was altogether like that. In her
49164 imagination he was that terrible moaning personified. When she saw an
49165 indistinct shape in the corner, and mistook his knees raised under the
49166 quilt for his shoulders, she imagined a horrible body there, and stood
49167 still in terror. But an irresistible impulse drew her forward. She
49168 cautiously took one step and then another, and found herself in the
49169 middle of a small room containing baggage. Another man--Timokhin--was
49170 lying in a corner on the benches beneath the icons, and two others--the
49171 doctor and a valet--lay on the floor.
49173 The valet sat up and whispered something. Timokhin, kept awake by the
49174 pain in his wounded leg, gazed with wide-open eyes at this strange
49175 apparition of a girl in a white chemise, dressing jacket, and nightcap.
49176 The valet's sleepy, frightened exclamation, "What do you want? What's
49177 the matter?" made Natasha approach more swiftly to what was lying in the
49178 corner. Horribly unlike a man as that body looked, she must see him. She
49179 passed the valet, the snuff fell from the candle wick, and she saw
49180 Prince Andrew clearly with his arms outside the quilt, and such as she
49181 had always seen him.
49183 He was the same as ever, but the feverish color of his face, his
49184 glittering eyes rapturously turned toward her, and especially his neck,
49185 delicate as a child's, revealed by the turn-down collar of his shirt,
49186 gave him a peculiarly innocent, childlike look, such as she had never
49187 seen on him before. She went up to him and with a swift, flexible,
49188 youthful movement dropped on her knees.
49190 He smiled and held out his hand to her.
49197 Seven days had passed since Prince Andrew found himself in the ambulance
49198 station on the field of Borodino. His feverish state and the
49199 inflammation of his bowels, which were injured, were in the doctor's
49200 opinion sure to carry him off. But on the seventh day he ate with
49201 pleasure a piece of bread with some tea, and the doctor noticed that his
49202 temperature was lower. He had regained consciousness that morning. The
49203 first night after they left Moscow had been fairly warm and he had
49204 remained in the caleche, but at Mytishchi the wounded man himself asked
49205 to be taken out and given some tea. The pain caused by his removal into
49206 the hut had made him groan aloud and again lose consciousness. When he
49207 had been placed on his camp bed he lay for a long time motionless with
49208 closed eyes. Then he opened them and whispered softly: "And the tea?"
49209 His remembering such a small detail of everyday life astonished the
49210 doctor. He felt Prince Andrew's pulse, and to his surprise and
49211 dissatisfaction found it had improved. He was dissatisfied because he
49212 knew by experience that if his patient did not die now, he would do so a
49213 little later with greater suffering. Timokhin, the red-nosed major of
49214 Prince Andrew's regiment, had joined him in Moscow and was being taken
49215 along with him, having been wounded in the leg at the battle of
49216 Borodino. They were accompanied by a doctor, Prince Andrew's valet, his
49217 coachman, and two orderlies.
49219 They gave Prince Andrew some tea. He drank it eagerly, looking with
49220 feverish eyes at the door in front of him as if trying to understand and
49221 remember something.
49223 "I don't want any more. Is Timokhin here?" he asked.
49225 Timokhin crept along the bench to him.
49227 "I am here, your excellency."
49229 "How's your wound?"
49231 "Mine, sir? All right. But how about you?"
49233 Prince Andrew again pondered as if trying to remember something.
49235 "Couldn't one get a book?" he asked.
49239 "The Gospels. I haven't one."
49241 The doctor promised to procure it for him and began to ask how he was
49242 feeling. Prince Andrew answered all his questions reluctantly but
49243 reasonably, and then said he wanted a bolster placed under him as he was
49244 uncomfortable and in great pain. The doctor and valet lifted the cloak
49245 with which he was covered and, making wry faces at the noisome smell of
49246 mortifying flesh that came from the wound, began examining that dreadful
49247 place. The doctor was very much displeased about something and made a
49248 change in the dressings, turning the wounded man over so that he groaned
49249 again and grew unconscious and delirious from the agony. He kept asking
49250 them to get him the book and put it under him.
49252 "What trouble would it be to you?" he said. "I have not got one. Please
49253 get it for me and put it under for a moment," he pleaded in a piteous
49256 The doctor went into the passage to wash his hands.
49258 "You fellows have no conscience," said he to the valet who was pouring
49259 water over his hands. "For just one moment I didn't look after you...
49260 It's such pain, you know, that I wonder how he can bear it."
49262 "By the Lord Jesus Christ, I thought we had put something under him!"
49265 The first time Prince Andrew understood where he was and what was the
49266 matter with him and remembered being wounded and how was when he asked
49267 to be carried into the hut after his caleche had stopped at Mytishchi.
49268 After growing confused from pain while being carried into the hut he
49269 again regained consciousness, and while drinking tea once more recalled
49270 all that had happened to him, and above all vividly remembered the
49271 moment at the ambulance station when, at the sight of the sufferings of
49272 a man he disliked, those new thoughts had come to him which promised him
49273 happiness. And those thoughts, though now vague and indefinite, again
49274 possessed his soul. He remembered that he had now a new source of
49275 happiness and that this happiness had something to do with the Gospels.
49276 That was why he asked for a copy of them. The uncomfortable position in
49277 which they had put him and turned him over again confused his thoughts,
49278 and when he came to himself a third time it was in the complete
49279 stillness of the night. Everybody near him was sleeping. A cricket
49280 chirped from across the passage; someone was shouting and singing in the
49281 street; cockroaches rustled on the table, on the icons, and on the
49282 walls, and a big fly flopped at the head of the bed and around the
49283 candle beside him, the wick of which was charred and had shaped itself
49286 His mind was not in a normal state. A healthy man usually thinks of,
49287 feels, and remembers innumerable things simultaneously, but has the
49288 power and will to select one sequence of thoughts or events on which to
49289 fix his whole attention. A healthy man can tear himself away from the
49290 deepest reflections to say a civil word to someone who comes in and can
49291 then return again to his own thoughts. But Prince Andrew's mind was not
49292 in a normal state in that respect. All the powers of his mind were more
49293 active and clearer than ever, but they acted apart from his will. Most
49294 diverse thoughts and images occupied him simultaneously. At times his
49295 brain suddenly began to work with a vigor, clearness, and depth it had
49296 never reached when he was in health, but suddenly in the midst of its
49297 work it would turn to some unexpected idea and he had not the strength
49298 to turn it back again.
49300 "Yes, a new happiness was revealed to me of which man cannot be
49301 deprived," he thought as he lay in the semidarkness of the quiet hut,
49302 gazing fixedly before him with feverish wide open eyes. "A happiness
49303 lying beyond material forces, outside the material influences that act
49304 on man--a happiness of the soul alone, the happiness of loving. Every
49305 man can understand it, but to conceive it and enjoin it was possible
49306 only for God. But how did God enjoin that law? And why was the Son...?"
49308 And suddenly the sequence of these thoughts broke off, and Prince Andrew
49309 heard (without knowing whether it was a delusion or reality) a soft
49310 whispering voice incessantly and rhythmically repeating "piti-piti-
49311 piti," and then "titi," and then again "piti-piti-piti," and "ti-ti"
49312 once more. At the same time he felt that above his face, above the very
49313 middle of it, some strange airy structure was being erected out of
49314 slender needles or splinters, to the sound of this whispered music. He
49315 felt that he had to balance carefully (though it was difficult) so that
49316 this airy structure should not collapse; but nevertheless it kept
49317 collapsing and again slowly rising to the sound of whispered rhythmic
49318 music--"it stretches, stretches, spreading out and stretching," said
49319 Prince Andrew to himself. While listening to this whispering and feeling
49320 the sensation of this drawing out and the construction of this edifice
49321 of needles, he also saw by glimpses a red halo round the candle, and
49322 heard the rustle of the cockroaches and the buzzing of the fly that
49323 flopped against his pillow and his face. Each time the fly touched his
49324 face it gave him a burning sensation and yet to his surprise it did not
49325 destroy the structure, though it knocked against the very region of his
49326 face where it was rising. But besides this there was something else of
49327 importance. It was something white by the door--the statue of a sphinx,
49328 which also oppressed him.
49330 "But perhaps that's my shirt on the table," he thought, "and that's my
49331 legs, and that is the door, but why is it always stretching and drawing
49332 itself out, and 'piti-piti-piti' and 'ti-ti' and 'piti-piti-piti'...?
49333 That's enough, please leave off!" Prince Andrew painfully entreated
49334 someone. And suddenly thoughts and feelings again swam to the surface of
49335 his mind with peculiar clearness and force.
49337 "Yes--love," he thought again quite clearly. "But not love which loves
49338 for something, for some quality, for some purpose, or for some reason,
49339 but the love which I--while dying--first experienced when I saw my enemy
49340 and yet loved him. I experienced that feeling of love which is the very
49341 essence of the soul and does not require an object. Now again I feel
49342 that bliss. To love one's neighbors, to love one's enemies, to love
49343 everything, to love God in all His manifestations. It is possible to
49344 love someone dear to you with human love, but an enemy can only be loved
49345 by divine love. That is why I experienced such joy when I felt that I
49346 loved that man. What has become of him? Is he alive?...
49348 "When loving with human love one may pass from love to hatred, but
49349 divine love cannot change. No, neither death nor anything else can
49350 destroy it. It is the very essence of the soul. Yet how many people have
49351 I hated in my life? And of them all, I loved and hated none as I did
49352 her." And he vividly pictured to himself Natasha, not as he had done in
49353 the past with nothing but her charms which gave him delight, but for the
49354 first time picturing to himself her soul. And he understood her
49355 feelings, her sufferings, shame, and remorse. He now understood for the
49356 first time all the cruelty of his rejection of her, the cruelty of his
49357 rupture with her. "If only it were possible for me to see her once more!
49358 Just once, looking into those eyes to say..."
49360 "Piti-piti-piti and ti-ti and piti-piti-piti boom!" flopped the fly...
49361 And his attention was suddenly carried into another world, a world of
49362 reality and delirium in which something particular was happening. In
49363 that world some structure was still being erected and did not fall,
49364 something was still stretching out, and the candle with its red halo was
49365 still burning, and the same shirtlike sphinx lay near the door; but
49366 besides all this something creaked, there was a whiff of fresh air, and
49367 a new white sphinx appeared, standing at the door. And that sphinx had
49368 the pale face and shining eyes of the very Natasha of whom he had just
49371 "Oh, how oppressive this continual delirium is," thought Prince Andrew,
49372 trying to drive that face from his imagination. But the face remained
49373 before him with the force of reality and drew nearer. Prince Andrew
49374 wished to return to that former world of pure thought, but he could not,
49375 and delirium drew him back into its domain. The soft whispering voice
49376 continued its rhythmic murmur, something oppressed him and stretched
49377 out, and the strange face was before him. Prince Andrew collected all
49378 his strength in an effort to recover his senses, he moved a little, and
49379 suddenly there was a ringing in his ears, a dimness in his eyes, and
49380 like a man plunged into water he lost consciousness. When he came to
49381 himself, Natasha, that same living Natasha whom of all people he most
49382 longed to love with this new pure divine love that had been revealed to
49383 him, was kneeling before him. He realized that it was the real living
49384 Natasha, and he was not surprised but quietly happy. Natasha, motionless
49385 on her knees (she was unable to stir), with frightened eyes riveted on
49386 him, was restraining her sobs. Her face was pale and rigid. Only in the
49387 lower part of it something quivered.
49389 Prince Andrew sighed with relief, smiled, and held out his hand.
49391 "You?" he said. "How fortunate!"
49393 With a rapid but careful movement Natasha drew nearer to him on her
49394 knees and, taking his hand carefully, bent her face over it and began
49395 kissing it, just touching it lightly with her lips.
49397 "Forgive me!" she whispered, raising her head and glancing at him.
49400 "I love you," said Prince Andrew.
49404 "Forgive what?" he asked.
49406 "Forgive me for what I ha-ve do-ne!" faltered Natasha in a scarcely
49407 audible, broken whisper, and began kissing his hand more rapidly, just
49408 touching it with her lips.
49410 "I love you more, better than before," said Prince Andrew, lifting her
49411 face with his hand so as to look into her eyes.
49413 Those eyes, filled with happy tears, gazed at him timidly,
49414 compassionately, and with joyous love. Natasha's thin pale face, with
49415 its swollen lips, was more than plain--it was dreadful. But Prince
49416 Andrew did not see that, he saw her shining eyes which were beautiful.
49417 They heard the sound of voices behind them.
49419 Peter the valet, who was now wide awake, had roused the doctor.
49420 Timokhin, who had not slept at all because of the pain in his leg, had
49421 long been watching all that was going on, carefully covering his bare
49422 body with the sheet as he huddled up on his bench.
49424 "What's this?" said the doctor, rising from his bed. "Please go away,
49427 At that moment a maid sent by the countess, who had noticed her
49428 daughter's absence, knocked at the door.
49430 Like a somnambulist aroused from her sleep Natasha went out of the room
49431 and, returning to her hut, fell sobbing on her bed.
49433 From that time, during all the rest of the Rostovs' journey, at every
49434 halting place and wherever they spent a night, Natasha never left the
49435 wounded Bolkonski, and the doctor had to admit that he had not expected
49436 from a young girl either such firmness or such skill in nursing a
49439 Dreadful as the countess imagined it would be should Prince Andrew die
49440 in her daughter's arms during the journey--as, judging by what the
49441 doctor said, it seemed might easily happen--she could not oppose
49442 Natasha. Though with the intimacy now established between the wounded
49443 man and Natasha the thought occurred that should he recover their former
49444 engagement would be renewed, no one--least of all Natasha and Prince
49445 Andrew--spoke of this: the unsettled question of life and death, which
49446 hung not only over Bolkonski but over all Russia, shut out all other
49454 On the third of September Pierre awoke late. His head was aching, the
49455 clothes in which he had slept without undressing felt uncomfortable on
49456 his body, and his mind had a dim consciousness of something shameful he
49457 had done the day before. That something shameful was his yesterday's
49458 conversation with Captain Ramballe.
49460 It was eleven by the clock, but it seemed peculiarly dark out of doors.
49461 Pierre rose, rubbed his eyes, and seeing the pistol with an engraved
49462 stock which Gerasim had replaced on the writing table, he remembered
49463 where he was and what lay before him that very day.
49465 "Am I not too late?" he thought. "No, probably he won't make his entry
49466 into Moscow before noon."
49468 Pierre did not allow himself to reflect on what lay before him, but
49471 After arranging his clothes, he took the pistol and was about to go out.
49472 But it then occurred to him for the first time that he certainly could
49473 not carry the weapon in his hand through the streets. It was difficult
49474 to hide such a big pistol even under his wide coat. He could not carry
49475 it unnoticed in his belt or under his arm. Besides, it had been
49476 discharged, and he had not had time to reload it. "No matter, dagger
49477 will do," he said to himself, though when planning his design he had
49478 more than once come to the conclusion that the chief mistake made by the
49479 student in 1809 had been to try to kill Napoleon with a dagger. But as
49480 his chief aim consisted not in carrying out his design, but in proving
49481 to himself that he would not abandon his intention and was doing all he
49482 could to achieve it, Pierre hastily took the blunt jagged dagger in a
49483 green sheath which he had bought at the Sukharev market with the pistol,
49484 and hid it under his waistcoat.
49486 Having tied a girdle over his coat and pulled his cap low on his head,
49487 Pierre went down the corridor, trying to avoid making a noise or meeting
49488 the captain, and passed out into the street.
49490 The conflagration, at which he had looked with so much indifference the
49491 evening before, had greatly increased during the night. Moscow was on
49492 fire in several places. The buildings in Carriage Row, across the river,
49493 in the Bazaar and the Povarskoy, as well as the barges on the Moskva
49494 River and the timber yards by the Dorogomilov Bridge, were all ablaze.
49496 Pierre's way led through side streets to the Povarskoy and from there to
49497 the church of St. Nicholas on the Arbat, where he had long before
49498 decided that the deed should be done. The gates of most of the houses
49499 were locked and the shutters up. The streets and lanes were deserted.
49500 The air was full of smoke and the smell of burning. Now and then he met
49501 Russians with anxious and timid faces, and Frenchmen with an air not of
49502 the city but of the camp, walking in the middle of the streets. Both the
49503 Russians and the French looked at Pierre with surprise. Besides his
49504 height and stoutness, and the strange morose look of suffering in his
49505 face and whole figure, the Russians stared at Pierre because they could
49506 not make out to what class he could belong. The French followed him with
49507 astonishment in their eyes chiefly because Pierre, unlike all the other
49508 Russians who gazed at the French with fear and curiosity, paid no
49509 attention to them. At the gate of one house three Frenchmen, who were
49510 explaining something to some Russians who did not understand them,
49511 stopped Pierre asking if he did not know French.
49513 Pierre shook his head and went on. In another side street a sentinel
49514 standing beside a green caisson shouted at him, but only when the shout
49515 was threateningly repeated and he heard the click of the man's musket as
49516 he raised it did Pierre understand that he had to pass on the other side
49517 of the street. He heard nothing and saw nothing of what went on around
49518 him. He carried his resolution within himself in terror and haste, like
49519 something dreadful and alien to him, for, after the previous night's
49520 experience, he was afraid of losing it. But he was not destined to bring
49521 his mood safely to his destination. And even had he not been hindered by
49522 anything on the way, his intention could not now have been carried out,
49523 for Napoleon had passed the Arbat more than four hours previously on his
49524 way from the Dorogomilov suburb to the Kremlin, and was now sitting in a
49525 very gloomy frame of mind in a royal study in the Kremlin, giving
49526 detailed and exact orders as to measures to be taken immediately to
49527 extinguish the fire, to prevent looting, and to reassure the
49528 inhabitants. But Pierre did not know this; he was entirely absorbed in
49529 what lay before him, and was tortured--as those are who obstinately
49530 undertake a task that is impossible for them not because of its
49531 difficulty but because of its incompatibility with their natures--by the
49532 fear of weakening at the decisive moment and so losing his self-esteem.
49534 Though he heard and saw nothing around him he found his way by instinct
49535 and did not go wrong in the side streets that led to the Povarskoy.
49537 As Pierre approached that street the smoke became denser and denser--he
49538 even felt the heat of the fire. Occasionally curly tongues of flame rose
49539 from under the roofs of the houses. He met more people in the streets
49540 and they were more excited. But Pierre, though he felt that something
49541 unusual was happening around him, did not realize that he was
49542 approaching the fire. As he was going along a foot path across a wide-
49543 open space adjoining the Povarskoy on one side and the gardens of Prince
49544 Gruzinski's house on the other, Pierre suddenly heard the desperate
49545 weeping of a woman close to him. He stopped as if awakening from a dream
49546 and lifted his head.
49548 By the side of the path, on the dusty dry grass, all sorts of household
49549 goods lay in a heap: featherbeds, a samovar, icons, and trunks. On the
49550 ground, beside the trunks, sat a thin woman no longer young, with long,
49551 prominent upper teeth, and wearing a black cloak and cap. This woman,
49552 swaying to and fro and muttering something, was choking with sobs. Two
49553 girls of about ten and twelve, dressed in dirty short frocks and cloaks,
49554 were staring at their mother with a look of stupefaction on their pale
49555 frightened faces. The youngest child, a boy of about seven, who wore an
49556 overcoat and an immense cap evidently not his own, was crying in his old
49557 nurse's arms. A dirty, barefooted maid was sitting on a trunk, and,
49558 having undone her pale-colored plait, was pulling it straight and
49559 sniffing at her singed hair. The woman's husband, a short, round-
49560 shouldered man in the undress uniform of a civilian official, with
49561 sausage-shaped whiskers and showing under his square-set cap the hair
49562 smoothly brushed forward over his temples, with expressionless face was
49563 moving the trunks, which were placed one on another, and was dragging
49564 some garments from under them.
49566 As soon as she saw Pierre, the woman almost threw herself at his feet.
49568 "Dear people, good Christians, save me, help me, dear friends... help
49569 us, somebody," she muttered between her sobs. "My girl... My daughter!
49570 My youngest daughter is left behind. She's burned! Ooh! Was it for this
49571 I nursed you.... Ooh!"
49573 "Don't, Mary Nikolievna!" said her husband to her in a low voice,
49574 evidently only to justify himself before the stranger. "Sister must have
49575 taken her, or else where can she be?" he added.
49577 "Monster! Villain!" shouted the woman angrily, suddenly ceasing to weep.
49578 "You have no heart, you don't feel for your own child! Another man would
49579 have rescued her from the fire. But this is a monster and neither a man
49580 nor a father! You, honored sir, are a noble man," she went on,
49581 addressing Pierre rapidly between her sobs. "The fire broke out
49582 alongside, and blew our way, the maid called out 'Fire!' and we rushed
49583 to collect our things. We ran out just as we were.... This is what we
49584 have brought away.... The icons, and my dowry bed, all the rest is lost.
49585 We seized the children. But not Katie! Ooh! O Lord!..." and again she
49586 began to sob. "My child, my dear one! Burned, burned!"
49588 "But where was she left?" asked Pierre.
49590 From the expression of his animated face the woman saw that this man
49593 "Oh, dear sir!" she cried, seizing him by the legs. "My benefactor, set
49594 my heart at ease.... Aniska, go, you horrid girl, show him the way!" she
49595 cried to the maid, angrily opening her mouth and still farther exposing
49598 "Show me the way, show me, I... I'll do it," gasped Pierre rapidly.
49600 The dirty maidservant stepped from behind the trunk, put up her plait,
49601 sighed, and went on her short, bare feet along the path. Pierre felt as
49602 if he had come back to life after a heavy swoon. He held his head
49603 higher, his eyes shone with the light of life, and with swift steps he
49604 followed the maid, overtook her, and came out on the Povarskoy. The
49605 whole street was full of clouds of black smoke. Tongues of flame here
49606 and there broke through that cloud. A great number of people crowded in
49607 front of the conflagration. In the middle of the street stood a French
49608 general saying something to those around him. Pierre, accompanied by the
49609 maid, was advancing to the spot where the general stood, but the French
49610 soldiers stopped him.
49612 "On ne passe pas!" * cried a voice.
49615 * "You can't pass!"
49617 "This way, uncle," cried the girl. "We'll pass through the side street,
49620 Pierre turned back, giving a spring now and then to keep up with her.
49621 She ran across the street, turned down a side street to the left, and,
49622 passing three houses, turned into a yard on the right.
49624 "It's here, close by," said she and, running across the yard, opened a
49625 gate in a wooden fence and, stopping, pointed out to him a small wooden
49626 wing of the house, which was burning brightly and fiercely. One of its
49627 sides had fallen in, another was on fire, and bright flames issued from
49628 the openings of the windows and from under the roof.
49630 As Pierre passed through the fence gate, he was enveloped by hot air and
49631 involuntarily stopped.
49633 "Which is it? Which is your house?" he asked.
49635 "Ooh!" wailed the girl, pointing to the wing. "That's it, that was our
49636 lodging. You've burned to death, our treasure, Katie, my precious little
49637 missy! Ooh!" lamented Aniska, who at the sight of the fire felt that she
49638 too must give expression to her feelings.
49640 Pierre rushed to the wing, but the heat was so great that he
49641 involuntarily passed round in a curve and came upon the large house that
49642 was as yet burning only at one end, just below the roof, and around
49643 which swarmed a crowd of Frenchmen. At first Pierre did not realize what
49644 these men, who were dragging something out, were about; but seeing
49645 before him a Frenchman hitting a peasant with a blunt saber and trying
49646 to take from him a fox-fur coat, he vaguely understood that looting was
49647 going on there, but he had no time to dwell on that idea.
49649 The sounds of crackling and the din of falling walls and ceilings, the
49650 whistle and hiss of the flames, the excited shouts of the people, and
49651 the sight of the swaying smoke, now gathering into thick black clouds
49652 and now soaring up with glittering sparks, with here and there dense
49653 sheaves of flame (now red and now like golden fish scales creeping along
49654 the walls), and the heat and smoke and rapidity of motion, produced on
49655 Pierre the usual animating effects of a conflagration. It had a
49656 peculiarly strong effect on him because at the sight of the fire he felt
49657 himself suddenly freed from the ideas that had weighed him down. He felt
49658 young, bright, adroit, and resolute. He ran round to the other side of
49659 the lodge and was about to dash into that part of it which was still
49660 standing, when just above his head he heard several voices shouting and
49661 then a cracking sound and the ring of something heavy falling close
49664 Pierre looked up and saw at a window of the large house some Frenchmen
49665 who had just thrown out the drawer of a chest, filled with metal
49666 articles. Other French soldiers standing below went up to the drawer.
49668 "What does this fellow want?" shouted one of them referring to Pierre.
49670 "There's a child in that house. Haven't you seen a child?" cried Pierre.
49672 "What's he talking about? Get along!" said several voices, and one of
49673 the soldiers, evidently afraid that Pierre might want to take from them
49674 some of the plate and bronzes that were in the drawer, moved
49675 threateningly toward him.
49677 "A child?" shouted a Frenchman from above. "I did hear something
49678 squealing in the garden. Perhaps it's his brat that the fellow is
49679 looking for. After all, one must be human, you know...."
49681 "Where is it? Where?" said Pierre.
49683 "There! There!" shouted the Frenchman at the window, pointing to the
49684 garden at the back of the house. "Wait a bit--I'm coming down."
49686 And a minute or two later the Frenchman, a black-eyed fellow with a spot
49687 on his cheek, in shirt sleeves, really did jump out of a window on the
49688 ground floor, and clapping Pierre on the shoulder ran with him into the
49691 "Hurry up, you others!" he called out to his comrades. "It's getting
49694 When they reached a gravel path behind the house the Frenchman pulled
49695 Pierre by the arm and pointed to a round, graveled space where a three-
49696 year-old girl in a pink dress was lying under a seat.
49698 "There is your child! Oh, a girl, so much the better!" said the
49699 Frenchman. "Good-bye, Fatty. We must be human, we are all mortal you
49700 know!" and the Frenchman with the spot on his cheek ran back to his
49703 Breathless with joy, Pierre ran to the little girl and was going to take
49704 her in his arms. But seeing a stranger the sickly, scrofulous-looking
49705 child, unattractively like her mother, began to yell and run away.
49706 Pierre, however, seized her and lifted her in his arms. She screamed
49707 desperately and angrily and tried with her little hands to pull Pierre's
49708 hands away and to bite them with her slobbering mouth. Pierre was seized
49709 by a sense of horror and repulsion such as he had experienced when
49710 touching some nasty little animal. But he made an effort not to throw
49711 the child down and ran with her to the large house. It was now, however,
49712 impossible to get back the way he had come; the maid, Aniska, was no
49713 longer there, and Pierre with a feeling of pity and disgust pressed the
49714 wet, painfully sobbing child to himself as tenderly as he could and ran
49715 with her through the garden seeking another way out.
49722 Having run through different yards and side streets, Pierre got back
49723 with his little burden to the Gruzinski garden at the corner of the
49724 Povarskoy. He did not at first recognize the place from which he had set
49725 out to look for the child, so crowded was it now with people and goods
49726 that had been dragged out of the houses. Besides Russian families who
49727 had taken refuge here from the fire with their belongings, there were
49728 several French soldiers in a variety of clothing. Pierre took no notice
49729 of them. He hurried to find the family of that civil servant in order to
49730 restore the daughter to her mother and go to save someone else. Pierre
49731 felt that he had still much to do and to do quickly. Glowing with the
49732 heat and from running, he felt at that moment more strongly than ever
49733 the sense of youth, animation, and determination that had come on him
49734 when he ran to save the child. She had now become quiet and, clinging
49735 with her little hands to Pierre's coat, sat on his arm gazing about her
49736 like some little wild animal. He glanced at her occasionally with a
49737 slight smile. He fancied he saw something pathetically innocent in that
49738 frightened, sickly little face.
49740 He did not find the civil servant or his wife where he had left them. He
49741 walked among the crowd with rapid steps, scanning the various faces he
49742 met. Involuntarily he noticed a Georgian or Armenian family consisting
49743 of a very handsome old man of Oriental type, wearing a new, cloth-
49744 covered, sheepskin coat and new boots, an old woman of similar type, and
49745 a young woman. That very young woman seemed to Pierre the perfection of
49746 Oriental beauty, with her sharply outlined, arched, black eyebrows and
49747 the extraordinarily soft, bright color of her long, beautiful,
49748 expressionless face. Amid the scattered property and the crowd on the
49749 open space, she, in her rich satin cloak with a bright lilac shawl on
49750 her head, suggested a delicate exotic plant thrown out onto the snow.
49751 She was sitting on some bundles a little behind the old woman, and
49752 looked from under her long lashes with motionless, large, almond-shaped
49753 eyes at the ground before her. Evidently she was aware of her beauty and
49754 fearful because of it. Her face struck Pierre and, hurrying along by the
49755 fence, he turned several times to look at her. When he had reached the
49756 fence, still without finding those he sought, he stopped and looked
49759 With the child in his arms his figure was now more conspicuous than
49760 before, and a group of Russians, both men and women, gathered about him.
49762 "Have you lost anyone, my dear fellow? You're of the gentry yourself,
49763 aren't you? Whose child is it?" they asked him.
49765 Pierre replied that the child belonged to a woman in a black coat who
49766 had been sitting there with her other children, and he asked whether
49767 anyone knew where she had gone.
49769 "Why, that must be the Anferovs," said an old deacon, addressing a
49770 pockmarked peasant woman. "Lord have mercy, Lord have mercy!" he added
49771 in his customary bass.
49773 "The Anferovs? No," said the woman. "They left in the morning. That must
49774 be either Mary Nikolievna's or the Ivanovs'!"
49776 "He says 'a woman,' and Mary Nikolievna is a lady," remarked a house
49779 "Do you know her? She's thin, with long teeth," said Pierre.
49781 "That's Mary Nikolievna! They went inside the garden when these wolves
49782 swooped down," said the woman, pointing to the French soldiers.
49784 "O Lord, have mercy!" added the deacon.
49786 "Go over that way, they're there. It's she! She kept on lamenting and
49787 crying," continued the woman. "It's she. Here, this way!"
49789 But Pierre was not listening to the woman. He had for some seconds been
49790 intently watching what was going on a few steps away. He was looking at
49791 the Armenian family and at two French soldiers who had gone up to them.
49792 One of these, a nimble little man, was wearing a blue coat tied round
49793 the waist with a rope. He had a nightcap on his head and his feet were
49794 bare. The other, whose appearance particularly struck Pierre, was a
49795 long, lank, round-shouldered, fair-haired man, slow in his movements and
49796 with an idiotic expression of face. He wore a woman's loose gown of
49797 frieze, blue trousers, and large torn Hessian boots. The little
49798 barefooted Frenchman in the blue coat went up to the Armenians and,
49799 saying something, immediately seized the old man by his legs and the old
49800 man at once began pulling off his boots. The other in the frieze gown
49801 stopped in front of the beautiful Armenian girl and with his hands in
49802 his pockets stood staring at her, motionless and silent.
49804 "Here, take the child!" said Pierre peremptorily and hurriedly to the
49805 woman, handing the little girl to her. "Give her back to them, give her
49806 back!" he almost shouted, putting the child, who began screaming, on the
49807 ground, and again looking at the Frenchman and the Armenian family.
49809 The old man was already sitting barefoot. The little Frenchman had
49810 secured his second boot and was slapping one boot against the other. The
49811 old man was saying something in a voice broken by sobs, but Pierre
49812 caught but a glimpse of this, his whole attention was directed to the
49813 Frenchman in the frieze gown who meanwhile, swaying slowly from side to
49814 side, had drawn nearer to the young woman and taking his hands from his
49815 pockets had seized her by the neck.
49817 The beautiful Armenian still sat motionless and in the same attitude,
49818 with her long lashes drooping as if she did not see or feel what the
49819 soldier was doing to her.
49821 While Pierre was running the few steps that separated him from the
49822 Frenchman, the tall marauder in the frieze gown was already tearing from
49823 her neck the necklace the young Armenian was wearing, and the young
49824 woman, clutching at her neck, screamed piercingly.
49826 "Let that woman alone!" exclaimed Pierre hoarsely in a furious voice,
49827 seizing the soldier by his round shoulders and throwing him aside.
49829 The soldier fell, got up, and ran away. But his comrade, throwing down
49830 the boots and drawing his sword, moved threateningly toward Pierre.
49832 "Voyons, Pas de betises!" * he cried.
49835 * "Look here, no nonsense!"
49837 Pierre was in such a transport of rage that he remembered nothing and
49838 his strength increased tenfold. He rushed at the barefooted Frenchman
49839 and, before the latter had time to draw his sword, knocked him off his
49840 feet and hammered him with his fists. Shouts of approval were heard from
49841 the crowd around, and at the same moment a mounted patrol of French
49842 uhlans appeared from round the corner. The uhlans came up at a trot to
49843 Pierre and the Frenchman and surrounded them. Pierre remembered nothing
49844 of what happened after that. He only remembered beating someone and
49845 being beaten and finally feeling that his hands were bound and that a
49846 crowd of French soldiers stood around him and were searching him.
49848 "Lieutenant, he has a dagger," were the first words Pierre understood.
49850 "Ah, a weapon?" said the officer and turned to the barefooted soldier
49851 who had been arrested with Pierre. "All right, you can tell all about it
49852 at the court-martial." Then he turned to Pierre. "Do you speak French?"
49854 Pierre looked around him with bloodshot eyes and did not reply. His face
49855 probably looked very terrible, for the officer said something in a
49856 whisper and four more uhlans left the ranks and placed themselves on
49857 both sides of Pierre.
49859 "Do you speak French?" the officer asked again, keeping at a distance
49860 from Pierre. "Call the interpreter."
49862 A little man in Russian civilian clothes rode out from the ranks, and by
49863 his clothes and manner of speaking Pierre at once knew him to be a
49864 French salesman from one of the Moscow shops.
49866 "He does not look like a common man," said the interpreter, after a
49867 searching look at Pierre.
49869 "Ah, he looks very much like an incendiary," remarked the officer. "And
49870 ask him who he is," he added.
49872 "Who are you?" asked the interpreter in poor Russian. "You must answer
49875 "I will not tell you who I am. I am your prisoner--take me!" Pierre
49876 suddenly replied in French.
49878 "Ah, ah!" muttered the officer with a frown. "Well then, march!"
49880 A crowd had collected round the uhlans. Nearest to Pierre stood the
49881 pockmarked peasant woman with the little girl, and when the patrol
49882 started she moved forward.
49884 "Where are they taking you to, you poor dear?" said she. "And the little
49885 girl, the little girl, what am I to do with her if she's not theirs?"
49888 "What does that woman want?" asked the officer.
49890 Pierre was as if intoxicated. His elation increased at the sight of the
49891 little girl he had saved.
49893 "What does she want?" he murmured. "She is bringing me my daughter whom
49894 I have just saved from the flames," said he. "Good-bye!" And without
49895 knowing how this aimless lie had escaped him, he went along with
49896 resolute and triumphant steps between the French soldiers.
49898 The French patrol was one of those sent out through the various streets
49899 of Moscow by Durosnel's order to put a stop to the pillage, and
49900 especially to catch the incendiaries who, according to the general
49901 opinion which had that day originated among the higher French officers,
49902 were the cause of the conflagrations. After marching through a number of
49903 streets the patrol arrested five more Russian suspects: a small
49904 shopkeeper, two seminary students, a peasant, and a house serf, besides
49905 several looters. But of all these various suspected characters, Pierre
49906 was considered to be the most suspicious of all. When they had all been
49907 brought for the night to a large house on the Zubov Rampart that was
49908 being used as a guardhouse, Pierre was placed apart under strict guard.
49917 In Petersburg at that time a complicated struggle was being carried on
49918 with greater heat than ever in the highest circles, between the parties
49919 of Rumyantsev, the French, Marya Fedorovna, the Tsarevich, and others,
49920 drowned as usual by the buzzing of the court drones. But the calm,
49921 luxurious life of Petersburg, concerned only about phantoms and
49922 reflections of real life, went on in its old way and made it hard,
49923 except by a great effort, to realize the danger and the difficult
49924 position of the Russian people. There were the same receptions and
49925 balls, the same French theater, the same court interests and service
49926 interests and intrigues as usual. Only in the very highest circles were
49927 attempts made to keep in mind the difficulties of the actual position.
49928 Stories were whispered of how differently the two Empresses behaved in
49929 these difficult circumstances. The Empress Marya, concerned for the
49930 welfare of the charitable and educational institutions under her
49931 patronage, had given directions that they should all be removed to
49932 Kazan, and the things belonging to these institutions had already been
49933 packed up. The Empress Elisabeth, however, when asked what instructions
49934 she would be pleased to give--with her characteristic Russian patriotism
49935 had replied that she could give no directions about state institutions
49936 for that was the affair of the sovereign, but as far as she personally
49937 was concerned she would be the last to quit Petersburg.
49939 At Anna Pavlovna's on the twenty-sixth of August, the very day of the
49940 battle of Borodino, there was a soiree, the chief feature of which was
49941 to be the reading of a letter from His Lordship the Bishop when sending
49942 the Emperor an icon of the Venerable Sergius. It was regarded as a model
49943 of ecclesiastical, patriotic eloquence. Prince Vasili himself, famed for
49944 his elocution, was to read it. (He used to read at the Empress'.) The
49945 art of his reading was supposed to lie in rolling out the words, quite
49946 independently of their meaning, in a loud and singsong voice alternating
49947 between a despairing wail and a tender murmur, so that the wail fell
49948 quite at random on one word and the murmur on another. This reading, as
49949 was always the case at Anna Pavlovna's soirees, had a political
49950 significance. That evening she expected several important personages who
49951 had to be made ashamed of their visits to the French theater and aroused
49952 to a patriotic temper. A good many people had already arrived, but Anna
49953 Pavlovna, not yet seeing all those whom she wanted in her drawing room,
49954 did not let the reading begin but wound up the springs of a general
49957 The news of the day in Petersburg was the illness of Countess Bezukhova.
49958 She had fallen ill unexpectedly a few days previously, had missed
49959 several gatherings of which she was usually ornament, and was said to be
49960 receiving no one, and instead of the celebrated Petersburg doctors who
49961 usually attended her had entrusted herself to some Italian doctor who
49962 was treating her in some new and unusual way.
49964 They all knew very well that the enchanting countess' illness arose from
49965 an inconvenience resulting from marrying two husbands at the same time,
49966 and that the Italian's cure consisted in removing such inconvenience;
49967 but in Anna Pavlovna's presence no one dared to think of this or even
49970 "They say the poor countess is very ill. The doctor says it is angina
49973 "Angina? Oh, that's a terrible illness!"
49975 "They say that the rivals are reconciled, thanks to the angina..." and
49976 the word angina was repeated with great satisfaction.
49978 "The count is pathetic, they say. He cried like a child when the doctor
49979 told him the case was dangerous."
49981 "Oh, it would be a terrible loss, she is an enchanting woman."
49983 "You are speaking of the poor countess?" said Anna Pavlovna, coming up
49984 just then. "I sent to ask for news, and hear that she is a little
49985 better. Oh, she is certainly the most charming woman in the world," she
49986 went on, with a smile at her own enthusiasm. "We belong to different
49987 camps, but that does not prevent my esteeming her as she deserves. She
49988 is very unfortunate!" added Anna Pavlovna.
49990 Supposing that by these words Anna Pavlovna was somewhat lifting the
49991 veil from the secret of the countess' malady, an unwary young man
49992 ventured to express surprise that well known doctors had not been called
49993 in and that the countess was being attended by a charlatan who might
49994 employ dangerous remedies.
49996 "Your information may be better than mine," Anna Pavlovna suddenly and
49997 venomously retorted on the inexperienced young man, "but I know on good
49998 authority that this doctor is a very learned and able man. He is private
49999 physician to the Queen of Spain."
50001 And having thus demolished the young man, Anna Pavlovna turned to
50002 another group where Bilibin was talking about the Austrians: having
50003 wrinkled up his face he was evidently preparing to smooth it out again
50004 and utter one of his mots.
50006 "I think it is delightful," he said, referring to a diplomatic note that
50007 had been sent to Vienna with some Austrian banners captured from the
50008 French by Wittgenstein, "the hero of Petropol" as he was then called in
50011 "What? What's that?" asked Anna Pavlovna, securing silence for the mot,
50012 which she had heard before.
50014 And Bilibin repeated the actual words of the diplomatic dispatch, which
50015 he had himself composed.
50017 "The Emperor returns these Austrian banners," said Bilibin, "friendly
50018 banners gone astray and found on a wrong path," and his brow became
50021 "Charming, charming!" observed Prince Vasili.
50023 "The path to Warsaw, perhaps," Prince Hippolyte remarked loudly and
50024 unexpectedly. Everybody looked at him, understanding what he meant.
50025 Prince Hippolyte himself glanced around with amused surprise. He knew no
50026 more than the others what his words meant. During his diplomatic career
50027 he had more than once noticed that such utterances were received as very
50028 witty, and at every opportunity he uttered in that way the first words
50029 that entered his head. "It may turn out very well," he thought, "but if
50030 not, they'll know how to arrange matters." And really, during the
50031 awkward silence that ensued, that insufficiently patriotic person
50032 entered whom Anna Pavlovna had been waiting for and wished to convert,
50033 and she, smiling and shaking a finger at Hippolyte, invited Prince
50034 Vasili to the table and bringing him two candles and the manuscript
50035 begged him to begin. Everyone became silent.
50037 "Most Gracious Sovereign and Emperor!" Prince Vasili sternly declaimed,
50038 looking round at his audience as if to inquire whether anyone had
50039 anything to say to the contrary. But no one said anything. "Moscow, our
50040 ancient capital, the New Jerusalem, receives her Christ"--he placed a
50041 sudden emphasis on the word her--"as a mother receives her zealous sons
50042 into her arms, and through the gathering mists, foreseeing the brilliant
50043 glory of thy rule, sings in exultation, 'Hosanna, blessed is he that
50046 Prince Vasili pronounced these last words in a tearful voice.
50048 Bilibin attentively examined his nails, and many of those present
50049 appeared intimidated, as if asking in what they were to blame. Anna
50050 Pavlovna whispered the next words in advance, like an old woman
50051 muttering the prayer at Communion: "Let the bold and insolent
50052 Goliath..." she whispered.
50054 Prince Vasili continued.
50056 "Let the bold and insolent Goliath from the borders of France encompass
50057 the realms of Russia with death-bearing terrors; humble Faith, the sling
50058 of the Russian David, shall suddenly smite his head in his bloodthirsty
50059 pride. This icon of the Venerable Sergius, the servant of God and
50060 zealous champion of old of our country's weal, is offered to Your
50061 Imperial Majesty. I grieve that my waning strength prevents rejoicing in
50062 the sight of your most gracious presence. I raise fervent prayers to
50063 Heaven that the Almighty may exalt the race of the just, and mercifully
50064 fulfill the desires of Your Majesty."
50066 "What force! What a style!" was uttered in approval both of reader and
50069 Animated by that address Anna Pavlovna's guests talked for a long time
50070 of the state of the fatherland and offered various conjectures as to the
50071 result of the battle to be fought in a few days.
50073 "You will see," said Anna Pavlovna, "that tomorrow, on the Emperor's
50074 birthday, we shall receive news. I have a favorable presentiment!"
50081 Anna Pavlovna's presentiment was in fact fulfilled. Next day during the
50082 service at the palace church in honor of the Emperor's birthday, Prince
50083 Volkonski was called out of the church and received a dispatch from
50084 Prince Kutuzov. It was Kutuzov's report, written from Tatarinova on the
50085 day of the battle. Kutuzov wrote that the Russians had not retreated a
50086 step, that the French losses were much heavier than ours, and that he
50087 was writing in haste from the field of battle before collecting full
50088 information. It followed that there must have been a victory. And at
50089 once, without leaving the church, thanks were rendered to the Creator
50090 for His help and for the victory.
50092 Anna Pavlovna's presentiment was justified, and all that morning a
50093 joyously festive mood reigned in the city. Everyone believed the victory
50094 to have been complete, and some even spoke of Napoleon's having been
50095 captured, of his deposition, and of the choice of a new ruler for
50098 It is very difficult for events to be reflected in their real strength
50099 and completeness amid the conditions of court life and far from the
50100 scene of action. General events involuntarily group themselves around
50101 some particular incident. So now the courtiers' pleasure was based as
50102 much on the fact that the news had arrived on the Emperor's birthday as
50103 on the fact of the victory itself. It was like a successfully arranged
50104 surprise. Mention was made in Kutuzov's report of the Russian losses,
50105 among which figured the names of Tuchkov, Bagration, and Kutaysov. In
50106 the Petersburg world this sad side of the affair again involuntarily
50107 centered round a single incident: Kutaysov's death. Everybody knew him,
50108 the Emperor liked him, and he was young and interesting. That day
50109 everyone met with the words:
50111 "What a wonderful coincidence! Just during the service. But what a loss
50112 Kutaysov is! How sorry I am!"
50114 "What did I tell about Kutuzov?" Prince Vasili now said with a prophet's
50115 pride. "I always said he was the only man capable of defeating
50118 But next day no news arrived from the army and the public mood grew
50119 anxious. The courtiers suffered because of the suffering the suspense
50120 occasioned the Emperor.
50122 "Fancy the Emperor's position!" said they, and instead of extolling
50123 Kutuzov as they had done the day before, they condemned him as the cause
50124 of the Emperor's anxiety. That day Prince Vasili no longer boasted of
50125 his protege Kutuzov, but remained silent when the commander-in-chief was
50126 mentioned. Moreover, toward evening, as if everything conspired to make
50127 Petersburg society anxious and uneasy, a terrible piece of news was
50128 added. Countess Helene Bezukhova had suddenly died of that terrible
50129 malady it had been so agreeable to mention. Officially, at large
50130 gatherings, everyone said that Countess Bezukhova had died of a terrible
50131 attack of angina pectoris, but in intimate circles details were
50132 mentioned of how the private physician of the Queen of Spain had
50133 prescribed small doses of a certain drug to produce a certain effect;
50134 but Helene, tortured by the fact that the old count suspected her and
50135 that her husband to whom she had written (that wretched, profligate
50136 Pierre) had not replied, had suddenly taken a very large dose of the
50137 drug, and had died in agony before assistance could be rendered her. It
50138 was said that Prince Vasili and the old count had turned upon the
50139 Italian, but the latter had produced such letters from the unfortunate
50140 deceased that they had immediately let the matter drop.
50142 Talk in general centered round three melancholy facts: the Emperor's
50143 lack of news, the loss of Kutuzov, and the death of Helene.
50145 On the third day after Kutuzov's report a country gentleman arrived from
50146 Moscow, and news of the surrender of Moscow to the French spread through
50147 the whole town. This was terrible! What a position for the Emperor to be
50148 in! Kutuzov was a traitor, and Prince Vasili during the visits of
50149 condolence paid to him on the occasion of his daughter's death said of
50150 Kutuzov, whom he had formerly praised (it was excusable for him in his
50151 grief to forget what he had said), that it was impossible to expect
50152 anything else from a blind and depraved old man.
50154 "I only wonder that the fate of Russia could have been entrusted to such
50157 As long as this news remained unofficial it was possible to doubt it,
50158 but the next day the following communication was received from Count
50161 Prince Kutuzov's adjutant has brought me a letter in which he demands
50162 police officers to guide the army to the Ryazan road. He writes that he
50163 is regretfully abandoning Moscow. Sire! Kutuzov's action decides the
50164 fate of the capital and of your empire! Russia will shudder to learn of
50165 the abandonment of the city in which her greatness is centered and in
50166 which lie the ashes of your ancestors! I shall follow the army. I have
50167 had everything removed, and it only remains for me to weep over the fate
50170 On receiving this dispatch the Emperor sent Prince Volkonski to Kutuzov
50171 with the following rescript:
50173 Prince Michael Ilarionovich! Since the twenty-ninth of August I have
50174 received no communication from you, yet on the first of September I
50175 received from the commander-in-chief of Moscow, via Yaroslavl, the sad
50176 news that you, with the army, have decided to abandon Moscow. You can
50177 yourself imagine the effect this news has had on me, and your silence
50178 increases my astonishment. I am sending this by Adjutant-General Prince
50179 Volkonski, to hear from you the situation of the army and the reasons
50180 that have induced you to take this melancholy decision.
50187 Nine days after the abandonment of Moscow, a messenger from Kutuzov
50188 reached Petersburg with the official announcement of that event. This
50189 messenger was Michaud, a Frenchman who did not know Russian, but who was
50190 quoique etranger, russe de coeur et d'ame, * as he said of himself.
50193 * Though a foreigner, Russian in heart and soul.
50195 The Emperor at once received this messenger in his study at the palace
50196 on Stone Island. Michaud, who had never seen Moscow before the campaign
50197 and who did not know Russian, yet felt deeply moved (as he wrote) when
50198 he appeared before notre tres gracieux souverain * with the news of the
50199 burning of Moscow, dont les flammes eclairaient sa route. *(2)
50202 * Our most gracious sovereign.
50204 * (2) Whose flames illumined his route.
50206 Though the source of M. Michaud's chagrin must have been different from
50207 that which caused Russians to grieve, he had such a sad face when shown
50208 into the Emperor's study that the latter at once asked:
50210 "Have you brought me sad news, Colonel?"
50212 "Very sad, sire," replied Michaud, lowering his eyes with a sigh. "The
50213 abandonment of Moscow."
50215 "Have they surrendered my ancient capital without a battle?" asked the
50216 Emperor quickly, his face suddenly flushing.
50218 Michaud respectfully delivered the message Kutuzov had entrusted to him,
50219 which was that it had been impossible to fight before Moscow, and that
50220 as the only remaining choice was between losing the army as well as
50221 Moscow, or losing Moscow alone, the field marshal had to choose the
50224 The Emperor listened in silence, not looking at Michaud.
50226 "Has the enemy entered the city?" he asked.
50228 "Yes, sire, and Moscow is now in ashes. I left it all in flames,"
50229 replied Michaud in a decided tone, but glancing at the Emperor he was
50230 frightened by what he had done.
50232 The Emperor began to breathe heavily and rapidly, his lower lip
50233 trembled, and tears instantly appeared in his fine blue eyes.
50235 But this lasted only a moment. He suddenly frowned, as if blaming
50236 himself for his weakness, and raising his head addressed Michaud in a
50239 "I see, Colonel, from all that is happening, that Providence requires
50240 great sacrifices of us... I am ready to submit myself in all things to
50241 His will; but tell me, Michaud, how did you leave the army when it saw
50242 my ancient capital abandoned without a battle? Did you not notice
50243 discouragement?..."
50245 Seeing that his most gracious ruler was calm once more, Michaud also
50246 grew calm, but was not immediately ready to reply to the Emperor's
50247 direct and relevant question which required a direct answer.
50249 "Sire, will you allow me to speak frankly as befits a loyal soldier?" he
50250 asked to gain time.
50252 "Colonel, I always require it," replied the Emperor. "Conceal nothing
50253 from me, I wish to know absolutely how things are."
50255 "Sire!" said Michaud with a subtle, scarcely perceptible smile on his
50256 lips, having now prepared a well-phrased reply, "sire, I left the whole
50257 army, from its chiefs to the lowest soldier, without exception in
50258 desperate and agonized terror..."
50260 "How is that?" the Emperor interrupted him, frowning sternly. "Would
50261 misfortune make my Russians lose heart?... Never!"
50263 Michaud had only waited for this to bring out the phrase he had
50266 "Sire," he said, with respectful playfulness, "they are only afraid lest
50267 Your Majesty, in the goodness of your heart, should allow yourself to be
50268 persuaded to make peace. They are burning for the combat," declared this
50269 representative of the Russian nation, "and to prove to Your Majesty by
50270 the sacrifice of their lives how devoted they are...."
50272 "Ah!" said the Emperor reassured, and with a kindly gleam in his eyes,
50273 he patted Michaud on the shoulder. "You set me at ease, Colonel."
50275 He bent his head and was silent for some time.
50277 "Well, then, go back to the army," he said, drawing himself up to his
50278 full height and addressing Michaud with a gracious and majestic gesture,
50279 "and tell our brave men and all my good subjects wherever you go that
50280 when I have not a soldier left I shall put myself at the head of my
50281 beloved nobility and my good peasants and so use the last resources of
50282 my empire. It still offers me more than my enemies suppose," said the
50283 Emperor growing more and more animated; "but should it ever be ordained
50284 by Divine Providence," he continued, raising to heaven his fine eyes
50285 shining with emotion, "that my dynasty should cease to reign on the
50286 throne of my ancestors, then after exhausting all the means at my
50287 command, I shall let my beard grow to here" (he pointed halfway down his
50288 chest) "and go and eat potatoes with the meanest of my peasants, rather
50289 than sign the disgrace of my country and of my beloved people whose
50290 sacrifices I know how to appreciate."
50292 Having uttered these words in an agitated voice the Emperor suddenly
50293 turned away as if to hide from Michaud the tears that rose to his eyes,
50294 and went to the further end of his study. Having stood there a few
50295 moments, he strode back to Michaud and pressed his arm below the elbow
50296 with a vigorous movement. The Emperor's mild and handsome face was
50297 flushed and his eyes gleamed with resolution and anger.
50299 "Colonel Michaud, do not forget what I say to you here, perhaps we may
50300 recall it with pleasure someday... Napoleon or I," said the Emperor,
50301 touching his breast. "We can no longer both reign together. I have
50302 learned to know him, and he will not deceive me any more...."
50304 And the Emperor paused, with a frown.
50306 When he heard these words and saw the expression of firm resolution in
50307 the Emperor's eyes, Michaud--quoique etranger, russe de coeur et d'ame--
50308 at that solemn moment felt himself enraptured by all that he had heard
50309 (as he used afterwards to say), and gave expression to his own feelings
50310 and those of the Russian people whose representative he considered
50311 himself to be, in the following words:
50313 "Sire!" said he, "Your Majesty is at this moment signing the glory of
50314 the nation and the salvation of Europe!"
50316 With an inclination of the head the Emperor dismissed him.
50323 It is natural for us who were not living in those days to imagine that
50324 when half Russia had been conquered and the inhabitants were fleeing to
50325 distant provinces, and one levy after another was being raised for the
50326 defense of the fatherland, all Russians from the greatest to the least
50327 were solely engaged in sacrificing themselves, saving their fatherland,
50328 or weeping over its downfall. The tales and descriptions of that time
50329 without exception speak only of the self-sacrifice, patriotic devotion,
50330 despair, grief, and the heroism of the Russians. But it was not really
50331 so. It appears so to us because we see only the general historic
50332 interest of that time and do not see all the personal human interests
50333 that people had. Yet in reality those personal interests of the moment
50334 so much transcend the general interests that they always prevent the
50335 public interest from being felt or even noticed. Most of the people at
50336 that time paid no attention to the general progress of events but were
50337 guided only by their private interests, and they were the very people
50338 whose activities at that period were most useful.
50340 Those who tried to understand the general course of events and to take
50341 part in it by self-sacrifice and heroism were the most useless members
50342 of society, they saw everything upside down, and all they did for the
50343 common good turned out to be useless and foolish--like Pierre's and
50344 Mamonov's regiments which looted Russian villages, and the lint the
50345 young ladies prepared and that never reached the wounded, and so on.
50346 Even those, fond of intellectual talk and of expressing their feelings,
50347 who discussed Russia's position at the time involuntarily introduced
50348 into their conversation either a shade of pretense and falsehood or
50349 useless condemnation and anger directed against people accused of
50350 actions no one could possibly be guilty of. In historic events the rule
50351 forbidding us to eat of the fruit of the Tree of Knowledge is specially
50352 applicable. Only unconscious action bears fruit, and he who plays a part
50353 in an historic event never understands its significance. If he tries to
50354 realize it his efforts are fruitless.
50356 The more closely a man was engaged in the events then taking place in
50357 Russia the less did he realize their significance. In Petersburg and in
50358 the provinces at a distance from Moscow, ladies, and gentlemen in
50359 militia uniforms, wept for Russia and its ancient capital and talked of
50360 self-sacrifice and so on; but in the army which retired beyond Moscow
50361 there was little talk or thought of Moscow, and when they caught sight
50362 of its burned ruins no one swore to be avenged on the French, but they
50363 thought about their next pay, their next quarters, of Matreshka the
50364 vivandiere, and like matters.
50366 As the war had caught him in the service, Nicholas Rostov took a close
50367 and prolonged part in the defense of his country, but did so casually,
50368 without any aim at self-sacrifice, and he therefore looked at what was
50369 going on in Russia without despair and without dismally racking his
50370 brains over it. Had he been asked what he thought of the state of
50371 Russia, he would have said that it was not his business to think about
50372 it, that Kutuzov and others were there for that purpose, but that he had
50373 heard that the regiments were to be made up to their full strength, that
50374 fighting would probably go on for a long time yet, and that things being
50375 so it was quite likely he might be in command of a regiment in a couple
50378 As he looked at the matter in this way, he learned that he was being
50379 sent to Voronezh to buy remounts for his division, not only without
50380 regret at being prevented from taking part in the coming battle, but
50381 with the greatest pleasure--which he did not conceal and which his
50382 comrades fully understood.
50384 A few days before the battle of Borodino, Nicholas received the
50385 necessary money and warrants, and having sent some hussars on in
50386 advance, he set out with post horses for Voronezh.
50388 Only a man who has experienced it--that is, has passed some months
50389 continuously in an atmosphere of campaigning and war--can understand the
50390 delight Nicholas felt when he escaped from the region covered by the
50391 army's foraging operations, provision trains, and hospitals. When--free
50392 from soldiers, wagons, and the filthy traces of a camp--he saw villages
50393 with peasants and peasant women, gentlemen's country houses, fields
50394 where cattle were grazing, posthouses with stationmasters asleep in
50395 them, he rejoiced as though seeing all this for the first time. What for
50396 a long while specially surprised and delighted him were the women, young
50397 and healthy, without a dozen officers making up to each of them; women,
50398 too, who were pleased and flattered that a passing officer should joke
50401 In the highest spirits Nicholas arrived at night at a hotel in Voronezh,
50402 ordered things he had long been deprived of in camp, and next day, very
50403 clean-shaven and in a full-dress uniform he had not worn for a long
50404 time, went to present himself to the authorities.
50406 The commander of the militia was a civilian general, an old man who was
50407 evidently pleased with his military designation and rank. He received
50408 Nicholas brusquely (imagining this to be characteristically military)
50409 and questioned him with an important air, as if considering the general
50410 progress of affairs and approving and disapproving with full right to do
50411 so. Nicholas was in such good spirits that this merely amused him.
50413 From the commander of the militia he drove to the governor. The governor
50414 was a brisk little man, very simple and affable. He indicated the stud
50415 farms at which Nicholas might procure horses, recommended to him a horse
50416 dealer in the town and a landowner fourteen miles out of town who had
50417 the best horses, and promised to assist him in every way.
50419 "You are Count Ilya Rostov's son? My wife was a great friend of your
50420 mother's. We are at home on Thursdays--today is Thursday, so please come
50421 and see us quite informally," said the governor, taking leave of him.
50423 Immediately on leaving the governor's, Nicholas hired post horses and,
50424 taking his squadron quartermaster with him, drove at a gallop to the
50425 landowner, fourteen miles away, who had the stud. Everything seemed to
50426 him pleasant and easy during that first part of his stay in Voronezh
50427 and, as usually happens when a man is in a pleasant state of mind,
50428 everything went well and easily.
50430 The landowner to whom Nicholas went was a bachelor, an old cavalryman, a
50431 horse fancier, a sportsman, the possessor of some century-old brandy and
50432 some old Hungarian wine, who had a snuggery where he smoked, and who
50433 owned some splendid horses.
50435 In very few words Nicholas bought seventeen picked stallions for six
50436 thousand rubles--to serve, as he said, as samples of his remounts. After
50437 dining and taking rather too much of the Hungarian wine, Nicholas--
50438 having exchanged kisses with the landowner, with whom he was already on
50439 the friendliest terms--galloped back over abominable roads, in the
50440 brightest frame of mind, continually urging on the driver so as to be in
50441 time for the governor's party.
50443 When he had changed, poured water over his head, and scented himself,
50444 Nicholas arrived at the governor's rather late, but with the phrase
50445 "better late than never" on his lips.
50447 It was not a ball, nor had dancing been announced, but everyone knew
50448 that Catherine Petrovna would play valses and the ecossaise on the
50449 clavichord and that there would be dancing, and so everyone had come as
50452 Provincial life in 1812 went on very much as usual, but with this
50453 difference, that it was livelier in the towns in consequence of the
50454 arrival of many wealthy families from Moscow, and as in everything that
50455 went on in Russia at that time a special recklessness was noticeable, an
50456 "in for a penny, in for a pound--who cares?" spirit, and the inevitable
50457 small talk, instead of turning on the weather and mutual acquaintances,
50458 now turned on Moscow, the army, and Napoleon.
50460 The society gathered together at the governor's was the best in
50463 There were a great many ladies and some of Nicholas' Moscow
50464 acquaintances, but there were no men who could at all vie with the
50465 cavalier of St. George, the hussar remount officer, the good-natured and
50466 well-bred Count Rostov. Among the men was an Italian prisoner, an
50467 officer of the French army; and Nicholas felt that the presence of that
50468 prisoner enhanced his own importance as a Russian hero. The Italian was,
50469 as it were, a war trophy. Nicholas felt this, it seemed to him that
50470 everyone regarded the Italian in the same light, and he treated him
50471 cordially though with dignity and restraint.
50473 As soon as Nicholas entered in his hussar uniform, diffusing around him
50474 a fragrance of perfume and wine, and had uttered the words "better late
50475 than never" and heard them repeated several times by others, people
50476 clustered around him; all eyes turned on him, and he felt at once that
50477 he had entered into his proper position in the province--that of a
50478 universal favorite: a very pleasant position, and intoxicatingly so
50479 after his long privations. At posting stations, at inns, and in the
50480 landowner's snuggery, maidservants had been flattered by his notice, and
50481 here too at the governor's party there were (as it seemed to Nicholas)
50482 an inexhaustible number of pretty young women, married and unmarried,
50483 impatiently awaiting his notice. The women and girls flirted with him
50484 and, from the first day, the people concerned themselves to get this
50485 fine young daredevil of an hussar married and settled down. Among these
50486 was the governor's wife herself, who welcomed Rostov as a near relative
50487 and called him "Nicholas."
50489 Catherine Petrovna did actually play valses and the ecossaise, and
50490 dancing began in which Nicholas still further captivated the provincial
50491 society by his agility. His particularly free manner of dancing even
50492 surprised them all. Nicholas was himself rather surprised at the way he
50493 danced that evening. He had never danced like that in Moscow and would
50494 even have considered such a very free and easy manner improper and in
50495 bad form, but here he felt it incumbent on him to astonish them all by
50496 something unusual, something they would have to accept as the regular
50497 thing in the capital though new to them in the provinces.
50499 All the evening Nicholas paid attention to a blue-eyed, plump and
50500 pleasing little blonde, the wife of one of the provincial officials.
50501 With the naive conviction of young men in a merry mood that other men's
50502 wives were created for them, Rostov did not leave the lady's side and
50503 treated her husband in a friendly and conspiratorial style, as if,
50504 without speaking of it, they knew how capitally Nicholas and the lady
50505 would get on together. The husband, however, did not seem to share that
50506 conviction and tried to behave morosely with Rostov. But the latter's
50507 good-natured naivete was so boundless that sometimes even he
50508 involuntarily yielded to Nicholas' good humor. Toward the end of the
50509 evening, however, as the wife's face grew more flushed and animated, the
50510 husband's became more and more melancholy and solemn, as though there
50511 were but a given amount of animation between them and as the wife's
50512 share increased the husband's diminished.
50519 Nicholas sat leaning slightly forward in an armchair, bending closely
50520 over the blonde lady and paying her mythological compliments with a
50521 smile that never left his face. Jauntily shifting the position of his
50522 legs in their tight riding breeches, diffusing an odor of perfume, and
50523 admiring his partner, himself, and the fine outlines of his legs in
50524 their well-fitting Hessian boots, Nicholas told the blonde lady that he
50525 wished to run away with a certain lady here in Voronezh.
50529 "A charming lady, a divine one. Her eyes" (Nicholas looked at his
50530 partner) "are blue, her mouth coral and ivory; her figure" (he glanced
50531 at her shoulders) "like Diana's...."
50533 The husband came up and sullenly asked his wife what she was talking
50536 "Ah, Nikita Ivanych!" cried Nicholas, rising politely, and as if wishing
50537 Nikita Ivanych to share his joke, he began to tell him of his intention
50538 to elope with a blonde lady.
50540 The husband smiled gloomily, the wife gaily. The governor's good-natured
50541 wife came up with a look of disapproval.
50543 "Anna Ignatyevna wants to see you, Nicholas," said she, pronouncing the
50544 name so that Nicholas at once understood that Anna Ignatyevna was a very
50545 important person. "Come, Nicholas! You know you let me call you so?"
50547 "Oh, yes, Aunt. Who is she?"
50549 "Anna Ignatyevna Malvintseva. She has heard from her niece how you
50550 rescued her... Can you guess?"
50552 "I rescued such a lot of them!" said Nicholas.
50554 "Her niece, Princess Bolkonskaya. She is here in Voronezh with her aunt.
50555 Oho! How you blush. Why, are...?"
50557 "Not a bit! Please don't, Aunt!"
50559 "Very well, very well!... Oh, what a fellow you are!"
50561 The governor's wife led him up to a tall and very stout old lady with a
50562 blue headdress, who had just finished her game of cards with the most
50563 important personages of the town. This was Malvintseva, Princess Mary's
50564 aunt on her mother's side, a rich, childless widow who always lived in
50565 Voronezh. When Rostov approached her she was standing settling up for
50566 the game. She looked at him and, screwing up her eyes sternly, continued
50567 to upbraid the general who had won from her.
50569 "Very pleased, mon cher," she then said, holding out her hand to
50570 Nicholas. "Pray come and see me."
50572 After a few words about Princess Mary and her late father, whom
50573 Malvintseva had evidently not liked, and having asked what Nicholas knew
50574 of Prince Andrew, who also was evidently no favorite of hers, the
50575 important old lady dismissed Nicholas after repeating her invitation to
50578 Nicholas promised to come and blushed again as he bowed. At the mention
50579 of Princess Mary he experienced a feeling of shyness and even of fear,
50580 which he himself did not understand.
50582 When he had parted from Malvintseva Nicholas wished to return to the
50583 dancing, but the governor's little wife placed her plump hand on his
50584 sleeve and, saying that she wanted to have a talk with him, led him to
50585 her sitting room, from which those who were there immediately withdrew
50586 so as not to be in her way.
50588 "Do you know, dear boy," began the governor's wife with a serious
50589 expression on her kind little face, "that really would be the match for
50590 you: would you like me to arrange it?"
50592 "Whom do you mean, Aunt?" asked Nicholas.
50594 "I will make a match for you with the princess. Catherine Petrovna
50595 speaks of Lily, but I say, no--the princess! Do you want me to do it? I
50596 am sure your mother will be grateful to me. What a charming girl she is,
50597 really! And she is not at all so plain, either."
50599 "Not at all," replied Nicholas as if offended at the idea. "As befits a
50600 soldier, Aunt, I don't force myself on anyone or refuse anything," he
50601 said before he had time to consider what he was saying.
50603 "Well then, remember, this is not a joke!"
50607 "Yes, yes," the governor's wife said as if talking to herself. "But, my
50608 dear boy, among other things you are too attentive to the other, the
50609 blonde. One is sorry for the husband, really...."
50611 "Oh no, we are good friends with him," said Nicholas in the simplicity
50612 of his heart; it did not enter his head that a pastime so pleasant to
50613 himself might not be pleasant to someone else.
50615 "But what nonsense I have been saying to the governor's wife!" thought
50616 Nicholas suddenly at supper. "She will really begin to arrange a
50617 match... and Sonya...?" And on taking leave of the governor's wife, when
50618 she again smilingly said to him, "Well then, remember!" he drew her
50621 "But see here, to tell the truth, Aunt..."
50623 "What is it, my dear? Come, let's sit down here," said she.
50625 Nicholas suddenly felt a desire and need to tell his most intimate
50626 thoughts (which he would not have told to his mother, his sister, or his
50627 friend) to this woman who was almost a stranger. When he afterwards
50628 recalled that impulse to unsolicited and inexplicable frankness which
50629 had very important results for him, it seemed to him--as it seems to
50630 everyone in such cases--that it was merely some silly whim that seized
50631 him: yet that burst of frankness, together with other trifling events,
50632 had immense consequences for him and for all his family.
50634 "You see, Aunt, Mamma has long wanted me to marry an heiress, but the
50635 very idea of marrying for money is repugnant to me."
50637 "Oh yes, I understand," said the governor's wife.
50639 "But Princess Bolkonskaya--that's another matter. I will tell you the
50640 truth. In the first place I like her very much, I feel drawn to her; and
50641 then, after I met her under such circumstances--so strangely, the idea
50642 often occurred to me: 'This is fate.' Especially if you remember that
50643 Mamma had long been thinking of it; but I had never happened to meet her
50644 before, somehow it had always happened that we did not meet. And as long
50645 as my sister Natasha was engaged to her brother it was of course out of
50646 the question for me to think of marrying her. And it must needs happen
50647 that I should meet her just when Natasha's engagement had been broken
50648 off... and then everything... So you see... I never told this to anyone
50649 and never will, only to you."
50651 The governor's wife pressed his elbow gratefully.
50653 "You know Sonya, my cousin? I love her, and promised to marry her, and
50654 will do so.... So you see there can be no question about-" said Nicholas
50655 incoherently and blushing.
50657 "My dear boy, what a way to look at it! You know Sonya has nothing and
50658 you yourself say your Papa's affairs are in a very bad way. And what
50659 about your mother? It would kill her, that's one thing. And what sort of
50660 life would it be for Sonya--if she's a girl with a heart? Your mother in
50661 despair, and you all ruined.... No, my dear, you and Sonya ought to
50664 Nicholas remained silent. It comforted him to hear these arguments.
50666 "All the same, Aunt, it is impossible," he rejoined with a sigh, after a
50667 short pause. "Besides, would the princess have me? And besides, she is
50668 now in mourning. How can one think of it!"
50670 "But you don't suppose I'm going to get you married at once? There is
50671 always a right way of doing things," replied the governor's wife.
50673 "What a matchmaker you are, Aunt..." said Nicholas, kissing her plump
50681 On reaching Moscow after her meeting with Rostov, Princess Mary had
50682 found her nephew there with his tutor, and a letter from Prince Andrew
50683 giving her instructions how to get to her Aunt Malvintseva at Voronezh.
50684 That feeling akin to temptation which had tormented her during her
50685 father's illness, since his death, and especially since her meeting with
50686 Rostov was smothered by arrangements for the journey, anxiety about her
50687 brother, settling in a new house, meeting new people, and attending to
50688 her nephew's education. She was sad. Now, after a month passed in quiet
50689 surroundings, she felt more and more deeply the loss of her father which
50690 was associated in her mind with the ruin of Russia. She was agitated and
50691 incessantly tortured by the thought of the dangers to which her brother,
50692 the only intimate person now remaining to her, was exposed. She was
50693 worried too about her nephew's education for which she had always felt
50694 herself incompetent, but in the depths of her soul she felt at peace--a
50695 peace arising from consciousness of having stifled those personal dreams
50696 and hopes that had been on the point of awakening within her and were
50697 related to her meeting with Rostov.
50699 The day after her party the governor's wife came to see Malvintseva and,
50700 after discussing her plan with the aunt, remarked that though under
50701 present circumstances a formal betrothal was, of course, not to be
50702 thought of, all the same the young people might be brought together and
50703 could get to know one another. Malvintseva expressed approval, and the
50704 governor's wife began to speak of Rostov in Mary's presence, praising
50705 him and telling how he had blushed when Princess Mary's name was
50706 mentioned. But Princess Mary experienced a painful rather than a joyful
50707 feeling--her mental tranquillity was destroyed, and desires, doubts,
50708 self-reproach, and hopes reawoke.
50710 During the two days that elapsed before Rostov called, Princess Mary
50711 continually thought of how she ought to behave to him. First she decided
50712 not to come to the drawing room when he called to see her aunt--that it
50713 would not be proper for her, in her deep mourning, to receive visitors;
50714 then she thought this would be rude after what he had done for her; then
50715 it occurred to her that her aunt and the governor's wife had intentions
50716 concerning herself and Rostov--their looks and words at times seemed to
50717 confirm this supposition--then she told herself that only she, with her
50718 sinful nature, could think this of them: they could not forget that
50719 situated as she was, while still wearing deep mourning, such matchmaking
50720 would be an insult to her and to her father's memory. Assuming that she
50721 did go down to see him, Princess Mary imagined the words he would say to
50722 her and what she would say to him, and these words sometimes seemed
50723 undeservedly cold and then to mean too much. More than anything she
50724 feared lest the confusion she felt might overwhelm her and betray her as
50725 soon as she saw him.
50727 But when on Sunday after church the footman announced in the drawing
50728 room that Count Rostov had called, the princess showed no confusion,
50729 only a slight blush suffused her cheeks and her eyes lit up with a new
50732 "You have met him, Aunt?" said she in a calm voice, unable herself to
50733 understand that she could be outwardly so calm and natural.
50735 When Rostov entered the room, the princess dropped her eyes for an
50736 instant, as if to give the visitor time to greet her aunt, and then just
50737 as Nicholas turned to her she raised her head and met his look with
50738 shining eyes. With a movement full of dignity and grace she half rose
50739 with a smile of pleasure, held out her slender, delicate hand to him,
50740 and began to speak in a voice in which for the first time new deep
50741 womanly notes vibrated. Mademoiselle Bourienne, who was in the drawing
50742 room, looked at Princess Mary in bewildered surprise. Herself a
50743 consummate coquette, she could not have maneuvered better on meeting a
50744 man she wished to attract.
50746 "Either black is particularly becoming to her or she really has greatly
50747 improved without my having noticed it. And above all, what tact and
50748 grace!" thought Mademoiselle Bourienne.
50750 Had Princess Mary been capable of reflection at that moment, she would
50751 have been more surprised than Mademoiselle Bourienne at the change that
50752 had taken place in herself. From the moment she recognized that dear,
50753 loved face, a new life force took possession of her and compelled her to
50754 speak and act apart from her own will. From the time Rostov entered, her
50755 face became suddenly transformed. It was as if a light had been kindled
50756 in a carved and painted lantern and the intricate, skillful, artistic
50757 work on its sides, that previously seemed dark, coarse, and meaningless,
50758 was suddenly shown up in unexpected and striking beauty. For the first
50759 time all that pure, spiritual, inward travail through which she had
50760 lived appeared on the surface. All her inward labor, her dissatisfaction
50761 with herself, her sufferings, her strivings after goodness, her
50762 meekness, love, and self-sacrifice--all this now shone in those radiant
50763 eyes, in her delicate smile, and in every trait of her gentle face.
50765 Rostov saw all this as clearly as if he had known her whole life. He
50766 felt that the being before him was quite different from, and better
50767 than, anyone he had met before, and above all better than himself.
50769 Their conversation was very simple and unimportant. They spoke of the
50770 war, and like everyone else unconsciously exaggerated their sorrow about
50771 it; they spoke of their last meeting--Nicholas trying to change the
50772 subject--they talked of the governor's kind wife, of Nicholas'
50773 relations, and of Princess Mary's.
50775 She did not talk about her brother, diverting the conversation as soon
50776 as her aunt mentioned Andrew. Evidently she could speak of Russia's
50777 misfortunes with a certain artificiality, but her brother was too near
50778 her heart and she neither could nor would speak lightly of him. Nicholas
50779 noticed this, as he noticed every shade of Princess Mary's character
50780 with an observation unusual to him, and everything confirmed his
50781 conviction that she was a quite unusual and extraordinary being.
50782 Nicholas blushed and was confused when people spoke to him about the
50783 princess (as she did when he was mentioned) and even when he thought of
50784 her, but in her presence he felt quite at ease, and said not at all what
50785 he had prepared, but what, quite appropriately, occurred to him at the
50788 When a pause occurred during his short visit, Nicholas, as is usual when
50789 there are children, turned to Prince Andrew's little son, caressing him
50790 and asking whether he would like to be an hussar. He took the boy on his
50791 knee, played with him, and looked round at Princess Mary. With a
50792 softened, happy, timid look she watched the boy she loved in the arms of
50793 the man she loved. Nicholas also noticed that look and, as if
50794 understanding it, flushed with pleasure and began to kiss the boy with
50795 good natured playfulness.
50797 As she was in mourning Princess Mary did not go out into society, and
50798 Nicholas did not think it the proper thing to visit her again; but all
50799 the same the governor's wife went on with her matchmaking, passing on to
50800 Nicholas the flattering things Princess Mary said of him and vice versa,
50801 and insisting on his declaring himself to Princess Mary. For this
50802 purpose she arranged a meeting between the young people at the bishop's
50805 Though Rostov told the governor's wife that he would not make any
50806 declaration to Princess Mary, he promised to go.
50808 As at Tilsit Rostov had not allowed himself to doubt that what everybody
50809 considered right was right, so now, after a short but sincere struggle
50810 between his effort to arrange his life by his own sense of justice, and
50811 in obedient submission to circumstances, he chose the latter and yielded
50812 to the power he felt irresistibly carrying him he knew not where. He
50813 knew that after his promise to Sonya it would be what he deemed base to
50814 declare his feelings to Princess Mary. And he knew that he would never
50815 act basely. But he also knew (or rather felt at the bottom of his heart)
50816 that by resigning himself now to the force of circumstances and to those
50817 who were guiding him, he was not only doing nothing wrong, but was doing
50818 something very important--more important than anything he had ever done
50821 After meeting Princess Mary, though the course of his life went on
50822 externally as before, all his former amusements lost their charm for him
50823 and he often thought about her. But he never thought about her as he had
50824 thought of all the young ladies without exception whom he had met in
50825 society, nor as he had for a long time, and at one time rapturously,
50826 thought about Sonya. He had pictured each of those young ladies as
50827 almost all honest-hearted young men do, that is, as a possible wife,
50828 adapting her in his imagination to all the conditions of married life: a
50829 white dressing gown, his wife at the tea table, his wife's carriage,
50830 little ones, Mamma and Papa, their relations to her, and so on--and
50831 these pictures of the future had given him pleasure. But with Princess
50832 Mary, to whom they were trying to get him engaged, he could never
50833 picture anything of future married life. If he tried, his pictures
50834 seemed incongruous and false. It made him afraid.
50841 The dreadful news of the battle of Borodino, of our losses in killed and
50842 wounded, and the still more terrible news of the loss of Moscow reached
50843 Voronezh in the middle of September. Princess Mary, having learned of
50844 her brother's wound only from the Gazette and having no definite news of
50845 him, prepared (so Nicholas heard, he had not seen her again himself) to
50846 set off in search of Prince Andrew.
50848 When he received the news of the battle of Borodino and the abandonment
50849 of Moscow, Rostov was not seized with despair, anger, the desire for
50850 vengeance, or any feeling of that kind, but everything in Voronezh
50851 suddenly seemed to him dull and tiresome, and he experienced an
50852 indefinite feeling of shame and awkwardness. The conversations he heard
50853 seemed to him insincere; he did not know how to judge all these affairs
50854 and felt that only in the regiment would everything again become clear
50855 to him. He made haste to finish buying the horses, and often became
50856 unreasonably angry with his servant and squadron quartermaster.
50858 A few days before his departure a special thanksgiving, at which
50859 Nicholas was present, was held in the cathedral for the Russian victory.
50860 He stood a little behind the governor and held himself with military
50861 decorum through the service, meditating on a great variety of subjects.
50862 When the service was over the governor's wife beckoned him to her.
50864 "Have you seen the princess?" she asked, indicating with a movement of
50865 her head a lady standing on the opposite side, beyond the choir.
50867 Nicholas immediately recognized Princess Mary not so much by the profile
50868 he saw under her bonnet as by the feeling of solicitude, timidity, and
50869 pity that immediately overcame him. Princess Mary, evidently engrossed
50870 by her thoughts, was crossing herself for the last time before leaving
50873 Nicholas looked at her face with surprise. It was the same face he had
50874 seen before, there was the same general expression of refined, inner,
50875 spiritual labor, but now it was quite differently lit up. There was a
50876 pathetic expression of sorrow, prayer, and hope in it. As had occurred
50877 before when she was present, Nicholas went up to her without waiting to
50878 be prompted by the governor's wife and not asking himself whether or not
50879 it was right and proper to address her here in church, and told her he
50880 had heard of her trouble and sympathized with his whole soul. As soon as
50881 she heard his voice a vivid glow kindled in her face, lighting up both
50882 her sorrow and her joy.
50884 "There is one thing I wanted to tell you, Princess," said Rostov. "It is
50885 that if your brother, Prince Andrew Nikolievich, were not living, it
50886 would have been at once announced in the Gazette, as he is a colonel."
50888 The princess looked at him, not grasping what he was saying, but cheered
50889 by the expression of regretful sympathy on his face.
50891 "And I have known so many cases of a splinter wound" (the Gazette said
50892 it was a shell) "either proving fatal at once or being very slight,"
50893 continued Nicholas. "We must hope for the best, and I am sure..."
50895 Princess Mary interrupted him.
50897 "Oh, that would be so dread..." she began and, prevented by agitation
50898 from finishing, she bent her head with a movement as graceful as
50899 everything she did in his presence and, looking up at him gratefully,
50900 went out, following her aunt.
50902 That evening Nicholas did not go out, but stayed at home to settle some
50903 accounts with the horse dealers. When he had finished that business it
50904 was already too late to go anywhere but still too early to go to bed,
50905 and for a long time he paced up and down the room, reflecting on his
50906 life, a thing he rarely did.
50908 Princess Mary had made an agreeable impression on him when he had met
50909 her in Smolensk province. His having encountered her in such exceptional
50910 circumstances, and his mother having at one time mentioned her to him as
50911 a good match, had drawn his particular attention to her. When he met her
50912 again in Voronezh the impression she made on him was not merely pleasing
50913 but powerful. Nicholas had been struck by the peculiar moral beauty he
50914 observed in her at this time. He was, however, preparing to go away and
50915 it had not entered his head to regret that he was thus depriving himself
50916 of chances of meeting her. But that day's encounter in church had, he
50917 felt, sunk deeper than was desirable for his peace of mind. That pale,
50918 sad, refined face, that radiant look, those gentle graceful gestures,
50919 and especially the deep and tender sorrow expressed in all her features
50920 agitated him and evoked his sympathy. In men Rostov could not bear to
50921 see the expression of a higher spiritual life (that was why he did not
50922 like Prince Andrew) and he referred to it contemptuously as philosophy
50923 and dreaminess, but in Princess Mary that very sorrow which revealed the
50924 depth of a whole spiritual world foreign to him was an irresistible
50927 "She must be a wonderful woman. A real angel!" he said to himself. "Why
50928 am I not free? Why was I in such a hurry with Sonya?" And he
50929 involuntarily compared the two: the lack of spirituality in the one and
50930 the abundance of it in the other--a spirituality he himself lacked and
50931 therefore valued most highly. He tried to picture what would happen were
50932 he free. How he would propose to her and how she would become his wife.
50933 But no, he could not imagine that. He felt awed, and no clear picture
50934 presented itself to his mind. He had long ago pictured to himself a
50935 future with Sonya, and that was all clear and simple just because it had
50936 all been thought out and he knew all there was in Sonya, but it was
50937 impossible to picture a future with Princess Mary, because he did not
50938 understand her but simply loved her.
50940 Reveries about Sonya had had something merry and playful in them, but to
50941 dream of Princess Mary was always difficult and a little frightening.
50943 "How she prayed!" he thought. "It was plain that her whole soul was in
50944 her prayer. Yes, that was the prayer that moves mountains, and I am sure
50945 her prayer will be answered. Why don't I pray for what I want?" he
50946 suddenly thought. "What do I want? To be free, released from Sonya...
50947 She was right," he thought, remembering what the governor's wife had
50948 said: "Nothing but misfortune can come of marrying Sonya. Muddles, grief
50949 for Mamma... business difficulties... muddles, terrible muddles!
50950 Besides, I don't love her--not as I should. O, God! release me from this
50951 dreadful, inextricable position!" he suddenly began to pray. "Yes,
50952 prayer can move mountains, but one must have faith and not pray as
50953 Natasha and I used to as children, that the snow might turn into sugar--
50954 and then run out into the yard to see whether it had done so. No, but I
50955 am not praying for trifles now," he thought as he put his pipe down in a
50956 corner, and folding his hands placed himself before the icon. Softened
50957 by memories of Princess Mary he began to pray as he had not done for a
50958 long time. Tears were in his eyes and in his throat when the door opened
50959 and Lavrushka came in with some papers.
50961 "Blockhead! Why do you come in without being called?" cried Nicholas,
50962 quickly changing his attitude.
50964 "From the governor," said Lavrushka in a sleepy voice. "A courier has
50965 arrived and there's a letter for you."
50967 "Well, all right, thanks. You can go!"
50969 Nicholas took the two letters, one of which was from his mother and the
50970 other from Sonya. He recognized them by the handwriting and opened
50971 Sonya's first. He had read only a few lines when he turned pale and his
50972 eyes opened wide with fear and joy.
50974 "No, it's not possible!" he cried aloud.
50976 Unable to sit still he paced up and down the room holding the letter and
50977 reading it. He glanced through it, then read it again, and then again,
50978 and standing still in the middle of the room he raised his shoulders,
50979 stretching out his hands, with his mouth wide open and his eyes fixed.
50980 What he had just been praying for with confidence that God would hear
50981 him had come to pass; but Nicholas was as much astonished as if it were
50982 something extraordinary and unexpected, and as if the very fact that it
50983 had happened so quickly proved that it had not come from God to whom he
50984 had prayed, but by some ordinary coincidence.
50986 This unexpected and, as it seemed to Nicholas, quite voluntary letter
50987 from Sonya freed him from the knot that fettered him and from which
50988 there had seemed no escape. She wrote that the last unfortunate events--
50989 the loss of almost the whole of the Rostovs' Moscow property--and the
50990 countess' repeatedly expressed wish that Nicholas should marry Princess
50991 Bolkonskaya, together with his silence and coldness of late, had all
50992 combined to make her decide to release him from his promise and set him
50995 It would be too painful to me to think that I might be a cause of sorrow
50996 or discord in the family that has been so good to me (she wrote), and my
50997 love has no aim but the happiness of those I love; so, Nicholas, I beg
50998 you to consider yourself free, and to be assured that, in spite of
50999 everything, no one can love you more than does
51003 Both letters were written from Troitsa. The other, from the countess,
51004 described their last days in Moscow, their departure, the fire, and the
51005 destruction of all their property. In this letter the countess also
51006 mentioned that Prince Andrew was among the wounded traveling with them;
51007 his state was very critical, but the doctor said there was now more
51008 hope. Sonya and Natasha were nursing him.
51010 Next day Nicholas took his mother's letter and went to see Princess
51011 Mary. Neither he nor she said a word about what "Natasha nursing him"
51012 might mean, but thanks to this letter Nicholas suddenly became almost as
51013 intimate with the princess as if they were relations.
51015 The following day he saw Princess Mary off on her journey to Yaroslavl,
51016 and a few days later left to rejoin his regiment.
51023 Sonya's letter written from Troitsa, which had come as an answer to
51024 Nicholas' prayer, was prompted by this: the thought of getting Nicholas
51025 married to an heiress occupied the old countess' mind more and more. She
51026 knew that Sonya was the chief obstacle to this happening, and Sonya's
51027 life in the countess' house had grown harder and harder, especially
51028 after they had received a letter from Nicholas telling of his meeting
51029 with Princess Mary in Bogucharovo. The countess let no occasion slip of
51030 making humiliating or cruel allusions to Sonya.
