Classic Audiobook Collection - War and Peace, Volume 3 by Leo Tolstoy ~ Full Audiobook [history]

Starting point is 00:00:00 War and Peace, Volume 3 by Leo Tolstoy, translated by Elmer Maud. Book 9, 1812, Chapter 1 From the close of the year 1811, an intensified arming and concentration of the forces of Western Europe began, and in 1812, these forces, millions of men, reckoning those transporting and feeding the army, moved from the west eastwards to the Russian frontier, toward which, since 1811, Russian forces have been similarly drawn. On the 12th of June, 1812, the forces of Western Europe crossed the Russian frontier and war began,

Starting point is 00:00:43 that is, an event took place opposed to human reason and to human nature. Millions of men perpetrated against one another such innumerable crimes, frauds, treacheries, thefts, forgeries, issues of false money, burglaries, incendiarisms, and murders, as in whole centuries, are not recorded in the annals of all the law courts of the world, but which those who committed them did not at the time regard as being crimes. What produced this extraordinary occurrence? What were its causes? The historians tell us, with naive assurance, that its causes were the wrongs inflicted on the Duke of Oldenburg, the non-observance of the continental system,

Starting point is 00:01:23 the ambition of Napoleon, the firmness of Alexander, the mistakes of the diplomatists, and so on. Consequently, it would only have been necessary for Metternich, Brumnyatsev, or Tully-Ran, between a levy and an evening party, to have taken proper pains and written a more adroit note, or for Napoleon to have written to Alexander, my respected brother, I consent to restore the Duchy to the Duke of Oldenburg, and there would have been no war. We can understand that the matter seemed like that to contemporaries.

Starting point is 00:01:58 It naturally seemed to Napoleon that the war was caused by England's intrigues, as in fact he said on the island of St. Helena. It naturally seemed to members of the English Parliament that the cause of the war was Napoleon's ambition. To the Duke of Oldenburg that the cause of the war was the violence done to him. To businessmen that the cause of the war was the continental system, which was ruining Europe. to the generals and old soldiers that the chief reason for the war was the necessity of giving them employment.

Starting point is 00:02:29 To the legitimists of that day that it was the need of re-establishing Les Bon Principe, and to the diplomatist of that time that it all resulted from the fact that the alliance between Russia and Austria in 1809 had not been sufficiently well concealed from Napoleon, and from the awkward wording of Memorandum No. 178. It is natural that these and a countless and infinite quantity of other reasons, the number depending on the endless diversity of points of view, presented themselves to the men of that day.

Starting point is 00:03:01 But to us, to posterity, who view the thing that happened in all its magnitude and perceive its plain and terrible meaning, these causes seem insufficient. To us it is incomprehensible that millions of Christian men killed and tortured each other either because Napoleon was ambitious or Alexander was firm, or because England's policy was astute,

Starting point is 00:03:23 or the Duke of Oldenburg wronged. We cannot grasp what connections such circumstances have with the actual fact of slaughter and violence. Why, because the Duke was wronged, thousands of men from the other side of Europe killed and ruined the people of Smolensk and Moscow and were killed by them. To us, their descendants,

Starting point is 00:03:44 who are not historians, and are not carried away by the process of research, and can therefore regard the event with unclouded common sense, an incalculable number of causes present themselves. The deeper we delve in search of these causes, the more of them we find. And each separate cause, or whole series of causes, appears to us equally valid in itself and equally false by its insignificance, compared to the magnitude of the events, and by its impotence, apart from the cooperation of all the other coincident causes, to occasion the event.

Starting point is 00:04:20 To us, the wish or objection of this or that French corporal to serve a second term appears as much a cause as Napoleon's refusal to withdraw his troops beyond the Vistula and to restore the Duchy of Oldenburg. For had he not wished to serve, and had a second, a third, and a thousandth corporal and private also refused, there would have been so many less men in Napoleon's army and the war could not have occurred. Had Napoleon not taken offense at the demand that he should withdraw beyond the Vistula and not ordered his troops to advance, there would have been no war.

Starting point is 00:04:55 But had all his sergeants objected to serving a second term, then also there could have been no war. Nor could have there been a war had there been no English intrigues and no Duke of Oldenburg, and had Alexander not felt insulted, and had there not been an autocratic government in Russia, or a revolution in France, and a subsequent dictatorship and empire, or all the things that produced the French Revolution, and so on. Without each of these causes, nothing could have happened. So all these causes, myriads of causes, coincided to bring it about.

Starting point is 00:05:30 And so there was no one cause for that occurrence, but it had occurred because it had to. Millions of men, renouncing their human feelings and reason, had to go from west to east to slay their fellows, just as some centuries previously, hordes of men had come from the east to the west, slaying their fellows. The actions of Napoleon and Alexander, on whose words the event seemed to hang, were as little voluntary as the actions of any soldier who was drawn into the campaign by lot or by conscription. This could not be otherwise, for in order that the will of Napoleon and Alexander,

Starting point is 00:06:08 on whom the event seemed to depend should be carried out, the concurrence of innumerable circumstances was needed without any one of which the event could not have taken place. It was necessary that millions of men in whose hands lay the real power, the soldiers who fired or transported provisions and guns, should consent to carry out the will of these weak individuals and should have been induced to do so by an infinite number of diverse and complex causes. We are forced to fall back on fatalism as an explanation of irrational events, that is to say,

Starting point is 00:06:43 events the reasonableness of which we do not understand. The more we try to explain such events in history reasonably, the more unreasonable and incomprehensible do they become to us. Each man lives for himself, using his freedom to attain his personal aims, and feels with his whole being that he can now do or abstain from doing this or that action. But as soon as he has done it, that action performed at a certain moment in time becomes irrevocable and belongs to history, in which it has not a free but a predestined significance. There are two sides to the life of every man, his individual life, which is the more free, the more abstract its interests, and his elemental hive life in which he inevitably obeys laws

Starting point is 00:07:32 laid down for him. Man lives consciously for himself, but is an unconscious instrument in the attainment of the historic universal aims of humanity. A deed done is irrevocable, and its result, coinciding in time with the actions of millions of other men, assumes an historic significance. The higher a man stands on the social ladder, the more people he is connected with, and the more power he has over others, the more evident is the predestination and the more of the predestination and inevitability of his every action. The king's heart is in the hands of the Lord. A king is history slave.

Starting point is 00:08:11 History, that is, the unconscious, general hive life of mankind, uses every moment of the life of kings as a tool for its own purposes. Though Napoleon at that time, in 1812, was more convinced than ever that it depended on him, verset una pas versed la sang de la Pouple, to shed or not to shed the blood of his peoples, as Alexander expressed it in the last letter he wrote him. He had never been so much in the grip of inevitable laws which compelled him, while thinking that he was acting on his own volition, to perform the hive life,

Starting point is 00:08:47 that is to say, for history, whatever had to be performed. The people of the West moved eastwards to slay their fellow men, and by the law of coincidence, thousands of minute causes fitted in and coordinated, to produce that movement and war. Approaches for the non-observance of the continental system. The Duke of Oldenburg's wrongs. The movement of troops into Prussia, undertaken, as it seemed in Napoleon, only for the purpose of securing an armed peace,

Starting point is 00:09:18 the French emper's love and habit of war coinciding with his people's inclinations, a lure by the grandeur of the preparations, and the expenditure on those preparations and the need of obtaining advantages to compensate for that expenditure, the intoxicating honors he received in Dresden, the diplomatic negotiations which, in the opinion of contemporaries, were carried on with a sincere desire to attain peace, but which only wounded the self-love of both sides,

Starting point is 00:09:46 and millions of other causes that adapted themselves to the event that was happening or coincided with it. When an apple has ripened and falls, why does it fall? Because of its attraction to the earth, because it stalk withers, because it is dried by the sun, because it grows heavier, because the wind shakes it, or because the boy standing below wants to eat it. Nothing is the cause. All this is only the coincidence of conditions in which all vital organic and elemental events occur. And the botanist who finds that the apple falls because the cellular tissue decays and so forth is equally right

Starting point is 00:10:25 with the child who stands under the tree and says, the apple fell because the apple fell because the apple falls because the he wanted to eat it and prayed for it. Equally right or wrong is he who says that Napoleon went to Moscow because he wanted to, and perished because Alexander desired his destruction. And he who says that an undermined hill weighing a million tons fell because the last navvy struck it for the last time with hismatic. In historic events, the so-called great men are labels giving names to events, and like labels they have but the smallest connection.

Starting point is 00:10:59 with the event itself. Every act of theirs, which appears to them an act of their own will, is in an historical sense involuntary, and is related to the whole course of history and predestined from eternity. End of Book 9, Chapter 1. Book 9 Chapter 2 of War and Peace, Volume 3 by Leo Tolstoy, translated by Elmer Maude. This Libervox recording is in the public domain,

Starting point is 00:11:31 Maine. Book 9, Chapter 2. On the 29th of May, Napoleon left Dresden, where he had spent three weeks surrounded by a court that included princes, dukes, kings, and even an emperor. Before leaving, Napoleon showed favor to the emperor, kings, and princes who had deserved it, reprimanded the kings and princes with whom he was dissatisfied, presented pearls and diamonds of his own, that is, which he had taken from other kings, to the king. the Empress of Austria, and having, as his historian tells us, tenderly embraced the Empress Marie-Louise, who regarded him as her husband, though he had left another wife in Paris, left her grieved by the parting which she seemed hardly able to bear. Though the diplomatists still firmly

Starting point is 00:12:20 believed in the possibility of peace and worked zealously to that end, and though the Emperor Napoleon himself wrote a letter to Alexander, calling him Monsieur Montserie Montferre, and sincerely assured him that he did not want war, and would always love and honor him, yet he set off to join his army, and at every station gave fresh orders to accelerate the movement of his troops from west to east. He went in a traveling coach with six horses, surrounded by pages, aides-to-camp, and an escort along the road to Posen, Thorn, Donzing, and Konigsburg. At each of these towns, thousands of people met him with excitement and enthusiasm. The army was moving from west to east, and relays of six horses carried him in the same direction.

Starting point is 00:13:09 On the 10th of June, coming up with the army, he spent the night in apartments prepared for him on the estate of a Polish count in the Vilkavisky Forest. Next day, overtaking the army, he went in a carriage to the Neiman, and changing into a Polish uniform, he drove to the riverbank in order to select a place for the crossing. seeing on the other side some Cossacks, and the widespreading steps in the midst of which lay the holy city of Moscow, Moscow la Voisin, the capital of a realm such as the Scythia into which Alexander the Great had marched,

Starting point is 00:13:44 Napoleon, unexpectedly and contrary alike to strategic and diplomatic considerations, ordered and advance, and the next day his army began to cross the Neiman. Early in the morning of the 12th of June, he came out of his tent, which was pitched that day on the steep left bank of the Neiman, and looked through a spyglass at the streams of his troops pouring out of the Vilkavisky Forest and flowing over the three bridges thrown across the river. The troops, knowing of the Emperor's presence, were on the lookout for him, and when they caught sight of a figure in an overcoat and a cocked hat standing apart from his suite in front of his tent on the hill, they threw up their caps and shouted,

Starting point is 00:14:25 "'Vive L' Emperor!' And one after another poured in a ceaseless stream out of the vast forest that had concealed them, and separating, flowed on and on by the three bridges to the other side. Now we'll go into action. Oh, when he takes it in hand himself,

Starting point is 00:14:43 things get hot. By heaven. There he is. Vive L' Emperor! So these are the steps of Asia. It's a nasty country all the same. A revoir, Bochet. I'll keep the best palace in Moscow for you.

Starting point is 00:14:58 Arovoire. Good luck. Did you see the emperor? Ville emperor. Pru. If they make me governor of India, Gerard, I'll make you minister of Kashmir. That's settled. Vive Lempore.

Starting point is 00:15:12 Hurrah! Hurrah! Hurrah! The Cossacks, those rascals, see how they run. Vive Lempore. There he is. Do you see him? I've seen him twice.

Starting point is 00:15:24 as I see you now. The little corporal, I saw him give the cross to one of the veterans. Vive l'empereur! came the voices of men, old and young, of most diverse characters and social positions. On the faces of all was one common expression of joy at the commencement of the long-expected campaign and of rapture and devotion to the man in the gray coat who was standing on the hill. On the 13th of June, a rather small, thoroughbred Arab horse was brought. brought to Napoleon. He mounted it and rode at a gallop to one of the bridges over the Neiman, deafened continually by incessant and rapturous acclamations, which he evidently endured only because it was impossible to forbid the soldiers to express their love of him

Starting point is 00:16:10 by such shouting, but the shouting which accompanied him everywhere disturbed him and distracted him from the military cares that had occupied him from the time he joined the army. He rode across one of the swaying pontoon bridges to the farther side, turned sharply to the left, and galloped in the direction of Kovno, preceded by enraptured mounted chasseurs of the guard, who, breathless with delight, galloped ahead to clear a path for him through the troops. On reaching the broad river Viliya, he stopped near regiment of Polish Ullins stationed by the river. Vivot! shouted the Poles, ecstatically breaking their ranks and pressing against one another to see him. De Polion looked up and down the river, dismounted, and sat down on a log that lay on the bank.

Starting point is 00:16:57 At a mute sign from him, a telescope was handed him, which he rested on the back of a happy page who had run up to him, and he gazed at the opposite bank. Then he became absorbed in a map laid out on the logs. Without lifting his head, he said something, and two of his aides to camp galloped off to the Polish Uelands. "'What? What did he say?' was heard in the ranks of the Polish Uelins when one of his aides to camp rode up to them.

Starting point is 00:17:24 The order was to find a ford and to cross the river. The colonel of the Polish Uelands, a handsome old man, flushed, and, fumbling in his speech from excitement, asked the aide to camp whether he would be permitted to swim the river with his Uelands instead of seeking a ford. In evident fear of refusal, like a boy asking for permission to get on a horse, he begged to be allowed to swim across the river before the emperor's eyes. The aide-de-camp replied that,

Starting point is 00:17:54 probably the emperor would not be displeased at this excess of zeal. As soon as the aide-de-camp had said this, the old-mustached officer, with happy face and sparkling eyes, raised his saber, shouted, Vivot! And commanding the Uylands to follow him, spurred his horse and galloped into the river. He gave an angry thrust to his horse,

Starting point is 00:18:15 which had grown restive under him, and plunged into the water, heading for the deepest part where the current was swift. Hundreds of eulence galloped in after him. It was cold and uncanny in the rapid current in the middle of the stream, and the eulents caught hold of one another as they fell off their horses. Some of the horses were drowned, and some of the men. The others tried to swim on, some in the saddle, and some cling to their horse's mains. They tried to make their way forward to the opposite bank, and though there was a ford, one-third

Starting point is 00:18:49 of a mile away, were proud that they were swimming and drowning in this river, under the eyes of the man who sat on the log and was not even looking at what they were doing. When the aide-de-camp, having returned and choosing an opportune moment, ventured to draw the Emperor's attention to the devotion of the poles to his person, the little man in the gray overcoat got up, and having summoned Bertier, began pacing. up and down the bank with him, giving him instructions and occasionally glancing disapprovingly at the drowning eulands who distracted his attention. For him it was no new conviction that his presence in any part of the world,

Starting point is 00:19:27 from Africa to the steps of Muscovia-like, was enough to dumbfound people and impel them to insane self-oblivion. He called for his horse and rode to his quarters. Some forty eulands were drowned in the river, though boats were sent. to their assistance. The majority struggled back to the bank from which they had started. The colonel and some of his men got across, and with difficulty clambered out on the further bank. And as soon as they got out, in their soaked and streaming clothes, they shouted, Vavat, and looked ecstatically at the spot where Napoleon had been, but where he no longer was,

Starting point is 00:20:05 and at that moment considered themselves happy. That evening, between issuing one order that the forged Russian paper money prepared for use in Russia should be delivered as quickly as possible, and another that a Saxon should be shot, on whom a letter containing information about the orders to the French army had been found, Napoleon also gave instructions that the Polish colonel, who had needlessly plunged into the river, should be enrolled in the Ligion d'Anur, of which Napoleon was himself the head. Quasvout per d'emantat. Those whom God wishes to destroy, he drives mad.

Starting point is 00:20:48 End of Book 9, Chapter 2. Book 9, Chapter 3, of War and Peace, Volume 3, by Leo Tolstoy, translated by Elmer Maud. This Libervox recording is in the public domain. Book 9, Chapter 3 The Emperor of Russia had, meanwhile, been in Vilna for more than a a month, reviewing troops and holding maneuvers. Nothing was ready for the war that everyone expected, and to prepare for which the Emperor had come from Petersburg. There was no general plan of action. The vacillation between the various plans that were proposed had even increased

Starting point is 00:21:29 after the Emperor had been at headquarters for a month. Each of the three armies had its own commander-in-chief, but there was no supreme commander of all the forces, and the Emperor did not assumed that responsibility himself. The longer the emperor remained in Vilna, the less did everybody, tired of waiting, prepare for the war. All the efforts of those who surrounded the sovereign seemed directed merely to making him spend his time pleasantly and forget that war was impending. In June, after many balls and fetz given by the Polish magnates, by the courtiers, and by

Starting point is 00:22:04 the emperor himself, it occurred to one of the Polish aides to camp in attendance that a dinner and ball should be given for the Emperor by his aides-to-camp. This idea was eagerly received. The Emperor gave his consent. The aides-to-camp collected money by subscription. The lady, who was thought to be most pleasing to the Emperor, was invited to act as hostess. Count Benningson, being a landowner in the Vilna province,

Starting point is 00:22:30 offered his country house for the Fet, and the 13th of June was fixed for a ball, dinner, regatta, and fireworks at Zuckrette, Count Benningson's country seat. The very day that Napoleon issued the order to cross the Neiman, and his vanguard, driving off the Cossacks, crossed the Russian frontier, Alexander spent the evening at the entertainment given by his age to camp at Benningson's Country House.

Starting point is 00:22:55 It was a gay and brilliant fete. Connoisseurs of such matters declared that rarely had so many beautiful women been assembled in one place. Countess Bezacova was present, among other Russian ladies, who had followed the sovereign from Petersburg to Vilna and eclipsed the refined Polish ladies by her massive, so-called Russian type of beauty. The Emperor noticed her and honored her with a dance. Boris Trebetskoy, having left his wife in Moscow, and being for the present, on Garsohn, as he

Starting point is 00:23:26 phrased it, was also there, and though not an aide-de-camp, had subscribed a large sum toward the expenses. Boris was now a rich man, who had risen to high honors and no longer sought patronage, but stood on an equal footing with the highest of those of his own age. He was meeting Elaine in Vilna after not having seen her for a long time and did not recall the past, but as Elaine was enjoying the favors of a very important personage, and Boris had only recently married, they met as good friends of long-standing. At midnight, dancing was still going on.

Starting point is 00:24:03 Elaine, not having a suitable partner, herself offered to dance the mazurka with Boris. They were the third couple. Boris, coolly looking at Elaine's dazzling bare shoulders which emerged from a dark, gold-embroidered gauze gown, talked to her of old acquaintances, and at the same time, unaware of it himself and unnoticed by others, never for an instant ceased to observe the Emperor who was in the same room. The Emperor was not dancing. He stood in the doorway, stopping now with him.

Starting point is 00:24:33 one pair, and now another, with gracious words which he alone knew how to utter. As the Mazurka began, Boris saw that adjutant General Balashev, one of those in closest attendance on the emperor, went up to him, and, contrary to court etiquette, stood near him while he was talking to a Polish lady. Having finished speaking to her, the emperor looked inquiringly at Balashev, and, evidently understanding that he only acted thus because there were important reasons for so doing, not It folded slightly to the lady and turned to him. Hardly had Balashev begun to speak before a look of amazement appeared on the Emperor's face.

Starting point is 00:25:12 He took Balashev by the arm and crossed the room with him, unconsciously clearing a path seven yards wide as the people on bowl sides made way for him. Boris noticed Arakcheyev's excited face when the sovereign went out with Balashev. Arachaev looked at the Emperor from under his brow, and, sniffing with his red nose, stepped forward from the crowd as if expecting the emperor to address him. Boris understood that Arakcheyev envy Balashev, and was displeased that evidently important news had reached the emperor otherwise than through himself. But the emperor and Balashev passed out into the illuminated garden without noticing

Starting point is 00:25:49 Arakcheyev, who, holding his sword and glancing wrathfully around, followed some twenty paces behind them. All the time Boris was going through the figures of the mazurka, he was worried by the question of what news Balashev had brought and how he could find it out before others. In the figure in which he had to choose two ladies, he whispered to Elaine that he meant to choose Countess Petochka, who, he thought, had gone out onto the veranda, and glided over the parquet to the door opening into the garden,

Starting point is 00:26:20 where, seeing Balashev and the emperor returning to the veranda, he stood still. They were moving toward the door. Boris, fluttering as if he had not had time to withdraw, saw, respectfully pressed close to the doorpost with bowed head. The Emperor, with the agitation of one who has been personally affronted, was finishing with these words. "'To enter Russia without declaring war! I will not make peace as long as a single armed enemy remains in my country!'

Starting point is 00:26:50 It seemed to Boris that it gave the Emperor pleasure to utter these words. He was satisfied with the form in which he had expressed his thoughts, but displeased that Boris had overheard it. "'Let no one know of it,' the Emperor added with a frown. Boris understood that this was meant for him, and, closing his eyes, slightly bowed his head. The Emperor re-entered the ballroom

Starting point is 00:27:14 and remained there about another half-hour. Boris was thus the first to learn the news that the French Army had crossed the Neiman, and thanks to this, was able to show certain important personages that much that was concealed from others was usually known to him, and by this means he rose higher in their estimation. The unexpected news of the French having crossed the Neiman

Starting point is 00:27:37 was particularly startling after a month of unfulfilled expectations, and at a ball. At first, receiving the news, under the influence of indignation and resentment, the emperor had found a phrase that pleased him, fully expressed his feelings, and has since become famous. On returning home at two o'clock that night, he sent for his secretary, Shishkoff, and told him to write an order to the troops and a rescript to field-martial Prince Saltikov,

Starting point is 00:28:05 in which he insisted on the words being inserted that he would not make peace so long as a single armed Frenchman remained on Russian soil. Next day, the following letter was sent to Napoleon. Monsieur Montferre Yesterday I learned that, despite the loyalty with which I have kept my engagements with your majesty, your troops have crossed the Russian frontier, and I have this moment received from Petersburg a note, in which Count Lauriston informs me, as a reason for this aggression, that your majesty has considered yourself to be in a state of war with

Starting point is 00:28:40 me from the time Prince Caraccan asked for his passports. The reasons on which the Duke de Basano based his refusal to deliver them to him would never have led me to suppose that that could serve as a pretext for aggression. In fact, the ambassador, as he himself has declared, was never authorized to make that demand, and as soon as I was informed of it, I let him know how much I disapproved of it, and ordered him to remain at his post. If Your Majesty does not intend to shed the blood of our peoples for such a misunderstanding, and consent to withdraw your troops from Russian territory, I will regard what has passed as not having occurred, and an understanding between us will be possible.

Starting point is 00:29:24 In the contrary case, Your Majesty, I shall see myself forced to repel then attack that nothing on my part has provoked. It still depends on your majesty to preserve humanity from the calamity of another war. I am, etc., signed Alexander. End of Book 9, Chapter 3. Book 9, Chapter 4, of War and Peace, Volume 3, by Leo Tolstoy, translated by Elmer Maude. This Libervox recording is in the public domain. Chapter 4 At 2 in the morning of the 14th of June, the emperor, having sent for Balashev and read him his letter to Napoleon, ordered him to take it and hand it personally to the French emperor.

Starting point is 00:30:16 When dispatching Balashev, the emperor repeated to him the words that he would not make peace so long as a single armed enemy remained on Russian soil and told him to transmit those words to Napoleon. Alexander did not insert them in his letter to Napoleon. because with his characteristic tact he felt it would be injudicious to use them at a moment when a last attempt at reconciliation was being made, but he definitely instructed Balashev to repeat them personally to Napoleon. Having set off in the small hours of the 14th, accompanied by a bugler and two Cossacks,

Starting point is 00:30:53 Balashev reached the French outposts at the village of Rikonti, on the Russian side of the Neiman by dawn. There he was stopped by French cavalry sentinels. A French non-commissioned officer of Hussars, in crimson uniform and a shaggy cap, shouted to the approaching Balashev to halt. Balashev did not do so at once, but continued to advance along the road at a walking pace. The non-commissioned officer frowned, and muttering words of abuse advanced his horse's chest against Balashev, put his hand to his saber, and shouted rudely at the Russian general.

Starting point is 00:31:29 general, asking, was he deaf that he did not do as he was told? Balashev mentioned who he was. The non-commissioned officer began talking with his comrades about regimental matters without looking at the Russian general. After living at the seat of the highest authority and power, after conversing with the emperor less than three hours before, and in general being accustomed to the respect due to his rank in the service, Balashev found it very strange here on Russian soil to encounter this hostile, and still more this disrespectful application of brute force to himself. The sun was only just appearing from behind the clouds. The air was fresh and dewy. A herd of cattle was being driven along the road from the village, and over the fields the larks rose trilling,

Starting point is 00:32:18 one after another, like bubbles rising in water. Balashev looked around him, awaiting the arrival of an officer from the village. The Russian Cossacks and Bugler and the French hussars looked silently at one another from time to time. A French colonel of hussars, who had evidently just left his bed, came riding from the village

Starting point is 00:32:40 on a handsome, sleek, grey horse accompanied by two hussars. The officer, the soldiers, and their horses all looked smart and well kept. It was that first period of a campaign when troops are still in full trussars. rim, almost like that of peacetime maneuvers, but with a shade of martial swagger in their clothes and a touch of the gaiety and spirit of enterprise which always accompany the opening

Starting point is 00:33:06 of a campaign. The French colonel, with difficulty, repressed a yawn, but was polite and evidently understood Balashev's importance. He led him past his soldiers and behind the outposts, and told him that his wish to be presented to the emperor would most likely be satisfied immediately. as the Emperor's quarters were, he believed, not far off. They rode through the village of Rikanti, past tethered French hussar horses, past sentinels and men who saluted their colonel, and stared with curiosity at a Russian

Starting point is 00:33:40 uniform, and came out at the other end of the village. The colonel said that the commander of the division was a mile and a quarter away, and would receive Balashev and conduct him to his destination. The sun had by now risen and shone gaily on the bright verger. They had hardly ridden up a hill, past a tavern, before they saw a group of horsemen coming toward them. In front of the group, on a black horse with trappings that glittered in the sun, rode a tall man with plumes in his hat and black hair curling down to his shoulders.

Starting point is 00:34:13 He wore a red mantle and stretched his long legs forward in French fashion. This man rode toward Balashev at a gallo. his plumes flowing, and his gems and gold-laced glittering in the bright June sunshine. Belachev was only two horses' length from the equestrian with the bracelets, plumes, necklaces, and gold embroidery, who was galloping toward him with a theatrically solemn countenance, when Julesne, the French colonel, whispered respectfully, the King of Naples. It was, in fact, Murat, now called King of Naples.

Starting point is 00:34:49 Though it was quite incomprehensible why he should be King of Naples, he was called so, and was himself convinced that he was so, and therefore assumed a more solemn and important air than formerly. He was so sure that he really was the King of Naples, that when, on the eve of his departure from that city, while walking through the streets with his wife, some Italians called out to him, Viva il re! Long lived the king. He turned to his wife with a pensive smile and said,

Starting point is 00:35:21 "'Poor fellows, they don't know that I am leaving them tomorrow.' But though he firmly believed himself to be King of Naples, and pitied the grief felt by the subjects he was abandoning, latterly after he had been ordered to return to military service, and especially since his last interview with Napoleon and Danzig, when his august brother-in-law had told him, I made you king that you should reign in my way, but not in yours. He had cheerfully taken up his familiar business, and, like a well-fed but not over-fat

Starting point is 00:35:55 horse that feels himself in harness and grows skittish between the shafts. He dressed up in clothes as variegated and expensive as possible, and gaily and contentedly galloped along the roads of Poland, without himself knowing why or whither. On seeing the Russian General, he threw back his seat. head, with its long hair curling to his shoulders in a majestically royal manner, and looked inquiringly at the French colonel. The colonel respectfully informed his majesty of Balashev's mission, whose name he could not pronounce. "'De Balmachev,' said the king, overcoming by his assurance the difficulty that had presented

Starting point is 00:36:36 itself to the colonel. Charmed to make your acquaintance, General,' he added with a gesture of kingly condescension. As soon as the king began to speak loud and fast, his royal dignity instantly forsook him, and without noticing it, he passed into his natural tone of good-natured familiarity. He laid his hand on the withers of Balashev's horse and said,

Starting point is 00:36:59 Well, general, it all looks like a war, as if regretting a circumstance of which he was unable to judge. "'Your Majesty,' replied Balashev, "'My master, the emperor, does not desire war, and as your majesty sees,' said Balashev, using the words, "'your majesty at every opportunity, with the affectation unavoidable in frequently addressing one to whom the title was still a novelty.' Mara's face beamed with stupid satisfaction as he listened to Monsieur de Balmachev. But royalty obliges, royalty has its obligations, and he felt it incompetent.

Starting point is 00:37:41 on him as a king and an ally to confer on state affairs with Alexander's envoy. He dismounted, took Balashev's arm, and moving a few steps away from his suite, which, waited respectfully, began to pace up and down with him, trying to speak significantly. He referred to the fact that the Emperor Napoleon had resented the demand that he should withdraw his troops from Prussia, especially when that demand became generally known and the dignity of France was thereby offended. Balashev replied that there was nothing offensive in the demand because, but Mara interrupted him. Then you don't consider the Emperor Alexander the aggressor? He asked unexpectedly, with a kindly and fully smile. Balashev told him why he considered Napoleon to be the originator of

Starting point is 00:38:32 the war. Oh, my dear general! Mara again interrupted him. With all my heart, I wish the emperors may arranged the affair between them, and that the war begun by no wish of mine may finish as quickly as possible, said he, in the tone of a servant who wants to remain good friends with another, despite a quarrel between their masters. And he went on to inquiries about the Grand Duke and the state of his health, and to reminiscences of the gay and amusing times he had spent with him in Naples. Then suddenly, as if remembering his royal dignity, Murrah solemnly, only drew himself up, assumed the pose in which he had stood at his coronation, and waving his right arm, said,

Starting point is 00:39:17 "'I won't detain you longer, General. I wish success to your mission.' And with his embroidered red mantle, his flowing feathers, and his glittering ornaments, he rejoined his suite, who were respectfully awaiting him. Balashev rode on, supposing from Murat's words that he would very soon be brought before Napoleon himself. But instead of that, at the next village, the Sentinels of DeVos' Infantry Corps detained him as the pickets of the vanguard had done, and an adjutant of the Corps commander, who was fetched, conducted him into the village to Marshal DeVoe.

Starting point is 00:39:58 End of Book 9, Chapter 4. Book 9 Chapter 5 of War and Peace, Volume 3, by Leo Tolstoy, translated by Elmer Maud. This Libervox recording is in the public domain. Book 9 Chapter 5 Davao was to Napoleon what Erekcheyev was to Alexander, though not a coward like Erekcheyev. He was as precise, as cruel, and as unable to express his devotion to his monarch except by cruelty. In the organism of states, such men are necessary, as wolves are necessary in the organism of nature, and they always exist, always appear.

Starting point is 00:40:47 and hold their own, however incongruous their presence and their proximity to the head of the government may be. This inevitability alone can explain how the cruel Erycheyev, who tore out a grenadier's mustache with his own hands, whose weak nerves rendered him unable to face danger, and who was neither an educated man nor a courtier was able to maintain his powerful position with Alexander, whose own character was chivalrous, noble, and gentle. Balashev found DeVoe seated on a barrel in the shed of a peasant's hut, writing. He was auditing accounts. Better quarters could have been found him, but Marshal DeVos was one of those men,

Starting point is 00:41:31 who purposely put themselves in most depressing conditions to have a justification for being gloomy. For the same reason, they are always hard at work and in a hurry. How can I think of the bright side of life, when, as you see, I am a good thing. sitting on a barrel and working in a dirty shed, the expression of his face seemed to say. The chief pleasure and necessity of such men, when they encounter anyone who shows animation, is to flaunt their own dreary, persistent activity. Davao allowed himself that pleasure when Balashev was brought in. He became still more absorbed in his task when the Russian general entered,

Starting point is 00:42:13 and after glancing over his spectacles at Balashev's face, which was, animated by the beauty of the morning and by his talk with Mara. He did not rise or even stir, but scowled still more and sneered malevolently. When he noticed in Balashev's face the disagreeable impression this reception produced, DeVos raised his head and coldly asked what he wanted. Thinking he could have been received in such a manner, only because DeVos did not know that he was adjutant general to the Emperor Alexander, and even his envoy to Napoleon, Balashev hastened to inform him of his rank and mission.

Starting point is 00:42:51 Contrary to his expectation, Davao, after hearing him, became still surlier and ruder. "'Where is your dispatch?' he inquired. "'Give it to me. I will send it to the Emperor.' Balashev replied that he had been ordered to hand it personally to the Emperor. "'Your Emperor's orders are obeyed in your army, but here—' said DeVos, you must do as you're told. And as if to make the Russian general still more conscious of his dependence on brute force, DeVos sent an adjutant to call the officer on duty.

Starting point is 00:43:28 Balashev took out the packet containing the Emperor's letter and laid it on the table, made of a door with its hinges still hanging on it laid across two barrels. DeVos took the packet and read the inscription. "'You are perfectly at liberty to treat me with respect or not,' protested Belachev, "'but permit me to observe that I have the honor to be adjutant general to his majesty.' Devo glanced at him silently and plainly derived pleasure from the signs of agitation and confusion, which appeared on Balashev's face. "'You will be treated as his fitting,' said he, and putting the packet in his pocket in his pocket

Starting point is 00:44:09 left the shed. A minute later, the marshal's adjutant, de Castre, came in and conducted Balashev to the quarters assigned him. That day he dined with the marshal at the same board on the barrels. Next day, DeVoe rode out early, and, after asking Belashev to come to him, peremptorily requested him to remain there, to move on with the baggage train should orders come for it to move, and to talk to no one except Monsieur de Castre. After four days of solitude, ennui, and consciousness of his impotence and insignificance, particularly acute by the contrast with a sphere of power in which he had so lately moved, and, after several marches with the Marshal's baggage and the French army,

Starting point is 00:44:58 which occupied the whole district, Balashev was brought to Vilna, now occupied by the French, through the very gate by which he had left it, four days previously. Next day, the imperial gentleman-in-waiting, the Comte de Turin, came to Balashev and informed him of the Emperor Napoleon's wish to honor him with an audience. Four days before, sentinels of the Preobazant's regiment had stood in front of the house to which Balashev was conducted, and now two French grenadiers stood there in blue uniforms, unfastened in front and with shaggy caps on their heads, and an es-esquered.

Starting point is 00:45:36 of hussars and eulands, and a brilliant suite of age to camp, pages and generals, who were waiting for Napoleon to come out, were standing at the porch round his saddle-horse and his Mamaluk Rustin. Napoleon received Balashev in the very house in Vilna, from which Alexander had dispatched him on his mission. End of Book 9, Chapter 5. Book 9 Chapter 6 of War and Peace, Volume 3, by Leo Tolstoy. translated by Elmer Maude.

Starting point is 00:46:15 This Libervox recording is in the public domain. Book 9, Chapter 6 Though Balashev was used to Imperial Pomp, he was amazed at the luxury and magnificence of Napoleon's court. The Comptu Turen showed him into a big reception room, where many generals, gentlemen-in-waiting, and Polish magnates, several of which Balashev had seen at the court of the Emperor of Russia, were waiting.

Starting point is 00:46:40 Durok said that Napoleon would receive the Russian general before going for his ride. After some minutes, the gentleman in waiting, who was on duty, came into the great reception room, and, bowing politely, asked Balashev to follow him. Balashev went into a small reception room, one door of which led into a study, the very one from which the Russian emperor had dispatched him on his mission. He stood a minute or two waiting. He heard hurried footsteps beyond the door. Both halves of it were open rapidly.