51032 But a few days before they left Moscow, moved and excited by all that
51033 was going on, she called Sonya to her and, instead of reproaching and
51034 making demands on her, tearfully implored her to sacrifice herself and
51035 repay all that the family had done for her by breaking off her
51036 engagement with Nicholas.
51038 "I shall not be at peace till you promise me this."
51040 Sonya burst into hysterical tears and replied through her sobs that she
51041 would do anything and was prepared for anything, but gave no actual
51042 promise and could not bring herself to decide to do what was demanded of
51043 her. She must sacrifice herself for the family that had reared and
51044 brought her up. To sacrifice herself for others was Sonya's habit. Her
51045 position in the house was such that only by sacrifice could she show her
51046 worth, and she was accustomed to this and loved doing it. But in all her
51047 former acts of self-sacrifice she had been happily conscious that they
51048 raised her in her own esteem and in that of others, and so made her more
51049 worthy of Nicholas whom she loved more than anything in the world. But
51050 now they wanted her to sacrifice the very thing that constituted the
51051 whole reward for her self-sacrifice and the whole meaning of her life.
51052 And for the first time she felt bitterness against those who had been
51053 her benefactors only to torture her the more painfully; she felt jealous
51054 of Natasha who had never experienced anything of this sort, had never
51055 needed to sacrifice herself, but made others sacrifice themselves for
51056 her and yet was beloved by everybody. And for the first time Sonya felt
51057 that out of her pure, quiet love for Nicholas a passionate feeling was
51058 beginning to grow up which was stronger than principle, virtue, or
51059 religion. Under the influence of this feeling Sonya, whose life of
51060 dependence had taught her involuntarily to be secretive, having answered
51061 the countess in vague general terms, avoided talking with her and
51062 resolved to wait till she should see Nicholas, not in order to set him
51063 free but on the contrary at that meeting to bind him to her forever.
51065 The bustle and terror of the Rostovs' last days in Moscow stifled the
51066 gloomy thoughts that oppressed Sonya. She was glad to find escape from
51067 them in practical activity. But when she heard of Prince Andrew's
51068 presence in their house, despite her sincere pity for him and for
51069 Natasha, she was seized by a joyful and superstitious feeling that God
51070 did not intend her to be separated from Nicholas. She knew that Natasha
51071 loved no one but Prince Andrew and had never ceased to love him. She
51072 knew that being thrown together again under such terrible circumstances
51073 they would again fall in love with one another, and that Nicholas would
51074 then not be able to marry Princess Mary as they would be within the
51075 prohibited degrees of affinity. Despite all the terror of what had
51076 happened during those last days and during the first days of their
51077 journey, this feeling that Providence was intervening in her personal
51078 affairs cheered Sonya.
51080 At the Troitsa monastery the Rostovs first broke their journey for a
51083 Three large rooms were assigned to them in the monastery hostelry, one
51084 of which was occupied by Prince Andrew. The wounded man was much better
51085 that day and Natasha was sitting with him. In the next room sat the
51086 count and countess respectfully conversing with the prior, who was
51087 calling on them as old acquaintances and benefactors of the monastery.
51088 Sonya was there too, tormented by curiosity as to what Prince Andrew and
51089 Natasha were talking about. She heard the sound of their voices through
51090 the door. That door opened and Natasha came out, looking excited. Not
51091 noticing the monk, who had risen to greet her and was drawing back the
51092 wide sleeve on his right arm, she went up to Sonya and took her hand.
51094 "Natasha, what are you about? Come here!" said the countess.
51096 Natasha went up to the monk for his blessing, and he advised her to pray
51097 for aid to God and His saint.
51099 As soon as the prior withdrew, Natasha took her friend by the hand and
51100 went with her into the unoccupied room.
51102 "Sonya, will he live?" she asked. "Sonya, how happy I am, and how
51103 unhappy!... Sonya, dovey, everything is as it used to be. If only he
51104 lives! He cannot... because... because... of" and Natasha burst into
51107 "Yes! I knew it! Thank God!" murmured Sonya. "He will live."
51109 Sonya was not less agitated than her friend by the latter's fear and
51110 grief and by her own personal feelings which she shared with no one.
51111 Sobbing, she kissed and comforted Natasha. "If only he lives!" she
51112 thought. Having wept, talked, and wiped away their tears, the two
51113 friends went together to Prince Andrew's door. Natasha opened it
51114 cautiously and glanced into the room, Sonya standing beside her at the
51117 Prince Andrew was lying raised high on three pillows. His pale face was
51118 calm, his eyes closed, and they could see his regular breathing.
51120 "O, Natasha!" Sonya suddenly almost screamed, catching her companion's
51121 arm and stepping back from the door.
51123 "What? What is it?" asked Natasha.
51125 "It's that, that..." said Sonya, with a white face and trembling lips.
51127 Natasha softly closed the door and went with Sonya to the window, not
51128 yet understanding what the latter was telling her.
51130 "You remember," said Sonya with a solemn and frightened expression. "You
51131 remember when I looked in the mirror for you... at Otradnoe at
51132 Christmas? Do you remember what I saw?"
51134 "Yes, yes!" cried Natasha opening her eyes wide, and vaguely recalling
51135 that Sonya had told her something about Prince Andrew whom she had seen
51138 "You remember?" Sonya went on. "I saw it then and told everybody, you
51139 and Dunyasha. I saw him lying on a bed," said she, making a gesture with
51140 her hand and a lifted finger at each detail, "and that he had his eyes
51141 closed and was covered just with a pink quilt, and that his hands were
51142 folded," she concluded, convincing herself that the details she had just
51143 seen were exactly what she had seen in the mirror.
51145 She had in fact seen nothing then but had mentioned the first thing that
51146 came into her head, but what she had invented then seemed to her now as
51147 real as any other recollection. She not only remembered what she had
51148 then said--that he turned to look at her and smiled and was covered with
51149 something red--but was firmly convinced that she had then seen and said
51150 that he was covered with a pink quilt and that his eyes were closed.
51152 "Yes, yes, it really was pink!" cried Natasha, who now thought she too
51153 remembered the word pink being used, and saw in this the most
51154 extraordinary and mysterious part of the prediction.
51156 "But what does it mean?" she added meditatively.
51158 "Oh, I don't know, it is all so strange," replied Sonya, clutching at
51161 A few minutes later Prince Andrew rang and Natasha went to him, but
51162 Sonya, feeling unusually excited and touched, remained at the window
51163 thinking about the strangeness of what had occurred.
51165 They had an opportunity that day to send letters to the army, and the
51166 countess was writing to her son.
51168 "Sonya!" said the countess, raising her eyes from her letter as her
51169 niece passed, "Sonya, won't you write to Nicholas?" She spoke in a soft,
51170 tremulous voice, and in the weary eyes that looked over her spectacles
51171 Sonya read all that the countess meant to convey with these words. Those
51172 eyes expressed entreaty, shame at having to ask, fear of a refusal, and
51173 readiness for relentless hatred in case of such refusal.
51175 Sonya went up to the countess and, kneeling down, kissed her hand.
51177 "Yes, Mamma, I will write," said she.
51179 Sonya was softened, excited, and touched by all that had occurred that
51180 day, especially by the mysterious fulfillment she had just seen of her
51181 vision. Now that she knew that the renewal of Natasha's relations with
51182 Prince Andrew would prevent Nicholas from marrying Princess Mary, she
51183 was joyfully conscious of a return of that self-sacrificing spirit in
51184 which she was accustomed to live and loved to live. So with a joyful
51185 consciousness of performing a magnanimous deed--interrupted several
51186 times by the tears that dimmed her velvety black eyes--she wrote that
51187 touching letter the arrival of which had so amazed Nicholas.
51194 The officer and soldiers who had arrested Pierre treated him with
51195 hostility but yet with respect, in the guardhouse to which he was taken.
51196 In their attitude toward him could still be felt both uncertainty as to
51197 who he might be--perhaps a very important person--and hostility as a
51198 result of their recent personal conflict with him.
51200 But when the guard was relieved next morning, Pierre felt that for the
51201 new guard--both officers and men--he was not as interesting as he had
51202 been to his captors; and in fact the guard of the second day did not
51203 recognize in this big, stout man in a peasant coat the vigorous person
51204 who had fought so desperately with the marauder and the convoy and had
51205 uttered those solemn words about saving a child; they saw in him only
51206 No. 17 of the captured Russians, arrested and detained for some reason
51207 by order of the Higher Command. If they noticed anything remarkable
51208 about Pierre, it was only his unabashed, meditative concentration and
51209 thoughtfulness, and the way he spoke French, which struck them as
51210 surprisingly good. In spite of this he was placed that day with the
51211 other arrested suspects, as the separate room he had occupied was
51212 required by an officer.
51214 All the Russians confined with Pierre were men of the lowest class and,
51215 recognizing him as a gentleman, they all avoided him, more especially as
51216 he spoke French. Pierre felt sad at hearing them making fun of him.
51218 That evening he learned that all these prisoners (he, probably, among
51219 them) were to be tried for incendiarism. On the third day he was taken
51220 with the others to a house where a French general with a white mustache
51221 sat with two colonels and other Frenchmen with scarves on their arms.
51222 With the precision and definiteness customary in addressing prisoners,
51223 and which is supposed to preclude human frailty, Pierre like the others
51224 was questioned as to who he was, where he had been, with what object,
51227 These questions, like questions put at trials generally, left the
51228 essence of the matter aside, shut out the possibility of that essence's
51229 being revealed, and were designed only to form a channel through which
51230 the judges wished the answers of the accused to flow so as to lead to
51231 the desired result, namely a conviction. As soon as Pierre began to say
51232 anything that did not fit in with that aim, the channel was removed and
51233 the water could flow to waste. Pierre felt, moreover, what the accused
51234 always feel at their trial, perplexity as to why these questions were
51235 put to him. He had a feeling that it was only out of condescension or a
51236 kind of civility that this device of placing a channel was employed. He
51237 knew he was in these men's power, that only by force had they brought
51238 him there, that force alone gave them the right to demand answers to
51239 their questions, and that the sole object of that assembly was to
51240 inculpate him. And so, as they had the power and wish to inculpate him,
51241 this expedient of an inquiry and trial seemed unnecessary. It was
51242 evident that any answer would lead to conviction. When asked what he was
51243 doing when he was arrested, Pierre replied in a rather tragic manner
51244 that he was restoring to its parents a child he had saved from the
51245 flames. Why had he fought the marauder? Pierre answered that he "was
51246 protecting a woman," and that "to protect a woman who was being insulted
51247 was the duty of every man; that..." They interrupted him, for this was
51248 not to the point. Why was he in the yard of a burning house where
51249 witnesses had seen him? He replied that he had gone out to see what was
51250 happening in Moscow. Again they interrupted him: they had not asked
51251 where he was going, but why he was found near the fire? Who was he? they
51252 asked, repeating their first question, which he had declined to answer.
51253 Again he replied that he could not answer it.
51255 "Put that down, that's bad... very bad," sternly remarked the general
51256 with the white mustache and red flushed face.
51258 On the fourth day fires broke out on the Zubovski rampart.
51260 Pierre and thirteen others were moved to the coach house of a merchant's
51261 house near the Crimean bridge. On his way through the streets Pierre
51262 felt stifled by the smoke which seemed to hang over the whole city.
51263 Fires were visible on all sides. He did not then realize the
51264 significance of the burning of Moscow, and looked at the fires with
51267 He passed four days in the coach house near the Crimean bridge and
51268 during that time learned, from the talk of the French soldiers, that all
51269 those confined there were awaiting a decision which might come any day
51270 from the marshal. What marshal this was, Pierre could not learn from the
51271 soldiers. Evidently for them "the marshal" represented a very high and
51272 rather mysterious power.
51274 These first days, before the eighth of September when the prisoners were
51275 had up for a second examination, were the hardest of all for Pierre.
51282 On the eighth of September an officer--a very important one judging by
51283 the respect the guards showed him--entered the coach house where the
51284 prisoners were. This officer, probably someone on the staff, was holding
51285 a paper in his hand, and called over all the Russians there, naming
51286 Pierre as "the man who does not give his name." Glancing indolently and
51287 indifferently at all the prisoners, he ordered the officer in charge to
51288 have them decently dressed and tidied up before taking them to the
51289 marshal. An hour later a squad of soldiers arrived and Pierre with
51290 thirteen others was led to the Virgin's Field. It was a fine day, sunny
51291 after rain, and the air was unusually pure. The smoke did not hang low
51292 as on the day when Pierre had been taken from the guardhouse on the
51293 Zubovski rampart, but rose through the pure air in columns. No flames
51294 were seen, but columns of smoke rose on all sides, and all Moscow as far
51295 as Pierre could see was one vast charred ruin. On all sides there were
51296 waste spaces with only stoves and chimney stacks still standing, and
51297 here and there the blackened walls of some brick houses. Pierre gazed at
51298 the ruins and did not recognize districts he had known well. Here and
51299 there he could see churches that had not been burned. The Kremlin, which
51300 was not destroyed, gleamed white in the distance with its towers and the
51301 belfry of Ivan the Great. The domes of the New Convent of the Virgin
51302 glittered brightly and its bells were ringing particularly clearly.
51303 These bells reminded Pierre that it was Sunday and the feast of the
51304 Nativity of the Virgin. But there seemed to be no one to celebrate this
51305 holiday: everywhere were blackened ruins, and the few Russians to be
51306 seen were tattered and frightened people who tried to hide when they saw
51309 It was plain that the Russian nest was ruined and destroyed, but in
51310 place of the Russian order of life that had been destroyed, Pierre
51311 unconsciously felt that a quite different, firm, French order had been
51312 established over this ruined nest. He felt this in the looks of the
51313 soldiers who, marching in regular ranks briskly and gaily, were
51314 escorting him and the other criminals; he felt it in the looks of an
51315 important French official in a carriage and pair driven by a soldier,
51316 whom they met on the way. He felt it in the merry sounds of regimental
51317 music he heard from the left side of the field, and felt and realized it
51318 especially from the list of prisoners the French officer had read out
51319 when he came that morning. Pierre had been taken by one set of soldiers
51320 and led first to one and then to another place with dozens of other men,
51321 and it seemed that they might have forgotten him, or confused him with
51322 the others. But no: the answers he had given when questioned had come
51323 back to him in his designation as "the man who does not give his name,"
51324 and under that appellation, which to Pierre seemed terrible, they were
51325 now leading him somewhere with unhesitating assurance on their faces
51326 that he and all the other prisoners were exactly the ones they wanted
51327 and that they were being taken to the proper place. Pierre felt himself
51328 to be an insignificant chip fallen among the wheels of a machine whose
51329 action he did not understand but which was working well.
51331 He and the other prisoners were taken to the right side of the Virgin's
51332 Field, to a large white house with an immense garden not far from the
51333 convent. This was Prince Shcherbitov's house, where Pierre had often
51334 been in other days, and which, as he learned from the talk of the
51335 soldiers, was now occupied by the marshal, the Duke of Eckmuhl (Davout).
51337 They were taken to the entrance and led into the house one by one.
51338 Pierre was the sixth to enter. He was conducted through a glass gallery,
51339 an anteroom, and a hall, which were familiar to him, into a long low
51340 study at the door of which stood an adjutant.
51342 Davout, spectacles on nose, sat bent over a table at the further end of
51343 the room. Pierre went close up to him, but Davout, evidently consulting
51344 a paper that lay before him, did not look up. Without raising his eyes,
51345 he said in a low voice:
51349 Pierre was silent because he was incapable of uttering a word. To him
51350 Davout was not merely a French general, but a man notorious for his
51351 cruelty. Looking at his cold face, as he sat like a stern schoolmaster
51352 who was prepared to wait awhile for an answer, Pierre felt that every
51353 instant of delay might cost him his life; but he did not know what to
51354 say. He did not venture to repeat what he had said at his first
51355 examination, yet to disclose his rank and position was dangerous and
51356 embarrassing. So he was silent. But before he had decided what to do,
51357 Davout raised his head, pushed his spectacles back on his forehead,
51358 screwed up his eyes, and looked intently at him.
51360 "I know that man," he said in a cold, measured tone, evidently
51361 calculated to frighten Pierre.
51363 The chill that had been running down Pierre's back now seized his head
51366 "You cannot know me, General, I have never seen you..."
51368 "He is a Russian spy," Davout interrupted, addressing another general
51369 who was present, but whom Pierre had not noticed.
51371 Davout turned away. With an unexpected reverberation in his voice Pierre
51374 "No, monseigneur," he said, suddenly remembering that Davout was a duke.
51375 "No, monseigneur, you cannot have known me. I am a militia officer and
51376 have not quitted Moscow."
51378 "Your name?" asked Davout.
51382 "What proof have I that you are not lying?"
51384 "Monseigneur!" exclaimed Pierre, not in an offended but in a pleading
51387 Davout looked up and gazed intently at him. For some seconds they looked
51388 at one another, and that look saved Pierre. Apart from conditions of war
51389 and law, that look established human relations between the two men. At
51390 that moment an immense number of things passed dimly through both their
51391 minds, and they realized that they were both children of humanity and
51394 At the first glance, when Davout had only raised his head from the
51395 papers where human affairs and lives were indicated by numbers, Pierre
51396 was merely a circumstance, and Davout could have shot him without
51397 burdening his conscience with an evil deed, but now he saw in him a
51398 human being. He reflected for a moment.
51400 "How can you show me that you are telling the truth?" said Davout
51403 Pierre remembered Ramballe, and named him and his regiment and the
51404 street where the house was.
51406 "You are not what you say," returned Davout.
51408 In a trembling, faltering voice Pierre began adducing proofs of the
51409 truth of his statements.
51411 But at that moment an adjutant entered and reported something to Davout.
51413 Davout brightened up at the news the adjutant brought, and began
51414 buttoning up his uniform. It seemed that he had quite forgotten Pierre.
51416 When the adjutant reminded him of the prisoner, he jerked his head in
51417 Pierre's direction with a frown and ordered him to be led away. But
51418 where they were to take him Pierre did not know: back to the coach house
51419 or to the place of execution his companions had pointed out to him as
51420 they crossed the Virgin's Field.
51422 He turned his head and saw that the adjutant was putting another
51423 question to Davout.
51425 "Yes, of course!" replied Davout, but what this "yes" meant, Pierre did
51428 Pierre could not afterwards remember how he went, whether it was far, or
51429 in which direction. His faculties were quite numbed, he was stupefied,
51430 and noticing nothing around him went on moving his legs as the others
51431 did till they all stopped and he stopped too. The only thought in his
51432 mind at that time was: who was it that had really sentenced him to
51433 death? Not the men on the commission that had first examined him--not
51434 one of them wished to or, evidently, could have done it. It was not
51435 Davout, who had looked at him in so human a way. In another moment
51436 Davout would have realized that he was doing wrong, but just then the
51437 adjutant had come in and interrupted him. The adjutant, also, had
51438 evidently had no evil intent though he might have refrained from coming
51439 in. Then who was executing him, killing him, depriving him of life--him,
51440 Pierre, with all his memories, aspirations, hopes, and thoughts? Who was
51441 doing this? And Pierre felt that it was no one.
51443 It was a system--a concurrence of circumstances.
51445 A system of some sort was killing him--Pierre--depriving him of life, of
51446 everything, annihilating him.
51453 From Prince Shcherbatov's house the prisoners were led straight down the
51454 Virgin's Field, to the left of the nunnery, as far as a kitchen garden
51455 in which a post had been set up. Beyond that post a fresh pit had been
51456 dug in the ground, and near the post and the pit a large crowd stood in
51457 a semicircle. The crowd consisted of a few Russians and many of
51458 Napoleon's soldiers who were not on duty--Germans, Italians, and
51459 Frenchmen, in a variety of uniforms. To the right and left of the post
51460 stood rows of French troops in blue uniforms with red epaulets and high
51463 The prisoners were placed in a certain order, according to the list
51464 (Pierre was sixth), and were led to the post. Several drums suddenly
51465 began to beat on both sides of them, and at that sound Pierre felt as if
51466 part of his soul had been torn away. He lost the power of thinking or
51467 understanding. He could only hear and see. And he had only one wish--
51468 that the frightful thing that had to happen should happen quickly.
51469 Pierre looked round at his fellow prisoners and scrutinized them.
51471 The two first were convicts with shaven heads. One was tall and thin,
51472 the other dark, shaggy, and sinewy, with a flat nose. The third was a
51473 domestic serf, about forty-five years old, with grizzled hair and a
51474 plump, well-nourished body. The fourth was a peasant, a very handsome
51475 man with a broad, light-brown beard and black eyes. The fifth was a
51476 factory hand, a thin, sallow-faced lad of eighteen in a loose coat.
51478 Pierre heard the French consulting whether to shoot them separately or
51479 two at a time. "In couples," replied the officer in command in a calm
51480 voice. There was a stir in the ranks of the soldiers and it was evident
51481 that they were all hurrying--not as men hurry to do something they
51482 understand, but as people hurry to finish a necessary but unpleasant and
51483 incomprehensible task.
51485 A French official wearing a scarf came up to the right of the row of
51486 prisoners and read out the sentence in Russian and in French.
51488 Then two pairs of Frenchmen approached the criminals and at the
51489 officer's command took the two convicts who stood first in the row. The
51490 convicts stopped when they reached the post and, while sacks were being
51491 brought, looked dumbly around as a wounded beast looks at an approaching
51492 huntsman. One crossed himself continually, the other scratched his back
51493 and made a movement of the lips resembling a smile. With hurried hands
51494 the soldiers blindfolded them, drawing the sacks over their heads, and
51495 bound them to the post.
51497 Twelve sharpshooters with muskets stepped out of the ranks with a firm
51498 regular tread and halted eight paces from the post. Pierre turned away
51499 to avoid seeing what was going to happen. Suddenly a crackling, rolling
51500 noise was heard which seemed to him louder than the most terrific
51501 thunder, and he looked round. There was some smoke, and the Frenchmen
51502 were doing something near the pit, with pale faces and trembling hands.
51503 Two more prisoners were led up. In the same way and with similar looks,
51504 these two glanced vainly at the onlookers with only a silent appeal for
51505 protection in their eyes, evidently unable to understand or believe what
51506 was going to happen to them. They could not believe it because they
51507 alone knew what their life meant to them, and so they neither understood
51508 nor believed that it could be taken from them.
51510 Again Pierre did not wish to look and again turned away; but again the
51511 sound as of a frightful explosion struck his ear, and at the same moment
51512 he saw smoke, blood, and the pale, scared faces of the Frenchmen who
51513 were again doing something by the post, their trembling hands impeding
51514 one another. Pierre, breathing heavily, looked around as if asking what
51515 it meant. The same question was expressed in all the looks that met his.
51517 On the faces of all the Russians and of the French soldiers and officers
51518 without exception, he read the same dismay, horror, and conflict that
51519 were in his own heart. "But who, after all, is doing this? They are all
51520 suffering as I am. Who then is it? Who?" flashed for an instant through
51523 "Sharpshooters of the 86th, forward!" shouted someone. The fifth
51524 prisoner, the one next to Pierre, was led away--alone. Pierre did not
51525 understand that he was saved, that he and the rest had been brought
51526 there only to witness the execution. With ever-growing horror, and no
51527 sense of joy or relief, he gazed at what was taking place. The fifth man
51528 was the factory lad in the loose cloak. The moment they laid hands on
51529 him he sprang aside in terror and clutched at Pierre. (Pierre shuddered
51530 and shook himself free.) The lad was unable to walk. They dragged him
51531 along, holding him up under the arms, and he screamed. When they got him
51532 to the post he grew quiet, as if he suddenly understood something.
51533 Whether he understood that screaming was useless or whether he thought
51534 it incredible that men should kill him, at any rate he took his stand at
51535 the post, waiting to be blindfolded like the others, and like a wounded
51536 animal looked around him with glittering eyes.
51538 Pierre was no longer able to turn away and close his eyes. His curiosity
51539 and agitation, like that of the whole crowd, reached the highest pitch
51540 at this fifth murder. Like the others this fifth man seemed calm; he
51541 wrapped his loose cloak closer and rubbed one bare foot with the other.
51543 When they began to blindfold him he himself adjusted the knot which hurt
51544 the back of his head; then when they propped him against the
51545 bloodstained post, he leaned back and, not being comfortable in that
51546 position, straightened himself, adjusted his feet, and leaned back again
51547 more comfortably. Pierre did not take his eyes from him and did not miss
51548 his slightest movement.
51550 Probably a word of command was given and was followed by the reports of
51551 eight muskets; but try as he would Pierre could not afterwards remember
51552 having heard the slightest sound of the shots. He only saw how the
51553 workman suddenly sank down on the cords that held him, how blood showed
51554 itself in two places, how the ropes slackened under the weight of the
51555 hanging body, and how the workman sat down, his head hanging unnaturally
51556 and one leg bent under him. Pierre ran up to the post. No one hindered
51557 him. Pale, frightened people were doing something around the workman.
51558 The lower jaw of an old Frenchman with a thick mustache trembled as he
51559 untied the ropes. The body collapsed. The soldiers dragged it awkwardly
51560 from the post and began pushing it into the pit.
51562 They all plainly and certainly knew that they were criminals who must
51563 hide the traces of their guilt as quickly as possible.
51565 Pierre glanced into the pit and saw that the factory lad was lying with
51566 his knees close up to his head and one shoulder higher than the other.
51567 That shoulder rose and fell rhythmically and convulsively, but spadefuls
51568 of earth were already being thrown over the whole body. One of the
51569 soldiers, evidently suffering, shouted gruffly and angrily at Pierre to
51570 go back. But Pierre did not understand him and remained near the post,
51571 and no one drove him away.
51573 When the pit had been filled up a command was given. Pierre was taken
51574 back to his place, and the rows of troops on both sides of the post made
51575 a half turn and went past it at a measured pace. The twenty-four
51576 sharpshooters with discharged muskets, standing in the center of the
51577 circle, ran back to their places as the companies passed by.
51579 Pierre gazed now with dazed eyes at these sharpshooters who ran in
51580 couples out of the circle. All but one rejoined their companies. This
51581 one, a young soldier, his face deadly pale, his shako pushed back, and
51582 his musket resting on the ground, still stood near the pit at the spot
51583 from which he had fired. He swayed like a drunken man, taking some steps
51584 forward and back to save himself from falling. An old, noncommissioned
51585 officer ran out of the ranks and taking him by the elbow dragged him to
51586 his company. The crowd of Russians and Frenchmen began to disperse. They
51587 all went away silently and with drooping heads.
51589 "That will teach them to start fires," said one of the Frenchmen.
51591 Pierre glanced round at the speaker and saw that it was a soldier who
51592 was trying to find some relief after what had been done, but was not
51593 able to do so. Without finishing what he had begun to say he made a
51594 hopeless movement with his arm and went away.
51601 After the execution Pierre was separated from the rest of the prisoners
51602 and placed alone in a small, ruined, and befouled church.
51604 Toward evening a noncommissioned officer entered with two soldiers and
51605 told him that he had been pardoned and would now go to the barracks for
51606 the prisoners of war. Without understanding what was said to him, Pierre
51607 got up and went with the soldiers. They took him to the upper end of the
51608 field, where there were some sheds built of charred planks, beams, and
51609 battens, and led him into one of them. In the darkness some twenty
51610 different men surrounded Pierre. He looked at them without understanding
51611 who they were, why they were there, or what they wanted of him. He heard
51612 what they said, but did not understand the meaning of the words and made
51613 no kind of deduction from or application of them. He replied to
51614 questions they put to him, but did not consider who was listening to his
51615 replies, nor how they would understand them. He looked at their faces
51616 and figures, but they all seemed to him equally meaningless.
51618 From the moment Pierre had witnessed those terrible murders committed by
51619 men who did not wish to commit them, it was as if the mainspring of his
51620 life, on which everything depended and which made everything appear
51621 alive, had suddenly been wrenched out and everything had collapsed into
51622 a heap of meaningless rubbish. Though he did not acknowledge it to
51623 himself, his faith in the right ordering of the universe, in humanity,
51624 in his own soul, and in God, had been destroyed. He had experienced this
51625 before, but never so strongly as now. When similar doubts had assailed
51626 him before, they had been the result of his own wrongdoing, and at the
51627 bottom of his heart he had felt that relief from his despair and from
51628 those doubts was to be found within himself. But now he felt that the
51629 universe had crumbled before his eyes and only meaningless ruins
51630 remained, and this not by any fault of his own. He felt that it was not
51631 in his power to regain faith in the meaning of life.
51633 Around him in the darkness men were standing and evidently something
51634 about him interested them greatly. They were telling him something and
51635 asking him something. Then they led him away somewhere, and at last he
51636 found himself in a corner of the shed among men who were laughing and
51637 talking on all sides.
51639 "Well, then, mates... that very prince who..." some voice at the other
51640 end of the shed was saying, with a strong emphasis on the word who.
51642 Sitting silent and motionless on a heap of straw against the wall,
51643 Pierre sometimes opened and sometimes closed his eyes. But as soon as he
51644 closed them he saw before him the dreadful face of the factory lad--
51645 especially dreadful because of its simplicity--and the faces of the
51646 murderers, even more dreadful because of their disquiet. And he opened
51647 his eyes again and stared vacantly into the darkness around him.
51649 Beside him in a stooping position sat a small man of whose presence he
51650 was first made aware by a strong smell of perspiration which came from
51651 him every time he moved. This man was doing something to his legs in the
51652 darkness, and though Pierre could not see his face he felt that the man
51653 continually glanced at him. On growing used to the darkness Pierre saw
51654 that the man was taking off his leg bands, and the way he did it aroused
51657 Having unwound the string that tied the band on one leg, he carefully
51658 coiled it up and immediately set to work on the other leg, glancing up
51659 at Pierre. While one hand hung up the first string the other was already
51660 unwinding the band on the second leg. In this way, having carefully
51661 removed the leg bands by deft circular motions of his arm following one
51662 another uninterruptedly, the man hung the leg bands up on some pegs
51663 fixed above his head. Then he took out a knife, cut something, closed
51664 the knife, placed it under the head of his bed, and, seating himself
51665 comfortably, clasped his arms round his lifted knees and fixed his eyes
51666 on Pierre. The latter was conscious of something pleasant, comforting,
51667 and well-rounded in these deft movements, in the man's well-ordered
51668 arrangements in his corner, and even in his very smell, and he looked at
51669 the man without taking his eyes from him.
51671 "You've seen a lot of trouble, sir, eh?" the little man suddenly said.
51673 And there was so much kindliness and simplicity in his singsong voice
51674 that Pierre tried to reply, but his jaw trembled and he felt tears
51675 rising to his eyes. The little fellow, giving Pierre no time to betray
51676 his confusion, instantly continued in the same pleasant tones:
51678 "Eh, lad, don't fret!" said he, in the tender singsong caressing voice
51679 old Russian peasant women employ. "Don't fret, friend--'suffer an hour,
51680 live for an age!' that's how it is, my dear fellow. And here we live,
51681 thank heaven, without offense. Among these folk, too, there are good men
51682 as well as bad," said he, and still speaking, he turned on his knees
51683 with a supple movement, got up, coughed, and went off to another part of
51686 "Eh, you rascal!" Pierre heard the same kind voice saying at the other
51687 end of the shed. "So you've come, you rascal? She remembers... Now, now,
51690 And the soldier, pushing away a little dog that was jumping up at him,
51691 returned to his place and sat down. In his hands he had something
51694 "Here, eat a bit, sir," said he, resuming his former respectful tone as
51695 he unwrapped and offered Pierre some baked potatoes. "We had soup for
51696 dinner and the potatoes are grand!"
51698 Pierre had not eaten all day and the smell of the potatoes seemed
51699 extremely pleasant to him. He thanked the soldier and began to eat.
51701 "Well, are they all right?" said the soldier with a smile. "You should
51704 He took a potato, drew out his clasp knife, cut the potato into two
51705 equal halves on the palm of his hand, sprinkled some salt on it from the
51706 rag, and handed it to Pierre.
51708 "The potatoes are grand!" he said once more. "Eat some like that!"
51710 Pierre thought he had never eaten anything that tasted better.
51712 "Oh, I'm all right," said he, "but why did they shoot those poor
51713 fellows? The last one was hardly twenty."
51715 "Tss, tt...!" said the little man. "Ah, what a sin... what a sin!" he
51716 added quickly, and as if his words were always waiting ready in his
51717 mouth and flew out involuntarily he went on: "How was it, sir, that you
51720 "I didn't think they would come so soon. I stayed accidentally," replied
51723 "And how did they arrest you, dear lad? At your house?"
51725 "No, I went to look at the fire, and they arrested me there, and tried
51726 me as an incendiary."
51728 "Where there's law there's injustice," put in the little man.
51730 "And have you been here long?" Pierre asked as he munched the last of
51733 "I? It was last Sunday they took me, out of a hospital in Moscow."
51735 "Why, are you a soldier then?"
51737 "Yes, we are soldiers of the Apsheron regiment. I was dying of fever. We
51738 weren't told anything. There were some twenty of us lying there. We had
51739 no idea, never guessed at all."
51741 "And do you feel sad here?" Pierre inquired.
51743 "How can one help it, lad? My name is Platon, and the surname is
51744 Karataev," he added, evidently wishing to make it easier for Pierre to
51745 address him. "They call me 'little falcon' in the regiment. How is one
51746 to help feeling sad? Moscow--she's the mother of cities. How can one see
51747 all this and not feel sad? But 'the maggot gnaws the cabbage, yet dies
51748 first'; that's what the old folks used to tell us," he added rapidly.
51750 "What? What did you say?" asked Pierre.
51752 "Who? I?" said Karataev. "I say things happen not as we plan but as God
51753 judges," he replied, thinking that he was repeating what he had said
51754 before, and immediately continued:
51756 "Well, and you, have you a family estate, sir? And a house? So you have
51757 abundance, then? And a housewife? And your old parents, are they still
51760 And though it was too dark for Pierre to see, he felt that a suppressed
51761 smile of kindliness puckered the soldier's lips as he put these
51762 questions. He seemed grieved that Pierre had no parents, especially that
51765 "A wife for counsel, a mother-in-law for welcome, but there's none as
51766 dear as one's own mother!" said he. "Well, and have you little ones?" he
51769 Again Pierre's negative answer seemed to distress him, and he hastened
51772 "Never mind! You're young folks yet, and please God may still have some.
51773 The great thing is to live in harmony...."
51775 "But it's all the same now," Pierre could not help saying.
51777 "Ah, my dear fellow!" rejoined Karataev, "never decline a prison or a
51780 He seated himself more comfortably and coughed, evidently preparing to
51783 "Well, my dear fellow, I was still living at home," he began. "We had a
51784 well-to-do homestead, plenty of land, we peasants lived well and our
51785 house was one to thank God for. When Father and we went out mowing there
51786 were seven of us. We lived well. We were real peasants. It so
51789 And Platon Karataev told a long story of how he had gone into someone's
51790 copse to take wood, how he had been caught by the keeper, had been
51791 tried, flogged, and sent to serve as a soldier.
51793 "Well, lad," and a smile changed the tone of his voice "we thought it
51794 was a misfortune but it turned out a blessing! If it had not been for my
51795 sin, my brother would have had to go as a soldier. But he, my younger
51796 brother, had five little ones, while I, you see, only left a wife
51797 behind. We had a little girl, but God took her before I went as a
51798 soldier. I come home on leave and I'll tell you how it was, I look and
51799 see that they are living better than before. The yard full of cattle,
51800 the women at home, two brothers away earning wages, and only Michael the
51801 youngest, at home. Father, he says, 'All my children are the same to me:
51802 it hurts the same whichever finger gets bitten. But if Platon hadn't
51803 been shaved for a soldier, Michael would have had to go.' called us all
51804 to him and, will you believe it, placed us in front of the icons.
51805 'Michael,' he says, 'come here and bow down to his feet; and you, young
51806 woman, you bow down too; and you, grandchildren, also bow down before
51807 him! Do you understand?' he says. That's how it is, dear fellow. Fate
51808 looks for a head. But we are always judging, 'that's not well--that's
51809 not right!' Our luck is like water in a dragnet: you pull at it and it
51810 bulges, but when you've drawn it out it's empty! That's how it is."
51812 And Platon shifted his seat on the straw.
51814 After a short silence he rose.
51816 "Well, I think you must be sleepy," said he, and began rapidly crossing
51817 himself and repeating:
51819 "Lord Jesus Christ, holy Saint Nicholas, Frola and Lavra! Lord Jesus
51820 Christ, holy Saint Nicholas, Frola and Lavra! Lord Jesus Christ, have
51821 mercy on us and save us!" he concluded, then bowed to the ground, got
51822 up, sighed, and sat down again on his heap of straw. "That's the way.
51823 Lay me down like a stone, O God, and raise me up like a loaf," he
51824 muttered as he lay down, pulling his coat over him.
51826 "What prayer was that you were saying?" asked Pierre.
51828 "Eh?" murmured Platon, who had almost fallen asleep. "What was I saying?
51829 I was praying. Don't you pray?"
51831 "Yes, I do," said Pierre. "But what was that you said: Frola and Lavra?"
51833 "Well, of course," replied Platon quickly, "the horses' saints. One must
51834 pity the animals too. Eh, the rascal! Now you've curled up and got warm,
51835 you daughter of a bitch!" said Karataev, touching the dog that lay at
51836 his feet, and again turning over he fell asleep immediately.
51838 Sounds of crying and screaming came from somewhere in the distance
51839 outside, and flames were visible through the cracks of the shed, but
51840 inside it was quiet and dark. For a long time Pierre did not sleep, but
51841 lay with eyes open in the darkness, listening to the regular snoring of
51842 Platon who lay beside him, and he felt that the world that had been
51843 shattered was once more stirring in his soul with a new beauty and on
51844 new and unshakable foundations.
51851 Twenty-three soldiers, three officers, and two officials were confined
51852 in the shed in which Pierre had been placed and where he remained for
51855 When Pierre remembered them afterwards they all seemed misty figures to
51856 him except Platon Karataev, who always remained in his mind a most vivid
51857 and precious memory and the personification of everything Russian,
51858 kindly, and round. When Pierre saw his neighbor next morning at dawn the
51859 first impression of him, as of something round, was fully confirmed:
51860 Platon's whole figure--in a French overcoat girdled with a cord, a
51861 soldier's cap, and bast shoes--was round. His head was quite round, his
51862 back, chest, shoulders, and even his arms, which he held as if ever
51863 ready to embrace something, were rounded, his pleasant smile and his
51864 large, gentle brown eyes were also round.
51866 Platon Karataev must have been fifty, judging by his stories of
51867 campaigns he had been in, told as by an old soldier. He did not himself
51868 know his age and was quite unable to determine it. But his brilliantly
51869 white, strong teeth which showed in two unbroken semicircles when he
51870 laughed--as he often did--were all sound and good, there was not a gray
51871 hair in his beard or on his head, and his whole body gave an impression
51872 of suppleness and especially of firmness and endurance.
51874 His face, despite its fine, rounded wrinkles, had an expression of
51875 innocence and youth, his voice was pleasant and musical. But the chief
51876 peculiarity of his speech was its directness and appositeness. It was
51877 evident that he never considered what he had said or was going to say,
51878 and consequently the rapidity and justice of his intonation had an
51879 irresistible persuasiveness.
51881 His physical strength and agility during the first days of his
51882 imprisonment were such that he seemed not to know what fatigue and
51883 sickness meant. Every night before lying down, he said: "Lord, lay me
51884 down as a stone and raise me up as a loaf!" and every morning on getting
51885 up, he said: "I lay down and curled up, I get up and shake myself." And
51886 indeed he only had to lie down, to fall asleep like a stone, and he only
51887 had to shake himself, to be ready without a moment's delay for some
51888 work, just as children are ready to play directly they awake. He could
51889 do everything, not very well but not badly. He baked, cooked, sewed,
51890 planed, and mended boots. He was always busy, and only at night allowed
51891 himself conversation--of which he was fond--and songs. He did not sing
51892 like a trained singer who knows he is listened to, but like the birds,
51893 evidently giving vent to the sounds in the same way that one stretches
51894 oneself or walks about to get rid of stiffness, and the sounds were
51895 always high-pitched, mournful, delicate, and almost feminine, and his
51896 face at such times was very serious.
51898 Having been taken prisoner and allowed his beard to grow, he seemed to
51899 have thrown off all that had been forced upon him--everything military
51900 and alien to himself--and had returned to his former peasant habits.
51902 "A soldier on leave--a shirt outside breeches," he would say.
51904 He did not like talking about his life as a soldier, though he did not
51905 complain, and often mentioned that he had not been flogged once during
51906 the whole of his army service. When he related anything it was generally
51907 some old and evidently precious memory of his "Christian" life, as he
51908 called his peasant existence. The proverbs, of which his talk was full,
51909 were for the most part not the coarse and indecent saws soldiers employ,
51910 but those folk sayings which taken without a context seem so
51911 insignificant, but when used appositely suddenly acquire a significance
51912 of profound wisdom.
51914 He would often say the exact opposite of what he had said on a previous
51915 occasion, yet both would be right. He liked to talk and he talked well,
51916 adorning his speech with terms of endearment and with folk sayings which
51917 Pierre thought he invented himself, but the chief charm of his talk lay
51918 in the fact that the commonest events--sometimes just such as Pierre had
51919 witnessed without taking notice of them--assumed in Karataev's a
51920 character of solemn fitness. He liked to hear the folk tales one of the
51921 soldiers used to tell of an evening (they were always the same), but
51922 most of all he liked to hear stories of real life. He would smile
51923 joyfully when listening to such stories, now and then putting in a word
51924 or asking a question to make the moral beauty of what he was told clear
51925 to himself. Karataev had no attachments, friendships, or love, as Pierre
51926 understood them, but loved and lived affectionately with everything life
51927 brought him in contact with, particularly with man--not any particular
51928 man, but those with whom he happened to be. He loved his dog, his
51929 comrades, the French, and Pierre who was his neighbor, but Pierre felt
51930 that in spite of Karataev's affectionate tenderness for him (by which he
51931 unconsciously gave Pierre's spiritual life its due) he would not have
51932 grieved for a moment at parting from him. And Pierre began to feel in
51933 the same way toward Karataev.
51935 To all the other prisoners Platon Karataev seemed a most ordinary
51936 soldier. They called him "little falcon" or "Platosha," chaffed him
51937 good-naturedly, and sent him on errands. But to Pierre he always
51938 remained what he had seemed that first night: an unfathomable, rounded,
51939 eternal personification of the spirit of simplicity and truth.
51941 Platon Karataev knew nothing by heart except his prayers. When he began
51942 to speak he seemed not to know how he would conclude.
51944 Sometimes Pierre, struck by the meaning of his words, would ask him to
51945 repeat them, but Platon could never recall what he had said a moment
51946 before, just as he never could repeat to Pierre the words of his
51947 favorite song: native and birch tree and my heart is sick occurred in
51948 it, but when spoken and not sung, no meaning could be got out of it. He
51949 did not, and could not, understand the meaning of words apart from their
51950 context. Every word and action of his was the manifestation of an
51951 activity unknown to him, which was his life. But his life, as he
51952 regarded it, had no meaning as a separate thing. It had meaning only as
51953 part of a whole of which he was always conscious. His words and actions
51954 flowed from him as evenly, inevitably, and spontaneously as fragrance
51955 exhales from a flower. He could not understand the value or significance
51956 of any word or deed taken separately.
51963 When Princess Mary heard from Nicholas that her brother was with the
51964 Rostovs at Yaroslavl she at once prepared to go there, in spite of her
51965 aunt's efforts to dissuade her--and not merely to go herself but to take
51966 her nephew with her. Whether it were difficult or easy, possible or
51967 impossible, she did not ask and did not want to know: it was her duty,
51968 not only to herself, to be near her brother who was perhaps dying, but
51969 to do everything possible to take his son to him, and so she prepared to
51970 set off. That she had not heard from Prince Andrew himself, Princess
51971 Mary attributed to his being too weak to write or to his considering the
51972 long journey too hard and too dangerous for her and his son.
51974 In a few days Princess Mary was ready to start. Her equipages were the
51975 huge family coach in which she had traveled to Voronezh, a semiopen
51976 trap, and a baggage cart. With her traveled Mademoiselle Bourienne,
51977 little Nicholas and his tutor, her old nurse, three maids, Tikhon, and a
51978 young footman and courier her aunt had sent to accompany her.
51980 The usual route through Moscow could not be thought of, and the
51981 roundabout way Princess Mary was obliged to take through Lipetsk,
51982 Ryazan, Vladimir, and Shuya was very long and, as post horses were not
51983 everywhere obtainable, very difficult, and near Ryazan where the French
51984 were said to have shown themselves was even dangerous.
51986 During this difficult journey Mademoiselle Bourienne, Dessalles, and
51987 Princess Mary's servants were astonished at her energy and firmness of
51988 spirit. She went to bed later and rose earlier than any of them, and no
51989 difficulties daunted her. Thanks to her activity and energy, which
51990 infected her fellow travelers, they approached Yaroslavl by the end of
51993 The last days of her stay in Voronezh had been the happiest of her life.
51994 Her love for Rostov no longer tormented or agitated her. It filled her
51995 whole soul, had become an integral part of herself, and she no longer
51996 struggled against it. Latterly she had become convinced that she loved
51997 and was beloved, though she never said this definitely to herself in
51998 words. She had become convinced of it at her last interview with
51999 Nicholas, when he had come to tell her that her brother was with the
52000 Rostovs. Not by a single word had Nicholas alluded to the fact that
52001 Prince Andrew's relations with Natasha might, if he recovered, be
52002 renewed, but Princess Mary saw by his face that he knew and thought of
52005 Yet in spite of that, his relation to her--considerate, delicate, and
52006 loving--not only remained unchanged, but it sometimes seemed to Princess
52007 Mary that he was even glad that the family connection between them
52008 allowed him to express his friendship more freely. She knew that she
52009 loved for the first and only time in her life and felt that she was
52010 beloved, and was happy in regard to it.
52012 But this happiness on one side of her spiritual nature did not prevent
52013 her feeling grief for her brother with full force; on the contrary, that
52014 spiritual tranquility on the one side made it the more possible for her
52015 to give full play to her feeling for her brother. That feeling was so
52016 strong at the moment of leaving Voronezh that those who saw her off, as
52017 they looked at her careworn, despairing face, felt sure she would fall
52018 ill on the journey. But the very difficulties and preoccupations of the
52019 journey, which she took so actively in hand, saved her for a while from
52020 her grief and gave her strength.
52022 As always happens when traveling, Princess Mary thought only of the
52023 journey itself, forgetting its object. But as she approached Yaroslavl
52024 the thought of what might await her there--not after many days, but that
52025 very evening--again presented itself to her and her agitation increased
52026 to its utmost limit.
52028 The courier who had been sent on in advance to find out where the
52029 Rostovs were staying in Yaroslavl, and in what condition Prince Andrew
52030 was, when he met the big coach just entering the town gates was appalled
52031 by the terrible pallor of the princess' face that looked out at him from
52034 "I have found out everything, your excellency: the Rostovs are staying
52035 at the merchant Bronnikov's house, in the Square not far from here,
52036 right above the Volga," said the courier.
52038 Princess Mary looked at him with frightened inquiry, not understanding
52039 why he did not reply to what she chiefly wanted to know: how was her
52040 brother? Mademoiselle Bourienne put that question for her.
52042 "How is the prince?" she asked.
52044 "His excellency is staying in the same house with them."
52046 "Then he is alive," thought Princess Mary, and asked in a low voice:
52049 "The servants say he is still the same."
52051 What "still the same" might mean Princess Mary did not ask, but with an
52052 unnoticed glance at little seven-year-old Nicholas, who was sitting in
52053 front of her looking with pleasure at the town, she bowed her head and
52054 did not raise it again till the heavy coach, rumbling, shaking and
52055 swaying, came to a stop. The carriage steps clattered as they were let
52058 The carriage door was opened. On the left there was water--a great
52059 river--and on the right a porch. There were people at the entrance:
52060 servants, and a rosy girl with a large plait of black hair, smiling as
52061 it seemed to Princess Mary in an unpleasantly affected way. (This was
52062 Sonya.) Princess Mary ran up the steps. "This way, this way!" said the
52063 girl, with the same artificial smile, and the princess found herself in
52064 the hall facing an elderly woman of Oriental type, who came rapidly to
52065 meet her with a look of emotion. This was the countess. She embraced
52066 Princess Mary and kissed her.
52068 "Mon enfant!" she muttered, "je vous aime et vous connais depuis
52072 * "My child! I love you and have known you a long time."
52075 Despite her excitement, Princess Mary realized that this was the
52076 countess and that it was necessary to say something to her. Hardly
52077 knowing how she did it, she contrived to utter a few polite phrases in
52078 French in the same tone as those that had been addressed to her, and
52079 asked: "How is he?"
52081 "The doctor says that he is not in danger," said the countess, but as
52082 she spoke she raised her eyes with a sigh, and her gesture conveyed a
52083 contradiction of her words.
52085 "Where is he? Can I see him--can I?" asked the princess.
52087 "One moment, Princess, one moment, my dear! Is this his son?" said the
52088 countess, turning to little Nicholas who was coming in with Dessalles.
52089 "There will be room for everybody, this is a big house. Oh, what a
52092 The countess took Princess Mary into the drawing room, where Sonya was
52093 talking to Mademoiselle Bourienne. The countess caressed the boy, and
52094 the old count came in and welcomed the princess. He had changed very
52095 much since Princess Mary had last seen him. Then he had been a brisk,
52096 cheerful, self-assured old man; now he seemed a pitiful, bewildered
52097 person. While talking to Princess Mary he continually looked round as if
52098 asking everyone whether he was doing the right thing. After the
52099 destruction of Moscow and of his property, thrown out of his accustomed
52100 groove he seemed to have lost the sense of his own significance and to
52101 feel that there was no longer a place for him in life.
52103 In spite of her one desire to see her brother as soon as possible, and
52104 her vexation that at the moment when all she wanted was to see him they
52105 should be trying to entertain her and pretending to admire her nephew,
52106 the princess noticed all that was going on around her and felt the
52107 necessity of submitting, for a time, to this new order of things which
52108 she had entered. She knew it to be necessary, and though it was hard for
52109 her she was not vexed with these people.
52111 "This is my niece," said the count, introducing Sonya--"You don't know
52114 Princess Mary turned to Sonya and, trying to stifle the hostile feeling
52115 that arose in her toward the girl, she kissed her. But she felt
52116 oppressed by the fact that the mood of everyone around her was so far
52117 from what was in her own heart.
52119 "Where is he?" she asked again, addressing them all.
52121 "He is downstairs. Natasha is with him," answered Sonya, flushing. "We
52122 have sent to ask. I think you must be tired, Princess."
52124 Tears of vexation showed themselves in Princess Mary's eyes. She turned
52125 away and was about to ask the countess again how to go to him, when
52126 light, impetuous, and seemingly buoyant steps were heard at the door.
52127 The princess looked round and saw Natasha coming in, almost running--
52128 that Natasha whom she had liked so little at their meeting in Moscow
52131 But hardly had the princess looked at Natasha's face before she realized
52132 that here was a real comrade in her grief, and consequently a friend.
52133 She ran to meet her, embraced her, and began to cry on her shoulder.
52135 As soon as Natasha, sitting at the head of Prince Andrew's bed, heard of
52136 Princess Mary's arrival, she softly left his room and hastened to her
52137 with those swift steps that had sounded buoyant to Princess Mary.
52139 There was only one expression on her agitated face when she ran into the
52140 drawing room--that of love--boundless love for him, for her, and for all
52141 that was near to the man she loved; and of pity, suffering for others,
52142 and passionate desire to give herself entirely to helping them. It was
52143 plain that at that moment there was in Natasha's heart no thought of
52144 herself or of her own relations with Prince Andrew.
52146 Princess Mary, with her acute sensibility, understood all this at the
52147 first glance at Natasha's face, and wept on her shoulder with sorrowful
52150 "Come, come to him, Mary," said Natasha, leading her into the other
52153 Princess Mary raised her head, dried her eyes, and turned to Natasha.
52154 She felt that from her she would be able to understand and learn
52157 "How..." she began her question but stopped short.
52159 She felt that it was impossible to ask, or to answer, in words.
52160 Natasha's face and eyes would have to tell her all more clearly and
52163 Natasha was gazing at her, but seemed afraid and in doubt whether to say
52164 all she knew or not; she seemed to feel that before those luminous eyes
52165 which penetrated into the very depths of her heart, it was impossible
52166 not to tell the whole truth which she saw. And suddenly, Natasha's lips
52167 twitched, ugly wrinkles gathered round her mouth, and covering her face
52168 with her hands she burst into sobs.
52170 Princess Mary understood.
52172 But she still hoped, and asked, in words she herself did not trust:
52174 "But how is his wound? What is his general condition?"
52176 "You, you... will see," was all Natasha could say.
52178 They sat a little while downstairs near his room till they had left off
52179 crying and were able to go to him with calm faces.
52181 "How has his whole illness gone? Is it long since he grew worse? When
52182 did this happen?" Princess Mary inquired.
52184 Natasha told her that at first there had been danger from his feverish
52185 condition and the pain he suffered, but at Troitsa that had passed and
52186 the doctor had only been afraid of gangrene. That danger had also
52187 passed. When they reached Yaroslavl the wound had begun to fester
52188 (Natasha knew all about such things as festering) and the doctor had
52189 said that the festering might take a normal course. Then fever set in,
52190 but the doctor had said the fever was not very serious.
52192 "But two days ago this suddenly happened," said Natasha, struggling with
52193 her sobs. "I don't know why, but you will see what he is like."
52195 "Is he weaker? Thinner?" asked the princess.
52197 "No, it's not that, but worse. You will see. O, Mary, he is too good, he
52198 cannot, cannot live, because..."
52205 When Natasha opened Prince Andrew's door with a familiar movement and
52206 let Princess Mary pass into the room before her, the princess felt the
52207 sobs in her throat. Hard as she had tried to prepare herself, and now
52208 tried to remain tranquil, she knew that she would be unable to look at
52211 The princess understood what Natasha had meant by the words: "two days
52212 ago this suddenly happened." She understood those words to mean that he
52213 had suddenly softened and that this softening and gentleness were signs
52214 of approaching death. As she stepped to the door she already saw in
52215 imagination Andrew's face as she remembered it in childhood, a gentle,
52216 mild, sympathetic face which he had rarely shown, and which therefore
52217 affected her very strongly. She was sure he would speak soft, tender
52218 words to her such as her father had uttered before his death, and that
52219 she would not be able to bear it and would burst into sobs in his
52220 presence. Yet sooner or later it had to be, and she went in. The sobs
52221 rose higher and higher in her throat as she more and more clearly
52222 distinguished his form and her shortsighted eyes tried to make out his
52223 features, and then she saw his face and met his gaze.
52225 He was lying in a squirrel-fur dressing gown on a divan, surrounded by
52226 pillows. He was thin and pale. In one thin, translucently white hand he
52227 held a handkerchief, while with the other he stroked the delicate
52228 mustache he had grown, moving his fingers slowly. His eyes gazed at them
52231 On seeing his face and meeting his eyes Princess Mary's pace suddenly
52232 slackened, she felt her tears dry up and her sobs ceased. She suddenly
52233 felt guilty and grew timid on catching the expression of his face and
52236 "But in what am I to blame?" she asked herself. And his cold, stern look
52237 replied: "Because you are alive and thinking of the living, while I..."
52239 In the deep gaze that seemed to look not outwards but inwards there was
52240 an almost hostile expression as he slowly regarded his sister and
52243 He kissed his sister, holding her hand in his as was their wont.
52245 "How are you, Mary? How did you manage to get here?" said he in a voice
52246 as calm and aloof as his look.
52248 Had he screamed in agony, that scream would not have struck such horror
52249 into Princess Mary's heart as the tone of his voice.
52251 "And have you brought little Nicholas?" he asked in the same slow, quiet
52252 manner and with an obvious effort to remember.
52254 "How are you now?" said Princess Mary, herself surprised at what she was
52257 "That, my dear, you must ask the doctor," he replied, and again making
52258 an evident effort to be affectionate, he said with his lips only (his
52259 words clearly did not correspond to his thoughts):
52261 "Merci, chere amie, d'etre venue." *
52264 * "Thank you for coming, my dear."
52266 Princess Mary pressed his hand. The pressure made him wince just
52267 perceptibly. He was silent, and she did not know what to say. She now
52268 understood what had happened to him two days before. In his words, his
52269 tone, and especially in that calm, almost antagonistic look could be
52270 felt an estrangement from everything belonging to this world, terrible
52271 in one who is alive. Evidently only with an effort did he understand
52272 anything living; but it was obvious that he failed to understand, not
52273 because he lacked the power to do so but because he understood something
52274 else--something the living did not and could not understand--and which
52275 wholly occupied his mind.
52277 "There, you see how strangely fate has brought us together," said he,
52278 breaking the silence and pointing to Natasha. "She looks after me all
52281 Princess Mary heard him and did not understand how he could say such a
52282 thing. He, the sensitive, tender Prince Andrew, how could he say that,
52283 before her whom he loved and who loved him? Had he expected to live he
52284 could not have said those words in that offensively cold tone. If he had
52285 not known that he was dying, how could he have failed to pity her and
52286 how could he speak like that in her presence? The only explanation was
52287 that he was indifferent, because something else, much more important,
52288 had been revealed to him.
52290 The conversation was cold and disconnected and continually broke off.
52292 "Mary came by way of Ryazan," said Natasha.
52294 Prince Andrew did not notice that she called his sister Mary, and only
52295 after calling her so in his presence did Natasha notice it herself.
52297 "Really?" he asked.
52299 "They told her that all Moscow has been burned down, and that..."
52301 Natasha stopped. It was impossible to talk. It was plain that he was
52302 making an effort to listen, but could not do so.
52304 "Yes, they say it's burned," he said. "It's a great pity," and he gazed
52305 straight before him, absently stroking his mustache with his fingers.
52307 "And so you have met Count Nicholas, Mary?" Prince Andrew suddenly said,
52308 evidently wishing to speak pleasantly to them. "He wrote here that he
52309 took a great liking to you," he went on simply and calmly, evidently
52310 unable to understand all the complex significance his words had for
52311 living people. "If you liked him too, it would be a good thing for you
52312 to get married," he added rather more quickly, as if pleased at having
52313 found words he had long been seeking.
52315 Princess Mary heard his words but they had no meaning for her, except as
52316 a proof of how far away he now was from everything living.
52318 "Why talk of me?" she said quietly and glanced at Natasha.
52320 Natasha, who felt her glance, did not look at her. All three were again
52323 "Andrew, would you like..." Princess Mary suddenly said in a trembling
52324 voice, "would you like to see little Nicholas? He is always talking
52327 Prince Andrew smiled just perceptibly and for the first time, but
52328 Princess Mary, who knew his face so well, saw with horror that he did
52329 not smile with pleasure or affection for his son, but with quiet, gentle
52330 irony because he thought she was trying what she believed to be the last
52331 means of arousing him.
52333 "Yes, I shall be very glad to see him. Is he quite well?"
52335 When little Nicholas was brought into Prince Andrew's room he looked at
52336 his father with frightened eyes, but did not cry, because no one else
52337 was crying. Prince Andrew kissed him and evidently did not know what to
52340 When Nicholas had been led away, Princess Mary again went up to her
52341 brother, kissed him, and unable to restrain her tears any longer began
52344 He looked at her attentively.
52346 "Is it about Nicholas?" he asked.
52348 Princess Mary nodded her head, weeping.
52350 "Mary, you know the Gosp..." but he broke off.
52352 "What did you say?"
52354 "Nothing. You mustn't cry here," he said, looking at her with the same
52357 When Princess Mary began to cry, he understood that she was crying at
52358 the thought that little Nicholas would be left without a father. With a
52359 great effort he tried to return to life and to see things from their
52362 "Yes, to them it must seem sad!" he thought. "But how simple it is.
52364 "The fowls of the air sow not, neither do they reap, yet your Father
52365 feedeth them," he said to himself and wished to say to Princess Mary;
52366 "but no, they will take it their own way, they won't understand! They
52367 can't understand that all those feelings they prize so--all our
52368 feelings, all those ideas that seem so important to us, are unnecessary.
52369 We cannot understand one another," and he remained silent.
52371 Prince Andrew's little son was seven. He could scarcely read, and knew
52372 nothing. After that day he lived through many things, gaining knowledge,
52373 observation, and experience, but had he possessed all the faculties he
52374 afterwards acquired, he could not have had a better or more profound
52375 understanding of the meaning of the scene he had witnessed between his
52376 father, Mary, and Natasha, than he had then. He understood it
52377 completely, and, leaving the room without crying, went silently up to
52378 Natasha who had come out with him and looked shyly at her with his
52379 beautiful, thoughtful eyes, then his uplifted, rosy upper lip trembled
52380 and leaning his head against her he began to cry.
52382 After that he avoided Dessalles and the countess who caressed him and
52383 either sat alone or came timidly to Princess Mary, or to Natasha of whom
52384 he seemed even fonder than of his aunt, and clung to them quietly and
52387 When Princess Mary had left Prince Andrew she fully understood what
52388 Natasha's face had told her. She did not speak any more to Natasha of
52389 hopes of saving his life. She took turns with her beside his sofa, and
52390 did not cry any more, but prayed continually, turning in soul to that
52391 Eternal and Unfathomable, whose presence above the dying man was now so
52399 Not only did Prince Andrew know he would die, but he felt that he was
52400 dying and was already half dead. He was conscious of an aloofness from
52401 everything earthly and a strange and joyous lightness of existence.
52402 Without haste or agitation he awaited what was coming. That inexorable,
52403 eternal, distant, and unknown the presence of which he had felt
52404 continually all his life--was now near to him and, by the strange
52405 lightness he experienced, almost comprehensible and palpable...
52408 Formerly he had feared the end. He had twice experienced that terribly
52409 tormenting fear of death--the end--but now he no longer understood that
52412 He had felt it for the first time when the shell spun like a top before
52413 him, and he looked at the fallow field, the bushes, and the sky, and
52414 knew that he was face to face with death. When he came to himself after
52415 being wounded and the flower of eternal, unfettered love had instantly
52416 unfolded itself in his soul as if freed from the bondage of life that
52417 had restrained it, he no longer feared death and ceased to think about
52420 During the hours of solitude, suffering, and partial delirium he spent
52421 after he was wounded, the more deeply he penetrated into the new
52422 principle of eternal love revealed to him, the more he unconsciously
52423 detached himself from earthly life. To love everything and everybody and
52424 always to sacrifice oneself for love meant not to love anyone, not to
52425 live this earthly life. And the more imbued he became with that
52426 principle of love, the more he renounced life and the more completely he
52427 destroyed that dreadful barrier which--in the absence of such love--
52428 stands between life and death. When during those first days he
52429 remembered that he would have to die, he said to himself: "Well, what of
52430 it? So much the better!"
52432 But after the night in Mytishchi when, half delirious, he had seen her
52433 for whom he longed appear before him and, having pressed her hand to his
52434 lips, had shed gentle, happy tears, love for a particular woman again
52435 crept unobserved into his heart and once more bound him to life. And
52436 joyful and agitating thoughts began to occupy his mind. Recalling the
52437 moment at the ambulance station when he had seen Kuragin, he could not
52438 now regain the feeling he then had, but was tormented by the question
52439 whether Kuragin was alive. And he dared not inquire.
52441 His illness pursued its normal physical course, but what Natasha
52442 referred to when she said: "This suddenly happened," had occurred two
52443 days before Princess Mary arrived. It was the last spiritual struggle
52444 between life and death, in which death gained the victory. It was the
52445 unexpected realization of the fact that he still valued life as
52446 presented to him in the form of his love for Natasha, and a last, though
52447 ultimately vanquished, attack of terror before the unknown.
52449 It was evening. As usual after dinner he was slightly feverish, and his
52450 thoughts were preternaturally clear. Sonya was sitting by the table. He
52451 began to doze. Suddenly a feeling of happiness seized him.
52453 "Ah, she has come!" thought he.
52455 And so it was: in Sonya's place sat Natasha who had just come in
52458 Since she had begun looking after him, he had always experienced this
52459 physical consciousness of her nearness. She was sitting in an armchair
52460 placed sideways, screening the light of the candle from him, and was
52461 knitting a stocking. She had learned to knit stockings since Prince
52462 Andrew had casually mentioned that no one nursed the sick so well as old
52463 nurses who knit stockings, and that there is something soothing in the
52464 knitting of stockings. The needles clicked lightly in her slender,
52465 rapidly moving hands, and he could clearly see the thoughtful profile of
52466 her drooping face. She moved, and the ball rolled off her knees. She
52467 started, glanced round at him, and screening the candle with her hand
52468 stooped carefully with a supple and exact movement, picked up the ball,
52469 and regained her former position.
52471 He looked at her without moving and saw that she wanted to draw a deep
52472 breath after stooping, but refrained from doing so and breathed
52475 At the Troitsa monastery they had spoken of the past, and he had told
52476 her that if he lived he would always thank God for his wound which had
52477 brought them together again, but after that they never spoke of the
52480 "Can it or can it not be?" he now thought as he looked at her and
52481 listened to the light click of the steel needles. "Can fate have brought
52482 me to her so strangely only for me to die?... Is it possible that the
52483 truth of life has been revealed to me only to show me that I have spent
52484 my life in falsity? I love her more than anything in the world! But what
52485 am I to do if I love her?" he thought, and he involuntarily groaned,
52486 from a habit acquired during his sufferings.
52488 On hearing that sound Natasha put down the stocking, leaned nearer to
52489 him, and suddenly, noticing his shining eyes, stepped lightly up to him
52492 "You are not asleep?"
52494 "No, I have been looking at you a long time. I felt you come in. No one
52495 else gives me that sense of soft tranquillity that you do... that light.
52496 I want to weep for joy."
52498 Natasha drew closer to him. Her face shone with rapturous joy.
52500 "Natasha, I love you too much! More than anything in the world."
52502 "And I!"--She turned away for an instant. "Why too much?" she asked.
52504 "Why too much?... Well, what do you, what do you feel in your soul, your
52505 whole soul--shall I live? What do you think?"
52507 "I am sure of it, sure!" Natasha almost shouted, taking hold of both his
52508 hands with a passionate movement.
52510 He remained silent awhile.
52512 "How good it would be!" and taking her hand he kissed it.
52514 Natasha felt happy and agitated, but at once remembered that this would
52515 not do and that he had to be quiet.
52517 "But you have not slept," she said, repressing her joy. "Try to sleep...
52520 He pressed her hand and released it, and she went back to the candle and
52521 sat down again in her former position. Twice she turned and looked at
52522 him, and her eyes met his beaming at her. She set herself a task on her
52523 stocking and resolved not to turn round till it was finished.
52525 Soon he really shut his eyes and fell asleep. He did not sleep long and
52526 suddenly awoke with a start and in a cold perspiration.
52528 As he fell asleep he had still been thinking of the subject that now
52529 always occupied his mind--about life and death, and chiefly about death.
52530 He felt himself nearer to it.
52532 "Love? What is love?" he thought.
52534 "Love hinders death. Love is life. All, everything that I understand, I
52535 understand only because I love. Everything is, everything exists, only
52536 because I love. Everything is united by it alone. Love is God, and to
52537 die means that I, a particle of love, shall return to the general and
52538 eternal source." These thoughts seemed to him comforting. But they were
52539 only thoughts. Something was lacking in them, they were not clear, they
52540 were too one-sidedly personal and brain-spun. And there was the former
52541 agitation and obscurity. He fell asleep.
52543 He dreamed that he was lying in the room he really was in, but that he
52544 was quite well and unwounded. Many various, indifferent, and
52545 insignificant people appeared before him. He talked to them and
52546 discussed something trivial. They were preparing to go away somewhere.
52547 Prince Andrew dimly realized that all this was trivial and that he had
52548 more important cares, but he continued to speak, surprising them by
52549 empty witticisms. Gradually, unnoticed, all these persons began to
52550 disappear and a single question, that of the closed door, superseded all
52551 else. He rose and went to the door to bolt and lock it. Everything
52552 depended on whether he was, or was not, in time to lock it. He went, and
52553 tried to hurry, but his legs refused to move and he knew he would not be
52554 in time to lock the door though he painfully strained all his powers. He
52555 was seized by an agonizing fear. And that fear was the fear of death. It
52556 stood behind the door. But just when he was clumsily creeping toward the
52557 door, that dreadful something on the other side was already pressing
52558 against it and forcing its way in. Something not human--death--was
52559 breaking in through that door, and had to be kept out. He seized the
52560 door, making a final effort to hold it back--to lock it was no longer
52561 possible--but his efforts were weak and clumsy and the door, pushed from
52562 behind by that terror, opened and closed again.
52564 Once again it pushed from outside. His last superhuman efforts were vain
52565 and both halves of the door noiselessly opened. It entered, and it was
52566 death, and Prince Andrew died.
52568 But at the instant he died, Prince Andrew remembered that he was asleep,
52569 and at the very instant he died, having made an effort, he awoke.
52571 "Yes, it was death! I died--and woke up. Yes, death is an awakening!"
52572 And all at once it grew light in his soul and the veil that had till
52573 then concealed the unknown was lifted from his spiritual vision. He felt
52574 as if powers till then confined within him had been liberated, and that
52575 strange lightness did not again leave him.
52577 When, waking in a cold perspiration, he moved on the divan, Natasha went
52578 up and asked him what was the matter. He did not answer and looked at
52579 her strangely, not understanding.
52581 That was what had happened to him two days before Princess Mary's
52582 arrival. From that day, as the doctor expressed it, the wasting fever
52583 assumed a malignant character, but what the doctor said did not interest
52584 Natasha, she saw the terrible moral symptoms which to her were more
52587 From that day an awakening from life came to Prince Andrew together with
52588 his awakening from sleep. And compared to the duration of life it did
52589 not seem to him slower than an awakening from sleep compared to the
52590 duration of a dream.
52592 There was nothing terrible or violent in this comparatively slow
52595 His last days and hours passed in an ordinary and simple way. Both
52596 Princess Mary and Natasha, who did not leave him, felt this. They did
52597 not weep or shudder and during these last days they themselves felt that
52598 they were not attending on him (he was no longer there, he had left
52599 them) but on what reminded them most closely of him--his body. Both felt
52600 this so strongly that the outward and terrible side of death did not
52601 affect them and they did not feel it necessary to foment their grief.
52602 Neither in his presence nor out of it did they weep, nor did they ever
52603 talk to one another about him. They felt that they could not express in
52604 words what they understood.
52606 They both saw that he was sinking slowly and quietly, deeper and deeper,
52607 away from them, and they both knew that this had to be so and that it
52610 He confessed, and received communion: everyone came to take leave of
52611 him. When they brought his son to him, he pressed his lips to the boy's
52612 and turned away, not because he felt it hard and sad (Princess Mary and
52613 Natasha understood that) but simply because he thought it was all that
52614 was required of him, but when they told him to bless the boy, he did
52615 what was demanded and looked round as if asking whether there was
52616 anything else he should do.
52618 When the last convulsions of the body, which the spirit was leaving,
52619 occurred, Princess Mary and Natasha were present.
52621 "Is it over?" said Princess Mary when his body had for a few minutes
52622 lain motionless, growing cold before them. Natasha went up, looked at
52623 the dead eyes, and hastened to close them. She closed them but did not
52624 kiss them, but clung to that which reminded her most nearly of him--his
52627 "Where has he gone? Where is he now?..."
52629 When the body, washed and dressed, lay in the coffin on a table,
52630 everyone came to take leave of him and they all wept.
52632 Little Nicholas cried because his heart was rent by painful perplexity.
52633 The countess and Sonya cried from pity for Natasha and because he was no
52634 more. The old count cried because he felt that before long, he, too,
52635 must take the same terrible step.
52637 Natasha and Princess Mary also wept now, but not because of their own
52638 personal grief; they wept with a reverent and softening emotion which
52639 had taken possession of their souls at the consciousness of the simple
52640 and solemn mystery of death that had been accomplished in their
52643 BOOK THIRTEEN: 1812
52650 Man's mind cannot grasp the causes of events in their completeness, but
52651 the desire to find those causes is implanted in man's soul. And without
52652 considering the multiplicity and complexity of the conditions any one of
52653 which taken separately may seem to be the cause, he snatches at the
52654 first approximation to a cause that seems to him intelligible and says:
52655 "This is the cause!" In historical events (where the actions of men are
52656 the subject of observation) the first and most primitive approximation
52657 to present itself was the will of the gods and, after that, the will of
52658 those who stood in the most prominent position--the heroes of history.
52659 But we need only penetrate to the essence of any historic event--which
52660 lies in the activity of the general mass of men who take part in it--to
52661 be convinced that the will of the historic hero does not control the
52662 actions of the mass but is itself continually controlled. It may seem to
52663 be a matter of indifference whether we understand the meaning of
52664 historical events this way or that; yet there is the same difference
52665 between a man who says that the people of the West moved on the East
52666 because Napoleon wished it and a man who says that this happened because
52667 it had to happen, as there is between those who declared that the earth
52668 was stationary and that the planets moved round it and those who
52669 admitted that they did not know what upheld the earth, but knew there
52670 were laws directing its movement and that of the other planets. There
52671 is, and can be, no cause of an historical event except the one cause of
52672 all causes. But there are laws directing events, and some of these laws
52673 are known to us while we are conscious of others we cannot comprehend.
52674 The discovery of these laws is only possible when we have quite
52675 abandoned the attempt to find the cause in the will of some one man,
52676 just as the discovery of the laws of the motion of the planets was
52677 possible only when men abandoned the conception of the fixity of the
52680 The historians consider that, next to the battle of Borodino and the
52681 occupation of Moscow by the enemy and its destruction by fire, the most
52682 important episode of the war of 1812 was the movement of the Russian
52683 army from the Ryazana to the Kaluga road and to the Tarutino camp--the
52684 so-called flank march across the Krasnaya Pakhra River. They ascribe the
52685 glory of that achievement of genius to different men and dispute as to
52686 whom the honor is due. Even foreign historians, including the French,
52687 acknowledge the genius of the Russian commanders when they speak of that
52688 flank march. But it is hard to understand why military writers, and
52689 following them others, consider this flank march to be the profound
52690 conception of some one man who saved Russia and destroyed Napoleon. In
52691 the first place it is hard to understand where the profundity and genius
52692 of this movement lay, for not much mental effort was needed to see that
52693 the best position for an army when it is not being attacked is where
52694 there are most provisions; and even a dull boy of thirteen could have
52695 guessed that the best position for an army after its retreat from Moscow
52696 in 1812 was on the Kaluga road. So it is impossible to understand by
52697 what reasoning the historians reach the conclusion that this maneuver
52698 was a profound one. And it is even more difficult to understand just why
52699 they think that this maneuver was calculated to save Russia and destroy
52700 the French; for this flank march, had it been preceded, accompanied, or
52701 followed by other circumstances, might have proved ruinous to the
52702 Russians and salutary for the French. If the position of the Russian
52703 army really began to improve from the time of that march, it does not at
52704 all follow that the march was the cause of it.
52706 That flank march might not only have failed to give any advantage to the
52707 Russian army, but might in other circumstances have led to its
52708 destruction. What would have happened had Moscow not burned down? If
52709 Murat had not lost sight of the Russians? If Napoleon had not remained
52710 inactive? If the Russian army at Krasnaya Pakhra had given battle as
52711 Bennigsen and Barclay advised? What would have happened had the French
52712 attacked the Russians while they were marching beyond the Pakhra? What
52713 would have happened if on approaching Tarutino, Napoleon had attacked
52714 the Russians with but a tenth of the energy he had shown when he
52715 attacked them at Smolensk? What would have happened had the French moved
52716 on Petersburg?... In any of these eventualities the flank march that
52717 brought salvation might have proved disastrous.
52719 The third and most incomprehensible thing is that people studying
52720 history deliberately avoid seeing that this flank march cannot be
52721 attributed to any one man, that no one ever foresaw it, and that in
52722 reality, like the retreat from Fili, it did not suggest itself to anyone
52723 in its entirety, but resulted--moment by moment, step by step, event by
52724 event--from an endless number of most diverse circumstances and was only
52725 seen in its entirety when it had been accomplished and belonged to the
52728 At the council at Fili the prevailing thought in the minds of the
52729 Russian commanders was the one naturally suggesting itself, namely, a
52730 direct retreat by the Nizhni road. In proof of this there is the fact
52731 that the majority of the council voted for such a retreat, and above all
52732 there is the well-known conversation after the council, between the
52733 commander in chief and Lanskoy, who was in charge of the commissariat
52734 department. Lanskoy informed the commander-in-chief that the army
52735 supplies were for the most part stored along the Oka in the Tula and
52736 Ryazan provinces, and that if they retreated on Nizhni the army would be
52737 separated from its supplies by the broad river Oka, which cannot be
52738 crossed early in winter. This was the first indication of the necessity
52739 of deviating from what had previously seemed the most natural course--a
52740 direct retreat on Nizhni-Novgorod. The army turned more to the south,
52741 along the Ryazan road and nearer to its supplies. Subsequently the
52742 inactivity of the French (who even lost sight of the Russian army),
52743 concern for the safety of the arsenal at Tula, and especially the
52744 advantages of drawing nearer to its supplies caused the army to turn
52745 still further south to the Tula road. Having crossed over, by a forced
52746 march, to the Tula road beyond the Pakhra, the Russian commanders
52747 intended to remain at Podolsk and had no thought of the Tarutino
52748 position; but innumerable circumstances and the reappearance of French
52749 troops who had for a time lost touch with the Russians, and projects of
52750 giving battle, and above all the abundance of provisions in Kaluga
52751 province, obliged our army to turn still more to the south and to cross
52752 from the Tula to the Kaluga road and go to Tarutino, which was between
52753 the roads along which those supplies lay. Just as it is impossible to
52754 say when it was decided to abandon Moscow, so it is impossible to say
52755 precisely when, or by whom, it was decided to move to Tarutino. Only
52756 when the army had got there, as the result of innumerable and varying
52757 forces, did people begin to assure themselves that they had desired this
52758 movement and long ago foreseen its result.
52765 The famous flank movement merely consisted in this: after the advance of
52766 the French had ceased, the Russian army, which had been continually
52767 retreating straight back from the invaders, deviated from that direct
52768 course and, not finding itself pursued, was naturally drawn toward the
52769 district where supplies were abundant.
52771 If instead of imagining to ourselves commanders of genius leading the
52772 Russian army, we picture that army without any leaders, it could not
52773 have done anything but make a return movement toward Moscow, describing
52774 an arc in the direction where most provisions were to be found and where
52775 the country was richest.
52777 That movement from the Nizhni to the Ryazan, Tula, and Kaluga roads was
52778 so natural that even the Russian marauders moved in that direction, and
52779 demands were sent from Petersburg for Kutuzov to take his army that way.
52780 At Tarutino Kutuzov received what was almost a reprimand from the
52781 Emperor for having moved his army along the Ryazan road, and the
52782 Emperor's letter indicated to him the very position he had already
52783 occupied near Kaluga.
52785 Having rolled like a ball in the direction of the impetus given by the
52786 whole campaign and by the battle of Borodino, the Russian army--when the
52787 strength of that impetus was exhausted and no fresh push was received--
52788 assumed the position natural to it.
52790 Kutuzov's merit lay, not in any strategic maneuver of genius, as it is
52791 called, but in the fact that he alone understood the significance of
52792 what had happened. He alone then understood the meaning of the French
52793 army's inactivity, he alone continued to assert that the battle of
52794 Borodino had been a victory, he alone--who as commander-in-chief might
52795 have been expected to be eager to attack--employed his whole strength to
52796 restrain the Russian army from useless engagements.
52798 The beast wounded at Borodino was lying where the fleeing hunter had
52799 left him; but whether he was still alive, whether he was strong and
52800 merely lying low, the hunter did not know. Suddenly the beast was heard
52803 The moan of that wounded beast (the French army) which betrayed its
52804 calamitous condition was the sending of Lauriston to Kutuzov's camp with
52805 overtures for peace.
52807 Napoleon, with his usual assurance that whatever entered his head was
52808 right, wrote to Kutuzov the first words that occurred to him, though
52809 they were meaningless.
52811 MONSIEUR LE PRINCE KOUTOUZOV: I am sending one of my adjutants-general
52812 to discuss several interesting questions with you. I beg your Highness
52813 to credit what he says to you, especially when he expresses the
52814 sentiment of esteem and special regard I have long entertained for your
52815 person. This letter having no other object, I pray God, monsieur le
52816 Prince Koutouzov, to keep you in His holy and gracious protection!
52818 NAPOLEON MOSCOW, OCTOBER 30, 1812
52820 Kutuzov replied: "I should be cursed by posterity were I looked on as
52821 the initiator of a settlement of any sort. Such is the present spirit of
52822 my nation." But he continued to exert all his powers to restrain his
52823 troops from attacking.
52825 During the month that the French troops were pillaging in Moscow and the
52826 Russian troops were quietly encamped at Tarutino, a change had taken
52827 place in the relative strength of the two armies--both in spirit and in
52828 number--as a result of which the superiority had passed to the Russian
52829 side. Though the condition and numbers of the French army were unknown
52830 to the Russians, as soon as that change occurred the need of attacking
52831 at once showed itself by countless signs. These signs were: Lauriston's
52832 mission; the abundance of provisions at Tarutino; the reports coming in
52833 from all sides of the inactivity and disorder of the French; the flow of
52834 recruits to our regiments; the fine weather; the long rest the Russian
52835 soldiers had enjoyed, and the impatience to do what they had been
52836 assembled for, which usually shows itself in an army that has been
52837 resting; curiosity as to what the French army, so long lost sight of,
52838 was doing; the boldness with which our outposts now scouted close up to
52839 the French stationed at Tarutino; the news of easy successes gained by
52840 peasants and guerrilla troops over the French, the envy aroused by this;
52841 the desire for revenge that lay in the heart of every Russian as long as
52842 the French were in Moscow, and (above all) a dim consciousness in every
52843 soldier's mind that the relative strength of the armies had changed and
52844 that the advantage was now on our side. There was a substantial change
52845 in the relative strength, and an advance had become inevitable. And at
52846 once, as a clock begins to strike and chime as soon as the minute hand
52847 has completed a full circle, this change was shown by an increased
52848 activity, whirring, and chiming in the higher spheres.
52855 The Russian army was commanded by Kutuzov and his staff, and also by the
52856 Emperor from Petersburg. Before the news of the abandonment of Moscow
52857 had been received in Petersburg, a detailed plan of the whole campaign
52858 had been drawn up and sent to Kutuzov for his guidance. Though this plan
52859 had been drawn up on the supposition that Moscow was still in our hands,
52860 it was approved by the staff and accepted as a basis for action. Kutuzov
52861 only replied that movements arranged from a distance were always
52862 difficult to execute. So fresh instructions were sent for the solution
52863 of difficulties that might be encountered, as well as fresh people who
52864 were to watch Kutuzov's actions and report upon them.
52866 Besides this, the whole staff of the Russian army was now reorganized.
52867 The posts left vacant by Bagration, who had been killed, and by Barclay,
52868 who had gone away in dudgeon, had to be filled. Very serious
52869 consideration was given to the question whether it would be better to
52870 put A in B's place and B in D's, or on the contrary to put D in A's
52871 place, and so on--as if anything more than A's or B's satisfaction
52874 As a result of the hostility between Kutuzov and Bennigsen, his Chief of
52875 Staff, the presence of confidential representatives of the Emperor, and
52876 these transfers, a more than usually complicated play of parties was
52877 going on among the staff of the army. A was undermining B, D was
52878 undermining C, and so on in all possible combinations and permutations.
52879 In all these plottings the subject of intrigue was generally the conduct
52880 of the war, which all these men believed they were directing; but this
52881 affair of the war went on independently of them, as it had to go: that
52882 is, never in the way people devised, but flowing always from the
52883 essential attitude of the masses. Only in the highest spheres did all
52884 these schemes, crossings, and interminglings appear to be a true
52885 reflection of what had to happen.
52887 Prince Michael Ilarionovich! (wrote the Emperor on the second of October
52888 in a letter that reached Kutuzov after the battle at Tarutino) Since
52889 September 2 Moscow has been in the hands of the enemy. Your last reports
52890 were written on the twentieth, and during all this time not only has no
52891 action been taken against the enemy or for the relief of the ancient
52892 capital, but according to your last report you have even retreated
52893 farther. Serpukhov is already occupied by an enemy detachment and Tula
52894 with its famous arsenal so indispensable to the army, is in danger. From
52895 General Wintzingerode's reports, I see that an enemy corps of ten
52896 thousand men is moving on the Petersburg road. Another corps of several
52897 thousand men is moving on Dmitrov. A third has advanced along the
52898 Vladimir road, and a fourth, rather considerable detachment is stationed
52899 between Ruza and Mozhaysk. Napoleon himself was in Moscow as late as the
52900 twenty-fifth. In view of all this information, when the enemy has
52901 scattered his forces in large detachments, and with Napoleon and his
52902 Guards in Moscow, is it possible that the enemy's forces confronting you
52903 are so considerable as not to allow of your taking the offensive? On the
52904 contrary, he is probably pursuing you with detachments, or at most with
52905 an army corps much weaker than the army entrusted to you. It would seem
52906 that, availing yourself of these circumstances, you might advantageously
52907 attack a weaker one and annihilate him, or at least oblige him to
52908 retreat, retaining in our hands an important part of the provinces now
52909 occupied by the enemy, and thereby averting danger from Tula and other
52910 towns in the interior. You will be responsible if the enemy is able to
52911 direct a force of any size against Petersburg to threaten this capital
52912 in which it has not been possible to retain many troops; for with the
52913 army entrusted to you, and acting with resolution and energy, you have
52914 ample means to avert this fresh calamity. Remember that you have still
52915 to answer to our offended country for the loss of Moscow. You have
52916 experienced my readiness to reward you. That readiness will not weaken
52917 in me, but I and Russia have a right to expect from you all the zeal,
52918 firmness, and success which your intellect, military talent, and the
52919 courage of the troops you command justify us in expecting.
52921 But by the time this letter, which proved that the real relation of the
52922 forces had already made itself felt in Petersburg, was dispatched,
52923 Kutuzov had found himself unable any longer to restrain the army he
52924 commanded from attacking and a battle had taken place.
52926 On the second of October a Cossack, Shapovalov, who was out scouting,
52927 killed one hare and wounded another. Following the wounded hare he made
52928 his way far into the forest and came upon the left flank of Murat's
52929 army, encamped there without any precautions. The Cossack laughingly
52930 told his comrades how he had almost fallen into the hands of the French.
52931 A cornet, hearing the story, informed his commander.
52933 The Cossack was sent for and questioned. The Cossack officers wished to
52934 take advantage of this chance to capture some horses, but one of the
52935 superior officers, who was acquainted with the higher authorities,
52936 reported the incident to a general on the staff. The state of things on
52937 the staff had of late been exceedingly strained. Ermolov had been to see
52938 Bennigsen a few days previously and had entreated him to use his
52939 influence with the commander-in-chief to induce him to take the
52942 "If I did not know you I should think you did not want what you are
52943 asking for. I need only advise anything and his Highness is sure to do
52944 the opposite," replied Bennigsen.
52946 The Cossack's report, confirmed by horse patrols who were sent out, was
52947 the final proof that events had matured. The tightly coiled spring was
52948 released, the clock began to whirr and the chimes to play. Despite all
52949 his supposed power, his intellect, his experience, and his knowledge of
52950 men, Kutuzov--having taken into consideration the Cossack's report, a
52951 note from Bennigsen who sent personal reports to the Emperor, the wishes
52952 he supposed the Emperor to hold, and the fact that all the generals
52953 expressed the same wish--could no longer check the inevitable movement,
52954 and gave the order to do what he regarded as useless and harmful--gave
52955 his approval, that is, to the accomplished fact.