Starting point is 00:47:14 All was silent, and then from the study the sound was heard of other steps, firm and resolute. They were those of Napoleon. He had just finished dressing for his ride, and wore a blue uniform, opening in front over a white waistcoat so long that it covered his rotund stomach, white leather breeches tightly fitting the fat thighs of his short legs and Hessian boots. His short hair had evidently just been brushed, but one lock hung down in the middle of his

Starting point is 00:47:44 broad forehead. His plump white neck stood out sharply above the black collar of his uniform, and he smelled of Ode-Cologne. His full face, rather young-looking, with its prominent chin, wore a gracious and majestic expression of imperial welcome. He entered briskly, with a jerk at every step and his head slightly thrown back. His whole short, corpulent figure, with broad, thick shoulders and chest and stomach involuntarily protruding, had that imposing and stately appearance one sees in men of forty who live in comfort.

Starting point is 00:48:19 It was evident, too, that he was in the best of spirits that day. He nodded in answer to Balashev's low and respectful bow, and coming up to him, at once began speaking like a man who values every moment of his time and does not condescend to prepare what he has to say, but is sure he will always say the right thing and say it well. Good day, General, said he. I have received the letter you brought from the Emperor Alexander, and I'm very glad to see you. He glanced with his large eyes to Balashev's face and immediately looked past him. It was plain that Balashev's personality did not interest him at all. Evidently, only what took place within his own mind interested him. Nothing outside himself.

Starting point is 00:49:05 had any significance for him, because everything in the world, it seemed to him, depended entirely on his will. "'I do not and did not desire war,' he continued. "'But it has been forced on me. Even now,' he emphasized the word, "'I am ready to receive any explanations you can give me.' And he began clearly and concisely to explain his reasons for dissatisfaction with the Russian government. Judging by the calmly moderate and amicable tone in which the French emperor spoke, Balashev was firmly persuaded that he wished for peace and intended to enter into negotiations.

Starting point is 00:49:47 When Napoleon, having finished speaking, looked inquiringly at the Russian envoy, Balashev began a speech he had prepared long before. Sire, the emperor, my master, but the sight of the emperor's eyes bent on him, confused him. "'You are flurried. Compose yourself,' Napoleon seemed to say, as with a scarcely perceptible smile, he looked at Balashev's uniform and sword. Balashev recovered himself and began to speak. He said that the Emperor Alexander did not consider Karakhan's demand for his passports a sufficient cause for war, that Karakin had acted on his own initiative and without his sovereign's assent, that the Emperor Alexander did not desire war and had no relations with English.

Starting point is 00:50:33 "'Not yet,' interposed Napoleon, and, as if fearing to give vent to his feelings, he frowned and nodded slightly as a sign that Balashev might proceed. After saying all he had been instructed to say, Balashev added that the Emperor Alexander wished for peace, but would not enter into negotiations except on condition that—' Here, Balashev hesitated. He remembered the words the Emperor Alexander had not written in his letter, but had specially inserted in the re-script to Saltikov and had told Belishev to repeat to Napoleon. Balashev remembered these words, so long as a single-armed foe remains on Russian soil.

Starting point is 00:51:17 But some complex feeling restrained him. He could not utter them, though he wished to do so. He grew confused and said, On condition that the French army retires beyond the Neiman. Napoleon noticed Belichene. his embarrassment when uttering these last words. His face twitched, and the calf of his left leg began to quiver rhythmically. Without moving from where he stood, he began speaking in a louder tone and more hurriedly than before. During the speech that followed, Balashev, who more than

Starting point is 00:51:51 once lowered his eyes, involuntarily noticed the quivering of Napoleon's left leg, which increase the more Napoleon raised his voice. "'I desire peace, no less than the Emperor, Alexander,' he began. "'Have I not for eighteen months been doing everything to obtain it? I have waited eighteen months for explanations. But in order to begin negotiations, what is demanded of me?' he said, frowning and making an energetic gesture of inquiry with his small white plump hand. "'The withdrawal of your army beyond the Neiman's,

Starting point is 00:52:27 sire, replied Balashev. The Neiman, repeated Napoleon. So now you want me to retire beyond the Neiman. Only the Neiman? Repeated Napoleon, looking straight at Balashev. The latter bowed his head respectfully. Instead of the demand of four months earlier to withdraw from Pomerania, only a withdrawal beyond the Neiman was now demanded.

Starting point is 00:52:52 Napoleon turned quickly and began to pace the room. You say the demand now is that I am to withdraw beyond the Neiman before commencing negotiations, but in just the same way, two months ago, the demand was that I should withdraw beyond the Vistula and the odor, and yet you are willing to negotiate. He went in silence from one corner of the room to the other, and again stopped in front of Balashev. Balashev noticed that his left leg was quivering faster than before, and his face seemed petrified in its stern expression. The quivering of his left leg was a thing Napoleon was conscious of.

Starting point is 00:53:30 The vibration of my left calf is a great sign with me, he remarked at a later date. Such demands as to retreat beyond the vestula and odor may be made to a Prince of Baden, but not to me! Napoleon almost screamed, quite to his own surprise. If you gave me Petersburg and Moscow, I could not accept such conditions. You say I have begun this war, but who first joined his army? The Emperor Alexander, not I. And you offer me negotiations when I have expended millions, when you are in alliance with England,

Starting point is 00:54:05 and when your position is a bad one. You offer me negotiations. But what is the aim of your alliance with England? What has she given you? He continued hurriedly, evidently no longer trying to show the advantages of peace and discuss its possibility, but only to prove his own rectitude and power,

Starting point is 00:54:23 and Alexander's errors and duplicity. The commencement of his speech had obviously been made with the intention of demonstrating the advantages of his position and showing that he was nevertheless willing to negotiate. But he had begun talking, and the more he talked, the less could he control his words. The whole purport of his remarks now was evidently to exalt himself and insult Alexander, just what he had least desired at the commencement of the interview.

Starting point is 00:54:53 "'I hear you have made peace with Turkey!' Balashev bowed his head affirmatively. Peace has been concluded, he began, but Napoleon did not let him speak. He evidently wanted to do all the talking himself, and continued to talk with the sort of eloquence and unrestrained irritability to which spoiled people are so prone. "'Yes, I know you have made peace with the Turks without obtaining Moldavia and Wallachia. "'I would have given your sovereign those provinces as I gave him Finland.' "'Yes,' he went on. "'I promised and would have given the Emperor Alexander Moldavia and Wallachia,

Starting point is 00:55:32 "'and now he won't have those splendid provinces. "'Yet he might have united them to his empire, "'and in a single reign would have extended Russia "'from the Gulf of Bothnia to the mouths of the Danube. "'Catherine the Great could not have done more,' "'said Napoleon, growing more and more excited as he paced up and down the room, repeating to Belishav almost the very words

Starting point is 00:55:54 he had used to Alexander himself at Tilsit. All that he would have owed to my friendship. Oh, what a splendid rain! He repeated several times, then paused, drew from his pocket a gold snuff-box, lifted it to his nose, and greedily sniffed at it. What a splendid reign the Emperor Alexander's might have been! He looked compassionately at Balashev, and as soon as the latter tried to make some rejoinder,

Starting point is 00:56:23 hastily interrupted him. "'What could he wish or look for that he would not have obtained through my friendship?' demanded Napoleon, shrugging his shoulders in perplexity. "'But no. He has preferred to surround himself with my enemies. And with whom?' "'With Steins, Armfels, Benningsen's, and Vincent Gerotas.' "'Stein, a traitor expelled from his own country. "'Armfelt, a rake and an intriguer. "'Vincencingerota, a fugitive French subject.

Starting point is 00:56:54 "'Benningson, rather more of a soldier than the others, "'but all the same, an incompetent, "'who was unable to do anything in 1807, "'and who should awaken terrible memories in the Emperor Alexander's mind. "'Granted that were they competent they might be made use of, "'continued Napoleon, "'hardly able to keep pace in words with the rush of thoughts "'that incessantly sprang up,

Starting point is 00:57:17 proving how right and strong he was, in his perception the two were one and the same. But they are not even that. They are neither fit for war nor peace. Barkley is said to be the most capable of them all, but I cannot say so, judging by his first movements. And what are they doing all these courtiers? Fuel proposes, armfeld disputes, Benningson considers, and Barclay, called on to act, does not know what to decide on, and time passes bringing no result. Pagradian alone is a military man. He's stupid, but he has experience, a quick eye and resolution, and what role is your young monarch playing in that monstrous crowd? They compromise him,

Starting point is 00:58:02 and throw on him the responsibility for all that happens. A sovereign should not be with the army unless he is a general, said Napoleon, evidently uttering these words as a direct challenge to the emperor. He knew how Alexander desired to be a military commander. The campaign began only a week ago, and you haven't even been able to defend Vilna. You are cut in two and have been driven out of the Polish provinces. Your army is grumbling. On the contrary, Your Majesty, said Balashev, hardly able to remember what had been said to him, and following these verbal fireworks with difficulty. The troops are burning with eagerness. "'I know everything,' Napoleon interrupted him.

Starting point is 00:58:48 "'I know everything. "'I know the number of your battalions as exactly as I know my own. "'You have not two hundred thousand men, and I have three times that number. "'I give you my word of honor,' said Napoleon, forgetting that his word of honor could carry no weight. "'I give you my word of honor that I have five hundred and thirty thousand men this side of the Vistula. "'The Turks will be of no use to you. they are worth nothing, and have shown it by making peace with you. As for the Swedes, it is their fate to be governed by mad kings.

Starting point is 00:59:22 Their king was insane, and they changed him for another, Bernadotte, who promptly went mad, for no Swede would ally himself with Russia unless he were mad. Napoleon grinned maliciously, and again raised his snuff-box to his nose. Balashev knew how to reply to each of Napoleon's remarks, and would have done so, He continually made the gesture of a man wishing to say something, but Napoleon always interrupted him. To the alleged insanity of the Swedes, Balashev wished to reply that, when Russia is on her side, Sweden is practically an island. But Napoleon gave an angry exclamation to drown his voice. Napoleon was in that state of irritability in which a man has to talk, talk and talk,

Starting point is 01:00:07 merely to convince himself that he is in the right. Balashev began to feel uncomfortable. As envoy, he feared to demean his dignity and felt the necessity of replying. But as a man, he shrank before the transport of groundless wrath that had evidently seized Napoleon. He knew that none of the words now uttered by Napoleon had any significance, and that Napoleon himself would be ashamed of them when he came to his senses. Balashev stood with downcast eyes, looking at the movements of Napoleon's stout legs, and trying to avoid meeting his eyes.

Starting point is 01:00:43 "'But what do I care about your allies?' said Napoleon. "'I have allies, the Poles. There are 80,000 of them, and they fight like lions. And there will be 200,000 of them.' And probably still more perturbed by the fact that he had uttered this obvious falsehood, and that Balashev still stood silently before him in the same attitude of submission to fate. Napoleon abruptly turned round, drew close, close to Balashev's face, and gesticulating rapidly and energetically with his white hands,

Starting point is 01:01:15 almost shouted, "'Know that if you stir up Prussia against me, I'll wipe it off the map of Europe,' he declared. His face pale and distorted by anger, and he struck one of his small hands energetically with the other. "'Yes, I will throw you back beyond the divina and beyond the NEPA, and will re-erect against you that barrier which it was criminal and blind of Europe to allow to be destroyed. "'Yes, that is what will happen to you. "'That is what you have gained by alienating me!'

Starting point is 01:01:46 And he walked silently several times up and down the room, his fat shoulders twitching. He put his snuffbox into his waistcoat pocket, took it out again, lifted it several times to his nose, and stopped in front of Balashev. He paused, looked ironically straight into Balashev's eyes, and said in a quiet voice, "'And yet what a splendid rain your master,

Starting point is 01:02:10 might have had." Balashev, feeling it incompetent on him to reply, said that from the Russian side things did not appear in so gloomy a light. Napoleon was silent, still looking derisively at him and evidently not listening to him. Balashev said that in Russia the best results were expected from the war. Napoleon nodded condescendingly, as if to say, I know it's your duty to say that, but you don't believe it yourself. I have convinced you."

Starting point is 01:02:41 When Belashev had ended, Napoleon again took out his snuff-box, sniffed at it, and stamped his foot twice on the floor as a signal. The door opened, a gentleman in waiting, bending respectfully, handed the Emperor his hat and gloves. Another brought him a pocket-handkerchief. Napoleon, without giving them a glance, turned to Belishev. Assured the Emperor Alexander from me, said he, taking his hat, that I am as different devoted to him as before.

Starting point is 01:03:13 I know him thoroughly, and very highly esteem his lofty qualities. I will detain you no longer, General. You shall receive my letter to the Emperor. And Napoleon went quickly to the door. Everyone in the reception room rushed forward and descended the staircase. End of Book 9, Chapter 7. Of War and Peace, Volume 3, by Leo Tolstoy. translated by Elmer Maude.

Starting point is 01:03:50 This Libervox recording is in the public domain. Book 9, Chapter 7 After all that Napoleon had said to him, those bursts of anger and the last dryly spoken words, I will detain you no longer, General, you shall receive my letter. Balashe felt convinced that Napoleon would not wish to see him, and would even avoid another meeting with him, an insulted envoy, especially as he had witnessed his unseemly anger.

Starting point is 01:04:22 But to his surprise, Balashev received, through Dorok, an invitation to dine with the Emperor that day. Bessier, Colencore, and Bertier were present at that dinner. Napoleon met Balashev cheerfully and amiably. He not only showed no sign of constraint or self-reproach on account of his outburst that morning, but, on the contrary, tried to reassure Balashev. It was evident that he had long been convinced that it was impossible for him to make a mistake, and that in his perception whatever he did was right, not because it harmonized with any idea of right and wrong,

Starting point is 01:04:59 but because he did it. The Emperor was in very good spirits after his ride through Vilna, where crowds of people had rapturously greeted and followed him. From all the windows of the streets through which he rode, rugs, flags, and his monogram were displayed, and the Polish ladies welcoming him waved their handkerchiefs to him. At dinner, having placed Balashev beside him, Napoleon not only treated him amiably, but behaved as if Balashev were one of his own courtiers, one of those who sympathized with his plans and ought to rejoice at his success. In the course of conversation he mentioned Moscow and questioned Belashev about the Russian capital,

Starting point is 01:05:40 not merely as an interested traveler asked about a new city he intends to visit, but as if convinced that Balashev, as a Russian, must be flattered by his curiosity. How many inhabitants are there in Moscow? How many houses? Is it true that Moscow is called Holy Moscow? How many churches are there in Moscow? he asked. And receiving the reply that there were more than 200 churches, he remarked, Why such a quantity of churches? The Russians are very devout, replied Balashev. But a large number of monasteries and churches is always a sign of the backwardness of a

Starting point is 01:06:22 people, said Napoleon, turning to Cullen Corps for appreciation of this remark. Balashev respectfully ventured to disagree with the French Emperor. Every country has its own character, said he. But nowhere in Europe is there anything like that, said Napoleon. I beg your majesty's pardon, returned Balashev. besides Russia, there is Spain, where there are also many churches and monasteries. This reply of Balashev's, which hinted at the recent defeats of the French in Spain, was much appreciated when he related it at Alexander's court,

Starting point is 01:07:00 but it was not much appreciated at Napoleon's dinner where it passed unnoticed. The uninterested and perplexed faces of the marshals showed that they were puzzled as to what Balashev's tone suggested. If there is a point we don't see it, or it is not at all witty, their expression seemed to say. So little was his rejoinder appreciated that Napoleon did not notice it at all, and naively asked Balashev through what towns the direct road from there to Moscow passed. Balashev, who was on the alert all through the dinner, replied that, just as all roads lead to Rome, so all roads lead to Moscow. There were many roads, and, among them, the road through Poltava, which Charles XIV

Starting point is 01:07:49 chose. Balashev involuntarily flushed with pleasure at the aptitude of this reply, but hardly had he uttered the word Poltava before Colencore began speaking of the badness of the road from Petersburg to Moscow, and of his Petersburg reminiscences. After dinner they went to drink coffee in Napoleon's study, which four days previously, had been that of the Emperor Alexander. Napoleon sat down, toying with his Severi coffee cup, and motioned Balashev to a chair beside him. Napoleon was in that well-known after-dinner mood, which, more than any reasoned cause, makes a man contended with himself and disposed to consider everyone his friend. It seemed to him that he was surrounded by men

Starting point is 01:08:34 who adored him, and he felt convinced that, after his dinner, Balashev too was his friend and worshipper. Napoleon turned to him with a pleasant, though slightly ironic, smile. "'They tell me this is the room the Emperor Alexander occupied. Strange, isn't it, general?' He said, evidently not doubting that his remark would be agreeable to his hearer, since it went to prove his Napoleon's superiority to Alexander. Balashev made no reply, and bowed his head in silence. Yes, four days ago in this room, Witsen Gerolda and Stein were deliberating, continued Apollion with the same derisive and self-confident smile.

Starting point is 01:09:19 "'What I can't understand,' he went on, "'is that the Emperor Alexander has surrounded himself with my personal enemies. That I do not understand.' "'Has he not thought that I may do the same?' And he turned inquiringly to Balashev, and evidently this thought turned him back onto the track of his morning's anger, which was still fresh in him. "'And let him know that I will do so,' said Napoleon, rising and pushing his cup away with his hand. "'I'll drive all his Wurttemberg, Baden, and Weimar relations out of Germany. Yes, I'll drive them out.

Starting point is 01:10:02 Let him prepare an asylum for them in Russia. Balashev bowed his head with an air indicating that he would like to make his bow and leave, and only listened because he could not help hearing what was said to him. Napoleon did not notice this expression. He treated Balashev, not as an envoy from his enemy, but as a man now fully devoted to him, and who must rejoice at his former master's humiliation. And why has the Emperor Alexander taken command of the armies?

Starting point is 01:10:34 What is the good of that? War is my profession, but his business is to reign and not to command armies. Why has he taken on himself such a responsibility? Again Napoleon brought out his snuff-box, paced several times up and down the room in silence, and then suddenly and unexpectedly went up to Balashev, and with a slight smile as kind of confidently, quickly, and simply, as if he were doing something not merely important, but pleasing to Balashev. He raised his hand to the forty-year-old Russian general's face, and taking him by the ear, pulled it gently, smiling with his lips only. To have one's ear pulled by the emperor was

Starting point is 01:11:17 considered the greatest honor and mark of favor at the French court. "'Well, adorer and courtier of the Emperor Alexander, why don't you say anything?' said he, as if it was ridiculous in his presence, to be the adorer and courtier of anyone but himself, Napoleon. Are the horses ready for the general? He added, with a slight inclination of his head in reply to Balashev's bow, "'Let him have mine. He has a long way to go.' The letter taken by Balashev was the last Napoleon sent to Alexander.

Starting point is 01:11:53 Every detail of the interview was communicated to the Russian monarch, and the war began. End of Book 9, Chapter 7. Book 9, Chapter 8, of War and Peace, Volume 3, by Leo Tolstoy, translated by Elmer Maud. This Libervox recording is in the public domain. Book 9, Chapter 8 After his interview with Pierre in Moscow, Prince Andrew went to Petersburg, on business as he told his family, but really, to meet Anatol Karaghan, whom, he felt it necessary to encounter.

Starting point is 01:12:38 On reaching Petersburg, he inquired for Karagin, but the latter had already left the city. Pierre had warned his brother-in-law that Prince Andrew was on his track. Anatole Karagin promptly obtained an appointment from the Minister of War and went to join the army in Moldavia. While in Petersburg, Prince Andrew met Kutuzov, his former commander, who was always well-disposed toward him, and Kutuzov suggested that he should accompany him to the army in Moldov.

Starting point is 01:13:05 Oldavia, to which the old general had been appointed commander-in-chief. So Prince Andrew, having received an appointment on the headquarters staff, left for Turkey. Prince Andrew did not think it proper to write and challenge Keragin. He thought that if he challenged him without some fresh cause, it might compromise the young Countess Rostova, and so he wanted to meet Karagin personally in order to find a fresh pretext for a duel. but again failed to meet Karagin in Turkey, for soon after Prince Andrew arrived, the latter returned to Russia. In a new country, amid new conditions, Prince Andrew found life easier to bear.

Starting point is 01:13:48 After his betrothed had broken faith with him, which he felt the more acutely the more he tried to conceal its effects, the surroundings in which he had been happy became trying to him, and the freedom and independence he had once prized so highly were still more so. Not only could he no longer think the thoughts that had first come to him as he lay gazing at the sky on the field of Austerlitz and had later enlarged upon with Pierre, and which had filled his solitude at Bogacharavo and then in Switzerland and Rome, but he even dreaded to recall them and the bright and boundless horizons they had revealed. He was now concerned only with the nearest practical matters unrelated to his past interests, and he seized on these the more eagerly

Starting point is 01:14:30 the more those past interests were closed to him. It was as if that lofty, infinite canopy of heaven that had once towered above him had suddenly turned into a low, solid vault that weighed him down, in which all was clear, but nothing eternal or mysterious. Of the activities that presented themselves to him, Army service was the simplest and most familiar. As a general on duty on Kutuzov's staff,

Starting point is 01:14:58 he applied himself to business with Zee-Ey-Servis, and perseverance, and surprised Kutuzov by his willingness and accuracy in work. Not having found Kharagin in Turkey, Prince Andrew did not think it necessary to rush back to Russia after him. But all the same, he knew that however long it might be before he met Kouragin, despite his contempt for him and despite all the proofs he deduced to convince himself, that it was not worth stooping to a conflict with him. He knew that when he did meet him, he would not be able to resist calling him out, any more than a ravenous man can help snatching at food. And the consciousness that the insult was not yet avenged, that his rancor was still unspent,

Starting point is 01:15:40 weighed on his heart and poisoned the artificial tranquility which he managed to obtain in Turkey, by means of restless, plodding, and rather vanglorious and ambitious activity. In the year 1812, when news of the war with Napoleon reached Bucharest, where Kutuzov had been living for two months, passing his days and nights with a Wallachian woman, Prince Andrew asked Kutuzov to transfer him to the Western Army. Kutuzov, who was already weary of Bokonski's activity which seemed to reproach his own idleness,

Starting point is 01:16:13 very readily let him go and gave him a mission to Barclay de Toli. Before joining the Western Army, which was then in May encamped at Drisa, Prince Andrew visited Bald Hills which were directly on his way, being only two miles off the Smolansk High Road. During the last three years, there have been so many changes in his life. He had thought, felt, and seen so much, having traveled both in the east and the west, that on reaching bald hills it struck him as strange and unexpected to find the way of life there unchanged, and still the same in every detail.

Starting point is 01:16:50 He entered through the gates with their stone pillars and drove up the avenue leading to the house as if he were entering an enchanted sleeping castle. The same old stateliness, the same cleanliness, the same stillness reigned there, and inside there was the same furniture, the same walls, sounds and smell, and the same timid faces, only somewhat older. Princess Mary was still the same timid, plain maiden getting on in years, uselessly and joylessly passing the best years of her life in fear and constant suffering. Mademoiselle Burienne was the same coquettish, self-satisfied girl,

Starting point is 01:17:30 enjoying every moment of her existence and full of joyous hopes for the future. She had merely become more self-confident, Prince Andrew thought. De Salle, the tutor he had brought from Switzerland, was wearing a coat of Russian cut and talking broken Russian to the servants, but was still the same narrowly intelligent, conscientious, and pedantic preceptor. The old prince had changed in appearance only by the loss of a tooth, which left a noticeable gap on one side of his mouth. In character, he was the same as ever, only showing still more irritability and skepticism as to what was happening in the world. Little Nicholas alone had changed.

Starting point is 01:18:13 He had grown, become rosier, had curly dark hair, and when merry and laughing, quite unconsciously lifted the upper lip of his pretty little mouth just as the little little princess used to do. He alone did not obey the law of immutability in the enchanted, sleeping castle. But though externally all remained as of old, the inner relations of all these people had changed since Prince Andrew had seen them last. The household was divided into two alien and hostile camps, who changed their habits for his sake and only met because he was there. To the one camp belonged the old prince, Mademoiselle Berienne and the architect. to the other, Princess Mary, DeSal, little Nicholas, and all the old nurses and maids.

Starting point is 01:19:01 During his stay at Bald Hills, all the family dined together, but they were ill at ease, and Prince Andrew felt that he was a visitor for whose sake an exception was being made, and that his presence made them all feel awkward. Involuntarily feeling this at dinner on the first day, he was taciturn, and the old prince noticing this also became morosely dumb and retired to his apartments directly after dinner. In the evening, when Prince Andrew went to him and trying to rouse him, began to tell him of the young Count Komenes' campaign, the old prince began unexpectedly to talk about Princess Mary, blaming her for her superstitions and her dislike of Mademoiselle Burienne, who, he said,

Starting point is 01:19:44 was the only person really attached to him. The old prince said that if he was ill, it was only because of Princess Mary, that she purposely worried and irritated him, and that by indulgence and silly talk, she was spoiling little Prince Nicholas. The old prince knew very well that he tormented his daughter and that her life was very hard,

Starting point is 01:20:06 but he also knew that he could not help tormenting her and that she deserved it. Why does Prince Andrew, who sees this, say nothing to me about his sister? Does he think me a scoundrel, or an old fool, who, without any reason, keeps his own daughter at a distance and attaches this French woman to himself?

Starting point is 01:20:26 He doesn't understand, so I must explain it, and he must hear me out,' thought the old prince. And he began explaining why he could not put up with his daughter's unreasonable character. "'If you ask me,' said Prince Andrew, without looking up, he was censuring his father for the first time in his life. I did not wish to speak about it, but, as you ask me, I will give you my frank opinion. If there is any misunderstanding and discord between you and Mary, I can't blame her for it at all. I know how she loves and respect you. Since you ask me, continue Prince Andrew, becoming irritable, as he was always liable to do of late,

Starting point is 01:21:11 I can only say that, if there are any misunderstandings, they are caused by that worthless woman, who was not fit to be my sister's companion. The old man at first stared fixedly at his son, and an unnatural smile disclosed the fresh gap between his teeth to which Prince Andrew could not get accustomed. "'What companion, my dear boy, eh? You've already been talking it over, eh?' "'Father, I did not want to judge,' said Prince Andrew,

Starting point is 01:21:42 in a hard and bitter tone. But you challenged me, and I have said, and always shall say, that Mary is not to blame, but those to blame, the one to blame, is that French woman. Ah, he has past judgment, past judgment, said the old man in a low voice, and as it seemed to Prince Andrew, with some embarrassment. But then he suddenly jumped up and cried, Be off, be off, let not a trace of you remain here.

Starting point is 01:22:13 Prince Andrew wished to leave at once, but Princess Mary, Mary persuaded him to stay another day. That day he did not see his father, who did not leave his room, and admitted no one but Mademoiselle Burian and Tiken, but asked several times whether his son had gone. Next day, before leaving, Prince Andrew went to his son's rooms. The boy, curly-headed like his mother and glowing with health, sat on his knee, and Prince Andrew began telling him the story of Bluebeard, but fell into a reverie without finishing the story. He thought not of this pretty child, his son whom he held on his knee, but of himself.

Starting point is 01:22:53 He sought in himself, either remorse for having angered his father, or regret at leaving home for the first time in his life on bad terms with him, and was horrified to find neither. What meant still more to him was that he sought and did not find in himself the former tenderness for his son which he had hoped to reawaken by caressing the boy and taking him on his knee. "'Well, go on,' said his son. Prince Andrew, without replying, put him down from his knee and went out of the room. As soon as Prince Andrew had given up his daily occupations, and especially on returning to the old conditions of life amid which he had been happy, weariness of life overcame him with its former

Starting point is 01:23:39 intensity, and he hastened to escape from these memories and to find some work as soon as possible. So, you've decided to go, Andrew? asked his sister. Thank God that I can, replied Prince Andrew. I'm very sorry, you can't. Why do you say that? replied Princess Mary. Why do you say that, when you are going to this terrible war, and he is so old? Mademoiselle Burien says he has been asking about you. As soon as she began to speak of that, her lips trembled, and her tears began to fall.

Starting point is 01:24:17 Prince Andrew turned away and began pacing the room. Ah, my God, my God, when one thinks who and what, what trash can cause people misery, he said with a malignity that alarmed Princess Mary. She understood that when speaking of trash, he referred not only to Mademoiselle Burienne, the cause of her misery, but also to the man who had ruined his own happiness. "'Andrew, one thing I beg, I entreat of you,' she said, touching his elbow and looking at him with eyes that shone through her tears. "'I understand you,' she looked down.

Starting point is 01:24:58 "'Don't imagine that sorrow is the work of men. Men are his tools.' She looked a little above Prince Andrew's head with the confident, accustomed look with which one looks at the place where a familiar portrait hangs. "'Sorrow is sent by him, not by men. "'Men are his instruments. "'They are not to blame. "'If you think someone has wronged you, "'forget it and forgive.

Starting point is 01:25:25 "'We have no right to punish. "'And then you will know the happiness of forgiving. "'If I were a woman, I would do so, Mary. "'That is a woman's virtue. "'But a man should not and cannot forgive and forget,' He replied, and though till that moment he had not been thinking of Karagin, all his unexpended anger suddenly swelled up in his heart. "'If Mary is already persuading me to forgive, it means that I ought long ago to have

Starting point is 01:25:55 punished him,' he thought. And giving no further reply, he began thinking of the glad, vindictive moment when he would meet Karagin, who he knew was now in the army. Princess Mary begged him to stay one day more, saying that she used to. knew how unhappy her father would be if Andrew left without being reconciled to him. But Prince Andrew replied that he would probably soon be back again from the army, and would certainly write to his father, but that the longer he stayed now, the more embittered their differences would become. Goodbye, Andrew. Remember that misfortunes come from God, and men are never to blame.

Starting point is 01:26:35 Were the last words he heard from his sister when he took leave of her. Then it must be so, thought Prince Andrew, as he drove out of the avenue from the house at Bald Hills. She, poor innocent creature, is left to be victimized by an old man who has outlived his wits. The old man feels he is guilty, but cannot change himself. My boy is growing up and rejoices in life, in which, like everybody else, he will deceive or be deceived. And I am off to the army. Why? I myself don't know. I went to meet that man whom I despise, so as to give him a chance to kill and laugh at me. These conditions of life had been the same before, but then they were all

Starting point is 01:27:24 connected, while now they had all tumbled to pieces. Only senseless things, lacking coherence, presented themselves one after another to Prince Andrew's mind. End of Book 9, Chapter 8. Book 9, Chapter 9 of War and Peace, Volume 3, by Leo Tolstoy, translated by Elmer Maude. This Libervox recording is in the public domain. Book 9, Chapter 9 Prince Andrew reached the general headquarters of the army at the end of June. The first army, with which was the emperor, occupied the fortified camp at Drissa. The second army was retreating, trying to affect a junction with the first one from which it was said to be cut off by large French forces.

Starting point is 01:28:22 Everyone was dissatisfied with the general course of affairs in the Russian army, but no one anticipated any danger of invasion of the Russian provinces, and no one thought the war would extend farther than the western, the Polish provinces. Prince Andrew found Barclay de Tully to whom he had been assigned on the bank of the Drissa. As there was not a single town or large village in the vicinity of the camp, the immense number of generals and courtiers accompanying the army were living in the best houses of the villages on both sides of the river, over a radius of six miles.

Starting point is 01:28:57 Barclay de Tully was quartered nearly three miles from the Emperor. He received Bolkonsky stiffly and coldly and told him in his foreign accent that he would mention him to the Emperor for a decision as to his employment, but asked him meanwhile to remain on his staff. Anatole Coragin, whom Prince Andrew had hoped to find with the army, was not there. He had gone to Petersburg, but Prince Andrew was glad to hear this. His mind was occupied by the interests of the center that was conducting a gigantic war,

Starting point is 01:29:29 and he was glad to be free for a while from the distraction caused by the thought of Coragin. During the first four days, while no duties were required of him, Prince Andrew rode round the whole fortified camp, and by the aid of his own knowledge and by talks with experts, tried to form a definite opinion about it. But the question whether the camp was advantageous or disadvantageous remained for him undecided. Already, from his military experience and what he had seen in the Austrian campaign, he had come to the conclusion that in war the most deeply consider plans have no significance, and that all depends on the way unexpected movements of the enemy that cannot be foreseen are met, and on how and by whom the whole matter is handled.

Starting point is 01:30:15 To clear up this last point for himself, Prince Andrew, utilizing his position and acquaintances, tried to fathom the character of the control of the army, and of the men and parties engaged in it, and he deduced for himself the following of the state of affairs. While the emperor had still been at Vilna, the forces had been divided into three armies. First, the army under Barclay de Toli, secondly, the army under Bagradian, and thirdly, the one commanded by Tormasov. The Emperor was with the First Army,

Starting point is 01:30:49 but not as Commander-in-Chief. In the orders issued it was stated, not that the Emperor would take command, but only that he would be with the Army. The Emperor, moreover, had with him not a Commander-in-Chief staff, but the Imperial Headquarters Staff. in attendance on him was the head of the imperial staff, quartermaster General Prince Volkonsky, as well as generals, imperial aides to camp, diplomatic officials, and a large number of foreigners,

Starting point is 01:31:19 but not the Army staff. Besides these, there were in attendance on the Emperor without any definite appointments, Arachaev, the ex-minister of war, Count Benningsen, the senior general in rank, the Grand Duke Tsarevich Konstantin Pavlovich, Count Rumianzov, the Chancellor, Stein, a former Prussian minister, Armfelt, a Swedish general, Fuel, the chief author of the Plan of Campaign,

Starting point is 01:31:46 Palucci, an adjutant general, and Sardinian Emma Gray, Volzogen, and many others. Though these men had no military appointment in the Army, their position gave them influence, and often a Corps commander, or even the Commander-in-chief, did not know in what capacity he was questioned by Benningson, the Grand Duke,

Starting point is 01:32:07 Arakcheyev, or Prince Volkonsky, or was given this or that advice, and did not know whether a certain order received in the form of advice emanated from the man who gave it or from the Emperor, and whether it had to be executed or not. But this was only the external condition. The essential significance of the Presence of the Emperor and of all these people, from a courtier's point of view, and in an emperor's vicinity all became courtiers, was clear to everyone. It was this. The emperor did not assume the title of commander-in-chief, but disposed of all the armies.

Starting point is 01:32:45 The men around him were his assistance. Arakcheyev was a faithful custodian to enforce order and acted as the sovereign's bodyguard. Benickson was a landlord in the Vilna province, who appeared to be doing the honors of the district, but was in reality a good general, useful as an advisor and ready at hand to replace Barclay. The Grand Duke was there because it suited him to be. The ex-minister Stein was there because his advice was useful, and the Emperor Alexander held him in high esteem personally. Armfelt virulently hated Napoleon, and was a general full of self-confidence,

Starting point is 01:33:23 a quality that always influenced Alexander. Paulucci was there because he was bold and decided in speech. The Adjutants General were there because they always accompany the Emperor. And lastly and chiefly, Fuel was there because he had drawn up the plan of campaign against Napoleon, and, having induced Alexander to believe in the efficacy of that plan, was directing the whole business of the war. With Fuel was Volzogen, who expressed Fuel's thoughts in a more comprehensible way than Fuel himself, who was a harsh, bookish theorist, self-confident to the point of despising everyone else was able

Starting point is 01:34:02 to do. Besides these Russians and foreigners who propounded new and unexpected ideas every day, especially the foreigners who did so with a boldness characteristic of people employed in a country not their own, there were many secondary personages accompanying the army because their principles were there. Among the opinions and voices in this immense, restless, brilliant, and proud sphere, Prince Andrew noticed the following sharply defined subdivisions of tendencies and parties. The first party consisted of fuel and his adherence, military theorists who believed in a science of war with immutable laws, laws of oblique movements, outflankings, and so forth. Fuel and his adherence demanded a retirement into the depths of the country in accordance with

Starting point is 01:34:49 precise laws defined by a pseudo-theory of war, and they saw only barbarism, ignorance, or evil intention, in every deviation from that theory. To this party belonged the foreign nobles, Volsogin, Vincent Garota, and others, chiefly Germans. The second party was directly opposed to the first. One extreme, as always happens, was met by representatives of the other. The members of this party were those who had demanded at advance from Vilna into Poland and freedom from all pre-arranged plans.

Starting point is 01:35:23 Besides being advocates of bold action, this section also represented nationalism, which made them still more one-sided in the dispute. They were Russians. Bagradian, Ermolov, who was beginning to come to the front and others. At that time, a famous joke of Ermarlovs was being circulated, that, as a great favor, he had petitioned the Emperor to make him a German. The men of that party, remembering Suvarov, said that what one was a great favor of the war of had to do was not to reason, or stick pins into maps, but to fight, beat the enemy, keep him

Starting point is 01:35:59 out of Russia, and not let the army get discouraged. To the third party, in which the emperor had most confidence, belonged the courtiers who tried to arrange compromises between the other two. The members of this party, chiefly civilians and to whom Arechchayov belonged, thought and said what men who have no convictions but wish to seem to have some generally say. They said that, undoubtedly war, particularly against such a genius as Bonaparte, they called him Bonaparte now, needs most deeply devised plans at profound scientific knowledge, and in that respect Fuel was a genius. But at the same time, it had to be acknowledged that the theorists are often one-sided, and therefore one should not trust them absolutely, but should

Starting point is 01:36:47 also listen to what Fuel's opponents and practical men of experience in warfare had to say, and then choose a middle course. They insisted on the retention of the camp at Drissa, according to fuels plan, but on changing the movements of the other armies. Though by this course, neither one aim nor the other could be attained, yet it seemed best to the adherence of this third party. Of a fourth opinion, the most conspicuous representative was the Tsarevich,

Starting point is 01:37:16 who could not forget his disillusionment at Austerlitz, where he had written out at the head of the third party. the guards in his cask and cavalry uniform as to a review, expecting to crush the French gallantly, but unexpectedly finding himself in the front line had narrowly escaped amid the general confusion. The men of this party had both the quality and the defect of frankness in their opinions. They feared Napoleon, recognized his strength and their own weakness, and frankly said so. They said, Nothing but sorrow, shame, and ruin will come of all this.

Starting point is 01:37:52 We have abandoned Vilna in Videpsk and shall abandon Drissa. The only reasonable thing left to do is to conclude peace as soon as possible before we are turned out of Petersburg. This view was very general in the upper army circles, and found support also in Petersburg and from the Chancellor Rumianzev, who, for other reasons of state, was in favor of peace. The fifth party consisted of those who were adherents of Barclay-Dololi, not so much as a man, but as minister of war and commander-in-chief.

Starting point is 01:38:27 "'Be he what he may,' they always began like that, "'he is an honest, practical man, and we have nobody better. Give him real power, for war cannot be conducted successfully without unity of command, and he will show what he can do as he did in Finland. If our army is well organized and strong and has withdrawn to Drissa without suffering any defeats, We owe this entirely to Barclay. If Barclay is now to be superseded by Benningson, all will be lost, for Bennington showed his incapacity already in 1807.

Starting point is 01:39:02 The sixth party, the Benningtonite, said on the contrary, that, at any rate, there was no one more active and experienced than Benningson. And twist about as you may, you will have to come to Bennington eventually. Let the others make mistakes now, said they, arguing that, our retirement to Drissa was a most shameful reverse and an unbroken series of blunders. The more mistakes that are made, the better. It will, at any rate, be understood all the sooner that things cannot go on like this. What is wanted is not some Barclay or other, but a man like Bennington, who made his mark in 1807, and to whom Napoleon himself did justice.

Starting point is 01:39:44 A man whose authority would be willingly recognized, and Benningson is the only one of only such man. The Seventh Party consisted of the sort of people who are always to be found, especially around young sovereigns, and of whom there were particularly many round Alexander. Generals and imperial aides to camp passionately devoted to the Emperor, not merely as a monarch, but as a man, adoring him sincerely and disinterestedly, as Rostov had done in 1805, and who saw in him not only all the virtues but all human capabilities as well. These men, though enchanted with the sovereign for refusing the command of the army,

Starting point is 01:40:26 yet blamed him for such excessive modesty, and only desired and insisted that their adored sovereign should abandon his diffidence and openly announced that he would place himself at the head of the army, gather round him a commander-in-chief staff, and consulting experienced theoreticians and practical men were necessary. would himself lead the troops, whose spirits would thereby be raised to the highest pitch. The eighth and largest group, which, in its enormous numbers, was to the others as 99 to one, consisted of men who desired neither peace nor war, neither an advance nor a defense of

Starting point is 01:41:05 camp at the Dresa or anywhere else, neither Barclay nor the Emperor, neither Fuel nor Benningson, but only the one most essential thing. as much advantage and pleasure for themselves as possible. In the troubled waters of conflicting and intersecting intrigues that eddied about the emperor's headquarters, it was possible to succeed in many ways unthinkable at other times. A man who simply wished to retain his lucrative post would today agree with fuel, tomorrow with his opponent, and the day after, merely to avoid responsibility, or to please the emperor, would declare that he had no opinion at all on the matter.

Starting point is 01:41:45 Another who wished to gain some advantage would attract the emperor's attention by loudly advocating the very thing the emperor had hinted at the day before, and would dispute and shout at the council, beating his breast and challenging those who did not agree with him to duels, thereby proving that he was prepared to sacrifice himself for the common good. A third, in absence of opponents, between two councils would simply solicit a special gratuity for his faithful services, well-known knowing that at that moment people would be too busy to refuse him. A fourth, while seemingly overwhelmed with work, would often come accidentally under the Emperor's eye. A fifth, to achieve his long-cherished aim of dining with the Emperor, would stubbornly insist on the correctness

Starting point is 01:42:32 or falsity of some newly emerging opinion, and for this object would produce arguments more or less forcible and correct. All the men of this party were fishing for rubles, decorations, and promotions, and in this pursuit watched only the weathercock of imperial favor. And directly they noticed it turning in any direction, this whole drone population of the army began blowing hard that way, so that it was all the harder for the emperor to turn it elsewhere. Amid the uncertainties of the position, with the menace of serious danger giving a peculiarly threatening character to everything, amid this vortex of intrigue, egotism, conflict of views

Starting point is 01:43:13 and feelings and the diversity of race among these people. This eighth and largest party of those preoccupied with personal interests imparted great confusion and obscurity to the common task. Whatever question arose, a swarm of these drones, without having finished their buzzing on a previous theme, flew over to the new one, and by their hum, drowned, and obscured the voices of those who were disputing honestly. From among all these parties, just at the time Prince Andrews,

Starting point is 01:43:43 reached the Army, another, a ninth party was being formed and was beginning to raise its voice. This was the party of the elders, reasonable men experienced and capable in state affairs, who, without sharing any of those conflicting opinions, were able to take a detached view of what was going on at the staff at headquarters, and to consider means of escape from this muddle, indecision, intricacy, and weakness. The men of this party said and thought, and to that what was wrong resulted chiefly from the Emperor's presence in the Army with his military court, and from the consequent presence there of an indefinite, conditional, and unsteady fluctuation of relations, which is in place at court, but harmfully in an army. That a sovereign should

Starting point is 01:44:31 reign, but not command the army, and that the only way out of the position would be for the emperor and his court to leave the army, that the mere presence of the Emperor paralyze the action of 50,000 men required to secure his personal safety, and that the worst commander-in-chief, if independent, would be better than the very best one trammeled by the presence and authority of the monarch. Just at the time Prince Andrew was living unoccupied at Drissa, Shiskov, the Secretary of State, and one of the chief representatives of this party, wrote a letter to the Emperor which Arachaev and Balashev agreed to sign.

Starting point is 01:45:09 In this letter, availing himself of permission given to the party, and he said, and he wrote a letter to of permission given him by the Emperor to discuss the general course of affairs, he respectfully suggested, on the plea that it was necessary for the sovereign to arouse a warlike spirit in the people of the capital, that the Emperor should leave the army. That arousing of the people by their sovereign and his call to them to defend their country, the very incitement, which was the chief cause of Russia's triumph insofar as it was produced by the Tsar's personal presence in Moscow, was suggested to, to the war. the Emperor and accepted by him as a pretext for quitting the Army.

Starting point is 01:45:47 End of Book 9, Chapter 9. Book 9 Chapter 10 of War and Peace, Volume 3 by Leo Tolstoy, translated by Elmer Maude. This Librevox recording is in the public domain. Book 9, Chapter 10 This letter had not yet been presented to the Emperor when Barclay, one day after dinner, informed Bolkonsky that the sovereign wished to see him personally to question him about Turkey, and that Prince Andrew was to present himself at Benningson's quarters at six that evening. News was received at the Emperor's quarters that very day of a fresh movement by Napoleon,

Starting point is 01:46:34 which might endanger the army. News subsequently found to be false. And that morning, Colonel Michaud had ridden round the dress of fortifications with the Emperor and had pointed out to him that this fortified camp, constructed by fuel, until then considered a ched-dive of tactical science, which would ensure Napoleon's destruction was an absurdity, threatening the destruction of the Russian army. Prince Andrew arrived at Benningson's quarters, a country gentleman's house of moderate size,

Starting point is 01:47:06 situated on the very banks of the river. Neither Benningsen nor the emperor was there, but Chernichev, the emperor's aide to camp, received Bolkonsky, and informed him that the emperor, accompanied by General Benningsen and Marquis Palucci, had gone a second time that day to inspect the fortifications of the Drissa camp, of the suitability of which serious doubts were beginning to be felt. Chernyshev was sitting at a window in the first room with a French novel in his hand. This room had probably been a music room. There was still an organ in it, on which some rugs were piled,

Starting point is 01:47:43 and in one corner stood the folding bedstead of Benningson's adjutant. This adjutant was also there, and sat dozing on the rolled-up bedding, evidently exhausted by work or by feasting. Two doors led from the room, one strayed on into what had been the drawing-room, and another on the right to the study. Through the first door came the sound of voices conversing in German and occasionally in French. In that drawing-room were gathered by the Emperor's wish, not a military council. The Emperor preferred indefiniteness, but certain persons whose opinions he wished to know

Starting point is 01:48:21 in view of the impending difficulties. It was not a Council of War, but, as it were, a Council to elucidate certain questions for the Emperor personally. To this semi-council had been invited the Swedish General Armfeldt, adjutant General Volsogan, Vincent Garota, whom Napoleon had referred to as a renegade French subject, Michaud, Toul, Count Stein, who was not a military man at all, and fueled himself, who, as Prince Andrew had heard, was the mainspring of the whole affair. Prince Andrew had an opportunity of getting a good look at him, for a fuel arrived soon after

Starting point is 01:48:59 himself, and in passing through to the drawing-room stopped a minute to speak to Chernyshev. At first sight, Fuel, in his ill-made uniform of a Russian general, which fitted him badly like a fancy costume, seemed familiar to Prince Andrew, though he saw him now for the first time. There was about him something of Veyroter, Mack, and Schmidt, and many other German theorist generals whom Prince Andrew had seen in 1805, but he was more typical than any of them. Prince Andrew had never yet seen a German theorist in whom all the characteristics of those others were united to such an extent. Fuel was short and very thin, but broad-boned, of coarse, robust build, broad in the hips,

Starting point is 01:49:46 and with prominent shoulder-blades. His face was much wrinkled, and his eyes deep-set. His hair had evidently been hastily brushed smooth in front of the temples, but stuck up behind did quaint little tufts. He entered the room, looking restlessly and angrily around, as if afraid of everything in that large apartment. Awkwardly holding up his sword, he addressed Chernyshev and asked in German where the emperor was. One could see that he wished to pass through the rooms as quickly as possible, finished with the boughs and greetings, and set down to business in front of a map, where he would feel at home. He nodded hurriedly and replied to Chernyshev, and smiled ironically, on hearing that the sovereign was inspecting the fortifications, that he,

Starting point is 01:50:32 fueled, had planned in accord with his theory. He muttered something to himself abruptly, and in a base voice, as self-assured Germans do. It might have been, stupid fellow, or the whole affair will be ruined, or something absurd will come of it. Prince Andrew did not catch what he said, and would have passed on, but Chernichev, introduced him to Fuel, remarking that Prince Andrew was just back from Turkey where the war had terminated so fortunately. Fuel barely glanced, not so much at Prince Andrew, as passed him, and said, with a laugh, that must have been a fine tactical war, and laughing contemptuously, went on into the room from which the sound of voices was heard. Fuel, always inclined to be

Starting point is 01:51:22 irritably sarcastic, was particularly disturbed that day, evidently by the fact that that they had dared to inspect and criticize his camp in his absence. From his short interview with Fuel, Prince Andrew, thanks to his austerlitz experiences, was able to form a clear conception of the man. Fuel was one of those hopelessly and immutably self-confident men, self-confident to the point of martyrdom as only Germans are, because only Germans are self-confident on the basis of an abstract notion, science, that is, the supposed knowledge of absolute truth.

Starting point is 01:51:59 A Frenchman is self-assured because he regards himself personally, both in mind and body, as irresistibly attractive to men and women. An Englishman is self-assured as being a citizen of the best organized state in the world, and therefore, as an Englishman, always knows what he should do and knows that all he does as an Englishman is undoubtedly correct. An Italian is self-assured because he is excitable and easily forgets himself and other people. A Russian is self-assured just because he knows nothing and does not want to know anything, because he does not believe that anything can be known.

Starting point is 01:52:38 The German self-assurance is worst of all, stronger and more repulsive than any other, because he imagines that he knows the truth, science, which he himself has invented, but which for him the absolute truth. Fuel was evidently of that sort. He had a science, the theory of oblique movements deduced by him from the history of Frederick the Great's wars, and all he came across in the history of more recent warfare seemed to him absurd and barbarous, monstrous collisions in which so many blunders were committed by both sides that these wars could not be called wars. They did not accord with the theory, and therefore could not serve as material. for science.

Starting point is 01:53:23 In 1806, Fuel had been one of those responsible for the plan of campaign that ended in Yenna and Auerstadt, but he did not see the least proof of the fallibility of his theory in the disasters of that war. On the contrary, the deviations made from his theory

Starting point is 01:53:40 were, in his opinion, the sole cause of the whole disaster, and with characteristically gleeful sarcasm, he would remark, There, I said the whole affair would go to the devil. Fuel was one of those theoreticians who so loved their theory that they lose sight of the theory's object, its practical application. His love of theory made him hate everything practical, and he would not listen to it.

Starting point is 01:54:08 He was even pleased by failures, for failures resulting from deviations in practice from the theory only proved to him the accuracy of his theory. He said a few words to Prince Andrew and Chernyshev about the present war, with the air of a man who knows beforehand that all will go wrong, and who is not displeased that it should be so. The unbrushed tufts of hair sticking up behind and the hastily brushed hair on his temples expressed this most eloquently.

Starting point is 01:54:40 He passed into the next room, and the deep, querulous sounds of his voice were at once heard from there. End of Book 9, Chapter 10. Book 9, Chapter 11, of War and Peace, Volume 3, by Leo Tolstoy, translated by Elmer Maud. This Libervox recording is in the public domain. Book 9, Chapter 11 Prince Andrew's eyes were still following fuel out of the room when Count Benningson entered hurriedly, and nodding to Bolkonsky, but not pausing, went into the stage. study, giving instructions to his adjutant as he went. The Emperor was following him,

Starting point is 01:55:31 and Benningson had hastened on to make some preparations and to be ready to receive the sovereign. Chernyshev and Prince Andrew went out into the porch, where the Emperor, who looked fatigued, was dismounting. Marquis Palucci was talking to him with particular warmth, and the Emperor, with his head bent to the left, was listening with a dissatisfied air. The Emperor moved forward, evidently wishing to end the conversation, but the flushed and excited Italian, oblivious of decorum, followed him and continued to speak. And as for the man who advised forming this camp, the Drissa camp, said Palucci, as the Emperor mounted the steps and noticing Prince Andrew scanned his unfamiliar face,

Starting point is 01:56:16 as to that person, sire, continued Paolucci desperately, apparently unable to restructed, himself, "'The man who advised the Dresak camp, I see no alternative but the lunatic asylum or the gallows!' Without heeding the end of the Italian's remarks, and as though not hearing them, the Emperor, recognizing Bolkonsky, addressed him graciously. "'I am very glad to see you. Go in there where they are meeting and wait for me.' The Emperor went into the study. He was followed by Prince Peter Mikhailovich Volkonsky and Baron Stein, and the door closed behind them. Prince Andrew, taking advantage of the Emperor's permission,

Starting point is 01:56:57 accompanied Paolucci, whom he had known in Turkey, into the drawing-room where the Council was assembled. Prince Peter Mikhailovich Volkonsky occupied the position, as it were, of Chief of the Emperor's staff. He came out of the study into the drawing-room with some maps which he spread on a table and put questions on which he wished to hear the opinion of the gentleman present. What had happened was that news, which afterwards proved to be false,

Starting point is 01:57:25 had been received during the night of a movement by the French to outflank the Drissac camp. The first to speak was General Armfeld, who, to meet the difficulty that presented itself, unexpectedly proposed a perfectly new position away from the Petersburg and Moscow roads. The reason for this was inexplicable, unless he wished to show that he too could have an opinion, but he urged that at this point the army should unite and there await the enemy. It was plain that Armfeldt had thought out that plan long ago, and now expounded it, not so much to answer the questions put, which, in fact, his plan did not answer, as to avail himself of the opportunity to air it.

Starting point is 01:58:09 It was one of the millions of proposals, one as good as another, that could be made as long as it was quite unknown what character the war would take. Some disputed his arguments, others defended them. Young Count Toll objected to the Swedish general's views more warmly than anyone else, and in the course of the dispute drew from his side pocket a well-filled notebook, which he asked permission to read to them. In these voluminous notes, Toll suggested another scheme, totally different from Armfeldts or fuels' plan of campaign.

Starting point is 01:58:44 In answer to Toll, Palucci suggested an advance and an attack, which he urged could alone extricate us from the present uncertainty, and from the trap, as he called the Drissacamp, in which we were situated. During all these discussions, Fuel and his interpreter Volzogen, his bridge and court relations, were silent. Fuel only snorted contemptuously and turned away, to show that he would never demean himself by replying to such nonsense as he was now hearing. So when Prince Volkonsky, who was in the chair, called on him to give his opinion, he merely said, Why ask me? General Armfeldt has proposed a splendid position with an exposed rear.

Starting point is 01:59:29 Or why not this Italian gentleman's attack? Very fine. Or a retreat, also good. Why ask me, said he. Why, you yourselves know everything better than I do. But when Volkonsky said with a frown that it was in the Emperor's name that he asked his opinion, fuel rose, and suddenly growing animated, began to speak. Everything has been spoiled, everything muddled, everybody thought they knew better than I did, and now you come to me.

Starting point is 02:00:02 How men matters? There is nothing to mend. The principles laid down by me must be strictly adhered to, said he, drumming on the table with his bony fingers. What is the difficulty? Nonsense. Childishness! He went up to the map, and speaking rapidly,

Starting point is 02:00:21 began proving that no eventuality could alter the efficiency of the Drissa camp, that everything had been foreseen, and that if the enemy were really going to outflank it, the enemy would inevitably be destroyed. Palucci, who did not know German, began questioning him in French. Volzogen came to the assistant, of his chief who spoke French badly and began translating for him, hardly able to keep pace with fuel, who was rapidly demonstrating that

Starting point is 02:00:50 not only all that had happened, but all that could happen, have been foreseen in his scheme, and that if there were now any difficulties, the whole fault lay in the fact that his plan had not been precisely executed. He kept laughing sarcastically, he demonstrated, and at last contemptuously ceased to demonstrate, like a, mathematician, who ceases to prove in various ways the accuracy of a problem that has already been proved. Volzogen took his place and continued to explain his views in French, every now and then turning to fuel and saying, is it not so, Your Excellency? But Fuel, like a man heated in a fight who strikes those on his own side, shouted angrily at his own supporter, Voltshogen,

Starting point is 02:01:36 "'Well, of course, what more is there to explain?' Paolucci and Michaud both attacked Volzogen simultaneously in French. Armfeld addressed fuel in German, told explain to Volkonsky in Russian. Prince Andrew listened and observed in silence. Of all these men, Prince Andrew sympathized most with fuel, angry, determined, and absurdly self-confident as he was. Of all those present, evidently he alone was not seeking anything for himself, nursed no hatred against anyone and only desired that the plan, formed on a theory arrived at by years of toil, should be carried out.

Starting point is 02:02:17 He was ridiculous and unpleasantly sarcastic, but yet he inspired involuntary respect by his boundless devotion to an idea. Besides this, the remarks of all except fuel had one common trait that had not been noticeable at the Council of War in 1805. There was now a panic fear of Napoleon. genius, which, though concealed, was noticeable in every rejoinder. Everything was assumed to be possible for Napoleon. They expected him from every side, and invoked his terrible name to shatter each other's

Starting point is 02:02:51 proposals. Fuel alone seemed to consider Napoleon a barbarian like everyone else who opposed his theory. But besides this feeling of respect, Fuel evoked pity in Prince Andrew. From the tone in which the courtiers addressed him and the way Palucci had allowed himself to speak of him to the Emperor, but above all, from a certain desperation in fuel's own expressions, it was clear that the others knew and fuel himself felt that his fall was at hand. And despite his self-confidence and grumpy German sarcasm, he was pitiable, with his hair smoothly brushed on the temples and sticking up in tufts behind.

Starting point is 02:03:32 Though he concealed the fact under a show of irritation and contempt, he was evidently in despair that the sole remaining chance of verifying his theory by a huge experiment, and proving its soundness to the whole world was slipping away from him. The discussions continued a long time, and the longer they lasted, the more heated became the disputes, culminating in shouts and personalities, and the less it was possible to arrive it any general conclusion from all that had been said. Prince Andrew, listening to this polyglot talk and to the surmises, plans, refutations, and shouts, felt nothing but amazement at what they were saying.

Starting point is 02:04:15 A thought that had long since and often occurred to him during his military activities, the idea that there is not and cannot be any science of war, and that, therefore, there can be no such thing as a military genius, now appears to be. to him an obvious truth. What theory and science is possible about a matter the conditions and circumstances of which are unknown and cannot be defined, especially when the strength of the acting forces cannot be ascertained? No one was or is able to foresee in what condition our or the enemy's armies will be in

Starting point is 02:04:52 a day's time, and no one can gauge the force of this or that detachment. Sometimes, when there is not a coward at the front to shout, We are cut off and start running, but a brave and jolly lad who shouts, hurrah, a detachment of five thousand is worth thirty thousand, as at Shun Gruburn, while at times fifty thousand run from eight thousand, as at Austerlitz. What science can there be in a matter in which, as in all practical matters, nothing can be defined and everything depends on innumerable conditions? the significance of which is determined at a particular moment which arrives no one knows when.

Starting point is 02:05:34 Armfeldt says our army is cut in half, and Paolucci says, we have got the French army between two fires. Michaud says that the worthlessness of the Drissa camp lies in having the river behind it, and fuel says that is what constitutes its strength. Toll proposes one plan, Armfeld another, and they are all good and all bad. and the advantages of any suggestions can be seen only at the moment of trial. And why do they all speak of a military genius? Is a man a genius who can order bread to be brought up at the right time and say who is to go to the right and who to the left?

Starting point is 02:06:14 It is only because military men are invested with pomp and power and crowds of syccovents flatter power, attributing to it qualities of genius it does not possess. The best generals I have known were, on the contrary, stupid or absent-minded men. Bagradian was best. Napoleon himself admitted that. And of Bonaparte himself? I remember his limited, self-satisfied face on the field of Austerlitz. Not only does a good army commander not need any special qualities, on the contrary, he needs the absence of the highest and best human attributes, love, poetry, tenderness,

Starting point is 02:06:54 and philosophic inquiring doubt. He should be limited, firmly convinced that what he is doing is very important, otherwise he will not have sufficient patience, and only then will he be a brave leader. God forbid that he should be humane, should love or pity, or think of what is just and unjust.

Starting point is 02:07:16 It is understandable that a theory of their genius was invented for them long ago because they have power. The success of a military action depends not on them, but on the man in the rank who shouts, we are lost, or who shouts hurrah, and only in the ranks can one serve with assurance of being useful. So thought Prince Andrew as he listened to the talking, and he roused himself only one Palucci called him and everyone was leaving.

Starting point is 02:07:47 At the review next day, the Emperor asked Prince Andrew where he would like to serve, and Prince Andrew lost his standing in court circles forever by not asking to remain attached to the sovereign's person, but for permission to serve in the army. End of Book 9, Chapter 11. Book 9 Chapter 12 of War and Peace, Volume 3, by Leo Tolstoy, translated by Elmer Maude. This Libervox recording is in the public domain. Book 9, Chapter 12 Before the beginning of the campaign, Rostov had received a letter from his parents, in which they told him briefly of Natasha's illness and the breaking off of her engagement to Prince Andrew,

Starting point is 02:08:39 which they explained by Natasha's having rejected him, and again asked Nicholas to retire from the army and return home. On receiving this letter, Nicholas did not even make any attempt to get leave of absence or to retire from the army, but wrote to his parents that he was sorry Natasha was ill and her engagement broken off, and that he would do all he could to meet their wishes. To Sonia, he wrote separately. "'Adored friend of my soul,' he wrote, "'nothing but honor could keep me from returning to the country. But now, at the commencement of the campaign, I should feel dishonored,

Starting point is 02:09:17 not only in my comrade's eyes, but in my own, if I preferred my own happiness to my love and duty to the fatherland. But this shall be our last separation. Believe me, directly the war is over, if I am still alive and still loved by you, I will throw up everything and fly to you, to press you forever to my ardent breast. It was, in fact, only the commencement of the campaign that prevented Rostov from returning home as he had promised and marrying Sonia. The autumn in Otradno with the hunting, and the winter with the Christmas holidays and

Starting point is 02:09:52 Sonia's love, had opened out to him a vista of tranquil rural joys and peace, such as he had never known before, and which now alert him. A splendid wife, children, a good pack of hounds, a dozen leashes of smart borzoys, agriculture, neighbors, service by election, thought he. But now the campaign was beginning, and he had to remain with his regiment. And since it had to be so,

Starting point is 02:10:19 Nicholas Rostov, as was natural to him, felt contented with the life he led in the regiment and was able to find pleasure in that, life. On his return from his furlough, Nicholas, having been joyfully welcomed by his comrades, was sent to obtain remounts and brought back from the Ukraine excellent horses which pleased him and earned him commendation from his commanders. During his absence, he had been promoted captain, and when the regiment was put on war footing with an increase in numbers, he was again allotted his old squadron. The campaign began. The regiment was moved into Poland on double pay,

Starting point is 02:10:56 New officers arrived, new men and horses, and above all, everybody was infected with a merrily excited mood that goes with the commencement of a war, and Rostov, conscious of his advantageous position in the regiment, devoted himself entirely to the pleasures and interests of military service, though he knew that, sooner or later, he would have to relinquish them. The troops retired from Vilna for various complicated reasons of state, political and strategic. Each step of the retreat was accompanied by a complicated interplay of interests, arguments, and passions at headquarters. For the Pavlagrad Hussars, however, the whole of this retreat during the finest period

Starting point is 02:11:38 of summer and with sufficient supplies was a very simple and agreeable business. It was only at headquarters that there was depression, uneasiness, and intriguing. In the body of the army they did not ask themselves where they were going or why. If they regretted having to retreat, it was only only, only because they had to leave billets they had grown accustomed to, or some pretty young Polish lady. If the thought that things looked bad chanced to enter anyone's head, he tried to be as cheerful as befits a good soldier, and not to think of the general trend of affairs, but only of the task nearest to hand. First they camped gaily before the Vilna, making acquaintance

Starting point is 02:12:19 with the Polish landowners, preparing for reviews and being reviewed by the emperor and other high commanders. Then came in order to retreat to Svetziani and destroy any provisions they could not carry away with them. Svetsiani was remembered by the hussars only as the drunken camp, a name the whole army gave to their encampment there, and because many complaints were made against the troops, who, taking advantage of the order to collect provisions, took also horses, carriages, and carpets from the Polish proprietors.

Starting point is 02:12:50 Rostov remembered Svvv remembered Svziani, because on the first day of their arrival at that small town, he changed his sergeant major, and was unable to manage all the drunken men of his squadron, who, unknown to him, had appropriated five barrels of old beer. From Svetiani, they retired farther and farther to Drissa, and thence again beyond Drissa, drawing near to the frontier of Russia proper. On the 13th of July, the Pavlograd's took part in a serious action for the first time. On the 12th of July, on the eve of that action, there was a heavy storm of rain and hail. In general, the summer of 1812 was remarkable for its storms. The two Pavlegrad squadrons were bivouacking on a field of rye, which was already in ear but had been completely trodden down by

Starting point is 02:13:39 cattle and horses. The rain was descending in torrents, and Rostov, with a young officer named Ilyan, his protege, was sitting in a hastily constructed shelter. An officer of their regiments, with long mustaches extending onto his cheeks, who, after writing to the staff, had been overtaken by the rain, entered Rostov's shelter. "'I have come from the staff, Count. Have you heard of Ryevsky's exploit?' And the officer gave them details of the Seltanov battle, which he had heard at the staff. Rostov, smoking his pipe and turning his head about as the water trickled down his neck, listened inattentively, with an occasional glance.

Starting point is 02:14:20 at Ilyan, who was pressing close to him. This officer, a lad of sixteen, who had recently joined the regiment, was now in the same relation to Nicholas that Nicholas had been to Denisov seven years before. Ilion tried to imitate Rostov in everything, and adored him as a girl might have done. Zyrgyzinski, the officer with the long mustache, spoke grand indilquently of the Soltanov Dam being a Russian thermopyly, and of how a deed worthy of antiquity had been performed by General Ryevsky. He recounted how Ryevsky had led his two sons onto the dam under terrific fire and had charged with them beside him. Rostov heard the story, and not only said nothing to encourage Zersinsky's enthusiasm, but on the contrary, looked like

Starting point is 02:15:08 a man ashamed of what he was hearing, though with no intention of contradicting it. Since the campaigns of Austerlitz and of 1807, Rostov knew by experience that men always lie when describing military exploits, as he himself had done when recounting them. Besides that, he had experience enough to know that nothing happens in a war at all as we can imagine or relate it. And so he did not like Zershincky's tail, nor did he like Zersynski himself, who, with his mustaches extending over his cheeks, bet low over the face of his hearer, as was his habit, and crowded Rostov in the narrow shanty. Rostov looked at him in silence.

Starting point is 02:15:49 In the first place, there must have been such a confusion and crowding on the dam that was being attacked, that if Ryevsky did lead his sons there, it could have had no effect except perhaps on some dozen men nearest to him, thought he. The rest could not have seen how or with whom Rievsky came onto the dam, and even those who did see it would not have been much stimulated by it, for what had they to do with Ryevsky's tender paternal feelings when their own skins were in danger?

Starting point is 02:16:18 And besides, the fate of the fatherland did not depend on whether they took the Seltano of Dam or not, as we are told was the case at Thermopylae. So why should he have made such a sacrifice? And why expose his own children in the battle? I would not have taken my brother Petya there, or even Ilyan, who's a stranger to me but a nice lad, but would have tried to put them somewhere under cover. Nicholas continued to think as he listened to Zersinsky. But he did not express his thoughts, for in such matters, too, he had gained experience.

Starting point is 02:16:52 He knew that this tale redounded to the glory of our arms, and so no one had to pretend not to doubt it, and he acted accordingly. "'I can't stand this anymore,' said Ilyan, noticing that Rostov did not relish Zersenski's conversation. My stockings in shirt, and the water is running on my seat. I'll go and look for shelter. The rain seems less heavy. Ilyan went out and Zersinsky rode away. Five minutes later, Iliin, splashing through the mud, came running back to the shanty.

Starting point is 02:17:25 Hurrah! Rostov! Come quick! I found it! About two hundred yards away there's a tavern where ours have already gathered. We can at least get dry there, and Mary Hendrikovna is there. Mary Hendrikovna was the wife of the regimental doctor, a pretty young German woman he had married in Poland. The doctor, whether from lack of means or because he did not like to part from his young wife in the early days of their marriage, took her about with him wherever the Hussar regiment went, and his jealousy had become a standing joke among the Hussar officers.

Starting point is 02:17:58 Rostov threw his cloak over his shoulders, shouted to Lavrushka to follow with the things, and, now slipping in the mud, now splashing right through it, set off with Ilyan in the lessening rain and the darkness that was occasionally read by distant lightning. Rostov, where are you? Here! What lightning! They called to one another. End of Book 9, Chapter 12. Book 9, Chapter 13, of War and Peace,

Starting point is 02:18:34 Volume 3, by Leo Tolstoy, translated by Elmer Maud. This sliverbox recording is in the public domain. Book 9, Chapter 13. In the tavern, before which stood the doctor's covered cart, there were already some five officers. Mary Hendrikovna, a plump little blonde German in a dressing jacket and nightcap, was sitting on a broad bench in the front corner. Her husband, the doctor, lay asleep behind her. Rostov and Ilyan, on entering the room, were welcomed with merry shouts and laughter.

Starting point is 02:19:11 "'Dear me! How jolly we are!' said Rostov, laughing. And why do you stand there gaping? What swells they are! Why, the water streams from them. Don't make our drawing-room so wet. Don't mess, Mary Hendrikovna's dress! cried other voices. Rostov and Elyan hastened to find a corner where they could change into dry clothes without offending Mary Hendrikovna's modesty.

Starting point is 02:19:40 They were going into a tiny recess behind a partition to change, but found it completely filled by three officers who sat playing cards by the light of a solitary candle on an empty box, and these officers would on no account yield their position. Mary Hendrikovna obliged them with the loan of a petticoat to be used as a curtain, and behind that screen Rostov and Ilyan, helped by Lavrushka, who had brought their kits, changed their wet things for dry ones. A fire was made up in the dilapidated brick stove. A board was found, fixed on two saddles and covered with a horsecloth. A small samovar was produced and a celeret and a half-bottle of rum.

Starting point is 02:20:21 And having asked Mary Hendrikovna to preside, they all crowded rounder. One offered her a clean handkerchief to wipe her charming hands. Another spread a jacket under her little feet to keep them from the damp. Another hung his coat over the window to keep out the draft, and yet another waved the flies off her husband's face lest he should wake up. Leave him alone, said Mary Hendricks. Mendenha, smiling timidly and happily. He is sleeping well as it is after a sleepless night.

Starting point is 02:20:54 "'Oh, no, Mary Hendrachovna,' replied the officer. "'One must look after the doctor. Perhaps he'll take pity on me some day, when it comes to cutting off a leg or an arm for me.' There were only three tumblers. The water was so muddy that one could not make out whether the tea was strong or weak, and the Samovar held only six tumblers of water. But this made it all the pleasanter to take turns in order of seniority

Starting point is 02:21:20 to receive one's tumbler from Mary Hendrikovna's plump little hands with their shorts and not over-clean nails. All the officers appeared to be and really were in love with her that evening. Even those playing cards behind the partition soon left their game and came over to the Samovar, yielding to the general mood of courting Mary Hendrachovna. She, seeing herself surrounded by such brink, brilliant and polite young men, beamed with satisfaction, try as she might to hide it,

Starting point is 02:21:52 and perturbed as she evidently was each time her husband moved in his sleep behind her. There was only one spoon. Sugar was more plentiful than anything else, but it took too long to dissolve, so it was decided that Mary Hendrikovna should stir the sugar for everyone in turn. Rostov received his tumbler, and adding some rum to it, asked Mary Hendrikovna to stir it. But you take it without sugar, she said, smiling all the time, as if everything she said and everything the others said was very amusing and had a double meaning. It is not the sugar I want, but only that your little hand should stir my tea. Mary Hendrkovna assented, and began looking for the spoon which someone, meanwhile, had pounced

Starting point is 02:22:40 on. Use your finger, Mary Hendrkovena, it will be still nicer. said Rostov. Too hot, she replied, blushing with pleasure. Ilyan put a few drops of rum into the bucket of water and brought it to Mary Hendrikovna, asking her to stir it with her finger. "'This is my cup,' said he. "'Only dip your finger in it, and I'll drink it all up.' When they had emptied the samovar, Rostov took a pack of cards

Starting point is 02:23:12 and proposed that they should play kings with Mary Hendrikovna. They drew lots to settle who should make up her set. At Rostov's suggestion, it was agreed that whoever became king should have the right to kiss Mary Hendrachovna's hand, and that the booby should go to refill and reheat the samovar for the doctor when the latter awoke. Well, but supposing Mary Hendrikovna is king, asked Ilyan. As it is, she is queen, and her word is law. They had hardly begun to play before the doctor's disheveled head suddenly appeared from behind

Starting point is 02:23:47 Mary Hendrkovna. He had been awake for some time, listening to what was being said and evidently found nothing entertaining or amusing in what was going on. His face was sad and depressed. Without greeting the officers, he scratched himself and asked to be allowed to pass as they were blocking the way. As soon as he had left the room, all the officers burst. into loud laughter, and Mary Hendrikovna blushed till her eyes filled with tears, and thereby

Starting point is 02:24:18 became still more attractive to them. Returning from the yard, the doctor told his wife, who had ceased to smile so happily, and looked at him in alarm awaiting her sentence, that the rain had ceased, and they must go to sleep in their covered cart, or everything in it would be stolen. "'But I'll send an orderly. Two of them,' said Rostov. "'What an idea, doctor!' "'I'll stand guard on it myself,' said Ilyan. "'No, gentlemen, you have had your sleep, but I have not slept for two nights,' replied the doctor, as he sat down morosely beside his wife, waiting for the game to end. Seeing his gloomy face as he frowned at his wife, the officers grew still merrier,

Starting point is 02:25:03 and some of them could not refrain from laughter, for which they hurriedly sought plausible pretexts. When he had gone, taking his wife with him, and had settled down with her in their covered cart, the officers lay down in the tavern, covering themselves with their wet cloaks, but they did not sleep for a long time. Now the exchange remarks, recalling the doctor's uneasiness and his wife's delight, now they ran out into the porch and reported what was taking place in the covered trap. Several times Rostov, covering his head, tried to go to sleep, but some remark would arouse him and conversation would be resumed to the accompaniment of unreasoning, merry, childlike laughter.