52962 Bennigsen's note and the Cossack's information that the left flank of
52963 the French was unguarded were merely final indications that it was
52964 necessary to order an attack, and it was fixed for the fifth of October.
52966 On the morning of the fourth of October Kutuzov signed the dispositions.
52967 Toll read them to Ermolov, asking him to attend to the further
52970 "All right--all right. I haven't time just now," replied Ermolov, and
52973 The dispositions drawn up by Toll were very good. As in the Austerlitz
52974 dispositions, it was written--though not in German this time:
52976 "The First Column will march here and here," "the Second Column will
52977 march there and there," and so on; and on paper, all these columns
52978 arrived at their places at the appointed time and destroyed the enemy.
52979 Everything had been admirably thought out as is usual in dispositions,
52980 and as is always the case, not a single column reached its place at the
52983 When the necessary number of copies of the dispositions had been
52984 prepared, an officer was summoned and sent to deliver them to Ermolov to
52985 deal with. A young officer of the Horse Guards, Kutuzov's orderly,
52986 pleased at the importance of the mission entrusted to him, went to
52987 Ermolov's quarters.
52989 "Gone away," said Ermolov's orderly.
52991 The officer of the Horse Guards went to a general with whom Ermolov was
52994 "No, and the general's out too."
52996 The officer, mounting his horse, rode off to someone else.
52998 "No, he's gone out."
53000 "If only they don't make me responsible for this delay! What a nuisance
53001 it is!" thought the officer, and he rode round the whole camp. One man
53002 said he had seen Ermolov ride past with some other generals, others said
53003 he must have returned home. The officer searched till six o'clock in the
53004 evening without even stopping to eat. Ermolov was nowhere to be found
53005 and no one knew where he was. The officer snatched a little food at a
53006 comrade's, and rode again to the vanguard to find Miloradovich.
53007 Miloradovich too was away, but here he was told that he had gone to a
53008 ball at General Kikin's and that Ermolov was probably there too.
53012 "Why, there, over at Echkino," said a Cossack officer, pointing to a
53013 country house in the far distance.
53015 "What, outside our line?"
53017 "They've put two regiments as outposts, and they're having such a spree
53018 there, it's awful! Two bands and three sets of singers!"
53020 The officer rode out beyond our lines to Echkino. While still at a
53021 distance he heard as he rode the merry sounds of a soldier's dance song
53022 proceeding from the house.
53024 "In the meadows... in the meadows!" he heard, accompanied by whistling
53025 and the sound of a torban, drowned every now and then by shouts. These
53026 sounds made his spirits rise, but at the same time he was afraid that he
53027 would be blamed for not having executed sooner the important order
53028 entrusted to him. It was already past eight o'clock. He dismounted and
53029 went up into the porch of a large country house which had remained
53030 intact between the Russian and French forces. In the refreshment room
53031 and the hall, footmen were bustling about with wine and viands. Groups
53032 of singers stood outside the windows. The officer was admitted and
53033 immediately saw all the chief generals of the army together, and among
53034 them Ermolov's big imposing figure. They all had their coats unbuttoned
53035 and were standing in a semicircle with flushed and animated faces,
53036 laughing loudly. In the middle of the room a short handsome general with
53037 a red face was dancing the trepak with much spirit and agility.
53039 "Ha, ha, ha! Bravo, Nicholas Ivanych! Ha, ha, ha!"
53041 The officer felt that by arriving with important orders at such a moment
53042 he was doubly to blame, and he would have preferred to wait; but one of
53043 the generals espied him and, hearing what he had come about, informed
53046 Ermolov came forward with a frown on his face and, hearing what the
53047 officer had to say, took the papers from him without a word.
53049 "You think he went off just by chance?" said a comrade, who was on the
53050 staff that evening, to the officer of the Horse Guards, referring to
53051 Ermolov. "It was a trick. It was done on purpose to get Konovnitsyn into
53052 trouble. You'll see what a mess there'll be tomorrow."
53059 Next day the decrepit Kutuzov, having given orders to be called early,
53060 said his prayers, dressed, and, with an unpleasant consciousness of
53061 having to direct a battle he did not approve of, got into his caleche
53062 and drove from Letashovka (a village three and a half miles from
53063 Tarutino) to the place where the attacking columns were to meet. He sat
53064 in the caleche, dozing and waking up by turns, and listening for any
53065 sound of firing on the right as an indication that the action had begun.
53066 But all was still quiet. A damp dull autumn morning was just dawning. On
53067 approaching Tarutino Kutuzov noticed cavalrymen leading their horses to
53068 water across the road along which he was driving. Kutuzov looked at them
53069 searchingly, stopped his carriage, and inquired what regiment they
53070 belonged to. They belonged to a column that should have been far in
53071 front and in ambush long before then. "It may be a mistake," thought the
53072 old commander-in-chief. But a little further on he saw infantry
53073 regiments with their arms piled and the soldiers, only partly dressed,
53074 eating their rye porridge and carrying fuel. He sent for an officer. The
53075 officer reported that no order to advance had been received.
53077 "How! Not rec..." Kutuzov began, but checked himself immediately and
53078 sent for a senior officer. Getting out of his caleche, he waited with
53079 drooping head and breathing heavily, pacing silently up and down. When
53080 Eykhen, the officer of the general staff whom he had summoned, appeared,
53081 Kutuzov went purple in the face, not because that officer was to blame
53082 for the mistake, but because he was an object of sufficient importance
53083 for him to vent his wrath on. Trembling and panting the old man fell
53084 into that state of fury in which he sometimes used to roll on the
53085 ground, and he fell upon Eykhen, threatening him with his hands,
53086 shouting and loading him with gross abuse. Another man, Captain Brozin,
53087 who happened to turn up and who was not at all to blame, suffered the
53090 "What sort of another blackguard are you? I'll have you shot!
53091 Scoundrels!" yelled Kutuzov in a hoarse voice, waving his arms and
53094 He was suffering physically. He, the commander-in-chief, a Serene
53095 Highness who everybody said possessed powers such as no man had ever had
53096 in Russia, to be placed in this position--made the laughingstock of the
53097 whole army! "I needn't have been in such a hurry to pray about today, or
53098 have kept awake thinking everything over all night," thought he to
53099 himself. "When I was a chit of an officer no one would have dared to
53100 mock me so... and now!" He was in a state of physical suffering as if
53101 from corporal punishment, and could not avoid expressing it by cries of
53102 anger and distress. But his strength soon began to fail him, and looking
53103 about him, conscious of having said much that was amiss, he again got
53104 into his caleche and drove back in silence.
53106 His wrath, once expended, did not return, and blinking feebly he
53107 listened to excuses and self-justifications (Ermolov did not come to see
53108 him till the next day) and to the insistence of Bennigsen, Konovnitsyn,
53109 and Toll that the movement that had miscarried should be executed next
53110 day. And once more Kutuzov had to consent.
53117 Next day the troops assembled in their appointed places in the evening
53118 and advanced during the night. It was an autumn night with dark purple
53119 clouds, but no rain. The ground was damp but not muddy, and the troops
53120 advanced noiselessly, only occasionally a jingling of the artillery
53121 could be faintly heard. The men were forbidden to talk out loud, to
53122 smoke their pipes, or to strike a light, and they tried to prevent their
53123 horses neighing. The secrecy of the undertaking heightened its charm and
53124 they marched gaily. Some columns, supposing they had reached their
53125 destination, halted, piled arms, and settled down on the cold ground,
53126 but the majority marched all night and arrived at places where they
53127 evidently should not have been.
53129 Only Count Orlov-Denisov with his Cossacks (the least important
53130 detachment of all) got to his appointed place at the right time. This
53131 detachment halted at the outskirts of a forest, on the path leading from
53132 the village of Stromilova to Dmitrovsk.
53134 Toward dawn, Count Orlov-Denisov, who had dozed off, was awakened by a
53135 deserter from the French army being brought to him. This was a Polish
53136 sergeant of Poniatowski's corps, who explained in Polish that he had
53137 come over because he had been slighted in the service: that he ought
53138 long ago to have been made an officer, that he was braver than any of
53139 them, and so he had left them and wished to pay them out. He said that
53140 Murat was spending the night less than a mile from where they were, and
53141 that if they would let him have a convoy of a hundred men he would
53142 capture him alive. Count Orlov-Denisov consulted his fellow officers.
53144 The offer was too tempting to be refused. Everyone volunteered to go and
53145 everybody advised making the attempt. After much disputing and arguing,
53146 Major-General Grekov with two Cossack regiments decided to go with the
53149 "Now, remember," said Count Orlov-Denisov to the sergeant at parting,
53150 "if you have been lying I'll have you hanged like a dog; but if it's
53151 true you shall have a hundred gold pieces!"
53153 Without replying, the sergeant, with a resolute air, mounted and rode
53154 away with Grekov whose men had quickly assembled. They disappeared into
53155 the forest, and Count Orlov-Denisov, having seen Grekov off, returned,
53156 shivering from the freshness of the early dawn and excited by what he
53157 had undertaken on his own responsibility, and began looking at the enemy
53158 camp, now just visible in the deceptive light of dawn and the dying
53159 campfires. Our columns ought to have begun to appear on an open
53160 declivity to his right. He looked in that direction, but though the
53161 columns would have been visible quite far off, they were not to be seen.
53162 It seemed to the count that things were beginning to stir in the French
53163 camp, and his keen-sighted adjutant confirmed this.
53165 "Oh, it is really too late," said Count Orlov, looking at the camp.
53167 As often happens when someone we have trusted is no longer before our
53168 eyes, it suddenly seemed quite clear and obvious to him that the
53169 sergeant was an impostor, that he had lied, and that the whole Russian
53170 attack would be ruined by the absence of those two regiments, which he
53171 would lead away heaven only knew where. How could one capture a
53172 commander-in-chief from among such a mass of troops!
53174 "I am sure that rascal was lying," said the count.
53176 "They can still be called back," said one of his suite, who like Count
53177 Orlov felt distrustful of the adventure when he looked at the enemy's
53180 "Eh? Really... what do you think? Should we let them go on or not?"
53182 "Will you have them fetched back?"
53184 "Fetch them back, fetch them back!" said Count Orlov with sudden
53185 determination, looking at his watch. "It will be too late. It is quite
53188 And the adjutant galloped through the forest after Grekov. When Grekov
53189 returned, Count Orlov-Denisov, excited both by the abandoned attempt and
53190 by vainly awaiting the infantry columns that still did not appear, as
53191 well as by the proximity of the enemy, resolved to advance. All his men
53192 felt the same excitement.
53194 "Mount!" he commanded in a whisper. The men took their places and
53195 crossed themselves.... "Forward, with God's aid!"
53197 "Hurrah-ah-ah!" reverberated in the forest, and the Cossack companies,
53198 trailing their lances and advancing one after another as if poured out
53199 of a sack, dashed gaily across the brook toward the camp.
53201 One desperate, frightened yell from the first French soldier who saw the
53202 Cossacks, and all who were in the camp, undressed and only just waking
53203 up, ran off in all directions, abandoning cannons, muskets, and horses.
53205 Had the Cossacks pursued the French, without heeding what was behind and
53206 around them, they would have captured Murat and everything there. That
53207 was what the officers desired. But it was impossible to make the
53208 Cossacks budge when once they had got booty and prisoners. None of them
53209 listened to orders. Fifteen hundred prisoners and thirty-eight guns were
53210 taken on the spot, besides standards and (what seemed most important to
53211 the Cossacks) horses, saddles, horsecloths, and the like. All this had
53212 to be dealt with, the prisoners and guns secured, the booty divided--not
53213 without some shouting and even a little fighting among themselves--and
53214 it was on this that the Cossacks all busied themselves.
53216 The French, not being farther pursued, began to recover themselves: they
53217 formed into detachments and began firing. Orlov-Denisov, still waiting
53218 for the other columns to arrive, advanced no further.
53220 Meantime, according to the dispositions which said that "the First
53221 Column will march" and so on, the infantry of the belated columns,
53222 commanded by Bennigsen and directed by Toll, had started in due order
53223 and, as always happens, had got somewhere, but not to their appointed
53224 places. As always happens the men, starting cheerfully, began to halt;
53225 murmurs were heard, there was a sense of confusion, and finally a
53226 backward movement. Adjutants and generals galloped about, shouted, grew
53227 angry, quarreled, said they had come quite wrong and were late, gave
53228 vent to a little abuse, and at last gave it all up and went forward,
53229 simply to get somewhere. "We shall get somewhere or other!" And they did
53230 indeed get somewhere, though not to their right places; a few eventually
53231 even got to their right place, but too late to be of any use and only in
53232 time to be fired at. Toll, who in this battle played the part of
53233 Weyrother at Austerlitz, galloped assiduously from place to place,
53234 finding everything upside down everywhere. Thus he stumbled on Bagovut's
53235 corps in a wood when it was already broad daylight, though the corps
53236 should long before have joined Orlov-Denisov. Excited and vexed by the
53237 failure and supposing that someone must be responsible for it, Toll
53238 galloped up to the commander of the corps and began upbraiding him
53239 severely, saying that he ought to be shot. General Bagovut, a fighting
53240 old soldier of placid temperament, being also upset by all the delay,
53241 confusion, and cross-purposes, fell into a rage to everybody's surprise
53242 and quite contrary to his usual character and said disagreeable things
53245 "I prefer not to take lessons from anyone, but I can die with my men as
53246 well as anybody," he said, and advanced with a single division.
53248 Coming out onto a field under the enemy's fire, this brave general went
53249 straight ahead, leading his men under fire, without considering in his
53250 agitation whether going into action now, with a single division, would
53251 be of any use or no. Danger, cannon balls, and bullets were just what he
53252 needed in his angry mood. One of the first bullets killed him, and other
53253 bullets killed many of his men. And his division remained under fire for
53254 some time quite uselessly.
53261 Meanwhile another column was to have attacked the French from the front,
53262 but Kutuzov accompanied that column. He well knew that nothing but
53263 confusion would come of this battle undertaken against his will, and as
53264 far as was in his power held the troops back. He did not advance.
53266 He rode silently on his small gray horse, indolently answering
53267 suggestions that they should attack.
53269 "The word attack is always on your tongue, but you don't see that we are
53270 unable to execute complicated maneuvers," said he to Miloradovich who
53271 asked permission to advance.
53273 "We couldn't take Murat prisoner this morning or get to the place in
53274 time, and nothing can be done now!" he replied to someone else.
53276 When Kutuzov was informed that at the French rear--where according to
53277 the reports of the Cossacks there had previously been nobody--there were
53278 now two battalions of Poles, he gave a sidelong glance at Ermolov who
53279 was behind him and to whom he had not spoken since the previous day.
53281 "You see! They are asking to attack and making plans of all kinds, but
53282 as soon as one gets to business nothing is ready, and the enemy,
53283 forewarned, takes measures accordingly."
53285 Ermolov screwed up his eyes and smiled faintly on hearing these words.
53286 He understood that for him the storm had blown over, and that Kutuzov
53287 would content himself with that hint.
53289 "He's having a little fun at my expense," said Ermolov softly, nudging
53290 with his knee Raevski who was at his side.
53292 Soon after this, Ermolov moved up to Kutuzov and respectfully remarked:
53294 "It is not too late yet, your Highness--the enemy has not gone away--if
53295 you were to order an attack! If not, the Guards will not so much as see
53298 Kutuzov did not reply, but when they reported to him that Murat's troops
53299 were in retreat he ordered an advance, though at every hundred paces he
53300 halted for three quarters of an hour.
53302 The whole battle consisted in what Orlov-Denisov's Cossacks had done:
53303 the rest of the army merely lost some hundreds of men uselessly.
53305 In consequence of this battle Kutuzov received a diamond decoration, and
53306 Bennigsen some diamonds and a hundred thousand rubles, others also
53307 received pleasant recognitions corresponding to their various grades,
53308 and following the battle fresh changes were made in the staff.
53310 "That's how everything is done with us, all topsy-turvy!" said the
53311 Russian officers and generals after the Tarutino battle, letting it be
53312 understood that some fool there is doing things all wrong but that we
53313 ourselves should not have done so, just as people speak today. But
53314 people who talk like that either do not know what they are talking about
53315 or deliberately deceive themselves. No battle--Tarutino, Borodino, or
53316 Austerlitz--takes place as those who planned it anticipated. That is an
53317 essential condition.
53319 A countless number of free forces (for nowhere is man freer than during
53320 a battle, where it is a question of life and death) influence the course
53321 taken by the fight, and that course never can be known in advance and
53322 never coincides with the direction of any one force.
53324 If many simultaneously and variously directed forces act on a given
53325 body, the direction of its motion cannot coincide with any one of those
53326 forces, but will always be a mean--what in mechanics is represented by
53327 the diagonal of a parallelogram of forces.
53329 If in the descriptions given by historians, especially French ones, we
53330 find their wars and battles carried out in accordance with previously
53331 formed plans, the only conclusion to be drawn is that those descriptions
53334 The battle of Tarutino obviously did not attain the aim Toll had in
53335 view--to lead the troops into action in the order prescribed by the
53336 dispositions; nor that which Count Orlov-Denisov may have had in view--
53337 to take Murat prisoner; nor the result of immediately destroying the
53338 whole corps, which Bennigsen and others may have had in view; nor the
53339 aim of the officer who wished to go into action to distinguish himself;
53340 nor that of the Cossack who wanted more booty than he got, and so on.
53341 But if the aim of the battle was what actually resulted and what all the
53342 Russians of that day desired--to drive the French out of Russia and
53343 destroy their army--it is quite clear that the battle of Tarutino, just
53344 because of its incongruities, was exactly what was wanted at that stage
53345 of the campaign. It would be difficult and even impossible to imagine
53346 any result more opportune than the actual outcome of this battle. With a
53347 minimum of effort and insignificant losses, despite the greatest
53348 confusion, the most important results of the whole campaign were
53349 attained: the transition from retreat to advance, an exposure of the
53350 weakness of the French, and the administration of that shock which
53351 Napoleon's army had only awaited to begin its flight.
53358 Napoleon enters Moscow after the brilliant victory de la Moskowa; there
53359 can be no doubt about the victory for the battlefield remains in the
53360 hands of the French. The Russians retreat and abandon their ancient
53361 capital. Moscow, abounding in provisions, arms, munitions, and
53362 incalculable wealth, is in Napoleon's hands. The Russian army, only half
53363 the strength of the French, does not make a single attempt to attack for
53364 a whole month. Napoleon's position is most brilliant. He can either fall
53365 on the Russian army with double its strength and destroy it; negotiate
53366 an advantageous peace, or in case of a refusal make a menacing move on
53367 Petersburg, or even, in the case of a reverse, return to Smolensk or
53368 Vilna; or remain in Moscow; in short, no special genius would seem to be
53369 required to retain the brilliant position the French held at that time.
53370 For that, only very simple and easy steps were necessary: not to allow
53371 the troops to loot, to prepare winter clothing--of which there was
53372 sufficient in Moscow for the whole army--and methodically to collect the
53373 provisions, of which (according to the French historians) there were
53374 enough in Moscow to supply the whole army for six months. Yet Napoleon,
53375 that greatest of all geniuses, who the historians declare had control of
53376 the army, took none of these steps.
53378 He not merely did nothing of the kind, but on the contrary he used his
53379 power to select the most foolish and ruinous of all the courses open to
53380 him. Of all that Napoleon might have done: wintering in Moscow,
53381 advancing on Petersburg or on Nizhni-Novgorod, or retiring by a more
53382 northerly or more southerly route (say by the road Kutuzov afterwards
53383 took), nothing more stupid or disastrous can be imagined than what he
53384 actually did. He remained in Moscow till October, letting the troops
53385 plunder the city; then, hesitating whether to leave a garrison behind
53386 him, he quitted Moscow, approached Kutuzov without joining battle,
53387 turned to the right and reached Malo-Yaroslavets, again without
53388 attempting to break through and take the road Kutuzov took, but retiring
53389 instead to Mozhaysk along the devastated Smolensk road. Nothing more
53390 stupid than that could have been devised, or more disastrous for the
53391 army, as the sequel showed. Had Napoleon's aim been to destroy his army,
53392 the most skillful strategist could hardly have devised any series of
53393 actions that would so completely have accomplished that purpose,
53394 independently of anything the Russian army might do.
53396 Napoleon, the man of genius, did this! But to say that he destroyed his
53397 army because he wished to, or because he was very stupid, would be as
53398 unjust as to say that he had brought his troops to Moscow because he
53399 wished to and because he was very clever and a genius.
53401 In both cases his personal activity, having no more force than the
53402 personal activity of any soldier, merely coincided with the laws that
53405 The historians quite falsely represent Napoleon's faculties as having
53406 weakened in Moscow, and do so only because the results did not justify
53407 his actions. He employed all his ability and strength to do the best he
53408 could for himself and his army, as he had done previously and as he did
53409 subsequently in 1813. His activity at that time was no less astounding
53410 than it was in Egypt, in Italy, in Austria, and in Prussia. We do not
53411 know for certain in how far his genius was genuine in Egypt--where forty
53412 centuries looked down upon his grandeur--for his great exploits there
53413 are all told us by Frenchmen. We cannot accurately estimate his genius
53414 in Austria or Prussia, for we have to draw our information from French
53415 or German sources, and the incomprehensible surrender of whole corps
53416 without fighting and of fortresses without a siege must incline Germans
53417 to recognize his genius as the only explanation of the war carried on in
53418 Germany. But we, thank God, have no need to recognize his genius in
53419 order to hide our shame. We have paid for the right to look at the
53420 matter plainly and simply, and we will not abandon that right.
53422 His activity in Moscow was as amazing and as full of genius as
53423 elsewhere. Order after order and plan after plan were issued by him from
53424 the time he entered Moscow till the time he left it. The absence of
53425 citizens and of a deputation, and even the burning of Moscow, did not
53426 disconcert him. He did not lose sight either of the welfare of his army
53427 or of the doings of the enemy, or of the welfare of the people of
53428 Russia, or of the direction of affairs in Paris, or of diplomatic
53429 considerations concerning the terms of the anticipated peace.
53436 With regard to military matters, Napoleon immediately on his entry into
53437 Moscow gave General Sabastiani strict orders to observe the movements of
53438 the Russian army, sent army corps out along the different roads, and
53439 charged Murat to find Kutuzov. Then he gave careful directions about the
53440 fortification of the Kremlin, and drew up a brilliant plan for a future
53441 campaign over the whole map of Russia.
53443 With regard to diplomatic questions, Napoleon summoned Captain Yakovlev,
53444 who had been robbed and was in rags and did not know how to get out of
53445 Moscow, minutely explained to him his whole policy and his magnanimity,
53446 and having written a letter to the Emperor Alexander in which he
53447 considered it his duty to inform his Friend and Brother that Rostopchin
53448 had managed affairs badly in Moscow, he dispatched Yakovlev to
53451 Having similarly explained his views and his magnanimity to Tutolmin, he
53452 dispatched that old man also to Petersburg to negotiate.
53454 With regard to legal matters, immediately after the fires he gave orders
53455 to find and execute the incendiaries. And the scoundrel Rostopchin was
53456 punished by an order to burn down his houses.
53458 With regard to administrative matters, Moscow was granted a
53459 constitution. A municipality was established and the following
53460 announcement issued:
53462 INHABITANTS OF MOSCOW!
53464 Your misfortunes are cruel, but His Majesty the Emperor and King desires
53465 to arrest their course. Terrible examples have taught you how he
53466 punishes disobedience and crime. Strict measures have been taken to put
53467 an end to disorder and to re-establish public security. A paternal
53468 administration, chosen from among yourselves, will form your
53469 municipality or city government. It will take care of you, of your
53470 needs, and of your welfare. Its members will be distinguished by a red
53471 ribbon worn across the shoulder, and the mayor of the city will wear a
53472 white belt as well. But when not on duty they will only wear a red
53473 ribbon round the left arm.
53475 The city police is established on its former footing, and better order
53476 already prevails in consequence of its activity. The government has
53477 appointed two commissaries general, or chiefs of police, and twenty
53478 commissaries or captains of wards have been appointed to the different
53479 wards of the city. You will recognize them by the white ribbon they will
53480 wear on the left arm. Several churches of different denominations are
53481 open, and divine service is performed in them unhindered. Your fellow
53482 citizens are returning every day to their homes and orders have been
53483 given that they should find in them the help and protection due to their
53484 misfortunes. These are the measures the government has adopted to re-
53485 establish order and relieve your condition. But to achieve this aim it
53486 is necessary that you should add your efforts and should, if possible,
53487 forget the misfortunes you have suffered, should entertain the hope of a
53488 less cruel fate, should be certain that inevitable and ignominious death
53489 awaits those who make any attempt on your persons or on what remains of
53490 your property, and finally that you should not doubt that these will be
53491 safeguarded, since such is the will of the greatest and most just of
53492 monarchs. Soldiers and citizens, of whatever nation you may be, re-
53493 establish public confidence, the source of the welfare of a state, live
53494 like brothers, render mutual aid and protection one to another, unite to
53495 defeat the intentions of the evil-minded, obey the military and civil
53496 authorities, and your tears will soon cease to flow!
53498 With regard to supplies for the army, Napoleon decreed that all the
53499 troops in turn should enter Moscow a la maraude * to obtain provisions
53500 for themselves, so that the army might have its future provided for.
53505 With regard to religion, Napoleon ordered the priests to be brought back
53506 and services to be again performed in the churches.
53508 With regard to commerce and to provisioning the army, the following was
53509 placarded everywhere:
53513 You, peaceful inhabitants of Moscow, artisans and workmen whom
53514 misfortune has driven from the city, and you scattered tillers of the
53515 soil, still kept out in the fields by groundless fear, listen!
53516 Tranquillity is returning to this capital and order is being restored in
53517 it. Your fellow countrymen are emerging boldly from their hiding places
53518 on finding that they are respected. Any violence to them or to their
53519 property is promptly punished. His Majesty the Emperor and King protects
53520 them, and considers no one among you his enemy except those who disobey
53521 his orders. He desires to end your misfortunes and restore you to your
53522 homes and families. Respond, therefore, to his benevolent intentions and
53523 come to us without fear. Inhabitants, return with confidence to your
53524 abodes! You will soon find means of satisfying your needs. Craftsmen and
53525 industrious artisans, return to your work, your houses, your shops,
53526 where the protection of guards awaits you! You shall receive proper pay
53527 for your work. And lastly you too, peasants, come from the forests where
53528 you are hiding in terror, return to your huts without fear, in full
53529 assurance that you will find protection! Markets are established in the
53530 city where peasants can bring their surplus supplies and the products of
53531 the soil. The government has taken the following steps to ensure freedom
53532 of sale for them: (1) From today, peasants, husbandmen, and those living
53533 in the neighborhood of Moscow may without any danger bring their
53534 supplies of all kinds to two appointed markets, of which one is on the
53535 Mokhovaya Street and the other at the Provision Market. (2) Such
53536 supplies will be bought from them at such prices as seller and buyer may
53537 agree on, and if a seller is unable to obtain a fair price he will be
53538 free to take his goods back to his village and no one may hinder him
53539 under any pretense. (3) Sunday and Wednesday of each week are appointed
53540 as the chief market days and to that end a sufficient number of troops
53541 will be stationed along the highroads on Tuesdays and Saturdays at such
53542 distances from the town as to protect the carts. (4) Similar measures
53543 will be taken that peasants with their carts and horses may meet with no
53544 hindrance on their return journey. (5) Steps will immediately be taken
53545 to re-establish ordinary trading.
53547 Inhabitants of the city and villages, and you, workingmen and artisans,
53548 to whatever nation you belong, you are called on to carry out the
53549 paternal intentions of His Majesty the Emperor and King and to co-
53550 operate with him for the public welfare! Lay your respect and confidence
53551 at his feet and do not delay to unite with us!
53553 With the object of raising the spirits of the troops and of the people,
53554 reviews were constantly held and rewards distributed. The Emperor rode
53555 through the streets to comfort the inhabitants, and, despite his
53556 preoccupation with state affairs, himself visited the theaters that were
53557 established by his order.
53559 In regard to philanthropy, the greatest virtue of crowned heads,
53560 Napoleon also did all in his power. He caused the words Maison de ma
53561 Mere to be inscribed on the charitable institutions, thereby combining
53562 tender filial affection with the majestic benevolence of a monarch. He
53563 visited the Foundling Hospital and, allowing the orphans saved by him to
53564 kiss his white hands, graciously conversed with Tutolmin. Then, as
53565 Thiers eloquently recounts, he ordered his soldiers to be paid in forged
53566 Russian money which he had prepared: "Raising the use of these means by
53567 an act worthy of himself and of the French army, he let relief be
53568 distributed to those who had been burned out. But as food was too
53569 precious to be given to foreigners, who were for the most part enemies,
53570 Napoleon preferred to supply them with money with which to purchase food
53571 from outside, and had paper rubles distributed to them."
53573 With reference to army discipline, orders were continually being issued
53574 to inflict severe punishment for the nonperformance of military duties
53575 and to suppress robbery.
53582 But strange to say, all these measures, efforts, and plans--which were
53583 not at all worse than others issued in similar circumstances--did not
53584 affect the essence of the matter but, like the hands of a clock detached
53585 from the mechanism, swung about in an arbitrary and aimless way without
53586 engaging the cogwheels.
53588 With reference to the military side--the plan of campaign--that work of
53589 genius of which Thiers remarks that, "His genius never devised anything
53590 more profound, more skillful, or more admirable," and enters into a
53591 polemic with M. Fain to prove that this work of genius must be referred
53592 not to the fourth but to the fifteenth of October--that plan never was
53593 or could be executed, for it was quite out of touch with the facts of
53594 the case. The fortifying of the Kremlin, for which la Mosquee (as
53595 Napoleon termed the church of Basil the Beatified) was to have been
53596 razed to the ground, proved quite useless. The mining of the Kremlin
53597 only helped toward fulfilling Napoleon's wish that it should be blown up
53598 when he left Moscow--as a child wants the floor on which he has hurt
53599 himself to be beaten. The pursuit of the Russian army, about which
53600 Napoleon was so concerned, produced an unheard-of result. The French
53601 generals lost touch with the Russian army of sixty thousand men, and
53602 according to Thiers it was only eventually found, like a lost pin, by
53603 the skill--and apparently the genius--of Murat.
53605 With reference to diplomacy, all Napoleon's arguments as to his
53606 magnanimity and justice, both to Tutolmin and to Yakovlev (whose chief
53607 concern was to obtain a greatcoat and a conveyance), proved useless;
53608 Alexander did not receive these envoys and did not reply to their
53611 With regard to legal matters, after the execution of the supposed
53612 incendiaries the rest of Moscow burned down.
53614 With regard to administrative matters, the establishment of a
53615 municipality did not stop the robberies and was only of use to certain
53616 people who formed part of that municipality and under pretext of
53617 preserving order looted Moscow or saved their own property from being
53620 With regard to religion, as to which in Egypt matters had so easily been
53621 settled by Napoleon's visit to a mosque, no results were achieved. Two
53622 or three priests who were found in Moscow did try to carry out
53623 Napoleon's wish, but one of them was slapped in the face by a French
53624 soldier while conducting service, and a French official reported of
53625 another that: "The priest whom I found and invited to say Mass cleaned
53626 and locked up the church. That night the doors were again broken open,
53627 the padlocks smashed, the books mutilated, and other disorders
53630 With reference to commerce, the proclamation to industrious workmen and
53631 to peasants evoked no response. There were no industrious workmen, and
53632 the peasants caught the commissaries who ventured too far out of town
53633 with the proclamation and killed them.
53635 As to the theaters for the entertainment of the people and the troops,
53636 these did not meet with success either. The theaters set up in the
53637 Kremlin and in Posnyakov's house were closed again at once because the
53638 actors and actresses were robbed.
53640 Even philanthropy did not have the desired effect. The genuine as well
53641 as the false paper money which flooded Moscow lost its value. The
53642 French, collecting booty, cared only for gold. Not only was the paper
53643 money valueless which Napoleon so graciously distributed to the
53644 unfortunate, but even silver lost its value in relation to gold.
53646 But the most amazing example of the ineffectiveness of the orders given
53647 by the authorities at that time was Napoleon's attempt to stop the
53648 looting and re-establish discipline.
53650 This is what the army authorities were reporting:
53652 "Looting continues in the city despite the decrees against it. Order is
53653 not yet restored and not a single merchant is carrying on trade in a
53654 lawful manner. The sutlers alone venture to trade, and they sell stolen
53657 "The neighborhood of my ward continues to be pillaged by soldiers of the
53658 3rd Corps who, not satisfied with taking from the unfortunate
53659 inhabitants hiding in the cellars the little they have left, even have
53660 the ferocity to wound them with their sabers, as I have repeatedly
53663 "Nothing new, except that the soldiers are robbing and pillaging--
53666 "Robbery and pillaging continue. There is a band of thieves in our
53667 district who ought to be arrested by a strong force--October 11."
53669 "The Emperor is extremely displeased that despite the strict orders to
53670 stop pillage, parties of marauding Guards are continually seen returning
53671 to the Kremlin. Among the Old Guard disorder and pillage were renewed
53672 more violently than ever yesterday evening, last night, and today. The
53673 Emperor sees with regret that the picked soldiers appointed to guard his
53674 person, who should set an example of discipline, carry disobedience to
53675 such a point that they break into the cellars and stores containing army
53676 supplies. Others have disgraced themselves to the extent of disobeying
53677 sentinels and officers, and have abused and beaten them."
53679 "The Grand Marshal of the palace," wrote the governor, "complains
53680 bitterly that in spite of repeated orders, the soldiers continue to
53681 commit nuisances in all the courtyards and even under the very windows
53684 That army, like a herd of cattle run wild and trampling underfoot the
53685 provender which might have saved it from starvation, disintegrated and
53686 perished with each additional day it remained in Moscow. But it did not
53689 It began to run away only when suddenly seized by a panic caused by the
53690 capture of transport trains on the Smolensk road, and by the battle of
53691 Tarutino. The news of that battle of Tarutino, unexpectedly received by
53692 Napoleon at a review, evoked in him a desire to punish the Russians
53693 (Thiers says), and he issued the order for departure which the whole
53694 army was demanding.
53696 Fleeing from Moscow the soldiers took with them everything they had
53697 stolen. Napoleon, too, carried away his own personal tresor, but on
53698 seeing the baggage trains that impeded the army, he was (Thiers says)
53699 horror-struck. And yet with his experience of war he did not order all
53700 the superfluous vehicles to be burned, as he had done with those of a
53701 certain marshal when approaching Moscow. He gazed at the caleches and
53702 carriages in which soldiers were riding and remarked that it was a very
53703 good thing, as those vehicles could be used to carry provisions, the
53704 sick, and the wounded.
53706 The plight of the whole army resembled that of a wounded animal which
53707 feels it is perishing and does not know what it is doing. To study the
53708 skillful tactics and aims of Napoleon and his army from the time it
53709 entered Moscow till it was destroyed is like studying the dying leaps
53710 and shudders of a mortally wounded animal. Very often a wounded animal,
53711 hearing a rustle, rushes straight at the hunter's gun, runs forward and
53712 back again, and hastens its own end. Napoleon, under pressure from his
53713 whole army, did the same thing. The rustle of the battle of Tarutino
53714 frightened the beast, and it rushed forward onto the hunter's gun,
53715 reached him, turned back, and finally--like any wild beast--ran back
53716 along the most disadvantageous and dangerous path, where the old scent
53719 During the whole of that period Napoleon, who seems to us to have been
53720 the leader of all these movements--as the figurehead of a ship may seem
53721 to a savage to guide the vessel--acted like a child who, holding a
53722 couple of strings inside a carriage, thinks he is driving it.
53729 Early in the morning of the sixth of October Pierre went out of the
53730 shed, and on returning stopped by the door to play with a little blue-
53731 gray dog, with a long body and short bandy legs, that jumped about him.
53732 This little dog lived in their shed, sleeping beside Karataev at night;
53733 it sometimes made excursions into the town but always returned again.
53734 Probably it had never had an owner, and it still belonged to nobody and
53735 had no name. The French called it Azor; the soldier who told stories
53736 called it Femgalka; Karataev and others called it Gray, or sometimes
53737 Flabby. Its lack of a master, a name, or even of a breed or any definite
53738 color did not seem to trouble the blue-gray dog in the least. Its furry
53739 tail stood up firm and round as a plume, its bandy legs served it so
53740 well that it would often gracefully lift a hind leg and run very easily
53741 and quickly on three legs, as if disdaining to use all four. Everything
53742 pleased it. Now it would roll on its back, yelping with delight, now
53743 bask in the sun with a thoughtful air of importance, and now frolic
53744 about playing with a chip of wood or a straw.
53746 Pierre's attire by now consisted of a dirty torn shirt (the only remnant
53747 of his former clothing), a pair of soldier's trousers which by
53748 Karataev's advice he tied with string round the ankles for warmth, and a
53749 peasant coat and cap. Physically he had changed much during this time.
53750 He no longer seemed stout, though he still had the appearance of
53751 solidity and strength hereditary in his family. A beard and mustache
53752 covered the lower part of his face, and a tangle of hair, infested with
53753 lice, curled round his head like a cap. The look of his eyes was
53754 resolute, calm, and animatedly alert, as never before. The former
53755 slackness which had shown itself even in his eyes was now replaced by an
53756 energetic readiness for action and resistance. His feet were bare.
53758 Pierre first looked down the field across which vehicles and horsemen
53759 were passing that morning, then into the distance across the river, then
53760 at the dog who was pretending to be in earnest about biting him, and
53761 then at his bare feet which he placed with pleasure in various
53762 positions, moving his dirty thick big toes. Every time he looked at his
53763 bare feet a smile of animated self-satisfaction flitted across his face.
53764 The sight of them reminded him of all he had experienced and learned
53765 during these weeks and this recollection was pleasant to him.
53767 For some days the weather had been calm and clear with slight frosts in
53768 the mornings--what is called an "old wives' summer."
53770 In the sunshine the air was warm, and that warmth was particularly
53771 pleasant with the invigorating freshness of the morning frost still in
53774 On everything--far and near--lay the magic crystal glitter seen only at
53775 that time of autumn. The Sparrow Hills were visible in the distance,
53776 with the village, the church, and the large white house. The bare trees,
53777 the sand, the bricks and roofs of the houses, the green church spire,
53778 and the corners of the white house in the distance, all stood out in the
53779 transparent air in most delicate outline and with unnatural clearness.
53780 Near by could be seen the familiar ruins of a half-burned mansion
53781 occupied by the French, with lilac bushes still showing dark green
53782 beside the fence. And even that ruined and befouled house--which in dull
53783 weather was repulsively ugly--seemed quietly beautiful now, in the
53784 clear, motionless brilliance.
53786 A French corporal, with coat unbuttoned in a homely way, a skullcap on
53787 his head, and a short pipe in his mouth, came from behind a corner of
53788 the shed and approached Pierre with a friendly wink.
53790 "What sunshine, Monsieur Kiril!" (Their name for Pierre.) "Eh? Just like
53793 And the corporal leaned against the door and offered Pierre his pipe,
53794 though whenever he offered it Pierre always declined it.
53796 "To be on the march in such weather..." he began.
53798 Pierre inquired what was being said about leaving, and the corporal told
53799 him that nearly all the troops were starting and there ought to be an
53800 order about the prisoners that day. Sokolov, one of the soldiers in the
53801 shed with Pierre, was dying, and Pierre told the corporal that something
53802 should be done about him. The corporal replied that Pierre need not
53803 worry about that as they had an ambulance and a permanent hospital and
53804 arrangements would be made for the sick, and that in general everything
53805 that could happen had been foreseen by the authorities.
53807 "Besides, Monsieur Kiril, you have only to say a word to the captain,
53808 you know. He is a man who never forgets anything. Speak to the captain
53809 when he makes his round, he will do anything for you."
53811 (The captain of whom the corporal spoke often had long chats with Pierre
53812 and showed him all sorts of favors.)
53814 "'You see, St. Thomas,' he said to me the other day. 'Monsieur Kiril is
53815 a man of education, who speaks French. He is a Russian seigneur who has
53816 had misfortunes, but he is a man. He knows what's what.... If he wants
53817 anything and asks me, he won't get a refusal. When one has studied, you
53818 see, one likes education and well-bred people.' It is for your sake I
53819 mention it, Monsieur Kiril. The other day if it had not been for you
53820 that affair would have ended ill."
53822 And after chatting a while longer, the corporal went away. (The affair
53823 he had alluded to had happened a few days before--a fight between the
53824 prisoners and the French soldiers, in which Pierre had succeeded in
53825 pacifying his comrades.) Some of the prisoners who had heard Pierre
53826 talking to the corporal immediately asked what the Frenchman had said.
53827 While Pierre was repeating what he had been told about the army leaving
53828 Moscow, a thin, sallow, tattered French soldier came up to the door of
53829 the shed. Rapidly and timidly raising his fingers to his forehead by way
53830 of greeting, he asked Pierre whether the soldier Platoche to whom he had
53831 given a shirt to sew was in that shed.
53833 A week before the French had had boot leather and linen issued to them,
53834 which they had given out to the prisoners to make up into boots and
53837 "Ready, ready, dear fellow!" said Karataev, coming out with a neatly
53840 Karataev, on account of the warm weather and for convenience at work,
53841 was wearing only trousers and a tattered shirt as black as soot. His
53842 hair was bound round, workman fashion, with a wisp of lime-tree bast,
53843 and his round face seemed rounder and pleasanter than ever.
53845 "A promise is own brother to performance! I said Friday and here it is,
53846 ready," said Platon, smiling and unfolding the shirt he had sewn.
53848 The Frenchman glanced around uneasily and then, as if overcoming his
53849 hesitation, rapidly threw off his uniform and put on the shirt. He had a
53850 long, greasy, flowered silk waistcoat next to his sallow, thin bare
53851 body, but no shirt. He was evidently afraid the prisoners looking on
53852 would laugh at him, and thrust his head into the shirt hurriedly. None
53853 of the prisoners said a word.
53855 "See, it fits well!" Platon kept repeating, pulling the shirt straight.
53857 The Frenchman, having pushed his head and hands through, without raising
53858 his eyes, looked down at the shirt and examined the seams.
53860 "You see, dear man, this is not a sewing shop, and I had no proper
53861 tools; and, as they say, one needs a tool even to kill a louse," said
53862 Platon with one of his round smiles, obviously pleased with his work.
53864 "It's good, quite good, thank you," said the Frenchman, in French, "but
53865 there must be some linen left over.
53867 "It will fit better still when it sets to your body," said Karataev,
53868 still admiring his handiwork. "You'll be nice and comfortable...."
53870 "Thanks, thanks, old fellow.... But the bits left over?" said the
53871 Frenchman again and smiled. He took out an assignation ruble note and
53872 gave it to Karataev. "But give me the pieces that are over."
53874 Pierre saw that Platon did not want to understand what the Frenchman was
53875 saying, and he looked on without interfering. Karataev thanked the
53876 Frenchman for the money and went on admiring his own work. The Frenchman
53877 insisted on having the pieces returned that were left over and asked
53878 Pierre to translate what he said.
53880 "What does he want the bits for?" said Karataev. "They'd make fine leg
53881 bands for us. Well, never mind."
53883 And Karataev, with a suddenly changed and saddened expression, took a
53884 small bundle of scraps from inside his shirt and gave it to the
53885 Frenchman without looking at him. "Oh dear!" muttered Karataev and went
53886 away. The Frenchman looked at the linen, considered for a moment, then
53887 looked inquiringly at Pierre and, as if Pierre's look had told him
53888 something, suddenly blushed and shouted in a squeaky voice:
53890 "Platoche! Eh, Platoche! Keep them yourself!" And handing back the odd
53891 bits he turned and went out.
53893 "There, look at that," said Karataev, swaying his head. "People said
53894 they were not Christians, but they too have souls. It's what the old
53895 folk used to say: 'A sweating hand's an open hand, a dry hand's close.'
53896 He's naked, but yet he's given it back."
53898 Karataev smiled thoughtfully and was silent awhile looking at the
53901 "But they'll make grand leg bands, dear friend," he said, and went back
53909 Four weeks had passed since Pierre had been taken prisoner and though
53910 the French had offered to move him from the men's to the officers' shed,
53911 he had stayed in the shed where he was first put.
53913 In burned and devastated Moscow Pierre experienced almost the extreme
53914 limits of privation a man can endure; but thanks to his physical
53915 strength and health, of which he had till then been unconscious, and
53916 thanks especially to the fact that the privations came so gradually that
53917 it was impossible to say when they began, he endured his position not
53918 only lightly but joyfully. And just at this time he obtained the
53919 tranquillity and ease of mind he had formerly striven in vain to reach.
53920 He had long sought in different ways that tranquillity of mind, that
53921 inner harmony which had so impressed him in the soldiers at the battle
53922 of Borodino. He had sought it in philanthropy, in Freemasonry, in the
53923 dissipations of town life, in wine, in heroic feats of self-sacrifice,
53924 and in romantic love for Natasha; he had sought it by reasoning--and all
53925 these quests and experiments had failed him. And now without thinking
53926 about it he had found that peace and inner harmony only through the
53927 horror of death, through privation, and through what he recognized in
53930 Those dreadful moments he had lived through at the executions had as it
53931 were forever washed away from his imagination and memory the agitating
53932 thoughts and feelings that had formerly seemed so important. It did not
53933 now occur to him to think of Russia, or the war, or politics, or
53934 Napoleon. It was plain to him that all these things were no business of
53935 his, and that he was not called on to judge concerning them and
53936 therefore could not do so. "Russia and summer weather are not bound
53937 together," he thought, repeating words of Karataev's which he found
53938 strangely consoling. His intention of killing Napoleon and his
53939 calculations of the cabalistic number of the beast of the Apocalypse now
53940 seemed to him meaningless and even ridiculous. His anger with his wife
53941 and anxiety that his name should not be smirched now seemed not merely
53942 trivial but even amusing. What concern was it of his that somewhere or
53943 other that woman was leading the life she preferred? What did it matter
53944 to anybody, and especially to him, whether or not they found out that
53945 their prisoner's name was Count Bezukhov?
53947 He now often remembered his conversation with Prince Andrew and quite
53948 agreed with him, though he understood Prince Andrew's thoughts somewhat
53949 differently. Prince Andrew had thought and said that happiness could
53950 only be negative, but had said it with a shade of bitterness and irony
53951 as though he was really saying that all desire for positive happiness is
53952 implanted in us merely to torment us and never be satisfied. But Pierre
53953 believed it without any mental reservation. The absence of suffering,
53954 the satisfaction of one's needs and consequent freedom in the choice of
53955 one's occupation, that is, of one's way of life, now seemed to Pierre to
53956 be indubitably man's highest happiness. Here and now for the first time
53957 he fully appreciated the enjoyment of eating when he wanted to eat,
53958 drinking when he wanted to drink, sleeping when he wanted to sleep, of
53959 warmth when he was cold, of talking to a fellow man when he wished to
53960 talk and to hear a human voice. The satisfaction of one's needs--good
53961 food, cleanliness, and freedom--now that he was deprived of all this,
53962 seemed to Pierre to constitute perfect happiness; and the choice of
53963 occupation, that is, of his way of life--now that that was so
53964 restricted--seemed to him such an easy matter that he forgot that a
53965 superfluity of the comforts of life destroys all joy in satisfying one's
53966 needs, while great freedom in the choice of occupation--such freedom as
53967 his wealth, his education, and his social position had given him in his
53968 own life--is just what makes the choice of occupation insolubly
53969 difficult and destroys the desire and possibility of having an
53972 All Pierre's daydreams now turned on the time when he would be free. Yet
53973 subsequently, and for the rest of his life, he thought and spoke with
53974 enthusiasm of that month of captivity, of those irrecoverable, strong,
53975 joyful sensations, and chiefly of the complete peace of mind and inner
53976 freedom which he experienced only during those weeks.
53978 When on the first day he got up early, went out of the shed at dawn, and
53979 saw the cupolas and crosses of the New Convent of the Virgin still dark
53980 at first, the hoarfrost on the dusty grass, the Sparrow Hills, and the
53981 wooded banks above the winding river vanishing in the purple distance,
53982 when he felt the contact of the fresh air and heard the noise of the
53983 crows flying from Moscow across the field, and when afterwards light
53984 gleamed from the east and the sun's rim appeared solemnly from behind a
53985 cloud, and the cupolas and crosses, the hoarfrost, the distance and the
53986 river, all began to sparkle in the glad light--Pierre felt a new joy and
53987 strength in life such as he had never before known. And this not only
53988 stayed with him during the whole of his imprisonment, but even grew in
53989 strength as the hardships of his position increased.
53991 That feeling of alertness and of readiness for anything was still
53992 further strengthened in him by the high opinion his fellow prisoners
53993 formed of him soon after his arrival at the shed. With his knowledge of
53994 languages, the respect shown him by the French, his simplicity, his
53995 readiness to give anything asked of him (he received the allowance of
53996 three rubles a week made to officers); with his strength, which he
53997 showed to the soldiers by pressing nails into the walls of the hut; his
53998 gentleness to his companions, and his capacity for sitting still and
53999 thinking without doing anything (which seemed to them incomprehensible),
54000 he appeared to them a rather mysterious and superior being. The very
54001 qualities that had been a hindrance, if not actually harmful, to him in
54002 the world he had lived in--his strength, his disdain for the comforts of
54003 life, his absent-mindedness and simplicity--here among these people gave
54004 him almost the status of a hero. And Pierre felt that their opinion
54005 placed responsibilities upon him.
54012 The French evacuation began on the night between the sixth and seventh
54013 of October: kitchens and sheds were dismantled, carts loaded, and troops
54014 and baggage trains started.
54016 At seven in the morning a French convoy in marching trim, wearing shakos
54017 and carrying muskets, knapsacks, and enormous sacks, stood in front of
54018 the sheds, and animated French talk mingled with curses sounded all
54021 In the shed everyone was ready, dressed, belted, shod, and only awaited
54022 the order to start. The sick soldier, Sokolov, pale and thin with dark
54023 shadows round his eyes, alone sat in his place barefoot and not dressed.
54024 His eyes, prominent from the emaciation of his face, gazed inquiringly
54025 at his comrades who were paying no attention to him, and he moaned
54026 regularly and quietly. It was evidently not so much his sufferings that
54027 caused him to moan (he had dysentery) as his fear and grief at being
54030 Pierre, girt with a rope round his waist and wearing shoes Karataev had
54031 made for him from some leather a French soldier had torn off a tea chest
54032 and brought to have his boots mended with, went up to the sick man and
54033 squatted down beside him.
54035 "You know, Sokolov, they are not all going away! They have a hospital
54036 here. You may be better off than we others," said Pierre.
54038 "O Lord! Oh, it will be the death of me! O Lord!" moaned the man in a
54041 "I'll go and ask them again directly," said Pierre, rising and going to
54042 the door of the shed.
54044 Just as Pierre reached the door, the corporal who had offered him a pipe
54045 the day before came up to it with two soldiers. The corporal and
54046 soldiers were in marching kit with knapsacks and shakos that had metal
54047 straps, and these changed their familiar faces.
54049 The corporal came, according to orders, to shut the door. The prisoners
54050 had to be counted before being let out.
54052 "Corporal, what will they do with the sick man?..." Pierre began.
54054 But even as he spoke he began to doubt whether this was the corporal he
54055 knew or a stranger, so unlike himself did the corporal seem at that
54056 moment. Moreover, just as Pierre was speaking a sharp rattle of drums
54057 was suddenly heard from both sides. The corporal frowned at Pierre's
54058 words and, uttering some meaningless oaths, slammed the door. The shed
54059 became semidark, and the sharp rattle of the drums on two sides drowned
54060 the sick man's groans.
54062 "There it is!... It again!..." said Pierre to himself, and an
54063 involuntary shudder ran down his spine. In the corporal's changed face,
54064 in the sound of his voice, in the stirring and deafening noise of the
54065 drums, he recognized that mysterious, callous force which compelled
54066 people against their will to kill their fellow men--that force the
54067 effect of which he had witnessed during the executions. To fear or to
54068 try to escape that force, to address entreaties or exhortations to those
54069 who served as its tools, was useless. Pierre knew this now. One had to
54070 wait and endure. He did not again go to the sick man, nor turn to look
54071 at him, but stood frowning by the door of the hut.
54073 When that door was opened and the prisoners, crowding against one
54074 another like a flock of sheep, squeezed into the exit, Pierre pushed his
54075 way forward and approached that very captain who as the corporal had
54076 assured him was ready to do anything for him. The captain was also in
54077 marching kit, and on his cold face appeared that same it which Pierre
54078 had recognized in the corporal's words and in the roll of the drums.
54080 "Pass on, pass on!" the captain reiterated, frowning sternly, and
54081 looking at the prisoners who thronged past him.
54083 Pierre went up to him, though he knew his attempt would be vain.
54085 "What now?" the officer asked with a cold look as if not recognizing
54088 Pierre told him about the sick man.
54090 "He'll manage to walk, devil take him!" said the captain. "Pass on, pass
54091 on!" he continued without looking at Pierre.
54093 "But he is dying," Pierre again began.
54095 "Be so good..." shouted the captain, frowning angrily.
54097 "Dram-da-da-dam, dam-dam..." rattled the drums, and Pierre understood
54098 that this mysterious force completely controlled these men and that it
54099 was now useless to say any more.
54101 The officer prisoners were separated from the soldiers and told to march
54102 in front. There were about thirty officers, with Pierre among them, and
54103 about three hundred men.
54105 The officers, who had come from the other sheds, were all strangers to
54106 Pierre and much better dressed than he. They looked at him and at his
54107 shoes mistrustfully, as at an alien. Not far from him walked a fat major
54108 with a sallow, bloated, angry face, who was wearing a Kazan dressing
54109 gown tied round with a towel, and who evidently enjoyed the respect of
54110 his fellow prisoners. He kept one hand, in which he clasped his tobacco
54111 pouch, inside the bosom of his dressing gown and held the stem of his
54112 pipe firmly with the other. Panting and puffing, the major grumbled and
54113 growled at everybody because he thought he was being pushed and that
54114 they were all hurrying when they had nowhere to hurry to and were all
54115 surprised at something when there was nothing to be surprised at.
54116 Another, a thin little officer, was speaking to everyone, conjecturing
54117 where they were now being taken and how far they would get that day. An
54118 official in felt boots and wearing a commissariat uniform ran round from
54119 side to side and gazed at the ruins of Moscow, loudly announcing his
54120 observations as to what had been burned down and what this or that part
54121 of the city was that they could see. A third officer, who by his accent
54122 was a Pole, disputed with the commissariat officer, arguing that he was
54123 mistaken in his identification of the different wards of Moscow.
54125 "What are you disputing about?" said the major angrily. "What does it
54126 matter whether it is St. Nicholas or St. Blasius? You see it's burned
54127 down, and there's an end of it.... What are you pushing for? Isn't the
54128 road wide enough?" said he, turning to a man behind him who was not
54129 pushing him at all.
54131 "Oh, oh, oh! What have they done?" the prisoners on one side and another
54132 were heard saying as they gazed on the charred ruins. "All beyond the
54133 river, and Zubova, and in the Kremlin.... Just look! There's not half of
54134 it left. Yes, I told you--the whole quarter beyond the river, and so it
54137 "Well, you know it's burned, so what's the use of talking?" said the
54140 As they passed near a church in the Khamovniki (one of the few unburned
54141 quarters of Moscow) the whole mass of prisoners suddenly started to one
54142 side and exclamations of horror and disgust were heard.
54144 "Ah, the villains! What heathens! Yes; dead, dead, so he is... And
54145 smeared with something!"
54147 Pierre too drew near the church where the thing was that evoked these
54148 exclamations, and dimly made out something leaning against the palings
54149 surrounding the church. From the words of his comrades who saw better
54150 than he did, he found that this was the body of a man, set upright
54151 against the palings with its face smeared with soot.
54153 "Go on! What the devil... Go on! Thirty thousand devils!..." the convoy
54154 guards began cursing and the French soldiers, with fresh virulence,
54155 drove away with their swords the crowd of prisoners who were gazing at
54163 Through the cross streets of the Khamovniki quarter the prisoners
54164 marched, followed only by their escort and the vehicles and wagons
54165 belonging to that escort, but when they reached the supply stores they
54166 came among a huge and closely packed train of artillery mingled with
54169 At the bridge they all halted, waiting for those in front to get across.
54170 From the bridge they had a view of endless lines of moving baggage
54171 trains before and behind them. To the right, where the Kaluga road turns
54172 near Neskuchny, endless rows of troops and carts stretched away into the
54173 distance. These were troops of Beauharnais' corps which had started
54174 before any of the others. Behind, along the riverside and across the
54175 Stone Bridge, were Ney's troops and transport.
54177 Davout's troops, in whose charge were the prisoners, were crossing the
54178 Crimean bridge and some were already debouching into the Kaluga road.
54179 But the baggage trains stretched out so that the last of Beauharnais'
54180 train had not yet got out of Moscow and reached the Kaluga road when the
54181 vanguard of Ney's army was already emerging from the Great Ordynka
54184 When they had crossed the Crimean bridge the prisoners moved a few steps
54185 forward, halted, and again moved on, and from all sides vehicles and men
54186 crowded closer and closer together. They advanced the few hundred paces
54187 that separated the bridge from the Kaluga road, taking more than an hour
54188 to do so, and came out upon the square where the streets of the
54189 Transmoskva ward and the Kaluga road converge, and the prisoners jammed
54190 close together had to stand for some hours at that crossway. From all
54191 sides, like the roar of the sea, were heard the rattle of wheels, the
54192 tramp of feet, and incessant shouts of anger and abuse. Pierre stood
54193 pressed against the wall of a charred house, listening to that noise
54194 which mingled in his imagination with the roll of the drums.
54196 To get a better view, several officer prisoners climbed onto the wall of
54197 the half-burned house against which Pierre was leaning.
54199 "What crowds! Just look at the crowds!... They've loaded goods even on
54200 the cannon! Look there, those are furs!" they exclaimed. "Just see what
54201 the blackguards have looted.... There! See what that one has behind in
54202 the cart.... Why, those are settings taken from some icons, by
54203 heaven!... Oh, the rascals!... See how that fellow has loaded himself
54204 up, he can hardly walk! Good lord, they've even grabbed those
54205 chaises!... See that fellow there sitting on the trunks.... Heavens!
54208 "That's right, hit him on the snout--on his snout! Like this, we shan't
54209 get away before evening. Look, look there.... Why, that must be
54210 Napoleon's own. See what horses! And the monograms with a crown! It's
54211 like a portable house.... That fellow's dropped his sack and doesn't see
54212 it. Fighting again... A woman with a baby, and not bad-looking either!
54213 Yes, I dare say, that's the way they'll let you pass... Just look,
54214 there's no end to it. Russian wenches, by heaven, so they are! In
54215 carriages--see how comfortably they've settled themselves!"
54217 Again, as at the church in Khamovniki, a wave of general curiosity bore
54218 all the prisoners forward onto the road, and Pierre, thanks to his
54219 stature, saw over the heads of the others what so attracted their
54220 curiosity. In three carriages involved among the munition carts, closely
54221 squeezed together, sat women with rouged faces, dressed in glaring
54222 colors, who were shouting something in shrill voices.
54224 From the moment Pierre had recognized the appearance of the mysterious
54225 force nothing had seemed to him strange or dreadful: neither the corpse
54226 smeared with soot for fun nor these women hurrying away nor the burned
54227 ruins of Moscow. All that he now witnessed scarcely made an impression
54228 on him--as if his soul, making ready for a hard struggle, refused to
54229 receive impressions that might weaken it.
54231 The women's vehicles drove by. Behind them came more carts, soldiers,
54232 wagons, soldiers, gun carriages, carriages, soldiers, ammunition carts,
54233 more soldiers, and now and then women.
54235 Pierre did not see the people as individuals but saw their movement.
54237 All these people and horses seemed driven forward by some invisible
54238 power. During the hour Pierre watched them they all came flowing from
54239 the different streets with one and the same desire to get on quickly;
54240 they all jostled one another, began to grow angry and to fight, white
54241 teeth gleamed, brows frowned, ever the same words of abuse flew from
54242 side to side, and all the faces bore the same swaggeringly resolute and
54243 coldly cruel expression that had struck Pierre that morning on the
54244 corporal's face when the drums were beating.
54246 It was not till nearly evening that the officer commanding the escort
54247 collected his men and with shouts and quarrels forced his way in among
54248 the baggage trains, and the prisoners, hemmed in on all sides, emerged
54249 onto the Kaluga road.
54251 They marched very quickly, without resting, and halted only when the sun
54252 began to set. The baggage carts drew up close together and the men began
54253 to prepare for their night's rest. They all appeared angry and
54254 dissatisfied. For a long time, oaths, angry shouts, and fighting could
54255 be heard from all sides. A carriage that followed the escort ran into
54256 one of the carts and knocked a hole in it with its pole. Several
54257 soldiers ran toward the cart from different sides: some beat the
54258 carriage horses on their heads, turning them aside, others fought among
54259 themselves, and Pierre saw that one German was badly wounded on the head
54262 It seemed that all these men, now that they had stopped amid fields in
54263 the chill dusk of the autumn evening, experienced one and the same
54264 feeling of unpleasant awakening from the hurry and eagerness to push on
54265 that had seized them at the start. Once at a standstill they all seemed
54266 to understand that they did not yet know where they were going, and that
54267 much that was painful and difficult awaited them on this journey.
54269 During this halt the escort treated the prisoners even worse than they
54270 had done at the start. It was here that the prisoners for the first time
54271 received horseflesh for their meat ration.
54273 From the officer down to the lowest soldier they showed what seemed like
54274 personal spite against each of the prisoners, in unexpected contrast to
54275 their former friendly relations.
54277 This spite increased still more when, on calling over the roll of
54278 prisoners, it was found that in the bustle of leaving Moscow one Russian
54279 soldier, who had pretended to suffer from colic, had escaped. Pierre saw
54280 a Frenchman beat a Russian soldier cruelly for straying too far from the
54281 road, and heard his friend the captain reprimand and threaten to court-
54282 martial a noncommissioned officer on account of the escape of the
54283 Russian. To the noncommissioned officer's excuse that the prisoner was
54284 ill and could not walk, the officer replied that the order was to shoot
54285 those who lagged behind. Pierre felt that that fatal force which had
54286 crushed him during the executions, but which he had not felt during his
54287 imprisonment, now again controlled his existence. It was terrible, but
54288 he felt that in proportion to the efforts of that fatal force to crush
54289 him, there grew and strengthened in his soul a power of life independent
54292 He ate his supper of buckwheat soup with horseflesh and chatted with his
54295 Neither Pierre nor any of the others spoke of what they had seen in
54296 Moscow, or of the roughness of their treatment by the French, or of the
54297 order to shoot them which had been announced to them. As if in reaction
54298 against the worsening of their position they were all particularly
54299 animated and gay. They spoke of personal reminiscences, of amusing
54300 scenes they had witnessed during the campaign, and avoided all talk of
54301 their present situation.
54303 The sun had set long since. Bright stars shone out here and there in the
54304 sky. A red glow as of a conflagration spread above the horizon from the
54305 rising full moon, and that vast red ball swayed strangely in the gray
54306 haze. It grew light. The evening was ending, but the night had not yet
54307 come. Pierre got up and left his new companions, crossing between the
54308 campfires to the other side of the road where he had been told the
54309 common soldier prisoners were stationed. He wanted to talk to them. On
54310 the road he was stopped by a French sentinel who ordered him back.
54312 Pierre turned back, not to his companions by the campfire, but to an
54313 unharnessed cart where there was nobody. Tucking his legs under him and
54314 dropping his head he sat down on the cold ground by the wheel of the
54315 cart and remained motionless a long while sunk in thought. Suddenly he
54316 burst out into a fit of his broad, good-natured laughter, so loud that
54317 men from various sides turned with surprise to see what this strange and
54318 evidently solitary laughter could mean.
54320 "Ha-ha-ha!" laughed Pierre. And he said aloud to himself: "The soldier
54321 did not let me pass. They took me and shut me up. They hold me captive.
54322 What, me? Me? My immortal soul? Ha-ha-ha! Ha-ha-ha!..." and he laughed
54323 till tears started to his eyes.
54325 A man got up and came to see what this queer big fellow was laughing at
54326 all by himself. Pierre stopped laughing, got up, went farther away from
54327 the inquisitive man, and looked around him.
54329 The huge, endless bivouac that had previously resounded with the
54330 crackling of campfires and the voices of many men had grown quiet, the
54331 red campfires were growing paler and dying down. High up in the light
54332 sky hung the full moon. Forests and fields beyond the camp, unseen
54333 before, were now visible in the distance. And farther still, beyond
54334 those forests and fields, the bright, oscillating, limitless distance
54335 lured one to itself. Pierre glanced up at the sky and the twinkling
54336 stars in its faraway depths. "And all that is me, all that is within me,
54337 and it is all I!" thought Pierre. "And they caught all that and put it
54338 into a shed boarded up with planks!" He smiled, and went and lay down to
54339 sleep beside his companions.
54346 In the early days of October another envoy came to Kutuzov with a letter
54347 from Napoleon proposing peace and falsely dated from Moscow, though
54348 Napoleon was already not far from Kutuzov on the old Kaluga road.
54349 Kutuzov replied to this letter as he had done to the one formerly
54350 brought by Lauriston, saying that there could be no question of peace.
54352 Soon after that a report was received from Dorokhov's guerrilla
54353 detachment operating to the left of Tarutino that troops of Broussier's
54354 division had been seen at Forminsk and that being separated from the
54355 rest of the French army they might easily be destroyed. The soldiers and
54356 officers again demanded action. Generals on the staff, excited by the
54357 memory of the easy victory at Tarutino, urged Kutuzov to carry out
54358 Dorokhov's suggestion. Kutuzov did not consider any offensive necessary.
54359 The result was a compromise which was inevitable: a small detachment was
54360 sent to Forminsk to attack Broussier.
54362 By a strange coincidence, this task, which turned out to be a most
54363 difficult and important one, was entrusted to Dokhturov--that same
54364 modest little Dokhturov whom no one had described to us as drawing up
54365 plans of battles, dashing about in front of regiments, showering crosses
54366 on batteries, and so on, and who was thought to be and was spoken of as
54367 undecided and undiscerning--but whom we find commanding wherever the
54368 position was most difficult all through the Russo-French wars from
54369 Austerlitz to the year 1813. At Austerlitz he remained last at the
54370 Augezd dam, rallying the regiments, saving what was possible when all
54371 were flying and perishing and not a single general was left in the rear
54372 guard. Ill with fever he went to Smolensk with twenty thousand men to
54373 defend the town against Napoleon's whole army. In Smolensk, at the
54374 Malakhov Gate, he had hardly dozed off in a paroxysm of fever before he
54375 was awakened by the bombardment of the town--and Smolensk held out all
54376 day long. At the battle of Borodino, when Bagration was killed and nine
54377 tenths of the men of our left flank had fallen and the full force of the
54378 French artillery fire was directed against it, the man sent there was
54379 this same irresolute and undiscerning Dokhturov--Kutuzov hastening to
54380 rectify a mistake he had made by sending someone else there first. And
54381 the quiet little Dokhturov rode thither, and Borodino became the
54382 greatest glory of the Russian army. Many heroes have been described to
54383 us in verse and prose, but of Dokhturov scarcely a word has been said.
54385 It was Dokhturov again whom they sent to Forminsk and from there to
54386 Malo-Yaroslavets, the place where the last battle with the French was
54387 fought and where the obvious disintegration of the French army began;
54388 and we are told of many geniuses and heroes of that period of the
54389 campaign, but of Dokhturov nothing or very little is said and that
54390 dubiously. And this silence about Dokhturov is the clearest testimony to
54393 It is natural for a man who does not understand the workings of a
54394 machine to imagine that a shaving that has fallen into it by chance and
54395 is interfering with its action and tossing about in it is its most
54396 important part. The man who does not understand the construction of the
54397 machine cannot conceive that the small connecting cogwheel which
54398 revolves quietly is one of the most essential parts of the machine, and
54399 not the shaving which merely harms and hinders the working.
54401 On the tenth of October when Dokhturov had gone halfway to Forminsk and
54402 stopped at the village of Aristovo, preparing faithfully to execute the
54403 orders he had received, the whole French army having, in its convulsive
54404 movement, reached Murat's position apparently in order to give battle--
54405 suddenly without any reason turned off to the left onto the new Kaluga
54406 road and began to enter Forminsk, where only Broussier had been till
54407 then. At that time Dokhturov had under his command, besides Dorokhov's
54408 detachment, the two small guerrilla detachments of Figner and Seslavin.
54410 On the evening of October 11 Seslavin came to the Aristovo headquarters
54411 with a French guardsman he had captured. The prisoner said that the
54412 troops that had entered Forminsk that day were the vanguard of the whole
54413 army, that Napoleon was there and the whole army had left Moscow four
54414 days previously. That same evening a house serf who had come from
54415 Borovsk said he had seen an immense army entering the town. Some
54416 Cossacks of Dokhturov's detachment reported having sighted the French
54417 Guards marching along the road to Borovsk. From all these reports it was
54418 evident that where they had expected to meet a single division there was
54419 now the whole French army marching from Moscow in an unexpected
54420 direction--along the Kaluga road. Dokhturov was unwilling to undertake
54421 any action, as it was not clear to him now what he ought to do. He had
54422 been ordered to attack Forminsk. But only Broussier had been there at
54423 that time and now the whole French army was there. Ermolov wished to act
54424 on his own judgment, but Dokhturov insisted that he must have Kutuzov's
54425 instructions. So it was decided to send a dispatch to the staff.
54427 For this purpose a capable officer, Bolkhovitinov, was chosen, who was
54428 to explain the whole affair by word of mouth, besides delivering a
54429 written report. Toward midnight Bolkhovitinov, having received the
54430 dispatch and verbal instructions, galloped off to the General Staff
54431 accompanied by a Cossack with spare horses.
54438 It was a warm, dark, autumn night. It had been raining for four days.
54439 Having changed horses twice and galloped twenty miles in an hour and a
54440 half over a sticky, muddy road, Bolkhovitinov reached Litashevka after
54441 one o'clock at night. Dismounting at a cottage on whose wattle fence
54442 hung a signboard, GENERAL STAFF, and throwing down his reins, he entered
54445 "The general on duty, quick! It's very important!" said he to someone
54446 who had risen and was sniffing in the dark passage.
54448 "He has been very unwell since the evening and this is the third night
54449 he has not slept," said the orderly pleadingly in a whisper. "You should
54450 wake the captain first."
54452 "But this is very important, from General Dokhturov," said
54453 Bolkhovitinov, entering the open door which he had found by feeling in
54456 The orderly had gone in before him and began waking somebody.
54458 "Your honor, your honor! A courier."
54460 "What? What's that? From whom?" came a sleepy voice.
54462 "From Dokhturov and from Alexey Petrovich. Napoleon is at Forminsk,"
54463 said Bolkhovitinov, unable to see in the dark who was speaking but
54464 guessing by the voice that it was not Konovnitsyn.
54466 The man who had wakened yawned and stretched himself.
54468 "I don't like waking him," he said, fumbling for something. "He is very
54469 ill. Perhaps this is only a rumor."
54471 "Here is the dispatch," said Bolkhovitinov. "My orders are to give it at
54472 once to the general on duty."
54474 "Wait a moment, I'll light a candle. You damned rascal, where do you
54475 always hide it?" said the voice of the man who was stretching himself,
54476 to the orderly. (This was Shcherbinin, Konovnitsyn's adjutant.) "I've
54477 found it, I've found it!" he added.
54479 The orderly was striking a light and Shcherbinin was fumbling for
54480 something on the candlestick.
54482 "Oh, the nasty beasts!" said he with disgust.
54484 By the light of the sparks Bolkhovitinov saw Shcherbinin's youthful face
54485 as he held the candle, and the face of another man who was still asleep.
54486 This was Konovnitsyn.
54488 When the flame of the sulphur splinters kindled by the tinder burned up,
54489 first blue and then red, Shcherbinin lit the tallow candle, from the
54490 candlestick of which the cockroaches that had been gnawing it were
54491 running away, and looked at the messenger. Bolkhovitinov was bespattered
54492 all over with mud and had smeared his face by wiping it with his sleeve.
54494 "Who gave the report?" inquired Shcherbinin, taking the envelope.
54496 "The news is reliable," said Bolkhovitinov. "Prisoners, Cossacks, and
54497 the scouts all say the same thing."
54499 "There's nothing to be done, we'll have to wake him," said Shcherbinin,
54500 rising and going up to the man in the nightcap who lay covered by a
54501 greatcoat. "Peter Petrovich!" said he. (Konovnitsyn did not stir.) "To
54502 the General Staff!" he said with a smile, knowing that those words would
54503 be sure to arouse him.
54505 And in fact the head in the nightcap was lifted at once. On
54506 Konovnitsyn's handsome, resolute face with cheeks flushed by fever,
54507 there still remained for an instant a faraway dreamy expression remote
54508 from present affairs, but then he suddenly started and his face assumed
54509 its habitual calm and firm appearance.
54511 "Well, what is it? From whom?" he asked immediately but without hurry,
54512 blinking at the light.
54514 While listening to the officer's report Konovnitsyn broke the seal and
54515 read the dispatch. Hardly had he done so before he lowered his legs in
54516 their woolen stockings to the earthen floor and began putting on his
54517 boots. Then he took off his nightcap, combed his hair over his temples,
54518 and donned his cap.
54520 "Did you get here quickly? Let us go to his Highness."
54522 Konovnitsyn had understood at once that the news brought was of great
54523 importance and that no time must be lost. He did not consider or ask
54524 himself whether the news was good or bad. That did not interest him. He
54525 regarded the whole business of the war not with his intelligence or his
54526 reason but by something else. There was within him a deep unexpressed
54527 conviction that all would be well, but that one must not trust to this
54528 and still less speak about it, but must only attend to one's own work.
54529 And he did his work, giving his whole strength to the task.
54531 Peter Petrovich Konovnitsyn, like Dokhturov, seems to have been included
54532 merely for propriety's sake in the list of the so-called heroes of 1812-
54533 -the Barclays, Raevskis, Ermolovs, Platovs, and Miloradoviches. Like
54534 Dokhturov he had the reputation of being a man of very limited capacity
54535 and information, and like Dokhturov he never made plans of battle but
54536 was always found where the situation was most difficult. Since his
54537 appointment as general on duty he had always slept with his door open,
54538 giving orders that every messenger should be allowed to wake him up. In
54539 battle he was always under fire, so that Kutuzov reproved him for it and
54540 feared to send him to the front, and like Dokhturov he was one of those
54541 unnoticed cogwheels that, without clatter or noise, constitute the most
54542 essential part of the machine.
54544 Coming out of the hut into the damp, dark night Konovnitsyn frowned--
54545 partly from an increased pain in his head and partly at the unpleasant
54546 thought that occurred to him, of how all that nest of influential men on
54547 the staff would be stirred up by this news, especially Bennigsen, who
54548 ever since Tarutino had been at daggers drawn with Kutuzov; and how they
54549 would make suggestions, quarrel, issue orders, and rescind them. And
54550 this premonition was disagreeable to him though he knew it could not be
54553 And in fact Toll, to whom he went to communicate the news, immediately
54554 began to expound his plans to a general sharing his quarters, until
54555 Konovnitsyn, who listened in weary silence, reminded him that they must
54556 go to see his Highness.
54563 Kutuzov like all old people did not sleep much at night. He often fell
54564 asleep unexpectedly in the daytime, but at night, lying on his bed
54565 without undressing, he generally remained awake thinking.
54567 So he lay now on his bed, supporting his large, heavy, scarred head on
54568 his plump hand, with his one eye open, meditating and peering into the
54571 Since Bennigsen, who corresponded with the Emperor and had more
54572 influence than anyone else on the staff, had begun to avoid him, Kutuzov
54573 was more at ease as to the possibility of himself and his troops being
54574 obliged to take part in useless aggressive movements. The lesson of the
54575 Tarutino battle and of the day before it, which Kutuzov remembered with
54576 pain, must, he thought, have some effect on others too.
54578 "They must understand that we can only lose by taking the offensive.
54579 Patience and time are my warriors, my champions," thought Kutuzov. He
54580 knew that an apple should not be plucked while it is green. It will fall
54581 of itself when ripe, but if picked unripe the apple is spoiled, the tree
54582 is harmed, and your teeth are set on edge. Like an experienced sportsman
54583 he knew that the beast was wounded, and wounded as only the whole
54584 strength of Russia could have wounded it, but whether it was mortally
54585 wounded or not was still an undecided question. Now by the fact of
54586 Lauriston and Barthelemi having been sent, and by the reports of the
54587 guerrillas, Kutuzov was almost sure that the wound was mortal. But he
54588 needed further proofs and it was necessary to wait.
54590 "They want to run to see how they have wounded it. Wait and we shall
54591 see! Continual maneuvers, continual advances!" thought he. "What for?
54592 Only to distinguish themselves! As if fighting were fun. They are like
54593 children from whom one can't get any sensible account of what has
54594 happened because they all want to show how well they can fight. But
54595 that's not what is needed now.
54597 "And what ingenious maneuvers they all propose to me! It seems to them
54598 that when they have thought of two or three contingencies" (he
54599 remembered the general plan sent him from Petersburg) "they have
54600 foreseen everything. But the contingencies are endless."
54602 The undecided question as to whether the wound inflicted at Borodino was
54603 mortal or not had hung over Kutuzov's head for a whole month. On the one
54604 hand the French had occupied Moscow. On the other Kutuzov felt assured
54605 with all his being that the terrible blow into which he and all the
54606 Russians had put their whole strength must have been mortal. But in any
54607 case proofs were needed; he had waited a whole month for them and grew
54608 more impatient the longer he waited. Lying on his bed during those
54609 sleepless nights he did just what he reproached those younger generals
54610 for doing. He imagined all sorts of possible contingencies, just like
54611 the younger men, but with this difference, that he saw thousands of
54612 contingencies instead of two or three and based nothing on them. The
54613 longer he thought the more contingencies presented themselves. He
54614 imagined all sorts of movements of the Napoleonic army as a whole or in
54615 sections--against Petersburg, or against him, or to outflank him. He
54616 thought too of the possibility (which he feared most of all) that
54617 Napoleon might fight him with his own weapon and remain in Moscow
54618 awaiting him. Kutuzov even imagined that Napoleon's army might turn back
54619 through Medyn and Yukhnov, but the one thing he could not foresee was
54620 what happened--the insane, convulsive stampede of Napoleon's army during
54621 its first eleven days after leaving Moscow: a stampede which made
54622 possible what Kutuzov had not yet even dared to think of--the complete
54623 extermination of the French. Dorokhov's report about Broussier's
54624 division, the guerrillas' reports of distress in Napoleon's army, rumors
54625 of preparations for leaving Moscow, all confirmed the supposition that
54626 the French army was beaten and preparing for flight. But these were only
54627 suppositions, which seemed important to the younger men but not to
54628 Kutuzov. With his sixty years' experience he knew what value to attach
54629 to rumors, knew how apt people who desire anything are to group all news
54630 so that it appears to confirm what they desire, and he knew how readily
54631 in such cases they omit all that makes for the contrary. And the more he
54632 desired it the less he allowed himself to believe it. This question
54633 absorbed all his mental powers. All else was to him only life's
54634 customary routine. To such customary routine belonged his conversations
54635 with the staff, the letters he wrote from Tarutino to Madame de Stael,
54636 the reading of novels, the distribution of awards, his correspondence
54637 with Petersburg, and so on. But the destruction of the French, which he
54638 alone foresaw, was his heart's one desire.
54640 On the night of the eleventh of October he lay leaning on his arm and
54643 There was a stir in the next room and he heard the steps of Toll,
54644 Konovnitsyn, and Bolkhovitinov.
54646 "Eh, who's there? Come in, come in! What news?" the field marshal called
54649 While a footman was lighting a candle, Toll communicated the substance
54652 "Who brought it?" asked Kutuzov with a look which, when the candle was
54653 lit, struck Toll by its cold severity.
54655 "There can be no doubt about it, your Highness."
54657 "Call him in, call him here."
54659 Kutuzov sat up with one leg hanging down from the bed and his big paunch
54660 resting against the other which was doubled under him. He screwed up his
54661 seeing eye to scrutinize the messenger more carefully, as if wishing to
54662 read in his face what preoccupied his own mind.
54664 "Tell me, tell me, friend," said he to Bolkhovitinov in his low, aged
54665 voice, as he pulled together the shirt which gaped open on his chest,
54666 "come nearer--nearer. What news have you brought me? Eh? That Napoleon
54667 has left Moscow? Are you sure? Eh?"
54669 Bolkhovitinov gave a detailed account from the beginning of all he had
54670 been told to report.
54672 "Speak quicker, quicker! Don't torture me!" Kutuzov interrupted him.
54674 Bolkhovitinov told him everything and was then silent, awaiting
54675 instructions. Toll was beginning to say something but Kutuzov checked
54676 him. He tried to say something, but his face suddenly puckered and
54677 wrinkled; he waved his arm at Toll and turned to the opposite side of
54678 the room, to the corner darkened by the icons that hung there.
54680 "O Lord, my Creator, Thou has heard our prayer..." said he in a
54681 tremulous voice with folded hands. "Russia is saved. I thank Thee, O
54682 Lord!" and he wept.
54689 From the time he received this news to the end of the campaign all
54690 Kutuzov's activity was directed toward restraining his troops, by
54691 authority, by guile, and by entreaty, from useless attacks, maneuvers,
54692 or encounters with the perishing enemy. Dokhturov went to Malo-
54693 Yaroslavets, but Kutuzov lingered with the main army and gave orders for
54694 the evacuation of Kaluga--a retreat beyond which town seemed to him
54697 Everywhere Kutuzov retreated, but the enemy without waiting for his
54698 retreat fled in the opposite direction.
54700 Napoleon's historians describe to us his skilled maneuvers at Tarutino
54701 and Malo-Yaroslavets, and make conjectures as to what would have
54702 happened had Napoleon been in time to penetrate into the rich southern
54705 But not to speak of the fact that nothing prevented him from advancing
54706 into those southern provinces (for the Russian army did not bar his
54707 way), the historians forget that nothing could have saved his army, for
54708 then already it bore within itself the germs of inevitable ruin. How
54709 could that army--which had found abundant supplies in Moscow and had
54710 trampled them underfoot instead of keeping them, and on arriving at
54711 Smolensk had looted provisions instead of storing them--how could that
54712 army recuperate in Kaluga province, which was inhabited by Russians such
54713 as those who lived in Moscow, and where fire had the same property of
54714 consuming what was set ablaze?
54716 That army could not recover anywhere. Since the battle of Borodino and
54717 the pillage of Moscow it had borne within itself, as it were, the
54718 chemical elements of dissolution.
54720 The members of what had once been an army--Napoleon himself and all his
54721 soldiers fled--without knowing whither, each concerned only to make his
54722 escape as quickly as possible from this position, of the hopelessness of
54723 which they were all more or less vaguely conscious.
54725 So it came about that at the council at Malo-Yaroslavets, when the
54726 generals pretending to confer together expressed various opinions, all
54727 mouths were closed by the opinion uttered by the simple-minded soldier
54728 Mouton who, speaking last, said what they all felt: that the one thing
54729 needful was to get away as quickly as possible; and no one, not even
54730 Napoleon, could say anything against that truth which they all
54733 But though they all realized that it was necessary to get away, there
54734 still remained a feeling of shame at admitting that they must flee. An
54735 external shock was needed to overcome that shame, and this shock came in
54736 due time. It was what the French called "le hourra de l'Empereur."
54738 The day after the council at Malo-Yaroslavets Napoleon rode out early in
54739 the morning amid the lines of his army with his suite of marshals and an
54740 escort, on the pretext of inspecting the army and the scene of the
54741 previous and of the impending battle. Some Cossacks on the prowl for
54742 booty fell in with the Emperor and very nearly captured him. If the
54743 Cossacks did not capture Napoleon then, what saved him was the very
54744 thing that was destroying the French army, the booty on which the
54745 Cossacks fell. Here as at Tarutino they went after plunder, leaving the
54746 men. Disregarding Napoleon they rushed after the plunder and Napoleon
54749 When les enfants du Don might so easily have taken the Emperor himself
54750 in the midst of his army, it was clear that there was nothing for it but
54751 to fly as fast as possible along the nearest, familiar road. Napoleon
54752 with his forty-year-old stomach understood that hint, not feeling his
54753 former agility and boldness, and under the influence of the fright the
54754 Cossacks had given him he at once agreed with Mouton and issued orders--
54755 as the historians tell us--to retreat by the Smolensk road.
54757 That Napoleon agreed with Mouton, and that the army retreated, does not
54758 prove that Napoleon caused it to retreat, but that the forces which
54759 influenced the whole army and directed it along the Mozhaysk (that is,
54760 the Smolensk) road acted simultaneously on him also.
54767 A man in motion always devises an aim for that motion. To be able to go
54768 a thousand miles he must imagine that something good awaits him at the
54769 end of those thousand miles. One must have the prospect of a promised
54770 land to have the strength to move.
54772 The promised land for the French during their advance had been Moscow,
54773 during their retreat it was their native land. But that native land was
54774 too far off, and for a man going a thousand miles it is absolutely
54775 necessary to set aside his final goal and to say to himself: "Today I
54776 shall get to a place twenty-five miles off where I shall rest and spend
54777 the night," and during the first day's journey that resting place
54778 eclipses his ultimate goal and attracts all his hopes and desires. And
54779 the impulses felt by a single person are always magnified in a crowd.
54781 For the French retreating along the old Smolensk road, the final goal--
54782 their native land--was too remote, and their immediate goal was
54783 Smolensk, toward which all their desires and hopes, enormously
54784 intensified in the mass, urged them on. It was not that they knew that
54785 much food and fresh troops awaited them in Smolensk, nor that they were
54786 told so (on the contrary their superior officers, and Napoleon himself,
54787 knew that provisions were scarce there), but because this alone could
54788 give them strength to move on and endure their present privations. So
54789 both those who knew and those who did not know deceived themselves, and
54790 pushed on to Smolensk as to a promised land.
54792 Coming out onto the highroad the French fled with surprising energy and
54793 unheard-of rapidity toward the goal they had fixed on. Besides the
54794 common impulse which bound the whole crowd of French into one mass and
54795 supplied them with a certain energy, there was another cause binding
54796 them together--their great numbers. As with the physical law of gravity,
54797 their enormous mass drew the individual human atoms to itself. In their
54798 hundreds of thousands they moved like a whole nation.
54800 Each of them desired nothing more than to give himself up as a prisoner
54801 to escape from all this horror and misery; but on the one hand the force
54802 of this common attraction to Smolensk, their goal, drew each of them in
54803 the same direction; on the other hand an army corps could not surrender
54804 to a company, and though the French availed themselves of every
54805 convenient opportunity to detach themselves and to surrender on the
54806 slightest decent pretext, such pretexts did not always occur. Their very
54807 numbers and their crowded and swift movement deprived them of that
54808 possibility and rendered it not only difficult but impossible for the
54809 Russians to stop this movement, to which the French were directing all
54810 their energies. Beyond a certain limit no mechanical disruption of the
54811 body could hasten the process of decomposition.
54813 A lump of snow cannot be melted instantaneously. There is a certain
54814 limit of time in less than which no amount of heat can melt the snow. On
54815 the contrary the greater the heat the more solidified the remaining snow
54818 Of the Russian commanders Kutuzov alone understood this. When the flight
54819 of the French army along the Smolensk road became well defined, what
54820 Konovnitsyn had foreseen on the night of the eleventh of October began
54821 to occur. The superior officers all wanted to distinguish themselves, to
54822 cut off, to seize, to capture, and to overthrow the French, and all
54823 clamored for action.
54825 Kutuzov alone used all his power (and such power is very limited in the
54826 case of any commander-in-chief) to prevent an attack.