Starting point is 02:25:50 End of Book 9, Chapter 13. Book 9 Chapter 14 of War and Peace, Volume 3, by Leo Tolstoy, translated by Elmer Maud. This Liberbox recording is in the public domain. Book 9, Chapter 14 It was nearly 3 o'clock, but no one was yet. asleep, when the quartermaster appeared with an order to move on to the little town of Astrovna. Still laughing and talking, the officers began hurriedly getting ready and again boiled some muddy water in the samovar. But Rostov went off to his squadron without waiting

Starting point is 02:26:32 for tea. Day was breaking, the rain had ceased, and the clouds were dispersing. It felt damp and cold, especially in clothes that were still moist. As they left the tavern in the twilight of the dawn, Rostov and Ilyan both glanced under the wet and glistening leather hood of the doctor's cart, from under the apron of which his feet were sticking out, and in the middle of which his wife's nightcap was visible and her sleepy breathing audible. "'She really is a dear little thing,' said Rostov to Ilian, who was following him. "'A charming woman,' said Ilyan, with all the gravity of a boy of sixteen. Half an hour later the squadron was lined up on the road. The command was

Starting point is 02:27:15 heard to mount, and the soldiers crossed themselves and mounted. Rostov, riding in front, gave the order, forward, and the hussars, with clanking sabers and subdued talk, the horse's hoofs splashing in the mud, defiled in fours, and moved along the broad road planted with birch trees on each side, following the infantry and a battery that had gone on in front. Tattered, blue-purple clouds, reddening in the east, were scudding before the wind. It was going lighter and lighter, That curly grass which always grows by country roadside became clearly visible, still wet with the night's rain. The drooping branches of the birches also wet, swayed in the wind, and flung down bright drops of water to one side. The soldier's faces were more and more clearly visible.

Starting point is 02:28:04 Rostov, always closely followed by Ilyan, rode along the side of the road between two rows of birch trees. While campaigning, Rostov allowed himself the indulgence. of riding not a regimental, but a Cossack horse. A judge of horses and a sportsman, he had lately procured himself a large, fine, meddlesome, Donais horse, done colored with light mane and tail, and when he wrote it, no one could out-gallop him. To ride this horse was a pleasure to him, and he thought of the horse of the morning of the doctor's wife, but not once of the impending danger. Formerly, when going into action, Rostov had felt afraid. Now he had not the least feeling of fear.

Starting point is 02:28:49 He was fearless. Not because he had grown used to being under fire, one cannot grow used to danger, but because he had learned how to manage his thoughts when in danger. He had grown accustomed when going into action to think about anything but what would seem most likely to interest him, the impending danger. During the first period of his service,

Starting point is 02:29:11 hard as he tried and much as he reproached himself with cowardice, He had not been able to do this, but with time it had come of itself. Now he rode beside Ilyan under the birch trees, occasionally plucking leaves from a branch that met his hand, sometimes touching his horse's side with his foot, or without turning round, handing a pipe he had finished to a hussar riding behind him, with as calm and careless in air as though he were merely out for a ride. He glanced with pity at the excited face of Ilion, who talked much and in great, agitation. He knew from experience the tormenting expectation of terror and death the

Starting point is 02:29:51 cornet was suffering, and knew that only time could help him. As soon as the sun appeared in a clear strip of sky beneath the clouds, the wind fell, as if it dared not spoil the beauty of the summer morning after the storm. Drop still continued to fall, but vertically now, and all was still. The whole sun appeared on the horizon and disappeared behind a long, narrow cloud that hung above it. A few minutes later, it reappeared brighter still from behind the top of the cloud, tearing its edge. Everything grew bright and glittered, and with that light, as if in reply to it, came the sound of guns ahead of them. Before Rostov had had time to consider and determine the distance of that firing, Count Osterman Tolstoy's adjutant came galloping from Viteps with orders to advance at a trot along the road.

Starting point is 02:30:42 The squadron overtook and passed the infantry and the battery, which had also quickened their pace, rode down a hill and passing through an empty and deserted village again ascended. The horses began to lather and the men to flush. Holt! Dress your ranks! The order of the regimental commander was heard ahead. forward by the left, walk, march, came the order from in front. And the hussars, passing along the line of troops on the left flank of our position, halted behind our eulans who were in the front line. To the right stood our infantry in a dense

Starting point is 02:31:19 column. They were the reserve. Higher up the hill, on the very horizon, our guns were visible through the wonderfully clear air, brightly illuminated by slanting morning sunbeams. In front, beyond a hollow dale, could be seen the enemy's columns and guns. Our advance line, already in action, could be heard briskly exchanging shots with the enemy in the dail. At these sounds, long unheard, Rostov's spirits rose, as at the strains of the merriest music. Trap-t-t-t-tap! Cracked the shots, now together, now several quickly one after another. Again, all was silent, and then again it sounded as if someone were walking on detonators and exploding them.

Starting point is 02:32:05 The hussars remained in the same place for about an hour. A cannonade began. Count Osterman, with his suite, rode up behind the squadron, halted, spoke to the commander of the regiment, and rode up the hill to the guns. After Osterman had gone, a command rang out to the Ullins. Form column! Prepare to charge! The infantry in front of them parted into platoons to allow the cavalry to pass.

Starting point is 02:32:32 The Eulens started, the streamers on their spears fluttering, and trotted downhill toward the French cavalry which was seen below to the left. As soon as the Eulens descended the hill, the hussars were ordered up the hill to support the battery. As they took the places vacated by the Eulens, bullets came from the front, whining and whistling, but fell spent without taking effect. The sounds, which he had not heard for so long, had an even more pleasurable and exhilarating effect on Rostov than the previous sounds of firing. Drawing himself up, he viewed the field of battle opening out before him from the hill, and with his whole soul followed the movement of the eulens. They swooped down close to the French dragoons.

Starting point is 02:33:18 Something confused happened there amid the smoke, and five minutes later our eulans were galloping back, not to the place they had occupied, but more to the left, and among the orange-colored eulens on chestnut horses and behind them, in a large group blue French dragoons on gray horses could be seen. End of Book 9, Chapter 14. Book 9 Chapter 15 of War and Peace, Volume 3, by Leo Tolstoy, translated by Elmer Maude. This Libervox recording is in the public domain. Book 9, Chapter 15 Rostov, with his keen sportsman's eye, was one of the first to catch sight of these blue French dragoons pursuing our eulens.

Starting point is 02:34:09 Nearer and nearer in disorderly crowds came the eulens and the French dragoons pursuing them. He could already see how these men, who looked so small at the foot of the hill, jostled and overtook one another, waving their arms and their sabres in the air. Rastov gazed at what was happening before him as at a hunt. He felt instinctively that if the hussar struck at the French dragoons now, the latter could not withstand them. But if a charge was to be made, it must be done now, at the very moment,

Starting point is 02:34:39 or it would be too late. He looked around. A captain, standing beside him, was gazing like himself with eyes fixed on the cavalry below them. Andrew Sevotschonich, said Rostov. You know, we could crush them. A fine thing, too, replied the captain. And really.

Starting point is 02:35:00 Rostov, without waiting to hear him out, touched his horse, galloped to the front of his squadron, and before he had time to finish giving the word of command, the whole squadron, sharing his feeling, was following him. Rostov himself did not know how or why he did it. He acted as he did when hunting, without reflecting or considering. He saw the dragoons near and that they were galloping in disorder. He knew they could not withstand an attack,

Starting point is 02:35:27 knew there was only that moment and that if he let it slip it would not return. The bullets were whining and whistling so stimulating around him, and his horse was so eager to go that he could not restrain himself. He touched his horse, gave the word of command, and immediately, hearing behind him the tramp of the horses of his deployed squadron, rode at full trot downhill toward the dragoons. Hardly had they reached the bottom of the hill before their pace instinctively changed to a gallop, which grew faster and faster as they drew nearer to our Ulands and the French dragoons who galloped after them. The dragoons were now close at hand. On seeing the hussars, the foremost began to turn, while those behind began to halt. With the same feeling with which he had galloped across the path of a

Starting point is 02:36:13 wolf, Rostov gave rein to his Done's horse and galloped to intersect the path of the dragoons' disordered lines. One Euland stopped, another who was on foot flung himself to the ground to avoid being knocked over, and a riderless horse fell in among the hussars. Nearly all the French dragoons were galloping back. Rostov, picking out one on a gray horse, dashed after him. On the way, he came upon a bush. His gallant horse cleared it, and almost before he had righted himself in his saddle, he saw that he would immediately overtake the enemy he had selected. That Frenchman, by his uniform and officer, was going at a gallop, crouching on his gray horse and urging it on with his saber. In another moment, Rostov's horse dashed its breast

Starting point is 02:37:00 against the hindquarters of the officer's horse, almost knocking it over, and at the same instant, Rostov, without knowing why, raised his saber and struck the Frenchman with it. The instant he had done this, all Rostov's animation vanished. The officer fell, not so much from the blow, which had but slightly cut his arm above the elbow, as from the shock to his horse and from fright. Rostov reigned in his horse, and his eyes sought his foe to see whom he had. had vanquished. The French dragoon officer was hopping with one foot on the ground, the other being caught in the stirrup. His eyes, screwed up with fear as if he every moment expected another

Starting point is 02:37:42 blow, gazed up at Rostov with shrinking terror. His pale and mud-stained face, fair and young with a dimple in the chin and light blue eyes, was not an enemy's face at all suited to a battlefield, but a most ordinary, home-like face. Before Rostov had decided what to do with it, he was, him, the officer cried, I surrender! He hurriedly but vainly tried to get his foot out of the stirrup and did not remove his frightened blue eyes from Rostov's face. Some hussars who galloped up, disengaged his foot,

Starting point is 02:38:14 and helped him into the saddle. On all sides, the hussars were busy with the dragoons. One was wounded, but though his face was bleeding, he would not give up his horse. Another was perched up behind an hussar with his arms around him. A third was being helped by an hussar to make. mount his horse. In front, the French infantry were firing as they ran. The hussars galloped hastily back with their prisoners. Rostov galloped back with the rest, aware of an unpleasant feeling

Starting point is 02:38:44 of depression in his heart. Something vague and confused, which he could not at all account for, had come over him with the capture of that officer and the blow he had dealt him. Count Osterman Tolstoy met the returning hussars, sent for Rostov, thank you. And he had to beckers. sent for Rostov, thanked him, and said he would report his gallant deed to the emperor and would recommend him for a St. George's cross. When sent for by Count Osterman, Rostov, remembering that he had charged without orders, felt sure his commander was sending for him to punish him for breach of discipline. Osterman's flattering words and promise of a reward should therefore have struck him all the more

Starting point is 02:39:22 pleasantly, but he still felt that same vaguely disagreeable feeling of moral nausea. "'But what on earth is worrying me?' he asked himself as he wrote back from the general. "'Illion? No, he is safe. Have I disgraced myself in any way? No, that's not it.' Something else, resembling remorse, tormented him. "'Yes, oh yes, that French officer with the dimple. And I remember how my arm paused when I raised it.' Rostov saw the prisoners being led away, and galloped after them to have a look at his Frenchman with a dimple on his chin. He was sitting in his foreign uniform on an Hussar packhorse and looked anxiously about him.

Starting point is 02:40:08 The sword cut on his arm could scarcely be called a wound. He glanced at Rostov with a feigned smile and waved his hand in greeting. Rostov still had the same indefinite feeling as of shame. All that day and the next, his friends and comrades noticed that Rostov, without being dull or angry, was silent, thoughtful, and preoccupied. He drank reluctantly, tried to remain alone, and kept turning something over in his mind. Rostov was always thinking about that brilliant exploit of his, which, to his amazement, had gained him the St. George's Cross, and even given him a reputation for bravery, and there was something he could not at all understand.

Starting point is 02:40:53 So others are even more afraid than I am, he thought. So that's all there is in what is called heroism. And did I do it for my country's sake? And how was he to blame, with his dimple and blue eyes? And how frightened he was. He thought that I should kill him. Why should I kill him? My hand trembled.

Starting point is 02:41:17 And they have given me a St. George's cross. I can't make it out at all. But while Nicholas was considering these questions, and still could reach no clear solution of what puzzled him so. The wheel of fortune in the service, as often happens, turned in his favor. After the affair at Estrovna, he was brought into notice, received command of a Hussar battalion, and when a brave officer was needed, he was chosen. End of Book 9, Chapter 16. Of War and Peace,

Starting point is 02:42:01 Volume 3 by Leo Tolstoy, translated by Elmer Maude. This Libervox recording is in the public domain. Book 9, Chapter 16 On receiving news of Natasha's illness, the Countess, though not quite well yet and still weak, went to Moscow with Petya and the rest of the household, and the whole family moved from Maria Dimitrivena's house to their own and settled down in town. Natasha's illness was so serious that, fortunately for her and for her parents, the consideration of all that had caused the illness, her conduct and the breaking off of her engagement, receded

Starting point is 02:42:40 into the background. She was so ill that it was impossible for them to consider in how far she was to blame for what had happened. She could not eat or sleep, grew visibly thinner, coughed, and as the doctors made them feel, was in danger. They could not think of anything but how to help her. Doctors came to see her singly and in consultation, talked much in French, German, and Latin, blamed one another, and prescribed a great variety of medicines for all the diseases known to them.

Starting point is 02:43:12 But the simple idea never occurred to any of them that they could not know the disease Natasha was suffering from, as no disease suffered by a live man can be known, for every living person has his own peculiarities, and always has his own peculiarities, and always has his own peculiar, personal, novel, complicated disease, unknown to medicine. Not a disease of the lungs, liver, skin, heart, nerves, and so on mentioned in medical books, but a disease consisting of one of the innumerable combinations of the maladies of those organs. This simple thought could not occur to the doctors, as it cannot occur to a wizard that he is unable to work his charms, because the business of their lives was to cure, and they received money for it and had spent

Starting point is 02:43:56 the best years of their lives on that business. But above all, that thought was kept out of their minds by the fact that they saw they were really useful, as in fact they were to the whole Rostov family. Their usefulness did not depend on making the patient swallow substances, for the most part harmful. The harm was scarcely perceptible, as they were given in small doses. But they were useful, necessary, and indispensable, because they satisfied a mental need of the invalid and of those who loved her, and that is why there are, and always will be, pseudo-healers, wise women, homeopaths, and allopaths.

Starting point is 02:44:36 They satisfied that eternal human need for hope of relief, for sympathy, and that something should be done, which is felt by those who are suffering. They satisfied the need seen in its most elementary form in a child, when it wants to have a place rubbed that has been hurt. A child knocks itself and runs at once to the arms of its mother or nurse to have the aching spot rubbed or kissed, and it feels better when this is done. The child cannot believe that the strongest and wisest of its people have no remedy for its pain, and the hope of relief and the expression of its mother's sympathy while she rubs the bump

Starting point is 02:45:14 comforts it. The doctors were abused to Natasha because they kissed and rubbed her bump, assuring her that it would soon pass, if only the coachman went to the chemists and the Arbott, and got a powder and some pills in a pretty box for a ruble and seventy copax, and if she took those powders in boiled water at intervals of precisely two hours, neither more nor less. What would Sonia and the Count and Countess have done? How would they have looked if nothing had been done? If there had not been those pills to give by the clock, the warm drinks, the chicken cutlets, and all the other details of life ordered by the doctors,

Starting point is 02:45:54 the carrying out of which supplied an occupation and consolation to the family circle. How would the Count have borne his dearly loved daughter's illness, had he not known that it was costing him a thousand roubles, and that he would not grudge thousands more to benefit her, or had he not known that if her illness continued, he would not grudge yet other thousands, and would take her abroad for consultations there, and had he not been able to explain the details of how Mativier and Feller had not understood the symptoms,

Starting point is 02:46:24 but Fries had, and Moodrov had diagnosed them even better. What would the Countess have done had she not been able sometimes to scold the invalid for not strictly obeying the doctor's orders? "'You'll never get well like that,' she would say, forgetting her grief and her vexation. "'If you won't obey the doctor and take your medicine at the right time!' "'You mustn't try it. with it, you know, or it may turn to pneumonia, she would go on, deriving much comfort from the utterance of that foreign word, incomprehensible to others as well as to herself.

Starting point is 02:47:00 What would Sonia have done without the glad consciousness that she had not undressed during the first three nights in order to be ready to carry out all the doctor's injunctions with precision, and that she still kept awake at night so as not to miss the proper time when the slightly harmful pills in the little guilt box had to be administered. Even to Natasha herself, it was pleasant to see that so many sacrifices were being made for her sake, and to know that she had to take medicine at certain hours, though she declared that no medicine would cure her and that it was all nonsense. And it was even pleasant to be able to show, by disregarding the orders,

Starting point is 02:47:41 that she did not believe in medical treatment and did not value her life. The doctor came every day, felt her pulse, looked at her tongue, and regardless of her grief-stricken face, joked with her. But when he had gone into another room, to which the Countess hurriedly followed him, he assumed a grave air, and thoughtfully shaking his head, said that, though there was danger, he had hopes of the effect of this last medicine, and one must wait and see, that the malady was chiefly mental, but—and the Countess, trying to conceal the action from herself and from him, slipped a gold coin into his hand and was always returned to the patient with a more tranquil mind. The symptoms of Natasha's illness were that she ate little, slept little, coughed, and was always

Starting point is 02:48:30 low-spirited. The doctor said that she could not get on without medical treatment. So they kept her in the stifling atmosphere of the town, and the Rostovs did not move to the country that summer of 1812. In spite of the many pills she swallowed and the drops and powders out of the little bottles and boxes, of which Madame Shos, who was fond of such things, made a large collection, and in spite of being deprived of the country life to which she was accustomed, youth prevailed. Latasha's grief began to be overlaid by the impressions of daily life. It ceased to press so painfully on her. heart. It gradually faded into the past, and she began to recover physically.

Starting point is 02:49:11 End of Book 9, Chapter 16. Book 9, Chapter 17, of War and Peace, Volume 3 by Leo Tolstoy, translated by Elmer Maude. This Libro-Box recording is in the public domain. Book 9, Chapter 17 Natasha was calmer, but no, happier. She not merely avoided all of external forms of pleasure, balls, promenades, concerts, and theaters, but she never laughed without a sound of tears in her laughter. She could not sing. As soon as she began to laugh, or tried to sing by herself, tears choked her. Tears of remorse, tears at the recollection of those pure times which could never return, tears of vexation that she should so uselessly have ruined

Starting point is 02:50:08 her young life, which might have been so happy. Laughter and singing in particular, seemed to her like a blasphemy in face of her sorrow. Without any need of self-restraint, no wish to coquette ever entered her head. She said and felt at that time that no man was more to her than Nastassia Ivanovna, the buffoon. Something stood sentinel within her, and forbade her every joy.

Starting point is 02:50:35 Besides, she had lost all the old interest of her carefree, girlish life that had been so full of hope. The previous autumn, the hunting, uncle and the Christmas holidays spent with Nicholas at Otradno were what she recalled oftenest and most painfully. What would she not have given to bring back even a single day of that time? But it was gone forever. Her presentiment at the time had not deceived her, that that state of freedom and readiness

Starting point is 02:51:02 for any enjoyment would not return again. Yet it was necessary to live on. It comforted her to reflect that she was not better as she had formerly imagined, but worse, much worse, much worse than anybody else in the world. But this was not enough. She knew that, and asked herself, What next? But there was nothing to come. There was no joy in life, yet life was passing. Natasha apparently tried not to be a burden or hindrance to anyone, but wanted nothing for herself. She kept away from everyone in the house and felt at ease only with her brother, Petya. She liked to be with him better than with the others.

Starting point is 02:51:43 and went alone with him, she sometimes laughed. She hardly ever left the house, and of those who came to see them, was glad to see only one person, Pierre. It would have been impossible to treat her with more delicacy, greater care, and at the same time more seriously than did Count Bazukov. Natasha unconsciously felt this delicacy,

Starting point is 02:52:05 and so found great pleasure in his society. But she was not even grateful to him for it. Nothing good on Pierre's part seemed to her to be an effort. It seemed so natural for him to be kind to everyone that there was no merit in his kindness. Sometimes Natasha noticed embarrassment and awkwardness on his part in her presence, especially when he wanted to do something to please her, or feared that something they spoke of would awaken memories distressing to her. She noticed this and attributed it to his general kindness and shyness,

Starting point is 02:52:39 which she imagined must be the same toward everyone as it was to her. After those involuntary words, that if he were free he would have asked on his knees for her hand and her love, uttered at a moment when she was so strongly agitated, Pierre never spoke to Natasha of his feelings. And it seemed plain to her that those words, which had then so comforted her, were spoken as all sorts of meaningless words are spoken to comfort a crying child. It was not because Pierre was a married man, but because Natasha felt very strongly with him, that moral barrier, the absence of which she had experienced with Coragin, that it never entered her head that the relations between him and herself could leave to love on her part, still less on

Starting point is 02:53:25 his, or even to the kind of tender, self-conscious, romantic friendship between a man and a woman of which she had known several instances. Before the end of the fast of St. Peter, Agrafena I've Novna Balova, a country neighbor of the Rostovs, came to Moscow to pay her devotions at the shrines of the Moscow saints. She suggested that Natasha should fast and prepare for Holy Communion, and Natasha gladly welcomed the idea. Despite the doctor's orders that she should not go out early in the morning, Natasha insisted on fasting and preparing for the sacrament, not as they generally prepared for it in the Rostov family by attending three services in their own house, but as Agrafena Ivanovna did, by going to church every day for a week and not once missing Vespers,

Starting point is 02:54:15 matins, or mass. The Countess was pleased with Natasha's zeal. After the poor results of the medical treatment, in the depths of her heart, she hoped that prayer might help her daughter more than medicines, and though not without fear and concealing it from the doctor, she agreed to Natasha's wish and entrusted her to Belova. Agrafina Ivanovna used to come to wake Natasha at three in the morning, but generally found her already awake. She was afraid of being late for matins.

Starting point is 02:54:48 Hastily washing and meekly putting on her shabbiest dress and an old mantilla, Natasha, shivering in the fresh air, went out into the deserted streets lit by the clear light of dawn. By Agrafina Ivanovna's advice, Natasha prepared herself, not in their own parish, but at a church where, according to the devout Agrafina Ivanovna, the priest was a man of very severe and lofty life. There were never many people in the church. Natasha always stood beside Belova in the customary place before an icon of the Blessed Virgin, led into the screen before the choir on the left side, and a feeling, new to her, of humility before something great and incomprehensible, seized her

Starting point is 02:55:30 when at that unusual morning hour, gazing at the dark face of the Virgin illuminated by the the candles burning before it, and by the morning light falling from the window, she listened to the words of the service which she tried to follow with understanding. When she understood them, her personal feeling became interwoven in the prayers with shades of its own. When she did not understand, it was sweeter still to think that the wish to understand everything is pride, that it is impossible to understand all, that it is only necessary to believe and to commit oneself to God, whom she felt guiding her soul at those moments. She crossed herself, bowed low, and when she did not understand, in horror at her own vileness, simply asked God to forgive her

Starting point is 02:56:18 everything, everything, to have mercy upon her. The prayers to which she surrendered herself, most of all, were those of repentance. On her way home at an early hour, when she met no one but bricklayers going to work or men sweeping the street, and everybody within the houses was still asleep. Natasha experienced a feeling new to her, a sense of the possibility of correcting her faults, the possibility of a new, clean life, and of happiness. During the whole week she spent in this way, that feeling grew every day. And the happiness of taking communion, or communing as Agrafina Ivanovna, joyously playing with the word called it, seemed to Natasha so great that she felt she should never live till that blessed Sunday. But the happy day came, and on that

Starting point is 02:57:11 memorable Sunday, when dressed in white muslin, she returned home after communion, for the first time for many months she felt calm and not oppressed by the thought of the life that lay before her. The doctor who came to see her that day ordered her to continue the powders he had prescribed a fortnight previously. "'She must certainly go on taking them morning and evening,' said he, evidently, sincerely satisfied with his success. Only please be particular about it. "'Be quite easy,' he continued playfully, as he adroitly took the gold coin in his palm. She will soon be singing and frolicing about. The last medicine has done her a very great deal of good.

Starting point is 02:57:55 She has freshened up very much. The Countess, with a cheerful expression on her face, looked down at her nails and spat a little for luck as she returned to the drawing-room. End of Book 9, Chapter 17. Book 9 Chapter 18 of War and Peace, Volume 3 by Leo Tolstoy, translated by Elmer Maud. This Libervox recording is in the public. domain. Book 9, Chapter 18

Starting point is 02:58:32 At the beginning of July, more and more disquieting reports about the war began to spread in Moscow. People spoke of an appeal by the Emperor to the people, and of his coming himself from the army to Moscow. And as up to the 11th of July, no manifesto or appeal had been received. Exaggerated reports became current about them and about the position of Russia. It was said that the emperor was leaving the army because it was in danger. It was said that Smolensk had surrendered, that Napoleon had an army of a million, and only a miracle could save Russia. On the 11th of July, which was Saturday, the manifesto was received but was not yet in print, and Pierre, who was at the Rostovs, promised to come to dinner next day, Sunday,

Starting point is 02:59:21 and bring a copy of the manifesto and appeal, which he would obtain from Count Rostopchin. That Sunday the Rostovs went to mass at the Razumovsky's private chapel as usual. It was a hot July day. Even at ten o'clock, when the Rostovs got out of their carriage at the chapel, the sultry air, the shouts of hawkers, the light and gay summer clothes of the crowd, the dusty leaves of the trees on the boulevard, the sounds of the band and the white trousers of a battalion marching to parade, the rattling of wheels on the cobblestones, and the brilliant hot sunshunds,

Starting point is 02:59:57 were all full of that summer languor, that content and discontent with the present, which is most strongly felt on a bright, hot day in town. All the Moscow notabilities, all the Rostov's acquaintances, were at the Rasmovsky's chapel, for as if expecting something to happen, many wealthy families who usually left town for their country estates had not gone away that summer. As Natasha, at her mother's side, passed through the crowd behind a liveried front of her, footman who cleared the way for them. She heard a young man speaking about her in too loud a whisper. "'That's Rostova, the one who—' She's much thinner, but all the same. She's pretty.'

Starting point is 03:00:40 She heard, or thought she heard, the names of Karagin and Bolkonsky. But she was always imagining that. It always seemed to her that everyone who looked at her was thinking only of what had happened to her. With a sinking heart, wretched as she always was now, when she found herself in a crowd. Natasha in her lilac silk dress, trimmed with black lace, walked, as women can walk, with the more repose and stateliness,

Starting point is 03:01:06 the greater the pain and shame in her soul. She knew for certain that she was pretty, but this no longer gave her satisfaction as it used to. On the contrary, it tormented her more than anything else of late, and particularly so on this bright, hot summer day in town. It's Sunday again, another week past, she thought, recalling that she had been here the Sunday before. And always the same life that is no life,

Starting point is 03:01:35 and the same surroundings in which it used to be so easy to live. I'm pretty, I'm young, and I know that I am good. I used to be bad, but now I know I am good, she thought. But yet my best years are slipping by and are no good to anyone. She stood by her mother's side and exchanged nods with acquaintances near her. From habit she scrutinized the lady's dresses, condemned the bearing of a lady standing close by who was not crossing herself properly, but in a cramped manner, and again she thought with vexation that she was herself being judged and was judging others,

Starting point is 03:02:16 and suddenly, at the sound of the service, she felt horrified at her own vileness, horrified that the former purity of her soul was again lost to her. A comely, fresh-looking old man was conducting the service, with that mild solemnity which was so elevating and soothing an effect on the souls of the worshippers. The gates of the sanctuary screen were closed. The curtain was slowly drawn, and from behind it a soft, mysterious voice pronounced some words. Tears, the cause of which she herself did not understand, made Natasha's breast-heave, and a joyous but oppressive feeling agitated her. "'Teach me what I should do, how to live my life,

Starting point is 03:03:00 "'how I may grow good forever, forever,' she pleaded. "'The deacon came out onto the raised space before the altar screen, "'and, holding his thumb extended, drew his long hair from under his dalmatic, "'and making the sign of the cross on his breast, "'began in a loud and solemn voice to recite the words of the prayer. "'In peace, let us pray unto the Lord!' "'Has one community, without distinctly, of class, without enmity, united by brotherly love, let us pray, thought Natasha.

Starting point is 03:03:34 For the peace that is from above, and for the salvation of our souls. For the world of angels and all the spirits who dwell above us, prayed Natasha. When they prayed for the warriors, she thought of her brother and Denisov. When they prayed for all traveling by land and sea, she remembered Prince Andrew, prayed for him, and asked God to forgive her all the wrong she had done him. When they prayed for those who love us, she prayed for the members of her own family, her father and mother and Sonia, realizing for the first time how wrongly she had acted toward them, and feeling all the strength of her love for them. When they prayed for those who hate us, she tried to think of her enemies and people who hated her in order to

Starting point is 03:04:19 pray for them. She included among her enemies the creditors and all who had business dealings with her father. And always, at the thought of enemies and those who hated her, she remembered Anatole, who had done her so much harm. And though he did not hate her, she gladly prayed for him as for an enemy. Only at prayer did she feel able to think clearly and calmly of Prince Andrew and Anatole, as men for whom her feelings were as nothing compared with her awe and devotion to God. When they prayed for the imperial family and the synod, she bowed very low and made the sign of the cross, saying to herself that even if she did not understand, still she could not doubt, and at any rate, love the governing signet and prayed for it.

Starting point is 03:05:08 When he had finished the litany, the deacon crossed the stole over his breast and said, Let us commit ourselves and our whole lives to Christ the Lord. Commit ourselves to God, Natasha inwardly repeated. Lord God, I submit myself to thy will, she thought. I want nothing, wish for nothing. Tell me what to do and how to use my will. Take me, take me, prayed Natasha, with impatient emotion in her heart, not crossing herself, but letting her slender arms hang down,

Starting point is 03:05:41 as if expecting some invisible power at any moment, to take her and deliver her from herself, from her regrets, desires, remorse, hopes, and sins. The Countess look round several times at her daughter's softened face, and shining eyes and prayed God to help her. Unexpectedly, in the middle of the service, and not in the usual order Natasha knew so well, the deacon brought out a small stool, the one he knelt on when praying on Trinity Sunday,

Starting point is 03:06:11 and placed it before the doors of the sanctuary screen. The priest came out with his purple velvet burrata on his head, adjusted his hair, and knelt down with an effort. Everybody followed his example, and they looked at one another in surprise. Then came the prayer just received from the synod, a prayer for the deliverance of Russia from hostile invasion. "'Lord God of might, God of our salvation!' began the priest in that voice, clear,

Starting point is 03:06:41 not grandiloquent, but mild, in which only the Slav clergy read, and which acts so irresistibly on a Russian heart. "'Lord God of might, God of our salvation! Look this day in mercy and blessing on thy humble people, and graciously hear us, spare us, and have mercy upon us. This foe confounding thy land, desiring to lay waste the whole world, rises against us. These lawless men are gathered together to overthrow thy kingdom, to destroy thy dear Jerusalem, thy beloved Russia,

Starting point is 03:07:19 to defile thy temples, to overthrow thine altars, and to desecrate our holy shrines. How long, O Lord, how long shall the wicked triumph? How long shall they wield unlawful power? Lord God, hear us when we pray to thee. Strengthen with thy might our most gracious sovereign Lord, the Emperor Alexander Pavlovich. Be mindful of his uprightness and meekness.

Starting point is 03:07:47 Reward him according to his righteousness and let it preserve us, thy chosen Israel. Bless His counsels, His undertakings, and His work. Strengthen His kingdom by thine Almighty hand, and give him victory over his enemy, even as thou gavest Moses the victory over Amalek, Gideon over Midian, and David over Goliath. Preserve his army. Put a bow of brass in the hands of those who have armed themselves in thy name, and gird their loins with strength for the fight.

Starting point is 03:08:20 up the spear and shield and arise to help us. Confound and put to shame those who have devised evil against us. May they be before the faces of thy faithful warriors as dust before the wind, and may thy mighty angel confound them and put them to flight. May they be ensnared when they know it not, and may the plots they have laid in secret be turned against them. Let them fall before thy servant's feet and be laid low by our hosts. Lord, thou art able to save both great and small. Thou art God and man cannot prevail against thee. God of our fathers,

Starting point is 03:09:02 remember thy bounteous mercy and loving kindness which are from of old. Turn not thy face from us, but be gracious to our unworthiness, and in thy great goodness and thy many mercies regard not our transgressions and iniquities. create in us a clean heart and renew a right spirit within us, strengthen us all in thy faith, fortify our hope, inspire us with true love for one another. Arm us with unity of spirit in the righteous defense of the heritage thou gave us to us and to our fathers, and let not the scepter of the wicked be exalted against the destiny of those thou hast sanctified. O Lord, our God, in whom we believe and in whom we put our trust,

Starting point is 03:09:50 let us not be confounded in our hope of thy mercy, and give us a token of thy blessing, that those who hate us and our orthodox faith may see it and be put to shame and perish, and may all the nations know that thou art the Lord and we are thy people. Show thy mercy upon us this day, O Lord, and grant us thy salvation. Make the hearts of thy servants to rejoice in thy mercy, smite down our enemies, and destroy them swiftly beneath the feet of thy faithful servants. For thou art the defense, the succor, and the victory of them that put their trust in thee, and to thee be all glory, to Father, Son, and Holy Ghost, now and forever,

Starting point is 03:10:35 world without end. Amen. In Natasha's receptive condition of soul, this prayer of her strongly. She listened to every word about the victory of Moses over Amalek, of Gideon over Midian, and of David over Goliath, and about the destruction of thy Jerusalem. And she prayed to God with the tenderness and emotion with which her heart was overflowing, but without fully understanding what she was asking of God in that prayer. She shared with all her heart in the prayer for the spirit of righteousness, for the strengthening of the heart by faith and hope, and its animation by love. But she could not pray that her enemies might be trampled underfoot, when, but a few minutes before she had been wishing she had more of them that she might pray for them. But neither could

Starting point is 03:11:30 she doubt the righteousness of the prayer that was being read on bended knees. She felt in her heart a devout and tremulous awe at the thought of the punishment that overtakes men for their sins. and especially of her own sins, and she prayed to God to forgive them all and her too, and to give them all and her too, peace and happiness. And it seemed to her that God heard her prayer. End of Book 9, Chapter 18. Book 9 Chapter 19 of War and Peace, Volume 3 by Leo Tolstoy, translated by Elmer Maud.