54828 He could not tell them what we say now: "Why fight, why block the road,
54829 losing our own men and inhumanly slaughtering unfortunate wretches? What
54830 is the use of that, when a third of their army has melted away on the
54831 road from Moscow to Vyazma without any battle?" But drawing from his
54832 aged wisdom what they could understand, he told them of the golden
54833 bridge, and they laughed at and slandered him, flinging themselves on,
54834 rending and exulting over the dying beast.
54836 Ermolov, Miloradovich, Platov, and others in proximity to the French
54837 near Vyazma could not resist their desire to cut off and break up two
54838 French corps, and by way of reporting their intention to Kutuzov they
54839 sent him a blank sheet of paper in an envelope.
54841 And try as Kutuzov might to restrain the troops, our men attacked,
54842 trying to bar the road. Infantry regiments, we are told, advanced to the
54843 attack with music and with drums beating, and killed and lost thousands
54846 But they did not cut off or overthrow anybody and the French army,
54847 closing up more firmly at the danger, continued, while steadily melting
54848 away, to pursue its fatal path to Smolensk.
54850 BOOK FOURTEEN: 1812
54857 The Battle of Borodino, with the occupation of Moscow that followed it
54858 and the flight of the French without further conflicts, is one of the
54859 most instructive phenomena in history.
54861 All historians agree that the external activity of states and nations in
54862 their conflicts with one another is expressed in wars, and that as a
54863 direct result of greater or less success in war the political strength
54864 of states and nations increases or decreases.
54866 Strange as may be the historical account of how some king or emperor,
54867 having quarreled with another, collects an army, fights his enemy's
54868 army, gains a victory by killing three, five, or ten thousand men, and
54869 subjugates a kingdom and an entire nation of several millions, all the
54870 facts of history (as far as we know it) confirm the truth of the
54871 statement that the greater or lesser success of one army against another
54872 is the cause, or at least an essential indication, of an increase or
54873 decrease in the strength of the nation--even though it is unintelligible
54874 why the defeat of an army--a hundredth part of a nation--should oblige
54875 that whole nation to submit. An army gains a victory, and at once the
54876 rights of the conquering nation have increased to the detriment of the
54877 defeated. An army has suffered defeat, and at once a people loses its
54878 rights in proportion to the severity of the reverse, and if its army
54879 suffers a complete defeat the nation is quite subjugated.
54881 So according to history it has been found from the most ancient times,
54882 and so it is to our own day. All Napoleon's wars serve to confirm this
54883 rule. In proportion to the defeat of the Austrian army Austria loses its
54884 rights, and the rights and the strength of France increase. The
54885 victories of the French at Jena and Auerstadt destroy the independent
54886 existence of Prussia.
54888 But then, in 1812, the French gain a victory near Moscow. Moscow is
54889 taken and after that, with no further battles, it is not Russia that
54890 ceases to exist, but the French army of six hundred thousand, and then
54891 Napoleonic France itself. To strain the facts to fit the rules of
54892 history: to say that the field of battle at Borodino remained in the
54893 hands of the Russians, or that after Moscow there were other battles
54894 that destroyed Napoleon's army, is impossible.
54896 After the French victory at Borodino there was no general engagement nor
54897 any that were at all serious, yet the French army ceased to exist. What
54898 does this mean? If it were an example taken from the history of China,
54899 we might say that it was not an historic phenomenon (which is the
54900 historians' usual expedient when anything does not fit their standards);
54901 if the matter concerned some brief conflict in which only a small number
54902 of troops took part, we might treat it as an exception; but this event
54903 occurred before our fathers' eyes, and for them it was a question of the
54904 life or death of their fatherland, and it happened in the greatest of
54907 The period of the campaign of 1812 from the battle of Borodino to the
54908 expulsion of the French proved that the winning of a battle does not
54909 produce a conquest and is not even an invariable indication of conquest;
54910 it proved that the force which decides the fate of peoples lies not in
54911 the conquerors, nor even in armies and battles, but in something else.
54913 The French historians, describing the condition of the French army
54914 before it left Moscow, affirm that all was in order in the Grand Army,
54915 except the cavalry, the artillery, and the transport--there was no
54916 forage for the horses or the cattle. That was a misfortune no one could
54917 remedy, for the peasants of the district burned their hay rather than
54918 let the French have it.
54920 The victory gained did not bring the usual results because the peasants
54921 Karp and Vlas (who after the French had evacuated Moscow drove in their
54922 carts to pillage the town, and in general personally failed to manifest
54923 any heroic feelings), and the whole innumerable multitude of such
54924 peasants, did not bring their hay to Moscow for the high price offered
54925 them, but burned it instead.
54927 Let us imagine two men who have come out to fight a duel with rapiers
54928 according to all the rules of the art of fencing. The fencing has gone
54929 on for some time; suddenly one of the combatants, feeling himself
54930 wounded and understanding that the matter is no joke but concerns his
54931 life, throws down his rapier, and seizing the first cudgel that comes to
54932 hand begins to brandish it. Then let us imagine that the combatant who
54933 so sensibly employed the best and simplest means to attain his end was
54934 at the same time influenced by traditions of chivalry and, desiring to
54935 conceal the facts of the case, insisted that he had gained his victory
54936 with the rapier according to all the rules of art. One can imagine what
54937 confusion and obscurity would result from such an account of the duel.
54939 The fencer who demanded a contest according to the rules of fencing was
54940 the French army; his opponent who threw away the rapier and snatched up
54941 the cudgel was the Russian people; those who try to explain the matter
54942 according to the rules of fencing are the historians who have described
54945 After the burning of Smolensk a war began which did not follow any
54946 previous traditions of war. The burning of towns and villages, the
54947 retreats after battles, the blow dealt at Borodino and the renewed
54948 retreat, the burning of Moscow, the capture of marauders, the seizure of
54949 transports, and the guerrilla war were all departures from the rules.
54951 Napoleon felt this, and from the time he took up the correct fencing
54952 attitude in Moscow and instead of his opponent's rapier saw a cudgel
54953 raised above his head, he did not cease to complain to Kutuzov and to
54954 the Emperor Alexander that the war was being carried on contrary to all
54955 the rules--as if there were any rules for killing people. In spite of
54956 the complaints of the French as to the nonobservance of the rules, in
54957 spite of the fact that to some highly placed Russians it seemed rather
54958 disgraceful to fight with a cudgel and they wanted to assume a pose en
54959 quarte or en tierce according to all the rules, and to make an adroit
54960 thrust en prime, and so on--the cudgel of the people's war was lifted
54961 with all its menacing and majestic strength, and without consulting
54962 anyone's tastes or rules and regardless of anything else, it rose and
54963 fell with stupid simplicity, but consistently, and belabored the French
54964 till the whole invasion had perished.
54966 And it is well for a people who do not--as the French did in 1813--
54967 salute according to all the rules of art, and, presenting the hilt of
54968 their rapier gracefully and politely, hand it to their magnanimous
54969 conqueror, but at the moment of trial, without asking what rules others
54970 have adopted in similar cases, simply and easily pick up the first
54971 cudgel that comes to hand and strike with it till the feeling of
54972 resentment and revenge in their soul yields to a feeling of contempt and
54980 One of the most obvious and advantageous departures from the so-called
54981 laws of war is the action of scattered groups against men pressed
54982 together in a mass. Such action always occurs in wars that take on a
54983 national character. In such actions, instead of two crowds opposing each
54984 other, the men disperse, attack singly, run away when attacked by
54985 stronger forces, but again attack when opportunity offers. This was done
54986 by the guerrillas in Spain, by the mountain tribes in the Caucasus, and
54987 by the Russians in 1812.
54989 People have called this kind of war "guerrilla warfare" and assume that
54990 by so calling it they have explained its meaning. But such a war does
54991 not fit in under any rule and is directly opposed to a well-known rule
54992 of tactics which is accepted as infallible. That rule says that an
54993 attacker should concentrate his forces in order to be stronger than his
54994 opponent at the moment of conflict.
54996 Guerrilla war (always successful, as history shows) directly infringes
54999 This contradiction arises from the fact that military science assumes
55000 the strength of an army to be identical with its numbers. Military
55001 science says that the more troops the greater the strength. Les gros
55002 bataillons ont toujours raison. *
55005 * Large battalions are always victorious.
55007 For military science to say this is like defining momentum in mechanics
55008 by reference to the mass only: stating that momenta are equal or unequal
55009 to each other simply because the masses involved are equal or unequal.
55011 Momentum (quantity of motion) is the product of mass and velocity.
55013 In military affairs the strength of an army is the product of its mass
55014 and some unknown x.
55016 Military science, seeing in history innumerable instances of the fact
55017 that the size of any army does not coincide with its strength and that
55018 small detachments defeat larger ones, obscurely admits the existence of
55019 this unknown factor and tries to discover it--now in a geometric
55020 formation, now in the equipment employed, now, and most usually, in the
55021 genius of the commanders. But the assignment of these various meanings
55022 to the factor does not yield results which accord with the historic
55025 Yet it is only necessary to abandon the false view (adopted to gratify
55026 the "heroes") of the efficacy of the directions issued in wartime by
55027 commanders, in order to find this unknown quantity.
55029 That unknown quantity is the spirit of the army, that is to say, the
55030 greater or lesser readiness to fight and face danger felt by all the men
55031 composing an army, quite independently of whether they are, or are not,
55032 fighting under the command of a genius, in two--or three-line formation,
55033 with cudgels or with rifles that repeat thirty times a minute. Men who
55034 want to fight will always put themselves in the most advantageous
55035 conditions for fighting.
55037 The spirit of an army is the factor which multiplied by the mass gives
55038 the resulting force. To define and express the significance of this
55039 unknown factor--the spirit of an army--is a problem for science.
55041 This problem is only solvable if we cease arbitrarily to substitute for
55042 the unknown x itself the conditions under which that force becomes
55043 apparent--such as the commands of the general, the equipment employed,
55044 and so on--mistaking these for the real significance of the factor, and
55045 if we recognize this unknown quantity in its entirety as being the
55046 greater or lesser desire to fight and to face danger. Only then,
55047 expressing known historic facts by equations and comparing the relative
55048 significance of this factor, can we hope to define the unknown.
55050 Ten men, battalions, or divisions, fighting fifteen men, battalions, or
55051 divisions, conquer--that is, kill or take captive--all the others, while
55052 themselves losing four, so that on the one side four and on the other
55053 fifteen were lost. Consequently the four were equal to the fifteen, and
55054 therefore 4x = 15y. Consequently x/y = 15/4. This equation does not give
55055 us the value of the unknown factor but gives us a ratio between two
55056 unknowns. And by bringing variously selected historic units (battles,
55057 campaigns, periods of war) into such equations, a series of numbers
55058 could be obtained in which certain laws should exist and might be
55061 The tactical rule that an army should act in masses when attacking, and
55062 in smaller groups in retreat, unconsciously confirms the truth that the
55063 strength of an army depends on its spirit. To lead men forward under
55064 fire more discipline (obtainable only by movement in masses) is needed
55065 than is needed to resist attacks. But this rule which leaves out of
55066 account the spirit of the army continually proves incorrect and is in
55067 particularly striking contrast to the facts when some strong rise or
55068 fall in the spirit of the troops occurs, as in all national wars.
55070 The French, retreating in 1812--though according to tactics they should
55071 have separated into detachments to defend themselves--congregated into a
55072 mass because the spirit of the army had so fallen that only the mass
55073 held the army together. The Russians, on the contrary, ought according
55074 to tactics to have attacked in mass, but in fact they split up into
55075 small units, because their spirit had so risen that separate
55076 individuals, without orders, dealt blows at the French without needing
55077 any compulsion to induce them to expose themselves to hardships and
55085 The so-called partisan war began with the entry of the French into
55088 Before partisan warfare had been officially recognized by the
55089 government, thousands of enemy stragglers, marauders, and foragers had
55090 been destroyed by the Cossacks and the peasants, who killed them off as
55091 instinctively as dogs worry a stray mad dog to death. Denis Davydov,
55092 with his Russian instinct, was the first to recognize the value of this
55093 terrible cudgel which regardless of the rules of military science
55094 destroyed the French, and to him belongs the credit for taking the first
55095 step toward regularizing this method of warfare.
55097 On August 24 Davydov's first partisan detachment was formed and then
55098 others were recognized. The further the campaign progressed the more
55099 numerous these detachments became.
55101 The irregulars destroyed the great army piecemeal. They gathered the
55102 fallen leaves that dropped of themselves from that withered tree--the
55103 French army--and sometimes shook that tree itself. By October, when the
55104 French were fleeing toward Smolensk, there were hundreds of such
55105 companies, of various sizes and characters. There were some that adopted
55106 all the army methods and had infantry, artillery, staffs, and the
55107 comforts of life. Others consisted solely of Cossack cavalry. There were
55108 also small scratch groups of foot and horse, and groups of peasants and
55109 landowners that remained unknown. A sacristan commanded one party which
55110 captured several hundred prisoners in the course of a month; and there
55111 was Vasilisa, the wife of a village elder, who slew hundreds of the
55114 The partisan warfare flamed up most fiercely in the latter days of
55115 October. Its first period had passed: when the partisans themselves,
55116 amazed at their own boldness, feared every minute to be surrounded and
55117 captured by the French, and hid in the forests without unsaddling,
55118 hardly daring to dismount and always expecting to be pursued. By the end
55119 of October this kind of warfare had taken definite shape: it had become
55120 clear to all what could be ventured against the French and what could
55121 not. Now only the commanders of detachments with staffs, and moving
55122 according to rules at a distance from the French, still regarded many
55123 things as impossible. The small bands that had started their activities
55124 long before and had already observed the French closely considered
55125 things possible which the commanders of the big detachments did not dare
55126 to contemplate. The Cossacks and peasants who crept in among the French
55127 now considered everything possible.
55129 On October 22, Denisov (who was one of the irregulars) was with his
55130 group at the height of the guerrilla enthusiasm. Since early morning he
55131 and his party had been on the move. All day long he had been watching
55132 from the forest that skirted the highroad a large French convoy of
55133 cavalry baggage and Russian prisoners separated from the rest of the
55134 army, which--as was learned from spies and prisoners--was moving under a
55135 strong escort to Smolensk. Besides Denisov and Dolokhov (who also led a
55136 small party and moved in Denisov's vicinity), the commanders of some
55137 large divisions with staffs also knew of this convoy and, as Denisov
55138 expressed it, were sharpening their teeth for it. Two of the commanders
55139 of large parties--one a Pole and the other a German--sent invitations to
55140 Denisov almost simultaneously, requesting him to join up with their
55141 divisions to attack the convoy.
55143 "No, bwother, I have gwown mustaches myself," said Denisov on reading
55144 these documents, and he wrote to the German that, despite his heartfelt
55145 desire to serve under so valiant and renowned a general, he had to forgo
55146 that pleasure because he was already under the command of the Polish
55147 general. To the Polish general he replied to the same effect, informing
55148 him that he was already under the command of the German.
55150 Having arranged matters thus, Denisov and Dolokhov intended, without
55151 reporting matters to the higher command, to attack and seize that convoy
55152 with their own small forces. On October 22 it was moving from the
55153 village of Mikulino to that of Shamshevo. To the left of the road
55154 between Mikulino and Shamshevo there were large forests, extending in
55155 some places up to the road itself though in others a mile or more back
55156 from it. Through these forests Denisov and his party rode all day,
55157 sometimes keeping well back in them and sometimes coming to the very
55158 edge, but never losing sight of the moving French. That morning,
55159 Cossacks of Denisov's party had seized and carried off into the forest
55160 two wagons loaded with cavalry saddles, which had stuck in the mud not
55161 far from Mikulino where the forest ran close to the road. Since then,
55162 and until evening, the party had watched the movements of the French
55163 without attacking. It was necessary to let the French reach Shamshevo
55164 quietly without alarming them and then, after joining Dolokhov who was
55165 to come that evening to a consultation at a watchman's hut in the forest
55166 less than a mile from Shamshevo, to surprise the French at dawn, falling
55167 like an avalanche on their heads from two sides, and rout and capture
55168 them all at one blow.
55170 In their rear, more than a mile from Mikulino where the forest came
55171 right up to the road, six Cossacks were posted to report if any fresh
55172 columns of French should show themselves.
55174 Beyond Shamshevo, Dolokhov was to observe the road in the same way, to
55175 find out at what distance there were other French troops. They reckoned
55176 that the convoy had fifteen hundred men. Denisov had two hundred, and
55177 Dolokhov might have as many more, but the disparity of numbers did not
55178 deter Denisov. All that he now wanted to know was what troops these were
55179 and to learn that he had to capture a "tongue"--that is, a man from the
55180 enemy column. That morning's attack on the wagons had been made so
55181 hastily that the Frenchmen with the wagons had all been killed; only a
55182 little drummer boy had been taken alive, and as he was a straggler he
55183 could tell them nothing definite about the troops in that column.
55185 Denisov considered it dangerous to make a second attack for fear of
55186 putting the whole column on the alert, so he sent Tikhon Shcherbaty, a
55187 peasant of his party, to Shamshevo to try and seize at least one of the
55188 French quartermasters who had been sent on in advance.
55195 It was a warm rainy autumn day. The sky and the horizon were both the
55196 color of muddy water. At times a sort of mist descended, and then
55197 suddenly heavy slanting rain came down.
55199 Denisov in a felt cloak and a sheepskin cap from which the rain ran down
55200 was riding a thin thoroughbred horse with sunken sides. Like his horse,
55201 which turned its head and laid its ears back, he shrank from the driving
55202 rain and gazed anxiously before him. His thin face with its short, thick
55203 black beard looked angry.
55205 Beside Denisov rode an esaul, * Denisov's fellow worker, also in felt
55206 cloak and sheepskin cap, and riding a large sleek Don horse.
55209 * A captain of Cossacks.
55211 Esaul Lovayski the Third was a tall man as straight as an arrow, pale-
55212 faced, fair-haired, with narrow light eyes and with calm self-
55213 satisfaction in his face and bearing. Though it was impossible to say in
55214 what the peculiarity of the horse and rider lay, yet at first glance at
55215 the esaul and Denisov one saw that the latter was wet and uncomfortable
55216 and was a man mounted on a horse, while looking at the esaul one saw
55217 that he was as comfortable and as much at ease as always and that he was
55218 not a man who had mounted a horse, but a man who was one with his horse,
55219 a being consequently possessed of twofold strength.
55221 A little ahead of them walked a peasant guide, wet to the skin and
55222 wearing a gray peasant coat and a white knitted cap.
55224 A little behind, on a poor, small, lean Kirghiz mount with an enormous
55225 tail and mane and a bleeding mouth, rode a young officer in a blue
55228 Beside him rode an hussar, with a boy in a tattered French uniform and
55229 blue cap behind him on the crupper of his horse. The boy held on to the
55230 hussar with cold, red hands, and raising his eyebrows gazed about him
55231 with surprise. This was the French drummer boy captured that morning.
55233 Behind them along the narrow, sodden, cutup forest road came hussars in
55234 threes and fours, and then Cossacks: some in felt cloaks, some in French
55235 greatcoats, and some with horsecloths over their heads. The horses,
55236 being drenched by the rain, all looked black whether chestnut or bay.
55237 Their necks, with their wet, close-clinging manes, looked strangely
55238 thin. Steam rose from them. Clothes, saddles, reins, were all wet,
55239 slippery, and sodden, like the ground and the fallen leaves that strewed
55240 the road. The men sat huddled up trying not to stir, so as to warm the
55241 water that had trickled to their bodies and not admit the fresh cold
55242 water that was leaking in under their seats, their knees, and at the
55243 back of their necks. In the midst of the outspread line of Cossacks two
55244 wagons, drawn by French horses and by saddled Cossack horses that had
55245 been hitched on in front, rumbled over the tree stumps and branches and
55246 splashed through the water that lay in the ruts.
55248 Denisov's horse swerved aside to avoid a pool in the track and bumped
55249 his rider's knee against a tree.
55251 "Oh, the devil!" exclaimed Denisov angrily, and showing his teeth he
55252 struck his horse three times with his whip, splashing himself and his
55255 Denisov was out of sorts both because of the rain and also from hunger
55256 (none of them had eaten anything since morning), and yet more because he
55257 still had no news from Dolokhov and the man sent to capture a "tongue"
55260 "There'll hardly be another such chance to fall on a transport as today.
55261 It's too risky to attack them by oneself, and if we put it off till
55262 another day one of the big guerrilla detachments will snatch the prey
55263 from under our noses," thought Denisov, continually peering forward,
55264 hoping to see a messenger from Dolokhov.
55266 On coming to a path in the forest along which he could see far to the
55267 right, Denisov stopped.
55269 "There's someone coming," said he.
55271 The esaul looked in the direction Denisov indicated.
55273 "There are two, an officer and a Cossack. But it is not presupposable
55274 that it is the lieutenant colonel himself," said the esaul, who was fond
55275 of using words the Cossacks did not know.
55277 The approaching riders having descended a decline were no longer
55278 visible, but they reappeared a few minutes later. In front, at a weary
55279 gallop and using his leather whip, rode an officer, disheveled and
55280 drenched, whose trousers had worked up to above his knees. Behind him,
55281 standing in the stirrups, trotted a Cossack. The officer, a very young
55282 lad with a broad rosy face and keen merry eyes, galloped up to Denisov
55283 and handed him a sodden envelope.
55285 "From the general," said the officer. "Please excuse its not being quite
55288 Denisov, frowning, took the envelope and opened it.
55290 "There, they kept telling us: 'It's dangerous, it's dangerous,'" said
55291 the officer, addressing the esaul while Denisov was reading the
55292 dispatch. "But Komarov and I"--he pointed to the Cossack--"were
55293 prepared. We have each of us two pistols.... But what's this?" he asked,
55294 noticing the French drummer boy. "A prisoner? You've already been in
55295 action? May I speak to him?"
55297 "Wostov! Petya!" exclaimed Denisov, having run through the dispatch.
55298 "Why didn't you say who you were?" and turning with a smile he held out
55299 his hand to the lad.
55301 The officer was Petya Rostov.
55303 All the way Petya had been preparing himself to behave with Denisov as
55304 befitted a grownup man and an officer--without hinting at their previous
55305 acquaintance. But as soon as Denisov smiled at him Petya brightened up,
55306 blushed with pleasure, forgot the official manner he had been
55307 rehearsing, and began telling him how he had already been in a battle
55308 near Vyazma and how a certain hussar had distinguished himself there.
55310 "Well, I am glad to see you," Denisov interrupted him, and his face
55311 again assumed its anxious expression.
55313 "Michael Feoklitych," said he to the esaul, "this is again fwom that
55314 German, you know. He"--he indicated Petya--"is serving under him."
55316 And Denisov told the esaul that the dispatch just delivered was a
55317 repetition of the German general's demand that he should join forces
55318 with him for an attack on the transport.
55320 "If we don't take it tomowwow, he'll snatch it fwom under our noses," he
55323 While Denisov was talking to the esaul, Petya--abashed by Denisov's cold
55324 tone and supposing that it was due to the condition of his trousers--
55325 furtively tried to pull them down under his greatcoat so that no one
55326 should notice it, while maintaining as martial an air as possible.
55328 "Will there be any orders, your honor?" he asked Denisov, holding his
55329 hand at the salute and resuming the game of adjutant and general for
55330 which he had prepared himself, "or shall I remain with your honor?"
55332 "Orders?" Denisov repeated thoughtfully. "But can you stay till
55335 "Oh, please... May I stay with you?" cried Petya.
55337 "But, just what did the genewal tell you? To weturn at once?" asked
55342 "He gave me no instructions. I think I could?" he returned, inquiringly.
55344 "Well, all wight," said Denisov.
55346 And turning to his men he directed a party to go on to the halting place
55347 arranged near the watchman's hut in the forest, and told the officer on
55348 the Kirghiz horse (who performed the duties of an adjutant) to go and
55349 find out where Dolokhov was and whether he would come that evening.
55350 Denisov himself intended going with the esaul and Petya to the edge of
55351 the forest where it reached out to Shamshevo, to have a look at the part
55352 of the French bivouac they were to attack next day.
55354 "Well, old fellow," said he to the peasant guide, "lead us to
55357 Denisov, Petya, and the esaul, accompanied by some Cossacks and the
55358 hussar who had the prisoner, rode to the left across a ravine to the
55359 edge of the forest.
55366 The rain had stopped, and only the mist was falling and drops from the
55367 trees. Denisov, the esaul, and Petya rode silently, following the
55368 peasant in the knitted cap who, stepping lightly with outturned toes and
55369 moving noiselessly in his bast shoes over the roots and wet leaves,
55370 silently led them to the edge of the forest.
55372 He ascended an incline, stopped, looked about him, and advanced to where
55373 the screen of trees was less dense. On reaching a large oak tree that
55374 had not yet shed its leaves, he stopped and beckoned mysteriously to
55375 them with his hand.
55377 Denisov and Petya rode up to him. From the spot where the peasant was
55378 standing they could see the French. Immediately beyond the forest, on a
55379 downward slope, lay a field of spring rye. To the right, beyond a steep
55380 ravine, was a small village and a landowner's house with a broken roof.
55381 In the village, in the house, in the garden, by the well, by the pond,
55382 over all the rising ground, and all along the road uphill from the
55383 bridge leading to the village, not more than five hundred yards away,
55384 crowds of men could be seen through the shimmering mist. Their un-
55385 Russian shouting at their horses which were straining uphill with the
55386 carts, and their calls to one another, could be clearly heard.
55388 "Bwing the prisoner here," said Denisov in a low voice, not taking his
55389 eyes off the French.
55391 A Cossack dismounted, lifted the boy down, and took him to Denisov.
55392 Pointing to the French troops, Denisov asked him what these and those of
55393 them were. The boy, thrusting his cold hands into his pockets and
55394 lifting his eyebrows, looked at Denisov in affright, but in spite of an
55395 evident desire to say all he knew gave confused answers, merely
55396 assenting to everything Denisov asked him. Denisov turned away from him
55397 frowning and addressed the esaul, conveying his own conjectures to him.
55399 Petya, rapidly turning his head, looked now at the drummer boy, now at
55400 Denisov, now at the esaul, and now at the French in the village and
55401 along the road, trying not to miss anything of importance.
55403 "Whether Dolokhov comes or not, we must seize it, eh?" said Denisov with
55404 a merry sparkle in his eyes.
55406 "It is a very suitable spot," said the esaul.
55408 "We'll send the infantwy down by the swamps," Denisov continued.
55409 "They'll cweep up to the garden; you'll wide up fwom there with the
55410 Cossacks"--he pointed to a spot in the forest beyond the village--"and I
55411 with my hussars fwom here. And at the signal shot..."
55413 "The hollow is impassable--there's a swamp there," said the esaul. "The
55414 horses would sink. We must ride round more to the left...."
55416 While they were talking in undertones the crack of a shot sounded from
55417 the low ground by the pond, a puff of white smoke appeared, then
55418 another, and the sound of hundreds of seemingly merry French voices
55419 shouting together came up from the slope. For a moment Denisov and the
55420 esaul drew back. They were so near that they thought they were the cause
55421 of the firing and shouting. But the firing and shouting did not relate
55422 to them. Down below, a man wearing something red was running through the
55423 marsh. The French were evidently firing and shouting at him.
55425 "Why, that's our Tikhon," said the esaul.
55429 "The wascal!" said Denisov.
55431 "He'll get away!" said the esaul, screwing up his eyes.
55433 The man whom they called Tikhon, having run to the stream, plunged in so
55434 that the water splashed in the air, and, having disappeared for an
55435 instant, scrambled out on all fours, all black with the wet, and ran on.
55436 The French who had been pursuing him stopped.
55438 "Smart, that!" said the esaul.
55440 "What a beast!" said Denisov with his former look of vexation. "What has
55441 he been doing all this time?"
55443 "Who is he?" asked Petya.
55445 "He's our plastun. I sent him to capture a 'tongue.'"
55447 "Oh, yes," said Petya, nodding at the first words Denisov uttered as if
55448 he understood it all, though he really did not understand anything of
55451 Tikhon Shcherbaty was one of the most indispensable men in their band.
55452 He was a peasant from Pokrovsk, near the river Gzhat. When Denisov had
55453 come to Pokrovsk at the beginning of his operations and had as usual
55454 summoned the village elder and asked him what he knew about the French,
55455 the elder, as though shielding himself, had replied, as all village
55456 elders did, that he had neither seen nor heard anything of them. But
55457 when Denisov explained that his purpose was to kill the French, and
55458 asked if no French had strayed that way, the elder replied that some
55459 "more-orderers" had really been at their village, but that Tikhon
55460 Shcherbaty was the only man who dealt with such matters. Denisov had
55461 Tikhon called and, having praised him for his activity, said a few words
55462 in the elder's presence about loyalty to the Tsar and the country and
55463 the hatred of the French that all sons of the fatherland should cherish.
55465 "We don't do the French any harm," said Tikhon, evidently frightened by
55466 Denisov's words. "We only fooled about with the lads for fun, you know!
55467 We killed a score or so of 'more-orderers,' but we did no harm else..."
55469 Next day when Denisov had left Pokrovsk, having quite forgotten about
55470 this peasant, it was reported to him that Tikhon had attached himself to
55471 their party and asked to be allowed to remain with it. Denisov gave
55472 orders to let him do so.
55474 Tikhon, who at first did rough work, laying campfires, fetching water,
55475 flaying dead horses, and so on, soon showed a great liking and aptitude
55476 for partisan warfare. At night he would go out for booty and always
55477 brought back French clothing and weapons, and when told to would bring
55478 in French captives also. Denisov then relieved him from drudgery and
55479 began taking him with him when he went out on expeditions and had him
55480 enrolled among the Cossacks.
55482 Tikhon did not like riding, and always went on foot, never lagging
55483 behind the cavalry. He was armed with a musketoon (which he carried
55484 rather as a joke), a pike and an ax, which latter he used as a wolf uses
55485 its teeth, with equal ease picking fleas out of its fur or crunching
55486 thick bones. Tikhon with equal accuracy would split logs with blows at
55487 arm's length, or holding the head of the ax would cut thin little pegs
55488 or carve spoons. In Denisov's party he held a peculiar and exceptional
55489 position. When anything particularly difficult or nasty had to be done--
55490 to push a cart out of the mud with one's shoulders, pull a horse out of
55491 a swamp by its tail, skin it, slink in among the French, or walk more
55492 than thirty miles in a day--everybody pointed laughingly at Tikhon.
55494 "It won't hurt that devil--he's as strong as a horse!" they said of him.
55496 Once a Frenchman Tikhon was trying to capture fired a pistol at him and
55497 shot him in the fleshy part of the back. That wound (which Tikhon
55498 treated only with internal and external applications of vodka) was the
55499 subject of the liveliest jokes by the whole detachment--jokes in which
55500 Tikhon readily joined.
55502 "Hallo, mate! Never again? Gave you a twist?" the Cossacks would banter
55503 him. And Tikhon, purposely writhing and making faces, pretended to be
55504 angry and swore at the French with the funniest curses. The only effect
55505 of this incident on Tikhon was that after being wounded he seldom
55506 brought in prisoners.
55508 He was the bravest and most useful man in the party. No one found more
55509 opportunities for attacking, no one captured or killed more Frenchmen,
55510 and consequently he was made the buffoon of all the Cossacks and hussars
55511 and willingly accepted that role. Now he had been sent by Denisov
55512 overnight to Shamshevo to capture a "tongue." But whether because he had
55513 not been content to take only one Frenchman or because he had slept
55514 through the night, he had crept by day into some bushes right among the
55515 French and, as Denisov had witnessed from above, had been detected by
55523 After talking for some time with the esaul about next day's attack,
55524 which now, seeing how near they were to the French, he seemed to have
55525 definitely decided on, Denisov turned his horse and rode back.
55527 "Now, my lad, we'll go and get dwy," he said to Petya.
55529 As they approached the watchhouse Denisov stopped, peering into the
55530 forest. Among the trees a man with long legs and long, swinging arms,
55531 wearing a short jacket, bast shoes, and a Kazan hat, was approaching
55532 with long, light steps. He had a musketoon over his shoulder and an ax
55533 stuck in his girdle. When he espied Denisov he hastily threw something
55534 into the bushes, removed his sodden hat by its floppy brim, and
55535 approached his commander. It was Tikhon. His wrinkled and pockmarked
55536 face and narrow little eyes beamed with self-satisfied merriment. He
55537 lifted his head high and gazed at Denisov as if repressing a laugh.
55539 "Well, where did you disappear to?" inquired Denisov.
55541 "Where did I disappear to? I went to get Frenchmen," answered Tikhon
55542 boldly and hurriedly, in a husky but melodious bass voice.
55544 "Why did you push yourself in there by daylight? You ass! Well, why
55545 haven't you taken one?"
55547 "Oh, I took one all right," said Tikhon.
55551 "You see, I took him first thing at dawn," Tikhon continued, spreading
55552 out his flat feet with outturned toes in their bast shoes. "I took him
55553 into the forest. Then I see he's no good and think I'll go and fetch a
55556 "You see?... What a wogue--it's just as I thought," said Denisov to the
55557 esaul. "Why didn't you bwing that one?"
55559 "What was the good of bringing him?" Tikhon interrupted hastily and
55560 angrily--"that one wouldn't have done for you. As if I don't know what
55563 "What a bwute you are!... Well?"
55565 "I went for another one," Tikhon continued, "and I crept like this
55566 through the wood and lay down." (He suddenly lay down on his stomach
55567 with a supple movement to show how he had done it.) "One turned up and I
55568 grabbed him, like this." (He jumped up quickly and lightly.) "'Come
55569 along to the colonel,' I said. He starts yelling, and suddenly there
55570 were four of them. They rushed at me with their little swords. So I went
55571 for them with my ax, this way: 'What are you up to?' says I. 'Christ be
55572 with you!'" shouted Tikhon, waving his arms with an angry scowl and
55573 throwing out his chest.
55575 "Yes, we saw from the hill how you took to your heels through the
55576 puddles!" said the esaul, screwing up his glittering eyes.
55578 Petya badly wanted to laugh, but noticed that they all refrained from
55579 laughing. He turned his eyes rapidly from Tikhon's face to the esaul's
55580 and Denisov's, unable to make out what it all meant.
55582 "Don't play the fool!" said Denisov, coughing angrily. "Why didn't you
55583 bwing the first one?"
55585 Tikhon scratched his back with one hand and his head with the other,
55586 then suddenly his whole face expanded into a beaming, foolish grin,
55587 disclosing a gap where he had lost a tooth (that was why he was called
55588 Shcherbaty--the gap-toothed). Denisov smiled, and Petya burst into a
55589 peal of merry laughter in which Tikhon himself joined.
55591 "Oh, but he was a regular good-for-nothing," said Tikhon. "The clothes
55592 on him--poor stuff! How could I bring him? And so rude, your honor! Why,
55593 he says: 'I'm a general's son myself, I won't go!' he says."
55595 "You are a bwute!" said Denisov. "I wanted to question..."
55597 "But I questioned him," said Tikhon. "He said he didn't know much.
55598 'There are a lot of us,' he says, 'but all poor stuff--only soldiers in
55599 name,' he says. 'Shout loud at them,' he says, 'and you'll take them
55600 all,'" Tikhon concluded, looking cheerfully and resolutely into
55603 "I'll give you a hundwed sharp lashes--that'll teach you to play the
55604 fool!" said Denisov severely.
55606 "But why are you angry?" remonstrated Tikhon, "just as if I'd never seen
55607 your Frenchmen! Only wait till it gets dark and I'll fetch you any of
55608 them you want--three if you like."
55610 "Well, let's go," said Denisov, and rode all the way to the watchhouse
55611 in silence and frowning angrily.
55613 Tikhon followed behind and Petya heard the Cossacks laughing with him
55614 and at him, about some pair of boots he had thrown into the bushes.
55616 When the fit of laughter that had seized him at Tikhon's words and smile
55617 had passed and Petya realized for a moment that this Tikhon had killed a
55618 man, he felt uneasy. He looked round at the captive drummer boy and felt
55619 a pang in his heart. But this uneasiness lasted only a moment. He felt
55620 it necessary to hold his head higher, to brace himself, and to question
55621 the esaul with an air of importance about tomorrow's undertaking, that
55622 he might not be unworthy of the company in which he found himself.
55624 The officer who had been sent to inquire met Denisov on the way with the
55625 news that Dolokhov was soon coming and that all was well with him.
55627 Denisov at once cheered up and, calling Petya to him, said: "Well, tell
55628 me about yourself."
55635 Petya, having left his people after their departure from Moscow, joined
55636 his regiment and was soon taken as orderly by a general commanding a
55637 large guerrilla detachment. From the time he received his commission,
55638 and especially since he had joined the active army and taken part in the
55639 battle of Vyazma, Petya had been in a constant state of blissful
55640 excitement at being grown-up and in a perpetual ecstatic hurry not to
55641 miss any chance to do something really heroic. He was highly delighted
55642 with what he saw and experienced in the army, but at the same time it
55643 always seemed to him that the really heroic exploits were being
55644 performed just where he did not happen to be. And he was always in a
55645 hurry to get where he was not.
55647 When on the twenty-first of October his general expressed a wish to send
55648 somebody to Denisov's detachment, Petya begged so piteously to be sent
55649 that the general could not refuse. But when dispatching him he recalled
55650 Petya's mad action at the battle of Vyazma, where instead of riding by
55651 the road to the place to which he had been sent, he had galloped to the
55652 advanced line under the fire of the French and had there twice fired his
55653 pistol. So now the general explicitly forbade his taking part in any
55654 action whatever of Denisov's. That was why Petya had blushed and grown
55655 confused when Denisov asked him whether he could stay. Before they had
55656 ridden to the outskirts of the forest Petya had considered he must carry
55657 out his instructions strictly and return at once. But when he saw the
55658 French and saw Tikhon and learned that there would certainly be an
55659 attack that night, he decided, with the rapidity with which young people
55660 change their views, that the general, whom he had greatly respected till
55661 then, was a rubbishy German, that Denisov was a hero, the esaul a hero,
55662 and Tikhon a hero too, and that it would be shameful for him to leave
55663 them at a moment of difficulty.
55665 It was already growing dusk when Denisov, Petya, and the esaul rode up
55666 to the watchhouse. In the twilight saddled horses could be seen, and
55667 Cossacks and hussars who had rigged up rough shelters in the glade and
55668 were kindling glowing fires in a hollow of the forest where the French
55669 could not see the smoke. In the passage of the small watchhouse a
55670 Cossack with sleeves rolled up was chopping some mutton. In the room
55671 three officers of Denisov's band were converting a door into a tabletop.
55672 Petya took off his wet clothes, gave them to be dried, and at once began
55673 helping the officers to fix up the dinner table.
55675 In ten minutes the table was ready and a napkin spread on it. On the
55676 table were vodka, a flask of rum, white bread, roast mutton, and salt.
55678 Sitting at table with the officers and tearing the fat savory mutton
55679 with his hands, down which the grease trickled, Petya was in an ecstatic
55680 childish state of love for all men, and consequently of confidence that
55681 others loved him in the same way.
55683 "So then what do you think, Vasili Dmitrich?" said he to Denisov. "It's
55684 all right my staying a day with you?" And not waiting for a reply he
55685 answered his own question: "You see I was told to find out--well, I am
55686 finding out.... Only do let me into the very... into the chief... I
55687 don't want a reward... But I want..."
55689 Petya clenched his teeth and looked around, throwing back his head and
55690 flourishing his arms.
55692 "Into the vewy chief..." Denisov repeated with a smile.
55694 "Only, please let me command something, so that I may really command..."
55695 Petya went on. "What would it be to you?... Oh, you want a knife?" he
55696 said, turning to an officer who wished to cut himself a piece of mutton.
55698 And he handed him his clasp knife. The officer admired it.
55700 "Please keep it. I have several like it," said Petya, blushing.
55701 "Heavens! I was quite forgetting!" he suddenly cried. "I have some
55702 raisins, fine ones; you know, seedless ones. We have a new sutler and he
55703 has such capital things. I bought ten pounds. I am used to something
55704 sweet. Would you like some?..." and Petya ran out into the passage to
55705 his Cossack and brought back some bags which contained about five pounds
55706 of raisins. "Have some, gentlemen, have some!"
55708 "You want a coffeepot, don't you?" he asked the esaul. "I bought a
55709 capital one from our sutler! He has splendid things. And he's very
55710 honest, that's the chief thing. I'll be sure to send it to you. Or
55711 perhaps your flints are giving out, or are worn out--that happens
55712 sometimes, you know. I have brought some with me, here they are"--and he
55713 showed a bag--"a hundred flints. I bought them very cheap. Please take
55714 as many as you want, or all if you like...."
55716 Then suddenly, dismayed lest he had said too much, Petya stopped and
55719 He tried to remember whether he had not done anything else that was
55720 foolish. And running over the events of the day he remembered the French
55721 drummer boy. "It's capital for us here, but what of him? Where have they
55722 put him? Have they fed him? Haven't they hurt his feelings?" he thought.
55723 But having caught himself saying too much about the flints, he was now
55724 afraid to speak out.
55726 "I might ask," he thought, "but they'll say: 'He's a boy himself and so
55727 he pities the boy.' I'll show them tomorrow whether I'm a boy. Will it
55728 seem odd if I ask?" Petya thought. "Well, never mind!" and immediately,
55729 blushing and looking anxiously at the officers to see if they appeared
55732 "May I call in that boy who was taken prisoner and give him something to
55733 eat?... Perhaps..."
55735 "Yes, he's a poor little fellow," said Denisov, who evidently saw
55736 nothing shameful in this reminder. "Call him in. His name is Vincent
55737 Bosse. Have him fetched."
55739 "I'll call him," said Petya.
55741 "Yes, yes, call him. A poor little fellow," Denisov repeated.
55743 Petya was standing at the door when Denisov said this. He slipped in
55744 between the officers, came close to Denisov, and said:
55746 "Let me kiss you, dear old fellow! Oh, how fine, how splendid!"
55748 And having kissed Denisov he ran out of the hut.
55750 "Bosse! Vincent!" Petya cried, stopping outside the door.
55752 "Who do you want, sir?" asked a voice in the darkness.
55754 Petya replied that he wanted the French lad who had been captured that
55757 "Ah, Vesenny?" said a Cossack.
55759 Vincent, the boy's name, had already been changed by the Cossacks into
55760 Vesenny (vernal) and into Vesenya by the peasants and soldiers. In both
55761 these adaptations the reference to spring (vesna) matched the impression
55762 made by the young lad.
55764 "He is warming himself there by the bonfire. Ho, Vesenya! Vesenya!--
55765 Vesenny!" laughing voices were heard calling to one another in the
55768 "He's a smart lad," said an hussar standing near Petya. "We gave him
55769 something to eat a while ago. He was awfully hungry!"
55771 The sound of bare feet splashing through the mud was heard in the
55772 darkness, and the drummer boy came to the door.
55774 "Ah, c'est vous!" said Petya. "Voulez-vous manger? N'ayez pas peur, on
55775 ne vous fera pas de mal," * he added shyly and affectionately, touching
55776 the boy's hand. "Entrez, entrez." *(2)
55779 * "Ah, it's you! Do you want something to eat? Don't be afraid, they
55782 * (2) "Come in, come in."
55784 "Merci, monsieur," * said the drummer boy in a trembling almost childish
55785 voice, and he began scraping his dirty feet on the threshold.
55788 * "Thank you, sir."
55790 There were many things Petya wanted to say to the drummer boy, but did
55791 not dare to. He stood irresolutely beside him in the passage. Then in
55792 the darkness he took the boy's hand and pressed it.
55794 "Come in, come in!" he repeated in a gentle whisper. "Oh, what can I do
55795 for him?" he thought, and opening the door he let the boy pass in first.
55797 When the boy had entered the hut, Petya sat down at a distance from him,
55798 considering it beneath his dignity to pay attention to him. But he
55799 fingered the money in his pocket and wondered whether it would seem
55800 ridiculous to give some to the drummer boy.
55807 The arrival of Dolokhov diverted Petya's attention from the drummer boy,
55808 to whom Denisov had had some mutton and vodka given, and whom he had had
55809 dressed in a Russian coat so that he might be kept with their band and
55810 not sent away with the other prisoners. Petya had heard in the army many
55811 stories of Dolokhov's extraordinary bravery and of his cruelty to the
55812 French, so from the moment he entered the hut Petya did not take his
55813 eyes from him, but braced himself up more and more and held his head
55814 high, that he might not be unworthy even of such company.
55816 Dolokhov's appearance amazed Petya by its simplicity.
55818 Denisov wore a Cossack coat, had a beard, had an icon of Nicholas the
55819 Wonder-Worker on his breast, and his way of speaking and everything he
55820 did indicated his unusual position. But Dolokhov, who in Moscow had worn
55821 a Persian costume, had now the appearance of a most correct officer of
55822 the Guards. He was clean-shaven and wore a Guardsman's padded coat with
55823 an Order of St. George at his buttonhole and a plain forage cap set
55824 straight on his head. He took off his wet felt cloak in a corner of the
55825 room, and without greeting anyone went up to Denisov and began
55826 questioning him about the matter in hand. Denisov told him of the
55827 designs the large detachments had on the transport, of the message Petya
55828 had brought, and his own replies to both generals. Then he told him all
55829 he knew of the French detachment.
55831 "That's so. But we must know what troops they are and their numbers,"
55832 said Dolokhov. "It will be necessary to go there. We can't start the
55833 affair without knowing for certain how many there are. I like to work
55834 accurately. Here now--wouldn't one of these gentlemen like to ride over
55835 to the French camp with me? I have brought a spare uniform."
55837 "I, I... I'll go with you!" cried Petya.
55839 "There's no need for you to go at all," said Denisov, addressing
55840 Dolokhov, "and as for him, I won't let him go on any account."
55842 "I like that!" exclaimed Petya. "Why shouldn't I go?"
55844 "Because it's useless."
55846 "Well, you must excuse me, because... because... I shall go, and that's
55847 all. You'll take me, won't you?" he said, turning to Dolokhov.
55849 "Why not?" Dolokhov answered absently, scrutinizing the face of the
55850 French drummer boy. "Have you had that youngster with you long?" he
55853 "He was taken today but he knows nothing. I'm keeping him with me."
55855 "Yes, and where do you put the others?" inquired Dolokhov.
55857 "Where? I send them away and take a weceipt for them," shouted Denisov,
55858 suddenly flushing. "And I say boldly that I have not a single man's life
55859 on my conscience. Would it be difficult for you to send thirty or thwee
55860 hundwed men to town under escort, instead of staining--I speak bluntly--
55861 staining the honor of a soldier?"
55863 "That kind of amiable talk would be suitable from this young count of
55864 sixteen," said Dolokhov with cold irony, "but it's time for you to drop
55867 "Why, I've not said anything! I only say that I'll certainly go with
55868 you," said Petya shyly.
55870 "But for you and me, old fellow, it's time to drop these amenities,"
55871 continued Dolokhov, as if he found particular pleasure in speaking of
55872 this subject which irritated Denisov. "Now, why have you kept this lad?"
55873 he went on, swaying his head. "Because you are sorry for him! Don't we
55874 know those 'receipts' of yours? You send a hundred men away, and thirty
55875 get there. The rest either starve or get killed. So isn't it all the
55876 same not to send them?"
55878 The esaul, screwing up his light-colored eyes, nodded approvingly.
55880 "That's not the point. I'm not going to discuss the matter. I do not
55881 wish to take it on my conscience. You say they'll die. All wight. Only
55884 Dolokhov began laughing.
55886 "Who has told them not to capture me these twenty times over? But if
55887 they did catch me they'd string me up to an aspen tree, and with all
55888 your chivalry just the same." He paused. "However, we must get to work.
55889 Tell the Cossack to fetch my kit. I have two French uniforms in it.
55890 Well, are you coming with me?" he asked Petya.
55892 "I? Yes, yes, certainly!" cried Petya, blushing almost to tears and
55893 glancing at Denisov.
55895 While Dolokhov had been disputing with Denisov what should be done with
55896 prisoners, Petya had once more felt awkward and restless; but again he
55897 had no time to grasp fully what they were talking about. "If grown-up,
55898 distinguished men think so, it must be necessary and right," thought he.
55899 "But above all Denisov must not dare to imagine that I'll obey him and
55900 that he can order me about. I will certainly go to the French camp with
55901 Dolokhov. If he can, so can I!"
55903 And to all Denisov's persuasions, Petya replied that he too was
55904 accustomed to do everything accurately and not just anyhow, and that he
55905 never considered personal danger.
55907 "For you'll admit that if we don't know for sure how many of them there
55908 are... hundreds of lives may depend on it, while there are only two of
55909 us. Besides, I want to go very much and certainly will go, so don't
55910 hinder me," said he. "It will only make things worse..."
55917 Having put on French greatcoats and shakos, Petya and Dolokhov rode to
55918 the clearing from which Denisov had reconnoitered the French camp, and
55919 emerging from the forest in pitch darkness they descended into the
55920 hollow. On reaching the bottom, Dolokhov told the Cossacks accompanying
55921 him to await him there and rode on at a quick trot along the road to the
55922 bridge. Petya, his heart in his mouth with excitement, rode by his side.
55924 "If we're caught, I won't be taken alive! I have a pistol," whispered
55927 "Don't talk Russian," said Dolokhov in a hurried whisper, and at that
55928 very moment they heard through the darkness the challenge: "Qui vive?" *
55929 and the click of a musket.
55932 * "Who goes there?"
55934 The blood rushed to Petya's face and he grasped his pistol.
55936 "Lanciers du 6-me," * replied Dolokhov, neither hastening nor slackening
55940 * "Lancers of the 6th Regiment."
55942 The black figure of a sentinel stood on the bridge.
55949 Dolokhov reined in his horse and advanced at a walk.
55951 "Dites donc, le colonel Gerard est ici?" * he asked.
55954 * "Tell me, is Colonel Gerard here?"
55956 "Mot d'ordre," repeated the sentinel, barring the way and not replying.
55958 "Quand un officier fait sa ronde, les sentinelles ne demandent pas le
55959 mot d'ordre..." cried Dolokhov suddenly flaring up and riding straight
55960 at the sentinel. "Je vous demande si le colonel est ici." *
55963 * "When an officer is making his round, sentinels don't ask him for the
55964 password.... I am asking you if the colonel is here."
55966 And without waiting for an answer from the sentinel, who had stepped
55967 aside, Dolokhov rode up the incline at a walk.
55969 Noticing the black outline of a man crossing the road, Dolokhov stopped
55970 him and inquired where the commander and officers were. The man, a
55971 soldier with a sack over his shoulder, stopped, came close up to
55972 Dolokhov's horse, touched it with his hand, and explained simply and in
55973 a friendly way that the commander and the officers were higher up the
55974 hill to the right in the courtyard of the farm, as he called the
55977 Having ridden up the road, on both sides of which French talk could be
55978 heard around the campfires, Dolokhov turned into the courtyard of the
55979 landowner's house. Having ridden in, he dismounted and approached a big
55980 blazing campfire, around which sat several men talking noisily.
55981 Something was boiling in a small cauldron at the edge of the fire and a
55982 soldier in a peaked cap and blue overcoat, lit up by the fire, was
55983 kneeling beside it stirring its contents with a ramrod.
55985 "Oh, he's a hard nut to crack," said one of the officers who was sitting
55986 in the shadow at the other side of the fire.
55988 "He'll make them get a move on, those fellows!" said another, laughing.
55990 Both fell silent, peering out through the darkness at the sound of
55991 Dolokhov's and Petya's steps as they advanced to the fire leading their
55994 "Bonjour, messieurs!" * said Dolokhov loudly and clearly.
55997 * "Good day, gentlemen."
55999 There was a stir among the officers in the shadow beyond the fire, and
56000 one tall, long-necked officer, walking round the fire, came up to
56003 "Is that you, Clement?" he asked. "Where the devil...?" But, noticing
56004 his mistake, he broke off short and, with a frown, greeted Dolokhov as a
56005 stranger, asking what he could do for him.
56007 Dolokhov said that he and his companion were trying to overtake their
56008 regiment, and addressing the company in general asked whether they knew
56009 anything of the 6th Regiment. None of them knew anything, and Petya
56010 thought the officers were beginning to look at him and Dolokhov with
56011 hostility and suspicion. For some seconds all were silent.
56013 "If you were counting on the evening soup, you have come too late," said
56014 a voice from behind the fire with a repressed laugh.
56016 Dolokhov replied that they were not hungry and must push on farther that
56019 He handed the horses over to the soldier who was stirring the pot and
56020 squatted down on his heels by the fire beside the officer with the long
56021 neck. That officer did not take his eyes from Dolokhov and again asked
56022 to what regiment he belonged. Dolokhov, as if he had not heard the
56023 question, did not reply, but lighting a short French pipe which he took
56024 from his pocket began asking the officer in how far the road before them
56025 was safe from Cossacks.
56027 "Those brigands are everywhere," replied an officer from behind the
56030 Dolokhov remarked that the Cossacks were a danger only to stragglers
56031 such as his companion and himself, "but probably they would not dare to
56032 attack large detachments?" he added inquiringly. No one replied.
56034 "Well, now he'll come away," Petya thought every moment as he stood by
56035 the campfire listening to the talk.
56037 But Dolokhov restarted the conversation which had dropped and began
56038 putting direct questions as to how many men there were in the battalion,
56039 how many battalions, and how many prisoners. Asking about the Russian
56040 prisoners with that detachment, Dolokhov said:
56042 "A horrid business dragging these corpses about with one! It would be
56043 better to shoot such rabble," and burst into loud laughter, so strange
56044 that Petya thought the French would immediately detect their disguise,
56045 and involuntarily took a step back from the campfire.
56047 No one replied a word to Dolokhov's laughter, and a French officer whom
56048 they could not see (he lay wrapped in a greatcoat) rose and whispered
56049 something to a companion. Dolokhov got up and called to the soldier who
56050 was holding their horses.
56052 "Will they bring our horses or not?" thought Petya, instinctively
56053 drawing nearer to Dolokhov.
56055 The horses were brought.
56057 "Good evening, gentlemen," said Dolokhov.
56059 Petya wished to say "Good night" but could not utter a word. The
56060 officers were whispering together. Dolokhov was a long time mounting his
56061 horse which would not stand still, then he rode out of the yard at a
56062 footpace. Petya rode beside him, longing to look round to see whether or
56063 not the French were running after them, but not daring to.
56065 Coming out onto the road Dolokhov did not ride back across the open
56066 country, but through the village. At one spot he stopped and listened.
56067 "Do you hear?" he asked. Petya recognized the sound of Russian voices
56068 and saw the dark figures of Russian prisoners round their campfires.
56069 When they had descended to the bridge Petya and Dolokhov rode past the
56070 sentinel, who without saying a word paced morosely up and down it, then
56071 they descended into the hollow where the Cossacks awaited them.
56073 "Well now, good-by. Tell Denisov, 'at the first shot at daybreak,'" said
56074 Dolokhov and was about to ride away, but Petya seized hold of him.
56076 "Really!" he cried, "you are such a hero! Oh, how fine, how splendid!
56079 "All right, all right!" said Dolokhov. But Petya did not let go of him
56080 and Dolokhov saw through the gloom that Petya was bending toward him and
56081 wanted to kiss him. Dolokhov kissed him, laughed, turned his horse, and
56082 vanished into the darkness.
56089 Having returned to the watchman's hut, Petya found Denisov in the
56090 passage. He was awaiting Petya's return in a state of agitation,
56091 anxiety, and self-reproach for having let him go.
56093 "Thank God!" he exclaimed. "Yes, thank God!" he repeated, listening to
56094 Petya's rapturous account. "But, devil take you, I haven't slept because
56095 of you! Well, thank God. Now lie down. We can still get a nap before
56098 "But... no," said Petya, "I don't want to sleep yet. Besides I know
56099 myself, if I fall asleep it's finished. And then I am used to not
56100 sleeping before a battle."
56102 He sat awhile in the hut joyfully recalling the details of his
56103 expedition and vividly picturing to himself what would happen next day.
56105 Then, noticing that Denisov was asleep, he rose and went out of doors.
56107 It was still quite dark outside. The rain was over, but drops were still
56108 falling from the trees. Near the watchman's hut the black shapes of the
56109 Cossacks' shanties and of horses tethered together could be seen. Behind
56110 the hut the dark shapes of the two wagons with their horses beside them
56111 were discernible, and in the hollow the dying campfire gleamed red. Not
56112 all the Cossacks and hussars were asleep; here and there, amid the
56113 sounds of falling drops and the munching of the horses near by, could be
56114 heard low voices which seemed to be whispering.
56116 Petya came out, peered into the darkness, and went up to the wagons.
56117 Someone was snoring under them, and around them stood saddled horses
56118 munching their oats. In the dark Petya recognized his own horse, which
56119 he called "Karabakh" though it was of Ukranian breed, and went up to it.
56121 "Well, Karabakh! We'll do some service tomorrow," said he, sniffing its
56122 nostrils and kissing it.
56124 "Why aren't you asleep, sir?" said a Cossack who was sitting under a
56127 "No, ah... Likhachev--isn't that your name? Do you know I have only just
56128 come back! We've been into the French camp."
56130 And Petya gave the Cossack a detailed account not only of his ride but
56131 also of his object, and why he considered it better to risk his life
56132 than to act "just anyhow."
56134 "Well, you should get some sleep now," said the Cossack.
56136 "No, I am used to this," said Petya. "I say, aren't the flints in your
56137 pistols worn out? I brought some with me. Don't you want any? You can
56140 The Cossack bent forward from under the wagon to get a closer look at
56143 "Because I am accustomed to doing everything accurately," said Petya.
56144 "Some fellows do things just anyhow, without preparation, and then
56145 they're sorry for it afterwards. I don't like that."
56147 "Just so," said the Cossack.
56149 "Oh yes, another thing! Please, my dear fellow, will you sharpen my
56150 saber for me? It's got bl..." (Petya feared to tell a lie, and the saber
56151 never had been sharpened.) "Can you do it?"
56155 Likhachev got up, rummaged in his pack, and soon Petya heard the warlike
56156 sound of steel on whetstone. He climbed onto the wagon and sat on its
56157 edge. The Cossack was sharpening the saber under the wagon.
56159 "I say! Are the lads asleep?" asked Petya.
56161 "Some are, and some aren't--like us."
56163 "Well, and that boy?"
56165 "Vesenny? Oh, he's thrown himself down there in the passage. Fast asleep
56166 after his fright. He was that glad!"
56168 After that Petya remained silent for a long time, listening to the
56169 sounds. He heard footsteps in the darkness and a black figure appeared.
56171 "What are you sharpening?" asked a man coming up to the wagon.
56173 "Why, this gentleman's saber."
56175 "That's right," said the man, whom Petya took to be an hussar. "Was the
56178 "There, by the wheel!"
56180 The hussar took the cup.
56182 "It must be daylight soon," said he, yawning, and went away.
56184 Petya ought to have known that he was in a forest with Denisov's
56185 guerrilla band, less than a mile from the road, sitting on a wagon
56186 captured from the French beside which horses were tethered, that under
56187 it Likhachev was sitting sharpening a saber for him, that the big dark
56188 blotch to the right was the watchman's hut, and the red blotch below to
56189 the left was the dying embers of a campfire, that the man who had come
56190 for the cup was an hussar who wanted a drink; but he neither knew nor
56191 waited to know anything of all this. He was in a fairy kingdom where
56192 nothing resembled reality. The big dark blotch might really be the
56193 watchman's hut or it might be a cavern leading to the very depths of the
56194 earth. Perhaps the red spot was a fire, or it might be the eye of an
56195 enormous monster. Perhaps he was really sitting on a wagon, but it might
56196 very well be that he was not sitting on a wagon but on a terribly high
56197 tower from which, if he fell, he would have to fall for a whole day or a
56198 whole month, or go on falling and never reach the bottom. Perhaps it was
56199 just the Cossack, Likhachev, who was sitting under the wagon, but it
56200 might be the kindest, bravest, most wonderful, most splendid man in the
56201 world, whom no one knew of. It might really have been that the hussar
56202 came for water and went back into the hollow, but perhaps he had simply
56203 vanished--disappeared altogether and dissolved into nothingness.
56205 Nothing Petya could have seen now would have surprised him. He was in a
56206 fairy kingdom where everything was possible.
56208 He looked up at the sky. And the sky was a fairy realm like the earth.
56209 It was clearing, and over the tops of the trees clouds were swiftly
56210 sailing as if unveiling the stars. Sometimes it looked as if the clouds
56211 were passing, and a clear black sky appeared. Sometimes it seemed as if
56212 the black spaces were clouds. Sometimes the sky seemed to be rising
56213 high, high overhead, and then it seemed to sink so low that one could
56214 touch it with one's hand.
56216 Petya's eyes began to close and he swayed a little.
56218 The trees were dripping. Quiet talking was heard. The horses neighed and
56219 jostled one another. Someone snored.
56221 "Ozheg-zheg, Ozheg-zheg..." hissed the saber against the whetstone, and
56222 suddenly Petya heard an harmonious orchestra playing some unknown,
56223 sweetly solemn hymn. Petya was as musical as Natasha and more so than
56224 Nicholas, but had never learned music or thought about it, and so the
56225 melody that unexpectedly came to his mind seemed to him particularly
56226 fresh and attractive. The music became more and more audible. The melody
56227 grew and passed from one instrument to another. And what was played was
56228 a fugue--though Petya had not the least conception of what a fugue is.
56229 Each instrument--now resembling a violin and now a horn, but better and
56230 clearer than violin or horn--played its own part, and before it had
56231 finished the melody merged with another instrument that began almost the
56232 same air, and then with a third and a fourth; and they all blended into
56233 one and again became separate and again blended, now into solemn church
56234 music, now into something dazzlingly brilliant and triumphant.
56236 "Oh--why, that was in a dream!" Petya said to himself, as he lurched
56237 forward. "It's in my ears. But perhaps it's music of my own. Well, go
56238 on, my music! Now!..."
56240 He closed his eyes, and, from all sides as if from a distance, sounds
56241 fluttered, grew into harmonies, separated, blended, and again all
56242 mingled into the same sweet and solemn hymn. "Oh, this is delightful! As
56243 much as I like and as I like!" said Petya to himself. He tried to
56244 conduct that enormous orchestra.
56246 "Now softly, softly die away!" and the sounds obeyed him. "Now fuller,
56247 more joyful. Still more and more joyful!" And from an unknown depth rose
56248 increasingly triumphant sounds. "Now voices join in!" ordered Petya. And
56249 at first from afar he heard men's voices and then women's. The voices
56250 grew in harmonious triumphant strength, and Petya listened to their
56251 surpassing beauty in awe and joy.
56253 With a solemn triumphal march there mingled a song, the drip from the
56254 trees, and the hissing of the saber, "Ozheg-zheg-zheg..." and again the
56255 horses jostled one another and neighed, not disturbing the choir but
56258 Petya did not know how long this lasted: he enjoyed himself all the
56259 time, wondered at his enjoyment and regretted that there was no one to
56260 share it. He was awakened by Likhachev's kindly voice.
56262 "It's ready, your honor; you can split a Frenchman in half with it!"
56266 "It's getting light, it's really getting light!" he exclaimed.
56268 The horses that had previously been invisible could now be seen to their
56269 very tails, and a watery light showed itself through the bare branches.
56270 Petya shook himself, jumped up, took a ruble from his pocket and gave it
56271 to Likhachev; then he flourished the saber, tested it, and sheathed it.
56272 The Cossacks were untying their horses and tightening their saddle
56275 "And here's the commander," said Likhachev.
56277 Denisov came out of the watchman's hut and, having called Petya, gave
56278 orders to get ready.
56285 The men rapidly picked out their horses in the semidarkness, tightened
56286 their saddle girths, and formed companies. Denisov stood by the
56287 watchman's hut giving final orders. The infantry of the detachment
56288 passed along the road and quickly disappeared amid the trees in the mist
56289 of early dawn, hundreds of feet splashing through the mud. The esaul
56290 gave some orders to his men. Petya held his horse by the bridle,
56291 impatiently awaiting the order to mount. His face, having been bathed in
56292 cold water, was all aglow, and his eyes were particularly brilliant.
56293 Cold shivers ran down his spine and his whole body pulsed rhythmically.
56295 "Well, is ev'wything weady?" asked Denisov. "Bwing the horses."
56297 The horses were brought. Denisov was angry with the Cossack because the
56298 saddle girths were too slack, reproved him, and mounted. Petya put his
56299 foot in the stirrup. His horse by habit made as if to nip his leg, but
56300 Petya leaped quickly into the saddle unconscious of his own weight and,
56301 turning to look at the hussars starting in the darkness behind him, rode
56304 "Vasili Dmitrich, entrust me with some commission! Please... for God's
56307 Denisov seemed to have forgotten Petya's very existence. He turned to
56310 "I ask one thing of you," he said sternly, "to obey me and not shove
56311 yourself forward anywhere."
56313 He did not say another word to Petya but rode in silence all the way.
56314 When they had come to the edge of the forest it was noticeably growing
56315 light over the field. Denisov talked in whispers with the esaul and the
56316 Cossacks rode past Petya and Denisov. When they had all ridden by,
56317 Denisov touched his horse and rode down the hill. Slipping onto their
56318 haunches and sliding, the horses descended with their riders into the
56319 ravine. Petya rode beside Denisov, the pulsation of his body constantly
56320 increasing. It was getting lighter and lighter, but the mist still hid
56321 distant objects. Having reached the valley, Denisov looked back and
56322 nodded to a Cossack beside him.
56324 "The signal!" said he.
56326 The Cossack raised his arm and a shot rang out. In an instant the tramp
56327 of horses galloping forward was heard, shouts came from various sides,
56328 and then more shots.
56330 At the first sound of trampling hoofs and shouting, Petya lashed his
56331 horse and loosening his rein galloped forward, not heeding Denisov who
56332 shouted at him. It seemed to Petya that at the moment the shot was fired
56333 it suddenly became as bright as noon. He galloped to the bridge.
56334 Cossacks were galloping along the road in front of him. On the bridge he
56335 collided with a Cossack who had fallen behind, but he galloped on. In
56336 front of him soldiers, probably Frenchmen, were running from right to
56337 left across the road. One of them fell in the mud under his horse's
56340 Cossacks were crowding about a hut, busy with something. From the midst
56341 of that crowd terrible screams arose. Petya galloped up, and the first
56342 thing he saw was the pale face and trembling jaw of a Frenchman,
56343 clutching the handle of a lance that had been aimed at him.
56345 "Hurrah!... Lads!... ours!" shouted Petya, and giving rein to his
56346 excited horse he galloped forward along the village street.
56348 He could hear shooting ahead of him. Cossacks, hussars, and ragged
56349 Russian prisoners, who had come running from both sides of the road,
56350 were shouting something loudly and incoherently. A gallant-looking
56351 Frenchman, in a blue overcoat, capless, and with a frowning red face,
56352 had been defending himself against the hussars. When Petya galloped up
56353 the Frenchman had already fallen. "Too late again!" flashed through
56354 Petya's mind and he galloped on to the place from which the rapid firing
56355 could be heard. The shots came from the yard of the landowner's house he
56356 had visited the night before with Dolokhov. The French were making a
56357 stand there behind a wattle fence in a garden thickly overgrown with
56358 bushes and were firing at the Cossacks who crowded at the gateway.
56359 Through the smoke, as he approached the gate, Petya saw Dolokhov, whose
56360 face was of a pale-greenish tint, shouting to his men. "Go round! Wait
56361 for the infantry!" he exclaimed as Petya rode up to him.
56363 "Wait?... Hurrah-ah-ah!" shouted Petya, and without pausing a moment
56364 galloped to the place whence came the sounds of firing and where the
56365 smoke was thickest.
56367 A volley was heard, and some bullets whistled past, while others plashed
56368 against something. The Cossacks and Dolokhov galloped after Petya into
56369 the gateway of the courtyard. In the dense wavering smoke some of the
56370 French threw down their arms and ran out of the bushes to meet the
56371 Cossacks, while others ran down the hill toward the pond. Petya was
56372 galloping along the courtyard, but instead of holding the reins he waved
56373 both his arms about rapidly and strangely, slipping farther and farther
56374 to one side in his saddle. His horse, having galloped up to a campfire
56375 that was smoldering in the morning light, stopped suddenly, and Petya
56376 fell heavily on to the wet ground. The Cossacks saw that his arms and
56377 legs jerked rapidly though his head was quite motionless. A bullet had
56380 After speaking to the senior French officer, who came out of the house
56381 with a white handkerchief tied to his sword and announced that they
56382 surrendered, Dolokhov dismounted and went up to Petya, who lay
56383 motionless with outstretched arms.
56385 "Done for!" he said with a frown, and went to the gate to meet Denisov
56386 who was riding toward him.
56388 "Killed?" cried Denisov, recognizing from a distance the unmistakably
56389 lifeless attitude--very familiar to him--in which Petya's body was
56392 "Done for!" repeated Dolokhov as if the utterance of these words
56393 afforded him pleasure, and he went quickly up to the prisoners, who were
56394 surrounded by Cossacks who had hurried up. "We won't take them!" he
56395 called out to Denisov.
56397 Denisov did not reply; he rode up to Petya, dismounted, and with
56398 trembling hands turned toward himself the bloodstained, mud-bespattered
56399 face which had already gone white.
56401 "I am used to something sweet. Raisins, fine ones... take them all!" he
56402 recalled Petya's words. And the Cossacks looked round in surprise at the
56403 sound, like the yelp of a dog, with which Denisov turned away, walked to
56404 the wattle fence, and seized hold of it.
56406 Among the Russian prisoners rescued by Denisov and Dolokhov was Pierre
56414 During the whole of their march from Moscow no fresh orders had been
56415 issued by the French authorities concerning the party of prisoners among
56416 whom was Pierre. On the twenty-second of October that party was no
56417 longer with the same troops and baggage trains with which it had left
56418 Moscow. Half the wagons laden with hardtack that had traveled the first
56419 stages with them had been captured by Cossacks, the other half had gone
56420 on ahead. Not one of those dismounted cavalrymen who had marched in
56421 front of the prisoners was left; they had all disappeared. The artillery
56422 the prisoners had seen in front of them during the first days was now
56423 replaced by Marshal Junot's enormous baggage train, convoyed by
56424 Westphalians. Behind the prisoners came a cavalry baggage train.
56426 From Vyazma onwards the French army, which had till then moved in three
56427 columns, went on as a single group. The symptoms of disorder that Pierre
56428 had noticed at their first halting place after leaving Moscow had now
56429 reached the utmost limit.
56431 The road along which they moved was bordered on both sides by dead
56432 horses; ragged men who had fallen behind from various regiments
56433 continually changed about, now joining the moving column, now again
56436 Several times during the march false alarms had been given and the
56437 soldiers of the escort had raised their muskets, fired, and run
56438 headlong, crushing one another, but had afterwards reassembled and
56439 abused each other for their causeless panic.
56441 These three groups traveling together--the cavalry stores, the convoy of
56442 prisoners, and Junot's baggage train--still constituted a separate and
56443 united whole, though each of the groups was rapidly melting away.
56445 Of the artillery baggage train which had consisted of a hundred and
56446 twenty wagons, not more than sixty now remained; the rest had been
56447 captured or left behind. Some of Junot's wagons also had been captured
56448 or abandoned. Three wagons had been raided and robbed by stragglers from
56449 Davout's corps. From the talk of the Germans Pierre learned that a
56450 larger guard had been allotted to that baggage train than to the
56451 prisoners, and that one of their comrades, a German soldier, had been
56452 shot by the marshal's own order because a silver spoon belonging to the
56453 marshal had been found in his possession.
56455 The group of prisoners had melted away most of all. Of the three hundred
56456 and thirty men who had set out from Moscow fewer than a hundred now
56457 remained. The prisoners were more burdensome to the escort than even the
56458 cavalry saddles or Junot's baggage. They understood that the saddles and
56459 Junot's spoon might be of some use, but that cold and hungry soldiers
56460 should have to stand and guard equally cold and hungry Russians who
56461 froze and lagged behind on the road (in which case the order was to
56462 shoot them) was not merely incomprehensible but revolting. And the
56463 escort, as if afraid, in the grievous condition they themselves were in,
56464 of giving way to the pity they felt for the prisoners and so rendering
56465 their own plight still worse, treated them with particular moroseness
56468 At Dorogobuzh while the soldiers of the convoy, after locking the
56469 prisoners in a stable, had gone off to pillage their own stores, several
56470 of the soldier prisoners tunneled under the wall and ran away, but were
56471 recaptured by the French and shot.
56473 The arrangement adopted when they started, that the officer prisoners
56474 should be kept separate from the rest, had long since been abandoned.
56475 All who could walk went together, and after the third stage Pierre had
56476 rejoined Karataev and the gray-blue bandy-legged dog that had chosen
56477 Karataev for its master.
56479 On the third day after leaving Moscow Karataev again fell ill with the
56480 fever he had suffered from in the hospital in Moscow, and as he grew
56481 gradually weaker Pierre kept away from him. Pierre did not know why, but
56482 since Karataev had begun to grow weaker it had cost him an effort to go
56483 near him. When he did so and heard the subdued moaning with which
56484 Karataev generally lay down at the halting places, and when he smelled
56485 the odor emanating from him which was now stronger than before, Pierre
56486 moved farther away and did not think about him.
56488 While imprisoned in the shed Pierre had learned not with his intellect
56489 but with his whole being, by life itself, that man is created for
56490 happiness, that happiness is within him, in the satisfaction of simple
56491 human needs, and that all unhappiness arises not from privation but from
56492 superfluity. And now during these last three weeks of the march he had
56493 learned still another new, consolatory truth--that nothing in this world
56494 is terrible. He had learned that as there is no condition in which man
56495 can be happy and entirely free, so there is no condition in which he
56496 need be unhappy and lack freedom. He learned that suffering and freedom
56497 have their limits and that those limits are very near together; that the
56498 person in a bed of roses with one crumpled petal suffered as keenly as
56499 he now, sleeping on the bare damp earth with one side growing chilled
56500 while the other was warming; and that when he had put on tight dancing
56501 shoes he had suffered just as he did now when he walked with bare feet
56502 that were covered with sores--his footgear having long since fallen to
56503 pieces. He discovered that when he had married his wife--of his own free
56504 will as it had seemed to him--he had been no more free than now when
56505 they locked him up at night in a stable. Of all that he himself
56506 subsequently termed his sufferings, but which at the time he scarcely
56507 felt, the worst was the state of his bare, raw, and scab-covered feet.
56508 (The horseflesh was appetizing and nourishing, the saltpeter flavor of
56509 the gunpowder they used instead of salt was even pleasant; there was no
56510 great cold, it was always warm walking in the daytime, and at night
56511 there were the campfires; the lice that devoured him warmed his body.)
56512 The one thing that was at first hard to bear was his feet.
56514 After the second day's march Pierre, having examined his feet by the
56515 campfire, thought it would be impossible to walk on them; but when
56516 everybody got up he went along, limping, and, when he had warmed up,
56517 walked without feeling the pain, though at night his feet were more
56518 terrible to look at than before. However, he did not look at them now,
56519 but thought of other things.
56521 Only now did Pierre realize the full strength of life in man and the
56522 saving power he has of transferring his attention from one thing to
56523 another, which is like the safety valve of a boiler that allows
56524 superfluous steam to blow off when the pressure exceeds a certain limit.
56526 He did not see and did not hear how they shot the prisoners who lagged
56527 behind, though more than a hundred perished in that way. He did not
56528 think of Karataev who grew weaker every day and evidently would soon
56529 have to share that fate. Still less did Pierre think about himself. The
56530 harder his position became and the more terrible the future, the more
56531 independent of that position in which he found himself were the joyful
56532 and comforting thoughts, memories, and imaginings that came to him.
56539 At midday on the twenty-second of October Pierre was going uphill along
56540 the muddy, slippery road, looking at his feet and at the roughness of
56541 the way. Occasionally he glanced at the familiar crowd around him and
56542 then again at his feet. The former and the latter were alike familiar
56543 and his own. The blue-gray bandy legged dog ran merrily along the side
56544 of the road, sometimes in proof of its agility and self-satisfaction
56545 lifting one hind leg and hopping along on three, and then again going on
56546 all four and rushing to bark at the crows that sat on the carrion. The
56547 dog was merrier and sleeker than it had been in Moscow. All around lay
56548 the flesh of different animals--from men to horses--in various stages of
56549 decomposition; and as the wolves were kept off by the passing men the
56550 dog could eat all it wanted.
56552 It had been raining since morning and had seemed as if at any moment it
56553 might cease and the sky clear, but after a short break it began raining
56554 harder than before. The saturated road no longer absorbed the water,
56555 which ran along the ruts in streams.
56557 Pierre walked along, looking from side to side, counting his steps in
56558 threes, and reckoning them off on his fingers. Mentally addressing the
56559 rain, he repeated: "Now then, now then, go on! Pelt harder!"
56561 It seemed to him that he was thinking of nothing, but far down and deep
56562 within him his soul was occupied with something important and
56563 comforting. This something was a most subtle spiritual deduction from a
56564 conversation with Karataev the day before.
56566 At their yesterday's halting place, feeling chilly by a dying campfire,
56567 Pierre had got up and gone to the next one, which was burning better.
56568 There Platon Karataev was sitting covered up--head and all--with his
56569 greatcoat as if it were a vestment, telling the soldiers in his
56570 effective and pleasant though now feeble voice a story Pierre knew. It
56571 was already past midnight, the hour when Karataev was usually free of
56572 his fever and particularly lively. When Pierre reached the fire and
56573 heard Platon's voice enfeebled by illness, and saw his pathetic face
56574 brightly lit up by the blaze, he felt a painful prick at his heart. His
56575 feeling of pity for this man frightened him and he wished to go away,
56576 but there was no other fire, and Pierre sat down, trying not to look at
56579 "Well, how are you?" he asked.
56581 "How am I? If we grumble at sickness, God won't grant us death," replied
56582 Platon, and at once resumed the story he had begun.
56584 "And so, brother," he continued, with a smile on his pale emaciated face
56585 and a particularly happy light in his eyes, "you see, brother..."
56587 Pierre had long been familiar with that story. Karataev had told it to
56588 him alone some half-dozen times and always with a specially joyful
56589 emotion. But well as he knew it, Pierre now listened to that tale as to
56590 something new, and the quiet rapture Karataev evidently felt as he told
56591 it communicated itself also to Pierre. The story was of an old merchant
56592 who lived a good and God-fearing life with his family, and who went once
56593 to the Nizhni fair with a companion--a rich merchant.
56595 Having put up at an inn they both went to sleep, and next morning his
56596 companion was found robbed and with his throat cut. A bloodstained knife
56597 was found under the old merchant's pillow. He was tried, knouted, and
56598 his nostrils having been torn off, "all in due form" as Karataev put it,
56599 he was sent to hard labor in Siberia.
56601 "And so, brother" (it was at this point that Pierre came up), "ten years
56602 or more passed by. The old man was living as a convict, submitting as he
56603 should and doing no wrong. Only he prayed to God for death. Well, one
56604 night the convicts were gathered just as we are, with the old man among
56605 them. And they began telling what each was suffering for, and how they
56606 had sinned against God. One told how he had taken a life, another had
56607 taken two, a third had set a house on fire, while another had simply
56608 been a vagrant and had done nothing. So they asked the old man: 'What
56609 are you being punished for, Daddy?'--'I, my dear brothers,' said he, 'am
56610 being punished for my own and other men's sins. But I have not killed
56611 anyone or taken anything that was not mine, but have only helped my
56612 poorer brothers. I was a merchant, my dear brothers, and had much
56613 property. 'And he went on to tell them all about it in due order. 'I
56614 don't grieve for myself,' he says, 'God, it seems, has chastened me.
56615 Only I am sorry for my old wife and the children,' and the old man began
56616 to weep. Now it happened that in the group was the very man who had
56617 killed the other merchant. 'Where did it happen, Daddy?' he said. 'When,
56618 and in what month?' He asked all about it and his heart began to ache.
56619 So he comes up to the old man like this, and falls down at his feet!
56620 'You are perishing because of me, Daddy,' he says. 'It's quite true,
56621 lads, that this man,' he says, 'is being tortured innocently and for
56622 nothing! I,' he says, 'did that deed, and I put the knife under your
56623 head while you were asleep. Forgive me, Daddy,' he says, 'for Christ's
56626 Karataev paused, smiling joyously as he gazed into the fire, and he drew
56629 "And the old man said, 'God will forgive you, we are all sinners in His
56630 sight. I suffer for my own sins,' and he wept bitter tears. Well, and
56631 what do you think, dear friends?" Karataev continued, his face
56632 brightening more and more with a rapturous smile as if what he now had
56633 to tell contained the chief charm and the whole meaning of his story:
56634 "What do you think, dear fellows? That murderer confessed to the
56635 authorities. 'I have taken six lives,' he says (he was a great sinner),
56636 'but what I am most sorry for is this old man. Don't let him suffer
56637 because of me.' So he confessed and it was all written down and the
56638 papers sent off in due form. The place was a long way off, and while
56639 they were judging, what with one thing and another, filling in the
56640 papers all in due form--the authorities I mean--time passed. The affair
56641 reached the Tsar. After a while the Tsar's decree came: to set the
56642 merchant free and give him a compensation that had been awarded. The
56643 paper arrived and they began to look for the old man. 'Where is the old
56644 man who has been suffering innocently and in vain? A paper has come from
56645 the Tsar!' so they began looking for him," here Karataev's lower jaw
56646 trembled, "but God had already forgiven him--he was dead! That's how it
56647 was, dear fellows!" Karataev concluded and sat for a long time silent,
56648 gazing before him with a smile.
56650 And Pierre's soul was dimly but joyfully filled not by the story itself
56651 but by its mysterious significance: by the rapturous joy that lit up
56652 Karataev's face as he told it, and the mystic significance of that joy.
56659 "A vos places!" * suddenly cried a voice.
56662 * "To your places."
56664 A pleasant feeling of excitement and an expectation of something joyful
56665 and solemn was aroused among the soldiers of the convoy and the
56666 prisoners. From all sides came shouts of command, and from the left came
56667 smartly dressed cavalrymen on good horses, passing the prisoners at a
56668 trot. The expression on all faces showed the tension people feel at the
56669 approach of those in authority. The prisoners thronged together and were
56670 pushed off the road. The convoy formed up.
56672 "The Emperor! The Emperor! The Marshal! The Duke!" and hardly had the
56673 sleek cavalry passed, before a carriage drawn by six gray horses rattled
56674 by. Pierre caught a glimpse of a man in a three-cornered hat with a
56675 tranquil look on his handsome, plump, white face. It was one of the
56676 marshals. His eye fell on Pierre's large and striking figure, and in the
56677 expression with which he frowned and looked away Pierre thought he
56678 detected sympathy and a desire to conceal that sympathy.
56680 The general in charge of the stores galloped after the carriage with a
56681 red and frightened face, whipping up his skinny horse. Several officers
56682 formed a group and some soldiers crowded round them. Their faces all
56683 looked excited and worried.
56685 "What did he say? What did he say?" Pierre heard them ask.
56687 While the marshal was passing, the prisoners had huddled together in a
56688 crowd, and Pierre saw Karataev whom he had not yet seen that morning. He
56689 sat in his short overcoat leaning against a birch tree. On his face,
56690 besides the look of joyful emotion it had worn yesterday while telling
56691 the tale of the merchant who suffered innocently, there was now an
56692 expression of quiet solemnity.
56694 Karataev looked at Pierre with his kindly round eyes now filled with
56695 tears, evidently wishing him to come near that he might say something to
56696 him. But Pierre was not sufficiently sure of himself. He made as if he
56697 did not notice that look and moved hastily away.
56699 When the prisoners again went forward Pierre looked round. Karataev was
56700 still sitting at the side of the road under the birch tree and two
56701 Frenchmen were talking over his head. Pierre did not look round again
56702 but went limping up the hill.
56704 From behind, where Karataev had been sitting, came the sound of a shot.
56705 Pierre heard it plainly, but at that moment he remembered that he had
56706 not yet finished reckoning up how many stages still remained to
56707 Smolensk--a calculation he had begun before the marshal went by. And he
56708 again started reckoning. Two French soldiers ran past Pierre, one of
56709 whom carried a lowered and smoking gun. They both looked pale, and in
56710 the expression on their faces--one of them glanced timidly at Pierre--
56711 there was something resembling what he had seen on the face of the young
56712 soldier at the execution. Pierre looked at the soldier and remembered
56713 that, two days before, that man had burned his shirt while drying it at
56714 the fire and how they had laughed at him.
56716 Behind him, where Karataev had been sitting, the dog began to howl.
56717 "What a stupid beast! Why is it howling?" thought Pierre.
56719 His comrades, the prisoner soldiers walking beside him, avoided looking
56720 back at the place where the shot had been fired and the dog was howling,
56721 just as Pierre did, but there was a set look on all their faces.
56728 The stores, the prisoners, and the marshal's baggage train stopped at
56729 the village of Shamshevo. The men crowded together round the campfires.
56730 Pierre went up to the fire, ate some roast horseflesh, lay down with his
56731 back to the fire, and immediately fell asleep. He again slept as he had
56732 done at Mozhaysk after the battle of Borodino.
56734 Again real events mingled with dreams and again someone, he or another,
56735 gave expression to his thoughts, and even to the same thoughts that had
56736 been expressed in his dream at Mozhaysk.
56738 "Life is everything. Life is God. Everything changes and moves and that
56739 movement is God. And while there is life there is joy in consciousness
56740 of the divine. To love life is to love God. Harder and more blessed than
56741 all else is to love this life in one's sufferings, in innocent
56744 "Karataev!" came to Pierre's mind.
56746 And suddenly he saw vividly before him a long-forgotten, kindly old man
56747 who had given him geography lessons in Switzerland. "Wait a bit," said
56748 the old man, and showed Pierre a globe. This globe was alive--a
56749 vibrating ball without fixed dimensions. Its whole surface consisted of
56750 drops closely pressed together, and all these drops moved and changed
56751 places, sometimes several of them merging into one, sometimes one
56752 dividing into many. Each drop tried to spread out and occupy as much
56753 space as possible, but others striving to do the same compressed it,
56754 sometimes destroyed it, and sometimes merged with it.
56756 "That is life," said the old teacher.
56758 "How simple and clear it is," thought Pierre. "How is it I did not know
56761 "God is in the midst, and each drop tries to expand so as to reflect Him
56762 to the greatest extent. And it grows, merges, disappears from the
56763 surface, sinks to the depths, and again emerges. There now, Karataev has
56764 spread out and disappeared. Do you understand, my child?" said the
56767 "Do you understand, damn you?" shouted a voice, and Pierre woke up.
56769 He lifted himself and sat up. A Frenchman who had just pushed a Russian
56770 soldier away was squatting by the fire, engaged in roasting a piece of
56771 meat stuck on a ramrod. His sleeves were rolled up and his sinewy,
56772 hairy, red hands with their short fingers deftly turned the ramrod. His
56773 brown morose face with frowning brows was clearly visible by the glow of
56776 "It's all the same to him," he muttered, turning quickly to a soldier
56777 who stood behind him. "Brigand! Get away!"
56779 And twisting the ramrod he looked gloomily at Pierre, who turned away
56780 and gazed into the darkness. A prisoner, the Russian soldier the
56781 Frenchman had pushed away, was sitting near the fire patting something
56782 with his hand. Looking more closely Pierre recognized the blue-gray dog,
56783 sitting beside the soldier, wagging its tail.
56785 "Ah, he's come?" said Pierre. "And Plat-" he began, but did not finish.
56787 Suddenly and simultaneously a crowd of memories awoke in his fancy--of
56788 the look Platon had given him as he sat under the tree, of the shot
56789 heard from that spot, of the dog's howl, of the guilty faces of the two
56790 Frenchmen as they ran past him, of the lowered and smoking gun, and of
56791 Karataev's absence at this halt--and he was on the point of realizing
56792 that Karataev had been killed, but just at that instant, he knew not
56793 why, the recollection came to his mind of a summer evening he had spent
56794 with a beautiful Polish lady on the veranda of his house in Kiev. And
56795 without linking up the events of the day or drawing a conclusion from
56796 them, Pierre closed his eyes, seeing a vision of the country in
56797 summertime mingled with memories of bathing and of the liquid, vibrating
56798 globe, and he sank into water so that it closed over his head.
56800 Before sunrise he was awakened by shouts and loud and rapid firing.
56801 French soldiers were running past him.
56803 "The Cossacks!" one of them shouted, and a moment later a crowd of
56804 Russians surrounded Pierre.
56806 For a long time he could not understand what was happening to him. All
56807 around he heard his comrades sobbing with joy.
56809 "Brothers! Dear fellows! Darlings!" old soldiers exclaimed, weeping, as
56810 they embraced Cossacks and hussars.
56812 The hussars and Cossacks crowded round the prisoners; one offered them
56813 clothes, another boots, and a third bread. Pierre sobbed as he sat among
56814 them and could not utter a word. He hugged the first soldier who
56815 approached him, and kissed him, weeping.
56817 Dolokhov stood at the gate of the ruined house, letting a crowd of
56818 disarmed Frenchmen pass by. The French, excited by all that had
56819 happened, were talking loudly among themselves, but as they passed
56820 Dolokhov who gently switched his boots with his whip and watched them
56821 with cold glassy eyes that boded no good, they became silent. On the
56822 opposite side stood Dolokhov's Cossack, counting the prisoners and
56823 marking off each hundred with a chalk line on the gate.
56825 "How many?" Dolokhov asked the Cossack.
56827 "The second hundred," replied the Cossack.
56829 "Filez, filez!" * Dolokhov kept saying, having adopted this expression
56830 from the French, and when his eyes met those of the prisoners they
56831 flashed with a cruel light.
56834 * "Get along, get along!"
56836 Denisov, bareheaded and with a gloomy face, walked behind some Cossacks
56837 who were carrying the body of Petya Rostov to a hole that had been dug
56845 After the twenty-eighth of October when the frosts began, the flight of
56846 the French assumed a still more tragic character, with men freezing, or
56847 roasting themselves to death at the campfires, while carriages with
56848 people dressed in furs continued to drive past, carrying away the
56849 property that had been stolen by the Emperor, kings, and dukes; but the
56850 process of the flight and disintegration of the French army went on
56851 essentially as before.
56853 From Moscow to Vyazma the French army of seventy-three thousand men not
56854 reckoning the Guards (who did nothing during the whole war but pillage)
56855 was reduced to thirty-six thousand, though not more than five thousand
56856 had fallen in battle. From this beginning the succeeding terms of the
56857 progression could be determined mathematically. The French army melted
56858 away and perished at the same rate from Moscow to Vyazma, from Vyazma to
56859 Smolensk, from Smolensk to the Berezina, and from the Berezina to Vilna-
56860 -independently of the greater or lesser intensity of the cold, the
56861 pursuit, the barring of the way, or any other particular conditions.
56862 Beyond Vyazma the French army instead of moving in three columns huddled
56863 together into one mass, and so went on to the end. Berthier wrote to his
56864 Emperor (we know how far commanding officers allow themselves to diverge
56865 from the truth in describing the condition of an army) and this is what
56868 I deem it my duty to report to Your Majesty the condition of the various
56869 corps I have had occasion to observe during different stages of the last
56870 two or three days' march. They are almost disbanded. Scarcely a quarter
56871 of the soldiers remain with the standards of their regiments, the others
56872 go off by themselves in different directions hoping to find food and
56873 escape discipline. In general they regard Smolensk as the place where
56874 they hope to recover. During the last few days many of the men have been
56875 seen to throw away their cartridges and their arms. In such a state of
56876 affairs, whatever your ultimate plans may be, the interest of Your
56877 Majesty's service demands that the army should be rallied at Smolensk
56878 and should first of all be freed from ineffectives, such as dismounted
56879 cavalry, unnecessary baggage, and artillery material that is no longer
56880 in proportion to the present forces. The soldiers, who are worn out with
56881 hunger and fatigue, need these supplies as well as a few days' rest.
56882 Many have died these last days on the road or at the bivouacs. This
56883 state of things is continually becoming worse and makes one fear that
56884 unless a prompt remedy is applied the troops will no longer be under
56885 control in case of an engagement.
56887 November 9: twenty miles from Smolensk.
56889 After staggering into Smolensk which seemed to them a promised land, the
56890 French, searching for food, killed one another, sacked their own stores,
56891 and when everything had been plundered fled farther.
56893 They all went without knowing whither or why they were going. Still less
56894 did that genius, Napoleon, know it, for no one issued any orders to him.
56895 But still he and those about him retained their old habits: wrote
56896 commands, letters, reports, and orders of the day; called one another
56897 sire, mon cousin, prince d'Eckmuhl, roi de Naples, and so on. But these
56898 orders and reports were only on paper, nothing in them was acted upon
56899 for they could not be carried out, and though they entitled one another
56900 Majesties, Highnesses, or Cousins, they all felt that they were
56901 miserable wretches who had done much evil for which they had now to pay.
56902 And though they pretended to be concerned about the army, each was
56903 thinking only of himself and of how to get away quickly and save
56911 The movements of the Russian and French armies during the campaign from
56912 Moscow back to the Niemen were like those in a game of Russian
56913 blindman's bluff, in which two players are blindfolded and one of them
56914 occasionally rings a little bell to inform the catcher of his
56915 whereabouts. First he rings his bell fearlessly, but when he gets into a
56916 tight place he runs away as quietly as he can, and often thinking to
56917 escape runs straight into his opponent's arms.
56919 At first while they were still moving along the Kaluga road, Napoleon's
56920 armies made their presence known, but later when they reached the
56921 Smolensk road they ran holding the clapper of their bell tight--and
56922 often thinking they were escaping ran right into the Russians.
56924 Owing to the rapidity of the French flight and the Russian pursuit and
56925 the consequent exhaustion of the horses, the chief means of
56926 approximately ascertaining the enemy's position--by cavalry scouting--
56927 was not available. Besides, as a result of the frequent and rapid change
56928 of position by each army, even what information was obtained could not
56929 be delivered in time. If news was received one day that the enemy had
56930 been in a certain position the day before, by the third day when
56931 something could have been done, that army was already two days' march
56932 farther on and in quite another position.
56934 One army fled and the other pursued. Beyond Smolensk there were several
56935 different roads available for the French, and one would have thought
56936 that during their stay of four days they might have learned where the
56937 enemy was, might have arranged some more advantageous plan and
56938 undertaken something new. But after a four days' halt the mob, with no
56939 maneuvers or plans, again began running along the beaten track, neither
56940 to the right nor to the left but along the old--the worst--road, through
56943 Expecting the enemy from behind and not in front, the French separated
56944 in their flight and spread out over a distance of twenty-four hours. In
56945 front of them all fled the Emperor, then the kings, then the dukes. The
56946 Russian army, expecting Napoleon to take the road to the right beyond
56947 the Dnieper--which was the only reasonable thing for him to do--
56948 themselves turned to the right and came out onto the highroad at
56949 Krasnoe. And here as in a game of blindman's buff the French ran into
56950 our vanguard. Seeing their enemy unexpectedly the French fell into
56951 confusion and stopped short from the sudden fright, but then they
56952 resumed their flight, abandoning their comrades who were farther behind.
56953 Then for three days separate portions of the French army--first Murat's
56954 (the vice-king's), then Davout's, and then Ney's--ran, as it were, the
56955 gauntlet of the Russian army. They abandoned one another, abandoned all
56956 their heavy baggage, their artillery, and half their men, and fled,
56957 getting past the Russians by night by making semicircles to the right.
56959 Ney, who came last, had been busying himself blowing up the walls of
56960 Smolensk which were in nobody's way, because despite the unfortunate
56961 plight of the French or because of it, they wished to punish the floor
56962 against which they had hurt themselves. Ney, who had had a corps of ten
56963 thousand men, reached Napoleon at Orsha with only one thousand men left,
56964 having abandoned all the rest and all his cannon, and having crossed the
56965 Dnieper at night by stealth at a wooded spot.
56967 From Orsha they fled farther along the road to Vilna, still playing at
56968 blindman's buff with the pursuing army. At the Berezina they again
56969 became disorganized, many were drowned and many surrendered, but those
56970 who got across the river fled farther. Their supreme chief donned a fur
56971 coat and, having seated himself in a sleigh, galloped on alone,
56972 abandoning his companions. The others who could do so drove away too,
56973 leaving those who could not to surrender or die.
56980 This campaign consisted in a flight of the French during which they did
56981 all they could to destroy themselves. From the time they turned onto the
56982 Kaluga road to the day their leader fled from the army, none of the
56983 movements of the crowd had any sense. So one might have thought that
56984 regarding this period of the campaign the historians, who attributed the
56985 actions of the mass to the will of one man, would have found it
56986 impossible to make the story of the retreat fit their theory. But no!
56987 Mountains of books have been written by the historians about this
56988 campaign, and everywhere are described Napoleon's arrangements, the
56989 maneuvers, and his profound plans which guided the army, as well as the
56990 military genius shown by his marshals.
56992 The retreat from Malo-Yaroslavets when he had a free road into a well-
56993 supplied district and the parallel road was open to him along which
56994 Kutuzov afterwards pursued him--this unnecessary retreat along a
56995 devastated road--is explained to us as being due to profound
56996 considerations. Similarly profound considerations are given for his
56997 retreat from Smolensk to Orsha. Then his heroism at Krasnoe is
56998 described, where he is reported to have been prepared to accept battle
56999 and take personal command, and to have walked about with a birch stick
57002 "J'ai assez fait l'empereur; il est temps de faire le general," * but
57003 nevertheless immediately ran away again, abandoning to its fate the
57004 scattered fragments of the army he left behind.
57007 * "I have acted the Emperor long enough; it is time to act the general."
57009 Then we are told of the greatness of soul of the marshals, especially of
57010 Ney--a greatness of soul consisting in this: that he made his way by
57011 night around through the forest and across the Dnieper and escaped to
57012 Orsha, abandoning standards, artillery, and nine tenths of his men.
57014 And lastly, the final departure of the great Emperor from his heroic
57015 army is presented to us by the historians as something great and
57016 characteristic of genius. Even that final running away, described in
57017 ordinary language as the lowest depth of baseness which every child is
57018 taught to be ashamed of--even that act finds justification in the
57019 historians' language.
57021 When it is impossible to stretch the very elastic threads of historical
57022 ratiocination any farther, when actions are clearly contrary to all that
57023 humanity calls right or even just, the historians produce a saving
57024 conception of "greatness." "Greatness," it seems, excludes the standards
57025 of right and wrong. For the "great" man nothing is wrong, there is no
57026 atrocity for which a "great" man can be blamed.
57028 "C'est grand!" * say the historians, and there no longer exists either
57029 good or evil but only "grand" and "not grand." Grand is good, not grand
57030 is bad. Grand is the characteristic, in their conception, of some
57031 special animals called "heroes." And Napoleon, escaping home in a warm
57032 fur coat and leaving to perish those who were not merely his comrades
57033 but were (in his opinion) men he had brought there, feels que c'est
57034 grand, *(2) and his soul is tranquil.
57039 * (2) That it is great.
57041 "Du sublime (he saw something sublime in himself) au ridicule il n'y a
57042 qu'un pas," * said he. And the whole world for fifty years has been
57043 repeating: "Sublime! Grand! Napoleon le Grand!" Du sublime au ridicule
57044 il n'y a qu'un pas.
57047 * "From the sublime to the ridiculous is but a step."
57049 And it occurs to no one that to admit a greatness not commensurable with
57050 the standard of right and wrong is merely to admit one's own nothingness
57051 and immeasurable meanness.
57053 For us with the standard of good and evil given us by Christ, no human
57054 actions are incommensurable. And there is no greatness where simplicity,
57055 goodness, and truth are absent.
57062 What Russian, reading the account of the last part of the campaign of
57063 1812, has not experienced an uncomfortable feeling of regret,
57064 dissatisfaction, and perplexity? Who has not asked himself how it is
57065 that the French were not all captured or destroyed when our three armies
57066 surrounded them in superior numbers, when the disordered French, hungry
57067 and freezing, surrendered in crowds, and when (as the historians relate)
57068 the aim of the Russians was to stop the French, to cut them off, and
57071 How was it that the Russian army, which when numerically weaker than the
57072 French had given battle at Borodino, did not achieve its purpose when it
57073 had surrounded the French on three sides and when its aim was to capture
57074 them? Can the French be so enormously superior to us that when we had
57075 surrounded them with superior forces we could not beat them? How could
57078 History (or what is called by that name) replying to these questions
57079 says that this occurred because Kutuzov and Tormasov and Chichagov, and
57080 this man and that man, did not execute such and such maneuvers...
57082 But why did they not execute those maneuvers? And why if they were
57083 guilty of not carrying out a prearranged plan were they not tried and
57084 punished? But even if we admitted that Kutuzov, Chichagov, and others
57085 were the cause of the Russian failures, it is still incomprehensible
57086 why, the position of the Russian army being what it was at Krasnoe and
57087 at the Berezina (in both cases we had superior forces), the French army
57088 with its marshals, kings, and Emperor was not captured, if that was what
57089 the Russians aimed at.
57091 The explanation of this strange fact given by Russian military
57092 historians (to the effect that Kutuzov hindered an attack) is unfounded,
57093 for we know that he could not restrain the troops from attacking at
57094 Vyazma and Tarutino.
57096 Why was the Russian army--which with inferior forces had withstood the
57097 enemy in full strength at Borodino--defeated at Krasnoe and the Berezina
57098 by the disorganized crowds of the French when it was numerically
57101 If the aim of the Russians consisted in cutting off and capturing
57102 Napoleon and his marshals--and that aim was not merely frustrated but
57103 all attempts to attain it were most shamefully baffled--then this last
57104 period of the campaign is quite rightly considered by the French to be a
57105 series of victories, and quite wrongly considered victorious by Russian
57108 The Russian military historians in so far as they submit to claims of
57109 logic must admit that conclusion, and in spite of their lyrical
57110 rhapsodies about valor, devotion, and so forth, must reluctantly admit
57111 that the French retreat from Moscow was a series of victories for
57112 Napoleon and defeats for Kutuzov.
57114 But putting national vanity entirely aside one feels that such a
57115 conclusion involves a contradiction, since the series of French
57116 victories brought the French complete destruction, while the series of
57117 Russian defeats led to the total destruction of their enemy and the
57118 liberation of their country.
57120 The source of this contradiction lies in the fact that the historians
57121 studying the events from the letters of the sovereigns and the generals,
57122 from memoirs, reports, projects, and so forth, have attributed to this
57123 last period of the war of 1812 an aim that never existed, namely that of
57124 cutting off and capturing Napoleon with his marshals and his army.
57126 There never was or could have been such an aim, for it would have been
57127 senseless and its attainment quite impossible.
57129 It would have been senseless, first because Napoleon's disorganized army
57130 was flying from Russia with all possible speed, that is to say, was
57131 doing just what every Russian desired. So what was the use of performing
57132 various operations on the French who were running away as fast as they
57135 Secondly, it would have been senseless to block the passage of men whose
57136 whole energy was directed to flight.
57138 Thirdly, it would have been senseless to sacrifice one's own troops in
57139 order to destroy the French army, which without external interference
57140 was destroying itself at such a rate that, though its path was not
57141 blocked, it could not carry across the frontier more than it actually
57142 did in December, namely a hundredth part of the original army.
57144 Fourthly, it would have been senseless to wish to take captive the
57145 Emperor, kings, and dukes--whose capture would have been in the highest
57146 degree embarrassing for the Russians, as the most adroit diplomatists of
57147 the time (Joseph de Maistre and others) recognized. Still more senseless
57148 would have been the wish to capture army corps of the French, when our
57149 own army had melted away to half before reaching Krasnoe and a whole
57150 division would have been needed to convoy the corps of prisoners, and
57151 when our men were not always getting full rations and the prisoners
57152 already taken were perishing of hunger.
57154 All the profound plans about cutting off and capturing Napoleon and his
57155 army were like the plan of a market gardener who, when driving out of
57156 his garden a cow that had trampled down the beds he had planted, should
57157 run to the gate and hit the cow on the head. The only thing to be said
57158 in excuse of that gardener would be that he was very angry. But not even
57159 that could be said for those who drew up this project, for it was not
57160 they who had suffered from the trampled beds.
57162 But besides the fact that cutting off Napoleon with his army would have
57163 been senseless, it was impossible.
57165 It was impossible first because--as experience shows that a three-mile
57166 movement of columns on a battlefield never coincides with the plans--the
57167 probability of Chichagov, Kutuzov, and Wittgenstein effecting a junction
57168 on time at an appointed place was so remote as to be tantamount to
57169 impossibility, as in fact thought Kutuzov, who when he received the plan
57170 remarked that diversions planned over great distances do not yield the
57173 Secondly it was impossible, because to paralyze the momentum with which
57174 Napoleon's army was retiring, incomparably greater forces than the
57175 Russians possessed would have been required.
57177 Thirdly it was impossible, because the military term "to cut off" has no
57178 meaning. One can cut off a slice of bread, but not an army. To cut off
57179 an army--to bar its road--is quite impossible, for there is always
57180 plenty of room to avoid capture and there is the night when nothing can
57181 be seen, as the military scientists might convince themselves by the
57182 example of Krasnoe and of the Berezina. It is only possible to capture
57183 prisoners if they agree to be captured, just as it is only possible to
57184 catch a swallow if it settles on one's hand. Men can only be taken
57185 prisoners if they surrender according to the rules of strategy and
57186 tactics, as the Germans did. But the French troops quite rightly did not
57187 consider that this suited them, since death by hunger and cold awaited
57188 them in flight or captivity alike.
57190 Fourthly and chiefly it was impossible, because never since the world
57191 began has a war been fought under such conditions as those that obtained
57192 in 1812, and the Russian army in its pursuit of the French strained its
57193 strength to the utmost and could not have done more without destroying
57196 During the movement of the Russian army from Tarutino to Krasnoe it lost
57197 fifty thousand sick or stragglers, that is a number equal to the
57198 population of a large provincial town. Half the men fell out of the army
57201 And it is of this period of the campaign--when the army lacked boots and
57202 sheepskin coats, was short of provisions and without vodka, and was
57203 camping out at night for months in the snow with fifteen degrees of
57204 frost, when there were only seven or eight hours of daylight and the
57205 rest was night in which the influence of discipline cannot be
57206 maintained, when men were taken into that region of death where
57207 discipline fails, not for a few hours only as in a battle, but for
57208 months, where they were every moment fighting death from hunger and
57209 cold, when half the army perished in a single month--it is of this
57210 period of the campaign that the historians tell us how Miloradovich
57211 should have made a flank march to such and such a place, Tormasov to
57212 another place, and Chichagov should have crossed (more than knee-deep in
57213 snow) to somewhere else, and how so-and-so "routed" and "cut off" the
57214 French and so on and so on.
57216 The Russians, half of whom died, did all that could and should have been
57217 done to attain an end worthy of the nation, and they are not to blame
57218 because other Russians, sitting in warm rooms, proposed that they should
57219 do what was impossible.
57221 All that strange contradiction now difficult to understand between the
57222 facts and the historical accounts only arises because the historians
57223 dealing with the matter have written the history of the beautiful words
57224 and sentiments of various generals, and not the history of the events.
57226 To them the words of Miloradovich seem very interesting, and so do their
57227 surmises and the rewards this or that general received; but the question
57228 of those fifty thousand men who were left in hospitals and in graves
57229 does not even interest them, for it does not come within the range of
57230 their investigation.
57232 Yet one need only discard the study of the reports and general plans and
57233 consider the movement of those hundreds of thousands of men who took a
57234 direct part in the events, and all the questions that seemed insoluble
57235 easily and simply receive an immediate and certain solution.
57237 The aim of cutting off Napoleon and his army never existed except in the
57238 imaginations of a dozen people. It could not exist because it was
57239 senseless and unattainable.
57241 The people had a single aim: to free their land from invasion. That aim
57242 was attained in the first place of itself, as the French ran away, and
57243 so it was only necessary not to stop their flight. Secondly it was
57244 attained by the guerrilla warfare which was destroying the French, and
57245 thirdly by the fact that a large Russian army was following the French,
57246 ready to use its strength in case their movement stopped.
57248 The Russian army had to act like a whip to a running animal. And the
57249 experienced driver knew it was better to hold the whip raised as a
57250 menace than to strike the running animal on the head.
57252 BOOK FIFTEEN: 1812 - 13
57259 When seeing a dying animal a man feels a sense of horror: substance
57260 similar to his own is perishing before his eyes. But when it is a
57261 beloved and intimate human being that is dying, besides this horror at
57262 the extinction of life there is a severance, a spiritual wound, which
57263 like a physical wound is sometimes fatal and sometimes heals, but always
57264 aches and shrinks at any external irritating touch.
57266 After Prince Andrew's death Natasha and Princess Mary alike felt this.
57267 Drooping in spirit and closing their eyes before the menacing cloud of
57268 death that overhung them, they dared not look life in the face. They
57269 carefully guarded their open wounds from any rough and painful contact.
57270 Everything: a carriage passing rapidly in the street, a summons to
57271 dinner, the maid's inquiry what dress to prepare, or worse still any
57272 word of insincere or feeble sympathy, seemed an insult, painfully
57273 irritated the wound, interrupting that necessary quiet in which they
57274 both tried to listen to the stern and dreadful choir that still
57275 resounded in their imagination, and hindered their gazing into those
57276 mysterious limitless vistas that for an instant had opened out before
57279 Only when alone together were they free from such outrage and pain. They
57280 spoke little even to one another, and when they did it was of very
57281 unimportant matters.
57283 Both avoided any allusion to the future. To admit the possibility of a
57284 future seemed to them to insult his memory. Still more carefully did
57285 they avoid anything relating to him who was dead. It seemed to them that
57286 what they had lived through and experienced could not be expressed in
57287 words, and that any reference to the details of his life infringed the
57288 majesty and sacredness of the mystery that had been accomplished before
57291 Continued abstention from speech, and constant avoidance of everything
57292 that might lead up to the subject--this halting on all sides at the
57293 boundary of what they might not mention--brought before their minds with
57294 still greater purity and clearness what they were both feeling.
57296 But pure and complete sorrow is as impossible as pure and complete joy.
57297 Princess Mary, in her position as absolute and independent arbiter of
57298 her own fate and guardian and instructor of her nephew, was the first to
57299 be called back to life from that realm of sorrow in which she had dwelt
57300 for the first fortnight. She received letters from her relations to
57301 which she had to reply; the room in which little Nicholas had been put
57302 was damp and he began to cough; Alpatych came to Yaroslavl with reports
57303 on the state of their affairs and with advice and suggestions that they
57304 should return to Moscow to the house on the Vozdvizhenka Street, which
57305 had remained uninjured and needed only slight repairs. Life did not
57306 stand still and it was necessary to live. Hard as it was for Princess
57307 Mary to emerge from the realm of secluded contemplation in which she had
57308 lived till then, and sorry and almost ashamed as she felt to leave
57309 Natasha alone, yet the cares of life demanded her attention and she
57310 involuntarily yielded to them. She went through the accounts with
57311 Alpatych, conferred with Dessalles about her nephew, and gave orders and
57312 made preparations for the journey to Moscow.
57314 Natasha remained alone and, from the time Princess Mary began making
57315 preparations for departure, held aloof from her too.
57317 Princess Mary asked the countess to let Natasha go with her to Moscow,
57318 and both parents gladly accepted this offer, for they saw their daughter
57319 losing strength every day and thought that a change of scene and the
57320 advice of Moscow doctors would be good for her.
57322 "I am not going anywhere," Natasha replied when this was proposed to
57323 her. "Do please just leave me alone!" And she ran out of the room, with
57324 difficulty refraining from tears of vexation and irritation rather than
57327 After she felt herself deserted by Princes Mary and alone in her grief,
57328 Natasha spent most of the time in her room by herself, sitting huddled
57329 up feet and all in the corner of the sofa, tearing and twisting
57330 something with her slender nervous fingers and gazing intently and
57331 fixedly at whatever her eyes chanced to fall on. This solitude exhausted
57332 and tormented her but she was in absolute need of it. As soon as anyone
57333 entered she got up quickly, changed her position and expression, and
57334 picked up a book or some sewing, evidently waiting impatiently for the
57337 She felt all the time as if she might at any moment penetrate that on
57338 which--with a terrible questioning too great for her strength--her
57339 spiritual gaze was fixed.
57341 One day toward the end of December Natasha, pale and thin, dressed in a
57342 black woolen gown, her plaited hair negligently twisted into a knot, was
57343 crouched feet and all in the corner of her sofa, nervously crumpling and
57344 smoothing out the end of her sash while she looked at a corner of the
57347 She was gazing in the direction in which he had gone--to the other side
57348 of life. And that other side of life, of which she had never before
57349 thought and which had formerly seemed to her so far away and improbable,
57350 was now nearer and more akin and more comprehensible than this side of
57351 life, where everything was either emptiness and desolation or suffering
57354 She was gazing where she knew him to be; but she could not imagine him
57355 otherwise than as he had been here. She now saw him again as he had been
57356 at Mytishchi, at Troitsa, and at Yaroslavl.
57358 She saw his face, heard his voice, repeated his words and her own, and
57359 sometimes devised other words they might have spoken.
57361 There he is lying back in an armchair in his velvet cloak, leaning his
57362 head on his thin pale hand. His chest is dreadfully hollow and his
57363 shoulders raised. His lips are firmly closed, his eyes glitter, and a
57364 wrinkle comes and goes on his pale forehead. One of his legs twitches
57365 just perceptibly, but rapidly. Natasha knows that he is struggling with
57366 terrible pain. "What is that pain like? Why does he have that pain? What
57367 does he feel? How does it hurt him?" thought Natasha. He noticed her
57368 watching him, raised his eyes, and began to speak seriously:
57370 "One thing would be terrible," said he: "to bind oneself forever to a
57371 suffering man. It would be continual torture." And he looked searchingly
57372 at her. Natasha as usual answered before she had time to think what she
57373 would say. She said: "This can't go on--it won't. You will get well--
57376 She now saw him from the commencement of that scene and relived what she
57377 had then felt. She recalled his long sad and severe look at those words
57378 and understood the meaning of the rebuke and despair in that protracted
57381 "I agreed," Natasha now said to herself, "that it would be dreadful if
57382 he always continued to suffer. I said it then only because it would have
57383 been dreadful for him, but he understood it differently. He thought it
57384 would be dreadful for me. He then still wished to live and feared death.
57385 And I said it so awkwardly and stupidly! I did not say what I meant. I
57386 thought quite differently. Had I said what I thought, I should have
57387 said: even if he had to go on dying, to die continually before my eyes,
57388 I should have been happy compared with what I am now. Now there is
57389 nothing... nobody. Did he know that? No, he did not and never will know
57390 it. And now it will never, never be possible to put it right." And now
57391 he again seemed to be saying the same words to her, only in her
57392 imagination Natasha this time gave him a different answer. She stopped
57393 him and said: "Terrible for you, but not for me! You know that for me
57394 there is nothing in life but you, and to suffer with you is the greatest
57395 happiness for me," and he took her hand and pressed it as he had pressed
57396 it that terrible evening four days before his death. And in her
57397 imagination she said other tender and loving words which she might have
57398 said then but only spoke now: "I love thee!... thee! I love, love..."
57399 she said, convulsively pressing her hands and setting her teeth with a
57400 desperate effort...
57402 She was overcome by sweet sorrow and tears were already rising in her
57403 eyes; then she suddenly asked herself to whom she was saying this. Again
57404 everything was shrouded in hard, dry perplexity, and again with a
57405 strained frown she peered toward the world where he was. And now, now it
57406 seemed to her she was penetrating the mystery.... But at the instant
57407 when it seemed that the incomprehensible was revealing itself to her a
57408 loud rattle of the door handle struck painfully on her ears. Dunyasha,
57409 her maid, entered the room quickly and abruptly with a frightened look
57410 on her face and showing no concern for her mistress.
57412 "Come to your Papa at once, please!" said she with a strange, excited
57413 look. "A misfortune... about Peter Ilynich... a letter," she finished
57421 Besides a feeling of aloofness from everybody Natasha was feeling a
57422 special estrangement from the members of her own family. All of them--
57423 her father, mother, and Sonya--were so near to her, so familiar, so
57424 commonplace, that all their words and feelings seemed an insult to the
57425 world in which she had been living of late, and she felt not merely
57426 indifferent to them but regarded them with hostility. She heard
57427 Dunyasha's words about Peter Ilynich and a misfortune, but did not grasp
57430 "What misfortune? What misfortune can happen to them? They just live
57431 their own old, quiet, and commonplace life," thought Natasha.
57433 As she entered the ballroom her father was hurriedly coming out of her
57434 mother's room. His face was puckered up and wet with tears. He had
57435 evidently run out of that room to give vent to the sobs that were
57436 choking him. When he saw Natasha he waved his arms despairingly and
57437 burst into convulsively painful sobs that distorted his soft round face.
57439 "Pe... Petya... Go, go, she... is calling..." and weeping like a child
57440 and quickly shuffling on his feeble legs to a chair, he almost fell into
57441 it, covering his face with his hands.
57443 Suddenly an electric shock seemed to run through Natasha's whole being.
57444 Terrible anguish struck her heart, she felt a dreadful ache as if
57445 something was being torn inside her and she were dying. But the pain was
57446 immediately followed by a feeling of release from the oppressive
57447 constraint that had prevented her taking part in life. The sight of her
57448 father, the terribly wild cries of her mother that she heard through the
57449 door, made her immediately forget herself and her own grief.
57451 She ran to her father, but he feebly waved his arm, pointing to her
57452 mother's door. Princess Mary, pale and with quivering chin, came out
57453 from that room and taking Natasha by the arm said something to her.
57454 Natasha neither saw nor heard her. She went in with rapid steps, pausing
57455 at the door for an instant as if struggling with herself, and then ran
57458 The countess was lying in an armchair in a strange and awkward position,
57459 stretching out and beating her head against the wall. Sonya and the
57460 maids were holding her arms.
57462 "Natasha! Natasha!..." cried the countess. "It's not true... it's not
57463 true... He's lying... Natasha!" she shrieked, pushing those around her
57464 away. "Go away, all of you; it's not true! Killed!... ha, ha, ha!...
57467 Natasha put one knee on the armchair, stooped over her mother, embraced
57468 her, and with unexpected strength raised her, turned her face toward
57469 herself, and clung to her.
57471 "Mummy!... darling!... I am here, my dearest Mummy," she kept on
57472 whispering, not pausing an instant.
57474 She did not let go of her mother but struggled tenderly with her,
57475 demanded a pillow and hot water, and unfastened and tore open her
57478 "My dearest darling... Mummy, my precious!..." she whispered
57479 incessantly, kissing her head, her hands, her face, and feeling her own
57480 irrepressible and streaming tears tickling her nose and cheeks.
57482 The countess pressed her daughter's hand, closed her eyes, and became
57483 quiet for a moment. Suddenly she sat up with unaccustomed swiftness,
57484 glanced vacantly around her, and seeing Natasha began to press her
57485 daughter's head with all her strength. Then she turned toward her
57486 daughter's face which was wincing with pain and gazed long at it.
57488 "Natasha, you love me?" she said in a soft trustful whisper. "Natasha,
57489 you would not deceive me? You'll tell me the whole truth?"
57491 Natasha looked at her with eyes full of tears and in her look there was
57492 nothing but love and an entreaty for forgiveness.
57494 "My darling Mummy!" she repeated, straining all the power of her love to
57495 find some way of taking on herself the excess of grief that crushed her
57498 And again in a futile struggle with reality her mother, refusing to
57499 believe that she could live when her beloved boy was killed in the bloom
57500 of life, escaped from reality into a world of delirium.
57502 Natasha did not remember how that day passed nor that night, nor the
57503 next day and night. She did not sleep and did not leave her mother. Her
57504 persevering and patient love seemed completely to surround the countess
57505 every moment, not explaining or consoling, but recalling her to life.
57507 During the third night the countess kept very quiet for a few minutes,
57508 and Natasha rested her head on the arm of her chair and closed her eyes,
57509 but opened them again on hearing the bedstead creak. The countess was
57510 sitting up in bed and speaking softly.
57512 "How glad I am you have come. You are tired. Won't you have some tea?"
57513 Natasha went up to her. "You have improved in looks and grown more
57514 manly," continued the countess, taking her daughter's hand.
57516 "Mamma! What are you saying..."
57518 "Natasha, he is no more, no more!"
57520 And embracing her daughter, the countess began to weep for the first
57528 Princess Mary postponed her departure. Sonya and the count tried to
57529 replace Natasha but could not. They saw that she alone was able to
57530 restrain her mother from unreasoning despair. For three weeks Natasha
57531 remained constantly at her mother's side, sleeping on a lounge chair in
57532 her room, making her eat and drink, and talking to her incessantly
57533 because the mere sound of her tender, caressing tones soothed her
57536 The mother's wounded spirit could not heal. Petya's death had torn from
57537 her half her life. When the news of Petya's death had come she had been
57538 a fresh and vigorous woman of fifty, but a month later she left her room
57539 a listless old woman taking no interest in life. But the same blow that
57540 almost killed the countess, this second blow, restored Natasha to life.
57542 A spiritual wound produced by a rending of the spiritual body is like a
57543 physical wound and, strange as it may seem, just as a deep wound may
57544 heal and its edges join, physical and spiritual wounds alike can yet
57545 heal completely only as the result of a vital force from within.
57547 Natasha's wound healed in that way. She thought her life was ended, but
57548 her love for her mother unexpectedly showed her that the essence of
57549 life--love--was still active within her. Love awoke and so did life.
57551 Prince Andrew's last days had bound Princess Mary and Natasha together;
57552 this new sorrow brought them still closer to one another. Princess Mary
57553 put off her departure, and for three weeks looked after Natasha as if
57554 she had been a sick child. The last weeks passed in her mother's bedroom
57555 had strained Natasha's physical strength.
57557 One afternoon noticing Natasha shivering with fever, Princess Mary took
57558 her to her own room and made her lie down on the bed. Natasha lay down,
57559 but when Princess Mary had drawn the blinds and was going away she
57562 "I don't want to sleep, Mary, sit by me a little."
57564 "You are tired--try to sleep."
57566 "No, no. Why did you bring me away? She will be asking for me."
57568 "She is much better. She spoke so well today," said Princess Mary.
57570 Natasha lay on the bed and in the semidarkness of the room scanned
57571 Princess Mary's face.
57573 "Is she like him?" thought Natasha. "Yes, like and yet not like. But she
57574 is quite original, strange, new, and unknown. And she loves me. What is
57575 in her heart? All that is good. But how? What is her mind like? What
57576 does she think about me? Yes, she is splendid!"
57578 "Mary," she said timidly, drawing Princess Mary's hand to herself,
57579 "Mary, you mustn't think me wicked. No? Mary darling, how I love you!
57580 Let us be quite, quite friends."
57582 And Natasha, embracing her, began kissing her face and hands, making
57583 Princess Mary feel shy but happy by this demonstration of her feelings.
57585 From that day a tender and passionate friendship such as exists only
57586 between women was established between Princess Mary and Natasha. They
57587 were continually kissing and saying tender things to one another and
57588 spent most of their time together. When one went out the other became
57589 restless and hastened to rejoin her. Together they felt more in harmony
57590 with one another than either of them felt with herself when alone. A
57591 feeling stronger than friendship sprang up between them; an exclusive
57592 feeling of life being possible only in each other's presence.
57594 Sometimes they were silent for hours; sometimes after they were already
57595 in bed they would begin talking and go on till morning. They spoke most
57596 of what was long past. Princess Mary spoke of her childhood, of her
57597 mother, her father, and her daydreams; and Natasha, who with a passive
57598 lack of understanding had formerly turned away from that life of
57599 devotion, submission, and the poetry of Christian self-sacrifice, now
57600 feeling herself bound to Princess Mary by affection, learned to love her
57601 past too and to understand a side of life previously incomprehensible to
57602 her. She did not think of applying submission and self-abnegation to her
57603 own life, for she was accustomed to seek other joys, but she understood
57604 and loved in another those previously incomprehensible virtues. For
57605 Princess Mary, listening to Natasha's tales of childhood and early
57606 youth, there also opened out a new and hitherto uncomprehended side of
57607 life: belief in life and its enjoyment.
57609 Just as before, they never mentioned him so as not to lower (as they
57610 thought) their exalted feelings by words; but this silence about him had
57611 the effect of making them gradually begin to forget him without being
57614 Natasha had grown thin and pale and physically so weak that they all
57615 talked about her health, and this pleased her. But sometimes she was
57616 suddenly overcome by fear not only of death but of sickness, weakness,
57617 and loss of good looks, and involuntarily she examined her bare arm
57618 carefully, surprised at its thinness, and in the morning noticed her
57619 drawn and, as it seemed to her, piteous face in her glass. It seemed to
57620 her that things must be so, and yet it was dreadfully sad.
57622 One day she went quickly upstairs and found herself out of breath.
57623 Unconsciously she immediately invented a reason for going down, and
57624 then, testing her strength, ran upstairs again, observing the result.
57626 Another time when she called Dunyasha her voice trembled, so she called
57627 again--though she could hear Dunyasha coming--called her in the deep
57628 chest tones in which she had been wont to sing, and listened attentively
57631 She did not know and would not have believed it, but beneath the layer
57632 of slime that covered her soul and seemed to her impenetrable, delicate
57633 young shoots of grass were already sprouting, which taking root would so
57634 cover with their living verdure the grief that weighed her down that it
57635 would soon no longer be seen or noticed. The wound had begun to heal
57638 At the end of January Princess Mary left for Moscow, and the count
57639 insisted on Natasha's going with her to consult the doctors.
57646 After the encounter at Vyazma, where Kutuzov had been unable to hold
57647 back his troops in their anxiety to overwhelm and cut off the enemy and
57648 so on, the farther movement of the fleeing French, and of the Russians
57649 who pursued them, continued as far as Krasnoe without a battle. The
57650 flight was so rapid that the Russian army pursuing the French could not
57651 keep up with them; cavalry and artillery horses broke down, and the
57652 information received of the movements of the French was never reliable.
57654 The men in the Russian army were so worn out by this continuous marching
57655 at the rate of twenty-seven miles a day that they could not go any
57658 To realize the degree of exhaustion of the Russian army it is only
57659 necessary to grasp clearly the meaning of the fact that, while not
57660 losing more than five thousand killed and wounded after Tarutino and
57661 less than a hundred prisoners, the Russian army which left that place a
57662 hundred thousand strong reached Krasnoe with only fifty thousand.
57664 The rapidity of the Russian pursuit was just as destructive to our army
57665 as the flight of the French was to theirs. The only difference was that
57666 the Russian army moved voluntarily, with no such threat of destruction
57667 as hung over the French, and that the sick Frenchmen were left behind in
57668 enemy hands while the sick Russians left behind were among their own
57669 people. The chief cause of the wastage of Napoleon's army was the
57670 rapidity of its movement, and a convincing proof of this is the
57671 corresponding decrease of the Russian army.
57673 Kutuzov as far as was in his power, instead of trying to check the
57674 movement of the French as was desired in Petersburg and by the Russian
57675 army generals, directed his whole activity here, as he had done at
57676 Tarutino and Vyazma, to hastening it on while easing the movement of our
57679 But besides this, since the exhaustion and enormous diminution of the
57680 army caused by the rapidity of the advance had become evident, another
57681 reason for slackening the pace and delaying presented itself to Kutuzov.
57682 The aim of the Russian army was to pursue the French. The road the
57683 French would take was unknown, and so the closer our troops trod on
57684 their heels the greater distance they had to cover. Only by following at
57685 some distance could one cut across the zigzag path of the French. All
57686 the artful maneuvers suggested by our generals meant fresh movements of
57687 the army and a lengthening of its marches, whereas the only reasonable
57688 aim was to shorten those marches. To that end Kutuzov's activity was
57689 directed during the whole campaign from Moscow to Vilna--not casually or
57690 intermittently but so consistently that he never once deviated from it.
57692 Kutuzov felt and knew--not by reasoning or science but with the whole of
57693 his Russian being--what every Russian soldier felt: that the French were
57694 beaten, that the enemy was flying and must be driven out; but at the
57695 same time he like the soldiers realized all the hardship of this march,
57696 the rapidity of which was unparalleled for such a time of the year.
57698 But to the generals, especially the foreign ones in the Russian army,
57699 who wished to distinguish themselves, to astonish somebody, and for some
57700 reason to capture a king or a duke--it seemed that now--when any battle
57701 must be horrible and senseless--was the very time to fight and conquer
57702 somebody. Kutuzov merely shrugged his shoulders when one after another
57703 they presented projects of maneuvers to be made with those soldiers--
57704 ill-shod, insufficiently clad, and half starved--who within a month and
57705 without fighting a battle had dwindled to half their number, and who at
57706 the best if the flight continued would have to go a greater distance
57707 than they had already traversed, before they reached the frontier.
57709 This longing to distinguish themselves, to maneuver, to overthrow, and
57710 to cut off showed itself particularly whenever the Russians stumbled on
57713 So it was at Krasnoe, where they expected to find one of the three
57714 French columns and stumbled instead on Napoleon himself with sixteen
57715 thousand men. Despite all Kutuzov's efforts to avoid that ruinous
57716 encounter and to preserve his troops, the massacre of the broken mob of
57717 French soldiers by worn-out Russians continued at Krasnoe for three
57720 Toll wrote a disposition: "The first column will march to so and so,"
57721 etc. And as usual nothing happened in accord with the disposition.
57722 Prince Eugene of Wurttemberg fired from a hill over the French crowds
57723 that were running past, and demanded reinforcements which did not
57724 arrive. The French, avoiding the Russians, dispersed and hid themselves
57725 in the forest by night, making their way round as best they could, and
57726 continued their flight.
57728 Miloradovich, who said he did not want to know anything about the
57729 commissariat affairs of his detachment, and could never be found when he
57730 was wanted--that chevalier sans peur et sans reproche * as he styled
57731 himself--who was fond of parleys with the French, sent envoys demanding
57732 their surrender, wasted time, and did not do what he was ordered to do.
57735 * Knight without fear and without reproach.
57737 "I give you that column, lads," he said, riding up to the troops and
57738 pointing out the French to the cavalry.
57740 And the cavalry, with spurs and sabers urging on horses that could
57741 scarcely move, trotted with much effort to the column presented to them-
57742 -that is to say, to a crowd of Frenchmen stark with cold, frost-bitten,
57743 and starving--and the column that had been presented to them threw down
57744 its arms and surrendered as it had long been anxious to do.
57746 At Krasnoe they took twenty-six thousand prisoners, several hundred
57747 cannon, and a stick called a "marshal's staff," and disputed as to who
57748 had distinguished himself and were pleased with their achievement--
57749 though they much regretted not having taken Napoleon, or at least a
57750 marshal or a hero of some sort, and reproached one another and
57751 especially Kutuzov for having failed to do so.
57753 These men, carried away by their passions, were but blind tools of the
57754 most melancholy law of necessity, but considered themselves heroes and
57755 imagined that they were accomplishing a most noble and honorable deed.
57756 They blamed Kutuzov and said that from the very beginning of the
57757 campaign he had prevented their vanquishing Napoleon, that he thought of
57758 nothing but satisfying his passions and would not advance from the Linen
57759 Factories because he was comfortable there, that at Krasnoe he checked
57760 the advance because on learning that Napoleon was there he had quite
57761 lost his head, and that it was probable that he had an understanding
57762 with Napoleon and had been bribed by him, and so on, and so on.
57764 Not only did his contemporaries, carried away by their passions, talk in
57765 this way, but posterity and history have acclaimed Napoleon as grand,
57766 while Kutuzov is described by foreigners as a crafty, dissolute, weak
57767 old courtier, and by Russians as something indefinite--a sort of puppet
57768 useful only because he had a Russian name.
57775 In 1812 and 1813 Kutuzov was openly accused of blundering. The Emperor
57776 was dissatisfied with him. And in a history recently written by order of
57777 the Highest Authorities it is said that Kutuzov was a cunning court
57778 liar, frightened of the name of Napoleon, and that by his blunders at
57779 Krasnoe and the Berezina he deprived the Russian army of the glory of
57780 complete victory over the French. *
57783 * History of the year 1812. The character of Kutuzov and reflections on
57784 the unsatisfactory results of the battles at Krasnoe, by Bogdanovich.
57786 Such is the fate not of great men (grands hommes) whom the Russian mind
57787 does not acknowledge, but of those rare and always solitary individuals
57788 who, discerning the will of Providence, submit their personal will to
57789 it. The hatred and contempt of the crowd punish such men for discerning
57792 For Russian historians, strange and terrible to say, Napoleon--that most
57793 insignificant tool of history who never anywhere, even in exile, showed
57794 human dignity--Napoleon is the object of adulation and enthusiasm; he is
57795 grand. But Kutuzov--the man who from the beginning to the end of his
57796 activity in 1812, never once swerving by word or deed from Borodino to
57797 Vilna, presented an example exceptional in history of self-sacrifice and
57798 a present consciousness of the future importance of what was happening--
57799 Kutuzov seems to them something indefinite and pitiful, and when
57800 speaking of him and of the year 1812 they always seem a little ashamed.
57802 And yet it is difficult to imagine an historical character whose
57803 activity was so unswervingly directed to a single aim; and it would be
57804 difficult to imagine any aim more worthy or more consonant with the will
57805 of the whole people. Still more difficult would it be to find an
57806 instance in history of the aim of an historical personage being so
57807 completely accomplished as that to which all Kutuzov's efforts were
57810 Kutuzov never talked of "forty centuries looking down from the
57811 Pyramids," of the sacrifices he offered for the fatherland, or of what
57812 he intended to accomplish or had accomplished; in general he said
57813 nothing about himself, adopted no pose, always appeared to be the
57814 simplest and most ordinary of men, and said the simplest and most
57815 ordinary things. He wrote letters to his daughters and to Madame de
57816 Stael, read novels, liked the society of pretty women, jested with
57817 generals, officers, and soldiers, and never contradicted those who tried
57818 to prove anything to him. When Count Rostopchin at the Yauza bridge
57819 galloped up to Kutuzov with personal reproaches for having caused the
57820 destruction of Moscow, and said: "How was it you promised not to abandon
57821 Moscow without a battle?" Kutuzov replied: "And I shall not abandon
57822 Moscow without a battle," though Moscow was then already abandoned. When
57823 Arakcheev, coming to him from the Emperor, said that Ermolov ought to be
57824 appointed chief of the artillery, Kutuzov replied: "Yes, I was just
57825 saying so myself," though a moment before he had said quite the
57826 contrary. What did it matter to him--who then alone amid a senseless
57827 crowd understood the whole tremendous significance of what was
57828 happening--what did it matter to him whether Rostopchin attributed the
57829 calamities of Moscow to him or to himself? Still less could it matter to
57830 him who was appointed chief of the artillery.
57832 Not merely in these cases but continually did that old man--who by
57833 experience of life had reached the conviction that thoughts and the
57834 words serving as their expression are not what move people--use quite
57835 meaningless words that happened to enter his head.
57837 But that man, so heedless of his words, did not once during the whole
57838 time of his activity utter one word inconsistent with the single aim
57839 toward which he moved throughout the whole war. Obviously in spite of
57840 himself, in very diverse circumstances, he repeatedly expressed his real
57841 thoughts with the bitter conviction that he would not be understood.
57842 Beginning with the battle of Borodino, from which time his disagreement
57843 with those about him began, he alone said that the battle of Borodino
57844 was a victory, and repeated this both verbally and in his dispatches and
57845 reports up to the time of his death. He alone said that the loss of
57846 Moscow is not the loss of Russia. In reply to Lauriston's proposal of
57847 peace, he said: There can be no peace, for such is the people's will. He
57848 alone during the retreat of the French said that all our maneuvers are
57849 useless, everything is being accomplished of itself better than we could
57850 desire; that the enemy must be offered "a golden bridge"; that neither
57851 the Tarutino, the Vyazma, nor the Krasnoe battles were necessary; that
57852 we must keep some force to reach the frontier with, and that he would
57853 not sacrifice a single Russian for ten Frenchmen.
57855 And this courtier, as he is described to us, who lies to Arakcheev to
57856 please the Emperor, he alone--incurring thereby the Emperor's
57857 displeasure--said in Vilna that to carry the war beyond the frontier is
57858 useless and harmful.
57860 Nor do words alone prove that only he understood the meaning of the
57861 events. His actions--without the smallest deviation--were all directed
57862 to one and the same threefold end: (1) to brace all his strength for
57863 conflict with the French, (2) to defeat them, and (3) to drive them out
57864 of Russia, minimizing as far as possible the sufferings of our people
57867 This procrastinator Kutuzov, whose motto was "Patience and Time," this
57868 enemy of decisive action, gave battle at Borodino, investing the
57869 preparations for it with unparalleled solemnity. This Kutuzov who before
57870 the battle of Austerlitz began said that it would be lost, he alone, in
57871 contradiction to everyone else, declared till his death that Borodino
57872 was a victory, despite the assurance of generals that the battle was
57873 lost and despite the fact that for an army to have to retire after
57874 winning a battle was unprecedented. He alone during the whole retreat
57875 insisted that battles, which were useless then, should not be fought,
57876 and that a new war should not be begun nor the frontiers of Russia
57879 It is easy now to understand the significance of these events--if only
57880 we abstain from attributing to the activity of the mass aims that
57881 existed only in the heads of a dozen individuals--for the events and
57882 results now lie before us.
57884 But how did that old man, alone, in opposition to the general opinion,
57885 so truly discern the importance of the people's view of the events that
57886 in all his activity he was never once untrue to it?
57888 The source of that extraordinary power of penetrating the meaning of the
57889 events then occuring lay in the national feeling which he possessed in
57890 full purity and strength.
57892 Only the recognition of the fact that he possessed this feeling caused
57893 the people in so strange a manner, contrary to the Tsar's wish, to
57894 select him--an old man in disfavor--to be their representative in the
57895 national war. And only that feeling placed him on that highest human
57896 pedestal from which he, the commander-in-chief, devoted all his powers
57897 not to slaying and destroying men but to saving and showing pity on
57900 That simple, modest, and therefore truly great, figure could not be cast
57901 in the false mold of a European hero--the supposed ruler of men--that
57902 history has invented.
57904 To a lackey no man can be great, for a lackey has his own conception of
57912 The fifth of November was the first day of what is called the battle of
57913 Krasnoe. Toward evening--after much disputing and many mistakes made by
57914 generals who did not go to their proper places, and after adjutants had
57915 been sent about with counterorders--when it had become plain that the
57916 enemy was everywhere in flight and that there could and would be no
57917 battle, Kutuzov left Krasnoe and went to Dobroe whither his headquarters
57918 had that day been transferred.
57920 The day was clear and frosty. Kutuzov rode to Dobroe on his plump little
57921 white horse, followed by an enormous suite of discontented generals who
57922 whispered among themselves behind his back. All along the road groups of
57923 French prisoners captured that day (there were seven thousand of them)
57924 were crowding to warm themselves at campfires. Near Dobroe an immense
57925 crowd of tattered prisoners, buzzing with talk and wrapped and bandaged
57926 in anything they had been able to get hold of, were standing in the road
57927 beside a long row of unharnessed French guns. At the approach of the
57928 commander-in-chief the buzz of talk ceased and all eyes were fixed on
57929 Kutuzov who, wearing a white cap with a red band and a padded overcoat
57930 that bulged on his round shoulders, moved slowly along the road on his
57931 white horse. One of the generals was reporting to him where the guns and
57932 prisoners had been captured.
57934 Kutuzov seemed preoccupied and did not listen to what the general was
57935 saying. He screwed up his eyes with a dissatisfied look as he gazed
57936 attentively and fixedly at these prisoners, who presented a specially
57937 wretched appearance. Most of them were disfigured by frost-bitten noses
57938 and cheeks, and nearly all had red, swollen and festering eyes.
57940 One group of the French stood close to the road, and two of them, one of
57941 whom had his face covered with sores, were tearing a piece of raw flesh
57942 with their hands. There was something horrible and bestial in the
57943 fleeting glance they threw at the riders and in the malevolent
57944 expression with which, after a glance at Kutuzov, the soldier with the
57945 sores immediately turned away and went on with what he was doing.
57947 Kutuzov looked long and intently at these two soldiers. He puckered his
57948 face, screwed up his eyes, and pensively swayed his head. At another
57949 spot he noticed a Russian soldier laughingly patting a Frenchman on the
57950 shoulder, saying something to him in a friendly manner, and Kutuzov with
57951 the same expression on his face again swayed his head.
57953 "What were you saying?" he asked the general, who continuing his report
57954 directed the commander-in-chief's attention to some standards captured
57955 from the French and standing in front of the Preobrazhensk regiment.
57957 "Ah, the standards!" said Kutuzov, evidently detaching himself with
57958 difficulty from the thoughts that preoccupied him.
57960 He looked about him absently. Thousands of eyes were looking at him from
57961 all sides awaiting a word from him.
57963 He stopped in front of the Preobrazhensk regiment, sighed deeply, and
57964 closed his eyes. One of his suite beckoned to the soldiers carrying the
57965 standards to advance and surround the commander-in-chief with them.
57966 Kutuzov was silent for a few seconds and then, submitting with evident
57967 reluctance to the duty imposed by his position, raised his head and
57968 began to speak. A throng of officers surrounded him. He looked
57969 attentively around at the circle of officers, recognizing several of
57972 "I thank you all!" he said, addressing the soldiers and then again the
57973 officers. In the stillness around him his slowly uttered words were
57974 distinctly heard. "I thank you all for your hard and faithful service.
57975 The victory is complete and Russia will not forget you! Honor to you
57978 He paused and looked around.
57980 "Lower its head, lower it!" he said to a soldier who had accidentally
57981 lowered the French eagle he was holding before the Preobrazhensk
57982 standards. "Lower, lower, that's it. Hurrah lads!" he added, addressing
57983 the men with a rapid movement of his chin.
57985 "Hur-r-rah!" roared thousands of voices.
57987 While the soldiers were shouting Kutuzov leaned forward in his saddle
57988 and bowed his head, and his eye lit up with a mild and apparently ironic
57991 "You see, brothers..." said he when the shouts had ceased... and all at
57992 once his voice and the expression of his face changed. It was no longer
57993 the commander-in-chief speaking but an ordinary old man who wanted to
57994 tell his comrades something very important.
57996 There was a stir among the throng of officers and in the ranks of the
57997 soldiers, who moved that they might hear better what he was going to
58000 "You see, brothers, I know it's hard for you, but it can't be helped!
58001 Bear up; it won't be for long now! We'll see our visitors off and then
58002 we'll rest. The Tsar won't forget your service. It is hard for you, but
58003 still you are at home while they--you see what they have come to," said
58004 he, pointing to the prisoners. "Worse off than our poorest beggars.
58005 While they were strong we didn't spare ourselves, but now we may even
58006 pity them. They are human beings too. Isn't it so, lads?"
58008 He looked around, and in the direct, respectful, wondering gaze fixed
58009 upon him he read sympathy with what he had said. His face grew brighter
58010 and brighter with an old man's mild smile, which drew the corners of his
58011 lips and eyes into a cluster of wrinkles. He ceased speaking and bowed
58012 his head as if in perplexity.
58014 "But after all who asked them here? Serves them right, the bloody
58015 bastards!" he cried, suddenly lifting his head.
58017 And flourishing his whip he rode off at a gallop for the first time
58018 during the whole campaign, and left the broken ranks of the soldiers
58019 laughing joyfully and shouting "Hurrah!"
58021 Kutuzov's words were hardly understood by the troops. No one could have
58022 repeated the field marshal's address, begun solemnly and then changing
58023 into an old man's simplehearted talk; but the hearty sincerity of that
58024 speech, the feeling of majestic triumph combined with pity for the foe
58025 and consciousness of the justice of our cause, exactly expressed by that
58026 old man's good-natured expletives, was not merely understood but lay in
58027 the soul of every soldier and found expression in their joyous and long-
58028 sustained shouts. Afterwards when one of the generals addressed Kutuzov
58029 asking whether he wished his caleche to be sent for, Kutuzov in
58030 answering unexpectedly gave a sob, being evidently greatly moved.
58037 When the troops reached their night's halting place on the eighth of
58038 November, the last day of the Krasnoe battles, it was already growing
58039 dusk. All day it had been calm and frosty with occasional lightly
58040 falling snow and toward evening it began to clear. Through the falling
58041 snow a purple-black and starry sky showed itself and the frost grew
58044 An infantry regiment which had left Tarutino three thousand strong but
58045 now numbered only nine hundred was one of the first to arrive that night
58046 at its halting place--a village on the highroad. The quartermasters who
58047 met the regiment announced that all the huts were full of sick and dead
58048 Frenchmen, cavalrymen, and members of the staff. There was only one hut
58049 available for the regimental commander.
58051 The commander rode up to his hut. The regiment passed through the
58052 village and stacked its arms in front of the last huts.
58054 Like some huge many-limbed animal, the regiment began to prepare its
58055 lair and its food. One part of it dispersed and waded knee-deep through
58056 the snow into a birch forest to the right of the village, and
58057 immediately the sound of axes and swords, the crashing of branches, and
58058 merry voices could be heard from there. Another section amid the
58059 regimental wagons and horses which were standing in a group was busy
58060 getting out caldrons and rye biscuit, and feeding the horses. A third
58061 section scattered through the village arranging quarters for the staff
58062 officers, carrying out the French corpses that were in the huts, and
58063 dragging away boards, dry wood, and thatch from the roofs, for the
58064 campfires, or wattle fences to serve for shelter.
58066 Some fifteen men with merry shouts were shaking down the high wattle
58067 wall of a shed, the roof of which had already been removed.
58069 "Now then, all together--shove!" cried the voices, and the huge surface
58070 of the wall, sprinkled with snow and creaking with frost, was seen
58071 swaying in the gloom of the night. The lower stakes cracked more and
58072 more and at last the wall fell, and with it the men who had been pushing
58073 it. Loud, coarse laughter and joyous shouts ensued.
58075 "Now then, catch hold in twos! Hand up the lever! That's it... Where are
58078 "Now, all together! But wait a moment, boys... With a song!"
58080 All stood silent, and a soft, pleasant velvety voice began to sing. At
58081 the end of the third verse as the last note died away, twenty voices
58082 roared out at once: "Oo-oo-oo-oo! That's it. All together! Heave away,
58083 boys!..." but despite their united efforts the wattle hardly moved, and
58084 in the silence that followed the heavy breathing of the men was audible.
58086 "Here, you of the Sixth Company! Devils that you are! Lend a hand...
58087 will you? You may want us one of these days."
58089 Some twenty men of the Sixth Company who were on their way into the
58090 village joined the haulers, and the wattle wall, which was about thirty-
58091 five feet long and seven feet high, moved forward along the village
58092 street, swaying, pressing upon and cutting the shoulders of the gasping
58095 "Get along... Falling? What are you stopping for? There now..."
58097 Merry senseless words of abuse flowed freely.
58099 "What are you up to?" suddenly came the authoritative voice of a
58100 sergeant major who came upon the men who were hauling their burden.
58101 "There are gentry here; the general himself is in that hut, and you
58102 foul-mouthed devils, you brutes, I'll give it to you!" shouted he,
58103 hitting the first man who came in his way a swinging blow on the back.
58104 "Can't you make less noise?"
58106 The men became silent. The soldier who had been struck groaned and wiped
58107 his face, which had been scratched till it bled by his falling against
58110 "There, how that devil hits out! He's made my face all bloody," said he
58111 in a frightened whisper when the sergeant major had passed on.
58113 "Don't you like it?" said a laughing voice, and moderating their tones
58114 the men moved forward.
58116 When they were out of the village they began talking again as loud as
58117 before, interlarding their talk with the same aimless expletives.
58119 In the hut which the men had passed, the chief officers had gathered and
58120 were in animated talk over their tea about the events of the day and the
58121 maneuvers suggested for tomorrow. It was proposed to make a flank march
58122 to the left, cut off the Vice-King (Murat) and capture him.
58124 By the time the soldiers had dragged the wattle fence to its place the
58125 campfires were blazing on all sides ready for cooking, the wood
58126 crackled, the snow was melting, and black shadows of soldiers flitted to
58127 and fro all over the occupied space where the snow had been trodden
58130 Axes and choppers were plied all around. Everything was done without any
58131 orders being given. Stores of wood were brought for the night, shelters
58132 were rigged up for the officers, caldrons were being boiled, and muskets
58133 and accouterments put in order.
58135 The wattle wall the men had brought was set up in a semicircle by the
58136 Eighth Company as a shelter from the north, propped up by musket rests,
58137 and a campfire was built before it. They beat the tattoo, called the
58138 roll, had supper, and settled down round the fires for the night--some
58139 repairing their footgear, some smoking pipes, and some stripping
58140 themselves naked to steam the lice out of their shirts.
58147 One would have thought that under the almost incredibly wretched
58148 conditions the Russian soldiers were in at that time--lacking warm boots
58149 and sheepskin coats, without a roof over their heads, in the snow with
58150 eighteen degrees of frost, and without even full rations (the
58151 commissariat did not always keep up with the troops)--they would have
58152 presented a very sad and depressing spectacle.
58154 On the contrary, the army had never under the best material conditions
58155 presented a more cheerful and animated aspect. This was because all who
58156 began to grow depressed or who lost strength were sifted out of the army
58157 day by day. All the physically or morally weak had long since been left
58158 behind and only the flower of the army--physically and mentally--
58161 More men collected behind the wattle fence of the Eighth Company than
58162 anywhere else. Two sergeants major were sitting with them and their
58163 campfire blazed brighter than others. For leave to sit by their wattle
58164 they demanded contributions of fuel.
58166 "Eh, Makeev! What has become of you, you son of a bitch? Are you lost or
58167 have the wolves eaten you? Fetch some more wood!" shouted a red-haired
58168 and red-faced man, screwing up his eyes and blinking because of the
58169 smoke but not moving back from the fire. "And you, Jackdaw, go and fetch
58170 some wood!" said he to another soldier.
58172 This red-haired man was neither a sergeant nor a corporal, but being
58173 robust he ordered about those weaker than himself. The soldier they
58174 called "Jackdaw," a thin little fellow with a sharp nose, rose
58175 obediently and was about to go but at that instant there came into the
58176 light of the fire the slender, handsome figure of a young soldier
58177 carrying a load of wood.
58179 "Bring it here--that's fine!"
58181 They split up the wood, pressed it down on the fire, blew at it with
58182 their mouths, and fanned it with the skirts of their greatcoats, making
58183 the flames hiss and crackle. The men drew nearer and lit their pipes.
58184 The handsome young soldier who had brought the wood, setting his arms
58185 akimbo, began stamping his cold feet rapidly and deftly on the spot
58188 "Mother! The dew is cold but clear.... It's well that I'm a
58189 musketeer..." he sang, pretending to hiccough after each syllable.
58191 "Look out, your soles will fly off!" shouted the red-haired man,
58192 noticing that the sole of the dancer's boot was hanging loose. "What a
58193 fellow you are for dancing!"
58195 The dancer stopped, pulled off the loose piece of leather, and threw it
58198 "Right enough, friend," said he, and, having sat down, took out of his
58199 knapsack a scrap of blue French cloth, and wrapped it round his foot.
58200 "It's the steam that spoils them," he added, stretching out his feet
58203 "They'll soon be issuing us new ones. They say that when we've finished
58204 hammering them, we're to receive double kits!"
58206 "And that son of a bitch Petrov has lagged behind after all, it seems,"
58207 said one sergeant major.
58209 "I've had an eye on him this long while," said the other.
58211 "Well, he's a poor sort of soldier..."
58213 "But in the Third Company they say nine men were missing yesterday."
58215 "Yes, it's all very well, but when a man's feet are frozen how can he
58218 "Eh? Don't talk nonsense!" said a sergeant major.
58220 "Do you want to be doing the same?" said an old soldier, turning
58221 reproachfully to the man who had spoken of frozen feet.
58223 "Well, you know," said the sharp-nosed man they called Jackdaw in a
58224 squeaky and unsteady voice, raising himself at the other side of the
58225 fire, "a plump man gets thin, but for a thin one it's death. Take me,
58226 now! I've got no strength left," he added, with sudden resolution
58227 turning to the sergeant major. "Tell them to send me to hospital; I'm
58228 aching all over; anyway I shan't be able to keep up."
58230 "That'll do, that'll do!" replied the sergeant major quietly.
58232 The soldier said no more and the talk went on.
58234 "What a lot of those Frenchies were taken today, and the fact is that
58235 not one of them had what you might call real boots on," said a soldier,
58236 starting a new theme. "They were no more than make-believes."
58238 "The Cossacks have taken their boots. They were clearing the hut for the
58239 colonel and carried them out. It was pitiful to see them, boys," put in
58240 the dancer. "As they turned them over one seemed still alive and, would
58241 you believe it, he jabbered something in their lingo."
58243 "But they're a clean folk, lads," the first man went on; "he was white--
58244 as white as birchbark--and some of them are such fine fellows, you might
58245 think they were nobles."
58247 "Well, what do you think? They make soldiers of all classes there."
58249 "But they don't understand our talk at all," said the dancer with a
58250 puzzled smile. "I asked him whose subject he was, and he jabbered in his
58251 own way. A queer lot!"
58253 "But it's strange, friends," continued the man who had wondered at their
58254 whiteness, "the peasants at Mozhaysk were saying that when they began
58255 burying the dead--where the battle was you know--well, those dead had
58256 been lying there for nearly a month, and says the peasant, 'they lie as
58257 white as paper, clean, and not as much smell as a puff of powder
58260 "Was it from the cold?" asked someone.
58262 "You're a clever fellow! From the cold indeed! Why, it was hot. If it
58263 had been from the cold, ours would not have rotted either. 'But,' he
58264 says, 'go up to ours and they are all rotten and maggoty. So,' he says,
58265 'we tie our faces up with kerchiefs and turn our heads away as we drag
58266 them off: we can hardly do it. But theirs,' he says, 'are white as paper
58267 and not so much smell as a whiff of gunpowder.'"
58271 "It must be from their food," said the sergeant major. "They used to
58272 gobble the same food as the gentry."
58274 No one contradicted him.
58276 "That peasant near Mozhaysk where the battle was said the men were all
58277 called up from ten villages around and they carted for twenty days and
58278 still didn't finish carting the dead away. And as for the wolves, he
58281 "That was a real battle," said an old soldier. "It's the only one worth
58282 remembering; but since that... it's only been tormenting folk."
58284 "And do you know, Daddy, the day before yesterday we ran at them and, my
58285 word, they didn't let us get near before they just threw down their
58286 muskets and went on their knees. 'Pardon!' they say. That's only one
58287 case. They say Platov took 'Poleon himself twice. But he didn't know the
58288 right charm. He catches him and catches him--no good! He turns into a
58289 bird in his hands and flies away. And there's no way of killing him
58292 "You're a first-class liar, Kiselev, when I come to look at you!"
58294 "Liar, indeed! It's the real truth."
58296 "If he fell into my hands, when I'd caught him I'd bury him in the
58297 ground with an aspen stake to fix him down. What a lot of men he's
58300 "Well, anyhow we're going to end it. He won't come here again," remarked
58301 the old soldier, yawning.
58303 The conversation flagged, and the soldiers began settling down to sleep.
58305 "Look at the stars. It's wonderful how they shine! You would think the
58306 women had spread out their linen," said one of the men, gazing with
58307 admiration at the Milky Way.
58309 "That's a sign of a good harvest next year."
58311 "We shall want some more wood."
58313 "You warm your back and your belly gets frozen. That's queer."
58317 "What are you pushing for? Is the fire only for you? Look how he's
58320 In the silence that ensued, the snoring of those who had fallen asleep
58321 could be heard. Others turned over and warmed themselves, now and again
58322 exchanging a few words. From a campfire a hundred paces off came a sound
58323 of general, merry laughter.
58325 "Hark at them roaring there in the Fifth Company!" said one of the
58326 soldiers, "and what a lot of them there are!"
58328 One of the men got up and went over to the Fifth Company.
58330 "They're having such fun," said he, coming back. "Two Frenchies have
58331 turned up. One's quite frozen and the other's an awful swaggerer. He's
58334 "Oh, I'll go across and have a look...."
58336 And several of the men went over to the Fifth Company.
58343 The fifth company was bivouacking at the very edge of the forest. A huge
58344 campfire was blazing brightly in the midst of the snow, lighting up the
58345 branches of trees heavy with hoarfrost.
58347 About midnight they heard the sound of steps in the snow of the forest,
58348 and the crackling of dry branches.
58350 "A bear, lads," said one of the men.
58352 They all raised their heads to listen, and out of the forest into the
58353 bright firelight stepped two strangely clad human figures clinging to
58356 These were two Frenchmen who had been hiding in the forest. They came up
58357 to the fire, hoarsely uttering something in a language our soldiers did
58358 not understand. One was taller than the other; he wore an officer's hat
58359 and seemed quite exhausted. On approaching the fire he had been going to
58360 sit down, but fell. The other, a short sturdy soldier with a shawl tied
58361 round his head, was stronger. He raised his companion and said
58362 something, pointing to his mouth. The soldiers surrounded the Frenchmen,
58363 spread a greatcoat on the ground for the sick man, and brought some
58364 buckwheat porridge and vodka for both of them.
58366 The exhausted French officer was Ramballe and the man with his head
58367 wrapped in the shawl was Morel, his orderly.
58369 When Morel had drunk some vodka and finished his bowl of porridge he
58370 suddenly became unnaturally merry and chattered incessantly to the
58371 soldiers, who could not understand him. Ramballe refused food and
58372 resting his head on his elbow lay silent beside the campfire, looking at
58373 the Russian soldiers with red and vacant eyes. Occasionally he emitted a
58374 long-drawn groan and then again became silent. Morel, pointing to his
58375 shoulders, tried to impress on the soldiers the fact that Ramballe was
58376 an officer and ought to be warmed. A Russian officer who had come up to
58377 the fire sent to ask his colonel whether he would not take a French
58378 officer into his hut to warm him, and when the messenger returned and
58379 said that the colonel wished the officer to be brought to him, Ramballe
58380 was told to go. He rose and tried to walk, but staggered and would have
58381 fallen had not a soldier standing by held him up.
58383 "You won't do it again, eh?" said one of the soldiers, winking and
58384 turning mockingly to Ramballe.
58386 "Oh, you fool! Why talk rubbish, lout that you are--a real peasant!"
58387 came rebukes from all sides addressed to the jesting soldier.
58389 They surrounded Ramballe, lifted him on the crossed arms of two
58390 soldiers, and carried him to the hut. Ramballe put his arms around their
58391 necks while they carried him and began wailing plaintively:
58393 "Oh, you fine fellows, my kind, kind friends! These are men! Oh, my
58394 brave, kind friends," and he leaned his head against the shoulder of one
58395 of the men like a child.
58397 Meanwhile Morel was sitting in the best place by the fire, surrounded by
58400 Morel, a short sturdy Frenchman with inflamed and streaming eyes, was
58401 wearing a woman's cloak and had a shawl tied woman fashion round his
58402 head over his cap. He was evidently tipsy, and was singing a French song
58403 in a hoarse broken voice, with an arm thrown round the nearest soldier.
58404 The soldiers simply held their sides as they watched him.
58406 "Now then, now then, teach us how it goes! I'll soon pick it up. How is
58407 it?" said the man--a singer and a wag--whom Morel was embracing.
58409 "Vive Henri Quatre! Vive ce roi valiant!" sang Morel, winking. "Ce
58410 diable a quatre..." *
58413 * "Long live Henry the Fourth, that valiant king! That rowdy devil."
58415 "Vivarika! Vif-seruvaru! Sedyablyaka!" repeated the soldier, flourishing
58416 his arm and really catching the tune.
58418 "Bravo! Ha, ha, ha!" rose their rough, joyous laughter from all sides.
58420 Morel, wrinkling up his face, laughed too.
58422 "Well, go on, go on!"
58425 "Qui eut le triple talent, De boire, de battre, Et d'etre un vert
58429 * Who had a triple talent For drinking, for fighting, And for being a
58432 "It goes smoothly, too. Well, now, Zaletaev!"
58434 "Ke..." Zaletaev, brought out with effort: "ke-e-e-e," he drawled,
58435 laboriously pursing his lips, "le-trip-ta-la-de-bu-de-ba, e de-tra-va-
58438 "Fine! Just like the Frenchie! Oh, ho ho! Do you want some more to eat?"
58440 "Give him some porridge: it takes a long time to get filled up after
58443 They gave him some more porridge and Morel with a laugh set to work on
58444 his third bowl. All the young soldiers smiled gaily as they watched him.
58445 The older men, who thought it undignified to amuse themselves with such
58446 nonsense, continued to lie at the opposite side of the fire, but one
58447 would occasionally raise himself on an elbow and glance at Morel with a
58450 "They are men too," said one of them as he wrapped himself up in his
58451 coat. "Even wormwood grows on its own root."
58453 "O Lord, O Lord! How starry it is! Tremendous! That means a hard
58456 They all grew silent. The stars, as if knowing that no one was looking
58457 at them, began to disport themselves in the dark sky: now flaring up,
58458 now vanishing, now trembling, they were busy whispering something
58459 gladsome and mysterious to one another.
58466 The French army melted away at the uniform rate of a mathematical
58467 progression; and that crossing of the Berezina about which so much has
58468 been written was only one intermediate stage in its destruction, and not
58469 at all the decisive episode of the campaign. If so much has been and
58470 still is written about the Berezina, on the French side this is only
58471 because at the broken bridge across that river the calamities their army
58472 had been previously enduring were suddenly concentrated at one moment
58473 into a tragic spectacle that remained in every memory, and on the
58474 Russian side merely because in Petersburg--far from the seat of war--a
58475 plan (again one of Pfuel's) had been devised to catch Napoleon in a
58476 strategic trap at the Berezina River. Everyone assured himself that all
58477 would happen according to plan, and therefore insisted that it was just
58478 the crossing of the Berezina that destroyed the French army. In reality
58479 the results of the crossing were much less disastrous to the French--in
58480 guns and men lost--than Krasnoe had been, as the figures show.
58482 The sole importance of the crossing of the Berezina lies in the fact
58483 that it plainly and indubitably proved the fallacy of all the plans for
58484 cutting off the enemy's retreat and the soundness of the only possible
58485 line of action--the one Kutuzov and the general mass of the army
58486 demanded--namely, simply to follow the enemy up. The French crowd fled
58487 at a continually increasing speed and all its energy was directed to
58488 reaching its goal. It fled like a wounded animal and it was impossible
58489 to block its path. This was shown not so much by the arrangements it
58490 made for crossing as by what took place at the bridges. When the bridges
58491 broke down, unarmed soldiers, people from Moscow and women with children
58492 who were with the French transport, all--carried on by vis inertiae--
58493 pressed forward into boats and into the ice-covered water and did not,
58496 That impulse was reasonable. The condition of fugitives and of pursuers
58497 was equally bad. As long as they remained with their own people each
58498 might hope for help from his fellows and the definite place he held
58499 among them. But those who surrendered, while remaining in the same
58500 pitiful plight, would be on a lower level to claim a share in the
58501 necessities of life. The French did not need to be informed of the fact
58502 that half the prisoners--with whom the Russians did not know what to do-
58503 -perished of cold and hunger despite their captors' desire to save them;
58504 they felt that it could not be otherwise. The most compassionate Russian
58505 commanders, those favorable to the French--and even the Frenchmen in the
58506 Russian service--could do nothing for the prisoners. The French perished
58507 from the conditions to which the Russian army was itself exposed. It was
58508 impossible to take bread and clothes from our hungry and indispensable
58509 soldiers to give to the French who, though not harmful, or hated, or
58510 guilty, were simply unnecessary. Some Russians even did that, but they
58513 Certain destruction lay behind the French but in front there was hope.
58514 Their ships had been burned, there was no salvation save in collective
58515 flight, and on that the whole strength of the French was concentrated.
58517 The farther they fled the more wretched became the plight of the
58518 remnant, especially after the Berezina, on which (in consequence of the
58519 Petersburg plan) special hopes had been placed by the Russians, and the
58520 keener grew the passions of the Russian commanders, who blamed one
58521 another and Kutuzov most of all. Anticipation that the failure of the
58522 Petersburg Berezina plan would be attributed to Kutuzov led to
58523 dissatisfaction, contempt, and ridicule, more and more strongly
58524 expressed. The ridicule and contempt were of course expressed in a
58525 respectful form, making it impossible for him to ask wherein he was to
58526 blame. They did not talk seriously to him; when reporting to him or
58527 asking for his sanction they appeared to be fulfilling a regrettable
58528 formality, but they winked behind his back and tried to mislead him at
58531 Because they could not understand him all these people assumed that it
58532 was useless to talk to the old man; that he would never grasp the
58533 profundity of their plans, that he would answer with his phrases (which
58534 they thought were mere phrases) about a "golden bridge," about the
58535 impossibility of crossing the frontier with a crowd of tatterdemalions,
58536 and so forth. They had heard all that before. And all he said--that it
58537 was necessary to await provisions, or that the men had no boots--was so
58538 simple, while what they proposed was so complicated and clever, that it
58539 was evident that he was old and stupid and that they, though not in
58540 power, were commanders of genius.
58542 After the junction with the army of the brilliant admiral and Petersburg
58543 hero Wittgenstein, this mood and the gossip of the staff reached their
58544 maximum. Kutuzov saw this and merely sighed and shrugged his shoulders.
58545 Only once, after the affair of the Berezina, did he get angry and write
58546 to Bennigsen (who reported separately to the Emperor) the following
58549 "On account of your spells of ill health, will your excellency please be
58550 so good as to set off for Kaluga on receipt of this, and there await
58551 further commands and appointments from His Imperial Majesty."
58553 But after Bennigsen's departure, the Grand Duke Tsarevich Constantine
58554 Pavlovich joined the army. He had taken part in the beginning of the
58555 campaign but had subsequently been removed from the army by Kutuzov. Now
58556 having come to the army, he informed Kutuzov of the Emperor's
58557 displeasure at the poor success of our forces and the slowness of their
58558 advance. The Emperor intended to join the army personally in a few days'
58561 The old man, experienced in court as well as in military affairs--this
58562 same Kutuzov who in August had been chosen commander-in-chief against
58563 the sovereign's wishes and who had removed the Grand Duke and heir--
58564 apparent from the army--who on his own authority and contrary to the
58565 Emperor's will had decided on the abandonment of Moscow, now realized at
58566 once that his day was over, that his part was played, and that the power
58567 he was supposed to hold was no longer his. And he understood this not
58568 merely from the attitude of the court. He saw on the one hand that the
58569 military business in which he had played his part was ended and felt
58570 that his mission was accomplished; and at the same time he began to be
58571 conscious of the physical weariness of his aged body and of the
58572 necessity of physical rest.
58574 On the twenty-ninth of November Kutuzov entered Vilna--his "dear Vilna"
58575 as he called it. Twice during his career Kutuzov had been governor of
58576 Vilna. In that wealthy town, which had not been injured, he found old
58577 friends and associations, besides the comforts of life of which he had
58578 so long been deprived. And he suddenly turned from the cares of army and
58579 state and, as far as the passions that seethed around him allowed,
58580 immersed himself in the quiet life to which he had formerly been
58581 accustomed, as if all that was taking place and all that had still to be
58582 done in the realm of history did not concern him at all.
58584 Chichagov, one of the most zealous "cutters-off" and "breakers-up," who
58585 had first wanted to effect a diversion in Greece and then in Warsaw but
58586 never wished to go where he was sent: Chichagov, noted for the boldness
58587 with which he spoke to the Emperor, and who considered Kutuzov to be
58588 under an obligation to him because when he was sent to make peace with
58589 Turkey in 1811 independently of Kutuzov, and found that peace had
58590 already been concluded, he admitted to the Emperor that the merit of
58591 securing that peace was really Kutuzov's; this Chichagov was the first
58592 to meet Kutuzov at the castle where the latter was to stay. In undress
58593 naval uniform, with a dirk, and holding his cap under his arm, he handed
58594 Kutuzov a garrison report and the keys of the town. The contemptuously
58595 respectful attitude of the younger men to the old man in his dotage was
58596 expressed in the highest degree by the behavior of Chichagov, who knew
58597 of the accusations that were being directed against Kutuzov.
58599 When speaking to Chichagov, Kutuzov incidentally mentioned that the
58600 vehicles packed with china that had been captured from him at Borisov
58601 had been recovered and would be restored to him.
58603 "You mean to imply that I have nothing to eat out of.... On the
58604 contrary, I can supply you with everything even if you want to give
58605 dinner parties," warmly replied Chichagov, who tried by every word he
58606 spoke to prove his own rectitude and therefore imagined Kutuzov to be
58607 animated by the same desire.
58609 Kutuzov, shrugging his shoulders, replied with his subtle penetrating
58610 smile: "I meant merely to say what I said."
58612 Contrary to the Emperor's wish Kutuzov detained the greater part of the
58613 army at Vilna. Those about him said that he became extraordinarily slack
58614 and physically feeble during his stay in that town. He attended to army
58615 affairs reluctantly, left everything to his generals, and while awaiting
58616 the Emperor's arrival led a dissipated life.
58618 Having left Petersburg on the seventh of December with his suite--Count
58619 Tolstoy, Prince Volkonski, Arakcheev, and others--the Emperor reached
58620 Vilna on the eleventh, and in his traveling sleigh drove straight to the
58621 castle. In spite of the severe frost some hundred generals and staff
58622 officers in full parade uniform stood in front of the castle, as well as
58623 a guard of honor of the Semenov regiment.
58625 A courier who galloped to the castle in advance, in a troyka with three
58626 foam-flecked horses, shouted "Coming!" and Konovnitsyn rushed into the
58627 vestibule to inform Kutuzov, who was waiting in the hall porter's little
58630 A minute later the old man's large stout figure in full-dress uniform,
58631 his chest covered with orders and a scarf drawn round his stomach,
58632 waddled out into the porch. He put on his hat with its peaks to the
58633 sides and, holding his gloves in his hand and walking with an effort
58634 sideways down the steps to the level of the street, took in his hand the
58635 report he had prepared for the Emperor.
58637 There was running to and fro and whispering; another troyka flew
58638 furiously up, and then all eyes were turned on an approaching sleigh in
58639 which the figures of the Emperor and Volkonski could already be
58642 From the habit of fifty years all this had a physically agitating effect
58643 on the old general. He carefully and hastily felt himself all over,
58644 readjusted his hat, and pulling himself together drew himself up and, at
58645 the very moment when the Emperor, having alighted from the sleigh,
58646 lifted his eyes to him, handed him the report and began speaking in his
58647 smooth, ingratiating voice.
58649 The Emperor with a rapid glance scanned Kutuzov from head to foot,
58650 frowned for an instant, but immediately mastering himself went up to the
58651 old man, extended his arms and embraced him. And this embrace too, owing
58652 to a long-standing impression related to his innermost feelings, had its
58653 usual effect on Kutuzov and he gave a sob.
58655 The Emperor greeted the officers and the Semenov guard, and again
58656 pressing the old man's hand went with him into the castle.
58658 When alone with the field marshal the Emperor expressed his
58659 dissatisfaction at the slowness of the pursuit and at the mistakes made
58660 at Krasnoe and the Berezina, and informed him of his intentions for a
58661 future campaign abroad. Kutuzov made no rejoinder or remark. The same
58662 submissive, expressionless look with which he had listened to the
58663 Emperor's commands on the field of Austerlitz seven years before settled
58666 When Kutuzov came out of the study and with lowered head was crossing
58667 the ballroom with his heavy waddling gait, he was arrested by someone's
58670 "Your Serene Highness!"
58672 Kutuzov raised his head and looked for a long while into the eyes of
58673 Count Tolstoy, who stood before him holding a silver salver on which lay
58674 a small object. Kutuzov seemed not to understand what was expected of
58677 Suddenly he seemed to remember; a scarcely perceptible smile flashed
58678 across his puffy face, and bowing low and respectfully he took the
58679 object that lay on the salver. It was the Order of St. George of the
58687 Next day the field marshal gave a dinner and ball which the Emperor
58688 honored by his presence. Kutuzov had received the Order of St. George of
58689 the First Class and the Emperor showed him the highest honors, but
58690 everyone knew of the imperial dissatisfaction with him. The proprieties
58691 were observed and the Emperor was the first to set that example, but
58692 everybody understood that the old man was blameworthy and good-for-
58693 nothing. When Kutuzov, conforming to a custom of Catherine's day,
58694 ordered the standards that had been captured to be lowered at the
58695 Emperor's feet on his entering the ballroom, the Emperor made a wry face
58696 and muttered something in which some people caught the words, "the old
58699 The Emperor's displeasure with Kutuzov was specially increased at Vilna
58700 by the fact that Kutuzov evidently could not or would not understand the
58701 importance of the coming campaign.
58703 When on the following morning the Emperor said to the officers assembled
58704 about him: "You have not only saved Russia, you have saved Europe!" they
58705 all understood that the war was not ended.
58707 Kutuzov alone would not see this and openly expressed his opinion that
58708 no fresh war could improve the position or add to the glory of Russia,
58709 but could only spoil and lower the glorious position that Russia had
58710 gained. He tried to prove to the Emperor the impossibility of levying
58711 fresh troops, spoke of the hardships already endured by the people, of
58712 the possibility of failure and so forth.
58714 This being the field marshal's frame of mind he was naturally regarded
58715 as merely a hindrance and obstacle to the impending war.
58717 To avoid unpleasant encounters with the old man, the natural method was
58718 to do what had been done with him at Austerlitz and with Barclay at the
58719 beginning of the Russian campaign--to transfer the authority to the
58720 Emperor himself, thus cutting the ground from under the commander in
58721 chief's feet without upsetting the old man by informing him of the
58724 With this object his staff was gradually reconstructed and its real
58725 strength removed and transferred to the Emperor. Toll, Konovnitsyn, and
58726 Ermolov received fresh appointments. Everyone spoke loudly of the field
58727 marshal's great weakness and failing health.
58729 His health had to be bad for his place to be taken away and given to
58730 another. And in fact his health was poor.
58732 So naturally, simply, and gradually--just as he had come from Turkey to
58733 the Treasury in Petersburg to recruit the militia, and then to the army
58734 when he was needed there--now when his part was played out, Kutuzov's
58735 place was taken by a new and necessary performer.
58737 The war of 1812, besides its national significance dear to every Russian
58738 heart, was now to assume another, a European, significance.
58740 The movement of peoples from west to east was to be succeeded by a
58741 movement of peoples from east to west, and for this fresh war another
58742 leader was necessary, having qualities and views differing from
58743 Kutuzov's and animated by different motives.
58745 Alexander I was as necessary for the movement of the peoples from east
58746 to west and for the refixing of national frontiers as Kutuzov had been
58747 for the salvation and glory of Russia.
58749 Kutuzov did not understand what Europe, the balance of power, or
58750 Napoleon meant. He could not understand it. For the representative of
58751 the Russian people, after the enemy had been destroyed and Russia had
58752 been liberated and raised to the summit of her glory, there was nothing
58753 left to do as a Russian. Nothing remained for the representative of the
58754 national war but to die, and Kutuzov died.
58761 As generally happens, Pierre did not feel the full effects of the
58762 physical privation and strain he had suffered as prisoner until after
58763 they were over. After his liberation he reached Orel, and on the third
58764 day there, when preparing to go to Kiev, he fell ill and was laid up for
58765 three months. He had what the doctors termed "bilious fever." But
58766 despite the fact that the doctors treated him, bled him, and gave him
58767 medicines to drink, he recovered.