Starting point is 03:12:15 This Liberbox recording is in the public domain. Book 9, Chapter 19 From the day when Pierre, after leaving the Rostovs with Natasha's grateful look fresh in his mind, had gazed at the comet that seemed to be fixed in the sky and felt that something new was appearing on his own horizon, from that day the problem of the vanity and uselessness of all earthly things that had incessantly tormented him no longer presented itself. That terrible question, why, wherefore, which had come to him a means, every occupation, was now replaced, not by another question or by a reply to the former question,

Starting point is 03:12:57 but by her image. When he listened to or himself took part in trivial conversations, when he read or heard of human baseness or folly, he was not horrified as formerly, and did not ask himself why men struggled so about these things when all is so transient and incomprehensible. But he remembered her as he at last seen her, and all his doubt vanished. Not because she had answered the questions that had haunted him, but because his conception of her transferred him instantly to another, a brighter realm of spiritual activity, in which no one could be justified or guilty. A realm of beauty and love which it was worth living for. Whatever worldly baseness presented itself to him, he said to himself, well, supposing N. N. has swindled the

Starting point is 03:13:47 country and the Tsar, and the country and the Tsar confer honors upon him. What does that matter? She smiled at me yesterday and asked me to come again, and I love her, and no one will ever know it. And his soul felt calm and peaceful. Pierre still went into society, drank as much and led the same idle and dissipated life, because besides the hours he spent at the Rostovs, there were other hours he had to spend somehow, and the habits and acquaintances he had made in Moscow formed a current that bore him along irresistibly. But latterly, when more and more disquieting reports came from the seat of war, and Natasha's health began to improve, and she no longer aroused in him the former feeling of careful pity, and ever-increasing restlessness, which he could not

Starting point is 03:14:37 explain, took possession of him. He felt that the condition he was in could not continue long, that a catastrophe was coming which would change his whole life, and he impatiently sought everywhere for signs of that approaching catastrophe. One of his brother Masons had revealed to Pierre the following prophecy concerning Napoleon, drawn from the revelation of St. John. In chapter 13 verse 18 of the Apocalypse, it is said, Here is wisdom. Let him that hath understanding count the number of the beast, for it is the number of a man.

Starting point is 03:15:13 and his number is six hundred three score and six. And in the fifth verse of the same chapter, and there was given unto him a mouth speaking great things and blasphemies, and power was given unto him to continue forty and two months. The French alphabet, written out with the same numerical values as the Hebrew, in which the first nine letters denote units and the others tens, will have the following significance. A1, B2, C3, D4, E5, F6, G7, H8, I9, K-10, L20, M30, N40, O50, P60, Q70, R80, S-90, T-100, U-110, U-10, V-120, V-120, W-130, X-140, X-140, Y-150, Z-160.

Starting point is 03:16:11 Writing the words Lampereurr Napoleon in numbers, it appears that the sum of them is 666, and that Napoleon was therefore the beast foretold in the apocalypse. Moreover, by applying the same system to the words Quirandu, 42, which was the term allowed to the beast that spoke great things and blasphemies, the same number 666 was obtained. From which it followed that the limit fixed for Napoleon's power had come in the year 18,000, when the French Emperor was 42. This prophecy pleased Pierre very much, and he often asked himself what would put an end to the power of the beast,

Starting point is 03:16:51 that is, of Napoleon, and tried by the same system of using letters as numbers and adding them up to find an answer to the question that engrossed him. He wrote the words, Lempereuxe, la Nacional rus, and added up their numbers, but the sums were either more or less than 666. Once, when making such calculations, he wrote down his own name in French, Count Pierre Besouhof, but the sum of the numbers did not come right.

Starting point is 03:17:20 Then he changed the spelling, substituting a Z for the S and adding De and the article Le, still without obtaining the desired result. Then it occurred to him. If the answer to the question were contained in his name, his nationality would also be given in the answer. So he wrote, Lerous Bezuhov, and adding up the numbers, got 671. This was only five too much, and five was represented by E,

Starting point is 03:17:49 the very letter elighted from the article Leigh before the word emperor. By omitting the E, though incorrectly, Pierre got the answer he sought. Lerous Bezouhov made 666. This discovery excited him. How or by what means he was connected with the number. great event foretold in the apocalypse he did not know, but he did not doubt that connection for a moment. His love for Natasha, Antichrist, Napoleon, the invasion, the comet, 66, Le Perre Napoleon, and La Rousse Besouhouhuff. All this had to mature and culminate, to lift him

Starting point is 03:18:28 out of that spellbound, petty sphere of Moscow habits in which he felt himself held captive, and lead him to a great achievement and great happiness. On the eve of the Sunday, when the special prayer was read, Pierre had promised the Rostovs to bring them from Count Rostopchin, whom he knew well, both the appeal to the people and the news from the army. In the morning, when he went to call at Rostoptions, he met there a courier fresh from the army, an acquaintance of his own, who often danced at Moscow balls. "'Do please, for heaven's sake, relieve me of something,' said the courier. I have a sackful of letters to parents.

Starting point is 03:19:09 Among these letters was one from Nicholas Rostov to his father. Pierre took that letter, and Rostopchin also gave him the Emperor's appeal to Moscow, which had just been printed, the last army orders, and his own most recent bulletin. Glancing through the army orders, Pierre found in one of them, in the lists of killed, wounded, and rewarded, the name of Nicholas Rostov, awarded a St. George's Cross of the fourth class, for courage shown in the Ostrovena affair, and in the same order the name of Prince Andrew Bolkonsky, appointed to the command of a regiment of Shasurs.

Starting point is 03:19:44 Though he did not want to remind the Rostovs of Balkansky, Pierre could not refrain from making them happy by the news of their sons having received a decoration, so he sent that printed army order and Nicholas' letter to the Rostovs, keeping the appeal, the bulletin, and the other orders to take with him when he went to dinner. His conversation with Count Rostopchin and the latter's tone of anxious hurry, the meeting with the courier who talked casually of how badly things were going in the army.

Starting point is 03:20:13 The rumors of the discovery of spies in Moscow and of a leaflet in circulation stating that Napoleon promised to be in both the Russian capitals by the autumn and the talk of the emperors being expected to arrive next day. All aroused with fresh force, that feeling of agitation and expectation in Pierre, which he had been conscious of ever since the appearance of the comet, and especially since the beginning of the war. He had long been thinking of entering the army, and would have done so had he not been hindered, first, by his membership of the Society of Freemasons, to which he was bound by oath

Starting point is 03:20:50 and which preached perpetual peace and the abolition of war, and secondly by the fact that, when he saw the great mass of Muscovites who had donned uniform and were talking patriotism, he somehow felt ashamed to take the step. But the chief reason for not carrying out his intention to enter the army lay in the vague idea that he was Lerous Besuhoff, who had the number of the beast 666. That his part in the great affair of setting a limit to the power of the beast that spoke great and blasphemous things had been predestined from eternity,

Starting point is 03:21:24 and that therefore he ought not to undertake anything, but wait for what was bound to come to pass. End of Book 9, Chapter 19. Book 9, Chapter 20, of War and Peace, Volume 3 by Leo Tolstoy, translated by Elmer Maude. This Libervox recording is in the public domain. Book 9, Chapter 20 A few intimate friends were dining with the Rostovs that day, as usual on Sundays. Pierre came early, so as to find them alone.

Starting point is 03:22:05 He had grown so stout this year that he would have been abnormal had he not been so tall, so broad of limb and so strong that he carried his bulk with evident ease. He went up the stairs, puffing and muttering something. His coachman did not even ask whether he was to wait. He knew that when his master was at the Rostovs, he stayed till midnight. The Rostov's footman rushed eagerly forward to help him off with his cloak and take his hat and stick. Pierre, from Club Habit, always left both hat and stick in the ante-room. The first person he saw in the house was Natasha.

Starting point is 03:22:42 Even before he saw her, while taking off his cloak, he heard her. She was practicing sulfa exercises in the music room. He knew that she had not sung since her illness, and so the sound of her voice surprised and delighted him. He opened the door softly and saw her in the lilac dress she had worn at church walking about the room singing. She had her back to him when he opened the door, but when, turning quickly, she saw his broad, surprised face,

Starting point is 03:23:10 she blushed and came rapidly up to him. "'I want to try to sing again,' she said, adding as if by way of excuse, "'it is at least something to do. That's capital. "'How glad I am you've come. I am so happy to-day,' she said, with the old animation Pierre had not seen in her for a long time. "'You know, Nicholas has received a St. George's Cross? I am so proud of him.'

Starting point is 03:23:37 "'Oh, yes, I set that announcement. But I don't want to interrupt you,' he added, and was about to go to the drawing-room. Natasha stopped him. "'Count, is it wrong of me to sing?' she said, blushing, and fixing her eyes inquiringly on him. "'No, why should it be? On the contrary, but why do you ask me?' "'I don't know myself,' Natasha answered quickly. "'But I should not like to do anything you disapprove of. "'I believe in you completely. "'You don't know how important you are to me, how much you've done for me.'

Starting point is 03:24:14 She spoke rapidly and did not notice how Pierre flushed at her words. "'I saw in that same army order that he—' "'Balkonsky,' she whispered the name hastily, "'is in Russia and in the army again. "'What do you think?' She was speaking hurriedly, evidently afraid her strength might fail her. "'Will he ever forgive me? Will he not always have a bitter feeling toward me? What do you think? What do you think?'

Starting point is 03:24:42 "'I think,' Pierre replied, "'that he has nothing to forgive. If I were in his place.' "'By association of ideas, Pierre was at once carried back to the day, when, trying to comfort her, he had said that if he were not himself but the best man in world and free. He would ask on his knees for her hand. And the same feeling of pity, tenderness, and love took possession of him, and the same words rose to his lips. But she did not give him time to say them. "'Yes, you, you,' she said, uttering the word you rapturously. "'That's a different thing. I know no one kinder, more generous, or better than you. Nobody could

Starting point is 03:25:26 be. Had you not been there then, and now, too, I don't know what would have become of me, because... Tears suddenly rose in her eyes. She turned away, lifted her music before her eyes, began singing again, and again began walking up and down the room. Just then Petya came running in from the drawing-room. Petya was now a handsome rosy lad of fifteen, with full red lips and resembled Natasha.

Starting point is 03:25:53 He was preparing to enter the university, but he and his friend Oblensky had lately, in secret, agreed to join the hussars. Petya had come rushing out to talk to his namesake about this affair. He had asked Pierre to find out whether he would be accepted in the hussars. Pierre walked up and down the drawing-room, not listening to what Petya was saying. Petya pulled him by the arm to attract his attention. Well, what about my plan?

Starting point is 03:26:20 Peter Kirillich, for heaven's sake, you are my only hope, said Petya. Oh, yes, your plan. to join the hussars? I'll mention it. I'll bring it all up today. Well, Monshire, have you got the manifesto? asked the old Count. The Countess has been to Mass at the Razumovskys and heard the new prayer. She says it's very fine. Yes, I've got it, said Pierre. The Emperor is to be here tomorrow. There's to be an extraordinary meeting of the nobility,

Starting point is 03:26:52 and they are talking of a levy of ten men per thousand. Oh, yes, let me congratulate you. Yes, yes, thank God. Well, and what news from the Army? We are again retreating. They say we're already near Smolensk, replied Pierre. Oh, Lord, oh Lord, exclaimed the Count. Where is the manifesto?

Starting point is 03:27:16 The Emperor's appeal? Oh, yes. Pierre began feeling in his pockets for the papers, but could not find them. Still slapping his pockets, he kissed the hand. of the Countess who entered the room and glanced uneasily around, evidently expecting Natasha, who had left off singing but had not yet come into the drawing-room. "'On my word, I don't know what I've done with it,' he said. "'There he is, always losing everything,' remarked the Countess.

Starting point is 03:27:45 Natasha entered with a softened and agitated expression of face and sat down looking silently at Pierre. As soon as she entered, Pierre's features, which had been gloomy, suddenly lighted up, and while still searching for the papers, he glanced at her several times. "'No, really. I'll drive home. I must have left them there. I'll certainly. But you'll be late for dinner. Oh, and my coachman has gone.' But Sonia, who had gone to look for the papers in the ante-room, had found them in Pierre's hat, where he had carefully tucked them under the lining. Pierre was about to begin reading. "'No, after dinner,' said the old Count. "'Ir.'

Starting point is 03:28:25 evidently expecting much enjoyment from that reading. At dinner, at which champagne was drunk to the health of the new Chevalier of St. George, Shinshin told them the town news, of the illness of the old Georgian princess, of Mativier's disappearance from Moscow, and of how some German fellow had been brought to Rostopchin and accused of being a French spire, so Count Rostopchin had told the story, and how Rostopchin let him go and assured the people that he was not a spire at all, only no German ruin. People are being arrested, said the Count. I've told the Countess she should not speak French so much. It's not the time for it now. And have you heard, Shinchin asked.

Starting point is 03:29:09 Prince Golitsin has engaged a master to teach him Russian. It is becoming dangerous to speak French in the streets. And how about you, Count Peter Kyrillich? If they call up the militia, you too will have to mount a horse, remarked the old Count, addressing. Pierre. Pierre had been silent and preoccupied all through dinner, seeming not to grasp what was said. He looked at the Count. "'Oh, yes, the war,' he said. "'No, what sort of warrior should I make?' And yet everything is so strange, so strange. I can't make it out. I don't know.

Starting point is 03:29:46 I am very far from having military tastes, but in these times no one can answer for himself.' After dinner, the Count settled himself comfortably in an easy chair, and with a serious face, asked Sonia, who was considered an excellent reader to read the appeal. To Moscow, our ancient capital! The enemy has entered the borders of Russia with immense forces. He comes to despoil our beloved country. Sonia read painstakingly in her high-pitched voice. The Count listened with closed eyes.

Starting point is 03:30:22 heaving abrupt sighs at certain passages. Natasha sat erect, gazing with a searching look now at her father and now at Pierre. Pierre felt her eyes on him and tried not to look round. The Countess shook her head disapprovingly and angrily at every solemn expression in the manifesto. In all these words, she saw only that the danger threatening her son would not soon be over. Shinshen, with a sarcastic smile on his lips, was evidently. preparing to make fun of anything that gave him the opportunity. Sonia's reading, any remark of the counts, or even the manifesto itself should no better pretext present itself. After reading about

Starting point is 03:31:05 the dangers that threaten Russia, the hopes the Emperor placed on Moscow, and especially on its illustrious nobility, Sonia, with a quiver in her voice due chiefly to the attention that was being paid to her, read the last words. We ourselves will not delay to a among our people in that capital, and in other parts of our realm for consultation, and for the direction of all our levies, both those now barring the enemy's path, and those freshly formed to defeat him wherever he may appear. May the ruin he hopes to bring upon us recoil on his own head, and may Europe, delivered from bondage, glorify the name of Russia. Yes, that's it, cried the Count, opening his moist eyes.

Starting point is 03:31:52 and sniffing repeatedly, as if a strong vinaigrette had been held to his nose. And he added, "'Let the emperor but say the word, and we'll sacrifice everything, and begrudge nothing.' Before Shinchin had time to utter the joke he was ready to make on the Count's patriotism, Natasha jumped up from her place and ran to her father. "'What a darling our papa is!' she cried, kissing him, and she again looked at Pierre with the unconscious coquetry that had returned to her with her better spirits.

Starting point is 03:32:24 "'There, here's a patriot for you,' said Shin-chin. "'Not a patriot at all, but simply,' Natasha replied in an injured tone. "'Everything seems funny to you, but this isn't at all a joke.' "'A joke indeed,' put in the count. "'Let him but say the word, and we'll all go. We're not Germans.' "'But did you notice it says, for consultation, said Pierre. "'Never mind what it's for.'

Starting point is 03:32:56 At this moment, Petya, to whom nobody was paying any attention, came up to his father with a very flushed face, and said in his breaking voice that was now deep and now shrill, "'Well, Papa, I tell you definitely, and Mama too, it's as you please, but I say definitely that you must let me enter the army, because I can't. That's all.' The Countess, in dismay, looked up to heaven, clasped her hands, and turned angrily to her husband.

Starting point is 03:33:28 "'That comes of your talking,' said she. But the Count had already recovered from his excitement. "'Come, come,' said he. "'Here's a fine warrior. No, nonsense. You must study.' "'It's not nonsense, Papa. Fidia Obelensky is younger than I, and he's going too.

Starting point is 03:33:47 Besides, all the same, I can't study now when—' Yetya stopped short, flushed till he perspired, but still got out the words, "'When our fatherland is in danger!' "'That'll do, that'll do, nonsense.' "'But you said yourself that we would sacrifice everything.' "'Petja, big quiet I tell you,' cried the Count, with a glance at his wife, who had turned pale and was staring fixedly at her son. "'And I tell you—'

Starting point is 03:34:19 Peter Carrillich here will also tell you. "'Nonsense, I tell you. Your mother's milk has hardly dried on your lips, and you want to go into the army. There, there, I tell you.' And the Count moved to go out of the room, taking the papers, probably to re-read them in his study before having a nap. "'Well, Peter Carrillich, let's go and have a smoke,' he said. Pierre was agitated and undecided.

Starting point is 03:34:47 Natasha's unwontedly brilliant eyes, continually glancing at him with a more than cordial look, had reduced him to this condition. "'No, I think I'll go home.' "'Home? Why, you meant to spend the evening with us? You don't often come nowadays as it is. And this girl of mine,' said the Count, good-naturedly, pointing to Natasha, "'only brightens up when you're here.' "'Yes, I had forgotten. I really must go home. Business,' said Pierre hurriedly. "'Well, then, I'll rava,' said the Count, and went out of the room.

Starting point is 03:35:22 "'Why are you going? Why are you upset?' asked Natasha, and she looked challengingly into Pierre's eyes. "'Because I love you was what he wanted to say, but he did not say it, and only blushed till the tears came and lowered his eyes. "'Because it is better for me to come less often. Because—' "'No, simply I have business.' "'Why, no, tell me!' Natasha began resolute. and suddenly stopped. They looked at each other with dismayed and embarrassed faces. He tried to smile, but could not. His smile expressed suffering,

Starting point is 03:36:02 and he silently kissed her hand and went out. Pierre made up his mind not to go to the Rostovs anymore. End of Book 9, Chapter 20. Book 9 Chapter 21 of War and Peace, Volume 3, by Leo Tolstoy, translated by Elmer Maud. This Libervox recording is in the public domain. Book 9, Chapter 21

Starting point is 03:36:36 After the definite refusal he had received, Petya went to his room and there locked himself in and wept bitterly. When he came into tea, silent, morose, and with tear-stained face, everybody pretended not to notice anything. Next day the Emperor arrived in Moscow, and several of the Rostov's domestic serfs begged permission. to go to have a look at him. That morning, Petya was a long time dressing,

Starting point is 03:37:05 and arranging his hair and collar to look like a grown-up man. He frowned before his looking-glass, gesticulated, shrugged his shoulders, and finally, without saying a word to anyone, took his cap and left the house by the back door, trying to avoid notice. Petya decided to go straight to where the emperor was, and to explain, frankly, to some gentleman in waiting, he imagined the emperor to be always surrounded by gentlemen in waiting, that he, Count

Starting point is 03:37:32 Rostov, in spite of his youth, wished to serve his country, that youth could be no hindrance to loyalty, and that he was ready to. While dressing, Petya had prepared many fine things he meant to say to the gentleman in waiting. It was on the very fact of being so young that Pedya counted for success in reaching the emperor. He even thought how surprised everyone would be at his youthfulness, and yet, in the arrangement of his collar and hair, and by his sedate, deliberate walk, he wished to appear a grown-up man. But the farther he went, and the more his attention was diverted by the ever-increasing crowds moving toward the Kremlin, the less he remembered to walk with the sedateness and deliberation

Starting point is 03:38:14 of a man. As he approached the Kremlin, he even began to avoid being crushed, and resolutely stuck out his elbows in a menacing way. But within the Trinity Gateway, he was so pressed to the wall by people, who probably were unaware of the patriotic intentions with which he had come, that in spite of all his determination he had to give in and stop while carriages passed in, rumbling beneath the archway. Beside Petya stood a peasant woman, a footman, two tradesmen, and a discharged soldier. After standing some time in the gateway, Petya tried to move forward in front of the others without waiting for all the carriages to pass,

Starting point is 03:38:56 and he began resolutely working his way with his elbows, but the woman just in front of him, who was the first against whom he directed his efforts, angrily shouted at him, "'What are you shouting for, young lordling? Don't you see we're all standing still? Then why push?' "'Anybody can shove,' said the footman,

Starting point is 03:39:16 and also began working his elbows to such effect that he pushed Petya into a very filthy corner of the gateway. Petya wiped his perspiring face with his hands and pulled up the damp collar which he had arranged so well at home to seem like a man's. He felt that he no longer looked presentable, and feared that if he were now to approach the gentleman-in-waiting in that plight he would not be admitted to the Emperor. But it was impossible to smarten oneself up or move to another place because of the crowd. One of the generals who drove past was an acquaintance of the Rostovs, and Petya thought of asking his help, but came to the conclusion that that would not be a manly thing to do.

Starting point is 03:39:59 When the carriages had all passed in, the crowd, carrying Petya with it, streamed forward into the Kremlin Square, which was already full of people. There were people not only in the square, but everywhere, on the slopes and on the roofs. As soon as Petya found himself in the square, he clearly heard the sound of bells and the joyous voices of the crowd that filled the whole Kremlin. For a while the crowd was less dense, but suddenly all heads were bared, and everyone rushed forward in one direction. Petya was being pressed so hard that he could scarcely breathe, and everybody shouted, Hurrah! Hurrah! Hurrah! Petya stood on tiptoe and pushed and pinched, but could see nothing

Starting point is 03:40:44 except the people about him. All the faces bore the same expression of excitement and enthusiasm. A tradesman's wife standing beside Petya sobbed, and the tears ran down her cheeks. "'Father! Angel! Dear one!' she kept repeating, wiping away her tears with her fingers. "'Hurrah!' was heard on all sides. For a moment the crowd stood still, but then it made another rush forward. Quite beside himself, Petya, clenching his teeth and rolling his eyes ferociously, pushed forward, elbowing his way and shouting hurrah, as if he were prepared that instant to kill himself and everyone else. But on both sides of him, other people with similarly ferocious faces push forward, and everybody shouted hurrah.

Starting point is 03:41:35 So this is what the emperor is, thought Petya. No, I can't petition him myself. That would be too bold. But in spite of this, he continued to struggle desperately forward. and from between the backs of those in front he caught glimpses of an open space with a strip of red cloth spread out on it. But just then the crowd swayed back. The police in front were pushing back those who had pressed too close to the procession. The Emperor was passing from the palace to the cathedral of the assumption, and Petya unexpectedly received such a blow on his side and ribs, and was squeezed so hard that suddenly everything grew dim before his eyes and he lost consciousness.

Starting point is 03:42:18 When he came to himself, a man of clerical appearance with a tuft of gray hair at the back of his head and wearing a shabby blue cassock, probably a church clerk and chanter, was holding him under the arm with one hand while warding off the pressure of the crowd with the other. "'You've crushed the young gentleman,' said the clerk. "'What are you up to? Gently! They've crushed him! Crushed him!'

Starting point is 03:42:43 The Emperor entered the cathedral of the assumption. The crowd spread out again more evenly, and the clerk led Petya, pale and breathless, to the Tsar cannon. Several people were sorry for Petya, and suddenly a crowd turned toward him and pressed round him. Those who stood nearest him attended to him, unbuttoned his coat, seated him on the raised platform of the cannon, and reproached those others, whoever they might be who had crushed him. One might easily get killed that way. What do they mean by it, killing people? "'Poor dear! He's as white as a sheet!' various voices were heard saying. Petya soon came to himself. The color returned to his face, the pain had passed,

Starting point is 03:43:28 and at the cost of that temporary unpleasantness he had obtained a place by the cannon from where he hoped to see the emperor who would be returning that way. Petya no longer thought of presenting his petition. If he could only see the emperor, he would be happy. While the service was proceeding in the cathedral of the assumption, it was a combined service of prayer on the occasion of the Emperor's arrival and of Thanksgiving for the conclusion of peace with the Turks. The crowd outside spread out and hawkers appeared, selling cavass, gingerbread, and poppy-seed sweets, of which Petya was particularly fond, and ordinary conversation could again be heard. A tradesman's wife was showing a rent in her shawl

Starting point is 03:44:13 and telling how much the shawl had cost. Another was saying that all silk goods had now got dear. The clerk who had rescued Petya was talking to a functionary about the priest who were officiating that day with the bishop. The clerk several times used the word plenary of the service, a word Petya did not understand. Two young citizens were joking with some surf girls who were cracking nuts. All these conversations,

Starting point is 03:44:41 especially the joking with the girls, were such as might have had a particular charm for Petya at his age, but they did not interest him now. He sat on his elevation, the pedestal of the cannon, still agitated as before by the thought of the Emperor and by his love for him. The feeling of pain and fear he had experienced when he was being crushed, together with that of rapture, still further intensified his sense of the importance of the occasion.

Starting point is 03:45:09 Suddenly the sound of a firing of cannon was heard from the embankment, to celebrate the signing of peace with the Turks, and the crowd rushed impetuously toward the embankment to watch the firing. Petya, too, would have run there, but the clerk who had taken the young gentleman under his protection stopped him. The firing was still proceeding when officers, generals and gentlemen-in-waiting came running out of the cathedral, and after them others in a more leisurely manner. Caps were again raised, and those who had run to look at the cannon ran back again.

Starting point is 03:45:41 at least four men in uniforms and sashes emerged from the cathedral doors. Hurrah! Hurrah! shouted the crowd again. Which is he? Which? asked Petya in a tearful voice of those around him, but no one answered him. Everybody was too excited. And Petya, fixing on one of those four men, whom he could not clearly see for the tears of joy that filled his eyes, concentrated all his enthusiasm on him. though it happened not to be the Emperor, frantically shouting, Hurrah! And resolved that tomorrow, come what might, he would join the Army.

Starting point is 03:46:20 The crowd ran after the Emperor, followed him to the palace, and began to disperse. It was already late, and Petya had not eaten anything, and was drenched with perspiration. Yet he did not go home, but stood with that diminishing, but still considerable crowd before the palace while the Emperor died. looking in at the palace windows, expecting he knew not what, and envying alike the notables he saw arriving at the entrance to dine with the Emperor and the Court footman who served at table, glimpses of whom could be seen through the windows. While the Emperor was dining, Valuev, looking out of the window, said,

Starting point is 03:47:00 The people are still hoping to see your majesty again. The dinner was nearly over, and the Emperor, munching a biscuit, rose and went out. onto the balcony. The people, with Petya among them, rushed toward the balcony. Angel! Dear one! Hurrah! Father! cried the crowd, and Petya with it. And again, the women and men of weaker mold, Petya among them, wept with joy. A largeish piece of the biscuit the emperor was holding in his hand broke off, fell in the balcony parapet, and then to the ground. A coachman in a jerkin, who stood nearest, sprang forward, and snatched it up. Several people in the crowd rushed at the coachman. Seeing this, the emperor

Starting point is 03:47:45 had a plateful of biscuits brought him and began throwing them down from the balcony. Petty's eyes grew bloodshot, and still more excited by the danger of being crushed, he rushed at the biscuits. He did not know why, but he had to have a biscuit from the Tsar's hand, and he felt that he must not give way. He sprang forward and upset an old woman who was catching at a biscuit. The old woman did not consider herself defeated, though she was lying on the ground. She grabbed at some biscuits, but her hand did not reach them. Petya pushed her hand away with his knee, seized a biscuit, and as if fearing to be too late, again shouted, hurrah, with a voice already hoarse. The emperor went in, and after that the greater part of the crowd began to disperse.

Starting point is 03:48:32 "'There, I said if only we waited, and so it was,' was, was being joyfully said by various people. Happy as Petya was, he felt sad at having to go home knowing that all the enjoyment of that day was over. He did not go straight home from the Kremlin, but called on his friend Obolensky, who was 15 and was also entering the regiment. On returning home, Petya announced resolutely and firmly that if he was not allowed to enter the service, he would run away. and next day, Count Ilya Rostov, though he had not yet quite yielded, went to inquire how he could arrange for Petya to serve where there would be least danger. End of Book 9, Chapter 21. Book 9, Chapter 22 of War and Peace, Volume 3, by Leo Tolstoy,

Starting point is 03:49:33 translated by Elmer Maude. This Liberbox recording is in the public domain. Book 9, Chapter 22. Two days later, on the 15th of July, an immense number of carriages were standing outside the Slaboda Palace. The great halls were full. In the first were the nobility and gentry in their uniforms. In the second, bearded merchants in full skirted coats of blue cloth and wearing metals. In the nobleman's hall there was an incessant movement and buzz of voices. The chief magnate sat on high-back chairs at a large table under the porch.

Starting point is 03:50:11 of the Emperor, but most of the gentry were strolling about the room. All these nobles, whom Pierre met every day at the club or in their own houses, were in uniform, some in that of Catherine's Day, others in that of Emperor Paul, others again in the new uniforms of Alexander's time, or the ordinary uniform of the nobility, and the general characteristic of being in uniform imparted something strange and fantastic to these diverse and familiar personalities, both old and young. The old men, dim-eyed, toothless, bald, sallow and bloated, or gaunt and wriggled, were especially striking.

Starting point is 03:50:49 For the most part, they sat quietly in their places and were silent, or if they walked about and talked, attached themselves to someone younger. On all these faces, as on the faces of the crowd Petya had seen in the square, there was a striking contradiction. The general expectation of a solemn event, and at the same time the air, the airs of the everyday interests in a Boston card party, Peter the Cook, Saneda, Dmitrievna's health, and so on. Pierre was there, too, buttoned up since early morning in a nobleman's uniform that had become too tight for him. He was agitated. This extraordinary gathering,

Starting point is 03:51:29 not only of nobles, but also of the merchant class, Laetaté General, states-general, evoked in him a whole series of ideas he had long laid aside, but which were deeply graven in his soul. Thoughts of the Contrae Social and the French Revolution. The words that had struck him in the Emperor's appeal, that the sovereign was coming to the Capitol for consultation with his people, strengthened this idea. And imagining that in this direction something important, which he had long awaited, was drawing near, he strolled about, watching and listening to conversations, but nowhere finding any confirmation of the ideas that occupied him.

Starting point is 03:52:09 The Emperor's Manifesta was read, evoking enthusiasm, and then all moved about discussing it. Besides the ordinary topics of conversation, Pierre heard questions of where the marshals of the nobility were to stand when the Emperor entered, when a ball should be given in the Emperor's honor, whether they should group themselves by districts or by whole provinces and so on. But as soon as the war was touched on, or what the nobility had been convened for, the talk became undecided and indefinite, then all preferred listening to speaking. A middle-aged man, handsome and virile, in the uniform of a retired naval officer, was speaking in one of the rooms, and a small crowd was pressing round him.

Starting point is 03:52:54 Pierre went up to the circle that had formed round the speaker and listened. Count Ilya Rostov, in a military uniform of Catherine's time, was sauntering with a pleasant smile among the crowd, with all of whom he was acquainted. He too approached that group and listened with a kindly smile and nods of approval, as he always did, to what the speaker was saying. The retired navalman was speaking very boldly, as was evident from the expression on the faces of the listeners, and from the fact that some people Pierre knew as the meekest and quietest of men walked away disapprovingly or expressed disagreement with him. Pierre pushed his way to the middle of the group, listened and convinced himself that the man was indeed a liberal. but a view is quite different from his own. The naval officer spoke in a particularly sonorous, musical, and aristocratic baritone voice,

Starting point is 03:53:46 pleasantly swallowing his ours and generally slurring his consonants, the voice of a man calling out to his servant, Here, bring me my pipe! It was indicative of dissipation and the exercise of authority. What if the Smolensk people have offered to ways militia for the emperor? Are we to take Smolensk as our pattern? If the noble aristocracy of the province of Moscow thinks fit, it can show its loyalty to our sovereign, the emperor, in other ways.

Starting point is 03:54:18 Have we forgotten the wazzing of the militia in the year seven? All that did was to enrich the priest's sons and thieves and robbers. Count Ilya Rastov smiled blandly and nodded approval. And was our militia of any use to the empire? "'Not at all. It only wound our farming. "'Better have another conscription. "'Or our men will return neither soldiers nor peasants, "'and we'll get only to poverty from them.

Starting point is 03:54:48 "'The nobility don't grudge their lives. "'Every one of us will go and wing in more recruits, "'and the sovereign—' "'That was the way he referred to the emperor. "'Need only say the word, and we'll all die for him,' added the orator with animation. Count Rostov's mouth watered with pleasure, and he nudged Pierre, but Pierre wanted to speak himself.

Starting point is 03:55:12 He pushed forward, feeling stirred, but not yet sure what stirred him, or what he would say. Scarcely had he opened his mouth when one of the Senators, a man without a tooth in his head, with a shrewd, though angry expression, standing near the first speaker, interrupted him. Evidently accustomed to managing debates and to maintain, an argument, he began in low but distinct tones. "'I imagine, sir,' said he, mumbling with his toothless mouth,

Starting point is 03:55:41 "'that we have been summoned here, not to discuss whether it's best for the empire at the present moment to adopt conscription or to call out the militia. We have been summoned to reply to the appeal with which our sovereign the emperor has honored us. But to judge what is best, conscription or the militia, we can leave to the supreme authority. Pierre suddenly saw an outlet for his excitement. He hardened his heart against the senator, who was introducing this set and narrow attitude into the deliberations of the nobility. Pierre stepped forward and interrupted him. He himself did not know what he would say, but he began

Starting point is 03:56:22 to speak eagerly, occasionally lapsing into French or expressing himself in bookish Russian. "'Excuse me, Your Excellency,' he began. He was well acquainted with the senator, but thought it necessary on this occasion to address him formally. Though I don't agree with the gentleman, he hesitated. He wished to say, Montre honorable, my very honorable opponent. With the gentleman, whom I have not the honor of knowing, I suppose that the nobility have been summoned not merely to express their sympathy and enthusiasm, but also to consider the means by which we can assist our fatherland.

Starting point is 03:57:02 I imagine, he went on warming to his subject, that the Emperor himself would not be satisfied to find us merely owners of serfs whom we are willing to devote to his service, and share a canon, food for canon, we are ready to make of ourselves, and not to obtain from us any co-co-counsel. Many persons withdrew from the circle, noticing the Senator's sarcastic smile and the freedom of Pierre's remarks. Only Count Rostov was pleased with them, as he had been pleased with those of the naval officer, the senator, and in general, with whatever speech he had last heard.

Starting point is 03:57:41 I think that before discussing these questions, Pierre continued, we should ask the Emperor, most respectfully ask His Majesty, to let us know the number of our troops and the position in which our army and our forces now are, and then... scarcely had Pierre uttered these words before he was attacked from three sides. The most vigorous attack came from an old acquaintance, a Boston player who had always been well-disposed

Starting point is 03:58:09 toward him, Stepan Stepanovitch Adroxen. Adroxen was in uniform, and whether, as a result of the uniform or from some other cause, Pierre saw before him quite a different man. With a sudden expression of malevolence on his aged face, Adraxon shouted at Pierre, in the first place, I tell you we have no right to question the emperor about that, and secondly, if the Russian nobility had that right, the emperor could not answer such a question. The troops are moved according to the enemy's movements, and the number of men increases and decreases. Another voice, that of a nobleman of medium height and about forty years of age, whom Pierre had formerly met at the Gypsies and knew as a bad card-player,

Starting point is 03:58:56 and who, also transformed by his uniform, came up to Pierre, interrupted to Daxon. Yes, and this is not a time for discussing, he continued, but for acting. There is war in Russia. The enemy is advancing to destroy Russia, to desecrate the tombs of our fathers, to carry off our wives and children. The nobleman smote his breast. We will all arise. Every one of us will go, for our father the Tsar. He shouted, rolling his bloodshot eyes. Several approving voices were heard in the crowd. We are Russians, and will not grudge our blood in defense of our faith,

Starting point is 03:59:37 the throne and the fatherland. We must cease raving if we are sons of our fatherland. We will show Europe how Russia rises to the defense of Russia. Pierre wished to reply, but could not get in a word. He felt that his words, apart from what meaning they conveyed, were less audible than the... sound of his opponent's voice. Count Rostov at the back of the crowd was expressing approval.