58769 Scarcely any impression was left on Pierre's mind by all that happened
58770 to him from the time of his rescue till his illness. He remembered only
58771 the dull gray weather now rainy and now snowy, internal physical
58772 distress, and pains in his feet and side. He remembered a general
58773 impression of the misfortunes and sufferings of people and of being
58774 worried by the curiosity of officers and generals who questioned him, he
58775 also remembered his difficulty in procuring a conveyance and horses, and
58776 above all he remembered his incapacity to think and feel all that time.
58777 On the day of his rescue he had seen the body of Petya Rostov. That same
58778 day he had learned that Prince Andrew, after surviving the battle of
58779 Borodino for more than a month had recently died in the Rostovs' house
58780 at Yaroslavl, and Denisov who told him this news also mentioned Helene's
58781 death, supposing that Pierre had heard of it long before. All this at
58782 the time seemed merely strange to Pierre: he felt he could not grasp its
58783 significance. Just then he was only anxious to get away as quickly as
58784 possible from places where people were killing one another, to some
58785 peaceful refuge where he could recover himself, rest, and think over all
58786 the strange new facts he had learned; but on reaching Orel he
58787 immediately fell ill. When he came to himself after his illness he saw
58788 in attendance on him two of his servants, Terenty and Vaska, who had
58789 come from Moscow; and also his cousin the eldest princess, who had been
58790 living on his estate at Elets and hearing of his rescue and illness had
58791 come to look after him.
58793 It was only gradually during his convalescence that Pierre lost the
58794 impressions he had become accustomed to during the last few months and
58795 got used to the idea that no one would oblige him to go anywhere
58796 tomorrow, that no one would deprive him of his warm bed, and that he
58797 would be sure to get his dinner, tea, and supper. But for a long time in
58798 his dreams he still saw himself in the conditions of captivity. In the
58799 same way little by little he came to understand the news he had been
58800 told after his rescue, about the death of Prince Andrew, the death of
58801 his wife, and the destruction of the French.
58803 A joyous feeling of freedom--that complete inalienable freedom natural
58804 to man which he had first experienced at the first halt outside Moscow--
58805 filled Pierre's soul during his convalescence. He was surprised to find
58806 that this inner freedom, which was independent of external conditions,
58807 now had as it were an additional setting of external liberty. He was
58808 alone in a strange town, without acquaintances. No one demanded anything
58809 of him or sent him anywhere. He had all he wanted: the thought of his
58810 wife which had been a continual torment to him was no longer there,
58811 since she was no more.
58813 "Oh, how good! How splendid!" said he to himself when a cleanly laid
58814 table was moved up to him with savory beef tea, or when he lay down for
58815 the night on a soft clean bed, or when he remembered that the French had
58816 gone and that his wife was no more. "Oh, how good, how splendid!"
58818 And by old habit he asked himself the question: "Well, and what then?
58819 What am I going to do?" And he immediately gave himself the answer:
58820 "Well, I shall live. Ah, how splendid!"
58822 The very question that had formerly tormented him, the thing he had
58823 continually sought to find--the aim of life--no longer existed for him
58824 now. That search for the aim of life had not merely disappeared
58825 temporarily--he felt that it no longer existed for him and could not
58826 present itself again. And this very absence of an aim gave him the
58827 complete, joyous sense of freedom which constituted his happiness at
58830 He could not see an aim, for he now had faith--not faith in any kind of
58831 rule, or words, or ideas, but faith in an ever-living, ever-manifest
58832 God. Formerly he had sought Him in aims he set himself. That search for
58833 an aim had been simply a search for God, and suddenly in his captivity
58834 he had learned not by words or reasoning but by direct feeling what his
58835 nurse had told him long ago: that God is here and everywhere. In his
58836 captivity he had learned that in Karataev God was greater, more infinite
58837 and unfathomable than in the Architect of the Universe recognized by the
58838 Freemasons. He felt like a man who after straining his eyes to see into
58839 the far distance finds what he sought at his very feet. All his life he
58840 had looked over the heads of the men around him, when he should have
58841 merely looked in front of him without straining his eyes.
58843 In the past he had never been able to find that great inscrutable
58844 infinite something. He had only felt that it must exist somewhere and
58845 had looked for it. In everything near and comprehensible he had only
58846 what was limited, petty, commonplace, and senseless. He had equipped
58847 himself with a mental telescope and looked into remote space, where
58848 petty worldliness hiding itself in misty distance had seemed to him
58849 great and infinite merely because it was not clearly seen. And such had
58850 European life, politics, Freemasonry, philosophy, and philanthropy
58851 seemed to him. But even then, at moments of weakness as he had accounted
58852 them, his mind had penetrated to those distances and he had there seen
58853 the same pettiness, worldliness, and senselessness. Now, however, he had
58854 learned to see the great, eternal, and infinite in everything, and
58855 therefore--to see it and enjoy its contemplation--he naturally threw
58856 away the telescope through which he had till now gazed over men's heads,
58857 and gladly regarded the ever-changing, eternally great, unfathomable,
58858 and infinite life around him. And the closer he looked the more tranquil
58859 and happy he became. That dreadful question, "What for?" which had
58860 formerly destroyed all his mental edifices, no longer existed for him.
58861 To that question, "What for?" a simple answer was now always ready in
58862 his soul: "Because there is a God, that God without whose will not one
58863 hair falls from a man's head."
58870 In external ways Pierre had hardly changed at all. In appearance he was
58871 just what he used to be. As before he was absent-minded and seemed
58872 occupied not with what was before his eyes but with something special of
58873 his own. The difference between his former and present self was that
58874 formerly when he did not grasp what lay before him or was said to him,
58875 he had puckered his forehead painfully as if vainly seeking to
58876 distinguish something at a distance. At present he still forgot what was
58877 said to him and still did not see what was before his eyes, but he now
58878 looked with a scarcely perceptible and seemingly ironic smile at what
58879 was before him and listened to what was said, though evidently seeing
58880 and hearing something quite different. Formerly he had appeared to be a
58881 kindhearted but unhappy man, and so people had been inclined to avoid
58882 him. Now a smile at the joy of life always played round his lips, and
58883 sympathy for others, shone in his eyes with a questioning look as to
58884 whether they were as contented as he was, and people felt pleased by his
58887 Previously he had talked a great deal, grew excited when he talked, and
58888 seldom listened; now he was seldom carried away in conversation and knew
58889 how to listen so that people readily told him their most intimate
58892 The princess, who had never liked Pierre and had been particularly
58893 hostile to him since she had felt herself under obligations to him after
58894 the old count's death, now after staying a short time in Orel--where she
58895 had come intending to show Pierre that in spite of his ingratitude she
58896 considered it her duty to nurse him--felt to her surprise and vexation
58897 that she had become fond of him. Pierre did not in any way seek her
58898 approval, he merely studied her with interest. Formerly she had felt
58899 that he regarded her with indifference and irony, and so had shrunk into
58900 herself as she did with others and had shown him only the combative side
58901 of her nature; but now he seemed to be trying to understand the most
58902 intimate places of her heart, and, mistrustfully at first but afterwards
58903 gratefully, she let him see the hidden, kindly sides of her character.
58905 The most cunning man could not have crept into her confidence more
58906 successfully, evoking memories of the best times of her youth and
58907 showing sympathy with them. Yet Pierre's cunning consisted simply in
58908 finding pleasure in drawing out the human qualities of the embittered,
58909 hard, and (in her own way) proud princess.
58911 "Yes, he is a very, very kind man when he is not under the influence of
58912 bad people but of people such as myself," thought she.
58914 His servants too--Terenty and Vaska--in their own way noticed the change
58915 that had taken place in Pierre. They considered that he had become much
58916 "simpler." Terenty, when he had helped him undress and wished him good
58917 night, often lingered with his master's boots in his hands and clothes
58918 over his arm, to see whether he would not start a talk. And Pierre,
58919 noticing that Terenty wanted a chat, generally kept him there.
58921 "Well, tell me... now, how did you get food?" he would ask.
58923 And Terenty would begin talking of the destruction of Moscow, and of the
58924 old count, and would stand for a long time holding the clothes and
58925 talking, or sometimes listening to Pierre's stories, and then would go
58926 out into the hall with a pleasant sense of intimacy with his master and
58929 The doctor who attended Pierre and visited him every day, though he
58930 considered it his duty as a doctor to pose as a man whose every moment
58931 was of value to suffering humanity, would sit for hours with Pierre
58932 telling him his favorite anecdotes and his observations on the
58933 characters of his patients in general, and especially of the ladies.
58935 "It's a pleasure to talk to a man like that; he is not like our
58936 provincials," he would say.
58938 There were several prisoners from the French army in Orel, and the
58939 doctor brought one of them, a young Italian, to see Pierre.
58941 This officer began visiting Pierre, and the princess used to make fun of
58942 the tenderness the Italian expressed for him.
58944 The Italian seemed happy only when he could come to see Pierre, talk
58945 with him, tell him about his past, his life at home, and his love, and
58946 pour out to him his indignation against the French and especially
58949 "If all Russians are in the least like you, it is sacrilege to fight
58950 such a nation," he said to Pierre. "You, who have suffered so from the
58951 French, do not even feel animosity toward them."
58953 Pierre had evoked the passionate affection of the Italian merely by
58954 evoking the best side of his nature and taking a pleasure in so doing.
58956 During the last days of Pierre's stay in Orel his old masonic
58957 acquaintance Count Willarski, who had introduced him to the lodge in
58958 1807, came to see him. Willarski was married to a Russian heiress who
58959 had a large estate in Orel province, and he occupied a temporary post in
58960 the commissariat department in that town.
58962 Hearing that Bezukhov was in Orel, Willarski, though they had never been
58963 intimate, came to him with the professions of friendship and intimacy
58964 that people who meet in a desert generally express for one another.
58965 Willarski felt dull in Orel and was pleased to meet a man of his own
58966 circle and, as he supposed, of similar interests.
58968 But to his surprise Willarski soon noticed that Pierre had lagged much
58969 behind the times, and had sunk, as he expressed it to himself, into
58970 apathy and egotism.
58972 "You are letting yourself go, my dear fellow," he said.
58974 But for all that Willarski found it pleasanter now than it had been
58975 formerly to be with Pierre, and came to see him every day. To Pierre as
58976 he looked at and listened to Willarski, it seemed strange to think that
58977 he had been like that himself but a short time before.
58979 Willarski was a married man with a family, busy with his family affairs,
58980 his wife's affairs, and his official duties. He regarded all these
58981 occupations as hindrances to life, and considered that they were all
58982 contemptible because their aim was the welfare of himself and his
58983 family. Military, administrative, political, and masonic interests
58984 continually absorbed his attention. And Pierre, without trying to change
58985 the other's views and without condemning him, but with the quiet,
58986 joyful, and amused smile now habitual to him, was interested in this
58987 strange though very familiar phenomenon.
58989 There was a new feature in Pierre's relations with Willarski, with the
58990 princess, with the doctor, and with all the people he now met, which
58991 gained for him the general good will. This was his acknowledgment of the
58992 impossibility of changing a man's convictions by words, and his
58993 recognition of the possibility of everyone thinking, feeling, and seeing
58994 things each from his own point of view. This legitimate peculiarity of
58995 each individual which used to excite and irritate Pierre now became a
58996 basis of the sympathy he felt for, and the interest he took in, other
58997 people. The difference, and sometimes complete contradiction, between
58998 men's opinions and their lives, and between one man and another, pleased
58999 him and drew from him an amused and gentle smile.
59001 In practical matters Pierre unexpectedly felt within himself a center of
59002 gravity he had previously lacked. Formerly all pecuniary questions,
59003 especially requests for money to which, as an extremely wealthy man, he
59004 was very exposed, produced in him a state of hopeless agitation and
59005 perplexity. "To give or not to give?" he had asked himself. "I have it
59006 and he needs it. But someone else needs it still more. Who needs it
59007 most? And perhaps they are both impostors?" In the old days he had been
59008 unable to find a way out of all these surmises and had given to all who
59009 asked as long as he had anything to give. Formerly he had been in a
59010 similar state of perplexity with regard to every question concerning his
59011 property, when one person advised one thing and another something else.
59013 Now to his surprise he found that he no longer felt either doubt or
59014 perplexity about these questions. There was now within him a judge who
59015 by some rule unknown to him decided what should or should not be done.
59017 He was as indifferent as heretofore to money matters, but now he felt
59018 certain of what ought and what ought not to be done. The first time he
59019 had recourse to his new judge was when a French prisoner, a colonel,
59020 came to him and, after talking a great deal about his exploits,
59021 concluded by making what amounted to a demand that Pierre should give
59022 him four thousand francs to send to his wife and children. Pierre
59023 refused without the least difficulty or effort, and was afterwards
59024 surprised how simple and easy had been what used to appear so
59025 insurmountably difficult. At the same time that he refused the colonel's
59026 demand he made up his mind that he must have recourse to artifice when
59027 leaving Orel, to induce the Italian officer to accept some money of
59028 which he was evidently in need. A further proof to Pierre of his own
59029 more settled outlook on practical matters was furnished by his decision
59030 with regard to his wife's debts and to the rebuilding of his houses in
59033 His head steward came to him at Orel and Pierre reckoned up with him his
59034 diminished income. The burning of Moscow had cost him, according to the
59035 head steward's calculation, about two million rubles.
59037 To console Pierre for these losses the head steward gave him an estimate
59038 showing that despite these losses his income would not be diminished but
59039 would even be increased if he refused to pay his wife's debts which he
59040 was under no obligation to meet, and did not rebuild his Moscow house
59041 and the country house on his Moscow estate, which had cost him eighty
59042 thousand rubles a year and brought in nothing.
59044 "Yes, of course that's true," said Pierre with a cheerful smile. "I
59045 don't need all that at all. By being ruined I have become much richer."
59047 But in January Savelich came from Moscow and gave him an account of the
59048 state of things there, and spoke of the estimate an architect had made
59049 of the cost of rebuilding the town and country houses, speaking of this
59050 as of a settled matter. About the same time he received letters from
59051 Prince Vasili and other Petersburg acquaintances speaking of his wife's
59052 debts. And Pierre decided that the steward's proposals which had so
59053 pleased him were wrong and that he must go to Petersburg and settle his
59054 wife's affairs and must rebuild in Moscow. Why this was necessary he did
59055 not know, but he knew for certain that it was necessary. His income
59056 would be reduced by three fourths, but he felt it must be done.
59058 Willarski was going to Moscow and they agreed to travel together.
59060 During the whole time of his convalescence in Orel Pierre had
59061 experienced a feeling of joy, freedom, and life; but when during his
59062 journey he found himself in the open world and saw hundreds of new
59063 faces, that feeling was intensified. Throughout his journey he felt like
59064 a schoolboy on holiday. Everyone--the stagecoach driver, the post-house
59065 overseers, the peasants on the roads and in the villages--had a new
59066 significance for him. The presence and remarks of Willarski who
59067 continually deplored the ignorance and poverty of Russia and its
59068 backwardness compared with Europe only heightened Pierre's pleasure.
59069 Where Willarski saw deadness Pierre saw an extraordinary strength and
59070 vitality--the strength which in that vast space amid the snows
59071 maintained the life of this original, peculiar, and unique people. He
59072 did not contradict Willarski and even seemed to agree with him--an
59073 apparent agreement being the simplest way to avoid discussions that
59074 could lead to nothing--and he smiled joyfully as he listened to him.
59081 It would be difficult to explain why and whither ants whose heap has
59082 been destroyed are hurrying: some from the heap dragging bits of
59083 rubbish, larvae, and corpses, others back to the heap, or why they
59084 jostle, overtake one another, and fight, and it would be equally
59085 difficult to explain what caused the Russians after the departure of the
59086 French to throng to the place that had formerly been Moscow. But when we
59087 watch the ants round their ruined heap, the tenacity, energy, and
59088 immense number of the delving insects prove that despite the destruction
59089 of the heap, something indestructible, which though intangible is the
59090 real strength of the colony, still exists; and similarly, though in
59091 Moscow in the month of October there was no government and no churches,
59092 shrines, riches, or houses--it was still the Moscow it had been in
59093 August. All was destroyed, except something intangible yet powerful and
59096 The motives of those who thronged from all sides to Moscow after it had
59097 been cleared of the enemy were most diverse and personal, and at first
59098 for the most part savage and brutal. One motive only they all had in
59099 common: a desire to get to the place that had been called Moscow, to
59100 apply their activities there.
59102 Within a week Moscow already had fifteen thousand inhabitants, in a
59103 fortnight twenty-five thousand, and so on. By the autumn of 1813 the
59104 number, ever increasing and increasing, exceeded what it had been in
59107 The first Russians to enter Moscow were the Cossacks of Wintzingerode's
59108 detachment, peasants from the adjacent villages, and residents who had
59109 fled from Moscow and had been hiding in its vicinity. The Russians who
59110 entered Moscow, finding it plundered, plundered it in their turn. They
59111 continued what the French had begun. Trains of peasant carts came to
59112 Moscow to carry off to the villages what had been abandoned in the
59113 ruined houses and the streets. The Cossacks carried off what they could
59114 to their camps, and the householders seized all they could find in other
59115 houses and moved it to their own, pretending that it was their property.
59117 But the first plunderers were followed by a second and a third
59118 contingent, and with increasing numbers plundering became more and more
59119 difficult and assumed more definite forms.
59121 The French found Moscow abandoned but with all the organizations of
59122 regular life, with diverse branches of commerce and craftsmanship, with
59123 luxury, and governmental and religious institutions. These forms were
59124 lifeless but still existed. There were bazaars, shops, warehouses,
59125 market stalls, granaries--for the most part still stocked with goods--
59126 and there were factories and workshops, palaces and wealthy houses
59127 filled with luxuries, hospitals, prisons, government offices, churches,
59128 and cathedrals. The longer the French remained the more these forms of
59129 town life perished, until finally all was merged into one confused,
59130 lifeless scene of plunder.
59132 The more the plundering by the French continued, the more both the
59133 wealth of Moscow and the strength of its plunderers was destroyed. But
59134 plundering by the Russians, with which the reoccupation of the city
59135 began, had an opposite effect: the longer it continued and the greater
59136 the number of people taking part in it the more rapidly was the wealth
59137 of the city and its regular life restored.
59139 Besides the plunderers, very various people, some drawn by curiosity,
59140 some by official duties, some by self-interest--house owners, clergy,
59141 officials of all kinds, tradesmen, artisans, and peasants--streamed into
59142 Moscow as blood flows to the heart.
59144 Within a week the peasants who came with empty carts to carry off
59145 plunder were stopped by the authorities and made to cart the corpses out
59146 of the town. Other peasants, having heard of their comrades'
59147 discomfiture, came to town bringing rye, oats, and hay, and beat down
59148 one another's prices to below what they had been in former days. Gangs
59149 of carpenters hoping for high pay arrived in Moscow every day, and on
59150 all sides logs were being hewn, new houses built, and old, charred ones
59151 repaired. Tradesmen began trading in booths. Cookshops and taverns were
59152 opened in partially burned houses. The clergy resumed the services in
59153 many churches that had not been burned. Donors contributed Church
59154 property that had been stolen. Government clerks set up their baize-
59155 covered tables and their pigeonholes of documents in small rooms. The
59156 higher authorities and the police organized the distribution of goods
59157 left behind by the French. The owners of houses in which much property
59158 had been left, brought there from other houses, complained of the
59159 injustice of taking everything to the Faceted Palace in the Kremlin;
59160 others insisted that as the French had gathered things from different
59161 houses into this or that house, it would be unfair to allow its owner to
59162 keep all that was found there. They abused the police and bribed them,
59163 made out estimates at ten times their value for government stores that
59164 had perished in the fire, and demanded relief. And Count Rostopchin
59165 wrote proclamations.
59172 At the end of January Pierre went to Moscow and stayed in an annex of
59173 his house which had not been burned. He called on Count Rostopchin and
59174 on some acquaintances who were back in Moscow, and he intended to leave
59175 for Petersburg two days later. Everybody was celebrating the victory,
59176 everything was bubbling with life in the ruined but reviving city.
59177 Everyone was pleased to see Pierre, everyone wished to meet him, and
59178 everyone questioned him about what he had seen. Pierre felt particularly
59179 well disposed toward them all, but was now instinctively on his guard
59180 for fear of binding himself in any way. To all questions put to him--
59181 whether important or quite trifling--such as: Where would he live? Was
59182 he going to rebuild? When was he going to Petersburg and would he mind
59183 taking a parcel for someone?--he replied: "Yes, perhaps," or, "I think
59186 He had heard that the Rostovs were at Kostroma but the thought of
59187 Natasha seldom occurred to him. If it did it was only as a pleasant
59188 memory of the distant past. He felt himself not only free from social
59189 obligations but also from that feeling which, it seemed to him, he had
59190 aroused in himself.
59192 On the third day after his arrival he heard from the Drubetskoys that
59193 Princess Mary was in Moscow. The death, sufferings, and last days of
59194 Prince Andrew had often occupied Pierre's thoughts and now recurred to
59195 him with fresh vividness. Having heard at dinner that Princess Mary was
59196 in Moscow and living in her house--which had not been burned--in
59197 Vozdvizhenka Street, he drove that same evening to see her.
59199 On his way to the house Pierre kept thinking of Prince Andrew, of their
59200 friendship, of his various meetings with him, and especially of the last
59203 "Is it possible that he died in the bitter frame of mind he was then in?
59204 Is it possible that the meaning of life was not disclosed to him before
59205 he died?" thought Pierre. He recalled Karataev and his death and
59206 involuntarily began to compare these two men, so different, and yet so
59207 similar in that they had both lived and both died and in the love he
59208 felt for both of them.
59210 Pierre drove up to the house of the old prince in a most serious mood.
59211 The house had escaped the fire; it showed signs of damage but its
59212 general aspect was unchanged. The old footman, who met Pierre with a
59213 stern face as if wishing to make the visitor feel that the absence of
59214 the old prince had not disturbed the order of things in the house,
59215 informed him that the princess had gone to her own apartments, and that
59216 she received on Sundays.
59218 "Announce me. Perhaps she will see me," said Pierre.
59220 "Yes, sir," said the man. "Please step into the portrait gallery."
59222 A few minutes later the footman returned with Dessalles, who brought
59223 word from the princess that she would be very glad to see Pierre if he
59224 would excuse her want of ceremony and come upstairs to her apartment.
59226 In a rather low room lit by one candle sat the princess and with her
59227 another person dressed in black. Pierre remembered that the princess
59228 always had lady companions, but who they were and what they were like he
59229 never knew or remembered. "This must be one of her companions," he
59230 thought, glancing at the lady in the black dress.
59232 The princess rose quickly to meet him and held out her hand.
59234 "Yes," she said, looking at his altered face after he had kissed her
59235 hand, "so this is how we meet again. He spoke of you even at the very
59236 last," she went on, turning her eyes from Pierre to her companion with a
59237 shyness that surprised him for an instant.
59239 "I was so glad to hear of your safety. It was the first piece of good
59240 news we had received for a long time."
59242 Again the princess glanced round at her companion with even more
59243 uneasiness in her manner and was about to add something, but Pierre
59246 "Just imagine--I knew nothing about him!" said he. "I thought he had
59247 been killed. All I know I heard at second hand from others. I only know
59248 that he fell in with the Rostovs.... What a strange coincidence!"
59250 Pierre spoke rapidly and with animation. He glanced once at the
59251 companion's face, saw her attentive and kindly gaze fixed on him, and,
59252 as often happens when one is talking, felt somehow that this companion
59253 in the black dress was a good, kind, excellent creature who would not
59254 hinder his conversing freely with Princess Mary.
59256 But when he mentioned the Rostovs, Princess Mary's face expressed still
59257 greater embarrassment. She again glanced rapidly from Pierre's face to
59258 that of the lady in the black dress and said:
59260 "Do you really not recognize her?"
59262 Pierre looked again at the companion's pale, delicate face with its
59263 black eyes and peculiar mouth, and something near to him, long forgotten
59264 and more than sweet, looked at him from those attentive eyes.
59266 "But no, it can't be!" he thought. "This stern, thin, pale face that
59267 looks so much older! It cannot be she. It merely reminds me of her." But
59268 at that moment Princess Mary said, "Natasha!" And with difficulty,
59269 effort, and stress, like the opening of a door grown rusty on its
59270 hinges, a smile appeared on the face with the attentive eyes, and from
59271 that opening door came a breath of fragrance which suffused Pierre with
59272 a happiness he had long forgotten and of which he had not even been
59273 thinking--especially at that moment. It suffused him, seized him, and
59274 enveloped him completely. When she smiled doubt was no longer possible,
59275 it was Natasha and he loved her.
59277 At that moment Pierre involuntarily betrayed to her, to Princess Mary,
59278 and above all to himself, a secret of which he himself had been unaware.
59279 He flushed joyfully yet with painful distress. He tried to hide his
59280 agitation. But the more he tried to hide it the more clearly--clearer
59281 than any words could have done--did he betray to himself, to her, and to
59282 Princess Mary that he loved her.
59284 "No, it's only the unexpectedness of it," thought Pierre. But as soon as
59285 he tried to continue the conversation he had begun with Princess Mary he
59286 again glanced at Natasha, and a still-deeper flush suffused his face and
59287 a still-stronger agitation of mingled joy and fear seized his soul. He
59288 became confused in his speech and stopped in the middle of what he was
59291 Pierre had failed to notice Natasha because he did not at all expect to
59292 see her there, but he had failed to recognize her because the change in
59293 her since he last saw her was immense. She had grown thin and pale, but
59294 that was not what made her unrecognizable; she was unrecognizable at the
59295 moment he entered because on that face whose eyes had always shone with
59296 a suppressed smile of the joy of life, now when he first entered and
59297 glanced at her there was not the least shadow of a smile: only her eyes
59298 were kindly attentive and sadly interrogative.
59300 Pierre's confusion was not reflected by any confusion on Natasha's part,
59301 but only by the pleasure that just perceptibly lit up her whole face.
59308 "She has come to stay with me," said Princess Mary. "The count and
59309 countess will be here in a few days. The countess is in a dreadful
59310 state; but it was necessary for Natasha herself to see a doctor. They
59311 insisted on her coming with me."
59313 "Yes, is there a family free from sorrow now?" said Pierre, addressing
59314 Natasha. "You know it happened the very day we were rescued. I saw him.
59315 What a delightful boy he was!"
59317 Natasha looked at him, and by way of answer to his words her eyes
59318 widened and lit up.
59320 "What can one say or think of as a consolation?" said Pierre. "Nothing!
59321 Why had such a splendid boy, so full of life, to die?"
59323 "Yes, in these days it would be hard to live without faith..." remarked
59326 "Yes, yes, that is really true," Pierre hastily interrupted her.
59328 "Why is it true?" Natasha asked, looking attentively into Pierre's eyes.
59330 "How can you ask why?" said Princess Mary. "The thought alone of what
59333 Natasha without waiting for Princess Mary to finish again looked
59334 inquiringly at Pierre.
59336 "And because," Pierre continued, "only one who believes that there is a
59337 God ruling us can bear a loss such as hers and... yours."
59339 Natasha had already opened her mouth to speak but suddenly stopped.
59340 Pierre hurriedly turned away from her and again addressed Princess Mary,
59341 asking about his friend's last days.
59343 Pierre's confusion had now almost vanished, but at the same time he felt
59344 that his freedom had also completely gone. He felt that there was now a
59345 judge of his every word and action whose judgment mattered more to him
59346 than that of all the rest of the world. As he spoke now he was
59347 considering what impression his words would make on Natasha. He did not
59348 purposely say things to please her, but whatever he was saying he
59349 regarded from her standpoint.
59351 Princess Mary--reluctantly as is usual in such cases--began telling of
59352 the condition in which she had found Prince Andrew. But Pierre's face
59353 quivering with emotion, his questions and his eager restless expression,
59354 gradually compelled her to go into details which she feared to recall
59357 "Yes, yes, and so...?" Pierre kept saying as he leaned toward her with
59358 his whole body and eagerly listened to her story. "Yes, yes... so he
59359 grew tranquil and softened? With all his soul he had always sought one
59360 thing--to be perfectly good--so he could not be afraid of death. The
59361 faults he had--if he had any--were not of his making. So he did
59362 soften?... What a happy thing that he saw you again," he added, suddenly
59363 turning to Natasha and looking at her with eyes full of tears.
59365 Natasha's face twitched. She frowned and lowered her eyes for a moment.
59366 She hesitated for an instant whether to speak or not.
59368 "Yes, that was happiness," she then said in her quiet voice with its
59369 deep chest notes. "For me it certainly was happiness." She paused. "And
59370 he... he... he said he was wishing for it at the very moment I entered
59373 Natasha's voice broke. She blushed, pressed her clasped hands on her
59374 knees, and then controlling herself with an evident effort lifted her
59375 head and began to speak rapidly.
59377 "We knew nothing of it when we started from Moscow. I did not dare to
59378 ask about him. Then suddenly Sonya told me he was traveling with us. I
59379 had no idea and could not imagine what state he was in, all I wanted was
59380 to see him and be with him," she said, trembling, and breathing quickly.
59382 And not letting them interrupt her she went on to tell what she had
59383 never yet mentioned to anyone--all she had lived through during those
59384 three weeks of their journey and life at Yaroslavl.
59386 Pierre listened to her with lips parted and eyes fixed upon her full of
59387 tears. As he listened he did not think of Prince Andrew, nor of death,
59388 nor of what she was telling. He listened to her and felt only pity for
59389 her, for what she was suffering now while she was speaking.
59391 Princess Mary, frowning in her effort to hold back her tears, sat beside
59392 Natasha, and heard for the first time the story of those last days of
59393 her brother's and Natasha's love.
59395 Evidently Natasha needed to tell that painful yet joyful tale.
59397 She spoke, mingling most trifling details with the intimate secrets of
59398 her soul, and it seemed as if she could never finish. Several times she
59399 repeated the same thing twice.
59401 Dessalles' voice was heard outside the door asking whether little
59402 Nicholas might come in to say good night.
59404 "Well, that's all--everything," said Natasha.
59406 She got up quickly just as Nicholas entered, almost ran to the door
59407 which was hidden by curtains, struck her head against it, and rushed
59408 from the room with a moan either of pain or sorrow.
59410 Pierre gazed at the door through which she had disappeared and did not
59411 understand why he suddenly felt all alone in the world.
59413 Princess Mary roused him from his abstraction by drawing his attention
59414 to her nephew who had entered the room.
59416 At that moment of emotional tenderness young Nicholas' face, which
59417 resembled his father's, affected Pierre so much that when he had kissed
59418 the boy he got up quickly, took out his handkerchief, and went to the
59419 window. He wished to take leave of Princess Mary, but she would not let
59422 "No, Natasha and I sometimes don't go to sleep till after two, so please
59423 don't go. I will order supper. Go downstairs, we will come immediately."
59425 Before Pierre left the room Princess Mary told him: "This is the first
59426 time she has talked of him like that."
59433 Pierre was shown into the large, brightly lit dining room; a few minutes
59434 later he heard footsteps and Princess Mary entered with Natasha. Natasha
59435 was calm, though a severe and grave expression had again settled on her
59436 face. They all three of them now experienced that feeling of awkwardness
59437 which usually follows after a serious and heartfelt talk. It is
59438 impossible to go back to the same conversation, to talk of trifles is
59439 awkward, and yet the desire to speak is there and silence seems like
59440 affectation. They went silently to table. The footmen drew back the
59441 chairs and pushed them up again. Pierre unfolded his cold table napkin
59442 and, resolving to break the silence, looked at Natasha and at Princess
59443 Mary. They had evidently both formed the same resolution; the eyes of
59444 both shone with satisfaction and a confession that besides sorrow life
59447 "Do you take vodka, Count?" asked Princess Mary, and those words
59448 suddenly banished the shadows of the past. "Now tell us about yourself,"
59449 said she. "One hears such improbable wonders about you."
59451 "Yes," replied Pierre with the smile of mild irony now habitual to him.
59452 "They even tell me wonders I myself never dreamed of! Mary Abramovna
59453 invited me to her house and kept telling me what had happened, or ought
59454 to have happened, to me. Stepan Stepanych also instructed me how I ought
59455 to tell of my experiences. In general I have noticed that it is very
59456 easy to be an interesting man (I am an interesting man now); people
59457 invite me out and tell me all about myself."
59459 Natasha smiled and was on the point of speaking.
59461 "We have been told," Princess Mary interrupted her, "that you lost two
59462 millions in Moscow. Is that true?"
59464 "But I am three times as rich as before," returned Pierre.
59466 Though the position was now altered by his decision to pay his wife's
59467 debts and to rebuild his houses, Pierre still maintained that he had
59468 become three times as rich as before.
59470 "What I have certainly gained is freedom," he began seriously, but did
59471 not continue, noticing that this theme was too egotistic.
59473 "And are you building?"
59475 "Yes. Savelich says I must!"
59477 "Tell me, you did not know of the countess' death when you decided to
59478 remain in Moscow?" asked Princess Mary and immediately blushed, noticing
59479 that her question, following his mention of freedom, ascribed to his
59480 words a meaning he had perhaps not intended.
59482 "No," answered Pierre, evidently not considering awkward the meaning
59483 Princess Mary had given to his words. "I heard of it in Orel and you
59484 cannot imagine how it shocked me. We were not an exemplary couple," he
59485 added quickly, glancing at Natasha and noticing on her face curiosity as
59486 to how he would speak of his wife, "but her death shocked me terribly.
59487 When two people quarrel they are always both in fault, and one's own
59488 guilt suddenly becomes terribly serious when the other is no longer
59489 alive. And then such a death... without friends and without consolation!
59490 I am very, very sorry for her," he concluded, and was pleased to notice
59491 a look of glad approval on Natasha's face.
59493 "Yes, and so you are once more an eligible bachelor," said Princess
59496 Pierre suddenly flushed crimson and for a long time tried not to look at
59497 Natasha. When he ventured to glance her way again her face was cold,
59498 stern, and he fancied even contemptuous.
59500 "And did you really see and speak to Napoleon, as we have been told?"
59501 said Princess Mary.
59505 "No, not once! Everybody seems to imagine that being taken prisoner
59506 means being Napoleon's guest. Not only did I never see him but I heard
59507 nothing about him--I was in much lower company!"
59509 Supper was over, and Pierre who at first declined to speak about his
59510 captivity was gradually led on to do so.
59512 "But it's true that you remained in Moscow to kill Napoleon?" Natasha
59513 asked with a slight smile. "I guessed it then when we met at the
59514 Sukharev tower, do you remember?"
59516 Pierre admitted that it was true, and from that was gradually led by
59517 Princess Mary's questions and especially by Natasha's into giving a
59518 detailed account of his adventures.
59520 At first he spoke with the amused and mild irony now customary with him
59521 toward everybody and especially toward himself, but when he came to
59522 describe the horrors and sufferings he had witnessed he was
59523 unconsciously carried away and began speaking with the suppressed
59524 emotion of a man re-experiencing in recollection strong impressions he
59527 Princess Mary with a gentle smile looked now at Pierre and now at
59528 Natasha. In the whole narrative she saw only Pierre and his goodness.
59529 Natasha, leaning on her elbow, the expression of her face constantly
59530 changing with the narrative, watched Pierre with an attention that never
59531 wandered--evidently herself experiencing all that he described. Not only
59532 her look, but her exclamations and the brief questions she put, showed
59533 Pierre that she understood just what he wished to convey. It was clear
59534 that she understood not only what he said but also what he wished to,
59535 but could not, express in words. The account Pierre gave of the incident
59536 with the child and the woman for protecting whom he was arrested was
59537 this: "It was an awful sight--children abandoned, some in the flames...
59538 One was snatched out before my eyes... and there were women who had
59539 their things snatched off and their earrings torn out..." he flushed and
59540 grew confused. "Then a patrol arrived and all the men--all those who
59541 were not looting, that is--were arrested, and I among them."
59543 "I am sure you're not telling us everything; I am sure you did
59544 something..." said Natasha and pausing added, "something fine?"
59546 Pierre continued. When he spoke of the execution he wanted to pass over
59547 the horrible details, but Natasha insisted that he should not omit
59550 Pierre began to tell about Karataev, but paused. By this time he had
59551 risen from the table and was pacing the room, Natasha following him with
59552 her eyes. Then he added:
59554 "No, you can't understand what I learned from that illiterate man--that
59557 "Yes, yes, go on!" said Natasha. "Where is he?"
59559 "They killed him almost before my eyes."
59561 And Pierre, his voice trembling continually, went on to tell of the last
59562 days of their retreat, of Karataev's illness and his death.
59564 He told of his adventures as he had never yet recalled them. He now, as
59565 it were, saw a new meaning in all he had gone through. Now that he was
59566 telling it all to Natasha he experienced that pleasure which a man has
59567 when women listen to him--not clever women who when listening either try
59568 to remember what they hear to enrich their minds and when opportunity
59569 offers to retell it, or who wish to adopt it to some thought of their
59570 own and promptly contribute their own clever comments prepared in their
59571 little mental workshop--but the pleasure given by real women gifted with
59572 a capacity to select and absorb the very best a man shows of himself.
59573 Natasha without knowing it was all attention: she did not lose a word,
59574 no single quiver in Pierre's voice, no look, no twitch of a muscle in
59575 his face, nor a single gesture. She caught the unfinished word in its
59576 flight and took it straight into her open heart, divining the secret
59577 meaning of all Pierre's mental travail.
59579 Princess Mary understood his story and sympathized with him, but she now
59580 saw something else that absorbed all her attention. She saw the
59581 possibility of love and happiness between Natasha and Pierre, and the
59582 first thought of this filled her heart with gladness.
59584 It was three o'clock in the morning. The footmen came in with sad and
59585 stern faces to change the candles, but no one noticed them.
59587 Pierre finished his story. Natasha continued to look at him intently
59588 with bright, attentive, and animated eyes, as if trying to understand
59589 something more which he had perhaps left untold. Pierre in shamefaced
59590 and happy confusion glanced occasionally at her, and tried to think what
59591 to say next to introduce a fresh subject. Princess Mary was silent. It
59592 occurred to none of them that it was three o'clock and time to go to
59595 "People speak of misfortunes and sufferings," remarked Pierre, "but if
59596 at this moment I were asked: 'Would you rather be what you were before
59597 you were taken prisoner, or go through all this again?' then for
59598 heaven's sake let me again have captivity and horseflesh! We imagine
59599 that when we are thrown out of our usual ruts all is lost, but it is
59600 only then that what is new and good begins. While there is life there is
59601 happiness. There is much, much before us. I say this to you," he added,
59602 turning to Natasha.
59604 "Yes, yes," she said, answering something quite different. "I too should
59605 wish nothing but to relive it all from the beginning."
59607 Pierre looked intently at her.
59609 "Yes, and nothing more," said Natasha.
59611 "It's not true, not true!" cried Pierre. "I am not to blame for being
59612 alive and wishing to live--nor you either."
59614 Suddenly Natasha bent her head, covered her face with her hands, and
59617 "What is it, Natasha?" said Princess Mary.
59619 "Nothing, nothing." She smiled at Pierre through her tears. "Good night!
59620 It is time for bed."
59622 Pierre rose and took his leave.
59624 Princess Mary and Natasha met as usual in the bedroom. They talked of
59625 what Pierre had told them. Princess Mary did not express her opinion of
59626 Pierre nor did Natasha speak of him.
59628 "Well, good night, Mary!" said Natasha. "Do you know, I am often afraid
59629 that by not speaking of him" (she meant Prince Andrew) "for fear of not
59630 doing justice to our feelings, we forget him."
59632 Princess Mary sighed deeply and thereby acknowledged the justice of
59633 Natasha's remark, but she did not express agreement in words.
59635 "Is it possible to forget?" said she.
59637 "It did me so much good to tell all about it today. It was hard and
59638 painful, but good, very good!" said Natasha. "I am sure he really loved
59639 him. That is why I told him... Was it all right?" she added, suddenly
59642 "To tell Pierre? Oh, yes. What a splendid man he is!" said Princess
59645 "Do you know, Mary..." Natasha suddenly said with a mischievous smile
59646 such as Princess Mary had not seen on her face for a long time, "he has
59647 somehow grown so clean, smooth, and fresh--as if he had just come out of
59648 a Russian bath; do you understand? Out of a moral bath. Isn't it true?"
59650 "Yes," replied Princess Mary. "He has greatly improved."
59652 "With a short coat and his hair cropped; just as if, well, just as if he
59653 had come straight from the bath... Papa used to..."
59655 "I understand why he" (Prince Andrew) "liked no one so much as him,"
59656 said Princess Mary.
59658 "Yes, and yet he is quite different. They say men are friends when they
59659 are quite different. That must be true. Really he is quite unlike him--
59662 "Yes, but he's wonderful."
59664 "Well, good night," said Natasha.
59666 And the same mischievous smile lingered for a long time on her face as
59667 if it had been forgotten there.
59674 It was a long time before Pierre could fall asleep that night. He paced
59675 up and down his room, now turning his thoughts on a difficult problem
59676 and frowning, now suddenly shrugging his shoulders and wincing, and now
59679 He was thinking of Prince Andrew, of Natasha, and of their love, at one
59680 moment jealous of her past, then reproaching himself for that feeling.
59681 It was already six in the morning and he still paced up and down the
59684 "Well, what's to be done if it cannot be avoided? What's to be done?
59685 Evidently it has to be so," said he to himself, and hastily undressing
59686 he got into bed, happy and agitated but free from hesitation or
59689 "Strange and impossible as such happiness seems, I must do everything
59690 that she and I may be man and wife," he told himself.
59692 A few days previously Pierre had decided to go to Petersburg on the
59693 Friday. When he awoke on the Thursday, Savelich came to ask him about
59694 packing for the journey.
59696 "What, to Petersburg? What is Petersburg? Who is there in Petersburg?"
59697 he asked involuntarily, though only to himself. "Oh, yes, long ago
59698 before this happened I did for some reason mean to go to Petersburg," he
59699 reflected. "Why? But perhaps I shall go. What a good fellow he is and
59700 how attentive, and how he remembers everything," he thought, looking at
59701 Savelich's old face, "and what a pleasant smile he has!"
59703 "Well, Savelich, do you still not wish to accept your freedom?" Pierre
59706 "What's the good of freedom to me, your excellency? We lived under the
59707 late count--the kingdom of heaven be his!--and we have lived under you
59708 too, without ever being wronged."
59710 "And your children?"
59712 "The children will live just the same. With such masters one can live."
59714 "But what about my heirs?" said Pierre. "Supposing I suddenly marry...
59715 it might happen," he added with an involuntary smile.
59717 "If I may take the liberty, your excellency, it would be a good thing."
59719 "How easy he thinks it," thought Pierre. "He doesn't know how terrible
59720 it is and how dangerous. Too soon or too late... it is terrible!"
59722 "So what are your orders? Are you starting tomorrow?" asked Savelich.
59724 "No, I'll put it off for a bit. I'll tell you later. You must forgive
59725 the trouble I have put you to," said Pierre, and seeing Savelich smile,
59726 he thought: "But how strange it is that he should not know that now
59727 there is no Petersburg for me, and that that must be settled first of
59728 all! But probably he knows it well enough and is only pretending. Shall
59729 I have a talk with him and see what he thinks?" Pierre reflected. "No,
59732 At breakfast Pierre told the princess, his cousin, that he had been to
59733 see Princess Mary the day before and had there met--"Whom do you think?
59736 The princess seemed to see nothing more extraordinary in that than if he
59737 had seen Anna Semenovna.
59739 "Do you know her?" asked Pierre.
59741 "I have seen the princess," she replied. "I heard that they were
59742 arranging a match for her with young Rostov. It would be a very good
59743 thing for the Rostovs, they are said to be utterly ruined."
59745 "No; I mean do you know Natasha Rostova?"
59747 "I heard about that affair of hers at the time. It was a great pity."
59749 "No, she either doesn't understand or is pretending," thought Pierre.
59750 "Better not say anything to her either."
59752 The princess too had prepared provisions for Pierre's journey.
59754 "How kind they all are," thought Pierre. "What is surprising is that
59755 they should trouble about these things now when it can no longer be of
59756 interest to them. And all for me!"
59758 On the same day the Chief of Police came to Pierre, inviting him to send
59759 a representative to the Faceted Palace to recover things that were to be
59760 returned to their owners that day.
59762 "And this man too," thought Pierre, looking into the face of the Chief
59763 of Police. "What a fine, good-looking officer and how kind. Fancy
59764 bothering about such trifles now! And they actually say he is not honest
59765 and takes bribes. What nonsense! Besides, why shouldn't he take bribes?
59766 That's the way he was brought up, and everybody does it. But what a
59767 kind, pleasant face and how he smiles as he looks at me."
59769 Pierre went to Princess Mary's to dinner.
59771 As he drove through the streets past the houses that had been burned
59772 down, he was surprised by the beauty of those ruins. The picturesqueness
59773 of the chimney stacks and tumble-down walls of the burned-out quarters
59774 of the town, stretching out and concealing one another, reminded him of
59775 the Rhine and the Colosseum. The cabmen he met and their passengers, the
59776 carpenters cutting the timber for new houses with axes, the women
59777 hawkers, and the shopkeepers, all looked at him with cheerful beaming
59778 eyes that seemed to say: "Ah, there he is! Let's see what will come of
59781 At the entrance to Princess Mary's house Pierre felt doubtful whether he
59782 had really been there the night before and really seen Natasha and
59783 talked to her. "Perhaps I imagined it; perhaps I shall go in and find no
59784 one there." But he had hardly entered the room before he felt her
59785 presence with his whole being by the loss of his sense of freedom. She
59786 was in the same black dress with soft folds and her hair was done the
59787 same way as the day before, yet she was quite different. Had she been
59788 like this when he entered the day before he could not for a moment have
59789 failed to recognize her.
59791 She was as he had known her almost as a child and later on as Prince
59792 Andrew's fiancee. A bright questioning light shone in her eyes, and on
59793 her face was a friendly and strangely roguish expression.
59795 Pierre dined with them and would have spent the whole evening there, but
59796 Princess Mary was going to vespers and Pierre left the house with her.
59798 Next day he came early, dined, and stayed the whole evening. Though
59799 Princess Mary and Natasha were evidently glad to see their visitor and
59800 though all Pierre's interest was now centered in that house, by the
59801 evening they had talked over everything and the conversation passed from
59802 one trivial topic to another and repeatedly broke off. He stayed so long
59803 that Princess Mary and Natasha exchanged glances, evidently wondering
59804 when he would go. Pierre noticed this but could not go. He felt uneasy
59805 and embarrassed, but sat on because he simply could not get up and take
59808 Princess Mary, foreseeing no end to this, rose first, and complaining of
59809 a headache began to say good night.
59811 "So you are going to Petersburg tomorrow?" she asked.
59813 "No, I am not going," Pierre replied hastily, in a surprised tone and as
59814 though offended. "Yes... no... to Petersburg? Tomorrow--but I won't say
59815 good-by yet. I will call round in case you have any commissions for me,"
59816 said he, standing before Princess Mary and turning red, but not taking
59819 Natasha gave him her hand and went out. Princess Mary on the other hand
59820 instead of going away sank into an armchair, and looked sternly and
59821 intently at him with her deep, radiant eyes. The weariness she had
59822 plainly shown before had now quite passed off. With a deep and long-
59823 drawn sigh she seemed to be prepared for a lengthy talk.
59825 When Natasha left the room Pierre's confusion and awkwardness
59826 immediately vanished and were replaced by eager excitement. He quickly
59827 moved an armchair toward Princess Mary.
59829 "Yes, I wanted to tell you," said he, answering her look as if she had
59830 spoken. "Princess, help me! What am I to do? Can I hope? Princess, my
59831 dear friend, listen! I know it all. I know I am not worthy of her, I
59832 know it's impossible to speak of it now. But I want to be a brother to
59833 her. No, not that, I don't, I can't..."
59835 He paused and rubbed his face and eyes with his hands.
59837 "Well," he went on with an evident effort at self-control and coherence.
59838 "I don't know when I began to love her, but I have loved her and her
59839 alone all my life, and I love her so that I cannot imagine life without
59840 her. I cannot propose to her at present, but the thought that perhaps
59841 she might someday be my wife and that I may be missing that
59842 possibility... that possibility... is terrible. Tell me, can I hope?
59843 Tell me what I am to do, dear princess!" he added after a pause, and
59844 touched her hand as she did not reply.
59846 "I am thinking of what you have told me," answered Princess Mary. "This
59847 is what I will say. You are right that to speak to her of love at
59850 Princess Mary stopped. She was going to say that to speak of love was
59851 impossible, but she stopped because she had seen by the sudden change in
59852 Natasha two days before that she would not only not be hurt if Pierre
59853 spoke of his love, but that it was the very thing she wished for.
59855 "To speak to her now wouldn't do," said the princess all the same.
59857 "But what am I to do?"
59859 "Leave it to me," said Princess Mary. "I know..."
59861 Pierre was looking into Princess Mary's eyes.
59863 "Well?... Well?..." he said.
59865 "I know that she loves... will love you," Princess Mary corrected
59868 Before her words were out, Pierre had sprung up and with a frightened
59869 expression seized Princess Mary's hand.
59871 "What makes you think so? You think I may hope? You think...?"
59873 "Yes, I think so," said Princess Mary with a smile. "Write to her
59874 parents, and leave it to me. I will tell her when I can. I wish it to
59875 happen and my heart tells me it will."
59877 "No, it cannot be! How happy I am! But it can't be.... How happy I am!
59878 No, it can't be!" Pierre kept saying as he kissed Princess Mary's hands.
59880 "Go to Petersburg, that will be best. And I will write to you," she
59883 "To Petersburg? Go there? Very well, I'll go. But I may come again
59886 Next day Pierre came to say good-by. Natasha was less animated than she
59887 had been the day before; but that day as he looked at her Pierre
59888 sometimes felt as if he was vanishing and that neither he nor she
59889 existed any longer, that nothing existed but happiness. "Is it possible?
59890 No, it can't be," he told himself at every look, gesture, and word that
59891 filled his soul with joy.
59893 When on saying good-by he took her thin, slender hand, he could not help
59894 holding it a little longer in his own.
59896 "Is it possible that this hand, that face, those eyes, all this treasure
59897 of feminine charm so strange to me now, is it possible that it will one
59898 day be mine forever, as familiar to me as I am to myself?... No, that's
59901 "Good-bye, Count," she said aloud. "I shall look forward very much to
59902 your return," she added in a whisper.
59904 And these simple words, her look, and the expression on her face which
59905 accompanied them, formed for two months the subject of inexhaustible
59906 memories, interpretations, and happy meditations for Pierre. "'I shall
59907 look forward very much to your return....' Yes, yes, how did she say it?
59908 Yes, 'I shall look forward very much to your return.' Oh, how happy I
59909 am! What is happening to me? How happy I am!" said Pierre to himself.
59916 There was nothing in Pierre's soul now at all like what had troubled it
59917 during his courtship of Helene.
59919 He did not repeat to himself with a sickening feeling of shame the words
59920 he had spoken, or say: "Oh, why did I not say that?" and, "Whatever made
59921 me say 'Je vous aime'?" On the contrary, he now repeated in imagination
59922 every word that he or Natasha had spoken and pictured every detail of
59923 her face and smile, and did not wish to diminish or add anything, but
59924 only to repeat it again and again. There was now not a shadow of doubt
59925 in his mind as to whether what he had undertaken was right or wrong.
59926 Only one terrible doubt sometimes crossed his mind: "Wasn't it all a
59927 dream? Isn't Princess Mary mistaken? Am I not too conceited and self-
59928 confident? I believe all this--and suddenly Princess Mary will tell her,
59929 and she will be sure to smile and say: 'How strange! He must be deluding
59930 himself. Doesn't he know that he is a man, just a man, while I...? I am
59931 something altogether different and higher.'"
59933 That was the only doubt often troubling Pierre. He did not now make any
59934 plans. The happiness before him appeared so inconceivable that if only
59935 he could attain it, it would be the end of all things. Everything ended
59938 A joyful, unexpected frenzy, of which he had thought himself incapable,
59939 possessed him. The whole meaning of life--not for him alone but for the
59940 whole world--seemed to him centered in his love and the possibility of
59941 being loved by her. At times everybody seemed to him to be occupied with
59942 one thing only--his future happiness. Sometimes it seemed to him that
59943 other people were all as pleased as he was himself and merely tried to
59944 hide that pleasure by pretending to be busy with other interests. In
59945 every word and gesture he saw allusions to his happiness. He often
59946 surprised those he met by his significantly happy looks and smiles which
59947 seemed to express a secret understanding between him and them. And when
59948 he realized that people might not be aware of his happiness, he pitied
59949 them with his whole heart and felt a desire somehow to explain to them
59950 that all that occupied them was a mere frivolous trifle unworthy of
59953 When it was suggested to him that he should enter the civil service, or
59954 when the war or any general political affairs were discussed on the
59955 assumption that everybody's welfare depended on this or that issue of
59956 events, he would listen with a mild and pitying smile and surprise
59957 people by his strange comments. But at this time he saw everybody--both
59958 those who, as he imagined, understood the real meaning of life (that is,
59959 what he was feeling) and those unfortunates who evidently did not
59960 understand it--in the bright light of the emotion that shone within
59961 himself, and at once without any effort saw in everyone he met
59962 everything that was good and worthy of being loved.
59964 When dealing with the affairs and papers of his dead wife, her memory
59965 aroused in him no feeling but pity that she had not known the bliss he
59966 now knew. Prince Vasili, who having obtained a new post and some fresh
59967 decorations was particularly proud at this time, seemed to him a
59968 pathetic, kindly old man much to be pitied.
59970 Often in afterlife Pierre recalled this period of blissful insanity. All
59971 the views he formed of men and circumstances at this time remained true
59972 for him always. He not only did not renounce them subsequently, but when
59973 he was in doubt or inwardly at variance, he referred to the views he had
59974 held at this time of his madness and they always proved correct.
59976 "I may have appeared strange and queer then," he thought, "but I was not
59977 so mad as I seemed. On the contrary I was then wiser and had more
59978 insight than at any other time, and understood all that is worth
59979 understanding in life, because... because I was happy."
59981 Pierre's insanity consisted in not waiting, as he used to do, to
59982 discover personal attributes which he termed "good qualities" in people
59983 before loving them; his heart was now overflowing with love, and by
59984 loving people without cause he discovered indubitable causes for loving
59992 After Pierre's departure that first evening, when Natasha had said to
59993 Princess Mary with a gaily mocking smile: "He looks just, yes, just as
59994 if he had come out of a Russian bath--in a short coat and with his hair
59995 cropped," something hidden and unknown to herself, but irrepressible,
59996 awoke in Natasha's soul.
59998 Everything: her face, walk, look, and voice, was suddenly altered. To
59999 her own surprise a power of life and hope of happiness rose to the
60000 surface and demanded satisfaction. From that evening she seemed to have
60001 forgotten all that had happened to her. She no longer complained of her
60002 position, did not say a word about the past, and no longer feared to
60003 make happy plans for the future. She spoke little of Pierre, but when
60004 Princess Mary mentioned him a long-extinguished light once more kindled
60005 in her eyes and her lips curved with a strange smile.
60008 The change that took place in Natasha at first surprised Princess Mary;
60009 but when she understood its meaning it grieved her. "Can she have loved
60010 my brother so little as to be able to forget him so soon?" she thought
60011 when she reflected on the change. But when she was with Natasha she was
60012 not vexed with her and did not reproach her. The reawakened power of
60013 life that had seized Natasha was so evidently irrepressible and
60014 unexpected by her that in her presence Princess Mary felt that she had
60015 no right to reproach her even in her heart.
60017 Natasha gave herself up so fully and frankly to this new feeling that
60018 she did not try to hide the fact that she was no longer sad, but bright
60021 When Princess Mary returned to her room after her nocturnal talk with
60022 Pierre, Natasha met her on the threshold.
60024 "He has spoken? Yes? He has spoken?" she repeated.
60026 And a joyful yet pathetic expression which seemed to beg forgiveness for
60027 her joy settled on Natasha's face.
60029 "I wanted to listen at the door, but I knew you would tell me."
60031 Understandable and touching as the look with which Natasha gazed at her
60032 seemed to Princess Mary, and sorry as she was to see her agitation,
60033 these words pained her for a moment. She remembered her brother and his
60036 "But what's to be done? She can't help it," thought the princess.
60038 And with a sad and rather stern look she told Natasha all that Pierre
60039 had said. On hearing that he was going to Petersburg Natasha was
60042 "To Petersburg!" she repeated as if unable to understand.
60044 But noticing the grieved expression on Princess Mary's face she guessed
60045 the reason of that sadness and suddenly began to cry.
60047 "Mary," said she, "tell me what I should do! I am afraid of being bad.
60048 Whatever you tell me, I will do. Tell me...."
60052 "Yes," whispered Natasha.
60054 "Then why are you crying? I am happy for your sake," said Princess Mary,
60055 who because of those tears quite forgave Natasha's joy.
60057 "It won't be just yet--someday. Think what fun it will be when I am his
60058 wife and you marry Nicholas!"
60060 "Natasha, I have asked you not to speak of that. Let us talk about you."
60062 They were silent awhile.
60064 "But why go to Petersburg?" Natasha suddenly asked, and hastily replied
60065 to her own question. "But no, no, he must... Yes, Mary, He must...."
60067 FIRST EPILOGUE: 1813 - 20
60074 Seven years had passed. The storm-tossed sea of European history had
60075 subsided within its shores and seemed to have become calm. But the
60076 mysterious forces that move humanity (mysterious because the laws of
60077 their motion are unknown to us) continued to operate.
60079 Though the surface of the sea of history seemed motionless, the movement
60080 of humanity went on as unceasingly as the flow of time. Various groups
60081 of people formed and dissolved, the coming formation and dissolution of
60082 kingdoms and displacement of peoples was in course of preparation.
60084 The sea of history was not driven spasmodically from shore to shore as
60085 previously. It was seething in its depths. Historic figures were not
60086 borne by the waves from one shore to another as before. They now seemed
60087 to rotate on one spot. The historical figures at the head of armies, who
60088 formerly reflected the movement of the masses by ordering wars,
60089 campaigns, and battles, now reflected the restless movement by political
60090 and diplomatic combinations, laws, and treaties.
60092 The historians call this activity of the historical figures "the
60095 In dealing with this period they sternly condemn the historical
60096 personages who, in their opinion, caused what they describe as the
60097 reaction. All the well-known people of that period, from Alexander and
60098 Napoleon to Madame de Stael, Photius, Schelling, Fichte, Chateaubriand,
60099 and the rest, pass before their stern judgment seat and are acquitted or
60100 condemned according to whether they conduced to progress or to reaction.
60102 According to their accounts a reaction took place at that time in Russia
60103 also, and the chief culprit was Alexander I, the same man who according
60104 to them was the chief cause of the liberal movement at the commencement
60105 of his reign, being the savior of Russia.
60107 There is no one in Russian literature now, from schoolboy essayist to
60108 learned historian, who does not throw his little stone at Alexander for
60109 things he did wrong at this period of his reign.
60111 "He ought to have acted in this way and in that way. In this case he did
60112 well and in that case badly. He behaved admirably at the beginning of
60113 his reign and during 1812, but acted badly by giving a constitution to
60114 Poland, forming the Holy Alliance, entrusting power to Arakcheev,
60115 favoring Golitsyn and mysticism, and afterwards Shishkov and Photius. He
60116 also acted badly by concerning himself with the active army and
60117 disbanding the Semenov regiment."
60119 It would take a dozen pages to enumerate all the reproaches the
60120 historians address to him, based on their knowledge of what is good for
60123 What do these reproaches mean?
60125 Do not the very actions for which the historians praise Alexander I (the
60126 liberal attempts at the beginning of his reign, his struggle with
60127 Napoleon, the firmness he displayed in 1812 and the campaign of 1813)
60128 flow from the same sources--the circumstances of his birth, education,
60129 and life--that made his personality what it was and from which the
60130 actions for which they blame him (the Holy Alliance, the restoration of
60131 Poland, and the reaction of 1820 and later) also flowed?
60133 In what does the substance of those reproaches lie?
60135 It lies in the fact that an historic character like Alexander I,
60136 standing on the highest possible pinnacle of human power with the
60137 blinding light of history focused upon him; a character exposed to those
60138 strongest of all influences: the intrigues, flattery, and self-deception
60139 inseparable from power; a character who at every moment of his life felt
60140 a responsibility for all that was happening in Europe; and not a
60141 fictitious but a live character who like every man had his personal
60142 habits, passions, and impulses toward goodness, beauty, and truth--that
60143 this character--though not lacking in virtue (the historians do not
60144 accuse him of that)--had not the same conception of the welfare of
60145 humanity fifty years ago as a present-day professor who from his youth
60146 upwards has been occupied with learning: that is, with books and
60147 lectures and with taking notes from them.
60149 But even if we assume that fifty years ago Alexander I was mistaken in
60150 his view of what was good for the people, we must inevitably assume that
60151 the historian who judges Alexander will also after the lapse of some
60152 time turn out to be mistaken in his view of what is good for humanity.
60153 This assumption is all the more natural and inevitable because, watching
60154 the movement of history, we see that every year and with each new
60155 writer, opinion as to what is good for mankind changes; so that what
60156 once seemed good, ten years later seems bad, and vice versa. And what is
60157 more, we find at one and the same time quite contradictory views as to
60158 what is bad and what is good in history: some people regard giving a
60159 constitution to Poland and forming the Holy Alliance as praiseworthy in
60160 Alexander, while others regard it as blameworthy.
60162 The activity of Alexander or of Napoleon cannot be called useful or
60163 harmful, for it is impossible to say for what it was useful or harmful.
60164 If that activity displeases somebody, this is only because it does not
60165 agree with his limited understanding of what is good. Whether the
60166 preservation of my father's house in Moscow, or the glory of the Russian
60167 arms, or the prosperity of the Petersburg and other universities, or the
60168 freedom of Poland or the greatness of Russia, or the balance of power in
60169 Europe, or a certain kind of European culture called "progress" appear
60170 to me to be good or bad, I must admit that besides these things the
60171 action of every historic character has other more general purposes
60172 inaccessible to me.
60174 But let us assume that what is called science can harmonize all
60175 contradictions and possesses an unchanging standard of good and bad by
60176 which to try historic characters and events; let us say that Alexander
60177 could have done everything differently; let us say that with guidance
60178 from those who blame him and who profess to know the ultimate aim of the
60179 movement of humanity, he might have arranged matters according to the
60180 program his present accusers would have given him--of nationality,
60181 freedom, equality, and progress (these, I think, cover the ground). Let
60182 us assume that this program was possible and had then been formulated,
60183 and that Alexander had acted on it. What would then have become of the
60184 activity of all those who opposed the tendency that then prevailed in
60185 the government--an activity that in the opinion of the historians was
60186 good and beneficent? Their activity would not have existed: there would
60187 have been no life, there would have been nothing.
60189 If we admit that human life can be ruled by reason, the possibility of
60197 If we assume as the historians do that great men lead humanity to the
60198 attainment of certain ends--the greatness of Russia or of France, the
60199 balance of power in Europe, the diffusion of the ideas of the
60200 Revolution, general progress, or anything else--then it is impossible to
60201 explain the facts of history without introducing the conceptions of
60204 If the aim of the European wars at the beginning of the nineteenth
60205 century had been the aggrandizement of Russia, that aim might have been
60206 accomplished without all the preceding wars and without the invasion. If
60207 the aim was the aggrandizement of France, that might have been attained
60208 without the Revolution and without the Empire. If the aim was the
60209 dissemination of ideas, the printing press could have accomplished that
60210 much better than warfare. If the aim was the progress of civilization,
60211 it is easy to see that there are other ways of diffusing civilization
60212 more expedient than by the destruction of wealth and of human lives.
60214 Why did it happen in this and not in some other way?
60216 Because it happened so! "Chance created the situation; genius utilized
60219 But what is chance? What is genius?
60221 The words chance and genius do not denote any really existing thing and
60222 therefore cannot be defined. Those words only denote a certain stage of
60223 understanding of phenomena. I do not know why a certain event occurs; I
60224 think that I cannot know it; so I do not try to know it and I talk about
60225 chance. I see a force producing effects beyond the scope of ordinary
60226 human agencies; I do not understand why this occurs and I talk of
60229 To a herd of rams, the ram the herdsman drives each evening into a
60230 special enclosure to feed and that becomes twice as fat as the others
60231 must seem to be a genius. And it must appear an astonishing conjunction
60232 of genius with a whole series of extraordinary chances that this ram,
60233 who instead of getting into the general fold every evening goes into a
60234 special enclosure where there are oats--that this very ram, swelling
60235 with fat, is killed for meat.
60237 But the rams need only cease to suppose that all that happens to them
60238 happens solely for the attainment of their sheepish aims; they need only
60239 admit that what happens to them may also have purposes beyond their ken,
60240 and they will at once perceive a unity and coherence in what happened to
60241 the ram that was fattened. Even if they do not know for what purpose
60242 they are fattened, they will at least know that all that happened to the
60243 ram did not happen accidentally, and will no longer need the conceptions
60244 of chance or genius.
60246 Only by renouncing our claim to discern a purpose immediately
60247 intelligible to us, and admitting the ultimate purpose to be beyond our
60248 ken, may we discern the sequence of experiences in the lives of historic
60249 characters and perceive the cause of the effect they produce
60250 (incommensurable with ordinary human capabilities), and then the words
60251 chance and genius become superfluous.
60253 We need only confess that we do not know the purpose of the European
60254 convulsions and that we know only the facts--that is, the murders, first
60255 in France, then in Italy, in Africa, in Prussia, in Austria, in Spain,
60256 and in Russia--and that the movements from the west to the east and from
60257 the east to the west form the essence and purpose of these events, and
60258 not only shall we have no need to see exceptional ability and genius in
60259 Napoleon and Alexander, but we shall be unable to consider them to be
60260 anything but like other men, and we shall not be obliged to have
60261 recourse to chance for an explanation of those small events which made
60262 these people what they were, but it will be clear that all those small
60263 events were inevitable.
60265 By discarding a claim to knowledge of the ultimate purpose, we shall
60266 clearly perceive that just as one cannot imagine a blossom or seed for
60267 any single plant better suited to it than those it produces, so it is
60268 impossible to imagine any two people more completely adapted down to the
60269 smallest detail for the purpose they had to fulfill, than Napoleon and
60270 Alexander with all their antecedents.
60277 The fundamental and essential significance of the European events of the
60278 beginning of the nineteenth century lies in the movement of the mass of
60279 the European peoples from west to east and afterwards from east to west.
60280 The commencement of that movement was the movement from west to east.
60281 For the peoples of the west to be able to make their warlike movement to
60282 Moscow it was necessary: (1) that they should form themselves into a
60283 military group of a size able to endure a collision with the warlike
60284 military group of the east, (2) that they should abandon all established
60285 traditions and customs, and (3) that during their military movement they
60286 should have at their head a man who could justify to himself and to them
60287 the deceptions, robberies, and murders which would have to be committed
60288 during that movement.
60290 And beginning with the French Revolution the old inadequately large
60291 group was destroyed, as well as the old habits and traditions, and step
60292 by step a group was formed of larger dimensions with new customs and
60293 traditions, and a man was produced who would stand at the head of the
60294 coming movement and bear the responsibility for all that had to be done.
60296 A man without convictions, without habits, without traditions, without a
60297 name, and not even a Frenchman, emerges--by what seem the strangest
60298 chances--from among all the seething French parties, and without joining
60299 any one of them is borne forward to a prominent position.
60301 The ignorance of his colleagues, the weakness and insignificance of his
60302 opponents, the frankness of his falsehoods, and the dazzling and self-
60303 confident limitations of this man raise him to the head of the army. The
60304 brilliant qualities of the soldiers of the army sent to Italy, his
60305 opponents' reluctance to fight, and his own childish audacity and self-
60306 confidence secure him military fame. Innumerable so-called chances
60307 accompany him everywhere. The disfavor into which he falls with the
60308 rulers of France turns to his advantage. His attempts to avoid his
60309 predestined path are unsuccessful: he is not received into the Russian
60310 service, and the appointment he seeks in Turkey comes to nothing. During
60311 the war in Italy he is several times on the verge of destruction and
60312 each time is saved in an unexpected manner. Owing to various diplomatic
60313 considerations the Russian armies--just those which might have destroyed
60314 his prestige--do not appear upon the scene till he is no longer there.
60316 On his return from Italy he finds the government in Paris in a process
60317 of dissolution in which all those who are in it are inevitably wiped out
60318 and destroyed. And by chance an escape from this dangerous position
60319 presents itself in the form of an aimless and senseless expedition to
60320 Africa. Again so-called chance accompanies him. Impregnable Malta
60321 surrenders without a shot; his most reckless schemes are crowned with
60322 success. The enemy's fleet, which subsequently did not let a single boat
60323 pass, allows his entire army to elude it. In Africa a whole series of
60324 outrages are committed against the almost unarmed inhabitants. And the
60325 men who commit these crimes, especially their leader, assure themselves
60326 that this is admirable, this is glory--it resembles Caesar and Alexander
60327 the Great and is therefore good.
60329 This ideal of glory and grandeur--which consists not merely in
60330 considering nothing wrong that one does but in priding oneself on every
60331 crime one commits, ascribing to it an incomprehensible supernatural
60332 significance--that ideal, destined to guide this man and his associates,
60333 had scope for its development in Africa. Whatever he does succeeds. The
60334 plague does not touch him. The cruelty of murdering prisoners is not
60335 imputed to him as a fault. His childishly rash, uncalled-for, and
60336 ignoble departure from Africa, leaving his comrades in distress, is set
60337 down to his credit, and again the enemy's fleet twice lets him slip
60338 past. When, intoxicated by the crimes he has committed so successfully,
60339 he reaches Paris, the dissolution of the republican government, which a
60340 year earlier might have ruined him, has reached its extreme limit, and
60341 his presence there now as a newcomer free from party entanglements can
60342 only serve to exalt him--and though he himself has no plan, he is quite
60343 ready for his new role.
60345 He had no plan, he was afraid of everything, but the parties snatched at
60346 him and demanded his participation.
60348 He alone--with his ideal of glory and grandeur developed in Italy and
60349 Egypt, his insane self-adulation, his boldness in crime and frankness in
60350 lying--he alone could justify what had to be done.
60352 He is needed for the place that awaits him, and so almost apart from his
60353 will and despite his indecision, his lack of a plan, and all his
60354 mistakes, he is drawn into a conspiracy that aims at seizing power and
60355 the conspiracy is crowned with success.
60357 He is pushed into a meeting of the legislature. In alarm he wishes to
60358 flee, considering himself lost. He pretends to fall into a swoon and
60359 says senseless things that should have ruined him. But the once proud
60360 and shrewd rulers of France, feeling that their part is played out, are
60361 even more bewildered than he, and do not say the words they should have
60362 said to destroy him and retain their power.
60364 Chance, millions of chances, give him power, and all men as if by
60365 agreement co-operate to confirm that power. Chance forms the characters
60366 of the rulers of France, who submit to him; chance forms the character
60367 of Paul I of Russia who recognizes his government; chance contrives a
60368 plot against him which not only fails to harm him but confirms his
60369 power. Chance puts the Duc d'Enghien in his hands and unexpectedly
60370 causes him to kill him--thereby convincing the mob more forcibly than in
60371 any other way that he had the right, since he had the might. Chance
60372 contrives that though he directs all his efforts to prepare an
60373 expedition against England (which would inevitably have ruined him) he
60374 never carries out that intention, but unexpectedly falls upon Mack and
60375 the Austrians, who surrender without a battle. Chance and genius give
60376 him the victory at Austerlitz; and by chance all men, not only the
60377 French but all Europe--except England which does not take part in the
60378 events about to happen--despite their former horror and detestation of
60379 his crimes, now recognize his authority, the title he has given himself,
60380 and his ideal of grandeur and glory, which seems excellent and
60381 reasonable to them all.
60383 As if measuring themselves and preparing for the coming movement, the
60384 western forces push toward the east several times in 1805, 1806, 1807,
60385 and 1809, gaining strength and growing. In 1811 the group of people that
60386 had formed in France unites into one group with the peoples of Central
60387 Europe. The strength of the justification of the man who stands at the
60388 head of the movement grows with the increased size of the group. During
60389 the ten-year preparatory period this man had formed relations with all
60390 the crowned heads of Europe. The discredited rulers of the world can
60391 oppose no reasonable ideal to the insensate Napoleonic ideal of glory
60392 and grandeur. One after another they hasten to display their
60393 insignificance before him. The King of Prussia sends his wife to seek
60394 the great man's mercy; the Emperor of Austria considers it a favor that
60395 this man receives a daughter of the Caesars into his bed; the Pope, the
60396 guardian of all that the nations hold sacred, utilizes religion for the
60397 aggrandizement of the great man. It is not Napoleon who prepares himself
60398 for the accomplishment of his role, so much as all those round him who
60399 prepare him to take on himself the whole responsibility for what is
60400 happening and has to happen. There is no step, no crime or petty fraud
60401 he commits, which in the mouths of those around him is not at once
60402 represented as a great deed. The most suitable fete the Germans can
60403 devise for him is a celebration of Jena and Auerstadt. Not only is he
60404 great, but so are his ancestors, his brothers, his stepsons, and his
60405 brothers-in-law. Everything is done to deprive him of the remains of his
60406 reason and to prepare him for his terrible part. And when he is ready so
60407 too are the forces.
60409 The invasion pushes eastward and reaches its final goal--Moscow. That
60410 city is taken; the Russian army suffers heavier losses than the opposing
60411 armies had suffered in the former war from Austerlitz to Wagram. But
60412 suddenly instead of those chances and that genius which hitherto had so
60413 consistently led him by an uninterrupted series of successes to the
60414 predestined goal, an innumerable sequence of inverse chances occur--from
60415 the cold in his head at Borodino to the sparks which set Moscow on fire,
60416 and the frosts--and instead of genius, stupidity and immeasurable
60417 baseness become evident.
60419 The invaders flee, turn back, flee again, and all the chances are now
60420 not for Napoleon but always against him.
60422 A countermovement is then accomplished from east to west with a
60423 remarkable resemblance to the preceding movement from west to east.
60424 Attempted drives from east to west--similar to the contrary movements of
60425 1805, 1807, and 1809--precede the great westward movement; there is the
60426 same coalescence into a group of enormous dimensions; the same adhesion
60427 of the people of Central Europe to the movement; the same hesitation
60428 midway, and the same increasing rapidity as the goal is approached.
60430 Paris, the ultimate goal, is reached. The Napoleonic government and army
60431 are destroyed. Napoleon himself is no longer of any account; all his
60432 actions are evidently pitiful and mean, but again an inexplicable chance
60433 occurs. The allies detest Napoleon whom they regard as the cause of
60434 their sufferings. Deprived of power and authority, his crimes and his
60435 craft exposed, he should have appeared to them what he appeared ten
60436 years previously and one year later--an outlawed brigand. But by some
60437 strange chance no one perceives this. His part is not yet ended. The man
60438 who ten years before and a year later was considered an outlawed brigand
60439 is sent to an island two days' sail from France, which for some reason
60440 is presented to him as his dominion, and guards are given to him and
60441 millions of money are paid him.
60448 The flood of nations begins to subside into its normal channels. The
60449 waves of the great movement abate, and on the calm surface eddies are
60450 formed in which float the diplomatists, who imagine that they have
60451 caused the floods to abate.
60453 But the smooth sea again suddenly becomes disturbed. The diplomatists
60454 think that their disagreements are the cause of this fresh pressure of
60455 natural forces; they anticipate war between their sovereigns; the
60456 position seems to them insoluble. But the wave they feel to be rising
60457 does not come from the quarter they expect. It rises again from the same
60458 point as before--Paris. The last backwash of the movement from the west
60459 occurs: a backwash which serves to solve the apparently insuperable
60460 diplomatic difficulties and ends the military movement of that period of
60463 The man who had devastated France returns to France alone, without any
60464 conspiracy and without soldiers. Any guard might arrest him, but by
60465 strange chance no one does so and all rapturously greet the man they
60466 cursed the day before and will curse again a month later.
60468 This man is still needed to justify the final collective act.
60470 That act is performed.
60472 The last role is played. The actor is bidden to disrobe and wash off his
60473 powder and paint: he will not be wanted any more.
60475 And some years pass during which he plays a pitiful comedy to himself in
60476 solitude on his island, justifying his actions by intrigues and lies
60477 when the justification is no longer needed, and displaying to the whole
60478 world what it was that people had mistaken for strength as long as an
60479 unseen hand directed his actions.
60481 The manager having brought the drama to a close and stripped the actor
60484 "See what you believed in! This is he! Do you now see that it was not he
60485 but I who moved you?"
60487 But dazed by the force of the movement, it was long before people
60490 Still greater coherence and inevitability is seen in the life of
60491 Alexander I, the man who stood at the head of the countermovement from
60494 What was needed for him who, overshadowing others, stood at the head of
60495 that movement from east to west?
60497 What was needed was a sense of justice and a sympathy with European
60498 affairs, but a remote sympathy not dulled by petty interests; a moral
60499 superiority over those sovereigns of the day who co-operated with him; a
60500 mild and attractive personality; and a personal grievance against
60501 Napoleon. And all this was found in Alexander I; all this had been
60502 prepared by innumerable so-called chances in his life: his education,
60503 his early liberalism, the advisers who surrounded him, and by
60504 Austerlitz, and Tilsit, and Erfurt.
60506 During the national war he was inactive because he was not needed. But
60507 as soon as the necessity for a general European war presented itself he
60508 appeared in his place at the given moment and, uniting the nations of
60509 Europe, led them to the goal.
60511 The goal is reached. After the final war of 1815 Alexander possesses all
60512 possible power. How does he use it?
60514 Alexander I--the pacifier of Europe, the man who from his early years
60515 had striven only for his people's welfare, the originator of the liberal
60516 innovations in his fatherland--now that he seemed to possess the utmost
60517 power and therefore to have the possibility of bringing about the
60518 welfare of his peoples--at the time when Napoleon in exile was drawing
60519 up childish and mendacious plans of how he would have made mankind happy
60520 had he retained power--Alexander I, having fulfilled his mission and
60521 feeling the hand of God upon him, suddenly recognizes the insignificance
60522 of that supposed power, turns away from it, and gives it into the hands
60523 of contemptible men whom he despises, saying only:
60525 "Not unto us, not unto us, but unto Thy Name!... I too am a man like the
60526 rest of you. Let me live like a man and think of my soul and of God."
60528 As the sun and each atom of ether is a sphere complete in itself, and
60529 yet at the same time only a part of a whole too immense for man to
60530 comprehend, so each individual has within himself his own aims and yet
60531 has them to serve a general purpose incomprehensible to man.
60533 A bee settling on a flower has stung a child. And the child is afraid of
60534 bees and declares that bees exist to sting people. A poet admires the
60535 bee sucking from the chalice of a flower and says it exists to suck the
60536 fragrance of flowers. A beekeeper, seeing the bee collect pollen from
60537 flowers and carry it to the hive, says that it exists to gather honey.
60538 Another beekeeper who has studied the life of the hive more closely says
60539 that the bee gathers pollen dust to feed the young bees and rear a
60540 queen, and that it exists to perpetuate its race. A botanist notices
60541 that the bee flying with the pollen of a male flower to a pistil
60542 fertilizes the latter, and sees in this the purpose of the bee's
60543 existence. Another, observing the migration of plants, notices that the
60544 bee helps in this work, and may say that in this lies the purpose of the
60545 bee. But the ultimate purpose of the bee is not exhausted by the first,
60546 the second, or any of the processes the human mind can discern. The
60547 higher the human intellect rises in the discovery of these purposes, the
60548 more obvious it becomes, that the ultimate purpose is beyond our
60551 All that is accessible to man is the relation of the life of the bee to
60552 other manifestations of life. And so it is with the purpose of historic
60553 characters and nations.
60560 Natasha's wedding to Bezukhov, which took place in 1813, was the last
60561 happy event in the family of the old Rostovs. Count Ilya Rostov died
60562 that same year and, as always happens, after the father's death the
60563 family group broke up.
60565 The events of the previous year: the burning of Moscow and the flight
60566 from it, the death of Prince Andrew, Natasha's despair, Petya's death,
60567 and the old countess' grief fell blow after blow on the old count's
60568 head. He seemed to be unable to understand the meaning of all these
60569 events, and bowed his old head in a spiritual sense as if expecting and
60570 inviting further blows which would finish him. He seemed now frightened
60571 and distraught and now unnaturally animated and enterprising.
60573 The arrangements for Natasha's marriage occupied him for a while. He
60574 ordered dinners and suppers and obviously tried to appear cheerful, but
60575 his cheerfulness was not infectious as it used to be: on the contrary it
60576 evoked the compassion of those who knew and liked him.
60578 When Pierre and his wife had left, he grew very quiet and began to
60579 complain of depression. A few days later he fell ill and took to his
60580 bed. He realized from the first that he would not get up again, despite
60581 the doctor's encouragement. The countess passed a fortnight in an
60582 armchair by his pillow without undressing. Every time she gave him his
60583 medicine he sobbed and silently kissed her hand. On his last day,
60584 sobbing, he asked her and his absent son to forgive him for having
60585 dissipated their property--that being the chief fault of which he was
60586 conscious. After receiving communion and unction he quietly died; and
60587 next day a throng of acquaintances who came to pay their last respects
60588 to the deceased filled the house rented by the Rostovs. All these
60589 acquaintances, who had so often dined and danced at his house and had so
60590 often laughed at him, now said, with a common feeling of self-reproach
60591 and emotion, as if justifying themselves: "Well, whatever he may have
60592 been he was a most worthy man. You don't meet such men nowadays.... And
60593 which of us has not weaknesses of his own?"
60595 It was just when the count's affairs had become so involved that it was
60596 impossible to say what would happen if he lived another year that he
60599 Nicholas was with the Russian army in Paris when the news of his
60600 father's death reached him. He at once resigned his commission, and
60601 without waiting for it to be accepted took leave of absence and went to
60602 Moscow. The state of the count's affairs became quite obvious a month
60603 after his death, surprising everyone by the immense total of small debts
60604 the existence of which no one had suspected. The debts amounted to
60605 double the value of the property.
60607 Friends and relations advised Nicholas to decline the inheritance. But
60608 he regarded such a refusal as a slur on his father's memory, which he
60609 held sacred, and therefore would not hear of refusing and accepted the
60610 inheritance together with the obligation to pay the debts.
60612 The creditors who had so long been silent, restrained by a vague but
60613 powerful influence exerted on them while he lived by the count's
60614 careless good nature, all proceeded to enforce their claims at once. As
60615 always happens in such cases rivalry sprang up as to which should get
60616 paid first, and those who like Mitenka held promissory notes given them
60617 as presents now became the most exacting of the creditors. Nicholas was
60618 allowed no respite and no peace, and those who had seemed to pity the
60619 old man--the cause of their losses (if they were losses)--now
60620 remorselessly pursued the young heir who had voluntarily undertaken the
60621 debts and was obviously not guilty of contracting them.
60623 Not one of the plans Nicholas tried succeeded; the estate was sold by
60624 auction for half its value, and half the debts still remained unpaid.
60625 Nicholas accepted thirty thousand rubles offered him by his brother-in-
60626 law Bezukhov to pay off debts he regarded as genuinely due for value
60627 received. And to avoid being imprisoned for the remainder, as the
60628 creditors threatened, he re-entered the government service.
60630 He could not rejoin the army where he would have been made colonel at
60631 the next vacancy, for his mother now clung to him as her one hold on
60632 life; and so despite his reluctance to remain in Moscow among people who
60633 had known him before, and despite his abhorrence of the civil service,
60634 he accepted a post in Moscow in that service, doffed the uniform of
60635 which he was so fond, and moved with his mother and Sonya to a small
60636 house on the Sivtsev Vrazhek.
60638 Natasha and Pierre were living in Petersburg at the time and had no
60639 clear idea of Nicholas' circumstances. Having borrowed money from his
60640 brother-in-law, Nicholas tried to hide his wretched condition from him.
60641 His position was the more difficult because with his salary of twelve
60642 hundred rubles he had not only to keep himself, his mother, and Sonya,
60643 but had to shield his mother from knowledge of their poverty. The
60644 countess could not conceive of life without the luxurious conditions she
60645 had been used to from childhood and, unable to realize how hard it was
60646 for her son, kept demanding now a carriage (which they did not keep) to
60647 send for a friend, now some expensive article of food for herself, or
60648 wine for her son, or money to buy a present as a surprise for Natasha or
60649 Sonya, or for Nicholas himself.
60651 Sonya kept house, attended on her aunt, read to her, put up with her
60652 whims and secret ill-will, and helped Nicholas to conceal their poverty
60653 from the old countess. Nicholas felt himself irredeemably indebted to
60654 Sonya for all she was doing for his mother and greatly admired her
60655 patience and devotion, but tried to keep aloof from her.
60657 He seemed in his heart to reproach her for being too perfect, and
60658 because there was nothing to reproach her with. She had all that people
60659 are valued for, but little that could have made him love her. He felt
60660 that the more he valued her the less he loved her. He had taken her at
60661 her word when she wrote giving him his freedom and now behaved as if all
60662 that had passed between them had been long forgotten and could never in
60663 any case be renewed.
60665 Nicholas' position became worse and worse. The idea of putting something
60666 aside out of his salary proved a dream. Not only did he not save
60667 anything, but to comply with his mother's demands he even incurred some
60668 small debts. He could see no way out of this situation. The idea of
60669 marrying some rich woman, which was suggested to him by his female
60670 relations, was repugnant to him. The other way out--his mother's death--
60671 never entered his head. He wished for nothing and hoped for nothing, and
60672 deep in his heart experienced a gloomy and stern satisfaction in an
60673 uncomplaining endurance of his position. He tried to avoid his old
60674 acquaintances with their commiseration and offensive offers of
60675 assistance; he avoided all distraction and recreation, and even at home
60676 did nothing but play cards with his mother, pace silently up and down
60677 the room, and smoke one pipe after another. He seemed carefully to
60678 cherish within himself the gloomy mood which alone enabled him to endure
60686 At the beginning of winter Princess Mary came to Moscow. From reports
60687 current in town she learned how the Rostovs were situated, and how "the
60688 son has sacrificed himself for his mother," as people were saying.
60690 "I never expected anything else of him," said Princess Mary to herself,
60691 feeling a joyous sense of her love for him. Remembering her friendly
60692 relations with all the Rostovs which had made her almost a member of the
60693 family, she thought it her duty to go to see them. But remembering her
60694 relations with Nicholas in Voronezh she was shy about doing so. Making a
60695 great effort she did however go to call on them a few weeks after her
60698 Nicholas was the first to meet her, as the countess' room could only be
60699 reached through his. But instead of being greeted with pleasure as she
60700 had expected, at his first glance at her his face assumed a cold, stiff,
60701 proud expression she had not seen on it before. He inquired about her
60702 health, led the way to his mother, and having sat there for five minutes
60705 When the princess came out of the countess' room Nicholas met her again,
60706 and with marked solemnity and stiffness accompanied her to the anteroom.
60707 To her remarks about his mother's health he made no reply. "What's that
60708 to you? Leave me in peace," his looks seemed to say.
60710 "Why does she come prowling here? What does she want? I can't bear these
60711 ladies and all these civilities!" said he aloud in Sonya's presence,
60712 evidently unable to repress his vexation, after the princess' carriage
60715 "Oh, Nicholas, how can you talk like that?" cried Sonya, hardly able to
60716 conceal her delight. "She is so kind and Mamma is so fond of her!"