Starting point is 04:00:02 Several persons, briskly turning a shoulder to the orator at the end of a phrase, said, "'That's right, quite right, just so.' Pierre wished to say that he was ready to sacrifice his money, his serfs, or himself, only one ought to know the state of affairs in order to be able to improve it, but he was unable to speak. Many voices shouted and talked at the same time, so that Count Rostov had not time to signify his approval of them all, and the group increased, dispersed, reformed, and then moved with a hum of talk into the largest hall and to the big table. Not only was Pierre's attempt to speak unsuccessful,

Starting point is 04:00:42 but he was rudely interrupted, pushed aside, and people turned away from him as from a common enemy. This happened not because they were displeased by the substance of his speech, which had even been forgotten after the many subsequent speeches, but to animate it, the crowd needed a tangible object to love and a tangible object to hate. Pierre became the latter. Many other orators spoke after the excited nobleman and all in the same tone. Many spoke eloquently and with originality. Glinka, the editor of the Russian messenger, who was recognized, cries of, "'author, author were heard in the crowd, said that, "'Hell must be repulsed by hell, and that he had seen a child smiling at lightning flashes

Starting point is 04:01:27 and thunder-claps, but we will not be that child.' "'Yes, yes, at thunder-claps!' was repeated approvingly in the back rows of the crowd. The crowd drew up to the large table, at which sat gray-haired, or bald 70-year-old magnates, uniformed and besashed, almost all of whom Pierre had seen in their own homes with their buffoons, or playing Boston at the clubs. With an incessant hum of voices, the crowd advanced to the table. Pressed by the throng against the high backs of the chairs, the orators spoke one after another, and sometimes two together.

Starting point is 04:02:05 Those standing behind noticed what a speaker admitted to say and hastened to supply it. Others in that heat and crush racked their brains to find some thought and hasten to utter it. The old magnates, whom Pierre knew, sat and turned to look first at one and then at another, and their faces, for the most part, only expressed the fact that they found it very hot. Pierre, however, felt excited, and the general desire to show that they were ready to go to all lengths, which found expression in the tones and looks more than in the substance of the speeches, infected him too. He did not renounce his opinions,

Starting point is 04:02:42 but felt himself in some way to blame and wished to justify himself. I only said that it would be more to the purpose to make sacrifices when we know what is needed, said he, trying to be heard above the other voices. One of the old men nearest to him looked round, but his attention was immediately diverted by an exclamation at the other side of a table.

Starting point is 04:03:04 "'Yes, Moscow will be surrendered!' She will be our expiation, shouted one man. He is the enemy of mankind, cried another. Allow me to speak. Gentlemen, you are crushing me. End of Book 9, Chapter 22. Book 9, Chapter 23, of War and Peace, Volume 3 by Leo Tolstoy, translated by Elmer Maud. This Liberbox recording is in the public domain.

Starting point is 04:03:42 Book 9 Chapter 23 At that moment, Count Rostopchin, with his protruding chin and alert eyes, wearing the uniform of a general with sash over his shoulder, entered the room, stepping briskly to the front of the crowd of gentry. "'Our sovereign the emperor will be here in a moment,' said Rostopchin. "'I am straight from the palace. Seeing the position we are in, I think there is little need for discussion. The Emperor has deigned to summon us and the merchants.

Starting point is 04:04:14 Millions will pour forth from there, he pointed to the merchants' hall, but our business is to supply men and not spare ourselves. That is the least we can do. A conference took place confined to the magnate sitting at the table. The whole consultation passed more than quietly. After all the preceding noise, the sound of their old voices saying one after another, I agree! or for variety,

Starting point is 04:04:41 I too am of that opinion, and so on had even a mournful effect. The secretary was told to write down the resolution of the Moscow nobility and gentry that they would furnish ten men fully equipped out of every thousand serfs, as the Smolensk gentry had done. Their chairs made a scraping noise

Starting point is 04:05:00 as the gentleman who had conferred rose with apparent relief and began walking up and down, arm and arm, to stretch their legs and converse in couple. The Emperor! The Emperor! A sudden cry resounded through the halls, and the whole throng hurried to the entrance. The Emperor entered the hall through a broad path between two lines of nobles. Every face expressed respectful, awe-struck curiosity. Pierre stood rather far off and could not hear all that the Emperor said. From what he did hear, he understood that the Emperor spoke of the danger threatening the Empire and of the hopes he placed on the Moscow nobility.

Starting point is 04:05:39 He was answered by a voice which informed him of the resolution just arrived at. "'Gentlemen,' said the Emperor, with a quivering voice. There was a rustling among the crowd, and it again subsided, so that Pierre distinctly heard the pleasantly human voice of the Emperor saying with emotion, "'I never doubted the devotion of the Russian nobles, but today it has surpassed my expectations. I thank you in the name of the Fatherland. "'Len, let us act. Time is most precious!' The Emperor ceased speaking. The crowd began pressing round him, and rapturous exclamations were

Starting point is 04:06:19 heard from all sides. "'Yes, most precious! A royal word!' said Count Rostov with a sob. He stood at the back, and though he had heard hardly anything, understood everything in his own way. From the whole of the nobility the Emperor went to that of the merchants. There he was remained about ten minutes. Pierre was among those who saw him come out from the merchant's hall with tears of emotion in his eyes. As became known later, he had scarcely begun to address the merchants before tears gushed from his eyes and he concluded in a trembling voice. When Pierre saw the emperor, he was coming out accompanied by two merchants, one of whom Pierre knew, a fat at Kupchik. The other was the mayor, a man with a thin, sallow face and narrow beard. Both were weeping.

Starting point is 04:07:09 tears filled the thin man's eyes, and the fat Utkubshik sobbed outright like a child and kept repeating, Our lives and property, take them, your majesty! Pierre's one feeling at the moment was a desire to show that he was ready to go all lengths and was prepared to sacrifice everything. He now felt ashamed of his speech with its constitutional tendency, and sought an opportunity of effacing it. Having heard that Count Mamanov was furnishing a regiment, Bazukov at once informed Rostopchin that he would give a thousand men and their maintenance.

Starting point is 04:07:46 Old Rostov could not tell his wife of what had passed without tears, and at once consented to Petya's request and went himself to enter his name. Next day the Emperor left Moscow. The assembled nobles all took off their uniforms and settled down again in their homes and clubs, and not without some groans gave orders to their stewards about the enrollment, feeling amazed themselves at what they had done. End of Book 9, Chapter 23. Book 10, Chapter 1, of War and Peace, Volume 3, by Leo Tolstoy, translated by Elmer Maude.

Starting point is 04:08:33 This Libervox recording is in the public domain. Book 10, 1812, Chapter 1. Napoleon began the war with Russia, because he could not resist going to Dresden, could not help having his head turned by the homage he received, could not help donning a Polish uniform, and yielding to the stimulating influence of a June morning, and could not refrain from births of anger in the presence of Karakin and then of Balashev. Alexander refused negotiations because he felt himself to be personally insulted. Barclay de Toli tried to command the army in the best way, because he was a few people

Starting point is 04:09:13 he wished to fulfill his duty and earn fame as a great commander. Rostov charged the French because he could not restrain his wish for a gallop across a level field, and in the same way, the innumerable people who took part in the war acted in accord with their personal characteristics, habits, circumstances, and aims. They were moved by fear or vanity, rejoiced or were indignant, reasoned, imagining that they knew what they were doing and did it of their own free will, but they all were involuntary tools of history, carrying on a work concealed from them, but comprehensible to us. Such is the inevitable fate of men of action, and the higher they stand

Starting point is 04:09:56 in the social hierarchy, the less they are free. The actors of 1812 have long since left the stage. Their personal interests have vanished leaving no trace, and nothing remains of that time but its historic results. Providence compelled all these men, striving to attain personal aims, to further the accomplishment of a stupendous result no one of them at all expected, neither Napoleon nor Alexander, nor still less any of those who did the actual fighting. The cause of the destruction of the French army in 1812 is clear to us now. No one will deny that the cause was, on the one hand, its advance into the heart of Russia late in the season without any preparation for a winter campaign.

Starting point is 04:10:42 And on the other, the character given to the war by the burning of Russian towns and the hatred of the foe this aroused among the Russian people. But no one at the time foresaw, what now seems so evident, that this was the only way an army of 800,000 men, the best in the world, led by the best general, could be destroyed in conflict with a raw army of half its numerical strength, and led by inexperienced commanders as the Russian army was. Not only did no one see this, but on the Russian side, every effort was made to hinder the only thing that could save Russia, while on the French side, despite Napoleon's experience and so-called military genius, every effort was directed to pushing on to Moscow at the end of

Starting point is 04:11:30 the summer, that is, to doing the very thing that was bound to lead to destruction. In historical works on the year 1812, French writers are very fond of saying that Napoleon felt the danger of extending his line, that he sought a battle, and that his marshals advised him to stop at Smolensk, and of making similar statements to show that the danger of the campaign was even then understood. Russian authors are still fonder of telling us that from the commencement of the campaign a Scythian war plan was adopted to lure Napoleon into the depths of Russia, and this plan, some of them attribute to fuel, others to a certain Frenchman, others to Toll, and others again to Alexander himself, pointing to notes, projects, and letters, which contain hints

Starting point is 04:12:18 of such a line of action. But all these hints at what happened, both from the French side and the Russian, are advanced only because they fit in with the event. Had that event not occurred, these hints would have been forgotten, as we have forgotten the thousands and millions of hints and expectations to the contrary, which were current then, but have now been forgotten, because the event falsified them. There are always so many conjectures as to the issue of any event that, however it may end, there will always be people to say, I said then that it would be so, quite forgetting that, amid their innumerable conjectures, many were to quite the contrary effect. Conjectures as to Napoleon's awareness of the danger of extending his line, and on the Russian side,

Starting point is 04:13:08 as to luring the enemy into the depths of Russia, are evidently of that kind, and only by much straining can historians attribute such conceptions to Napoleon and his marshals or such plans to the Russian commanders. All the facts are in flat contradiction to such conjectures. During the whole period of the war, not only was there no wish on the Russian side, to draw the French into the heart of the country, but from their first entry into Russia, everything was done to stop them. And not only was Napoleon not afraid to extend his line, but he welcomed every step forward as a triumph, and did not seek battle as eagerly as in former campaigns, but very lazily. At the very beginning of the war, our armies were divided,

Starting point is 04:13:54 and our sole aim was to unite them, though uniting the armies was no advantage if we meant to retire, and lure the enemy into the depths of the country. Our emperor joined the army to encourage it to defend every inch of Russian soil and not to retreat. The enormous Drissa camp was formed on fuel's plan, and there was no intention of retiring farther. The emperor reproached the commanders-in-chief for every step they retired. He could not bear the idea of letting the enemy even reach Smolensk, still less could he contemplate the burning of Moscow. And when our armies did unite, he was displeased that Smolensk was abandoned and burned

Starting point is 04:14:36 without a general engagement having been fought under its walls. So thought the Emperor, and the Russian commanders and people were still more provoked at the thought that our forces were retreating into the depths of the country. Napoleon, having cut our armies apart, advanced far into the country, and missed several chances of forcing an engagement. In August he was at Smolensk, and thought only of how to advance farther, though, as we now see, that advance was evidently ruinous to him. The facts clearly show that Napoleon did not foresee the danger of the advance

Starting point is 04:15:13 on Moscow, nor did Alexander and the Russian commanders then think of luring Napoleon on, but quite the contrary. The luring of Napoleon into the depths of the country was not a result of any plan, for no one believed it to be possible. It resulted from a most complex interplay of intrigues, aims, and wishes among those who took part in the war and had no perception whatever of the inevitable, or of the one way of saving Russia. Everything came about fortuitously. The armies were divided at the commencement of the campaign. We tried to unite them, with the evident intention of giving battle and checking the enemy's advance. And by this effort to unite them while avoiding battle with a much stronger enemy,

Starting point is 04:16:00 and necessarily withdrawing the armies at an acute angle, we led the French on to Smolensk. But we withdrew at an acute angle not only because the French advanced between our two armies. The angle became still more acute, and we withdrew still farther, because Barclay de Toli was an unpopular foreigner disliked by Berklee. Begradian, who would come under his command, and Begradian, being in command of the second army, tried to postpone joining up and coming under Barclay's command as long as he could. Begradian was slow in affecting the junction, though that was the chief aim of all at headquarters,

Starting point is 04:16:38 because, as he alleged, he exposed his army to danger on this march, and it was best for him to retire more to the left and more to the south, worrying the enemy from flank and rear, and securing from the Ukraine recruits for his army. And it looks as if he planned this in order not to come under the command of the detested foreigner Barclay, whose rank was inferior to his own. The Emperor was with the army to encourage it, but his presence and ignorance of what steps to take, and the enormous number of advisors and plans,

Starting point is 04:17:10 destroyed the First Army's energy, and it retired. The intention was to make a stand at the Drissa camp, But Paolucci, aiming at becoming commander-in-chief, unexpectedly employed his energy to influence Alexander, and fuel's whole plan was abandoned and the command entrusted to Barclay. But as Barclay did not inspire confidence, his power was limited. The armies were divided. There was no unity of command, and Barclay was unpopular.

Starting point is 04:17:39 But from this confusion, division, and the unpopularity of the foreign commander-in-chief, there resulted, on the one hand, indecision and the avoidance of a battle, which we could not have refrained from had the armies been united, and had someone else, instead of Barclay, been in command, and on the other, and ever-increasing indignation against the foreigners and an increase in patriotic zeal. At last the Emperor left the army, and as the most convenient, and indeed the only pretext for his departure, it was decided that it was necessary for him to inspire the people in the capitals and aroused the nation in general to a patriotic war.

Starting point is 04:18:20 And by his visit of the Emperor to Moscow, the strength of the Russian army was trebled. He left in order not to obstruct the commander-in-chief's undivided control of the army, and hoping that more decisive action would then be taken. But the command of the armies became still more confused and enfeebled. Benningsen, the Tsarevich, and a swarm of adjutant's general remained with the army to keep the commander-in-chief under observation and arouse his energy, and Barclay, feeling less free than ever under the observation of all these eyes of the emperor,

Starting point is 04:18:56 became still more cautious of undertaking any decisive action and avoided giving battle. Barclay stood for caution. The Tsarevich hinted at treachery and demanded a general engagement. Lupamirsky, Bernitsky, Volokchki, and the others of that group stirred up so much trouble, that Barclay, under pretext of sending papers to the Emperor, dispatched these Polish adjutants general to Petersburg and plunged into an open struggle with Benningsen and the Tsarevich. At Smolensk, the armies at last reunited, much as Bagration disliked it. Begratian drove up in a carriage to the house occupied by Barclay.

Starting point is 04:19:37 Barclay donned his sash and came out to meet and report to his senior officer Begradian. Despite his seniority in rank, Begradian, in this contest of magnanimity, took his orders from Barclay, but having submitted, agreed with him less than ever. By the Emperor's orders, Bagration reported direct to him. He wrote to Erycheyev, the Emperor's confidant, "'It must be as my sovereign pleases, but I cannot work with the minister,' meaning Barclay. "'For God's sake, send me somewhere else, if only in command of. a regiment. I cannot stand it here. Headquarters are so full of Germans that a Russian

Starting point is 04:20:18 cannot exist, and there is no sense in anything. I thought I was really serving my sovereign and the fatherland, but it turns out that I am serving Barclay. I confess I do not want to." The swarm of Bernitzkis and Vininskarotas and their like still further and bitter the relations between the commanders-in-chief, and even less unity resulted. Preparations were made to fight the French before Smolensk. A general was sent to survey the position. This general, hating Barclay, wrote to visit a friend of his own, a corps commander, and having spent the day with him, returned to Barclay and condemned, as unsuitable

Starting point is 04:20:59 from every point of view, the battleground he had not seen. While disputes and intrigues were going on about the future field of battle, and while we were looking for the French, having lost to the war, touch with them, the French stumbled upon Nevorovsky's division and reached the walls of Smolensk. It was necessary to fight an unexpected battle at Smolensk to save our lines of communication. The battle was fought and thousands were killed on both sides. Smolence was abandoned contrary to the wishes of the emperor and of the whole people, but Smolence was burned by its own inhabitants who had been misled by their governor,

Starting point is 04:21:38 And these ruined inhabitants, setting an example to other Russians, went to Moscow thinking only of their own losses but kindling hatred of the foe. Napoleon advanced farther, and we retired, thus arriving at the very result which caused his destruction. End of Book 10, Chapter 1. Book 10 Chapter 2 Of War and Peace, Volume 3, by Leo Tolstoy, translated by Elmer Maude. This Livervox recording is in the public domain. Book 10, Chapter 2 The day after his son had left,

Starting point is 04:22:26 Prince Nicholas sent for Princess Mary to come to his study. "'Well, are you satisfied now?' said he. "'You've made me quarrel with my son. Satisfied, are you? That's all you wanted. Satisfied? It hurts me. It hurts. I'm old and weak, and this is what you wanted. "'Well, then, gloat over it! Glote over it!' After that, Princess Mary did not see her father for a whole week.

Starting point is 04:22:54 He was ill and did not leave his study. Princess Mary noticed to her surprise that, during this illness, the old prince not only excluded her from his room, but did not admit Mademoiselle Burienne either. Tikan alone attended him. At the end of the week, the prince reappeared and resumed his former way of life, devoting himself with special activity to building operations, and the arrangement of the gardens and completely breaking off his relations with Mademoiselle Burienne.

Starting point is 04:23:25 His looks and cold tone to his daughter seemed to say, "'There, you see, you plotted against me. You lied to Prince Andrew about my relations with that French woman and made me quarrel with him. But you see, I need neither her nor you.' Princess Mary spent half of every day with Little Nicholas, watching his lessons, teaching him Russian and music herself, and talking to DeSal. The rest of the day she spent over her books with her old nurse, or with God's folk who sometimes came by the back door to see her. Of the war, Princess Mary thought as women do think about wars. She feared for her brother, who was in it, was horrified by and amazed at the strange cruelty that impels men to

Starting point is 04:24:13 kill one another, but she did not understand the significance of this war, which seemed to her like all previous wars. She did not realize the significance of this war, though DeSalle, with whom she constantly conversed, was passionately interested in its progress, and tried to explain his own conception of it to her, and though the godsfolk who came to see her reported, in their own way, the rumors current among the people of an invasion by Antichrist. and though Julie, now Princess Drubitskaya, who had resumed correspondence with her, wrote patriotic letters from Moscow.

Starting point is 04:24:52 "'I write you in Russian, my good friend,' wrote Julie in her Frenchified Russian, "'because I have a detestation for all the French, and the same for their language, which I cannot support to hear spoken. We in Moscow are related by enthusiasm for our adored emperor.' My poor husband is enduring pains and hunger in Jewish taverns, but the news which I have

Starting point is 04:25:19 inspires me yet more. You heard probably of the heroic exploit of Ryevsky, embracing his two sons and saying, I will perish with them, but we will not be shaken. And truly, though the enemy was twice stronger than we, we were unshakable. We passed the time as we can, but in war, as in war. The princesses Aline and Sophie sit whole days with me, and we, unhappy widows of live men, make beautiful conversations over our Sharpie. Only you, my friend, are missing, and so on. The chief reason Princess Mary did not realize the false significance of this war was that the old prince never spoke of it, did not recognize it, and laughed at DeSalle when he mentioned it at dinner. The prince's tone was so calm and confident that Princess Mary unhesitatingly believed him.

Starting point is 04:26:20 All that July the old prince was exceedingly active and even animated. He planned another garden and began a new building for the domestic serfs. The only thing that made Princess Mary anxious about him was that he slept very little, and instead of sleeping in his study as usual, changed his sleeping place every day. One day he would order his camp bed, to be set up in the glass gallery. Another day he remained on the couch or on the lounge chair in the drawing-room and dozed there without undressing, while, instead of Mademoiselle Berienne, a surf-boy read to him. And then again he would spend a night in the dining-room. On August 1st, a second letter was received from Prince Andrew. In his first letter, which came soon

Starting point is 04:27:07 after he had left home, Prince Andrew had dutifully asked his father's forgiveness for what he allowed himself to say, and begged to be restored to his favor. To this letter, the old prince had replied affectionately, and from that time had kept the French woman at a distance. Prince Andrew's second letter, written near Vitebsk after the French had occupied that town, gave a brief account of the whole campaign, and closed for them a plan he had drawn and forecast as to the further progress of the war. In this letter, Prince Andrews, Andrew pointed out to his father the danger of staying at Bald Hills, so near the theater of war and on the army's direct line of March,

Starting point is 04:27:50 and advised him to move to Moscow. At dinner that day, on De Salle's mentioning that the French were said to have already entered Vitebsk, the old prince remembered his son's letter. "'There was a letter from Prince Andrew to-day,' he said to Princess Mary. "'Haven't you read it?' "'No, father,' she replied. in a frightened voice. She could not have read the letter, as she did not even know it had arrived.

Starting point is 04:28:18 "'He writes about this war,' said the prince, with the ironic smile that have become habitual to him in speaking of the present war. "'That must be very interesting,' said DeSal. Prince Andrew is in a position to know. "'Oh, very interesting,' said Mademoiselle Burienne. "'Go and get it for me,' said the old prince to Mademoiselle Burienne. "'You know, under the paperweight on the little table.' Mademoiselle Burienne jumped up eagerly.

Starting point is 04:28:50 "'No, don't!' he exclaimed with a frown. "'You go, Michael Ivanovitch!' Michael Ivanovich rose and went to the study. But as soon as he had left the room, the old prince, looking uneasily round, threw down his napkin and went himself. They can't do anything. Always make some muddle, he muttered. While he was away, Princess Mary, Desal, Mademoiselle Burienne, and even little Nicholas exchanged looks in silence. The old prince returned with quick steps, accompanied by Michael

Starting point is 04:29:26 Ivanovitch, bringing the letter and a plan. These he put down beside him, not letting anyone read them at dinner. On moving to the drawing-room, he handed the letter to Princess Mary, and spreading out before him the plan of the new building and fixing his eyes upon it, he told her to read the letter aloud. When she had done so, Princess Mary looked inquiringly at her father. He was examining the plan evidently engrossed in his own ideas. "'What do you think of it, Prince?' De Sal ventured to ask. "'I? I?' said the Prince, as if unpleasantly awakened, and not taking his eyes from the plan of the building.

Starting point is 04:30:09 Very possibly the Theater of War will move so near to us that, ha, ha, ha, the Theater of War, said the Prince. I have said, and still say, that the Theater of War is Poland, and the enemy will never get beyond the Neiman. DeSalle looked in amazement at the prince, who was talking of the Neiman when the enemy was already at the NEPer, but Princess Mary, forgetting the geographical position of the Neiman, thought that what her father was saying was correct.

Starting point is 04:30:41 When the snow melts, they'll sink in the Polish swamps. Only they could fail to see it, the prince continued, evidently thinking of the campaign of 1807, which seemed to him so recent. Bedig said should have advanced into Prussia sooner, then things would have taken a different turn. But Prince, DeSalle began timidly. The letter mentions Vitebsk. Ah, the letter?

Starting point is 04:31:09 Yes, replied the prince peevishly. Yes, yes. His face suddenly took on a morose expression. He paused. Yes, he writes that the French were beaten at... At... what river is it? DeSalle dropped his eyes. The prince says nothing about that.

Starting point is 04:31:28 He remarked gently. Doesn't he? But I didn't invent it myself. No one spoke for a long time. Yes, yes. Well, Michael Ivanovitch, he suddenly went on, raising his head and pointing to the plan of the building. Tell me how you meant to alter it.

Starting point is 04:31:48 Michael Ivanovich went up to the plan, and the prince, after speaking to him about the building, looked angrily at Princess Mary, and DeSalle went to his own room. Princess Mary saw DeSal's embarrassed and astonished look fixed on her father, noticed his silence, and was struck by the fact that her father had forgotten his son's letter on the drawing-room table. But she was not only afraid to speak of it, and asked DeSal the reason of his confusion and silence, but was afraid even to think about it.

Starting point is 04:32:19 In the evening, Michael Ivanovitch, sent by the prince, came to Princess Mary for Prince Andrew's letter, which had been forgotten in the drawing-room. She gave it to him, and, unpleasant as it was to her to do so, venture to ask him what her father was doing. "'Always busy,' replied Michael Ivanovitch, with a respectfully ironic smile which caused Princess Mary to turn pale. "'He's worrying very much about the new building. He has been reading a little, but now,' Michael Ivanovitch went on, lowering his voice.

Starting point is 04:32:55 Now he's at his desk, busy with his will, I expect. One of the prince's favorite occupations of late had been the preparation of some papers he meant to leave at his death, and which he called his will. And Alpattich is being sent to Smolensk? asked Princess Mary. Oh, yes, he has been waiting to start for some time. End of Book 10, Chapter 2. Book 10 Chapter 3. War and Peace, Volume 3, by Leo Tolstoy, translated by Elmer Maud.

Starting point is 04:33:40 This Libervox recording is in the public domain. Book 10, Chapter 3 When Michael Ivanovich returned to the study with the letter, the old prince, with spectacles on and a shade over his eyes, was sitting at his open bureau with screened candles, holding a paper in his outstretched hand, and in a somewhat dramatic attitude, was reading his manuscript, his remarks as he termed it, which was to be transmitted to the emperor after his death. When Michael Ivanovich went in,

Starting point is 04:34:14 there were tears in the prince's eyes evoked by the memory of the time when the paper he was now reading had been written. He took the letter from Michael Ivanovich's hand, put it in his pocket, folded up his papers, and called in Alpadage, who had long been waiting. The prince had a list of things to be bought in Smolence, and walking up and down the room past Al-Padage, who stood by the door, he gave his instructions. First, note-paper. Did you hear? Eight choirs. Like this sample. Guilt-edged. It must be exactly

Starting point is 04:34:48 like the sample. Varnish? Seating-wax, as in Michael Ivanovitch's list. He paced up and down for a while and glanced at his notes. Then hand to the governor in person a letter about the deed. Next bolts for the doors of the new building were wanted, and had to be of a special shape the prince had himself designed, and a leather case had to be ordered to keep the will in. The instructions to Al-Pattich took over two hours, and still the prince did not let him go. He sat down, sank into thought, closed his eyes, and dozed off. Al-Pattach made a slight movement. "'Well, go, go! If any more is wanted, I'll...

Starting point is 04:35:31 I'll send after you." Al-Pattich went out. The prince again went to his bureau, glanced into it, fingered his papers, closed the bureau again, and sat down at the table to write to the governor. It was already late when he rose after sealing the letter. He wished to sleep, but he knew he would not be able to, and that most depressing thoughts came to him in bed. So he called Tegan and went through the rooms with him to show him where to set up.

Starting point is 04:36:01 up the bed for that night. He went about looking at every corner. Every place seemed unsatisfactory, but worst of all was his customary couch in the study. That couch was dreadful to him, probably because of the oppressive thoughts he had had when lying there. It was unsatisfactory everywhere, but the corner behind the piano in the sitting-room was better than other places. He had never slept there yet. With the help of a footman, Teacan brought in the bedstead and began putting it up. "'That's not right! That's not right!' cried the prince, and himself pushed it a few inches from the corner and then closer in again.

Starting point is 04:36:44 "'Well, at last I finished. Now I'll rest,' thought the prince, and let Teikan undress him. Frowning with vexation at the effort necessary to divest himself of his coat and trousers, the prince undressed, sat down heavily on the bed, and appeared to be meditating as he looked contemptuously at his withered yellow legs. He was not meditating, but only deferring the moment of making the effort to lift those legs up and turn over on the bed. "'Ugh! How hard it is! Oh, that this toil might end, and you would release me,' thought he. Pressing his lips together, he made that effort for the twenty thousandth time and lay down. But hardly had he done so before he felt the bed rocking backwards and forwards beneath them,

Starting point is 04:37:32 as if it were breathing heavily and jolting. This happened to him almost every night. He opened his eyes as they were closing. "'No peace, damned them,' he muttered, angry he knew not with whom. "'Ah, yes, there was something else important, very important, that I was keeping till I should be in bed. The bolts?' No, I told him about them.

Starting point is 04:37:58 No, it was something, something in the drawing-room. Princess Mary talked some nonsense. DeSal, that fool, said something. Something in my pocket. Can't remember. Ticken, what do we talk about at dinner? About Prince Michael. Be quiet, quiet, the prince slapped his hand on the table.

Starting point is 04:38:23 Yes, I know. Prince Andrew's letter. "'Princess Mary read it. "'Dassal said something about Vitebsk. "'Now I'll read it.' He had the letter taken from his pocket and the table, on which stood a glass of lemonade and a spiral wax candle, moved close to the bed,

Starting point is 04:38:42 and putting on his spectacles, he began reading. Only now, in the stillness of the night, reading it by the faint light under the green shade, did he grasp its meaning for a moment. The French at Vitebsk, in four days' March, they may be at Smolensk. Perhaps are already there. Tegan! Tegan jumped up.

Starting point is 04:39:05 No, no, I don't want anything, he shouted. He put the letter under the candlestick and closed his eyes. And there rose before him the Danube at bright noon day. Reeds, the Russian camp, and himself a young general without a wrinkle on his ruddy face, vigorous and alert, entering Potemkin's gaily-colored tent, and a burning sense of jealousy of the favorite agitated him now as strongly as it had done then. He recalled all the words spoken at that first meeting with Potemkin, and he saw before him a plump, rather sallow-faced, short, stout woman,

Starting point is 04:39:45 the Empress' mother, with her smile and her words at her first gracious reception of him, and then that same face on the cattle-fock and the encounter he had with Zubov over her coffin about his right to kiss her hand. Oh, quicker, quicker! To get back to that time and have done with all the present. Quicker, quicker! That they should leave me in peace! End of Book 10, Chapter 3.

Starting point is 04:40:22 Book 10 Chapter 4 of War and Peace, Volume 3, by Leo Tolstoy. translated by Elmer Maude. This Libravox recording is in the public domain. Book 10, Chapter 4. Bald Hills, Prince Nicholas Bolkonsky's estate, lay 40 miles east from Smolensk and two miles from the main road to Moscow. The same evening that the prince gave his instructions to El Patech,

Starting point is 04:40:52 DeSal, having asked to see Princess Mary, told her that, as the prince was not very well and was taking no steps to secure his safety, though from Prince Andrew's letter it was evident that to remain at Bald Hills might be dangerous. He respectfully advised her to send a letter by El Padage to the provincial governor at Smolensk, asking him to let her know the state of affairs and the extent of the danger to which Bald Hills was exposed. DeSalle wrote this letter to the governor for Princess Mary. She signed it, and it was given to El Padage with instructions to hand it to the governor and to come back as quickly as possible if there was danger.

Starting point is 04:41:32 Having received all his orders, Al-Pattich, wearing a white beaver hat, a present from the prince, and carrying a stick as the prince did, went out accompanied by his family. Three well-fed rhone stood ready, harnessed to a small conveyance with a leather hood. The larger bell was muffled, and the little bells on the harness stuffed with paper. The prince allowed no one at Bald Hills to drive with ringing bells. But on a long journey, Al-Padich liked to have them. His satellites, the senior clerk, a counting-house clerk, a scullery-maid, a cook, two old women, a little page boy, the coachman,

Starting point is 04:42:11 and various domestic serfs were seeing him off. His daughter placed chintz-covered-down cushions for him to sit on and behind his back. His old sister-in-law popped in a small bundle, and one of the coachmen helped him into the vehicle. "'There, there, women's fuss. Women, women!' said El Paditch, puffing and speaking rapidly just as the prince did, and he climbed into the trap. After giving the clerk orders about the work to be done,

Starting point is 04:42:41 Al-Padich, not trying to imitate the prince now, lifted the hat from his bald head and crossed himself three times. "'If there is anything—' "'Come back, Yakov Al-Patich! "'For Christ's sake, think of us!' cried his wife, referring to the rumors of war and the enemy. "'Women, women, women's fuss!' muttered Al-Pattage to himself and started on his journey, looking round at the fields of yellow rye and the still green, thickly-growing oats, and at other quite black fields just being plowed a second time.

Starting point is 04:43:15 As he went along, he looked with pleasure at the year's splendid crop of corn, scrutinized the strips of Ryefield, which here and there were already being reaped, made his calculations as to the sowing and the harvest, and asked himself whether he had not forgotten any of the prince's orders. Having baited the horses twice on the way, he arrived at the town toward evening on the 4th of August. Al-Peditch kept meeting and overtaking baggage trains and troops on the road. As he approached Smolensk, he heard the sounds of distant firing, but these did not impress him. What struck him most was the sight of a splendid feel of oats in which a camp had been pitched, and which was being moaned down by the soldiers, evidently for fodder. This fact impressed

Starting point is 04:44:02 Al-Pattich, but in thinking about his own business he soon forgot it. All the interests of his life for more than thirty years had been bounded by the will of the prince, and he never went beyond that limit. Everything not connected with the execution of the prince's orders did not interest, and did not even exist for Al-Padage. On reaching Smolensk on the evening of the 4th of August, he put up in the Gachina suburb across the Nipar, at the inn kept by Farapontov, which he had been in a habit of putting up for the last thirty years. Some thirty years ago, Ferapontov, by Al-Padage's advice, had brought a wood from the prince, had begun to trade, and now had a house, an inn, and a corn-eater shop in that province. He was, he was a

Starting point is 04:44:51 a stout, dark, red-faced peasant in the forties, with thick lips, a broad knob of a nose, similar knobs over his black frowning brows, and a round belly. Wearing a waistcoat over his cotton shirt, Ferapontov was standing before his shop, which opened onto the street. On seeing Al-Paditch, he went up to him. "'You're welcome, Yakov El-Paditch. Folks are leaving the town, but you have come to it,' said he. Why are they leaving the town? asked El Paditch. That's what I say. Folks are foolish, always afraid of the French. Women's fuss, women's fuss, said El Paditch.

Starting point is 04:45:32 Just what I think, Yakov Al-Padich. What I say is, orders have been given not to let them in, so that must be right. And the peasants are asking three roubles for carting. It isn't Christian. Yakov Al-Paditch heard without heating. He asked for a samovar and for hay for his horses, and when he had had his tea he went to bed. All night long, troops were moving past the inn.

Starting point is 04:46:00 Next morning, Al-Padish donned a jacket he wore only in town and went out on business. It was a sunny morning, and by eight o'clock it was already hot. A good day for harvesting, thought Al-Paditch. From beyond the town, firing had been heard since early morning. At eight o'clock, the booming of a cannon was added to the sound of musketry. Many people were hurrying through the streets, and there were many soldiers, but cabs were still driving about. Tradesmen stood at their shops, and service was being held in the churches

Starting point is 04:46:34 as usual. Al-Peditch went to the shops, to government offices, to the post-office, and to the governors. In the offices and shops and at the post office, everyone was talking about the army and about the enemy who was already attacking the town. Everybody was asking what should be done, and all were trying to calm one another. In front of the governor's house, Al-Padish found a large number of people, Cossacks, and a traveling carriage of the governors. At the porch he met two of the landed gentry, one of whom he knew.

Starting point is 04:47:08 This man, an ex-captain of police, was saying angrily, "'It's no joke, you know. It's all very well if you're single. One man, though undone, is but one, as the proverb says. But with thirteen in your family and all the property, they brought us to utter ruin. What sort of governors are they to do that? They ought to be hanged, the brigands. Oh, come, that's enough,' said the other.

Starting point is 04:47:36 "'What do I care? Let him here. "'We're not dogs,' said the ex-captain of police, and looking round, he noticed Al-Padich. "'Oh, Yakov Al-Padich! What have you come for?' "'To say the governor, by His Excellency's order,' answered Al-Pattich, lifting his head and proudly thrusting his hand into the bosom of his coat, as he always did when he mentioned the prince. "'He has ordered me to inquire into the position of affairs,' he added. "'Yes, go and find out,' shouted the angry gentleman.

Starting point is 04:48:08 They've brought things to such a pass that there are no carts or anything. There it is again, do you hear? He said, pointing in the direction whence came the sounds of firing. They've brought us all to ruin, the brigands, he repeated and dissented the porch steps. Al-Padet swayed his head and went upstairs. In the waiting-room were tradesmen, women, and officials, looking silently at one another. The door of the governor's room opened, and they all rose and moved forward. An official ran out, said some words to a merchant, called a stout official with a cross

Starting point is 04:48:43 hanging on his neck to follow him, and vanished again, evidently wishing to avoid the inquiring looks and questions addressed to him. Al-Pattish moved forward, and next time the official came out, addressed him, one hand placed in the breast of his button coat and handed him two letters. To his honor Baron Ash from General-in-Chief Prince Bolkonsky. He announced, with such solemnity and significance. that the official turned to him and took the letters. A few minutes later, the governor received Al-Padich and hurriedly said to him,

Starting point is 04:49:17 "'Informed the prince and princess that I knew nothing. I acted on the highest instructions. Here,' and he handed a paper to Al-Padish. Still, as the prince is unwell, my advice is that they should go to Moscow. I am just starting myself. Inform them. But the governor did not finish. A dusty, perspiring officer ran into the room and began to say something in French.

Starting point is 04:49:42 The governor's face expressed terror. Go, he said, nodding his head to Al-Patic and began questioning the officer. Eager, frightened, helpless glances were turned on Al-Pattich when he came out of the governor's room. Involuntarily listening now to the firing, which had drawn nearer and was increasing in strength, Al-Pattich hurried to his inn. The paper handed to him by the governor said this. I assure you that the town of Smolansk is not in the slightest danger as yet, and it is unlikely that it will be threatened with any. I from the one side and Prince Brigadian from the other

Starting point is 04:50:19 are marching to unite our forces before Smolensk, which junction will be affected on the 22nd instant, and both armies with their united forces will defend our compatriots of the province entrusted to your care till our effort shall have beaten back the enemies of our fatherland, or till the last warrior in our valiant ranks has perished. From this you will see that you have a perfect right to reassure the inhabitants of Smolensk, for those defended by two such brave armies may feel assured of victory. Instructions from Barclay to Tully to Baranash, the civil governor of Smolensk, 1812. People were anxiously roaming about the streets.

Starting point is 04:51:02 Carts piled high with household utensils, chairs, and cupboards, kept emerging from gates of the yards and moving along the streets. Loaded carts stood at the house next to Farapontovs, and women were wailing and lamenting as they said goodbye. A small watchdog ran round barking in front of the harnessed horses. Alpatic entered the inn-yard at a quicker pace than usual and went straight to the shed where his horses and trap were. The coachman was asleep.

Starting point is 04:51:31 He woke him up, told him to harness, and went into the passage. the host's room came the sounds of a child crying, the despairing sobs of a woman and the hoarse angry shouting of Ferapontov. The cook began running hither and thither in the passage, like a frightened hen, just as El Padich entered. He's done her to death, killed the mistress, beat her, dragged her about so—' What for? asked Elpattage. She kept begging to go away. She's a woman. Take me away, says she. Don't let me perish with her. my little children. Folks, she says, are all gone. So why, she says, don't we go? And he began beating and pulling her about so. At these words, Al-Pattage nodded as if in approval, and not wishing to hear

Starting point is 04:52:21 more, went to the door of the room opposite the innkeepers, where he had left his purchases. "'You brute! You murderer!' screamed a thin, pale woman, who, with a baby in her arms and her her chief torn from her head, burst through the door at that moment and down the steps into the yard. Ferapontov came out after her, but on seeing Alpattich, adjusted his waistcoat, smoothed his hair, yawned, and followed Al-Pattage into the opposite room. Going already? said he. Al-Patage, without answering or looking at his host, sorted his packages and asked how much he owed. "'We'll reckon up. Well, have you been to the governors?'

Starting point is 04:53:02 asked Ferapontov. What has been decided? Al-Paticz replied that the governor had not told him anything definite. With our business, how can we get away? said Ferapontov. We'd have to pay seven rubles a cartload to Dora Gobouge, and I tell them they're not Christians to ask it. Selyvanov, now, did a good stroke last Thursday, sold flour to the army at nine roubles a sack.

Starting point is 04:53:29 Will you have some tea? he added. While the horses were being harnessed, El-Pattach and Ferapontov, over their tea, talked of the price of corn, the crops, and the good weather for harvesting. Well, it seems to be getting quieter, remarked Ferapontov, finishing his third cup of tea and getting up. Ours must have got the best of it. The orders were to not let them in. So were in force, it seems.

Starting point is 04:53:56 They say the other day, Matthew Ivanovanov, drove them into the river Marina and drowned some eighteen thousand in one day. El Patech collected his parcels, handed them to the coachman who had come in, and settled up with the innkeeper. The noise of wheels, hoofs, and bells was heard from the gateway as a little trap passed out. It was by now late in the afternoon. Half the street was in shadow, the other half brightly lit by the sun. El Pattish looked out of the window and went to the door.

Starting point is 04:54:28 Suddenly, the strange sound of a far-off whistling and thud was heard, followed by a boom of cannon blending into a dull roar that set the windows rattling. He went out into the street. Two men were running past toward the bridge. From different sides came whistling sounds and the thud of cannonballs and bursting shells falling on the town. But these sounds were hardly heard in comparison with the noise of the firing outside the town, and attracted little attention from the inhabitants. The town was being bombarded by a hundred and thirty guns, which Napoleon had ordered up after four o'clock. The people did not at once realize the meeting of this bombardment.

Starting point is 04:55:10 At first, the noise of the falling bombs and shells only aroused curiosity. Verapontov's wife, who till then had not ceased wailing under the shed, became quiet, and with the baby in her arms went to the gate, listening to the sounds and looking in silence at the people. The cook and a shop assistant came to the gate. With lively curiosity, everyone tried to get a glimpse of the projectiles as they flew over their heads. Several people came round the corner talking eagerly. "'What force!' remarked one.

Starting point is 04:55:42 "'Knocked the roof and ceiling all to splinters!' "'Routed up the earth like a pig,' said another. "'That's grand, it bucks one up,' laughed the first. "'Lucky you jumped aside, or it would have wiped you out!' Others joined those men and stopped and told how cannonballs had fallen on a house close to them. Meanwhile, still more projectiles, now with the swift, sinister whistle of a cannonball, now with the agreeable intermittent whistle of a shell, flew over people's heads incessantly, but not one fell close by. They all flew over.

Starting point is 04:56:18 Al-Paditch was getting into his trap. The innkeeper stood at the gate. "'What are you staring at?' he shouted to the cook, who in her red skirt with sleeves rolled up, swinging her bare elbows, had stepped to the corner to listen to what was being said. "'What marvels!' she exclaimed, but hearing her master's voice, she turned back, pulling down her tucked-up shirt. Once more something whistled, but this time, quite close, swooping downwards like a little bird. A flame flashed in the middle of the street. something exploded, and the street was shrouded in smoke.

Starting point is 04:56:56 "'Scoundrel! What are you doing?' shouted the innkeeper rushing to the cook. At that moment the pitiful wailing of women was heard from different sides. The frightened baby began to cry, and people crowded silently with pale faces round the cook. The loudest sound in the crowd was her wailing. "'Oh, dear souls, dear kind souls, don't let me die! my good souls. Five minutes later, no one remained in the street. The cook, with her thigh broken by a shell splinter,

Starting point is 04:57:28 had been carried into the kitchen. Al-Patic, his coachman, Farapontov's wife and children, and the house-porter were all sitting in the cellar listening. The roar of guns, the whistling of projectiles, and the piteous moaning of the cook, which rose above the other sounds, did not cease for a moment. The mistress rocked and hushed her. baby, and when anyone came into the cellar, asked in a pathetic whisper what had become of her husband,

Starting point is 04:57:55 who had remained in the street. A shopman who entered told her that her husband had gone with others to the cathedral, whence they were fetching the wonder-working icon of Smolensk. Toward dusk, the cannonade began to subside. Alpattit left the cellar and stopped in the doorway. The evening sky that had been so clear was clouded with smoke, through which, high up, the sickle of the new moon shone strangely. Now that the terrible din of the guns had ceased,

Starting point is 04:58:25 a hush seemed to rain over the town, broken only by the rustle of footsteps, the moaning, the distant cries, and the crackle of fires which seemed widespread everywhere. The cook's moans had now subsided. On two sides, black curling clouds of smoke rose and spread from the fires. Through the streets,

Starting point is 04:58:45 soldiers in various uniforms walked or ran confusedly in different directions, like ants from a ruined ant hill. Several of them ran into Ferapantov's yard before Al-Patich's eyes. El Padich went out to the gate. A retreating regiment, thronging and hurrying, blocked the street. Noticing him, an officer said, The town is being abandoned. Get away, get away! And then, turning to the soldier, shouted, I'll teach you to run into the yards!

Starting point is 04:59:14 Al-Padish went back to the house, called the coachman, and told him to set off. Ferapontov's whole household came out, too, following El Patech and the coachman. The women, who had been silent till then, suddenly began to wail as they looked at the fires, the smoke and even the flames of which could be seen in the failing twilight.

Starting point is 04:59:35 And as if in reply, the same kind of lamentation was heard from other parts of the street. Inside the shed, El Padich and the coachman arranged the tangled reins and traces of their horses with trembling hands. As Al-Pattich was driving out of the gate, he saw some ten soldiers in Farapontov's open shop,

Starting point is 04:59:55 talking loudly and filling their bags and knapsacks with flour and sunflower seeds. Just then, Ferapontov returned and entered his shop. On seeing the soldiers, he was about to shout at them, but suddenly stopped, clutching at his hair, burst into sobs and laughter. "'Lute everything, lads! Don't let those devils get in!' he cried, taking some bag, of flour himself and throwing them into the street. Some of the soldiers were frightened and ran away. Others went on filling their bags. On seeing Al-Patic, Farapontov turned to him. Rush is done for, he cried. Al-Patich, I'll set the place on fire myself. We're done for!

Starting point is 05:00:38 And Farapontov ran into the yard. Soldiers were passing in a constant stream along the street, blocking it completely, so that Al-Pattage could not pass out and have to be. had to wait. Ferapontov's wife and children were also sitting in a cart waiting till it was possible to drive out. Night had come. There were stars in the sky, and the new moon shone out amid the smoke that screened it. On the sloping descent to the Nipar, El-Padage's cart and that of the innkeeper's wife, which were slowly moving amid the rows of soldiers and of other vehicles, had to stop. In a side street, near the crossroads where the vehicles had stopped, a house and some shops were on fire. This fire was already burning itself out. The flames now died down and were

Starting point is 05:01:24 lost in the black smoke, now suddenly flared up again brightly, lighting up with strange distinctness the faces of the people crowding at the crossroads. Black figures flitted about before the fire, and through the incessant crackling of the flames, talking and shouting could be heard. Seeing that his trap would not be able to move on for some time, Alpaticz got down and turned into the side street to look at the fire. Soldiers were continually rushing backwards and forwards near it, and he saw two of them and a man in a freezecoat dragging burning beams into another yard across the street, while others carried bundles of hay. Al-Paticch went up to a large crowd, standing before a high barn which was blazing briskly. The walls were all on fire, and the back wall had fallen

Starting point is 05:02:11 in. The wooden roof was collapsing, and the rafters were alight. The crowd was evidently watching for the roof to fall in, and Al-Pattich watched for it too. "'Alpattich!' a familiar voice suddenly hailed the old man. "'Mercy, Hunas! Your Excellency!' answered Al-Pattage, immediately recognizing the voice of his young prince. Prince Andrew, in his riding-cloak, mounted on a black horse, was looking at Al-Pattage from the back of the crowd. "'Why are you here?' he asked.

Starting point is 05:02:43 "'Your—your Excellency!' stammered El Padage and broke into sobs. "'Are we really lost? Master!' "'Why are you here?' Prince Andrew repeated. At that moment the flames flared up and showed his young master's pale-worn face. El Padage told how he had been sent there and how difficult it was to get away. "'Are we really quite lost your excellency?' he asked again. Prince Andrew, without replying, took out a notebook and raising his knee

Starting point is 05:03:15 began writing in pencil on a page he tore out. He wrote to his sister, Smolensk's being abandoned. Bald Hills will be occupied by the enemy within a week. Set off immediately for Moscow. Let me know it once when you will start. Send by special messenger to Uzvaj. Having written this and given the paper to Al-Paditch, he told him how to arrange for a departure of the prince, the princess, his son, and the boy's tutor, and how and where to let him know immediately. Before he had had time to finish giving these instructions, a chief of staff followed by his suite galloped up to him.

Starting point is 05:03:53 "'You are a colonel?' shouted the chief of staff with a German accent, in a voice familiar to Prince Andrew. "'Houses are set on fire in your presence, and you stand by. "'What does this mean?' "'You will answer for it,' shouted Berg, "'who is now assistant to the chief of staff "'of the commander of the left flank of the infantry of the First Army, a place, as Berg said,

Starting point is 05:04:16 very agreeable and well on Avadans. Prince Andrew looked at him, and without replying, went on speaking to El Paditch. So tell them that I shall await a reply till the tenth, and if by the tenth I don't receive news that they have all got away, I shall have to throw up everything and come myself to Bald Hills. Prince, said Berg, recognizing Prince Andrew, I only spoke because I have to obey orders, because I always do obey exactly.

Starting point is 05:04:46 You must please excuse me. He went on apologetically. Something crackled in the flames. The fire died down for a moment, and wreaths of black smoke rolled from under the roof. There was another terrible crash, and something huge collapsed. Oh, row, row! yelled the crowd, echoing the crash of the collapsing roof of the barn, the burning grain in which diffused a catch. cake-like aroma all around. The flames flared up again, lighting the animated, delighted,

Starting point is 05:05:16 exhausted faces of the spectators. The man in the freeze-coat raised his arms and shouted, "'It's fine, lads! Now it's raging! It's fine!' "'That's the owner himself!' cried several voices. "'Well, then,' continued Prince Andrew to El Patech. "'Report to them as I have told you. And not replying a word to Berg, who was now mute beside him, he told him. He told him. He touched his horse and rode down the side street. End of Book 10, Chapter 4. Book 10, Chapter 5, of War and Peace,

Starting point is 05:05:58 Volume 3 by Leo Tolstoy, translated by Elmer Maude. This Libervox recording is in the public domain. Book 10, Chapter 5. From Smolensk, the troops continued to retreat, followed by the enemy. On the 10th of August, the regiment Prince Andrew commanded was marching along the high road past the avenue leading to bald hills.

Starting point is 05:06:24 Heat and drought had continued for more than three weeks. Each day fleecy clouds floated across the sky and occasionally veiled the sun, but toward evening the sky cleared again and the sun set in reddish-brown mist. Heavy night-dews alone refreshed the earth. The unreaped corn was scorched and shed its grain. The marshes dried up. The cattle loathe from hunger, finding no food on the sun-parched meadows. Only at night and in the forests, while the dew lasted, was there any freshness? But on the road, the high road along which the troops marched, there was no such freshness even at night or when the road passed through the forest.

Starting point is 05:07:08 The dew was imperceptible on the sandy dust churned up more than six inches deep. As soon as the day dawned, the march began. The artillery and baggage wagons moved noiselessly through the deep dust that rose to the very hubs of the wheels, and the infantry sank ankle-deep in that soft, choking, hot dust that never cooled even at night. Some of this dust was needed by the feet and wheels, while the rest rose and hung like a cloud over the troops,

Starting point is 05:07:39 settling in eyes, ears, hair, and nostrils, and, worst of all, in the lungs of the men and beasts as they moved along that road. The higher the sun rose, the higher rose that cloud of dust, and through the screen of its hot, fine particles, one could look with naked eye at the sun, which showed like a huge crimson bald in the unclouded sky. There was no wind, and the men choked in that motionless atmosphere. They marched with handkerchiefs tied over their noses and mouths. When they passed through a village, they all rushed to the wells and fought for the water

Starting point is 05:08:16 and drank it down to the mud. Prince Andrew was in command of a regiment, and the management of that regiment, the welfare of the men and the necessity of receiving and giving orders, engrossed him. The burning of Smolensk and its abandonment made an epic in his life. A novel feeling of anger against the foe made him forget his own sorrow. He was entirely devoted to the effect. of his regiment, and was considerate and kind to his men and officers. In the regiment they called him our prince, were proud of him and loved him.

Starting point is 05:08:53 But he was kind and gentle only to those of his regiment, to Tomokin and the like. People quite new to him, belonging to a different world and who could not know and understand his past. As soon as he came across a former acquaintance or any one from the staff, he bristled up immediately and grew spiteful, ironical, and contemptuous. Everything that reminded him of his past was repugnant to him, and so in his relations with that former circle, he confined himself to trying to do his duty and not to be unfair.

Starting point is 05:09:28 In truth, everything presented itself in a dark and gloomy light to Prince Andrew, especially after the abandonment of Smolensk on the 6th of August. He considered that it could and should have been defended. and after his sick father had had to flee to Moscow, abandoning to pillage his dearly beloved Bald Hills, which he had built and peopled. But despite this, thanks to his regiment, Prince Andrew had something to think about entirely apart from general questions. Two days previously, he had received news that his father, son, and sister, had left for Moscow. And though there was nothing for him to do at Bald Hills, Prince Andrew with a characteristic desire

Starting point is 05:10:12 to foment his own grief, decided that he must ride there. He ordered his horse to be saddled, and leaving his regiment on the march, rode to his father's estate, where he had been born and spent his childhood. Riding past the pond where there used always to be dozens of women chattering as they rinsed their linen or beat it with wooden beetles, Prince Andrew noticed that there was not a soul about, and that the little washing wharf, torn from its place and half submerged, was floating on its side in the middle of the pond. He rode to the Keepers Lodge. No one was at the stone entrance gates of the drive, and the door stood open. Grass had already begun to grow on the garden paths, and horses and calves

Starting point is 05:10:58 were straying in the English park. Prince Andrew rode up to the hot-house. Some of the glass panes were broken, and of the trees and tubs, some were overturned and others dried up. He called for Taras, the gardener, but no one replied. Having gone round the corner of the hothouse to the ornamental garden, he saw that the carved garden fence was broken, and branches of the plum-trees had been torn off with the fruit. An old peasant, whom Prince Andrew in his childhood had often seen at the gate, was sitting on a green garden seat, plating a bashed shoe. He was deaf and did not hear Prince Andrew ride up. He was sitting on the seat the old prince used to like to sit on, and beside him, strips of bast were hanging on the broken and withered branch of a magnolia.

Starting point is 05:11:49 Prince Andrew rode up to the house. Several limes in the old garden had been cut down, and a pie-balled mare and her foal were wandering in front of the house among the rose-bushes. The shutters were all closed, except one window which was open. A little surf-boy, seeing Prince Andrew, ran into the house. Al-Patich, having sent his family away, was alone at Bald Hills, and was sitting indoors reading the lives of the saints. On hearing that Prince Andrew had come, he went out with his spectacles on his nose, buttoning his coat, and hastily stepping up, without a word, began weeping and kissing Prince Andrew's knee.

Starting point is 05:12:29 Then, vexed at his own weakness, he turned away and began to report on the position of affairs. Everything precious and valuable had been removed to Bogacharovo. Seventy quarters of grain had also been carted away. The hay and spring corn, of which Alpatchett said there had been a remarkable crop that year, had been commandeered by the troops and moaned down while still green. The peasants were ruined. Some of them too had gone to Bogacharavo, only a few remained. Without waiting to hear him out, Prince Andrew asked,

Starting point is 05:13:05 "'When did my father and sister leave?' "'Meaning when did they leave for Moscow.' "'Elpattich, understanding the question to refer to their departure for Bogacharovo, replied that they had left on the seventh and again went into details concerning the estate management, asking for instructions. "'Am I to let the troops have the oats and to take a receipt for them? "'We have still six hundred quarters left,' he inquired. "'What am I to say to him?'

Starting point is 05:13:35 thought Prince Andrew, looking down on the old man's bald head, shining in the sun, and seeing by the expression on his face, that the old man himself understood how untimely such questions were, and only asked them to allay his grief. "'Yes, let them have it,' replied Prince Andrew. "'If you notice some disorder in the garden,' said Alpattage, "'it was impossible to prevent it. Three regiments have been here and spent the night, dragoons mostly. I took down the name and rank of their commanding officer to hand in a complaint about it.

Starting point is 05:14:11 Well, and what are you going to do? Will you stay here if the enemy occupies the place? asked Prince Andrew. Al-Potich turned his face to Prince Andrew, looked at him, and suddenly, with a solemn gesture, raised his arm. He is my refuge, his will be done, he exclaimed. A group of bareheaded peasants was approaching across the meadow toward the prince. Well, good-bye, said Prince Andrew, bending over to El Patage. You must go away, too. Take away what you can, and tell the serfs to go to the Riazana estate, or to the one near Moscow. El Patitch clung to Prince Andrew's leg and burst into sobs. Gently disengaging himself, the prince spurred his horse and rode down the avenue at a gallop.

Starting point is 05:15:01 The old man was still sitting in the ornamental garden, like a thwartynged himself. fly impassive on the face of a loved one who is dead, tapping the last on which he was making the bashed shoe, and two little girls, running out from the hothouse carrying in their skirts plums they had plucked from the trees there, came upon Prince Andrew. On seeing the young master, the elder one, with frightened look, clutched her younger companion by the hand, and hid with her behind a birch tree, not stopping to pick up some green plums they had dropped. Prince Andrew turned away with startled haste, unwilling to let them see that they had been observed. He was sorry for the pretty frightened little girl, was afraid of looking at her, and yet felt an

Starting point is 05:15:46 irresistible desire to do so. A new sensation of comfort and relief came over him. When, seeing these girls, he realized the existence of other human interests entirely aloof from his own and just as legitimate as those that occupied him. him. Evidently, these girls passionately desired one thing, to carry away and eat those green plums without being caught, and Prince Andrew shared their wish for the success of their enterprise. He could not resist looking at them once more. Believing their danger passed, they sprang from their ambush and chirping something in their shrill little voices and holding up their skirts,

Starting point is 05:16:28 Their bare little sunburned feet scampered merrily and quickly across the meadow grass. Prince Andrew was somewhat refreshed by having ridden off the dusty high road along which the troops were moving. But not far from Bald Hills, he again came out on the road and overtook his regiment at its halting place by the dam of a small pond. It was past one o'clock. The sun, a red ball through the dust, burned and scorched his back in tolerable. through his black coat. The dust always hung motionless above the buzz of talk that came from the resting troops. There was no wind. As he crossed the dam, Prince Andrews smelled the ooze and freshness of the pond. He longed to get into that water, however dirty

Starting point is 05:17:16 it might be, and he glanced round at the pool from whence came sounds of shrieks and laughter. The small, muddy, green pond had risen visibly more than a foot, flooding the dam. because it was full of the naked white bodies of soldiers with brick-red hands, necks and faces, who were splashing about in it. All this naked-white human flesh, laughing and shrieking, floundered about in that dirty pool like carp stuffed into a watering-can, and the suggestion of merriment in that floundering mass rendered it specially pathetic. One fair-haired young soldier of the third company, whom Prince Andrew knew and who had a

Starting point is 05:17:57 strap round the calf of one leg, crossed himself, stepped back to get a good run, and plunged into the water. Another, a dark, non-commissioned officer, who was always shaggy, stood up to his waist in the water, joyfully wriggling his muscular figure and snorted with satisfaction, as he poured the water over his head with hands blackened to the wrists. There were sounds of men slapping one another, yelling and puffing. Everywhere on the bank, on the dam, and in the pond, there was healthy, white, muscular flesh. The officer, Tomokin, with his red little nose, standing on the dam, wiping himself with a towel, felt confused at seeing the prince, but made up his mind to address him nevertheless.

Starting point is 05:18:43 "'It's very nice, your excellency. Wouldn't you like to?' said he. "'It's dirty,' replied Prince Andrew, making a grimace. "'We'll clear it out for you in a minute,' said Tomokin, and still undressed. ran off to clear the men out of the pond. The prince wants to bathe. What prince? Ours? said many voices. And the men were in such haste to clear out

Starting point is 05:19:09 that the prince could hardly stop them. He decided that he would rather wash himself with water in the barn. Flesh, bodies, cannon fodder, he thought, and he looked at his own naked body and shuddered, not from cold, but from a sense of disgust and horror he did not himself understand, aroused by the sight of that immense number of bodies splashing

Starting point is 05:19:33 about in the dirty pond. On the 7th of August, Prince Brigadian rode as follows from his quarters at Mikhailovna on the Smolensk Road. Dear Count Alexis Andreevich, he was writing to a Rakhcheyev, but knew that his letter would be read by the Emperor, and therefore weighed every word in it to the best of his ability. I expect the Minister Barclay de Tully, has already reported the abandonment of Smolensk to the enemy. It is pitiable and sad, and the whole army is in despair that this most important place has been wantonly abandoned. I, for my part, begged him personally and most urgently, and finally wrote him, but nothing would induce him to consent. I swear to you on my honor

Starting point is 05:20:24 that Napoleon was in such a fix as never before, and might have lost half of his time. his army but could not have taken Smolensk. Our troops fought and are fighting as never before. With fifteen thousand men I held the enemy at bay for thirty-five hours and beat him. But he would not hold out even for fourteen hours. It is disgraceful a stain on our army, and as for him, he ought, it seems to me, not to live. If he reports that our losses were great, it is not true. Perhaps about four thousand, not more, and not even that. But even were they ten thousand, that's war.

Starting point is 05:21:06 But the enemy has lost masses. What would it have caused him to hold out for another two days? They would have had to retire of their own accord, for they had no water for men or horses. He gave me his word he would not retreat, but suddenly sent instructions that he was retiring that night. We cannot fight in this way, or we may soon bring the enemy to Moscow. There is a rumor that you are thinking of peace.

Starting point is 05:21:35 God forbid that you should make peace after all our sacrifices and such insane retreats. You would set all Russia against you, and every one of us would feel ashamed to wear the uniform. If it has come to this, we must fight as long as Russia can, and as long as there are men able to stand. One man ought to be in command, and not two. Your minister may perhaps be good as a minister, but as a general, he is not merely bad, but execrable, yet to him is entrusted the fate of our whole country. I am really frantic with vexation. Forgive my writing boldly.

Starting point is 05:22:16 It is clear that the man who advocates the conclusion of a peace, and that the minister should command the army does not love it. our sovereign and desires the ruin of us all. So I write you frankly. Call out the militia. For the minister is leading these visitors after him to Moscow in a most masterly way. The whole army feels great suspicion of the imperial aide-de-camp Voltsogen. He is said to be more Napoleon's man than ours, and he is always advising the minister. I am not merely civil to him, but obey him like a corporal, though I am his senior. This is painful, but, loving my benefactor and sovereign, I submit.

Starting point is 05:22:59 Only, I am sorry for the Emperor that he entrusts our fine army to such as he. Consider that, on our retreat, we have lost by fatigue and left in the hospital more than 15,000 men, and had we attacked, this would not have happened. Tell me, for God's sake, what will Russia, our mother Russia, say to our being so frightened? and why are we abandoning our good and gallant fatherland to such rabble and implanting feelings of hatred and shame in all our subjects? What are we scared at, and of whom are we afraid? I am not to blame that the minister is vacillating, a coward, dense, dilatory, and has all bad qualities. The whole army bewails it and calls down curses upon him.

Starting point is 05:23:53 End of Book 10, Chapter 5. Book 10, Chapter 6 of War and Peace, Volume 3, by Leo Tolstoy, translated by Elmer Maude. This Libervox recording is in the public domain. Book 10, Chapter 6 Among the innumerable categories applicable to the phenomena of human life, one may discriminate between those in which substance prevails and those in which form prevails. To the latter, as distinguished from the matter, as distinguished from human life, one may discriminate between those in which substance prevails, as distinguished from village, country, provincial, or even Moscow life,

Starting point is 05:24:34 we may allot Petersburg life, and especially the life of its salons. That life of the salons is unchanging. Since the year 1805, we had made peace and had again quarreled with Bonaparte, and had made constitutions and unmade them again. But the salons of Anna Pavlovna and Elaine remain just as they had been, the one seven and the other five years before. At Anna Pavlovna's, they talked with perplexity of Bonaparte's successes just as before, and saw in them and in the subservience shown to him by the European sovereigns a malicious conspiracy,

Starting point is 05:25:14 the sole object of which was to cause unpleasantness and anxiety to the court circle, of which Anna Pavlovna was the representative. And in Elaine Salon, which Rumiuncef himself honored with his visits, Regarding Elaine as a remarkably intelligent woman, they talked with the same ecstasy in 1812 as in 1808 of the great nation and the great man, and regretted our rupture with France, a rupture which, according to them, ought to be promptly terminated by peace. Of late, since the Emperor's return from the Army, there had been some excitement in these conflicting salon circles, and some demonstrations of hostility to one another.

Starting point is 05:25:55 but each camp retained its own tendency. In Anna Pavlovna Circle, only those Frenchmen were admitted who were deep-rooted legitimists, and patriotic views were expressed to the effect that one ought not to go to the French theater, and that to maintain the French troop was costing the government as much as a whole Army Corps. The progress of the war was eagerly followed, and only the reports most flattering to our army were circulated. In the French circle of Elaine and Rumianzev, the reports of the cruelty of the enemy and of the war

Starting point is 05:26:29 were contradicted, and all Napoleon's attempts at conciliation were discussed. In that circle, they discontinence those who advised hurried preparations for our removal to Kazan of the court, and the girls' educational establishments under the patronage of the Dowager Empress. In Elaine's circle, the war in general was regarded as a series of formal demonstrations, which would very soon end in peace, and the view prevailed expressed by Belibin, who now in Petersburg was quite at home in Elaine's house, which every clever man was obliged to visit, that not by gunpowder, but by those who invented it, would matters be settled. In that circle, the Moscow enthusiasm, news of which had reached Petersburg simultaneously with

Starting point is 05:27:14 the Emperor's return, was ridiculed sarcastically and very cleverly, though with much caution. Anna Pavlovna Circle, on the contrary, was enraptured by this enthusiasm, and spoke of it as Plutarch speaks of the deeds of the ancients. Prince Vassili, who still occupied his former important posts, formed a connecting link between these two circles. He visited his good friend Anna Pavlovna, as well as his daughter's diplomatic salon, and often, in his constant comings and goings between the two camps, became confused, and said at Elaine's, what he should have said at Anna Pavlovnaz and vice versa. Soon after the Emperor's return,

Starting point is 05:27:57 Prince Vassili, in a conversation about the war at Anna Pavlovna's, severely condemned Barclay de Tully, but was undecided as to who ought to be appointed commander-in-chief. One of the visitors, usually spoken of as a man of great merit, having described how he had that day seen Kutuzov, the newly chosen chief of the Petersburg militia, presiding over the enrollment of recruits at the Treasury, cautiously ventured to suggest that Kutuzov would be the man to satisfy all requirements.

Starting point is 05:28:29 Anna Pavlovna remarked with a melancholy smile that Kutuzov had done nothing but caused the emperor annoyance. I have talked and talked at the Assembly of the nobility. Prince Vasily interrupted, but they did not listen to me. I told them his election as chief of the militia would not please the emperor, but they did not listen to me. It's all this mania for opposition, he went on. And who for? It is all because we want to ape the foolish enthusiasm of those Muscovites.

Starting point is 05:29:02 Prince Vasili continued, forgetting for a moment that, though at Elaines, one had to ridicule the Moscow enthusiasm. At Anna Pavlovna's, one had to be ecstatic about it. But he retrieved his mistake at once. Now, is it suitable that Count Kutuz, the oldest general in Russia should preside at that tribunal? He will get nothing for his pains. How could they make a man-commander-in-chief who cannot mount a horse, who drops asleep at a council, and has the very worst morals? A good reputation he made for himself at Bucharest.

Starting point is 05:29:37 I don't speak of his capacity as a general, but at a time like this how they appoint a decrepit, blind old man, positively blind? A fine idea. to have a blind general, he can't see anything. To play blind man's buff, he can't see it all. No one replied to his remarks. This was quite correct on the 24th of July, but on the 29th of July Coutous off received the title of Prince. This might indicate a wish to get rid of him, and therefore Prince Vasili's opinion continued to be correct, though he was not now in any hurry to express it. But on the 8th of August, a committee, consisting of Field Marshal Soltikov, Erekcheyev, Vyatzmitov, Lepukin, and Kotechube,

Starting point is 05:30:26 met to consider the progress of the war. This committee came to the conclusion that our failures were due to a want of unity in the command, and though the members of the committee were aware of the emperor's dislike of Kutuzov, after a short deliberation, they agreed to advise his appointment as commander-in-chief. That same day Kutuzov was appointed. appointed commander-in-chief with full powers over the armies and over the whole region occupied by them. On the 9th of August, Prince Vassili at Anna Pavlovna's again met the man of great merit. The latter was very attentive to Anna Pavlovna because he wanted to be appointed director of one of the

Starting point is 05:31:08 educational establishments for young ladies. Prince Vassili entered the room with the air of a happy conqueror who has attained the object of his desires. "'Well, have you heard the great news? Prince Katoos off is field-martial. All dissensions are at an end. I am so glad, so delighted. At last we have a man,' said he, glancing sternly

Starting point is 05:31:33 and significantly around at everyone in the drawing-room. The man of great merit, despite his desire to obtain the post of director, could not refrain from reminding Prince Vassili of his former opinion. Though this was impolite to Prince Vasily in Anna Pavlovna's drawing-room, and also to Anna Pavlovna herself, who had received the news with delight, he could not resist the temptation. "'But, Prince, they say he is blind,' said he, reminding Prince Vasili of his own words. "'Eh, nonsense! He sees well enough,' said Prince Vasili rapidly,

Starting point is 05:32:10 in a deep voice and with a slight cough. The voice and cough with which he was wont to dispose of all difficulties. He sees well enough, he added, and what I am so pleased about, he went on, is that our sovereign has given him full powers over all the armies and the whole region, powers no commander-in-chief ever had before. He is a second autocrat, he concluded with a victorious smile. God grant it, God-grant it, said Anna Pavlovna.

Starting point is 05:32:43 The man of great merit, who will be able to be it. still in novice in court circles, wishing to flatter Anna Pavlovna by defending her former position on the question, observed, "'It is said that the emperor was reluctant to give Kutuzov those powers. They say he blushed like a girl to whom Jacquesonde is read, when he said to Kutuzov, "'Your emperor and the fatherland award you this honor.' "'Perhaps the heart took no part in that speech,' said Anna Pavlovna. "'Oh, no, no.

Starting point is 05:33:15 Oh, warmly rejoined Prince Vasily, who would not now yield Kutuzov to anyone. In his opinion, Kutuzov was not only admirable himself, but was adored by everybody. "'No, that's impossible,' said he, for our sovereign appreciated him so highly before. "'God grant only that Prince Katoosov assumes real power and does not allow anyone to put a spoke in his wheel,' observed Anna Pavlovna. Understanding at once to whom she alluded, Prince Vassili said in a whisper, I know for a fact that Katoosov made it an absolute condition

Starting point is 05:33:54 that the Tsarevah should not be with the army. Do you know what he said to the Emperor? And Prince Fassili repeated the words supposed to have been spoken by Kutuzov to the Emperor. I can neither punish him if he does wrong, nor reward him if he does right. Oh, a very wise man is Prince Katoosov. I have known him a long time. They even say, remarked the man of great merit, who did not yet possess courtly tact,

Starting point is 05:34:23 that His Excellency made it an express condition that the sovereign himself should not be with the army. As soon as he said this, both Prince Fassili and Anna Pavlovna turned away from him, and glanced sadly at one another with a sigh. at his naivete. End of Book 10, Chapter 6. Book 10, Chapter 7. Of War and Peace, Volume 3, by Leo Tolstoy, translated by Omer Maud. This Libervox recording is in the public domain.

Starting point is 05:35:06 Book 10, Chapter 7. While this was taking place in Petersburg, the French had already passed Smolensk, and were drawing nearer and nearer to Moscow. Napoleon's historian, Tierre, like other of his historians, trying to justify his hero, says that he was drawn to the walls of Moscow against his will. He is as right as other historians who look for the explanation of historic events in the will of one man. He is as right as the Russian historians who maintained that Napoleon was drawn to Moscow

Starting point is 05:35:38 by the skill of the Russian commanders. Here, besides the law of retrospection, which regards all the past, all the past as a preparation for events that subsequently occur, the law of reciprocity comes in, confusing the whole matter. A good chess player, having lost a game, is sincerely convinced that his loss resulted from a mistake he made and looks for that mistake in the opening, but forgets that at each stage of the game there were similar mistakes and that none of his moves were perfect. He only notices the mistake to which he pays attention, because his opponent took advantage of it. How much more complex than this is the game of war, which occurs under certain limits of time,

Starting point is 05:36:21 and where it is not one will that manipulates lifeless objects, but everything results from innumerable conflicts of various wills. After Smolensk, Napoleon sought a battle beyond Dora Gabouge at Vyazma, and then at Zarvo Zemisha. But it happened that owing to a conjunction of innumerable circumstances, the Russians could not give battle till they reached Borodino, 70 miles from Moscow. From Viasma, Napoleon ordered a direct advance on Moscow. Moscow, the capital Asiatic de se grand empire. The view sacried de popul of Alexandra. Moscow had so innombrable eglises in form of bagos-chinoes. Moscow, the Asiatic capital of this great empire,

Starting point is 05:37:10 Empire, the sacred city of Alexander's people, Moscow, with its innumerable churches shaped like Chinese pagodas. This Moscow gave Napoleon's imagination no rest. On the march from Vyazma to Zaravo Zemisha, he rode his light-bay-bobtailed ambler, accompanied by his guards, his bodyguard, his pages, and aides to camp. Bertier, his chief of staff, dropped behind to question a Russian prisoner captured by the cavalry. followed by Lelon de Ville, an interpreter, he overtook Napoleon at a gallop and reigned in his horse with an amused expression.