60718 Nicholas did not reply and tried to avoid speaking of the princess any
60719 more. But after her visit the old countess spoke of her several times a
60722 She sang her praises, insisted that her son must call on her, expressed
60723 a wish to see her often, but yet always became ill-humored when she
60724 began to talk about her.
60726 Nicholas tried to keep silence when his mother spoke of the princess,
60727 but his silence irritated her.
60729 "She is a very admirable and excellent young woman," said she, "and you
60730 must go and call on her. You would at least be seeing somebody, and I
60731 think it must be dull for you only seeing us."
60733 "But I don't in the least want to, Mamma."
60735 "You used to want to, and now you don't. Really I don't understand you,
60736 my dear. One day you are dull, and the next you refuse to see anyone."
60738 "But I never said I was dull."
60740 "Why, you said yourself you don't want even to see her. She is a very
60741 admirable young woman and you always liked her, but now suddenly you
60742 have got some notion or other in your head. You hide everything from
60745 "Not at all, Mamma."
60747 "If I were asking you to do something disagreeable now--but I only ask
60748 you to return a call. One would think mere politeness required it....
60749 Well, I have asked you, and now I won't interfere any more since you
60750 have secrets from your mother."
60752 "Well, then, I'll go if you wish it."
60754 "It doesn't matter to me. I only wish it for your sake."
60756 Nicholas sighed, bit his mustache, and laid out the cards for a
60757 patience, trying to divert his mother's attention to another topic.
60759 The same conversation was repeated next day and the day after, and the
60762 After her visit to the Rostovs and her unexpectedly chilly reception by
60763 Nicholas, Princess Mary confessed to herself that she had been right in
60764 not wishing to be the first to call.
60766 "I expected nothing else," she told herself, calling her pride to her
60767 aid. "I have nothing to do with him and I only wanted to see the old
60768 lady, who was always kind to me and to whom I am under many
60771 But she could not pacify herself with these reflections; a feeling akin
60772 to remorse troubled her when she thought of her visit. Though she had
60773 firmly resolved not to call on the Rostovs again and to forget the whole
60774 matter, she felt herself all the time in an awkward position. And when
60775 she asked herself what distressed her, she had to admit that it was her
60776 relation to Rostov. His cold, polite manner did not express his feeling
60777 for her (she knew that) but it concealed something, and until she could
60778 discover what that something was, she felt that she could not be at
60781 One day in midwinter when sitting in the schoolroom attending to her
60782 nephew's lessons, she was informed that Rostov had called. With a firm
60783 resolution not to betray herself and not show her agitation, she sent
60784 for Mademoiselle Bourienne and went with her to the drawing room.
60786 Her first glance at Nicholas' face told her that he had only come to
60787 fulfill the demands of politeness, and she firmly resolved to maintain
60788 the tone in which he addressed her.
60790 They spoke of the countess' health, of their mutual friends, of the
60791 latest war news, and when the ten minutes required by propriety had
60792 elapsed after which a visitor may rise, Nicholas got up to say good-by.
60794 With Mademoiselle Bourienne's help the princess had maintained the
60795 conversation very well, but at the very last moment, just when he rose,
60796 she was so tired of talking of what did not interest her, and her mind
60797 was so full of the question why she alone was granted so little
60798 happiness in life, that in a fit of absent-mindedness she sat still, her
60799 luminous eyes gazing fixedly before her, not noticing that he had risen.
60801 Nicholas glanced at her and, wishing to appear not to notice her
60802 abstraction, made some remark to Mademoiselle Bourienne and then again
60803 looked at the princess. She still sat motionless with a look of
60804 suffering on her gentle face. He suddenly felt sorry for her and was
60805 vaguely conscious that he might be the cause of the sadness her face
60806 expressed. He wished to help her and say something pleasant, but could
60807 think of nothing to say.
60809 "Good-bye, Princess!" said he.
60811 She started, flushed, and sighed deeply.
60813 "Oh, I beg your pardon," she said as if waking up. "Are you going
60814 already, Count? Well then, good-by! Oh, but the cushion for the
60817 "Wait a moment, I'll fetch it," said Mademoiselle Bourienne, and she
60820 They both sat silent, with an occasional glance at one another.
60822 "Yes, Princess," said Nicholas at last with a sad smile, "it doesn't
60823 seem long ago since we first met at Bogucharovo, but how much water has
60824 flowed since then! In what distress we all seemed to be then, yet I
60825 would give much to bring back that time... but there's no bringing it
60828 Princess Mary gazed intently into his eyes with her own luminous ones as
60829 he said this. She seemed to be trying to fathom the hidden meaning of
60830 his words which would explain his feeling for her.
60832 "Yes, yes," said she, "but you have no reason to regret the past, Count.
60833 As I understand your present life, I think you will always recall it
60834 with satisfaction, because the self-sacrifice that fills it now..."
60836 "I cannot accept your praise," he interrupted her hurriedly. "On the
60837 contrary I continually reproach myself.... But this is not at all an
60838 interesting or cheerful subject."
60840 His face again resumed its former stiff and cold expression. But the
60841 princess had caught a glimpse of the man she had known and loved, and it
60842 was to him that she now spoke.
60844 "I thought you would allow me to tell you this," she said. "I had come
60845 so near to you... and to all your family that I thought you would not
60846 consider my sympathy misplaced, but I was mistaken," and suddenly her
60847 voice trembled. "I don't know why," she continued, recovering herself,
60848 "but you used to be different, and..."
60850 "There are a thousand reasons why," laying special emphasis on the why.
60851 "Thank you, Princess," he added softly. "Sometimes it is hard."
60853 "So that's why! That's why!" a voice whispered in Princess Mary's soul.
60854 "No, it was not only that gay, kind, and frank look, not only that
60855 handsome exterior, that I loved in him. I divined his noble, resolute,
60856 self-sacrificing spirit too," she said to herself. "Yes, he is poor now
60857 and I am rich.... Yes, that's the only reason.... Yes, were it not for
60858 that..." And remembering his former tenderness, and looking now at his
60859 kind, sorrowful face, she suddenly understood the cause of his coldness.
60861 "But why, Count, why?" she almost cried, unconsciously moving closer to
60862 him. "Why? Tell me. You must tell me!"
60866 "I don't understand your why, Count," she continued, "but it's hard for
60867 me... I confess it. For some reason you wish to deprive me of our former
60868 friendship. And that hurts me." There were tears in her eyes and in her
60869 voice. "I have had so little happiness in life that every loss is hard
60870 for me to bear.... Excuse me, good-by!" and suddenly she began to cry
60871 and was hurrying from the room.
60873 "Princess, for God's sake!" he exclaimed, trying to stop her.
60876 She turned round. For a few seconds they gazed silently into one
60877 another's eyes--and what had seemed impossible and remote suddenly
60878 became possible, inevitable, and very near.
60885 In the winter of 1813 Nicholas married Princess Mary and moved to Bald
60886 Hills with his wife, his mother, and Sonya.
60888 Within four years he had paid off all his remaining debts without
60889 selling any of his wife's property, and having received a small
60890 inheritance on the death of a cousin he paid his debt to Pierre as well.
60892 In another three years, by 1820, he had so managed his affairs that he
60893 was able to buy a small estate adjoining Bald Hills and was negotiating
60894 to buy back Otradnoe--that being his pet dream.
60896 Having started farming from necessity, he soon grew so devoted to it
60897 that it became his favorite and almost his sole occupation. Nicholas was
60898 a plain farmer: he did not like innovations, especially the English ones
60899 then coming into vogue. He laughed at theoretical treatises on estate
60900 management, disliked factories, the raising of expensive products, and
60901 the buying of expensive seed corn, and did not make a hobby of any
60902 particular part of the work on his estate. He always had before his
60903 mind's eye the estate as a whole and not any particular part of it. The
60904 chief thing in his eyes was not the nitrogen in the soil, nor the oxygen
60905 in the air, nor manures, nor special plows, but that most important
60906 agent by which nitrogen, oxygen, manure, and plow were made effective--
60907 the peasant laborer. When Nicholas first began farming and began to
60908 understand its different branches, it was the serf who especially
60909 attracted his attention. The peasant seemed to him not merely a tool,
60910 but also a judge of farming and an end in himself. At first he watched
60911 the serfs, trying to understand their aims and what they considered good
60912 and bad, and only pretended to direct them and give orders while in
60913 reality learning from them their methods, their manner of speech, and
60914 their judgment of what was good and bad. Only when he had understood the
60915 peasants' tastes and aspirations, had learned to talk their language, to
60916 grasp the hidden meaning of their words, and felt akin to them did he
60917 begin boldly to manage his serfs, that is, to perform toward them the
60918 duties demanded of him. And Nicholas' management produced very brilliant
60921 Guided by some gift of insight, on taking up the management of the
60922 estates he at once unerringly appointed as bailiff, village elder, and
60923 delegate, the very men the serfs would themselves have chosen had they
60924 had the right to choose, and these posts never changed hands. Before
60925 analyzing the properties of manure, before entering into the debit and
60926 credit (as he ironically called it), he found out how many cattle the
60927 peasants had and increased the number by all possible means. He kept the
60928 peasant families together in the largest groups possible, not allowing
60929 the family groups to divide into separate households. He was hard alike
60930 on the lazy, the depraved, and the weak, and tried to get them expelled
60933 He was as careful of the sowing and reaping of the peasants' hay and
60934 corn as of his own, and few landowners had their crops sown and
60935 harvested so early and so well, or got so good a return, as did
60938 He disliked having anything to do with the domestic serfs--the "drones"
60939 as he called them--and everyone said he spoiled them by his laxity. When
60940 a decision had to be taken regarding a domestic serf, especially if one
60941 had to be punished, he always felt undecided and consulted everybody in
60942 the house; but when it was possible to have a domestic serf conscripted
60943 instead of a land worker he did so without the least hesitation. He
60944 never felt any hesitation in dealing with the peasants. He knew that his
60945 every decision would be approved by them all with very few exceptions.
60947 He did not allow himself either to be hard on or punish a man, or to
60948 make things easy for or reward anyone, merely because he felt inclined
60949 to do so. He could not have said by what standard he judged what he
60950 should or should not do, but the standard was quite firm and definite in
60953 Often, speaking with vexation of some failure or irregularity, he would
60954 say: "What can one do with our Russian peasants?" and imagined that he
60955 could not bear them.
60957 Yet he loved "our Russian peasants" and their way of life with his whole
60958 soul, and for that very reason had understood and assimilated the one
60959 way and manner of farming which produced good results.
60961 Countess Mary was jealous of this passion of her husband's and regretted
60962 that she could not share it; but she could not understand the joys and
60963 vexations he derived from that world, to her so remote and alien. She
60964 could not understand why he was so particularly animated and happy when,
60965 after getting up at daybreak and spending the whole morning in the
60966 fields or on the threshing floor, he returned from the sowing or mowing
60967 or reaping to have tea with her. She did not understand why he spoke
60968 with such admiration and delight of the farming of the thrifty and well-
60969 to-do peasant Matthew Ermishin, who with his family had carted corn all
60970 night; or of the fact that his (Nicholas') sheaves were already stacked
60971 before anyone else had his harvest in. She did not understand why he
60972 stepped out from the window to the veranda and smiled under his mustache
60973 and winked so joyfully, when warm steady rain began to fall on the dry
60974 and thirsty shoots of the young oats, or why when the wind carried away
60975 a threatening cloud during the hay harvest he would return from the
60976 barn, flushed, sunburned, and perspiring, with a smell of wormwood and
60977 gentian in his hair and, gleefully rubbing his hands, would say: "Well,
60978 one more day and my grain and the peasants' will all be under cover."
60980 Still less did she understand why he, kindhearted and always ready to
60981 anticipate her wishes, should become almost desperate when she brought
60982 him a petition from some peasant men or women who had appealed to her to
60983 be excused some work; why he, that kind Nicholas, should obstinately
60984 refuse her, angrily asking her not to interfere in what was not her
60985 business. She felt he had a world apart, which he loved passionately and
60986 which had laws she had not fathomed.
60988 Sometimes when, trying to understand him, she spoke of the good work he
60989 was doing for his serfs, he would be vexed and reply: "Not in the least;
60990 it never entered my head and I wouldn't do that for their good! That's
60991 all poetry and old wives' talk--all that doing good to one's neighbor!
60992 What I want is that our children should not have to go begging. I must
60993 put our affairs in order while I am alive, that's all. And to do that,
60994 order and strictness are essential.... That's all about it!" said he,
60995 clenching his vigorous fist. "And fairness, of course," he added, "for
60996 if the peasant is naked and hungry and has only one miserable horse, he
60997 can do no good either for himself or for me."
60999 And all Nicholas did was fruitful--probably just because he refused to
61000 allow himself to think that he was doing good to others for virtue's
61001 sake. His means increased rapidly; serfs from neighboring estates came
61002 to beg him to buy them, and long after his death the memory of his
61003 administration was devoutly preserved among the serfs. "He was a
61004 master... the peasants' affairs first and then his own. Of course he was
61005 not to be trifled with either--in a word, he was a real master!"
61012 One matter connected with his management sometimes worried Nicholas, and
61013 that was his quick temper together with his old hussar habit of making
61014 free use of his fists. At first he saw nothing reprehensible in this,
61015 but in the second year of his marriage his view of that form of
61016 punishment suddenly changed.
61018 Once in summer he had sent for the village elder from Bogucharovo, a man
61019 who had succeeded to the post when Dron died and who was accused of
61020 dishonesty and various irregularities. Nicholas went out into the porch
61021 to question him, and immediately after the elder had given a few replies
61022 the sound of cries and blows were heard. On returning to lunch Nicholas
61023 went up to his wife, who sat with her head bent low over her embroidery
61024 frame, and as usual began to tell her what he had been doing that
61025 morning. Among other things he spoke of the Bogucharovo elder. Countess
61026 Mary turned red and then pale, but continued to sit with head bowed and
61027 lips compressed and gave her husband no reply.
61029 "Such an insolent scoundrel!" he cried, growing hot again at the mere
61030 recollection of him. "If he had told me he was drunk and did not see...
61031 But what is the matter with you, Mary?" he suddenly asked.
61033 Countess Mary raised her head and tried to speak, but hastily looked
61034 down again and her lips puckered.
61036 "Why, whatever is the matter, my dearest?"
61038 The looks of the plain Countess Mary always improved when she was in
61039 tears. She never cried from pain or vexation, but always from sorrow or
61040 pity, and when she wept her radiant eyes acquired an irresistible charm.
61042 The moment Nicholas took her hand she could no longer restrain herself
61045 "Nicholas, I saw it... he was to blame, but why do you... Nicholas!" and
61046 she covered her face with her hands.
61048 Nicholas said nothing. He flushed crimson, left her side, and paced up
61049 and down the room. He understood what she was weeping about, but could
61050 not in his heart at once agree with her that what he had regarded from
61051 childhood as quite an everyday event was wrong. "Is it just
61052 sentimentality, old wives' tales, or is she right?" he asked himself.
61053 Before he had solved that point he glanced again at her face filled with
61054 love and pain, and he suddenly realized that she was right and that he
61055 had long been sinning against himself.
61057 "Mary," he said softly, going up to her, "it will never happen again; I
61058 give you my word. Never," he repeated in a trembling voice like a boy
61059 asking for forgiveness.
61061 The tears flowed faster still from the countess' eyes. She took his hand
61064 "Nicholas, when did you break your cameo?" she asked to change the
61065 subject, looking at his finger on which he wore a ring with a cameo of
61068 "Today--it was the same affair. Oh, Mary, don't remind me of it!" and
61069 again he flushed. "I give you my word of honor it shan't occur again,
61070 and let this always be a reminder to me," and he pointed to the broken
61073 After that, when in discussions with his village elders or stewards the
61074 blood rushed to his face and his fists began to clench, Nicholas would
61075 turn the broken ring on his finger and would drop his eyes before the
61076 man who was making him angry. But he did forget himself once or twice
61077 within a twelvemonth, and then he would go and confess to his wife, and
61078 would again promise that this should really be the very last time.
61080 "Mary, you must despise me!" he would say. "I deserve it."
61082 "You should go, go away at once, if you don't feel strong enough to
61083 control yourself," she would reply sadly, trying to comfort her husband.
61085 Among the gentry of the province Nicholas was respected but not liked.
61086 He did not concern himself with the interests of his own class, and
61087 consequently some thought him proud and others thought him stupid. The
61088 whole summer, from spring sowing to harvest, he was busy with the work
61089 on his farm. In autumn he gave himself up to hunting with the same
61090 business-like seriousness--leaving home for a month, or even two, with
61091 his hunt. In winter he visited his other villages or spent his time
61092 reading. The books he read were chiefly historical, and on these he
61093 spent a certain sum every year. He was collecting, as he said, a serious
61094 library, and he made it a rule to read through all the books he bought.
61095 He would sit in his study with a grave air, reading--a task he first
61096 imposed upon himself as a duty, but which afterwards became a habit
61097 affording him a special kind of pleasure and a consciousness of being
61098 occupied with serious matters. In winter, except for business
61099 excursions, he spent most of his time at home making himself one with
61100 his family and entering into all the details of his children's relations
61101 with their mother. The harmony between him and his wife grew closer and
61102 closer and he daily discovered fresh spiritual treasures in her.
61104 From the time of his marriage Sonya had lived in his house. Before that,
61105 Nicholas had told his wife all that had passed between himself and
61106 Sonya, blaming himself and commending her. He had asked Princess Mary to
61107 be gentle and kind to his cousin. She thoroughly realized the wrong he
61108 had done Sonya, felt herself to blame toward her, and imagined that her
61109 wealth had influenced Nicholas' choice. She could not find fault with
61110 Sonya in any way and tried to be fond of her, but often felt ill-will
61111 toward her which she could not overcome.
61113 Once she had a talk with her friend Natasha about Sonya and about her
61114 own injustice toward her.
61116 "You know," said Natasha, "you have read the Gospels a great deal--there
61117 is a passage in them that just fits Sonya."
61119 "What?" asked Countess Mary, surprised.
61121 "'To him that hath shall be given, and from him that hath not shall be
61122 taken away.' You remember? She is one that hath not; why, I don't know.
61123 Perhaps she lacks egotism, I don't know, but from her is taken away, and
61124 everything has been taken away. Sometimes I am dreadfully sorry for her.
61125 Formerly I very much wanted Nicholas to marry her, but I always had a
61126 sort of presentiment that it would not come off. She is a sterile
61127 flower, you know--like some strawberry blossoms. Sometimes I am sorry
61128 for her, and sometimes I think she doesn't feel it as you or I would."
61130 Though Countess Mary told Natasha that those words in the Gospel must be
61131 understood differently, yet looking at Sonya she agreed with Natasha's
61132 explanation. It really seemed that Sonya did not feel her position
61133 trying, and had grown quite reconciled to her lot as a sterile flower.
61134 She seemed to be fond not so much of individuals as of the family as a
61135 whole. Like a cat, she had attached herself not to the people but to the
61136 home. She waited on the old countess, petted and spoiled the children,
61137 was always ready to render the small services for which she had a gift,
61138 and all this was unconsciously accepted from her with insufficient
61141 The country seat at Bald Hills had been rebuilt, though not on the same
61142 scale as under the old prince.
61144 The buildings, begun under straitened circumstances, were more than
61145 simple. The immense house on the old stone foundations was of wood,
61146 plastered only inside. It had bare deal floors and was furnished with
61147 very simple hard sofas, armchairs, tables, and chairs made by their own
61148 serf carpenters out of their own birchwood. The house was spacious and
61149 had rooms for the house serfs and apartments for visitors. Whole
61150 families of the Rostovs' and Bolkonskis' relations sometimes came to
61151 Bald Hills with sixteen horses and dozens of servants and stayed for
61152 months. Besides that, four times a year, on the name days and birthdays
61153 of the hosts, as many as a hundred visitors would gather there for a day
61154 or two. The rest of the year life pursued its unbroken routine with its
61155 ordinary occupations, and its breakfasts, lunches, dinners, and suppers,
61156 provided out of the produce of the estate.
61163 It was the eve of St. Nicholas, the fifth of December, 1820. Natasha had
61164 been staying at her brother's with her husband and children since early
61165 autumn. Pierre had gone to Petersburg on business of his own for three
61166 weeks as he said, but had remained there nearly seven weeks and was
61167 expected back every minute.
61169 Besides the Bezukhov family, Nicholas' old friend the retired General
61170 Vasili Dmitrich Denisov was staying with the Rostovs this fifth of
61173 On the sixth, which was his name day when the house would be full of
61174 visitors, Nicholas knew he would have to exchange his Tartar tunic for a
61175 tail coat, and put on narrow boots with pointed toes, and drive to the
61176 new church he had built, and then receive visitors who would come to
61177 congratulate him, offer them refreshments, and talk about the elections
61178 of the nobility; but he considered himself entitled to spend the eve of
61179 that day in his usual way. He examined the bailiff's accounts of the
61180 village in Ryazan which belonged to his wife's nephew, wrote two
61181 business letters, and walked over to the granaries, cattle yards and
61182 stables before dinner. Having taken precautions against the general
61183 drunkenness to be expected on the morrow because it was a great saint's
61184 day, he returned to dinner, and without having time for a private talk
61185 with his wife sat down at the long table laid for twenty persons, at
61186 which the whole household had assembled. At that table were his mother,
61187 his mother's old lady companion Belova, his wife, their three children
61188 with their governess and tutor, his wife's nephew with his tutor, Sonya,
61189 Denisov, Natasha, her three children, their governess, and old Michael
61190 Ivanovich, the late prince's architect, who was living on in retirement
61193 Countess Mary sat at the other end of the table. When her husband took
61194 his place she concluded, from the rapid manner in which after taking up
61195 his table napkin he pushed back the tumbler and wineglass standing
61196 before him, that he was out of humor, as was sometimes the case when he
61197 came in to dinner straight from the farm--especially before the soup.
61198 Countess Mary well knew that mood of his, and when she herself was in a
61199 good frame of mind quietly waited till he had had his soup and then
61200 began to talk to him and make him admit that there was no cause for his
61201 ill-humor. But today she quite forgot that and was hurt that he should
61202 be angry with her without any reason, and she felt unhappy. She asked
61203 him where he had been. He replied. She again inquired whether everything
61204 was going well on the farm. Her unnatural tone made him wince
61205 unpleasantly and he replied hastily.
61207 "Then I'm not mistaken," thought Countess Mary. "Why is he cross with
61208 me?" She concluded from his tone that he was vexed with her and wished
61209 to end the conversation. She knew her remarks sounded unnatural, but
61210 could not refrain from asking some more questions.
61212 Thanks to Denisov the conversation at table soon became general and
61213 lively, and she did not talk to her husband. When they left the table
61214 and went as usual to thank the old countess, Countess Mary held out her
61215 hand and kissed her husband, and asked him why he was angry with her.
61217 "You always have such strange fancies! I didn't even think of being
61218 angry," he replied.
61220 But the word always seemed to her to imply: "Yes, I am angry but I won't
61223 Nicholas and his wife lived together so happily that even Sonya and the
61224 old countess, who felt jealous and would have liked them to disagree,
61225 could find nothing to reproach them with; but even they had their
61226 moments of antagonism. Occasionally, and it was always just after they
61227 had been happiest together, they suddenly had a feeling of estrangement
61228 and hostility, which occurred most frequently during Countess Mary's
61229 pregnancies, and this was such a time.
61231 "Well, messieurs et mesdames," said Nicholas loudly and with apparent
61232 cheerfulness (it seemed to Countess Mary that he did it on purpose to
61233 vex her), "I have been on my feet since six this morning. Tomorrow I
61234 shall have to suffer, so today I'll go and rest."
61236 And without a word to his wife he went to the little sitting room and
61237 lay down on the sofa.
61239 "That's always the way," thought Countess Mary. "He talks to everyone
61240 except me. I see... I see that I am repulsive to him, especially when I
61241 am in this condition." She looked down at her expanded figure and in the
61242 glass at her pale, sallow, emaciated face in which her eyes now looked
61245 And everything annoyed her--Denisov's shouting and laughter, Natasha's
61246 talk, and especially a quick glance Sonya gave her.
61248 Sonya was always the first excuse Countess Mary found for feeling
61251 Having sat awhile with her visitors without understanding anything of
61252 what they were saying, she softly left the room and went to the nursery.
61254 The children were playing at "going to Moscow" in a carriage made of
61255 chairs and invited her to go with them. She sat down and played with
61256 them a little, but the thought of her husband and his unreasonable
61257 crossness worried her. She got up and, walking on tiptoe with
61258 difficulty, went to the small sitting room.
61260 "Perhaps he is not asleep; I'll have an explanation with him," she said
61261 to herself. Little Andrew, her eldest boy, imitating his mother,
61262 followed her on tiptoe. She did not notice him.
61264 "Mary, dear, I think he is asleep--he was so tired," said Sonya, meeting
61265 her in the large sitting room (it seemed to Countess Mary that she
61266 crossed her path everywhere). "Andrew may wake him."
61268 Countess Mary looked round, saw little Andrew following her, felt that
61269 Sonya was right, and for that very reason flushed and with evident
61270 difficulty refrained from saying something harsh. She made no reply, but
61271 to avoid obeying Sonya beckoned to Andrew to follow her quietly and went
61272 to the door. Sonya went away by another door. From the room in which
61273 Nicholas was sleeping came the sound of his even breathing, every
61274 slightest tone of which was familiar to his wife. As she listened to it
61275 she saw before her his smooth handsome forehead, his mustache, and his
61276 whole face, as she had so often seen it in the stillness of the night
61277 when he slept. Nicholas suddenly moved and cleared his throat. And at
61278 that moment little Andrew shouted from outside the door: "Papa! Mamma's
61279 standing here!" Countess Mary turned pale with fright and made signs to
61280 the boy. He grew silent, and quiet ensued for a moment, terrible to
61281 Countess Mary. She knew how Nicholas disliked being waked. Then through
61282 the door she heard Nicholas clearing his throat again and stirring, and
61283 his voice said crossly:
61285 "I can't get a moment's peace.... Mary, is that you? Why did you bring
61288 "I only came in to look and did not notice... forgive me..."
61290 Nicholas coughed and said no more. Countess Mary moved away from the
61291 door and took the boy back to the nursery. Five minutes later little
61292 black-eyed three-year-old Natasha, her father's pet, having learned from
61293 her brother that Papa was asleep and Mamma was in the sitting room, ran
61294 to her father unobserved by her mother. The dark-eyed little girl boldly
61295 opened the creaking door, went up to the sofa with energetic steps of
61296 her sturdy little legs, and having examined the position of her father,
61297 who was asleep with his back to her, rose on tiptoe and kissed the hand
61298 which lay under his head. Nicholas turned with a tender smile on his
61301 "Natasha, Natasha!" came Countess Mary's frightened whisper from the
61302 door. "Papa wants to sleep."
61304 "No, Mamma, he doesn't want to sleep," said little Natasha with
61305 conviction. "He's laughing."
61307 Nicholas lowered his legs, rose, and took his daughter in his arms.
61309 "Come in, Mary," he said to his wife.
61311 She went in and sat down by her husband.
61313 "I did not notice him following me," she said timidly. "I just looked
61316 Holding his little girl with one arm, Nicholas glanced at his wife and,
61317 seeing her guilty expression, put his other arm around her and kissed
61320 "May I kiss Mamma?" he asked Natasha.
61322 Natasha smiled bashfully.
61324 "Again!" she commanded, pointing with a peremptory gesture to the spot
61325 where Nicholas had placed the kiss.
61327 "I don't know why you think I am cross," said Nicholas, replying to the
61328 question he knew was in his wife's mind.
61330 "You have no idea how unhappy, how lonely, I feel when you are like
61331 that. It always seems to me..."
61333 "Mary, don't talk nonsense. You ought to be ashamed of yourself!" he
61336 "It seems to be that you can't love me, that I am so plain... always...
61337 and now... in this cond..."
61339 "Oh, how absurd you are! It is not beauty that endears, it's love that
61340 makes us see beauty. It is only Malvinas and women of that kind who are
61341 loved for their beauty. But do I love my wife? I don't love her, but...
61342 I don't know how to put it. Without you, or when something comes between
61343 us like this, I seem lost and can't do anything. Now do I love my
61344 finger? I don't love it, but just try to cut it off!"
61346 "I'm not like that myself, but I understand. So you're not angry with
61349 "Awfully angry!" he said, smiling and getting up. And smoothing his hair
61350 he began to pace the room.
61352 "Do you know, Mary, what I've been thinking?" he began, immediately
61353 thinking aloud in his wife's presence now that they had made it up.
61355 He did not ask if she was ready to listen to him. He did not care. A
61356 thought had occurred to him and so it belonged to her also. And he told
61357 her of his intention to persuade Pierre to stay with them till spring.
61359 Countess Mary listened till he had finished, made some remark, and in
61360 her turn began thinking aloud. Her thoughts were about the children.
61362 "You can see the woman in her already," she said in French, pointing to
61363 little Natasha. "You reproach us women with being illogical. Here is our
61364 logic. I say: 'Papa wants to sleep!' but she says, 'No, he's laughing.'
61365 And she was right," said Countess Mary with a happy smile.
61367 "Yes, yes." And Nicholas, taking his little daughter in his strong hand,
61368 lifted her high, placed her on his shoulder, held her by the legs, and
61369 paced the room with her. There was an expression of carefree happiness
61370 on the faces of both father and daughter.
61372 "But you know you may be unfair. You are too fond of this one," his wife
61373 whispered in French.
61375 "Yes, but what am I to do?... I try not to show..."
61377 At that moment they heard the sound of the door pulley and footsteps in
61378 the hall and anteroom, as if someone had arrived.
61380 "Somebody has come."
61382 "I am sure it is Pierre. I will go and see," said Countess Mary and left
61385 In her absence Nicholas allowed himself to give his little daughter a
61386 gallop round the room. Out of breath, he took the laughing child quickly
61387 from his shoulder and pressed her to his heart. His capers reminded him
61388 of dancing, and looking at the child's round happy little face he
61389 thought of what she would be like when he was an old man, taking her
61390 into society and dancing the mazurka with her as his old father had
61391 danced Daniel Cooper with his daughter.
61393 "It is he, it is he, Nicholas!" said Countess Mary, re-entering the room
61394 a few minutes later. "Now our Natasha has come to life. You should have
61395 seen her ecstasy, and how he caught it for having stayed away so long.
61396 Well, come along now, quick, quick! It's time you two were parted," she
61397 added, looking smilingly at the little girl who clung to her father.
61399 Nicholas went out holding the child by the hand.
61401 Countess Mary remained in the sitting room.
61403 "I should never, never have believed that one could be so happy," she
61404 whispered to herself. A smile lit up her face but at the same time she
61405 sighed, and her deep eyes expressed a quiet sadness as though she felt,
61406 through her happiness, that there is another sort of happiness
61407 unattainable in this life and of which she involuntarily thought at that
61415 Natasha had married in the early spring of 1813, and in 1820 already had
61416 three daughters besides a son for whom she had longed and whom she was
61417 now nursing. She had grown stouter and broader, so that it was difficult
61418 to recognize in this robust, motherly woman the slim, lively Natasha of
61419 former days. Her features were more defined and had a calm, soft, and
61420 serene expression. In her face there was none of the ever-glowing
61421 animation that had formerly burned there and constituted its charm. Now
61422 her face and body were often all that one saw, and her soul was not
61423 visible at all. All that struck the eye was a strong, handsome, and
61424 fertile woman. The old fire very rarely kindled in her face now. That
61425 happened only when, as was the case that day, her husband returned home,
61426 or a sick child was convalescent, or when she and Countess Mary spoke of
61427 Prince Andrew (she never mentioned him to her husband, who she imagined
61428 was jealous of Prince Andrew's memory), or on the rare occasions when
61429 something happened to induce her to sing, a practice she had quite
61430 abandoned since her marriage. At the rare moments when the old fire did
61431 kindle in her handsome, fully developed body she was even more
61432 attractive than in former days.
61434 Since their marriage Natasha and her husband had lived in Moscow, in
61435 Petersburg, on their estate near Moscow, or with her mother, that is to
61436 say, in Nicholas' house. The young Countess Bezukhova was not often seen
61437 in society, and those who met her there were not pleased with her and
61438 found her neither attractive nor amiable. Not that Natasha liked
61439 solitude--she did not know whether she liked it or not, she even thought
61440 that she did not--but with her pregnancies, her confinements, the
61441 nursing of her children, and sharing every moment of her husband's life,
61442 she had demands on her time which could be satisfied only by renouncing
61443 society. All who had known Natasha before her marriage wondered at the
61444 change in her as at something extraordinary. Only the old countess with
61445 her maternal instinct had realized that all Natasha's outbursts had been
61446 due to her need of children and a husband--as she herself had once
61447 exclaimed at Otradnoe not so much in fun as in earnest--and her mother
61448 was now surprised at the surprise expressed by those who had never
61449 understood Natasha, and she kept saying that she had always known that
61450 Natasha would make an exemplary wife and mother.
61452 "Only she lets her love of her husband and children overflow all
61453 bounds," said the countess, "so that it even becomes absurd."
61455 Natasha did not follow the golden rule advocated by clever folk,
61456 especially by the French, which says that a girl should not let herself
61457 go when she marries, should not neglect her accomplishments, should be
61458 even more careful of her appearance than when she was unmarried, and
61459 should fascinate her husband as much as she did before he became her
61460 husband. Natasha on the contrary had at once abandoned all her witchery,
61461 of which her singing had been an unusually powerful part. She gave it up
61462 just because it was so powerfully seductive. She took no pains with her
61463 manners or with delicacy of speech, or with her toilet, or to show
61464 herself to her husband in her most becoming attitudes, or to avoid
61465 inconveniencing him by being too exacting. She acted in contradiction to
61466 all those rules. She felt that the allurements instinct had formerly
61467 taught her to use would now be merely ridiculous in the eyes of her
61468 husband, to whom she had from the first moment given herself up
61469 entirely--that is, with her whole soul, leaving no corner of it hidden
61470 from him. She felt that her unity with her husband was not maintained by
61471 the poetic feelings that had attracted him to her, but by something
61472 else--indefinite but firm as the bond between her own body and soul.
61474 To fluff out her curls, put on fashionable dresses, and sing romantic
61475 songs to fascinate her husband would have seemed as strange as to adorn
61476 herself to attract herself. To adorn herself for others might perhaps
61477 have been agreeable--she did not know--but she had no time at all for
61478 it. The chief reason for devoting no time either to singing, to dress,
61479 or to choosing her words was that she really had no time to spare for
61482 We know that man has the faculty of becoming completely absorbed in a
61483 subject however trivial it may be, and that there is no subject so
61484 trivial that it will not grow to infinite proportions if one's entire
61485 attention is devoted to it.
61487 The subject which wholly engrossed Natasha's attention was her family:
61488 that is, her husband whom she had to keep so that he should belong
61489 entirely to her and to the home, and the children whom she had to bear,
61490 bring into the world, nurse, and bring up.
61492 And the deeper she penetrated, not with her mind only but with her whole
61493 soul, her whole being, into the subject that absorbed her, the larger
61494 did that subject grow and the weaker and more inadequate did her powers
61495 appear, so that she concentrated them wholly on that one thing and yet
61496 was unable to accomplish all that she considered necessary.
61498 There were then as now conversations and discussions about women's
61499 rights, the relations of husband and wife and their freedom and rights,
61500 though these themes were not yet termed questions as they are now; but
61501 these topics were not merely uninteresting to Natasha, she positively
61502 did not understand them.
61504 These questions, then as now, existed only for those who see nothing in
61505 marriage but the pleasure married people get from one another, that is,
61506 only the beginnings of marriage and not its whole significance, which
61507 lies in the family.
61509 Discussions and questions of that kind, which are like the question of
61510 how to get the greatest gratification from one's dinner, did not then
61511 and do not now exist for those for whom the purpose of a dinner is the
61512 nourishment it affords; and the purpose of marriage is the family.
61514 If the purpose of dinner is to nourish the body, a man who eats two
61515 dinners at once may perhaps get more enjoyment but will not attain his
61516 purpose, for his stomach will not digest the two dinners.
61518 If the purpose of marriage is the family, the person who wishes to have
61519 many wives or husbands may perhaps obtain much pleasure, but in that
61520 case will not have a family.
61522 If the purpose of food is nourishment and the purpose of marriage is the
61523 family, the whole question resolves itself into not eating more than one
61524 can digest, and not having more wives or husbands than are needed for
61525 the family--that is, one wife or one husband. Natasha needed a husband.
61526 A husband was given her and he gave her a family. And she not only saw
61527 no need of any other or better husband, but as all the powers of her
61528 soul were intent on serving that husband and family, she could not
61529 imagine and saw no interest in imagining how it would be if things were
61532 Natasha did not care for society in general, but prized the more the
61533 society of her relatives--Countess Mary, and her brother, her mother,
61534 and Sonya. She valued the company of those to whom she could come
61535 striding disheveled from the nursery in her dressing gown, and with
61536 joyful face show a yellow instead of a green stain on baby's napkin, and
61537 from whom she could hear reassuring words to the effect that baby was
61540 To such an extent had Natasha let herself go that the way she dressed
61541 and did her hair, her ill-chosen words, and her jealousy--she was
61542 jealous of Sonya, of the governess, and of every woman, pretty or plain-
61543 -were habitual subjects of jest to those about her. The general opinion
61544 was that Pierre was under his wife's thumb, which was really true. From
61545 the very first days of their married life Natasha had announced her
61546 demands. Pierre was greatly surprised by his wife's view, to him a
61547 perfectly novel one, that every moment of his life belonged to her and
61548 to the family. His wife's demands astonished him, but they also
61549 flattered him, and he submitted to them.
61551 Pierre's subjection consisted in the fact that he not only dared not
61552 flirt with, but dared not even speak smilingly to, any other woman; did
61553 not dare dine at the club as a pastime, did not dare spend money on a
61554 whim, and did not dare absent himself for any length of time, except on
61555 business--in which his wife included his intellectual pursuits, which
61556 she did not in the least understand but to which she attributed great
61557 importance. To make up for this, at home Pierre had the right to
61558 regulate his life and that of the whole family exactly as he chose. At
61559 home Natasha placed herself in the position of a slave to her husband,
61560 and the whole household went on tiptoe when he was occupied--that is,
61561 was reading or writing in his study. Pierre had but to show a partiality
61562 for anything to get just what he liked done always. He had only to
61563 express a wish and Natasha would jump up and run to fulfill it.
61565 The entire household was governed according to Pierre's supposed orders,
61566 that is, by his wishes which Natasha tried to guess. Their way of life
61567 and place of residence, their acquaintances and ties, Natasha's
61568 occupations, the children's upbringing, were all selected not merely
61569 with regard to Pierre's expressed wishes, but to what Natasha from the
61570 thoughts he expressed in conversation supposed his wishes to be. And she
61571 deduced the essentials of his wishes quite correctly, and having once
61572 arrived at them clung to them tenaciously. When Pierre himself wanted to
61573 change his mind she would fight him with his own weapons.
61575 Thus in a time of trouble ever memorable to him after the birth of their
61576 first child who was delicate, when they had to change the wet nurse
61577 three times and Natasha fell ill from despair, Pierre one day told her
61578 of Rousseau's view, with which he quite agreed, that to have a wet nurse
61579 is unnatural and harmful. When her next baby was born, despite the
61580 opposition of her mother, the doctors, and even of her husband himself--
61581 who were all vigorously opposed to her nursing her baby herself, a thing
61582 then unheard of and considered injurious--she insisted on having her own
61583 way, and after that nursed all her babies herself.
61585 It very often happened that in a moment of irritation husband and wife
61586 would have a dispute, but long afterwards Pierre to his surprise and
61587 delight would find in his wife's ideas and actions the very thought
61588 against which she had argued, but divested of everything superfluous
61589 that in the excitement of the dispute he had added when expressing his
61592 After seven years of marriage Pierre had the joyous and firm
61593 consciousness that he was not a bad man, and he felt this because he saw
61594 himself reflected in his wife. He felt the good and bad within himself
61595 inextricably mingled and overlapping. But only what was really good in
61596 him was reflected in his wife, all that was not quite good was rejected.
61597 And this was not the result of logical reasoning but was a direct and
61598 mysterious reflection.
61605 Two months previously when Pierre was already staying with the Rostovs
61606 he had received a letter from Prince Theodore, asking him to come to
61607 Petersburg to confer on some important questions that were being
61608 discussed there by a society of which Pierre was one of the principal
61611 On reading that letter (she always read her husband's letters) Natasha
61612 herself suggested that he should go to Petersburg, though she would feel
61613 his absence very acutely. She attributed immense importance to all her
61614 husband's intellectual and abstract interests though she did not
61615 understand them, and she always dreaded being a hindrance to him in such
61616 matters. To Pierre's timid look of inquiry after reading the letter she
61617 replied by asking him to go, but to fix a definite date for his return.
61618 He was given four weeks' leave of absence.
61620 Ever since that leave of absence had expired, more than a fortnight
61621 before, Natasha had been in a constant state of alarm, depression, and
61624 Denisov, now a general on the retired list and much dissatisfied with
61625 the present state of affairs, had arrived during that fortnight. He
61626 looked at Natasha with sorrow and surprise as at a bad likeness of a
61627 person once dear. A dull, dejected look, random replies, and talk about
61628 the nursery was all he saw and heard from his former enchantress.
61630 Natasha was sad and irritable all that time, especially when her mother,
61631 her brother, Sonya, or Countess Mary in their efforts to console her
61632 tried to excuse Pierre and suggested reasons for his delay in returning.
61634 "It's all nonsense, all rubbish--those discussions which lead to nothing
61635 and all those idiotic societies!" Natasha declared of the very affairs
61636 in the immense importance of which she firmly believed.
61638 And she would go to the nursery to nurse Petya, her only boy. No one
61639 else could tell her anything so comforting or so reasonable as this
61640 little three-month-old creature when he lay at her breast and she was
61641 conscious of the movement of his lips and the snuffling of his little
61642 nose. That creature said: "You are angry, you are jealous, you would
61643 like to pay him out, you are afraid--but here am I! And I am he..." and
61644 that was unanswerable. It was more than true.
61646 During that fortnight of anxiety Natasha resorted to the baby for
61647 comfort so often, and fussed over him so much, that she overfed him and
61648 he fell ill. She was terrified by his illness, and yet that was just
61649 what she needed. While attending to him she bore the anxiety about her
61650 husband more easily.
61652 She was nursing her boy when the sound of Pierre's sleigh was heard at
61653 the front door, and the old nurse--knowing how to please her mistress--
61654 entered the room inaudibly but hurriedly and with a beaming face.
61656 "Has he come?" Natasha asked quickly in a whisper, afraid to move lest
61657 she should rouse the dozing baby.
61659 "He's come, ma'am," whispered the nurse.
61661 The blood rushed to Natasha's face and her feet involuntarily moved, but
61662 she could not jump up and run out. The baby again opened his eyes and
61663 looked at her. "You're here?" he seemed to be saying, and again lazily
61666 Cautiously withdrawing her breast, Natasha rocked him a little, handed
61667 him to the nurse, and went with rapid steps toward the door. But at the
61668 door she stopped as if her conscience reproached her for having in her
61669 joy left the child too soon, and she glanced round. The nurse with
61670 raised elbows was lifting the infant over the rail of his cot.
61672 "Go, ma'am! Don't worry, go!" she whispered, smiling, with the kind of
61673 familiarity that grows up between a nurse and her mistress.
61675 Natasha ran with light footsteps to the anteroom.
61677 Denisov, who had come out of the study into the dancing room with his
61678 pipe, now for the first time recognized the old Natasha. A flood of
61679 brilliant, joyful light poured from her transfigured face.
61681 "He's come!" she exclaimed as she ran past, and Denisov felt that he too
61682 was delighted that Pierre, whom he did not much care for, had returned.
61684 On reaching the vestibule Natasha saw a tall figure in a fur coat
61685 unwinding his scarf. "It's he! It's really he! He has come!" she said to
61686 herself, and rushing at him embraced him, pressed his head to her
61687 breast, and then pushed him back and gazed at his ruddy, happy face,
61688 covered with hoarfrost. "Yes, it is he, happy and contented..."
61690 Then all at once she remembered the tortures of suspense she had
61691 experienced for the last fortnight, and the joy that had lit up her face
61692 vanished; she frowned and overwhelmed Pierre with a torrent of
61693 reproaches and angry words.
61695 "Yes, it's all very well for you. You are pleased, you've had a good
61696 time.... But what about me? You might at least have shown consideration
61697 for the children. I am nursing and my milk was spoiled.... Petya was at
61698 death's door. But you were enjoying yourself. Yes, enjoying..."
61700 Pierre knew he was not to blame, for he could not have come sooner; he
61701 knew this outburst was unseemly and would blow over in a minute or two;
61702 above all he knew that he himself was bright and happy. He wanted to
61703 smile but dared not even think of doing so. He made a piteous,
61704 frightened face and bent down.
61706 "I could not, on my honor. But how is Petya?"
61708 "All right now. Come along! I wonder you're not ashamed! If only you
61709 could see what I was like without you, how I suffered!"
61713 "Come, come!" she said, not letting go of his arm. And they went to
61716 When Nicholas and his wife came to look for Pierre he was in the nursery
61717 holding his baby son, who was again awake, on his huge right palm and
61718 dandling him. A blissful bright smile was fixed on the baby's broad face
61719 with its toothless open mouth. The storm was long since over and there
61720 was bright, joyous sunshine on Natasha's face as she gazed tenderly at
61721 her husband and child.
61723 "And have you talked everything well over with Prince Theodore?" she
61728 "You see, he holds it up." (She meant the baby's head.) "But how he did
61729 frighten me... You've seen the princess? Is it true she's in love with
61732 "Yes, just fancy..."
61734 At that moment Nicholas and Countess Mary came in. Pierre with the baby
61735 on his hand stooped, kissed them, and replied to their inquiries. But in
61736 spite of much that was interesting and had to be discussed, the baby
61737 with the little cap on its unsteady head evidently absorbed all his
61740 "How sweet!" said Countess Mary, looking at and playing with the baby.
61741 "Now, Nicholas," she added, turning to her husband, "I can't understand
61742 how it is you don't see the charm of these delicious marvels."
61744 "I don't and can't," replied Nicholas, looking coldly at the baby. "A
61745 lump of flesh. Come along, Pierre!"
61747 "And yet he's such an affectionate father," said Countess Mary,
61748 vindicating her husband, "but only after they are a year old or so..."
61750 "Now, Pierre nurses them splendidly," said Natasha. "He says his hand is
61751 just made for a baby's seat. Just look!"
61753 "Only not for this..." Pierre suddenly exclaimed with a laugh, and
61754 shifting the baby he gave him to the nurse.
61761 As in every large household, there were at Bald Hills several perfectly
61762 distinct worlds which merged into one harmonious whole, though each
61763 retained its own peculiarities and made concessions to the others. Every
61764 event, joyful or sad, that took place in that house was important to all
61765 these worlds, but each had its own special reasons to rejoice or grieve
61766 over that occurrence independently of the others.
61768 For instance, Pierre's return was a joyful and important event and they
61769 all felt it to be so.
61771 The servants--the most reliable judges of their masters because they
61772 judge not by their conversation or expressions of feeling but by their
61773 acts and way of life--were glad of Pierre's return because they knew
61774 that when he was there Count Nicholas would cease going every day to
61775 attend to the estate, and would be in better spirits and temper, and
61776 also because they would all receive handsome presents for the holidays.
61778 The children and their governesses were glad of Pierre's return because
61779 no one else drew them into the social life of the household as he did.
61780 He alone could play on the clavichord that ecossaise (his only piece) to
61781 which, as he said, all possible dances could be danced, and they felt
61782 sure he had brought presents for them all.
61784 Young Nicholas, now a slim lad of fifteen, delicate and intelligent,
61785 with curly light-brown hair and beautiful eyes, was delighted because
61786 Uncle Pierre as he called him was the object of his rapturous and
61787 passionate affection. No one had instilled into him this love for Pierre
61788 whom he saw only occasionally. Countess Mary who had brought him up had
61789 done her utmost to make him love her husband as she loved him, and
61790 little Nicholas did love his uncle, but loved him with just a shade of
61791 contempt. Pierre, however, he adored. He did not want to be an hussar or
61792 a Knight of St. George like his uncle Nicholas; he wanted to be learned,
61793 wise, and kind like Pierre. In Pierre's presence his face always shone
61794 with pleasure and he flushed and was breathless when Pierre spoke to
61795 him. He did not miss a single word he uttered, and would afterwards,
61796 with Dessalles or by himself, recall and reconsider the meaning of
61797 everything Pierre had said. Pierre's past life and his unhappiness prior
61798 to 1812 (of which young Nicholas had formed a vague poetic picture from
61799 some words he had overheard), his adventures in Moscow, his captivity,
61800 Platon Karataev (of whom he had heard from Pierre), his love for Natasha
61801 (of whom the lad was also particularly fond), and especially Pierre's
61802 friendship with the father whom Nicholas could not remember--all this
61803 made Pierre in his eyes a hero and a saint.
61805 From broken remarks about Natasha and his father, from the emotion with
61806 which Pierre spoke of that dead father, and from the careful, reverent
61807 tenderness with which Natasha spoke of him, the boy, who was only just
61808 beginning to guess what love is, derived the notion that his father had
61809 loved Natasha and when dying had left her to his friend. But the father
61810 whom the boy did not remember appeared to him a divinity who could not
61811 be pictured, and of whom he never thought without a swelling heart and
61812 tears of sadness and rapture. So the boy also was happy that Pierre had
61815 The guests welcomed Pierre because he always helped to enliven and unite
61816 any company he was in.
61818 The grown-up members of the family, not to mention his wife, were
61819 pleased to have back a friend whose presence made life run more smoothly
61822 The old ladies were pleased with the presents he brought them, and
61823 especially that Natasha would now be herself again.
61825 Pierre felt the different outlooks of these various worlds and made
61826 haste to satisfy all their expectations.
61828 Though the most absent-minded and forgetful of men, Pierre, with the aid
61829 of a list his wife drew up, had now bought everything, not forgetting
61830 his mother--and brother-in-law's commissions, nor the dress material for
61831 a present to Belova, nor toys for his wife's nephews. In the early days
61832 of his marriage it had seemed strange to him that his wife should expect
61833 him not to forget to procure all the things he undertook to buy, and he
61834 had been taken aback by her serious annoyance when on his first trip he
61835 forgot everything. But in time he grew used to this demand. Knowing that
61836 Natasha asked nothing for herself, and gave him commissions for others
61837 only when he himself had offered to undertake them, he now found an
61838 unexpected and childlike pleasure in this purchase of presents for
61839 everyone in the house, and never forgot anything. If he now incurred
61840 Natasha's censure it was only for buying too many and too expensive
61841 things. To her other defects (as most people thought them, but which to
61842 Pierre were qualities) of untidiness and neglect of herself, she now
61845 From the time that Pierre began life as a family man on a footing
61846 entailing heavy expenditure, he had noticed to his surprise that he
61847 spent only half as much as before, and that his affairs--which had been
61848 in disorder of late, chiefly because of his first wife's debts--had
61851 Life was cheaper because it was circumscribed: that most expensive
61852 luxury, the kind of life that can be changed at any moment, was no
61853 longer his nor did he wish for it. He felt that his way of life had now
61854 been settled once for all till death and that to change it was not in
61855 his power, and so that way of life proved economical.
61857 With a merry, smiling face Pierre was sorting his purchases.
61859 "What do you think of this?" said he, unrolling a piece of stuff like a
61862 Natasha, who was sitting opposite to him with her eldest daughter on her
61863 lap, turned her sparkling eyes swiftly from her husband to the things he
61866 "That's for Belova? Excellent!" She felt the quality of the material.
61867 "It was a ruble an arshin, I suppose?"
61869 Pierre told her the price.
61871 "Too dear!" Natasha remarked. "How pleased the children will be and
61872 Mamma too! Only you need not have bought me this," she added, unable to
61873 suppress a smile as she gazed admiringly at a gold comb set with pearls,
61874 of a kind then just coming into fashion.
61876 "Adele tempted me: she kept on telling me to buy it," returned Pierre.
61878 "When am I to wear it?" and Natasha stuck it in her coil of hair. "When
61879 I take little Masha into society? Perhaps they will be fashionable again
61880 by then. Well, let's go now."
61882 And collecting the presents they went first to the nursery and then to
61883 the old countess' rooms.
61885 The countess was sitting with her companion Belova, playing grand-
61886 patience as usual, when Pierre and Natasha came into the drawing room
61887 with parcels under their arms.
61889 The countess was now over sixty, was quite gray, and wore a cap with a
61890 frill that surrounded her face. Her face had shriveled, her upper lip
61891 had sunk in, and her eyes were dim.
61893 After the deaths of her son and husband in such rapid succession, she
61894 felt herself a being accidentally forgotten in this world and left
61895 without aim or object for her existence. She ate, drank, slept, or kept
61896 awake, but did not live. Life gave her no new impressions. She wanted
61897 nothing from life but tranquillity, and that tranquillity only death
61898 could give her. But until death came she had to go on living, that is,
61899 to use her vital forces. A peculiarity one sees in very young children
61900 and very old people was particularly evident in her. Her life had no
61901 external aims--only a need to exercise her various functions and
61902 inclinations was apparent. She had to eat, sleep, think, speak, weep,
61903 work, give vent to her anger, and so on, merely because she had a
61904 stomach, a brain, muscles, nerves, and a liver. She did these things not
61905 under any external impulse as people in the full vigor of life do, when
61906 behind the purpose for which they strive that of exercising their
61907 functions remains unnoticed. She talked only because she physically
61908 needed to exercise her tongue and lungs. She cried as a child does,
61909 because her nose had to be cleared, and so on. What for people in their
61910 full vigor is an aim was for her evidently merely a pretext.
61912 Thus in the morning--especially if she had eaten anything rich the day
61913 before--she felt a need of being angry and would choose as the handiest
61914 pretext Belova's deafness.
61916 She would begin to say something to her in a low tone from the other end
61919 "It seems a little warmer today, my dear," she would murmur.
61921 And when Belova replied: "Oh yes, they've come," she would mutter
61922 angrily: "O Lord! How stupid and deaf she is!"
61924 Another pretext would be her snuff, which would seem too dry or too damp
61925 or not rubbed fine enough. After these fits of irritability her face
61926 would grow yellow, and her maids knew by infallible symptoms when Belova
61927 would again be deaf, the snuff damp, and the countess' face yellow. Just
61928 as she needed to work off her spleen so she had sometimes to exercise
61929 her still-existing faculty of thinking--and the pretext for that was a
61930 game of patience. When she needed to cry, the deceased count would be
61931 the pretext. When she wanted to be agitated, Nicholas and his health
61932 would be the pretext, and when she felt a need to speak spitefully, the
61933 pretext would be Countess Mary. When her vocal organs needed exercise,
61934 which was usually toward seven o'clock when she had had an after-dinner
61935 rest in a darkened room, the pretext would be the retelling of the same
61936 stories over and over again to the same audience.
61938 The old lady's condition was understood by the whole household though no
61939 one ever spoke of it, and they all made every possible effort to satisfy
61940 her needs. Only by a rare glance exchanged with a sad smile between
61941 Nicholas, Pierre, Natasha, and Countess Mary was the common
61942 understanding of her condition expressed.
61944 But those glances expressed something more: they said that she had
61945 played her part in life, that what they now saw was not her whole self,
61946 that we must all become like her, and that they were glad to yield to
61947 her, to restrain themselves for this once precious being formerly as
61948 full of life as themselves, but now so much to be pitied. "Memento
61949 mori," said these glances.
61951 Only the really heartless, the stupid ones of that household, and the
61952 little children failed to understand this and avoided her.
61959 When Pierre and his wife entered the drawing room the countess was in
61960 one of her customary states in which she needed the mental exertion of
61961 playing patience, and so--though by force of habit she greeted him with
61962 the words she always used when Pierre or her son returned after an
61963 absence: "High time, my dear, high time! We were all weary of waiting
61964 for you. Well, thank God!" and received her presents with another
61965 customary remark: "It's not the gift that's precious, my dear, but that
61966 you give it to me, an old woman..."--yet it was evident that she was not
61967 pleased by Pierre's arrival at that moment when it diverted her
61968 attention from the unfinished game.
61970 She finished her game of patience and only then examined the presents.
61971 They consisted of a box for cards, of splendid workmanship, a bright-
61972 blue Sevres tea cup with shepherdesses depicted on it and with a lid,
61973 and a gold snuffbox with the count's portrait on the lid which Pierre
61974 had had done by a miniaturist in Petersburg. The countess had long
61975 wished for such a box, but as she did not want to cry just then she
61976 glanced indifferently at the portrait and gave her attention chiefly to
61979 "Thank you, my dear, you have cheered me up," said she as she always
61980 did. "But best of all you have brought yourself back--for I never saw
61981 anything like it, you ought to give your wife a scolding! What are we to
61982 do with her? She is like a mad woman when you are away. Doesn't see
61983 anything, doesn't remember anything," she went on, repeating her usual
61984 phrases. "Look, Anna Timofeevna," she added to her companion, "see what
61985 a box for cards my son has brought us!"
61987 Belova admired the presents and was delighted with her dress material.
61989 Though Pierre, Natasha, Nicholas, Countess Mary, and Denisov had much to
61990 talk about that they could not discuss before the old countess--not that
61991 anything was hidden from her, but because she had dropped so far
61992 behindhand in many things that had they begun to converse in her
61993 presence they would have had to answer inopportune questions and to
61994 repeat what they had already told her many times: that so-and-so was
61995 dead and so-and-so was married, which she would again be unable to
61996 remember--yet they sat at tea round the samovar in the drawing room from
61997 habit, and Pierre answered the countess' questions as to whether Prince
61998 Vasili had aged and whether Countess Mary Alexeevna had sent greetings
61999 and still thought of them, and other matters that interested no one and
62000 to which she herself was indifferent.
62002 Conversation of this kind, interesting to no one yet unavoidable,
62003 continued all through teatime. All the grown-up members of the family
62004 were assembled near the round tea table at which Sonya presided beside
62005 the samovar. The children with their tutors and governesses had had tea
62006 and their voices were audible from the next room. At tea all sat in
62007 their accustomed places: Nicholas beside the stove at a small table
62008 where his tea was handed to him; Milka, the old gray borzoi bitch
62009 (daughter of the first Milka), with a quite gray face and large black
62010 eyes that seemed more prominent than ever, lay on the armchair beside
62011 him; Denisov, whose curly hair, mustache, and whiskers had turned half
62012 gray, sat beside countess Mary with his general's tunic unbuttoned;
62013 Pierre sat between his wife and the old countess. He spoke of what he
62014 knew might interest the old lady and that she could understand. He told
62015 her of external social events and of the people who had formed the
62016 circle of her contemporaries and had once been a real, living, and
62017 distinct group, but who were now for the most part scattered about the
62018 world and like herself were garnering the last ears of the harvests they
62019 had sown in earlier years. But to the old countess those contemporaries
62020 of hers seemed to be the only serious and real society. Natasha saw by
62021 Pierre's animation that his visit had been interesting and that he had
62022 much to tell them but dare not say it before the old countess. Denisov,
62023 not being a member of the family, did not understand Pierre's caution
62024 and being, as a malcontent, much interested in what was occurring in
62025 Petersburg, kept urging Pierre to tell them about what had happened in
62026 the Semenovsk regiment, then about Arakcheev, and then about the Bible
62027 Society. Once or twice Pierre was carried away and began to speak of
62028 these things, but Nicholas and Natasha always brought him back to the
62029 health of Prince Ivan and Countess Mary Alexeevna.
62031 "Well, and all this idiocy--Gossner and Tatawinova?" Denisov asked. "Is
62032 that weally still going on?"
62035 "Going on?" Pierre exclaimed. "Why more than ever! The Bible Society is
62036 the whole government now!"
62038 "What is that, mon cher ami?" asked the countess, who had finished her
62039 tea and evidently needed a pretext for being angry after her meal. "What
62040 are you saying about the government? I don't understand."
62042 "Well, you know, Maman," Nicholas interposed, knowing how to translate
62043 things into his mother's language, "Prince Alexander Golitsyn has
62044 founded a society and in consequence has great influence, they say."
62046 "Arakcheev and Golitsyn," incautiously remarked Pierre, "are now the
62047 whole government! And what a government! They see treason everywhere and
62048 are afraid of everything."
62050 "Well, and how is Prince Alexander to blame? He is a most estimable man.
62051 I used to meet him at Mary Antonovna's," said the countess in an
62052 offended tone; and still more offended that they all remained silent,
62053 she went on: "Nowadays everyone finds fault. A Gospel Society! Well, and
62054 what harm is there in that?" and she rose (everybody else got up too)
62055 and with a severe expression sailed back to her table in the sitting
62058 The melancholy silence that followed was broken by the sounds of the
62059 children's voices and laughter from the next room. Evidently some jolly
62060 excitement was going on there.
62062 "Finished, finished!" little Natasha's gleeful yell rose above them all.
62064 Pierre exchanged glances with Countess Mary and Nicholas (Natasha he
62065 never lost sight of) and smiled happily.
62067 "That's delightful music!" said he.
62069 "It means that Anna Makarovna has finished her stocking," said Countess
62072 "Oh, I'll go and see," said Pierre, jumping up. "You know," he added,
62073 stopping at the door, "why I'm especially fond of that music? It is
62074 always the first thing that tells me all is well. When I was driving
62075 here today, the nearer I got to the house the more anxious I grew. As I
62076 entered the anteroom I heard Andrusha's peals of laughter and that meant
62077 that all was well."
62079 "I know! I know that feeling," said Nicholas. "But I mustn't go there--
62080 those stockings are to be a surprise for me."
62082 Pierre went to the children, and the shouting and laughter grew still
62085 "Come, Anna Makarovna," Pierre's voice was heard saying, "come here into
62086 the middle of the room and at the word of command, 'One, two,' and when
62087 I say 'three'... You stand here, and you in my arms--well now! One,
62088 two!..." said Pierre, and a silence followed: "three!" and a rapturously
62089 breathless cry of children's voices filled the room. "Two, two!" they
62092 This meant two stockings, which by a secret process known only to
62093 herself Anna Makarovna used to knit at the same time on the same
62094 needles, and which, when they were ready, she always triumphantly drew,
62095 one out of the other, in the children's presence.
62102 Soon after this the children came in to say good night. They kissed
62103 everyone, the tutors and governesses made their bows, and they went out.
62104 Only young Nicholas and his tutor remained. Dessalles whispered to the
62105 boy to come downstairs.
62107 "No, Monsieur Dessalles, I will ask my aunt to let me stay," replied
62108 Nicholas Bolkonski also in a whisper.
62110 "Ma tante, please let me stay," said he, going up to his aunt.
62112 His face expressed entreaty, agitation, and ecstasy. Countess Mary
62113 glanced at him and turned to Pierre.
62115 "When you are here he can't tear himself away," she said.
62117 "I will bring him to you directly, Monsieur Dessalles. Good night!" said
62118 Pierre, giving his hand to the Swiss tutor, and he turned to young
62119 Nicholas with a smile. "You and I haven't seen anything of one another
62120 yet... How like he is growing, Mary!" he added, addressing Countess
62123 "Like my father?" asked the boy, flushing crimson and looking up at
62124 Pierre with bright, ecstatic eyes.
62126 Pierre nodded, and went on with what he had been saying when the
62127 children had interrupted. Countess Mary sat down doing woolwork; Natasha
62128 did not take her eyes off her husband. Nicholas and Denisov rose, asked
62129 for their pipes, smoked, went to fetch more tea from Sonya--who sat
62130 weary but resolute at the samovar--and questioned Pierre. The curly-
62131 headed, delicate boy sat with shining eyes unnoticed in a corner,
62132 starting every now and then and muttering something to himself, and
62133 evidently experiencing a new and powerful emotion as he turned his curly
62134 head, with his thin neck exposed by his turn-down collar, toward the
62135 place where Pierre sat.
62137 The conversation turned on the contemporary gossip about those in power,
62138 in which most people see the chief interest of home politics. Denisov,
62139 dissatisfied with the government on account of his own disappointments
62140 in the service, heard with pleasure of the things done in Petersburg
62141 which seemed to him stupid, and made forcible and sharp comments on what
62144 "One used to have to be a German--now one must dance with Tatawinova and
62145 Madame Kwudener, and wead Ecka'tshausen and the bwethwen. Oh, they
62146 should let that fine fellow Bonaparte loose--he'd knock all this
62147 nonsense out of them! Fancy giving the command of the Semenov wegiment
62148 to a fellow like that Schwa'tz!" he cried.
62150 Nicholas, though free from Denisov's readiness to find fault with
62151 everything, also thought that discussion of the government was a very
62152 serious and weighty matter, and the fact that A had been appointed
62153 Minister of This and B Governor General of That, and that the Emperor
62154 had said so-and-so and this minister so-and-so, seemed to him very
62155 important. And so he thought it necessary to take an interest in these
62156 things and to question Pierre. The questions put by these two kept the
62157 conversation from changing its ordinary character of gossip about the
62158 higher government circles.
62160 But Natasha, knowing all her husband's ways and ideas, saw that he had
62161 long been wishing but had been unable to divert the conversation to
62162 another channel and express his own deeply felt idea for the sake of
62163 which he had gone to Petersburg to consult with his new friend Prince
62164 Theodore, and she helped him by asking how his affairs with Prince
62167 "What was it about?" asked Nicholas.
62169 "Always the same thing," said Pierre, looking round at his listeners.
62170 "Everybody sees that things are going so badly that they cannot be
62171 allowed to go on so and that it is the duty of all decent men to
62172 counteract it as far as they can."
62174 "What can decent men do?" Nicholas inquired, frowning slightly. "What
62179 "Come into my study," said Nicholas.
62181 Natasha, who had long expected to be fetched to nurse her baby, now
62182 heard the nurse calling her and went to the nursery. Countess Mary
62183 followed her. The men went into the study and little Nicholas Bolkonski
62184 followed them unnoticed by his uncle and sat down at the writing table
62185 in a shady corner by the window.
62187 "Well, what would you do?" asked Denisov.
62189 "Always some fantastic schemes," said Nicholas.
62191 "Why this," began Pierre, not sitting down but pacing the room,
62192 sometimes stopping short, gesticulating, and lisping: "the position in
62193 Petersburg is this: the Emperor does not look into anything. He has
62194 abandoned himself altogether to this mysticism" (Pierre could not
62195 tolerate mysticism in anyone now). "He seeks only for peace, and only
62196 these people sans foi ni loi * can give it him--people who recklessly
62197 hack at and strangle everything--Magnitski, Arakcheev, and tutti
62198 quanti.... You will agree that if you did not look after your estates
62199 yourself but only wanted a quiet life, the harsher your steward was the
62200 more readily your object might be attained," he said to Nicholas.
62203 * Without faith or law.
62205 "Well, what does that lead up to?" said Nicholas.
62207 "Well, everything is going to ruin! Robbery in the law courts, in the
62208 army nothing but flogging, drilling, and Military Settlements; the
62209 people are tortured, enlightenment is suppressed. All that is young and
62210 honest is crushed! Everyone sees that this cannot go on. Everything is
62211 strained to such a degree that it will certainly break," said Pierre (as
62212 those who examine the actions of any government have always said since
62213 governments began). "I told them just one thing in Petersburg."
62217 "Well, you know whom," said Pierre, with a meaning glance from under his
62218 brows. "Prince Theodore and all those. To encourage culture and
62219 philanthropy is all very well of course. The aim is excellent but in the
62220 present circumstances something else is needed."
62222 At that moment Nicholas noticed the presence of his nephew. His face
62223 darkened and he went up to the boy.
62225 "Why are you here?"
62227 "Why? Let him be," said Pierre, taking Nicholas by the arm and
62228 continuing. "That is not enough, I told them. Something else is needed.
62229 When you stand expecting the overstrained string to snap at any moment,
62230 when everyone is expecting the inevitable catastrophe, as many as
62231 possible must join hands as closely as they can to withstand the general
62232 calamity. Everything that is young and strong is being enticed away and
62233 depraved. One is lured by women, another by honors, a third by ambition
62234 or money, and they go over to that camp. No independent men, such as you
62235 or I, are left. What I say is widen the scope of our society, let the
62236 mot d'ordre be not virtue alone but independence and action as well!"
62238 Nicholas, who had left his nephew, irritably pushed up an armchair, sat
62239 down in it, and listened to Pierre, coughing discontentedly and frowning
62242 "But action with what aim?" he cried. "And what position will you adopt
62243 toward the government?"
62245 "Why, the position of assistants. The society need not be secret if the
62246 government allows it. Not merely is it not hostile to government, but it
62247 is a society of true conservatives--a society of gentlemen in the full
62248 meaning of that word. It is only to prevent some Pugachev or other from
62249 killing my children and yours, and Arakcheev from sending me off to some
62250 Military Settlement. We join hands only for the public welfare and the
62253 "Yes, but it's a secret society and therefore a hostile and harmful one
62254 which can only cause harm."
62256 "Why? Did the Tugendbund which saved Europe" (they did not then venture
62257 to suggest that Russia had saved Europe) "do any harm? The Tugendbund is
62258 an alliance of virtue: it is love, mutual help... it is what Christ
62259 preached on the Cross."
62261 Natasha, who had come in during the conversation, looked joyfully at her
62262 husband. It was not what he was saying that pleased her--that did not
62263 even interest her, for it seemed to her that was all extremely simple
62264 and that she had known it a long time (it seemed so to her because she
62265 knew that it sprang from Pierre's whole soul), but it was his animated
62266 and enthusiastic appearance that made her glad.
62268 The boy with the thin neck stretching out from the turn-down collar--
62269 whom everyone had forgotten--gazed at Pierre with even greater and more
62270 rapturous joy. Every word of Pierre's burned into his heart, and with a
62271 nervous movement of his fingers he unconsciously broke the sealing wax
62272 and quill pens his hands came upon on his uncle's table.
62274 "It is not at all what you suppose; but that is what the German
62275 Tugendbund was, and what I am proposing."
62277 "No, my fwiend! The Tugendbund is all vewy well for the sausage eaters,
62278 but I don't understand it and can't even pwonounce it," interposed
62279 Denisov in a loud and resolute voice. "I agwee that evewything here is
62280 wotten and howwible, but the Tugendbund I don't understand. If we're not
62281 satisfied, let us have a bunt of our own. That's all wight. Je suis
62287 Pierre smiled, Natasha began to laugh, but Nicholas knitted his brows
62288 still more and began proving to Pierre that there was no prospect of any
62289 great change and that all the danger he spoke of existed only in his
62290 imagination. Pierre maintained the contrary, and as his mental faculties
62291 were greater and more resourceful, Nicholas felt himself cornered. This
62292 made him still angrier, for he was fully convinced, not by reasoning but
62293 by something within him stronger than reason, of the justice of his
62296 "I will tell you this," he said, rising and trying with nervously
62297 twitching fingers to prop up his pipe in a corner, but finally
62298 abandoning the attempt. "I can't prove it to you. You say that
62299 everything here is rotten and that an overthrow is coming: I don't see
62300 it. But you also say that our oath of allegiance is a conditional
62301 matter, and to that I reply: 'You are my best friend, as you know, but
62302 if you formed a secret society and began working against the government-
62303 -be it what it may--I know it is my duty to obey the government. And if
62304 Arakcheev ordered me to lead a squadron against you and cut you down, I
62305 should not hesitate an instant, but should do it.' And you may argue
62306 about that as you like!"
62308 An awkward silence followed these words. Natasha was the first to speak,
62309 defending her husband and attacking her brother. Her defense was weak
62310 and inapt but she attained her object. The conversation was resumed, and
62311 no longer in the unpleasantly hostile tone of Nicholas' last remark.
62313 When they all got up to go in to supper, little Nicholas Bolkonski went
62314 up to Pierre, pale and with shining, radiant eyes.
62316 "Uncle Pierre, you... no... If Papa were alive... would he agree with
62319 And Pierre suddenly realized what a special, independent, complex, and
62320 powerful process of thought and feeling must have been going on in this
62321 boy during that conversation, and remembering all he had said he
62322 regretted that the lad should have heard him. He had, however, to give
62325 "Yes, I think so," he said reluctantly, and left the study.
62327 The lad looked down and seemed now for the first time to notice what he
62328 had done to the things on the table. He flushed and went up to Nicholas.
62330 "Uncle, forgive me, I did that... unintentionally," he said, pointing to
62331 the broken sealing wax and pens.
62333 Nicholas started angrily.
62335 "All right, all right," he said, throwing the bits under the table.
62337 And evidently suppressing his vexation with difficulty, he turned away
62340 "You ought not to have been here at all," he said.
62347 The conversation at supper was not about politics or societies, but
62348 turned on the subject Nicholas liked best--recollections of 1812.
62349 Denisov started these and Pierre was particularly agreeable and amusing
62350 about them. The family separated on the most friendly terms.
62352 After supper Nicholas, having undressed in his study and given
62353 instructions to the steward who had been waiting for him, went to the
62354 bedroom in his dressing gown, where he found his wife still at her
62357 "What are you writing, Mary?" Nicholas asked.
62359 Countess Mary blushed. She was afraid that what she was writing would
62360 not be understood or approved by her husband.
62362 She had wanted to conceal what she was writing from him, but at the same
62363 time was glad he had surprised her at it and that she would now have to
62366 "A diary, Nicholas," she replied, handing him a blue exercise book
62367 filled with her firm, bold writing.
62369 "A diary?" Nicholas repeated with a shade of irony, and he took up the
62374 December 4. Today when Andrusha (her eldest boy) woke up he did not wish
62375 to dress and Mademoiselle Louise sent for me. He was naughty and
62376 obstinate. I tried threats, but he only grew angrier. Then I took the
62377 matter in hand: I left him alone and began with nurse's help to get the
62378 other children up, telling him that I did not love him. For a long time
62379 he was silent, as if astonished, then he jumped out of bed, ran to me in
62380 his shirt, and sobbed so that I could not calm him for a long time. It
62381 was plain that what troubled him most was that he had grieved me.
62382 Afterwards in the evening when I gave him his ticket, he again began
62383 crying piteously and kissing me. One can do anything with him by
62386 "What is a 'ticket'?" Nicholas inquired.
62388 "I have begun giving the elder ones marks every evening, showing how
62389 they have behaved."
62391 Nicholas looked into the radiant eyes that were gazing at him, and
62392 continued to turn over the pages and read. In the diary was set down
62393 everything in the children's lives that seemed noteworthy to their
62394 mother as showing their characters or suggesting general reflections on
62395 educational methods. They were for the most part quite insignificant
62396 trifles, but did not seem so to the mother or to the father either, now
62397 that he read this diary about his children for the first time.
62399 Under the date "5" was entered:
62401 Mitya was naughty at table. Papa said he was to have no pudding. He had
62402 none, but looked so unhappily and greedily at the others while they were
62403 eating! I think that punishment by depriving children of sweets only
62404 develops their greediness. Must tell Nicholas this.
62406 Nicholas put down the book and looked at his wife. The radiant eyes
62407 gazed at him questioningly: would he approve or disapprove of her diary?
62408 There could be no doubt not only of his approval but also of his
62409 admiration for his wife.
62411 Perhaps it need not be done so pedantically, thought Nicholas, or even
62412 done at all, but this untiring, continual spiritual effort of which the
62413 sole aim was the children's moral welfare delighted him. Had Nicholas
62414 been able to analyze his feelings he would have found that his steady,
62415 tender, and proud love of his wife rested on his feeling of wonder at
62416 her spirituality and at the lofty moral world, almost beyond his reach,
62417 in which she had her being.
62419 He was proud of her intelligence and goodness, recognized his own
62420 insignificance beside her in the spiritual world, and rejoiced all the
62421 more that she with such a soul not only belonged to him but was part of
62424 "I quite, quite approve, my dearest!" said he with a significant look,
62425 and after a short pause he added: "And I behaved badly today. You
62426 weren't in the study. We began disputing--Pierre and I--and I lost my
62427 temper. But he is impossible: such a child! I don't know what would
62428 become of him if Natasha didn't keep him in hand.... Have you any idea
62429 why he went to Petersburg? They have formed..."
62431 "Yes, I know," said Countess Mary. "Natasha told me."
62433 "Well, then, you know," Nicholas went on, growing hot at the mere
62434 recollection of their discussion, "he wanted to convince me that it is
62435 every honest man's duty to go against the government, and that the oath
62436 of allegiance and duty... I am sorry you weren't there. They all fell on
62437 me--Denisov and Natasha... Natasha is absurd. How she rules over him!
62438 And yet there need only be a discussion and she has no words of her own
62439 but only repeats his sayings..." added Nicholas, yielding to that
62440 irresistible inclination which tempts us to judge those nearest and
62441 dearest to us. He forgot that what he was saying about Natasha could
62442 have been applied word for word to himself in relation to his wife.
62444 "Yes, I have noticed that," said Countess Mary.
62446 "When I told him that duty and the oath were above everything, he
62447 started proving goodness knows what! A pity you were not there--what
62448 would you have said?"
62450 "As I see it you were quite right, and I told Natasha so. Pierre says
62451 everybody is suffering, tortured, and being corrupted, and that it is
62452 our duty to help our neighbor. Of course he is right there," said
62453 Countess Mary, "but he forgets that we have other duties nearer to us,
62454 duties indicated to us by God Himself, and that though we might expose
62455 ourselves to risks we must not risk our children."
62457 "Yes, that's it! That's just what I said to him," put in Nicholas, who
62458 fancied he really had said it. "But they insisted on their own view:
62459 love of one's neighbor and Christianity--and all this in the presence of
62460 young Nicholas, who had gone into my study and broke all my things."
62462 "Ah, Nicholas, do you know I am often troubled about little Nicholas,"
62463 said Countess Mary. "He is such an exceptional boy. I am afraid I
62464 neglect him in favor of my own: we all have children and relations while
62465 he has no one. He is constantly alone with his thoughts."
62467 "Well, I don't think you need reproach yourself on his account. All that
62468 the fondest mother could do for her son you have done and are doing for
62469 him, and of course I am glad of it. He is a fine lad, a fine lad! This
62470 evening he listened to Pierre in a sort of trance, and fancy--as we were
62471 going in to supper I looked and he had broken everything on my table to
62472 bits, and he told me of it himself at once! I never knew him to tell an
62473 untruth. A fine lad, a fine lad!" repeated Nicholas, who at heart was
62474 not fond of Nicholas Bolkonski but was always anxious to recognize that
62477 "Still, I am not the same as his own mother," said Countess Mary. "I
62478 feel I am not the same and it troubles me. A wonderful boy, but I am
62479 dreadfully afraid for him. It would be good for him to have companions."
62481 "Well it won't be for long. Next summer I'll take him to Petersburg,"
62482 said Nicholas. "Yes, Pierre always was a dreamer and always will be," he
62483 continued, returning to the talk in the study which had evidently
62484 disturbed him. "Well, what business is it of mine what goes on there--
62485 whether Arakcheev is bad, and all that? What business was it of mine
62486 when I married and was so deep in debt that I was threatened with
62487 prison, and had a mother who could not see or understand it? And then
62488 there are you and the children and our affairs. Is it for my own
62489 pleasure that I am at the farm or in the office from morning to night?
62490 No, but I know I must work to comfort my mother, to repay you, and not
62491 to leave the children such beggars as I was."
62493 Countess Mary wanted to tell him that man does not live by bread alone
62494 and that he attached too much importance to these matters. But she knew
62495 she must not say this and that it would be useless to do so. She only
62496 took his hand and kissed it. He took this as a sign of approval and a
62497 confirmation of his thoughts, and after a few minutes' reflection
62498 continued to think aloud.
62500 "You know, Mary, today Elias Mitrofanych" (this was his overseer) "came
62501 back from the Tambov estate and told me they are already offering eighty
62502 thousand rubles for the forest."
62504 And with an eager face Nicholas began to speak of the possibility of
62505 repurchasing Otradnoe before long, and added: "Another ten years of life
62506 and I shall leave the children... in an excellent position."
62508 Countess Mary listened to her husband and understood all that he told
62509 her. She knew that when he thought aloud in this way he would sometimes
62510 ask her what he had been saying, and be vexed if he noticed that she had
62511 been thinking about something else. But she had to force herself to
62512 attend, for what he was saying did not interest her at all. She looked
62513 at him and did not think, but felt, about something different. She felt
62514 a submissive tender love for this man who would never understand all
62515 that she understood, and this seemed to make her love for him still
62516 stronger and added a touch of passionate tenderness. Besides this
62517 feeling which absorbed her altogether and hindered her from following
62518 the details of her husband's plans, thoughts that had no connection with
62519 what he was saying flitted through her mind. She thought of her nephew.
62520 Her husband's account of the boy's agitation while Pierre was speaking
62521 struck her forcibly, and various traits of his gentle, sensitive
62522 character recurred to her mind; and while thinking of her nephew she
62523 thought also of her own children. She did not compare them with him, but
62524 compared her feeling for them with her feeling for him, and felt with
62525 regret that there was something lacking in her feeling for young
62528 Sometimes it seemed to her that this difference arose from the
62529 difference in their ages, but she felt herself to blame toward him and
62530 promised in her heart to do better and to accomplish the impossible--in
62531 this life to love her husband, her children, little Nicholas, and all
62532 her neighbors, as Christ loved mankind. Countess Mary's soul always
62533 strove toward the infinite, the eternal, and the absolute, and could
62534 therefore never be at peace. A stern expression of the lofty, secret
62535 suffering of a soul burdened by the body appeared on her face. Nicholas
62536 gazed at her. "O God! What will become of us if she dies, as I always
62537 fear when her face is like that?" thought he, and placing himself before
62538 the icon he began to say his evening prayers.
62545 Natasha and Pierre, left alone, also began to talk as only a husband and
62546 wife can talk, that is, with extraordinary clearness and rapidity,
62547 understanding and expressing each other's thoughts in ways contrary to
62548 all rules of logic, without premises, deductions, or conclusions, and in
62549 a quite peculiar way. Natasha was so used to this kind of talk with her
62550 husband that for her it was the surest sign of something being wrong
62551 between them if Pierre followed a line of logical reasoning. When he
62552 began proving anything, or talking argumentatively and calmly and she,
62553 led on by his example, began to do the same, she knew that they were on
62554 the verge of a quarrel.
62556 From the moment they were alone and Natasha came up to him with wide-
62557 open happy eyes, and quickly seizing his head pressed it to her bosom,
62558 saying: "Now you are all mine, mine! You won't escape!"--from that
62559 moment this conversation began, contrary to all the laws of logic and
62560 contrary to them because quite different subjects were talked about at
62561 one and the same time. This simultaneous discussion of many topics did
62562 not prevent a clear understanding but on the contrary was the surest
62563 sign that they fully understood one another.
62565 Just as in a dream when all is uncertain, unreasoning, and
62566 contradictory, except the feeling that guides the dream, so in this
62567 intercourse contrary to all laws of reason, the words themselves were
62568 not consecutive and clear but only the feeling that prompted them.
62570 Natasha spoke to Pierre about her brother's life and doings, of how she
62571 had suffered and lacked life during his own absence, and of how she was
62572 fonder than ever of Mary, and how Mary was in every way better than
62573 herself. In saying this Natasha was sincere in acknowledging Mary's
62574 superiority, but at the same time by saying it she made a demand on
62575 Pierre that he should, all the same, prefer her to Mary and to all other
62576 women, and that now, especially after having seen many women in
62577 Petersburg, he should tell her so afresh.
62579 Pierre, answering Natasha's words, told her how intolerable it had been
62580 for him to meet ladies at dinners and balls in Petersburg.
62582 "I have quite lost the knack of talking to ladies," he said. "It was
62583 simply dull. Besides, I was very busy."
62585 Natasha looked intently at him and went on:
62587 "Mary is so splendid," she said. "How she understands children! It is as
62588 if she saw straight into their souls. Yesterday, for instance, Mitya was
62591 "How like his father he is," Pierre interjected.
62593 Natasha knew why he mentioned Mitya's likeness to Nicholas: the
62594 recollection of his dispute with his brother-in-law was unpleasant and
62595 he wanted to know what Natasha thought of it.
62597 "Nicholas has the weakness of never agreeing with anything not generally
62598 accepted. But I understand that you value what opens up a fresh line,"
62599 said she, repeating words Pierre had once uttered.
62601 "No, the chief point is that to Nicholas ideas and discussions are an
62602 amusement--almost a pastime," said Pierre. "For instance, he is
62603 collecting a library and has made it a rule not to buy a new book till
62604 he has read what he had already bought--Sismondi and Rousseau and
62605 Montesquieu," he added with a smile. "You know how much I..." he began
62606 to soften down what he had said; but Natasha interrupted him to show
62607 that this was unnecessary.
62609 "So you say ideas are an amusement to him...."
62611 "Yes, and for me nothing else is serious. All the time in Petersburg I
62612 saw everyone as in a dream. When I am taken up by a thought, all else is
62615 "Ah, I'm so sorry I wasn't there when you met the children," said
62616 Natasha. "Which was most delighted? Lisa, I'm sure."
62618 "Yes," Pierre replied, and went on with what was in his mind. "Nicholas
62619 says we ought not to think. But I can't help it. Besides, when I was in
62620 Petersburg I felt (I can say this to you) that the whole affair would go
62621 to pieces without me--everyone was pulling his own way. But I succeeded
62622 in uniting them all; and then my idea is so clear and simple. You see, I
62623 don't say that we ought to oppose this and that. We may be mistaken.
62624 What I say is: 'Join hands, you who love the right, and let there be but
62625 one banner--that of active virtue.' Prince Sergey is a fine fellow and
62628 Natasha would have had no doubt as to the greatness of Pierre's idea,
62629 but one thing disconcerted her. "Can a man so important and necessary to
62630 society be also my husband? How did this happen?" She wished to express
62631 this doubt to him. "Now who could decide whether he is really cleverer
62632 than all the others?" she asked herself, and passed in review all those
62633 whom Pierre most respected. Judging by what he had said there was no one
62634 he had respected so highly as Platon Karataev.
62636 "Do you know what I am thinking about?" she asked. "About Platon
62637 Karataev. Would he have approved of you now, do you think?"
62639 Pierre was not at all surprised at this question. He understood his
62640 wife's line of thought.
62642 "Platon Karataev?" he repeated, and pondered, evidently sincerely trying
62643 to imagine Karataev's opinion on the subject. "He would not have
62644 understood... yet perhaps he would."
62646 "I love you awfully!" Natasha suddenly said. "Awfully, awfully!"
62648 "No, he would not have approved," said Pierre, after reflection. "What
62649 he would have approved of is our family life. He was always so anxious
62650 to find seemliness, happiness, and peace in everything, and I should
62651 have been proud to let him see us. There now--you talk of my absence,
62652 but you wouldn't believe what a special feeling I have for you after a
62655 "Yes, I should think..." Natasha began.
62657 "No, it's not that. I never leave off loving you. And one couldn't love
62658 more, but this is something special.... Yes, of course-" he did not
62659 finish because their eyes meeting said the rest.
62661 "What nonsense it is," Natasha suddenly exclaimed, "about honeymoons,
62662 and that the greatest happiness is at first! On the contrary, now is the
62663 best of all. If only you did not go away! Do you remember how we
62664 quarreled? And it was always my fault. Always mine. And what we
62665 quarreled about--I don't even remember!"
62667 "Always about the same thing," said Pierre with a smile. "Jealo..."
62669 "Don't say it! I can't bear it!" Natasha cried, and her eyes glittered
62670 coldly and vindictively. "Did you see her?" she added, after a pause.
62672 "No, and if I had I shouldn't have recognized her."
62674 They were silent for a while.
62676 "Oh, do you know? While you were talking in the study I was looking at
62677 you," Natasha began, evidently anxious to disperse the cloud that had
62678 come over them. "You are as like him as two peas--like the boy." (She
62679 meant her little son.) "Oh, it's time to go to him.... The milk's
62680 come.... But I'm sorry to leave you."
62682 They were silent for a few seconds. Then suddenly turning to one another
62683 at the same time they both began to speak. Pierre began with self-
62684 satisfaction and enthusiasm, Natasha with a quiet, happy smile. Having
62685 interrupted one another they both stopped to let the other continue.
62687 "No. What did you say? Go on, go on."
62689 "No, you go on, I was talking nonsense," said Natasha.
62691 Pierre finished what he had begun. It was the sequel to his complacent
62692 reflections on his success in Petersburg. At that moment it seemed to
62693 him that he was chosen to give a new direction to the whole of Russian
62694 society and to the whole world.
62696 "I only wished to say that ideas that have great results are always
62697 simple ones. My whole idea is that if vicious people are united and
62698 constitute a power, then honest folk must do the same. Now that's simple
62703 "And what were you going to say?"
62705 "I? Only nonsense."
62707 "But all the same?"
62709 "Oh nothing, only a trifle," said Natasha, smilingly still more
62710 brightly. "I only wanted to tell you about Petya: today nurse was coming
62711 to take him from me, and he laughed, shut his eyes, and clung to me. I'm
62712 sure he thought he was hiding. Awfully sweet! There, now he's crying.
62713 Well, good-by!" and she left the room.
62715 Meanwhile downstairs in young Nicholas Bolkonski's bedroom a little lamp
62716 was burning as usual. (The boy was afraid of the dark and they could not
62717 cure him of it.) Dessalles slept propped up on four pillows and his
62718 Roman nose emitted sounds of rhythmic snoring. Little Nicholas, who had
62719 just waked up in a cold perspiration, sat up in bed and gazed before him
62720 with wide-open eyes. He had awaked from a terrible dream. He had dreamed
62721 that he and Uncle Pierre, wearing helmets such as were depicted in his
62722 Plutarch, were leading a huge army. The army was made up of white
62723 slanting lines that filled the air like the cobwebs that float about in
62724 autumn and which Dessalles called les fils de la Vierge. In front was
62725 Glory, which was similar to those threads but rather thicker. He and
62726 Pierre were borne along lightly and joyously, nearer and nearer to their
62727 goal. Suddenly the threads that moved them began to slacken and become
62728 entangled and it grew difficult to move. And Uncle Nicholas stood before
62729 them in a stern and threatening attitude.
62731 "Have you done this?" he said, pointing to some broken sealing wax and
62732 pens. "I loved you, but I have orders from Arakcheev and will kill the
62733 first of you who moves forward." Little Nicholas turned to look at
62734 Pierre but Pierre was no longer there. In his place was his father--
62735 Prince Andrew--and his father had neither shape nor form, but he
62736 existed, and when little Nicholas perceived him he grew faint with love:
62737 he felt himself powerless, limp, and formless. His father caressed and
62738 pitied him. But Uncle Nicholas came nearer and nearer to them. Terror
62739 seized young Nicholas and he awoke.
62741 "My father!" he thought. (Though there were two good portraits of Prince
62742 Andrew in the house, Nicholas never imagined him in human form.) "My
62743 father has been with me and caressed me. He approved of me and of Uncle
62744 Pierre. Whatever he may tell me, I will do it. Mucius Scaevola burned
62745 his hand. Why should not the same sort of thing happen to me? I know
62746 they want me to learn. And I will learn. But someday I shall have
62747 finished learning, and then I will do something. I only pray God that
62748 something may happen to me such as happened to Plutarch's men, and I
62749 will act as they did. I will do better. Everyone shall know me, love me,
62750 and be delighted with me!" And suddenly his bosom heaved with sobs and
62753 "Are you ill?" he heard Dessalles' voice asking.
62755 "No," answered Nicholas, and lay back on his pillow.
62757 "He is good and kind and I am fond of him!" he thought of Dessalles.
62758 "But Uncle Pierre! Oh, what a wonderful man he is! And my father? Oh,
62759 Father, Father! Yes, I will do something with which even he would be
62769 History is the life of nations and of humanity. To seize and put into
62770 words, to describe directly the life of humanity or even of a single
62771 nation, appears impossible.
62773 The ancient historians all employed one and the same method to describe
62774 and seize the apparently elusive--the life of a people. They described
62775 the activity of individuals who ruled the people, and regarded the
62776 activity of those men as representing the activity of the whole nation.
62778 The question: how did individuals make nations act as they wished and by
62779 what was the will of these individuals themselves guided? the ancients
62780 met by recognizing a divinity which subjected the nations to the will of
62781 a chosen man, and guided the will of that chosen man so as to accomplish
62782 ends that were predestined.
62784 For the ancients these questions were solved by a belief in the direct
62785 participation of the Deity in human affairs.
62787 Modern history, in theory, rejects both these principles.
62789 It would seem that having rejected the belief of the ancients in man's
62790 subjection to the Deity and in a predetermined aim toward which nations
62791 are led, modern history should study not the manifestations of power but
62792 the causes that produce it. But modern history has not done this. Having
62793 in theory rejected the view held by the ancients, it still follows them
62796 Instead of men endowed with divine authority and directly guided by the
62797 will of God, modern history has given us either heroes endowed with
62798 extraordinary, superhuman capacities, or simply men of very various
62799 kinds, from monarchs to journalists, who lead the masses. Instead of the
62800 former divinely appointed aims of the Jewish, Greek, or Roman nations,
62801 which ancient historians regarded as representing the progress of
62802 humanity, modern history has postulated its own aims--the welfare of the
62803 French, German, or English people, or, in its highest abstraction, the
62804 welfare and civilization of humanity in general, by which is usually
62805 meant that of the peoples occupying a small northwesterly portion of a
62808 Modern history has rejected the beliefs of the ancients without
62809 replacing them by a new conception, and the logic of the situation has
62810 obliged the historians, after they had apparently rejected the divine
62811 authority of the kings and the "fate" of the ancients, to reach the same
62812 conclusion by another road, that is, to recognize (1) nations guided by
62813 individual men, and (2) the existence of a known aim to which these
62814 nations and humanity at large are tending.
62816 At the basis of the works of all the modern historians from Gibbon to
62817 Buckle, despite their seeming disagreements and the apparent novelty of
62818 their outlooks, lie those two old, unavoidable assumptions.
62820 In the first place the historian describes the activity of individuals
62821 who in his opinion have directed humanity (one historian considers only
62822 monarchs, generals, and ministers as being such men, while another
62823 includes also orators, learned men, reformers, philosophers, and poets).
62824 Secondly, it is assumed that the goal toward which humanity is being led
62825 is known to the historians: to one of them this goal is the greatness of
62826 the Roman, Spanish, or French realm; to another it is liberty, equality,
62827 and a certain kind of civilization of a small corner of the world called
62830 In 1789 a ferment arises in Paris; it grows, spreads, and is expressed
62831 by a movement of peoples from west to east. Several times it moves
62832 eastward and collides with a countermovement from the east westward. In
62833 1812 it reaches its extreme limit, Moscow, and then, with remarkable
62834 symmetry, a countermovement occurs from east to west, attracting to it,
62835 as the first movement had done, the nations of middle Europe. The
62836 counter movement reaches the starting point of the first movement in the
62837 west--Paris--and subsides.
62839 During that twenty-year period an immense number of fields were left
62840 untilled, houses were burned, trade changed its direction, millions of
62841 men migrated, were impoverished, or were enriched, and millions of
62842 Christian men professing the law of love of their fellows slew one
62845 What does all this mean? Why did it happen? What made those people burn
62846 houses and slay their fellow men? What were the causes of these events?
62847 What force made men act so? These are the instinctive, plain, and most
62848 legitimate questions humanity asks itself when it encounters the
62849 monuments and tradition of that period.
62851 For a reply to these questions the common sense of mankind turns to the
62852 science of history, whose aim is to enable nations and humanity to know
62855 If history had retained the conception of the ancients it would have
62856 said that God, to reward or punish his people, gave Napoleon power and
62857 directed his will to the fulfillment of the divine ends, and that reply
62858 would have been clear and complete. One might believe or disbelieve in
62859 the divine significance of Napoleon, but for anyone believing in it
62860 there would have been nothing unintelligible in the history of that
62861 period, nor would there have been any contradictions.
62863 But modern history cannot give that reply. Science does not admit the
62864 conception of the ancients as to the direct participation of the Deity
62865 in human affairs, and therefore history ought to give other answers.
62867 Modern history replying to these questions says: you want to know what
62868 this movement means, what caused it, and what force produced these
62869 events? Then listen:
62871 "Louis XIV was a very proud and self-confident man; he had such and such
62872 mistresses and such and such ministers and he ruled France badly. His
62873 descendants were weak men and they too ruled France badly. And they had
62874 such and such favorites and such and such mistresses. Moreover, certain
62875 men wrote some books at that time. At the end of the eighteenth century
62876 there were a couple of dozen men in Paris who began to talk about all
62877 men being free and equal. This caused people all over France to begin to
62878 slash at and drown one another. They killed the king and many other
62879 people. At that time there was in France a man of genius--Napoleon. He
62880 conquered everybody everywhere--that is, he killed many people because
62881 he was a great genius. And for some reason he went to kill Africans, and
62882 killed them so well and was so cunning and wise that when he returned to
62883 France he ordered everybody to obey him, and they all obeyed him. Having
62884 become an Emperor he again went out to kill people in Italy, Austria,
62885 and Prussia. And there too he killed a great many. In Russia there was
62886 an Emperor, Alexander, who decided to restore order in Europe and
62887 therefore fought against Napoleon. In 1807 he suddenly made friends with
62888 him, but in 1811 they again quarreled and again began killing many
62889 people. Napoleon led six hundred thousand men into Russia and captured
62890 Moscow; then he suddenly ran away from Moscow, and the Emperor
62891 Alexander, helped by the advice of Stein and others, united Europe to
62892 arm against the disturber of its peace. All Napoleon's allies suddenly
62893 became his enemies and their forces advanced against the fresh forces he
62894 raised. The Allies defeated Napoleon, entered Paris, forced Napoleon to
62895 abdicate, and sent him to the island of Elba, not depriving him of the
62896 title of Emperor and showing him every respect, though five years before
62897 and one year later they all regarded him as an outlaw and a brigand.
62898 Then Louis XVIII, who till then had been the laughingstock both of the
62899 French and the Allies, began to reign. And Napoleon, shedding tears
62900 before his Old Guards, renounced the throne and went into exile. Then
62901 the skillful statesmen and diplomatists (especially Talleyrand, who
62902 managed to sit down in a particular chair before anyone else and thereby
62903 extended the frontiers of France) talked in Vienna and by these
62904 conversations made the nations happy or unhappy. Suddenly the
62905 diplomatists and monarchs nearly quarreled and were on the point of
62906 again ordering their armies to kill one another, but just then Napoleon
62907 arrived in France with a battalion, and the French, who had been hating
62908 him, immediately all submitted to him. But the Allied monarchs were
62909 angry at this and went to fight the French once more. And they defeated
62910 the genius Napoleon and, suddenly recognizing him as a brigand, sent him
62911 to the island of St. Helena. And the exile, separated from the beloved
62912 France so dear to his heart, died a lingering death on that rock and
62913 bequeathed his great deeds to posterity. But in Europe a reaction
62914 occurred and the sovereigns once again all began to oppress their
62917 It would be a mistake to think that this is ironic--a caricature of the
62918 historical accounts. On the contrary it is a very mild expression of the
62919 contradictory replies, not meeting the questions, which all the
62920 historians give, from the compilers of memoirs and the histories of
62921 separate states to the writers of general histories and the new
62922 histories of the culture of that period.
62924 The strangeness and absurdity of these replies arise from the fact that
62925 modern history, like a deaf man, answers questions no one has asked.
62927 If the purpose of history be to give a description of the movement of
62928 humanity and of the peoples, the first question--in the absence of a
62929 reply to which all the rest will be incomprehensible--is: what is the
62930 power that moves peoples? To this, modern history laboriously replies
62931 either that Napoleon was a great genius, or that Louis XIV was very
62932 proud, or that certain writers wrote certain books.
62934 All that may be so and mankind is ready to agree with it, but it is not
62935 what was asked. All that would be interesting if we recognized a divine
62936 power based on itself and always consistently directing its nations
62937 through Napoleons, Louis-es, and writers; but we do not acknowledge such
62938 a power, and therefore before speaking about Napoleons, Louis-es, and
62939 authors, we ought to be shown the connection existing between these men
62940 and the movement of the nations.
62942 If instead of a divine power some other force has appeared, it should be
62943 explained in what this new force consists, for the whole interest of
62944 history lies precisely in that force.
62946 History seems to assume that this force is self-evident and known to
62947 everyone. But in spite of every desire to regard it as known, anyone
62948 reading many historical works cannot help doubting whether this new
62949 force, so variously understood by the historians themselves, is really
62950 quite well known to everybody.
62957 What force moves the nations?
62959 Biographical historians and historians of separate nations understand
62960 this force as a power inherent in heroes and rulers. In their narration
62961 events occur solely by the will of a Napoleon, and Alexander, or in
62962 general of the persons they describe. The answers given by this kind of
62963 historian to the question of what force causes events to happen are
62964 satisfactory only as long as there is but one historian to each event.
62965 As soon as historians of different nationalities and tendencies begin to
62966 describe the same event, the replies they give immediately lose all
62967 meaning, for this force is understood by them all not only differently
62968 but often in quite contradictory ways. One historian says that an event
62969 was produced by Napoleon's power, another that it was produced by
62970 Alexander's, a third that it was due to the power of some other person.
62971 Besides this, historians of that kind contradict each other even in
62972 their statement as to the force on which the authority of some
62973 particular person was based. Thiers, a Bonapartist, says that Napoleon's
62974 power was based on his virtue and genius. Lanfrey, a Republican, says it
62975 was based on his trickery and deception of the people. So the historians
62976 of this class, by mutually destroying one another's positions, destroy
62977 the understanding of the force which produces events, and furnish no
62978 reply to history's essential question.
62980 Writers of universal history who deal with all the nations seem to
62981 recognize how erroneous is the specialist historians' view of the force
62982 which produces events. They do not recognize it as a power inherent in
62983 heroes and rulers, but as the resultant of a multiplicity of variously
62984 directed forces. In describing a war or the subjugation of a people, a
62985 general historian looks for the cause of the event not in the power of
62986 one man, but in the interaction of many persons connected with the
62989 According to this view the power of historical personages, represented
62990 as the product of many forces, can no longer, it would seem, be regarded
62991 as a force that itself produces events. Yet in most cases universal
62992 historians still employ the conception of power as a force that itself
62993 produces events, and treat it as their cause. In their exposition, an
62994 historic character is first the product of his time, and his power only
62995 the resultant of various forces, and then his power is itself a force
62996 producing events. Gervinus, Schlosser, and others, for instance, at one
62997 time prove Napoleon to be a product of the Revolution, of the ideas of
62998 1789 and so forth, and at another plainly say that the campaign of 1812
62999 and other things they do not like were simply the product of Napoleon's
63000 misdirected will, and that the very ideas of 1789 were arrested in their
63001 development by Napoleon's caprice. The ideas of the Revolution and the
63002 general temper of the age produced Napoleon's power. But Napoleon's
63003 power suppressed the ideas of the Revolution and the general temper of
63006 This curious contradiction is not accidental. Not only does it occur at
63007 every step, but the universal historians' accounts are all made up of a
63008 chain of such contradictions. This contradiction occurs because after
63009 entering the field of analysis the universal historians stop halfway.
63011 To find component forces equal to the composite or resultant force, the
63012 sum of the components must equal the resultant. This condition is never
63013 observed by the universal historians, and so to explain the resultant
63014 forces they are obliged to admit, in addition to the insufficient
63015 components, another unexplained force affecting the resultant action.
63017 Specialist historians describing the campaign of 1813 or the restoration
63018 of the Bourbons plainly assert that these events were produced by the
63019 will of Alexander. But the universal historian Gervinus, refuting this
63020 opinion of the specialist historian, tries to prove that the campaign of
63021 1813 and the restoration of the Bourbons were due to other things beside
63022 Alexander's will--such as the activity of Stein, Metternich, Madame de
63023 Stael, Talleyrand, Fichte, Chateaubriand, and others. The historian
63024 evidently decomposes Alexander's power into the components: Talleyrand,
63025 Chateaubriand, and the rest--but the sum of the components, that is, the
63026 interactions of Chateaubriand, Talleyrand, Madame de Stael, and the
63027 others, evidently does not equal the resultant, namely the phenomenon of
63028 millions of Frenchmen submitting to the Bourbons. That Chateaubriand,
63029 Madame de Stael, and others spoke certain words to one another only
63030 affected their mutual relations but does not account for the submission
63031 of millions. And therefore to explain how from these relations of theirs
63032 the submission of millions of people resulted--that is, how component
63033 forces equal to one A gave a resultant equal to a thousand times A--the
63034 historian is again obliged to fall back on power--the force he had
63035 denied--and to recognize it as the resultant of the forces, that is, he
63036 has to admit an unexplained force acting on the resultant. And that is
63037 just what the universal historians do, and consequently they not only
63038 contradict the specialist historians but contradict themselves.
63040 Peasants having no clear idea of the cause of rain, say, according to
63041 whether they want rain or fine weather: "The wind has blown the clouds
63042 away," or, "The wind has brought up the clouds." And in the same way the
63043 universal historians sometimes, when it pleases them and fits in with
63044 their theory, say that power is the result of events, and sometimes,
63045 when they want to prove something else, say that power produces events.
63047 A third class of historians--the so-called historians of culture--
63048 following the path laid down by the universal historians who sometimes
63049 accept writers and ladies as forces producing events--again take that
63050 force to be something quite different. They see it in what is called
63051 culture--in mental activity.
63053 The historians of culture are quite consistent in regard to their
63054 progenitors, the writers of universal histories, for if historical
63055 events may be explained by the fact that certain persons treated one
63056 another in such and such ways, why not explain them by the fact that
63057 such and such people wrote such and such books? Of the immense number of
63058 indications accompanying every vital phenomenon, these historians select
63059 the indication of intellectual activity and say that this indication is
63060 the cause. But despite their endeavors to prove that the cause of events
63061 lies in intellectual activity, only by a great stretch can one admit
63062 that there is any connection between intellectual activity and the
63063 movement of peoples, and in no case can one admit that intellectual
63064 activity controls people's actions, for that view is not confirmed by
63065 such facts as the very cruel murders of the French Revolution resulting
63066 from the doctrine of the equality of man, or the very cruel wars and
63067 executions resulting from the preaching of love.
63069 But even admitting as correct all the cunningly devised arguments with
63070 which these histories are filled--admitting that nations are governed by
63071 some undefined force called an idea--history's essential question still
63072 remains unanswered, and to the former power of monarchs and to the
63073 influence of advisers and other people introduced by the universal
63074 historians, another, newer force--the idea--is added, the connection of
63075 which with the masses needs explanation. It is possible to understand
63076 that Napoleon had power and so events occurred; with some effort one may
63077 even conceive that Napoleon together with other influences was the cause
63078 of an event; but how a book, Le Contrat Social, had the effect of making
63079 Frenchmen begin to drown one another cannot be understood without an
63080 explanation of the causal nexus of this new force with the event.
63082 Undoubtedly some relation exists between all who live contemporaneously,
63083 and so it is possible to find some connection between the intellectual
63084 activity of men and their historical movements, just as such a
63085 connection may be found between the movements of humanity and commerce,
63086 handicraft, gardening, or anything else you please. But why intellectual
63087 activity is considered by the historians of culture to be the cause or
63088 expression of the whole historical movement is hard to understand. Only
63089 the following considerations can have led the historians to such a
63090 conclusion: (1) that history is written by learned men, and so it is
63091 natural and agreeable for them to think that the activity of their class
63092 supplies the basis of the movement of all humanity, just as a similar
63093 belief is natural and agreeable to traders, agriculturists, and soldiers
63094 (if they do not express it, that is merely because traders and soldiers
63095 do not write history), and (2) that spiritual activity, enlightenment,
63096 civilization, culture, ideas, are all indistinct, indefinite conceptions
63097 under whose banner it is very easy to use words having a still less
63098 definite meaning, and which can therefore be readily introduced into any
63101 But not to speak of the intrinsic quality of histories of this kind
63102 (which may possibly even be of use to someone for something) the
63103 histories of culture, to which all general histories tend more and more
63104 to approximate, are significant from the fact that after seriously and
63105 minutely examining various religious, philosophic, and political
63106 doctrines as causes of events, as soon as they have to describe an
63107 actual historic event such as the campaign of 1812 for instance, they
63108 involuntarily describe it as resulting from an exercise of power--and
63109 say plainly that that was the result of Napoleon's will. Speaking so,
63110 the historians of culture involuntarily contradict themselves, and show
63111 that the new force they have devised does not account for what happens
63112 in history, and that history can only be explained by introducing a
63113 power which they apparently do not recognize.
63120 A locomotive is moving. Someone asks: "What moves it?" A peasant says
63121 the devil moves it. Another man says the locomotive moves because its
63122 wheels go round. A third asserts that the cause of its movement lies in
63123 the smoke which the wind carries away.
63125 The peasant is irrefutable. He has devised a complete explanation. To
63126 refute him someone would have to prove to him that there is no devil, or
63127 another peasant would have to explain to him that it is not the devil
63128 but a German, who moves the locomotive. Only then, as a result of the
63129 contradiction, will they see that they are both wrong. But the man who
63130 says that the movement of the wheels is the cause refutes himself, for
63131 having once begun to analyze he ought to go on and explain further why
63132 the wheels go round; and till he has reached the ultimate cause of the
63133 movement of the locomotive in the pressure of steam in the boiler, he
63134 has no right to stop in his search for the cause. The man who explains
63135 the movement of the locomotive by the smoke that is carried back has
63136 noticed that the wheels do not supply an explanation and has taken the
63137 first sign that occurs to him and in his turn has offered that as an
63140 The only conception that can explain the movement of the locomotive is
63141 that of a force commensurate with the movement observed.
63143 The only conception that can explain the movement of the peoples is that
63144 of some force commensurate with the whole movement of the peoples.
63146 Yet to supply this conception various historians take forces of
63147 different kinds, all of which are incommensurate with the movement
63148 observed. Some see it as a force directly inherent in heroes, as the
63149 peasant sees the devil in the locomotive; others as a force resulting
63150 from several other forces, like the movement of the wheels; others again
63151 as an intellectual influence, like the smoke that is blown away.
63153 So long as histories are written of separate individuals, whether
63154 Caesars, Alexanders, Luthers, or Voltaires, and not the histories of
63155 all, absolutely all those who take part in an event, it is quite
63156 impossible to describe the movement of humanity without the conception
63157 of a force compelling men to direct their activity toward a certain end.
63158 And the only such conception known to historians is that of power.
63160 This conception is the one handle by means of which the material of
63161 history, as at present expounded, can be dealt with, and anyone who
63162 breaks that handle off, as Buckle did, without finding some other method
63163 of treating historical material, merely deprives himself of the one
63164 possible way of dealing with it. The necessity of the conception of
63165 power as an explanation of historical events is best demonstrated by the
63166 universal historians and historians of culture themselves, for they
63167 professedly reject that conception but inevitably have recourse to it at
63170 In dealing with humanity's inquiry, the science of history up to now is
63171 like money in circulation--paper money and coin. The biographies and
63172 special national histories are like paper money. They can be used and
63173 can circulate and fulfill their purpose without harm to anyone and even
63174 advantageously, as long as no one asks what is the security behind them.
63175 You need only forget to ask how the will of heroes produces events, and
63176 such histories as Thiers' will be interesting and instructive and may
63177 perhaps even possess a tinge of poetry. But just as doubts of the real
63178 value of paper money arise either because, being easy to make, too much
63179 of it gets made or because people try to exchange it for gold, so also
63180 doubts concerning the real value of such histories arise either because
63181 too many of them are written or because in his simplicity of heart
63182 someone inquires: by what force did Napoleon do this?--that is, wants to
63183 exchange the current paper money for the real gold of actual
63186 The writers of universal histories and of the history of culture are
63187 like people who, recognizing the defects of paper money, decide to
63188 substitute for it money made of metal that has not the specific gravity
63189 of gold. It may indeed make jingling coin, but will do no more than
63190 that. Paper money may deceive the ignorant, but nobody is deceived by
63191 tokens of base metal that have no value but merely jingle. As gold is
63192 gold only if it is serviceable not merely for exchange but also for use,
63193 so universal historians will be valuable only when they can reply to
63194 history's essential question: what is power? The universal historians
63195 give contradictory replies to that question, while the historians of
63196 culture evade it and answer something quite different. And as counters
63197 of imitation gold can be used only among a group of people who agree to
63198 accept them as gold, or among those who do not know the nature of gold,
63199 so universal historians and historians of culture, not answering
63200 humanity's essential question, serve as currency for some purposes of
63201 their own, only in universities and among the mass of readers who have a
63202 taste for what they call "serious reading."
63209 Having abandoned the conception of the ancients as to the divine
63210 subjection of the will of a nation to some chosen man and the subjection
63211 of that man's will to the Deity, history cannot without contradictions
63212 take a single step till it has chosen one of two things: either a return
63213 to the former belief in the direct intervention of the Deity in human
63214 affairs or a definite explanation of the meaning of the force producing
63215 historical events and termed "power."
63217 A return to the first is impossible, the belief has been destroyed; and
63218 so it is essential to explain what is meant by power.
63220 Napoleon ordered an army to be raised and go to war. We are so
63221 accustomed to that idea and have become so used to it that the question:
63222 why did six hundred thousand men go to fight when Napoleon uttered
63223 certain words, seems to us senseless. He had the power and so what he
63226 This reply is quite satisfactory if we believe that the power was given
63227 him by God. But as soon as we do not admit that, it becomes essential to
63228 determine what is this power of one man over others.
63230 It cannot be the direct physical power of a strong man over a weak one--
63231 a domination based on the application or threat of physical force, like
63232 the power of Hercules; nor can it be based on the effect of moral force,
63233 as in their simplicity some historians think who say that the leading
63234 figures in history are heroes, that is, men gifted with a special
63235 strength of soul and mind called genius. This power cannot be based on
63236 the predominance of moral strength, for, not to mention heroes such as
63237 Napoleon about whose moral qualities opinions differ widely, history
63238 shows us that neither a Louis XI nor a Metternich, who ruled over
63239 millions of people, had any particular moral qualities, but on the
63240 contrary were generally morally weaker than any of the millions they
63243 If the source of power lies neither in the physical nor in the moral
63244 qualities of him who possesses it, it must evidently be looked for
63245 elsewhere--in the relation to the people of the man who wields the
63248 And that is how power is understood by the science of jurisprudence,
63249 that exchange bank of history which offers to exchange history's
63250 understanding of power for true gold.
63252 Power is the collective will of the people transferred, by expressed or
63253 tacit consent, to their chosen rulers.
63255 In the domain of jurisprudence, which consists of discussions of how a
63256 state and power might be arranged were it possible for all that to be
63257 arranged, it is all very clear; but when applied to history that
63258 definition of power needs explanation.
63260 The science of jurisprudence regards the state and power as the ancients
63261 regarded fire--namely, as something existing absolutely. But for
63262 history, the state and power are merely phenomena, just as for modern
63263 physics fire is not an element but a phenomenon.
63265 From this fundamental difference between the view held by history and
63266 that held by jurisprudence, it follows that jurisprudence can tell
63267 minutely how in its opinion power should be constituted and what power--
63268 existing immutably outside time--is, but to history's questions about
63269 the meaning of the mutations of power in time it can answer nothing.
63271 If power be the collective will of the people transferred to their
63272 ruler, was Pugachev a representative of the will of the people? If not,
63273 then why was Napoleon I? Why was Napoleon III a criminal when he was
63274 taken prisoner at Boulogne, and why, later on, were those criminals whom
63277 Do palace revolutions--in which sometimes only two or three people take
63278 part--transfer the will of the people to a new ruler? In international
63279 relations, is the will of the people also transferred to their
63280 conqueror? Was the will of the Confederation of the Rhine transferred to
63281 Napoleon in 1806? Was the will of the Russian people transferred to
63282 Napoleon in 1809, when our army in alliance with the French went to
63283 fight the Austrians?
63285 To these questions three answers are possible:
63287 Either to assume (1) that the will of the people is always
63288 unconditionally transferred to the ruler or rulers they have chosen, and
63289 that therefore every emergence of a new power, every struggle against
63290 the power once appointed, should be absolutely regarded as an
63291 infringement of the real power; or (2) that the will of the people is
63292 transferred to the rulers conditionally, under definite and known
63293 conditions, and to show that all limitations, conflicts, and even
63294 destructions of power result from a nonobservance by the rulers of the
63295 conditions under which their power was entrusted to them; or (3) that
63296 the will of the people is delegated to the rulers conditionally, but
63297 that the conditions are unknown and indefinite, and that the appearance
63298 of several authorities, their struggles and their falls, result solely
63299 from the greater or lesser fulfillment by the rulers of these unknown
63300 conditions on which the will of the people is transferred from some
63303 And these are the three ways in which the historians do explain the
63304 relation of the people to their rulers.
63306 Some historians--those biographical and specialist historians already
63307 referred to--in their simplicity failing to understand the question of
63308 the meaning of power, seem to consider that the collective will of the
63309 people is unconditionally transferred to historical persons, and
63310 therefore when describing some single state they assume that particular
63311 power to be the one absolute and real power, and that any other force
63312 opposing this is not a power but a violation of power--mere violence.
63314 Their theory, suitable for primitive and peaceful periods of history,
63315 has the inconvenience--in application to complex and stormy periods in
63316 the life of nations during which various powers arise simultaneously and
63317 struggle with one another--that a Legitimist historian will prove that
63318 the National Convention, the Directory, and Bonaparte were mere
63319 infringers of the true power, while a Republican and a Bonapartist will
63320 prove: the one that the Convention and the other that the Empire was the
63321 real power, and that all the others were violations of power. Evidently
63322 the explanations furnished by these historians being mutually
63323 contradictory can only satisfy young children.
63325 Recognizing the falsity of this view of history, another set of
63326 historians say that power rests on a conditional delegation of the will
63327 of the people to their rulers, and that historical leaders have power
63328 only conditionally on carrying out the program that the will of the
63329 people has by tacit agreement prescribed to them. But what this program
63330 consists in these historians do not say, or if they do they continually
63331 contradict one another.
63333 Each historian, according to his view of what constitutes a nation's
63334 progress, looks for these conditions in the greatness, wealth, freedom,
63335 or enlightenment of citizens of France or some other country. But not to
63336 mention the historians' contradictions as to the nature of this program-
63337 -or even admitting that some one general program of these conditions
63338 exists--the facts of history almost always contradict that theory. If
63339 the conditions under which power is entrusted consist in the wealth,
63340 freedom, and enlightenment of the people, how is it that Louis XIV and
63341 Ivan the Terrible end their reigns tranquilly, while Louis XVI and
63342 Charles I are executed by their people? To this question historians
63343 reply that Louis XIV's activity, contrary to the program, reacted on
63344 Louis XVI. But why did it not react on Louis XIV or on Louis XV--why
63345 should it react just on Louis XVI? And what is the time limit for such
63346 reactions? To these questions there are and can be no answers. Equally
63347 little does this view explain why for several centuries the collective
63348 will is not withdrawn from certain rulers and their heirs, and then
63349 suddenly during a period of fifty years is transferred to the
63350 Convention, to the Directory, to Napoleon, to Alexander, to Louis XVIII,
63351 to Napoleon again, to Charles X, to Louis Philippe, to a Republican
63352 government, and to Napoleon III. When explaining these rapid transfers
63353 of the people's will from one individual to another, especially in view
63354 of international relations, conquests, and alliances, the historians are
63355 obliged to admit that some of these transfers are not normal delegations
63356 of the people's will but are accidents dependent on cunning, on
63357 mistakes, on craft, or on the weakness of a diplomatist, a ruler, or a
63358 party leader. So that the greater part of the events of history--civil
63359 wars, revolutions, and conquests--are presented by these historians not
63360 as the results of free transferences of the people's will, but as
63361 results of the ill-directed will of one or more individuals, that is,
63362 once again, as usurpations of power. And so these historians also see
63363 and admit historical events which are exceptions to the theory.
63365 These historians resemble a botanist who, having noticed that some
63366 plants grow from seeds producing two cotyledons, should insist that all
63367 that grows does so by sprouting into two leaves, and that the palm, the
63368 mushroom, and even the oak, which blossom into full growth and no longer
63369 resemble two leaves, are deviations from the theory.
63371 Historians of the third class assume that the will of the people is
63372 transferred to historic personages conditionally, but that the
63373 conditions are unknown to us. They say that historical personages have
63374 power only because they fulfill the will of the people which has been
63377 But in that case, if the force that moves nations lies not in the
63378 historic leaders but in the nations themselves, what significance have
63381 The leaders, these historians tell us, express the will of the people:
63382 the activity of the leaders represents the activity of the people.
63384 But in that case the question arises whether all the activity of the
63385 leaders serves as an expression of the people's will or only some part
63386 of it. If the whole activity of the leaders serves as the expression of
63387 the people's will, as some historians suppose, then all the details of
63388 the court scandals contained in the biographies of a Napoleon or a
63389 Catherine serve to express the life of the nation, which is evident
63390 nonsense; but if it is only some particular side of the activity of an
63391 historical leader which serves to express the people's life, as other
63392 so-called "philosophical" historians believe, then to determine which
63393 side of the activity of a leader expresses the nation's life, we have
63394 first of all to know in what the nation's life consists.
63396 Met by this difficulty historians of that class devise some most
63397 obscure, impalpable, and general abstraction which can cover all
63398 conceivable occurrences, and declare this abstraction to be the aim of
63399 humanity's movement. The most usual generalizations adopted by almost
63400 all the historians are: freedom, equality, enlightenment, progress,
63401 civilization, and culture. Postulating some generalization as the goal
63402 of the movement of humanity, the historians study the men of whom the
63403 greatest number of monuments have remained: kings, ministers, generals,
63404 authors, reformers, popes, and journalists, to the extent to which in
63405 their opinion these persons have promoted or hindered that abstraction.
63406 But as it is in no way proved that the aim of humanity does consist in
63407 freedom, equality, enlightenment, or civilization, and as the connection
63408 of the people with the rulers and enlighteners of humanity is only based
63409 on the arbitrary assumption that the collective will of the people is
63410 always transferred to the men whom we have noticed, it happens that the
63411 activity of the millions who migrate, burn houses, abandon agriculture,
63412 and destroy one another never is expressed in the account of the
63413 activity of some dozen people who did not burn houses, practice
63414 agriculture, or slay their fellow creatures.
63416 History proves this at every turn. Is the ferment of the peoples of the
63417 west at the end of the eighteenth century and their drive eastward
63418 explained by the activity of Louis XIV, XV, and XVI, their mistresses
63419 and ministers, and by the lives of Napoleon, Rousseau, Diderot,
63420 Beaumarchais, and others?
63422 Is the movement of the Russian people eastward to Kazan and Siberia
63423 expressed by details of the morbid character of Ivan the Terrible and by
63424 his correspondence with Kurbski?
63426 Is the movement of the peoples at the time of the Crusades explained by
63427 the life and activity of the Godfreys and the Louis-es and their ladies?
63428 For us that movement of the peoples from west to east, without leaders,
63429 with a crowd of vagrants, and with Peter the Hermit, remains
63430 incomprehensible. And yet more incomprehensible is the cessation of that
63431 movement when a rational and sacred aim for the Crusade--the deliverance
63432 of Jerusalem--had been clearly defined by historic leaders. Popes,
63433 kings, and knights incited the peoples to free the Holy Land; but the
63434 people did not go, for the unknown cause which had previously impelled
63435 them to go no longer existed. The history of the Godfreys and the
63436 Minnesingers can evidently not cover the life of the peoples. And the
63437 history of the Godfreys and the Minnesingers has remained the history of
63438 Godfreys and Minnesingers, but the history of the life of the peoples
63439 and their impulses has remained unknown.
63441 Still less does the history of authors and reformers explain to us the
63442 life of the peoples.
63444 The history of culture explains to us the impulses and conditions of
63445 life and thought of a writer or a reformer. We learn that Luther had a
63446 hot temper and said such and such things; we learn that Rousseau was
63447 suspicious and wrote such and such books; but we do not learn why after
63448 the Reformation the peoples massacred one another, nor why during the
63449 French Revolution they guillotined one another.
63451 If we unite both these kinds of history, as is done by the newest
63452 historians, we shall have the history of monarchs and writers, but not
63453 the history of the life of the peoples.
63460 The life of the nations is not contained in the lives of a few men, for
63461 the connection between those men and the nations has not been found. The
63462 theory that this connection is based on the transference of the
63463 collective will of a people to certain historical personages is an
63464 hypothesis unconfirmed by the experience of history.
63466 The theory of the transference of the collective will of the people to
63467 historic persons may perhaps explain much in the domain of jurisprudence
63468 and be essential for its purposes, but in its application to history, as
63469 soon as revolutions, conquests, or civil wars occur--that is, as soon as
63470 history begins--that theory explains nothing.
63472 The theory seems irrefutable just because the act of transference of the
63473 people's will cannot be verified, for it never occurred.
63475 Whatever happens and whoever may stand at the head of affairs, the
63476 theory can always say that such and such a person took the lead because
63477 the collective will was transferred to him.
63479 The replies this theory gives to historical questions are like the
63480 replies of a man who, watching the movements of a herd of cattle and
63481 paying no attention to the varying quality of the pasturage in different
63482 parts of the field, or to the driving of the herdsman, should attribute
63483 the direction the herd takes to what animal happens to be at its head.
63485 "The herd goes in that direction because the animal in front leads it
63486 and the collective will of all the other animals is vested in that
63487 leader." This is what historians of the first class say--those who
63488 assume the unconditional transference of the people's will.
63490 "If the animals leading the herd change, this happens because the
63491 collective will of all the animals is transferred from one leader to
63492 another, according to whether the animal is or is not leading them in
63493 the direction selected by the whole herd." Such is the reply historians
63494 who assume that the collective will of the people is delegated to rulers
63495 under conditions which they regard as known. (With this method of
63496 observation it often happens that the observer, influenced by the
63497 direction he himself prefers, regards those as leaders who, owing to the
63498 people's change of direction, are no longer in front, but on one side,
63499 or even in the rear.)
63501 "If the animals in front are continually changing and the direction of
63502 the whole herd is constantly altered, this is because in order to follow
63503 a given direction the animals transfer their will to the animals that
63504 have attracted our attention, and to study the movements of the herd we
63505 must watch the movements of all the prominent animals moving on all
63506 sides of the herd." So say the third class of historians who regard all
63507 historical persons, from monarchs to journalists, as the expression of
63510 The theory of the transference of the will of the people to historic
63511 persons is merely a paraphrase--a restatement of the question in other
63514 What causes historical events? Power. What is power? Power is the
63515 collective will of the people transferred to one person. Under what
63516 condition is the will of the people delegated to one person? On
63517 condition that that person expresses the will of the whole people. That
63518 is, power is power: in other words, power is a word the meaning of which
63519 we do not understand.
63521 If the realm of human knowledge were confined to abstract reasoning,
63522 then having subjected to criticism the explanation of "power" that
63523 juridical science gives us, humanity would conclude that power is merely
63524 a word and has no real existence. But to understand phenomena man has,
63525 besides abstract reasoning, experience by which he verifies his
63526 reflections. And experience tells us that power is not merely a word but
63527 an actually existing phenomenon.
63529 Not to speak of the fact that no description of the collective activity
63530 of men can do without the conception of power, the existence of power is
63531 proved both by history and by observing contemporary events.
63533 Whenever an event occurs a man appears or men appear, by whose will the
63534 event seems to have taken place. Napoleon III issues a decree and the
63535 French go to Mexico. The King of Prussia and Bismarck issue decrees and
63536 an army enters Bohemia. Napoleon I issues a decree and an army enters
63537 Russia. Alexander I gives a command and the French submit to the
63538 Bourbons. Experience shows us that whatever event occurs it is always
63539 related to the will of one or of several men who have decreed it.
63541 The historians, in accord with the old habit of acknowledging divine
63542 intervention in human affairs, want to see the cause of events in the
63543 expression of the will of someone endowed with power, but that
63544 supposition is not confirmed either by reason or by experience.
63546 On the one side reflection shows that the expression of a man's will--
63547 his words--are only part of the general activity expressed in an event,
63548 as for instance in a war or a revolution, and so without assuming an
63549 incomprehensible, supernatural force--a miracle--one cannot admit that
63550 words can be the immediate cause of the movements of millions of men. On
63551 the other hand, even if we admitted that words could be the cause of
63552 events, history shows that the expression of the will of historical
63553 personages does not in most cases produce any effect, that is to say,
63554 their commands are often not executed, and sometimes the very opposite
63555 of what they order occurs.
63557 Without admitting divine intervention in the affairs of humanity we
63558 cannot regard "power" as the cause of events.
63560 Power, from the standpoint of experience, is merely the relation that
63561 exists between the expression of someone's will and the execution of
63562 that will by others.
63564 To explain the conditions of that relationship we must first establish a
63565 conception of the expression of will, referring it to man and not to the
63568 If the Deity issues a command, expresses His will, as ancient history
63569 tells us, the expression of that will is independent of time and is not
63570 caused by anything, for the Divinity is not controlled by an event. But
63571 speaking of commands that are the expression of the will of men acting
63572 in time and in relation to one another, to explain the connection of
63573 commands with events we must restore: (1) the condition of all that
63574 takes place: the continuity of movement in time both of the events and
63575 of the person who commands, and (2) the inevitability of the connection
63576 between the person commanding and those who execute his command.
63583 Only the expression of the will of the Deity, not dependent on time, can
63584 relate to a whole series of events occurring over a period of years or
63585 centuries, and only the Deity, independent of everything, can by His
63586 sole will determine the direction of humanity's movement; but man acts
63587 in time and himself takes part in what occurs.
63589 Reinstating the first condition omitted, that of time, we see that no
63590 command can be executed without some preceding order having been given
63591 rendering the execution of the last command possible.
63593 No command ever appears spontaneously, or itself covers a whole series
63594 of occurrences; but each command follows from another, and never refers
63595 to a whole series of events but always to one moment only of an event.
63597 When, for instance, we say that Napoleon ordered armies to go to war, we
63598 combine in one simultaneous expression a whole series of consecutive
63599 commands dependent one on another. Napoleon could not have commanded an
63600 invasion of Russia and never did so. Today he ordered such and such
63601 papers to be written to Vienna, to Berlin, and to Petersburg; tomorrow
63602 such and such decrees and orders to the army, the fleet, the
63603 commissariat, and so on and so on--millions of commands, which formed a
63604 whole series corresponding to a series of events which brought the
63605 French armies into Russia.
63607 If throughout his reign Napoleon gave commands concerning an invasion of
63608 England and expended on no other undertaking so much time and effort,
63609 and yet during his whole reign never once attempted to execute that
63610 design but undertook an expedition into Russia, with which country he
63611 considered it desirable to be in alliance (a conviction he repeatedly
63612 expressed)--this came about because his commands did not correspond to
63613 the course of events in the first case, but did so correspond in the
63616 For an order to be certainly executed, it is necessary that a man should
63617 order what can be executed. But to know what can and what cannot be
63618 executed is impossible, not only in the case of Napoleon's invasion of
63619 Russia in which millions participated, but even in the simplest event,
63620 for in either case millions of obstacles may arise to prevent its
63621 execution. Every order executed is always one of an immense number
63622 unexecuted. All the impossible orders inconsistent with the course of
63623 events remain unexecuted. Only the possible ones get linked up with a
63624 consecutive series of commands corresponding to a series of events, and
63627 Our false conception that an event is caused by a command which precedes
63628 it is due to the fact that when the event has taken place and out of
63629 thousands of others those few commands which were consistent with that
63630 event have been executed, we forget about the others that were not
63631 executed because they could not be. Apart from that, the chief source of
63632 our error in this matter is due to the fact that in the historical
63633 accounts a whole series of innumerable, diverse, and petty events, such
63634 for instance as all those which led the French armies to Russia, is
63635 generalized into one event in accord with the result produced by that
63636 series of events, and corresponding with this generalization the whole
63637 series of commands is also generalized into a single expression of will.
63639 We say that Napoleon wished to invade Russia and invaded it. In reality
63640 in all Napoleon's activity we never find anything resembling an
63641 expression of that wish, but find a series of orders, or expressions of
63642 his will, very variously and indefinitely directed. Amid a long series
63643 of unexecuted orders of Napoleon's one series, for the campaign of 1812,
63644 was carried out--not because those orders differed in any way from the
63645 other, unexecuted orders but because they coincided with the course of
63646 events that led the French army into Russia; just as in stencil work
63647 this or that figure comes out not because the color was laid on from
63648 this side or in that way, but because it was laid on from all sides over
63649 the figure cut in the stencil.
63651 So that examining the relation in time of the commands to the events, we
63652 find that a command can never be the cause of the event, but that a
63653 certain definite dependence exists between the two.
63655 To understand in what this dependence consists it is necessary to
63656 reinstate another omitted condition of every command proceeding not from
63657 the Deity but from a man, which is, that the man who gives the command
63658 himself takes part in the event.
63660 This relation of the commander to those he commands is just what is
63661 called power. This relation consists in the following:
63663 For common action people always unite in certain combinations, in which
63664 regardless of the difference of the aims set for the common action, the
63665 relation between those taking part in it is always the same.
63667 Men uniting in these combinations always assume such relations toward
63668 one another that the larger number take a more direct share, and the
63669 smaller number a less direct share, in the collective action for which
63670 they have combined.
63672 Of all the combinations in which men unite for collective action one of
63673 the most striking and definite examples is an army.
63675 Every army is composed of lower grades of the service--the rank and
63676 file--of whom there are always the greatest number; of the next higher
63677 military rank--corporals and noncommissioned officers of whom there are
63678 fewer, and of still-higher officers of whom there are still fewer, and
63679 so on to the highest military command which is concentrated in one
63682 A military organization may be quite correctly compared to a cone, of
63683 which the base with the largest diameter consists of the rank and file;
63684 the next higher and smaller section of the cone consists of the next
63685 higher grades of the army, and so on to the apex, the point of which
63686 will represent the commander-in-chief.
63688 The soldiers, of whom there are the most, form the lower section of the
63689 cone and its base. The soldier himself does the stabbing, hacking,
63690 burning, and pillaging, and always receives orders for these actions
63691 from men above him; he himself never gives an order. The noncommissioned
63692 officers (of whom there are fewer) perform the action itself less
63693 frequently than the soldiers, but they already give commands. An officer
63694 still less often acts directly himself, but commands still more
63695 frequently. A general does nothing but command the troops, indicates the
63696 objective, and hardly ever uses a weapon himself. The commander-in-chief
63697 never takes direct part in the action itself, but only gives general
63698 orders concerning the movement of the mass of the troops. A similar
63699 relation of people to one another is seen in every combination of men
63700 for common activity--in agriculture, trade, and every administration.
63702 And so without particularly analyzing all the contiguous sections of a
63703 cone and of the ranks of an army, or the ranks and positions in any
63704 administrative or public business whatever from the lowest to the
63705 highest, we see a law by which men, to take associated action, combine
63706 in such relations that the more directly they participate in performing
63707 the action the less they can command and the more numerous they are,
63708 while the less their direct participation in the action itself, the more
63709 they command and the fewer of them there are; rising in this way from
63710 the lowest ranks to the man at the top, who takes the least direct share
63711 in the action and directs his activity chiefly to commanding.
63713 This relation of the men who command to those they command is what
63714 constitutes the essence of the conception called power.
63716 Having restored the condition of time under which all events occur, we
63717 find that a command is executed only when it is related to a
63718 corresponding series of events. Restoring the essential condition of
63719 relation between those who command and those who execute, we find that
63720 by the very nature of the case those who command take the smallest part
63721 in the action itself and that their activity is exclusively directed to
63729 When an event is taking place people express their opinions and wishes
63730 about it, and as the event results from the collective activity of many
63731 people, some one of the opinions or wishes expressed is sure to be
63732 fulfilled if but approximately. When one of the opinions expressed is
63733 fulfilled, that opinion gets connected with the event as a command
63736 Men are hauling a log. Each of them expresses his opinion as to how and
63737 where to haul it. They haul the log away, and it happens that this is
63738 done as one of them said. He ordered it. There we have command and power
63739 in their primary form. The man who worked most with his hands could not
63740 think so much about what he was doing, or reflect on or command what
63741 would result from the common activity; while the man who commanded more
63742 would evidently work less with his hands on account of his greater
63745 When some larger concourse of men direct their activity to a common aim
63746 there is a yet sharper division of those who, because their activity is
63747 given to directing and commanding, take less part in the direct work.
63749 When a man works alone he always has a certain set of reflections which
63750 as it seems to him directed his past activity, justify his present
63751 activity, and guide him in planning his future actions. Just the same is
63752 done by a concourse of people, allowing those who do not take a direct
63753 part in the activity to devise considerations, justifications, and
63754 surmises concerning their collective activity.
63756 For reasons known or unknown to us the French began to drown and kill
63757 one another. And corresponding to the event its justification appears in
63758 people's belief that this was necessary for the welfare of France, for
63759 liberty, and for equality. People ceased to kill one another, and this
63760 event was accompanied by its justification in the necessity for a
63761 centralization of power, resistance to Europe, and so on. Men went from
63762 the west to the east killing their fellow men, and the event was
63763 accompanied by phrases about the glory of France, the baseness of
63764 England, and so on. History shows us that these justifications of the
63765 events have no common sense and are all contradictory, as in the case of
63766 killing a man as the result of recognizing his rights, and the killing
63767 of millions in Russia for the humiliation of England. But these
63768 justifications have a very necessary significance in their own day.
63770 These justifications release those who produce the events from moral
63771 responsibility. These temporary aims are like the broom fixed in front
63772 of a locomotive to clear the snow from the rails in front: they clear
63773 men's moral responsibilities from their path.
63775 Without such justification there would be no reply to the simplest
63776 question that presents itself when examining each historical event. How
63777 is it that millions of men commit collective crimes--make war, commit
63780 With the present complex forms of political and social life in Europe
63781 can any event that is not prescribed, decreed, or ordered by monarchs,
63782 ministers, parliaments, or newspapers be imagined? Is there any
63783 collective action which cannot find its justification in political
63784 unity, in patriotism, in the balance of power, or in civilization? So
63785 that every event that occurs inevitably coincides with some expressed
63786 wish and, receiving a justification, presents itself as the result of
63787 the will of one man or of several men.
63789 In whatever direction a ship moves, the flow of the waves it cuts will
63790 always be noticeable ahead of it. To those on board the ship the
63791 movement of those waves will be the only perceptible motion.
63793 Only by watching closely moment by moment the movement of that flow and
63794 comparing it with the movement of the ship do we convince ourselves that
63795 every bit of it is occasioned by the forward movement of the ship, and
63796 that we were led into error by the fact that we ourselves were
63797 imperceptibly moving.
63799 We see the same if we watch moment by moment the movement of historical
63800 characters (that is, re-establish the inevitable condition of all that
63801 occurs--the continuity of movement in time) and do not lose sight of the
63802 essential connection of historical persons with the masses.
63804 When the ship moves in one direction there is one and the same wave
63805 ahead of it, when it turns frequently the wave ahead of it also turns
63806 frequently. But wherever it may turn there always will be the wave
63807 anticipating its movement.
63809 Whatever happens it always appears that just that event was foreseen and
63810 decreed. Wherever the ship may go, the rush of water which neither
63811 directs nor increases its movement foams ahead of it, and at a distance
63812 seems to us not merely to move of itself but to govern the ship's
63815 Examining only those expressions of the will of historical persons
63816 which, as commands, were related to events, historians have assumed that
63817 the events depended on those commands. But examining the events
63818 themselves and the connection in which the historical persons stood to
63819 the people, we have found that they and their orders were dependent on
63820 events. The incontestable proof of this deduction is that, however many
63821 commands were issued, the event does not take place unless there are
63822 other causes for it, but as soon as an event occurs--be it what it may--
63823 then out of all the continually expressed wishes of different people
63824 some will always be found which by their meaning and their time of
63825 utterance are related as commands to the events.
63827 Arriving at this conclusion we can reply directly and positively to
63828 these two essential questions of history:
63832 (2) What force produces the movement of the nations?
63834 (1) Power is the relation of a given person to other individuals, in
63835 which the more this person expresses opinions, predictions, and
63836 justifications of the collective action that is performed, the less is
63837 his participation in that action.
63839 (2) The movement of nations is caused not by power, nor by intellectual
63840 activity, nor even by a combination of the two as historians have
63841 supposed, but by the activity of all the people who participate in the
63842 events, and who always combine in such a way that those taking the
63843 largest direct share in the event take on themselves the least
63844 responsibility and vice versa.
63846 Morally the wielder of power appears to cause the event; physically it
63847 is those who submit to the power. But as the moral activity is
63848 inconceivable without the physical, the cause of the event is neither in
63849 the one nor in the other but in the union of the two.
63851 Or in other words, the conception of a cause is inapplicable to the
63852 phenomena we are examining.
63854 In the last analysis we reach the circle of infinity--that final limit
63855 to which in every domain of thought man's reason arrives if it is not
63856 playing with the subject. Electricity produces heat, heat produces
63857 electricity. Atoms attract each other and atoms repel one another.
63859 Speaking of the interaction of heat and electricity and of atoms, we
63860 cannot say why this occurs, and we say that it is so because it is
63861 inconceivable otherwise, because it must be so and that it is a law. The
63862 same applies to historical events. Why war and revolution occur we do
63863 not know. We only know that to produce the one or the other action,
63864 people combine in a certain formation in which they all take part, and
63865 we say that this is so because it is unthinkable otherwise, or in other
63866 words that it is a law.
63873 If history dealt only with external phenomena, the establishment of this
63874 simple and obvious law would suffice and we should have finished our
63875 argument. But the law of history relates to man. A particle of matter
63876 cannot tell us that it does not feel the law of attraction or repulsion
63877 and that that law is untrue, but man, who is the subject of history,
63878 says plainly: I am free and am therefore not subject to the law.
63880 The presence of the problem of man's free will, though unexpressed, is
63881 felt at every step of history.
63883 All seriously thinking historians have involuntarily encountered this
63884 question. All the contradictions and obscurities of history and the
63885 false path historical science has followed are due solely to the lack of
63886 a solution of that question.
63888 If the will of every man were free, that is, if each man could act as he
63889 pleased, all history would be a series of disconnected incidents.
63891 If in a thousand years even one man in a million could act freely, that
63892 is, as he chose, it is evident that one single free act of that man's in
63893 violation of the laws governing human action would destroy the
63894 possibility of the existence of any laws for the whole of humanity.
63896 If there be a single law governing the actions of men, free will cannot
63897 exist, for then man's will is subject to that law.
63899 In this contradiction lies the problem of free will, which from most
63900 ancient times has occupied the best human minds and from most ancient
63901 times has been presented in its whole tremendous significance.
63903 The problem is that regarding man as a subject of observation from
63904 whatever point of view--theological, historical, ethical, or
63905 philosophic--we find a general law of necessity to which he (like all
63906 that exists) is subject. But regarding him from within ourselves as what
63907 we are conscious of, we feel ourselves to be free.
63909 This consciousness is a source of self-cognition quite apart from and
63910 independent of reason. Through his reason man observes himself, but only
63911 through consciousness does he know himself.
63913 Apart from consciousness of self no observation or application of reason
63916 To understand, observe, and draw conclusions, man must first of all be
63917 conscious of himself as living. A man is only conscious of himself as a
63918 living being by the fact that he wills, that is, is conscious of his
63919 volition. But his will--which forms the essence of his life--man
63920 recognizes (and can but recognize) as free.
63922 If, observing himself, man sees that his will is always directed by one
63923 and the same law (whether he observes the necessity of taking food,
63924 using his brain, or anything else) he cannot recognize this never-
63925 varying direction of his will otherwise than as a limitation of it. Were
63926 it not free it could not be limited. A man's will seems to him to be
63927 limited just because he is not conscious of it except as free.
63929 You say: I am not free. But I have lifted my hand and let it fall.
63930 Everyone understands that this illogical reply is an irrefutable
63931 demonstration of freedom.
63933 That reply is the expression of a consciousness that is not subject to
63936 If the consciousness of freedom were not a separate and independent
63937 source of self-consciousness it would be subject to reasoning and to
63938 experience, but in fact such subjection does not exist and is
63941 A series of experiments and arguments proves to every man that he, as an
63942 object of observation, is subject to certain laws, and man submits to
63943 them and never resists the laws of gravity or impermeability once he has
63944 become acquainted with them. But the same series of experiments and
63945 arguments proves to him that the complete freedom of which he is
63946 conscious in himself is impossible, and that his every action depends on
63947 his organization, his character, and the motives acting upon him; yet
63948 man never submits to the deductions of these experiments and arguments.
63949 Having learned from experiment and argument that a stone falls
63950 downwards, a man indubitably believes this and always expects the law
63951 that he has learned to be fulfilled.
63953 But learning just as certainly that his will is subject to laws, he does
63954 not and cannot believe this.
63956 However often experiment and reasoning may show a man that under the
63957 same conditions and with the same character he will do the same thing as
63958 before, yet when under the same conditions and with the same character
63959 he approaches for the thousandth time the action that always ends in the
63960 same way, he feels as certainly convinced as before the experiment that
63961 he can act as he pleases. Every man, savage or sage, however
63962 incontestably reason and experiment may prove to him that it is
63963 impossible to imagine two different courses of action in precisely the
63964 same conditions, feels that without this irrational conception (which
63965 constitutes the essence of freedom) he cannot imagine life. He feels
63966 that however impossible it may be, it is so, for without this conception
63967 of freedom not only would he be unable to understand life, but he would
63968 be unable to live for a single moment.
63970 He could not live, because all man's efforts, all his impulses to life,
63971 are only efforts to increase freedom. Wealth and poverty, fame and
63972 obscurity, power and subordination, strength and weakness, health and
63973 disease, culture and ignorance, work and leisure, repletion and hunger,
63974 virtue and vice, are only greater or lesser degrees of freedom.
63976 A man having no freedom cannot be conceived of except as deprived of
63979 If the conception of freedom appears to reason to be a senseless
63980 contradiction like the possibility of performing two actions at one and
63981 the same instant of time, or of an effect without a cause, that only
63982 proves that consciousness is not subject to reason.
63984 This unshakable, irrefutable consciousness of freedom, uncontrolled by
63985 experiment or argument, recognized by all thinkers and felt by everyone
63986 without exception, this consciousness without which no conception of man
63987 is possible constitutes the other side of the question.
63989 Man is the creation of an all-powerful, all-good, and all-seeing God.
63990 What is sin, the conception of which arises from the consciousness of
63991 man's freedom? That is a question for theology.
63993 The actions of men are subject to general immutable laws expressed in
63994 statistics. What is man's responsibility to society, the conception of
63995 which results from the conception of freedom? That is a question for
63998 Man's actions proceed from his innate character and the motives acting
63999 upon him. What is conscience and the perception of right and wrong in
64000 actions that follows from the consciousness of freedom? That is a
64001 question for ethics.
64003 Man in connection with the general life of humanity appears subject to
64004 laws which determine that life. But the same man apart from that
64005 connection appears to be free. How should the past life of nations and
64006 of humanity be regarded--as the result of the free, or as the result of
64007 the constrained, activity of man? That is a question for history.
64009 Only in our self-confident day of the popularization of knowledge--
64010 thanks to that most powerful engine of ignorance, the diffusion of
64011 printed matter--has the question of the freedom of will been put on a
64012 level on which the question itself cannot exist. In our time the
64013 majority of so-called advanced people--that is, the crowd of
64014 ignoramuses--have taken the work of the naturalists who deal with one
64015 side of the question for a solution of the whole problem.
64017 They say and write and print that the soul and freedom do not exist, for
64018 the life of man is expressed by muscular movements and muscular
64019 movements are conditioned by the activity of the nerves; the soul and
64020 free will do not exist because at an unknown period of time we sprang
64021 from the apes. They say this, not at all suspecting that thousands of
64022 years ago that same law of necessity which with such ardor they are now
64023 trying to prove by physiology and comparative zoology was not merely
64024 acknowledged by all the religions and all the thinkers, but has never
64025 been denied. They do not see that the role of the natural sciences in
64026 this matter is merely to serve as an instrument for the illumination of
64027 one side of it. For the fact that, from the point of view of
64028 observation, reason and the will are merely secretions of the brain, and
64029 that man following the general law may have developed from lower animals
64030 at some unknown period of time, only explains from a fresh side the
64031 truth admitted thousands of years ago by all the religious and
64032 philosophic theories--that from the point of view of reason man is
64033 subject to the law of necessity; but it does not advance by a hair's
64034 breadth the solution of the question, which has another, opposite, side,
64035 based on the consciousness of freedom.
64037 If men descended from the apes at an unknown period of time, that is as
64038 comprehensible as that they were made from a handful of earth at a
64039 certain period of time (in the first case the unknown quantity is the
64040 time, in the second case it is the origin); and the question of how
64041 man's consciousness of freedom is to be reconciled with the law of
64042 necessity to which he is subject cannot be solved by comparative
64043 physiology and zoology, for in a frog, a rabbit, or an ape, we can
64044 observe only the muscular nervous activity, but in man we observe
64045 consciousness as well as the muscular and nervous activity.
64047 The naturalists and their followers, thinking they can solve this
64048 question, are like plasterers set to plaster one side of the walls of a
64049 church who, availing themselves of the absence of the chief
64050 superintendent of the work, should in an access of zeal plaster over the
64051 windows, icons, woodwork, and still unbuttressed walls, and should be
64052 delighted that from their point of view as plasterers, everything is now
64053 so smooth and regular.
64060 For the solution of the question of free will or inevitability, history
64061 has this advantage over other branches of knowledge in which the
64062 question is dealt with, that for history this question does not refer to
64063 the essence of man's free will but its manifestation in the past and
64064 under certain conditions.
64066 In regard to this question, history stands to the other sciences as
64067 experimental science stands to abstract science.
64069 The subject for history is not man's will itself but our presentation of
64072 And so for history, the insoluble mystery presented by the
64073 incompatibility of free will and inevitability does not exist as it does
64074 for theology, ethics, and philosophy. History surveys a presentation of
64075 man's life in which the union of these two contradictions has already
64078 In actual life each historic event, each human action, is very clearly
64079 and definitely understood without any sense of contradiction, although
64080 each event presents itself as partly free and partly compulsory.
64082 To solve the question of how freedom and necessity are combined and what
64083 constitutes the essence of these two conceptions, the philosophy of
64084 history can and should follow a path contrary to that taken by other
64085 sciences. Instead of first defining the conceptions of freedom and
64086 inevitability in themselves, and then ranging the phenomena of life
64087 under those definitions, history should deduce a definition of the
64088 conception of freedom and inevitability themselves from the immense
64089 quantity of phenomena of which it is cognizant and that always appear
64090 dependent on these two elements.
64092 Whatever presentation of the activity of many men or of an individual we
64093 may consider, we always regard it as the result partly of man's free
64094 will and partly of the law of inevitability.
64096 Whether we speak of the migration of the peoples and the incursions of
64097 the barbarians, or of the decrees of Napoleon III, or of someone's
64098 action an hour ago in choosing one direction out of several for his
64099 walk, we are unconscious of any contradiction. The degree of freedom and
64100 inevitability governing the actions of these people is clearly defined
64103 Our conception of the degree of freedom often varies according to
64104 differences in the point of view from which we regard the event, but
64105 every human action appears to us as a certain combination of freedom and
64106 inevitability. In every action we examine we see a certain measure of
64107 freedom and a certain measure of inevitability. And always the more
64108 freedom we see in any action the less inevitability do we perceive, and
64109 the more inevitability the less freedom.
64111 The proportion of freedom to inevitability decreases and increases
64112 according to the point of view from which the action is regarded, but
64113 their relation is always one of inverse proportion.
64115 A sinking man who clutches at another and drowns him; or a hungry mother
64116 exhausted by feeding her baby, who steals some food; or a man trained to
64117 discipline who on duty at the word of command kills a defenseless man--
64118 seem less guilty, that is, less free and more subject to the law of
64119 necessity, to one who knows the circumstances in which these people were
64120 placed, and more free to one who does not know that the man was himself
64121 drowning, that the mother was hungry, that the soldier was in the ranks,
64122 and so on. Similarly a man who committed a murder twenty years ago and
64123 has since lived peaceably and harmlessly in society seems less guilty
64124 and his action more due to the law of inevitability, to someone who
64125 considers his action after twenty years have elapsed than to one who
64126 examined it the day after it was committed. And in the same way every
64127 action of an insane, intoxicated, or highly excited man appears less
64128 free and more inevitable to one who knows the mental condition of him
64129 who committed the action, and seems more free and less inevitable to one
64130 who does not know it. In all these cases the conception of freedom is
64131 increased or diminished and the conception of compulsion is
64132 correspondingly decreased or increased, according to the point of view
64133 from which the action is regarded. So that the greater the conception of
64134 necessity the smaller the conception of freedom and vice versa.
64136 Religion, the common sense of mankind, the science of jurisprudence, and
64137 history itself understand alike this relation between necessity and
64140 All cases without exception in which our conception of freedom and
64141 necessity is increased and diminished depend on three considerations:
64143 (1) The relation to the external world of the man who commits the deeds.
64145 (2) His relation to time.
64147 (3) His relation to the causes leading to the action.
64149 The first consideration is the clearness of our perception of the man's
64150 relation to the external world and the greater or lesser clearness of
64151 our understanding of the definite position occupied by the man in
64152 relation to everything coexisting with him. This is what makes it
64153 evident that a drowning man is less free and more subject to necessity
64154 than one standing on dry ground, and that makes the actions of a man
64155 closely connected with others in a thickly populated district, or of one
64156 bound by family, official, or business duties, seem certainly less free
64157 and more subject to necessity than those of a man living in solitude and
64160 If we consider a man alone, apart from his relation to everything around
64161 him, each action of his seems to us free. But if we see his relation to
64162 anything around him, if we see his connection with anything whatever--
64163 with a man who speaks to him, a book he reads, the work on which he is
64164 engaged, even with the air he breathes or the light that falls on the
64165 things about him--we see that each of these circumstances has an
64166 influence on him and controls at least some side of his activity. And
64167 the more we perceive of these influences the more our conception of his
64168 freedom diminishes and the more our conception of the necessity that
64169 weighs on him increases.
64171 The second consideration is the more or less evident time relation of
64172 the man to the world and the clearness of our perception of the place
64173 the man's action occupies in time. That is the ground which makes the
64174 fall of the first man, resulting in the production of the human race,
64175 appear evidently less free than a man's entry into marriage today. It is
64176 the reason why the life and activity of people who lived centuries ago
64177 and are connected with me in time cannot seem to me as free as the life
64178 of a contemporary, the consequences of which are still unknown to me.
64180 The degree of our conception of freedom or inevitability depends in this
64181 respect on the greater or lesser lapse of time between the performance
64182 of the action and our judgment of it.
64184 If I examine an act I performed a moment ago in approximately the same
64185 circumstances as those I am in now, my action appears to me undoubtedly
64186 free. But if I examine an act performed a month ago, then being in
64187 different circumstances, I cannot help recognizing that if that act had
64188 not been committed much that resulted from it--good, agreeable, and even
64189 essential--would not have taken place. If I reflect on an action still
64190 more remote, ten years ago or more, then the consequences of my action
64191 are still plainer to me and I find it hard to imagine what would have
64192 happened had that action not been performed. The farther I go back in
64193 memory, or what is the same thing the farther I go forward in my
64194 judgment, the more doubtful becomes my belief in the freedom of my
64197 In history we find a very similar progress of conviction concerning the
64198 part played by free will in the general affairs of humanity. A
64199 contemporary event seems to us to be indubitably the doing of all the
64200 known participants, but with a more remote event we already see its
64201 inevitable results which prevent our considering anything else possible.
64202 And the farther we go back in examining events the less arbitrary do
64205 The Austro-Prussian war appears to us undoubtedly the result of the
64206 crafty conduct of Bismarck, and so on. The Napoleonic wars still seem to
64207 us, though already questionably, to be the outcome of their heroes'
64208 will. But in the Crusades we already see an event occupying its definite
64209 place in history and without which we cannot imagine the modern history
64210 of Europe, though to the chroniclers of the Crusades that event appeared
64211 as merely due to the will of certain people. In regard to the migration
64212 of the peoples it does not enter anyone's head today to suppose that the
64213 renovation of the European world depended on Attila's caprice. The
64214 farther back in history the object of our observation lies, the more
64215 doubtful does the free will of those concerned in the event become and
64216 the more manifest the law of inevitability.
64218 The third consideration is the degree to which we apprehend that endless
64219 chain of causation inevitably demanded by reason, in which each
64220 phenomenon comprehended, and therefore man's every action, must have its
64221 definite place as a result of what has gone before and as a cause of
64224 The better we are acquainted with the physiological, psychological, and
64225 historical laws deduced by observation and by which man is controlled,
64226 and the more correctly we perceive the physiological, psychological, and
64227 historical causes of the action, and the simpler the action we are
64228 observing and the less complex the character and mind of the man in
64229 question, the more subject to inevitability and the less free do our
64230 actions and those of others appear.
64232 When we do not at all understand the cause of an action, whether a
64233 crime, a good action, or even one that is simply nonmoral, we ascribe a
64234 greater amount of freedom to it. In the case of a crime we most urgently
64235 demand the punishment for such an act; in the case of a virtuous act we
64236 rate its merit most highly. In an indifferent case we recognize in it
64237 more individuality, originality, and independence. But if even one of
64238 the innumerable causes of the act is known to us we recognize a certain
64239 element of necessity and are less insistent on punishment for the crime,
64240 or the acknowledgment of the merit of the virtuous act, or the freedom
64241 of the apparently original action. That a criminal was reared among male
64242 factors mitigates his fault in our eyes. The self-sacrifice of a father
64243 or mother, or self-sacrifice with the possibility of a reward, is more
64244 comprehensible than gratuitous self-sacrifice, and therefore seems less
64245 deserving of sympathy and less the result of free will. The founder of a
64246 sect or party, or an inventor, impresses us less when we know how or by
64247 what the way was prepared for his activity. If we have a large range of
64248 examples, if our observation is constantly directed to seeking the
64249 correlation of cause and effect in people's actions, their actions
64250 appear to us more under compulsion and less free the more correctly we
64251 connect the effects with the causes. If we examined simple actions and
64252 had a vast number of such actions under observation, our conception of
64253 their inevitability would be still greater. The dishonest conduct of the
64254 son of a dishonest father, the misconduct of a woman who had fallen into
64255 bad company, a drunkard's relapse into drunkenness, and so on are
64256 actions that seem to us less free the better we understand their cause.
64257 If the man whose actions we are considering is on a very low stage of
64258 mental development, like a child, a madman, or a simpleton--then,
64259 knowing the causes of the act and the simplicity of the character and
64260 intelligence in question, we see so large an element of necessity and so
64261 little free will that as soon as we know the cause prompting the action
64262 we can foretell the result.
64264 On these three considerations alone is based the conception of
64265 irresponsibility for crimes and the extenuating circumstances admitted
64266 by all legislative codes. The responsibility appears greater or less
64267 according to our greater or lesser knowledge of the circumstances in
64268 which the man was placed whose action is being judged, and according to
64269 the greater or lesser interval of time between the commission of the
64270 action and its investigation, and according to the greater or lesser
64271 understanding of the causes that led to the action.
64278 Thus our conception of free will and inevitability gradually diminishes
64279 or increases according to the greater or lesser connection with the
64280 external world, the greater or lesser remoteness of time, and the
64281 greater or lesser dependence on the causes in relation to which we
64282 contemplate a man's life.
64284 So that if we examine the case of a man whose connection with the
64285 external world is well known, where the time between the action and its
64286 examination is great, and where the causes of the action are most
64287 accessible, we get the conception of a maximum of inevitability and a
64288 minimum of free will. If we examine a man little dependent on external
64289 conditions, whose action was performed very recently, and the causes of
64290 whose action are beyond our ken, we get the conception of a minimum of
64291 inevitability and a maximum of freedom.
64293 In neither case--however we may change our point of view, however plain
64294 we may make to ourselves the connection between the man and the external
64295 world, however inaccessible it may be to us, however long or short the
64296 period of time, however intelligible or incomprehensible the causes of
64297 the action may be--can we ever conceive either complete freedom or
64298 complete necessity.
64300 (1) To whatever degree we may imagine a man to be exempt from the
64301 influence of the external world, we never get a conception of freedom in
64302 space. Every human action is inevitably conditioned by what surrounds
64303 him and by his own body. I lift my arm and let it fall. My action seems
64304 to me free; but asking myself whether I could raise my arm in every
64305 direction, I see that I raised it in the direction in which there was
64306 least obstruction to that action either from things around me or from
64307 the construction of my own body. I chose one out of all the possible
64308 directions because in it there were fewest obstacles. For my action to
64309 be free it was necessary that it should encounter no obstacles. To
64310 conceive of a man being free we must imagine him outside space, which is
64311 evidently impossible.
64313 (2) However much we approximate the time of judgment to the time of the
64314 deed, we never get a conception of freedom in time. For if I examine an
64315 action committed a second ago I must still recognize it as not being
64316 free, for it is irrevocably linked to the moment at which it was
64317 committed. Can I lift my arm? I lift it, but ask myself: could I have
64318 abstained from lifting my arm at the moment that has already passed? To
64319 convince myself of this I do not lift it the next moment. But I am not
64320 now abstaining from doing so at the first moment when I asked the
64321 question. Time has gone by which I could not detain, the arm I then
64322 lifted is no longer the same as the arm I now refrain from lifting, nor
64323 is the air in which I lifted it the same that now surrounds me. The
64324 moment in which the first movement was made is irrevocable, and at that
64325 moment I could make only one movement, and whatever movement I made
64326 would be the only one. That I did not lift my arm a moment later does
64327 not prove that I could have abstained from lifting it then. And since I
64328 could make only one movement at that single moment of time, it could not
64329 have been any other. To imagine it as free, it is necessary to imagine
64330 it in the present, on the boundary between the past and the future--that
64331 is, outside time, which is impossible.
64333 (3) However much the difficulty of understanding the causes may be
64334 increased, we never reach a conception of complete freedom, that is, an
64335 absence of cause. However inaccessible to us may be the cause of the
64336 expression of will in any action, our own or another's, the first demand
64337 of reason is the assumption of and search for a cause, for without a
64338 cause no phenomenon is conceivable. I raise my arm to perform an action
64339 independently of any cause, but my wish to perform an action without a
64340 cause is the cause of my action.
64342 But even if--imagining a man quite exempt from all influences, examining
64343 only his momentary action in the present, unevoked by any cause--we were
64344 to admit so infinitely small a remainder of inevitability as equaled
64345 zero, we should even then not have arrived at the conception of complete
64346 freedom in man, for a being uninfluenced by the external world, standing
64347 outside of time and independent of cause, is no longer a man.
64349 In the same way we can never imagine the action of a man quite devoid of
64350 freedom and entirely subject to the law of inevitability.
64352 (1) However we may increase our knowledge of the conditions of space in
64353 which man is situated, that knowledge can never be complete, for the
64354 number of those conditions is as infinite as the infinity of space. And
64355 therefore so long as not all the conditions influencing men are defined,
64356 there is no complete inevitability but a certain measure of freedom
64359 (2) However we may prolong the period of time between the action we are
64360 examining and the judgment upon it, that period will be finite, while
64361 time is infinite, and so in this respect too there can never be absolute
64364 (3) However accessible may be the chain of causation of any action, we
64365 shall never know the whole chain since it is endless, and so again we
64366 never reach absolute inevitability.
64368 But besides this, even if, admitting the remaining minimum of freedom to
64369 equal zero, we assumed in some given case--as for instance in that of a
64370 dying man, an unborn babe, or an idiot--complete absence of freedom, by
64371 so doing we should destroy the very conception of man in the case we are
64372 examining, for as soon as there is no freedom there is also no man. And
64373 so the conception of the action of a man subject solely to the law of
64374 inevitability without any element of freedom is just as impossible as
64375 the conception of a man's completely free action.
64377 And so to imagine the action of a man entirely subject to the law of
64378 inevitability without any freedom, we must assume the knowledge of an
64379 infinite number of space relations, an infinitely long period of time,
64380 and an infinite series of causes.
64382 To imagine a man perfectly free and not subject to the law of
64383 inevitability, we must imagine him all alone, beyond space, beyond time,
64384 and free from dependence on cause.
64386 In the first case, if inevitability were possible without freedom we
64387 should have reached a definition of inevitability by the laws of
64388 inevitability itself, that is, a mere form without content.
64390 In the second case, if freedom were possible without inevitability we
64391 should have arrived at unconditioned freedom beyond space, time, and
64392 cause, which by the fact of its being unconditioned and unlimited would
64393 be nothing, or mere content without form.
64395 We should in fact have reached those two fundamentals of which man's
64396 whole outlook on the universe is constructed--the incomprehensible
64397 essence of life, and the laws defining that essence.
64399 Reason says: (1) space with all the forms of matter that give it
64400 visibility is infinite, and cannot be imagined otherwise. (2) Time is
64401 infinite motion without a moment of rest and is unthinkable otherwise.
64402 (3) The connection between cause and effect has no beginning and can
64405 Consciousness says: (1) I alone am, and all that exists is but me,
64406 consequently I include space. (2) I measure flowing time by the fixed
64407 moment of the present in which alone I am conscious of myself as living,
64408 consequently I am outside time. (3) I am beyond cause, for I feel myself
64409 to be the cause of every manifestation of my life.
64411 Reason gives expression to the laws of inevitability. Consciousness
64412 gives expression to the essence of freedom.
64414 Freedom not limited by anything is the essence of life, in man's
64415 consciousness. Inevitability without content is man's reason in its
64418 Freedom is the thing examined. Inevitability is what examines. Freedom
64419 is the content. Inevitability is the form.
64421 Only by separating the two sources of cognition, related to one another
64422 as form to content, do we get the mutually exclusive and separately
64423 incomprehensible conceptions of freedom and inevitability.
64425 Only by uniting them do we get a clear conception of man's life.
64427 Apart from these two concepts which in their union mutually define one
64428 another as form and content, no conception of life is possible.
64430 All that we know of the life of man is merely a certain relation of free
64431 will to inevitability, that is, of consciousness to the laws of reason.
64433 All that we know of the external world of nature is only a certain
64434 relation of the forces of nature to inevitability, or of the essence of
64435 life to the laws of reason.
64437 The great natural forces lie outside us and we are not conscious of
64438 them; we call those forces gravitation, inertia, electricity, animal
64439 force, and so on, but we are conscious of the force of life in man and
64440 we call that freedom.
64442 But just as the force of gravitation, incomprehensible in itself but
64443 felt by every man, is understood by us only to the extent to which we
64444 know the laws of inevitability to which it is subject (from the first
64445 knowledge that all bodies have weight, up to Newton's law), so too the
64446 force of free will, incomprehensible in itself but of which everyone is
64447 conscious, is intelligible to us only in as far as we know the laws of
64448 inevitability to which it is subject (from the fact that every man dies,
64449 up to the knowledge of the most complex economic and historic laws).
64451 All knowledge is merely a bringing of this essence of life under the
64454 Man's free will differs from every other force in that man is directly
64455 conscious of it, but in the eyes of reason it in no way differs from any
64456 other force. The forces of gravitation, electricity, or chemical
64457 affinity are only distinguished from one another in that they are
64458 differently defined by reason. Just so the force of man's free will is
64459 distinguished by reason from the other forces of nature only by the
64460 definition reason gives it. Freedom, apart from necessity, that is,
64461 apart from the laws of reason that define it, differs in no way from
64462 gravitation, or heat, or the force that makes things grow; for reason,
64463 it is only a momentary undefinable sensation of life.
64465 And as the undefinable essence of the force moving the heavenly bodies,
64466 the undefinable essence of the forces of heat and electricity, or of
64467 chemical affinity, or of the vital force, forms the content of
64468 astronomy, physics, chemistry, botany, zoology, and so on, just in the
64469 same way does the force of free will form the content of history. But
64470 just as the subject of every science is the manifestation of this
64471 unknown essence of life while that essence itself can only be the
64472 subject of metaphysics, even the manifestation of the force of free will
64473 in human beings in space, in time, and in dependence on cause forms the
64474 subject of history, while free will itself is the subject of
64477 In the experimental sciences what we know we call the laws of
64478 inevitability, what is unknown to us we call vital force. Vital force is
64479 only an expression for the unknown remainder over and above what we know
64480 of the essence of life.
64482 So also in history what is known to us we call laws of inevitability,
64483 what is unknown we call free will. Free will is for history only an
64484 expression for the unknown remainder of what we know about the laws of
64492 History examines the manifestations of man's free will in connection
64493 with the external world in time and in dependence on cause, that is, it
64494 defines this freedom by the laws of reason, and so history is a science
64495 only in so far as this free will is defined by those laws.
64497 The recognition of man's free will as something capable of influencing
64498 historical events, that is, as not subject to laws, is the same for
64499 history as the recognition of a free force moving the heavenly bodies
64500 would be for astronomy.
64502 That assumption would destroy the possibility of the existence of laws,
64503 that is, of any science whatever. If there is even a single body moving
64504 freely, then the laws of Kepler and Newton are negatived and no
64505 conception of the movement of the heavenly bodies any longer exists. If
64506 any single action is due to free will, then not a single historical law
64507 can exist, nor any conception of historical events.
64509 For history, lines exist of the movement of human wills, one end of
64510 which is hidden in the unknown but at the other end of which a
64511 consciousness of man's will in the present moves in space, time, and
64512 dependence on cause.
64514 The more this field of motion spreads out before our eyes, the more
64515 evident are the laws of that movement. To discover and define those laws
64516 is the problem of history.
64518 From the standpoint from which the science of history now regards its
64519 subject on the path it now follows, seeking the causes of events in
64520 man's freewill, a scientific enunciation of those laws is impossible,
64521 for however man's free will may be restricted, as soon as we recognize
64522 it as a force not subject to law, the existence of law becomes
64525 Only by reducing this element of free will to the infinitesimal, that
64526 is, by regarding it as an infinitely small quantity, can we convince
64527 ourselves of the absolute inaccessibility of the causes, and then
64528 instead of seeking causes, history will take the discovery of laws as
64531 The search for these laws has long been begun and the new methods of
64532 thought which history must adopt are being worked out simultaneously
64533 with the self-destruction toward which--ever dissecting and dissecting
64534 the causes of phenomena--the old method of history is moving.
64536 All human sciences have traveled along that path. Arriving at
64537 infinitesimals, mathematics, the most exact of sciences, abandons the
64538 process of analysis and enters on the new process of the integration of
64539 unknown, infinitely small, quantities. Abandoning the conception of
64540 cause, mathematics seeks law, that is, the property common to all
64541 unknown, infinitely small, elements.
64543 In another form but along the same path of reflection the other sciences
64544 have proceeded. When Newton enunciated the law of gravity he did not say
64545 that the sun or the earth had a property of attraction; he said that all
64546 bodies from the largest to the smallest have the property of attracting
64547 one another, that is, leaving aside the question of the cause of the
64548 movement of the bodies, he expressed the property common to all bodies
64549 from the infinitely large to the infinitely small. The same is done by
64550 the natural sciences: leaving aside the question of cause, they seek for
64551 laws. History stands on the same path. And if history has for its object
64552 the study of the movement of the nations and of humanity and not the
64553 narration of episodes in the lives of individuals, it too, setting aside
64554 the conception of cause, should seek the laws common to all the
64555 inseparably interconnected infinitesimal elements of free will.
64562 From the time the law of Copernicus was discovered and proved, the mere
64563 recognition of the fact that it was not the sun but the earth that moves
64564 sufficed to destroy the whole cosmography of the ancients. By disproving
64565 that law it might have been possible to retain the old conception of the
64566 movements of the bodies, but without disproving it, it would seem
64567 impossible to continue studying the Ptolemaic worlds. But even after the
64568 discovery of the law of Copernicus the Ptolemaic worlds were still
64569 studied for a long time.
64571 From the time the first person said and proved that the number of births
64572 or of crimes is subject to mathematical laws, and that this or that mode
64573 of government is determined by certain geographical and economic
64574 conditions, and that certain relations of population to soil produce
64575 migrations of peoples, the foundations on which history had been built
64576 were destroyed in their essence.
64578 By refuting these new laws the former view of history might have been
64579 retained; but without refuting them it would seem impossible to continue
64580 studying historic events as the results of man's free will. For if a
64581 certain mode of government was established or certain migrations of
64582 peoples took place in consequence of such and such geographic,
64583 ethnographic, or economic conditions, then the free will of those
64584 individuals who appear to us to have established that mode of government
64585 or occasioned the migrations can no longer be regarded as the cause.
64587 And yet the former history continues to be studied side by side with the
64588 laws of statistics, geography, political economy, comparative philology,
64589 and geology, which directly contradict its assumptions.
64591 The struggle between the old views and the new was long and stubbornly
64592 fought out in physical philosophy. Theology stood on guard for the old
64593 views and accused the new of violating revelation. But when truth
64594 conquered, theology established itself just as firmly on the new
64597 Just as prolonged and stubborn is the struggle now proceeding between
64598 the old and the new conception of history, and theology in the same way
64599 stands on guard for the old view, and accuses the new view of subverting
64602 In the one case as in the other, on both sides the struggle provokes
64603 passion and stifles truth. On the one hand there is fear and regret for
64604 the loss of the whole edifice constructed through the ages, on the other
64605 is the passion for destruction.
64607 To the men who fought against the rising truths of physical philosophy,
64608 it seemed that if they admitted that truth it would destroy faith in
64609 God, in the creation of the firmament, and in the miracle of Joshua the
64610 son of Nun. To the defenders of the laws of Copernicus and Newton, to
64611 Voltaire for example, it seemed that the laws of astronomy destroyed
64612 religion, and he utilized the law of gravitation as a weapon against
64615 Just so it now seems as if we have only to admit the law of
64616 inevitability, to destroy the conception of the soul, of good and evil,
64617 and all the institutions of state and church that have been built up on
64620 So too, like Voltaire in his time, uninvited defenders of the law of
64621 inevitability today use that law as a weapon against religion, though
64622 the law of inevitability in history, like the law of Copernicus in
64623 astronomy, far from destroying, even strengthens the foundation on which
64624 the institutions of state and church are erected.
64626 As in the question of astronomy then, so in the question of history now,
64627 the whole difference of opinion is based on the recognition or
64628 nonrecognition of something absolute, serving as the measure of visible
64629 phenomena. In astronomy it was the immovability of the earth, in history
64630 it is the independence of personality--free will.
64632 As with astronomy the difficulty of recognizing the motion of the earth
64633 lay in abandoning the immediate sensation of the earth's fixity and of
64634 the motion of the planets, so in history the difficulty of recognizing
64635 the subjection of personality to the laws of space, time, and cause lies
64636 in renouncing the direct feeling of the independence of one's own
64637 personality. But as in astronomy the new view said: "It is true that we
64638 do not feel the movement of the earth, but by admitting its immobility
64639 we arrive at absurdity, while by admitting its motion (which we do not
64640 feel) we arrive at laws," so also in history the new view says: "It is
64641 true that we are not conscious of our dependence, but by admitting our
64642 free will we arrive at absurdity, while by admitting our dependence on
64643 the external world, on time, and on cause, we arrive at laws."
64645 In the first case it was necessary to renounce the consciousness of an
64646 unreal immobility in space and to recognize a motion we did not feel; in
64647 the present case it is similarly necessary to renounce a freedom that
64648 does not exist, and to recognize a dependence of which we are not
64655 End of the Project Gutenberg EBook of War and Peace, by Leo Tolstoy
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