Starting point is 05:37:49 Well, asked Napoleon. One of Platov's Cossack says that Platov's corps is joining up with the main army, and that Kutuzov has been appointed commander-in-chief. He is a very shrewd and garrulous fellow. Napoleon smiled and told them to give the Cossack a horse and bring the man to him. He wished to talk to him himself. Several adjutants galloped off, and an hour later, Lavrushka, the serf Denisov had handed over to Rostov,

Starting point is 05:38:19 rode up to Napoleon in an orderly's jacket and on a French cavalry saddle, with a merry and tipsy face. Napoleon told him to ride by his side and began questioning him. You are a Cossack? Yes, a Cossack, Your Honor. A Cossack, not knowing in what company he was, he was, for Napoleon's plain appearance had nothing about it that would reveal to an Oriental mind the presence of a monarch, talked with extreme familiarity of the incidents of the war,

Starting point is 05:38:49 says Tierre, narrating this episode. In reality, Lavrushka, having got drunk the day before and left his master dinnerless, had been whipped and sent to the village in quest of chickens, where he engaged in looting till the French took him prisoner. Laverushka was one of those coarse, bare-faced lackeys, who have seen all sorts of things, consider it necessary to do everything in a mean and cunning way, are ready to render any sort of service to their master, and are keen at guessing their master's baser impulses, especially those prompted by vanity and pettiness. Finding himself in the company of Napoleon, whose identity he had easily and surely recognized, Lavrushka was not in the least abashed, but merely did his utmost to gain his new master's

Starting point is 05:39:37 favor. He knew very well that this was Napoleon, but Napoleon's presence could no more intimidate him than Rostov's, or as Sergeant Major's with the rods would have done, for he had nothing that either the Sergeant Major or Napoleon could deprive him of. So he rattled on, telling all the gossip he had heard among the orderlies. Much of it true. But when Napoleon asked him whether the Russians thought they would beat Bonaparte or not, Lovrushka said, screwed up his eyes and considered. In this question he saw subtle cunning, as men of his types he cunning in everything, so he frowned and did not answer immediately. "'It's like this,' he said thoughtfully. "'If there's a battle soon, yours will win. That's right.

Starting point is 05:40:28 But if three days pass, then after that, well, then that same battle will not soon be over.' The Lorne de Ville smilingly interpreted this speech to Napoleon thus. If a battle takes place within the next three days, the French will win, but if later God knows what will happen. Napoleon did not smile, though he was evidently in high good humor, and he ordered these words to be repeated. Lovushka noticed this, and to entertain him further, pretending not to know who Napoleon was, added, we know that you have Bonaparte and that he has beaten everybody in the world, but we are a different matter.

Starting point is 05:41:11 Without knowing why or how this bit of boastful patriotism slipped out at the end. The interpreter translated these words without the last phrase, and Bonaparte smiled. The young Cossack made his mighty interlocutor smile, says Tier. After writing a few paces in silence, Napoleon turned to Bertie. and said he wished to see how the news that he was talking to the emperor himself, to that very emperor who had written his immortally victorious name on the pyramids, would affect this Enfant du Don, child of the dawn. The fact was accordingly conveyed to Lavrushka.

Starting point is 05:41:52 Lavrushka, understanding that this was done to perplex him, and that Napoleon expected him to be frightened, to gratify his new masters promptly pretended to be astonished in Austroch. struck, opened his eyes wide, and assumed the expression he usually put on when taken to be whipped. As soon as Napoleon's interpreter had spoken, says Tierre, the Cossack, seized by amazement, did not utter another word, but rode on, his eyes fixed on the conqueror whose fame had reached him across the steps of the east. All his loquacity was suddenly arrested and replaced by a naive and silent feeling of admiration.

Starting point is 05:42:32 Napoleon, after making the Cossack a present, had him set free like a bird restored to its native fields. Napoleon rode on, dreaming of the Moscow that so appealed to his imagination, and the bird restored to its native fields galloped to our outposts, inventing on the way all that had not taken place but that he meant to relate to his comrades. What had really taken place he did not wish to relate, because it seemed to him not worth telling. He found the Cossacks, inquired for the regiment operating with Platov's detachment, and by evening found his master, Nicholas Rostov, quartered at Yankov. Rostov was just mounting to go for a ride round the neighboring villages with Iliun. He let Lavrushka have another horse and took him along with him.

Starting point is 05:43:26 End of Book 10, Chapter 7. Book 10, Chapter 8, of War and Peace, Volume 3, by Leo Tolstoy, translated by Elmer Maud. This Libra Box recording is in the public domain. Book 10, Chapter 8 Princess Mary was not in Moscow and out of danger, as Prince Andrews supposed. After the return of El Patage from Smolensk, the old prince suddenly seemed to awake as from a dream. He ordered the militiamen to be called up from the villages and armed, and wrote a letter to the commander-in-chief, informing him that he had resolved to remain at Bald Hills to the last extremity

Starting point is 05:44:16 and to defend it, leaving to the Commander-in-Chief's discretion to take measures or not for the defense of Bald Hills, where one of Russia's oldest generals would be captured or killed, and he announced to his household that he would remain at Bald Hills. But while himself remaining, he gave instruction for the departure of the Princess and DeSalle with the little prince to Bogacharovo and thence to Moscow. Princess Mary, alarmed by her father's feverish and sleepless activity after his previous apathy, could not bring herself to leave him alone, and for the first time in her life ventured to disobey him. She refused to go away, and her father's fury broke over her in a terrible storm.

Starting point is 05:45:01 He repeated every injustice he had ever inflicted on her. Trying to convict her, he told her she had worn him out, had caused his quarrel with his son, had harbored nasty suspicions of him, making it the object of her life to poison his existence, and he drove her from his study, telling her that if she did not go away, it was all the same to him. He declared that he did not wish to remember her existence, and warned her not to dare to let him see her.

Starting point is 05:45:32 The fact that he did not, as she had feared, order her to be carried away by force, but only told her not to let him see her, cheered Princess Mary. She knew it was a proof that in the depth of his soul he was glad she was remaining at home and had not gone away. The morning after little Nicholas had left, the old prince donned his full uniform and prepared to visit the commander-in-chief.

Starting point is 05:45:58 His calesh was already at the door. Princess Mary saw him walk out of the house in his uniform, wearing all his orders, and go down the garden to review his armed peasants and domestic serfs. She sat by the window, listening to his voice which reached her from the garden. Suddenly, several men came running up the avenue with frightened faces. Princess Mary ran out to the porch, down the flower-bordered path and into the avenue. A large crowd of militiamen and domestics were moving toward her, and in their midst several men were supporting by the armpits and dragging along a little old man in a uniform and decorations.

Starting point is 05:46:40 She ran up to him, and in the play of the sunlight that fell in small round spots through the shade of the Lymetree Avenue, could not be sure what change there was in his face. All she could see was that his former stern and determined expression had altered to one of timidity and submission. On seeing his daughter, he moved his helpless lips and made a horse sound. It was impossible to make out what he wanted. He was lifted up, carried to his study, and laid on the very couch he had so feared of late. The doctor, who was fetched that same night, bled him and said that the prince had had a seizure paralyzing his right side. It was becoming more and more dangerous to remain at Bald Hills, and next day they moved the prince to Bogacharovo, the doctor accompanying

Starting point is 05:47:30 him. By the time they reached Bogacharovo, Desal and the little prince had already left for Moscow. For three weeks the old prince lay stricken by paralysis in the new house Prince Andrew had built at Bogacharov, ever in the same state, getting neither better nor worse. He was unconscious and lay like a distorted corpse. He muttered unceasingly, his eyebrows and lips twitching, and it was impossible to tell whether he understood what was going on around him or not. One thing was certain, that he was suffering and wished to say something. But what it was, no one could tell. It might be some caprice of a sick and half-crazy man, or it might relate to public affairs, or possibly to family concerns. The doctor said,

Starting point is 05:48:23 this restlessness did not mean anything and was due to physical causes. But Princess Mary thought he wished to tell her something, and the fact that her presence always increased his restlessness confirmed her opinion. He was evidently suffering both physically and mentally. There was no hope of recovery. It was impossible for him to travel. It would not do to let him die on the road. Would it not be better if the end did come, the very end? Princess Mary sometimes thought. Night and day, hardly sleeping at all, she watched him, and, terrible to say, often watched him, not with the hope of finding signs of improvement, but wishing to find symptoms of the approach

Starting point is 05:49:08 of the end. Strange as it was to her to acknowledge this feeling in herself, yet there it was. And what seems still more terrible to her was that since her father's illness began, perhaps even sooner, when she stayed with him expecting. something to happen, all the personal desires and hopes that had been forgotten or sleeping within her had awakened. Thoughts that had not entered her mind for years. Thoughts of a life free from the fear of her father, and even the possibility of love and of family happiness, floated continually in her imagination like temptations of the devil. Thrust them aside as she would, questions

Starting point is 05:49:49 continually recurred to her as to how she would order her life now. after that. These were temptations of the devil, and Princess Mary knew it. She knew that the sole weapon against him was prayer, and she tried to pray. She assumed an attitude of prayer, looked at the icons, repeated the words of a prayer, but she could not pray. She felt that a different world had now taken possession of her, the life of a world of strenuous and free activity, quite opposed to this spiritual world in which till now she had been confined and in which her greatest comfort had been prayer. She could not pray, could not weep, and worldly cares took possession of her.

Starting point is 05:50:35 It was becoming dangerous to remain in Bogacharovo. News of the approach of the French came from all sides, and in one village, ten miles from Bogacharovo, a homestead had been looted by French marauders. The doctor insisted on the necessity of moving the prince. The provincial marshal of the nobility sent an official to Princess Mary to persuade her to get away as quickly as possible, and the head of the rural police, having come to Bogacharvo, urged the same thing, saying that the French were only some 25 miles away,

Starting point is 05:51:10 that French proclamations were circulating in the villages, and that if the princess did not take her father away before the 15th, he could not answer for the consequences. The princess decided to leave on the 15th. The cares of preparation and giving orders, for which everyone came to her, occupied her all day. She spent the night of the 14th as usual, without undressing, in the room next to the one where the prince lay. Several times, waking up, she heard his groans and muttering, the creak of his bed, and the steps of Teakin, and the doctor when they turned him over. Several times she listened at the door,

Starting point is 05:51:50 and it seemed to her that his mutterings were louder than usual, and that they turned him over oftener. She could not sleep, and several times went to the door and listened, wishing to enter, but not deciding to do so. Though he did not speak, Princess Mary saw and knew how unpleasant every sign of anxiety on his account was to him.

Starting point is 05:52:13 She had noticed with what dissatisfaction he turned from the look she sometimes involuntarily fixed on him. She knew that her going in during the night at an unusual hour would irritate him. But never had she felt so grieved for him or so much afraid of losing him. She recalled all her life with him, and in every word and act of his, found an expression of her. Occasionally, amid these memories, temptations of the devil would surge into her imagination, thoughts of how things would be after his death, and how her new, liberated life would be ordered.

Starting point is 05:52:52 But she drove these thoughts away with disgust. Toward morning he became quiet, and she fell asleep. She woke late. That sincerity, which often comes with waking, showed her clearly what chiefly concerned her about her father's illness. On waking, she listened to what was going on behind the door, and hearing him groan, said to herself with a sigh that things were still the same. But what could have happened?

Starting point is 05:53:23 What did I want? I want his death! She cried with a feeling of loathing for herself. She washed, dressed, said her prayers, and went out to the porch. In front of it stood carriages without horses, and things were being packed into the vehicles. It was a warm, gray morning. Princess Mary stopped at the porch,

Starting point is 05:53:47 still horrified by her spiritual baseness, and trying to arrange her thoughts before going to her father. The doctor came downstairs and went out to her. "'He is a little better today,' said he. "'I was looking for you. One can make out something of what he is saying. His head is clearer. Come in.

Starting point is 05:54:07 He is asking for him. you. Princess Mary's heart beat so violently at this news that she grew pale and leaned against the wall to keep from falling. To see him, talk to him, feel his eyes on her now that her whole soul was overflowing with those dreadful, wicked temptations, was a torment of joy and terror. Come, said the doctor. Princess Mary entered her father's room and went up to his bed. He was lying on his back propped up high, and his small bony hands with their knotted purple veins were lying on the quilt. His left eye gazed straight before him. His right eye was awry, and his brows and lips motionless. He seemed altogether so thin, small, and pathetic. His face seemed to have

Starting point is 05:54:58 shriveled or melted. His features had grown smaller. Princess Mary went up and kissed his hand. His left hand pressed hers so that she understood that he had been long waiting for her to come. He twitched her hand, and his brows and lips quivered angrily. She looked at him in dismay, trying to guess what he wanted of her. When she changed her position so that his left eye could see her face, he calmed down, not taking his eyes off her for some seconds. Then his lips and tongue moved. sounds came, and he began to speak, gazing timidly and imploringly at her,

Starting point is 05:55:40 evidently afraid that she might not understand. Straining all her faculties, Princess Mary looked at him. The comic efforts with which he moved his tongue made her drop her eyes, and with difficulty repressed the sobs that rose to her throat. He said something, repeating the same words several times. She could not understand them, but tried to guess what he was saying, and inquiringly repeated the words he uttered. "'M-R, eight, eight,' he repeated several times.

Starting point is 05:56:16 It was quite impossible to understand these sounds. The doctor thought he had guessed them, and inquiringly repeated, "'Mary, are you afraid?' The prince shook his head, again repeated the same sounds. "'My mind—my mind aches?' questioned Princess Mary. He made a mumbling sound in confirmation of this, took her hand and began pressing it to different parts of his breast, as if trying to find the right place for it. "'Always thoughts. About you. Thoughts!'

Starting point is 05:56:54 He then uttered much more clearly than he had done before, now that he was sure of being understood. Princess Mary pressed her head against his hand, trying to hide her sobs and tears. He moved his hand over her hair. I have been calling you all night, he brought out. If only I had known, she said through her tears, I was afraid to come in. He pressed her hand. Weren't you asleep? No, I did not sleep, said Princess Mary,

Starting point is 05:57:32 shaking her head. Unconsciously imitating her father, she now tried to express herself as he did, as much as possible by signs, and her tongue too seemed to move with difficulty. Dear one, dearest! Princess Mary could not quite make out what he had said, but from his look it was clear that he had uttered a tender caressing word such as he had never used to her before. Why didn't you come in? And I was wishing for his death, thought Princess Mary. He was silent a while.

Starting point is 05:58:13 Thank you, daughter dear, for all, for all. Forgive, thank you, forgive, thank you, and tears began to flow from his eyes. He said suddenly, and a childish, timid expression of doubt showed itself on his face as he spoke. He himself seemed aware that his demand was meaningless. So at least it seemed to Princess Mary. "'I have a letter from him,' she replied.

Starting point is 05:58:50 He glanced at her with timid surprise. "'Where is he?' "'He's with the army, father, at Smolensk.' He closed his eyes and remained silent a long time. Then, as if in answer to his doubts and to confirm the fact that now he understood and remembered everything, he nodded his head and reopened his eyes. "'Yes,' he said softly and distinctly. "'Russia has perished. They've destroyed her.'

Starting point is 05:59:23 And he began to sob, and again tears flowed from his eyes. Princess Mary could no longer restrain herself, and wept while she got, gazed at his face. Again he closed his eyes. His sobs ceased, he pointed to his eyes, and Teakin, understanding him, wiped away the tears. Then he again opened his eyes and said something none of them could understand for a long time. Till at last Teakin understood and repeated it. Princess Mary had sought the meaning of his words in the mood in which he had just been speaking. She thought he was speaking of Russia, or Prince Andrew, of herself, of his grandson, or of his own death, and so she could not guess his words.

Starting point is 06:00:13 Put on your white dress, I like it, was what he said. Having understood this, Princess Mary sobbed still louder, and the doctor, taking her arm, led her out to the veranda, soothing her and trying to persuade her to prepare for her journey. When she had left the room, the prince again began speaking about his son, about the war, and about the emperor, angrily twitching his brows and raising his hoarse voice, and then he had a second and a final stroke. Princess Mary stayed on the veranda.

Starting point is 06:00:49 The day had cleared, it was hot and sunny. She could understand nothing, think of nothing, and feel nothing, except passionate love for her father, love such as she thought she had never felt till that moment. She ran out sobbing into the garden and as far as the pond, along the avenues of young lime trees Prince Andrew had planted. Yes, I, I, I wished for his death. Yes, I wanted it to end quicker.

Starting point is 06:01:21 I wish to be at peace. And what will become of me? What use will peace be when he is no longer here? Princess Mary murmured, pacing the garden with hurried steps and pressing her hands to her bosom, which heaved with convulsive sobs. When she had completed the tour of the garden, which brought her again to the house, she saw Mademoiselle Burienne, who had remained at Bogacharovo and did not wish to leave it, coming toward her with a stranger.

Starting point is 06:01:52 This was the marshal of the nobility of the district, who had come personally to point out to the princess the necessity of her. prompt departure. Princess Mary listened without understanding him. She led him to the house, offered him lunch, and sat down with him. Then, excusing herself, she went to the door of the old Prince's room. The doctor came out with an agitated face and said she could not enter. "'Go away, Princess. Go away. Go away.' She returned to the garden and sat down on the grass at the foot of the slope by the pond, where no one could see her. She did not know how long she had been there when she was aroused by the sound of a woman's

Starting point is 06:02:35 footsteps running along the path. She rose and saw Dunaasha, her maid, who was evidently looking for her, and who stopped suddenly as if in alarm on seeing her mistress. "'Please come, princess!' "'The prince,' said Dunaisha in a breaking voice. "'Immediately, I'm coming, I'm coming,' replied the princess, hurriedly, not giving Dunaisha time to finish what she was saying, and trying to avoid seeing the girl she ran toward the house. "'Princess, it's God's will. You must be prepared for everything,' said the Marshal, meeting her at the house door. "'Let me alone.

Starting point is 06:03:16 It's not true!' she cried angrily to him. The doctor tried to stop her. She pushed him aside and ran to her father's door. Why are these people with frightened faces stopping me? I don't want any of them. And what are they doing here? she thought. She opened the door, and the bright daylight in that previously darkened room startled her. In the room were her nurse and other women.

Starting point is 06:03:42 They all drew back from the bed, making way for her. He was still lying on the bed as before, but the stern expression of his quiet face made Princess Mary stop short on the threshold. "'No, he's not dead. It's impossible,' she told herself, and approaching him and repressing the terror that seized her. She pressed her lips to his cheek. But she stepped back immediately. All the force of the tenderness she had been feeling for him vanished instantly, and was replaced by a feeling of horror at what lay there before her. "'No, he is no more. He is not. But here where he was is something unfamiliar.

Starting point is 06:04:24 and hostile, some dreadful, terrifying, and repellent mystery. And hiding her face in her hands, Princess Mary sank into the arms of the doctor, who held her up. In the presence of Tekin and the doctor, the women washed what had been of the prince, tied his head up with a handkerchief that the mouth should not stiffen while open, and with another handkerchief tied together the legs that were already spreading apart. Then they dressed him in uniform with his decorations, and placed his shriveled little body on a table. Heaven only knows who arranged all this and when, but it all got done as if of its own accord.

Starting point is 06:05:08 Toward night, candles were burning round his coffin, a pall was spread over it, the floor was strewn with sprays of juniper, a printed band was tucked in under his shriveled head, and, in a corner of the room sat a chanter reading the Psalms. as horses shy and snort and gather about a dead horse, so the inmates of the house and strangers crowded into the drawing-room round the coffin. The Marshal, the village elder, peasant women, and all with fixed and frightened eyes, crossing themselves, bowed and kissed the old prince's cold and stiffened hand. End of Book 10, Chapter 8. Book 10 Chapter 9 of War and Peace, Volume 3 by Leo Tolstoy, translated by Elmer Maude.

Starting point is 06:06:05 This Libervox recording is in the public domain. Book 10, Chapter 9 Until Prince Andrew settled in Bogacharavo, its owners had always been absentees, and its peasants were of quite a different character from those of Bald Hills. They differed from them in speech, dress, and disposition. They were called step-peasants. The old prince used to approve of them for their endurance at work when they came to bald hills to help with the harvest, or to dig ponds and ditches, but he disliked them for their boorishness.

Starting point is 06:06:42 Prince Andrews' last day at Bogacharavo, when he introduced hospitals and schools and reduced the quit rent the peasants had to pay, had not softened their disposition, but had, on the contrary, strengthened them in the traits of character the old prince called boorishness. Various obscure rumors were always current among them. At one time, a rumor that they would all be enrolled as Cossacks, at another of a new religion to which they were all to be converted. Then, of some proclamation of the Tsars, and of an oath to the Tsar Paul in 1797,

Starting point is 06:07:16 in connection with which it was rumored that freedom had been granted them, but the landowners had stopped it, then of Peter Fedorovich's return to the throne in seven years' time, when everything would be made free and so simple that there would be no restrictions. Rumors of the war with Bonaparte and his invasion were connected in their minds with the same sort of vague notions of Antichrist, the end of the world, and pure freedom. In the vicinity of Bogacharovo were large villages belonging to the crown, or to owners who serves paid quit rent and could work where they pleased.

Starting point is 06:07:52 There were very few resident landlords in the neighborhood, and also very few domestic or literate serfs. And in the lives of the peasantry of those parts, the mysterious undercurrents in the life of the Russian people, the causes and meaning of which are so baffling to contemporaries, were more clearly and strongly noticeable than among others. One instance, which had occurred some twenty years before, was a movement among the peasants to emigrate to some unknown warm rivers.

Starting point is 06:08:21 Hundreds of peasants, among them the Bogacharovo folk, suddenly began selling their cattle and moving in whole families toward the southeast. As birds migrate to somewhere beyond the sea, so these men with their wives and children streamed to the southeast to parts where none of them had ever been. They set off in caravans, bought their freedom one by one, or ran away, and drove or walked toward the warm rivers. Many of them were punished, some sent to Siberia, many died of cold and hunger on the road, many returned of their own accord, and the movement died down of itself just as it had sprung up, without apparent reason. But such undercurrents

Starting point is 06:09:03 still existed among the people, and gathered new forces ready to manifest themselves just as strangely, unexpectedly, and at the same time, simply, naturally, and forcibly. Now, in 1812, to anyone living in close touch with these people, it was apparent that these undercurrents were acting strongly and nearing an eruption. El Padish, who had reached Bogacharvo shortly before the old prince's death, noticed an agitation among the peasants, and that, contrary to what was happening in the Bald Hills District, where, over a radius of forty miles, all the peasants were moving away and leaving their villages to be devastated by the Cossacks, the peasants in the steppe region round Bogacharvo,

Starting point is 06:09:48 were, it was rumored, in touch with the French, received leaflets from them that passed from hand to hand and did not migrate. He learned from domestic serfs loyal to him that the peasant carp, who possessed great influence in the village commune, and had recently been away driving a government transport, had returned with news that the Cossacks were destroying deserted villages, but that the French did not harm them. El Padich also knew that on the previous day another peasant

Starting point is 06:10:17 had even brought from the village of Veslucovo, which was occupied by the French, a proclamation by a French general that no harm would be done to the inhabitants, and if they remained, they would be paid for anything taken from them. As proof of this, the peasant had brought from Vislucovo a hundred roubles in notes. He did not know that they were false, paid to him in advance for hay. More important still, Al-Padish learned that on the morning of the very day he gave the village elder orders to collect carts to move the Princess luggage from Bukacharavo, there had been a village meeting at which it had been decided not to move, but to wait. Yet there was no time to waste.

Starting point is 06:10:59 On the 15th, the day of the old prince's death, the Marshal had insisted on Princess Mary's leaving at once, as it was becoming dangerous. He had told her that after the 16th he could not be responsible for what might happen. On the evening of the day the old prince died, the Marshall went away, promising to return next day for the funeral. But this he was unable to do, for he received tidings that the French had unexpectedly advanced, and had barely time to remove his own family and valuables from his estate. For some thirty years, Bogacharvo had been managed by the village elder, Dron, whom the old prince called by the diminutive Dronushka. Dronuska. Dron was one of those physically and mentally vigorous peasants who grow big beards as

Starting point is 06:11:47 as soon as they are of age, and go on unchanged till they are sixty or seventy, without a gray hair or the loss of a tooth, as straight and strong at sixty as at thirty. Soon after the migration to the warm rivers, in which he had taken part like the rest, Dron was made village elder, an overseer of Bogacharovo, and had since filled that post irreproachably for twenty-three years. The peasants feared him more than they did their master. The masters, both the old prince and the young and the steward, respected him, and justingly called him the minister.

Starting point is 06:12:24 During the whole time of his service, Dron had never been drunk or ill. Never after sleepless nights or the hardest tasks had he shown the least fatigue, and though he could not read, he had never forgotten a single money account or the number of quarters of flour in any of the endless cartloads he sold for the prince, nor a single shock of the whole corn crop on any single acre of the Bogacharovo fields. Al-Patic, arriving from the devastated Bald Hills estate, sent for his drawn on the day of the prince's funeral, and told him to have twelve horses got ready for the princess carriages and 18 carts for the things to be removed from Bogacharovo.

Starting point is 06:13:04 Though the peasants paid quit rent, Al-Patic thought no difficulty would be made about complying with this order, for there were two hundred and thirty households at work in Bogacharvo, and the peasants were well to do. But on hearing the order, Dron lowered his eyes and remained silent. Al-Pattich named certain peasants he knew, from whom he told him to take the carts. Dron replied that the horses of these peasants were away carting. Al-Patich named others, but they, too, according to Dron, had no horses available. Some horses were carting for the government, others were too weak, and others had died for want of fodder. It seemed, that no horses could be had even for the carriages, much less for the carting.

Starting point is 06:13:50 Al-Pattich looked intently at Dron and frowned. Just as Dron was a model village elder, so Al-Pattich had not managed the prince's estates for twenty years in vain. He was a model steward, possessing in the highest degree the faculty of divining the needs and instincts of those he dealt with. Having glanced at Dron, he at once understood that his answers did not express his personal views, but the general mood of the Bogacharovo commune, by which the elder had already been carried away.

Starting point is 06:14:21 But he also knew that Dron, who had acquired property and was hated by the commune, must be hesitating between the two camps, the masters and the serfs. He noticed his hesitation in Dron's look, and therefore frowned and moved closer up to him. "'Now just listen, Dronushka,' said he. "'Don't talk nonsense to me. His Excellency Prince Andrew himself gave me orders to move other people away and not leave them with the enemy, and there is an order from the Tsar about it too. Anyone who stays is a traitor to the Tsar. Do you hear?'

Starting point is 06:14:57 "'I hear,' Dron answered, without lifting his eyes. El Padage was not satisfied with this reply. "'A, Dron, it will turn out badly,' he said, shaking his head. "'The power is in your hands.' "'Dron rejoined sadly. "'A, Dron, drop it!' "'A Pettich repeated, "'withdrawing his hand from his bosom

Starting point is 06:15:21 "'and solemnly pointing to the floor at Dron's feet. "'I can see through you "'and three yards into the ground under you.' "'He continued gazing at the floor in front of Dron. "'Dron was disconcerted, "'glanced furtively at Alpattage, "'and again lowered his eyes. "'You dropped this nonsense,

Starting point is 06:15:39 and tell the people to get ready to leave their homes and go to Moscow, and to get carts ready for tomorrow morning for the prince's things. And don't go to any meeting yourself, do you hear?' Dron suddenly fell on his knees. Yacov El-Petich, discharge me. Take the keys from me and discharge me for Christ's sake. Stop that, cried El-Pattage sternly. I see through you and three yards under you, he repeated,

Starting point is 06:16:08 knowing that his skill in beekeeping, his knowledge of the right time to sow the oats, and the fact that he had been able to retain the old prince's favor for twenty years, had long since gained him the reputation of being a wizard, and that the power of seeing three yards under a man is considered an attribute of wizards. Drawn got up and was about to say something, but El Patich interrupted him. "'What is it you have got into your heads, eh? What are you thinking of, eh?' "'What am I to do with the people?' said Dron. "'They're quite beside themselves. I have already told them.'

Starting point is 06:16:44 "'Told them? I dare say,' said Elpattich. "'Are they drinking?' he asked abruptly. "'Quite beside themselves, Yakov Elpatich. They fetched another barrel.' "'Well, then listen. I'll go to the police officer, and you tell them so, and that they must stop this and the carts must be got ready.' I understand." El Paditch did not insist further. He had managed people for a long time and knew that the chief way to make them obey is to

Starting point is 06:17:15 show no suspicion that they can possibly disobey. Having wrung a submissive, I understand, from Dron, Al-Patic contended himself with that, though he not only doubted but felt almost certain that without the help of troops the carts would not be forthcoming. so it was, for when evening came, no carts had been provided. In the village, outside the drink-shop, another meeting was being held, which decided that the horses should be driven out into the woods, and the cart should not be provided. Without saying anything of this to the princess, El-Pattich had his own belongings taken out of the carts, which had arrived from Bald Hills,

Starting point is 06:17:57 and those horses got ready for the princess carriages. Meanwhile, he went himself to the police authorities. End of Book 10, Chapter 9. Book 10, Chapter 10, of War and Peace, Volume 3, by Leo Tolstoy, translated by Elmer Maude. This Liberbox recording is in the public domain. Book 10, Chapter 10 After her father's funeral, Princess Mary shut herself up in her room and did not admit anyone. A maid came to the door to say that Elpattich was asking for orders about their departure. This was before his talk withdrawn.

Starting point is 06:18:49 Princess Mary raised herself on the sofa on which she had been lying, and replied through the closed door that she did not mean to go away and begged to be left in peace. The windows of the room in which she was lying looked westward. She lay on the sofa with her face to the wall, fingering the buttons of the leather cushion and seeing nothing but that. cushion, and her confused thoughts were centered on one subject. The irrevocability of death and her own spiritual baseness, which she had not suspected, but which had shown itself during her father's illness. She wished to pray, but did not dare to, dared not in her present

Starting point is 06:19:29 state of mind, address herself to God. She lay for a long time in that position. The son had reached the other side of the house, and its slanting rays, shone into the open window, lighting up the room and part of the Morocco cushion at which Princess Mary was looking. The flow of her thoughts suddenly stopped. Unconsciously she sat up, smoothed her hair, got up, and went to the window, involuntarily inhaling the freshness of the clear but windy evening. Yes, you can well enjoy the evening now. He is gone, and no one will kinder you, she said to herself, and sinking into a chair, she let her head fall on the window-sill. Someone spoke her name and a soft and tender voice from the garden and kissed her head.

Starting point is 06:20:22 She looked up. It was Mademoiselle Burienne in a black dress and weepers. She softly approached Princess Mary, sighed, kissed her, and immediately began to cry. The Princess looked up at her. All their former disharmony and her own jealousy recurred to her mind. But she remembered, too, how he had changed of late toward Mademoiselle Berienne and could not bear to see her, thereby showing how unjust were the reproaches Princess Mary had mentally addressed to her. Besides, is it for me, for me who desired his death to condemn anyone, she thought? Princess Mary vividly pictured to herself the position of Mademoiselle Burienne, whom she had of late kept at a distance, but who yet was dependent on her and living in her house.

Starting point is 06:21:17 She felt sorry for her and held out her hand with a glance of gentle inquiry. Mademoiselle Berienne at once began crying again and kissed that hand, speaking of the Princess sorrow and making herself a partner in it. She said her only consolation was the fact that the princess allowed her to share her sorrow, that all the old misunderstandings should sink into nothing but this great grief, that she felt herself blameless in regard to everyone, and that he, from above, saw her affection and gratitude. The princess heard her, not heeding her words, but occasionally looking up at her and listening to the sound of her voice.

Starting point is 06:22:01 Your position is doubly terrible, dear Princess, said Mademoiselle Burian, after a pause. I understand that you could not, and cannot, think of yourself, but with my love for you, I must do so. Has Elpatch been to you? Has he spoken to you of going away? She asked. Princess Mary did not answer. She did not understand who was to go or where to. Is it possible to plan or think of anything now? Is it not all the same? she thought and did not reply. You know, Cher Marie, said Mademoiselle Burian, that we are in danger, are surrounded by the French. It would be dangerous to move now.

Starting point is 06:22:47 If we go, we are almost sure to be taken prisoners, and God knows. Princess Mary looked at her companion without understanding what she was. she was talking about. Oh, if anyone knew how little anything matters to me now, she said. Of course I would on no account wish to go away from him. El Paditch did say something about going. Speak to him. I can do nothing, nothing, and don't want to.

Starting point is 06:23:17 I've spoken to him. He hopes we should be in time to get away tomorrow, but I think it would now be better to stay here, said Mademoiselle Burian. "'Because you will agree, Cher Marie, "'to fall into the hands of the soldiers "'or of riotous peasants would be terrible.' "'Mademoiselle Burienne took from a reticule a proclamation, "'not printed on ordinary Russian paper of General Ramos,

Starting point is 06:23:43 "'telling people not to leave their homes, "'and that the French authorities would afford them proper protection. "'She handed this to the princess. "'I think it would be best to appeal to that general, She continued, and I am sure that all due respect would be shown you. Princess Mary read the paper, and her face began to quiver with stifled sobs. "'From whom did you get this?' she asked. "'They probably recognize that I am French by my name,' replied Mademoiselle Burianne, blushing.

Starting point is 06:24:22 Princess Mary, with a paper in her hand, rose from the window and with a pale face went out of the room and into what had been Prince Andrew's study. "'Tunasha, send El-Pattich, or Dranushka or somebody to me,' she said, and tell Mademoiselle Burien not to come to me,' she added, hearing Mademoiselle Burian's voice. "'We must go at once, at once,' she said, appalled at the thought of being left in the hands of the French. "'If Prince Andrew heard that I was in the power of the French, that I—'

Starting point is 06:24:57 The daughter of Prince Nicholas Boconsky asked General Rameau for protection and accepted his favor. This idea horrified her, made her shudder, blush, and feel such a rush of anger and pride as she had never experienced before. All that was distressing, and especially, all that was humiliating in her position rose vividly to her mind. They, the French, would settle in this house. Monsieur de General Rameau,

Starting point is 06:25:27 would occupy Prince Andrew's study and amuse himself by looking through and reading his letters and papers. Mademoiselle Berienne would do the honors of Bogacharovo for him. I should be given a small room as a favor. The soldiers would violate my father's newly dug grave to steal his crosses and stars. They would tell me of their victories over the Russians and would pretend to sympathize with my sorrow, thought Princess Mary, not thinking her own thoughts, but feeling bound to think like her father and her brother. For herself, she did not care where she remained or what happened to her, but she felt herself the representative of her dead father and of Prince Andrew.

Starting point is 06:26:09 Involuntarily, she thought their thoughts and felt their feelings. What they would have said and what they would have done she felt bound to say and do. She went into Prince Andrew's study, trying to enter completely into his ideas and consider her position. The demands of life, which had seemed to her annihilated by her father's death, all at once rose before her, with a new, previously unknown force and took possession of her. Agitated and flushed, she paced the room, sending now for Michael Ivanovitch, and now for Tikan or Dron. Dunaasha, the nurse, and the other maids could not say in how far Mademoiselle Burian's statement was correct.

Starting point is 06:26:53 Al-Paditch was not at home. gone to the police. Neither could the architect Michael Ivanovitch, who, on being sent for, came in with sleepy eyes, tell Princess Mary anything. With just the same smile of agreement with which for fifteen years he had been accustomed to answer the old prince without expressing views of his own, he now replied to Princess Mary, so that nothing definite could be got from his answers. The old valet teakin, with sunken, emaciated face that bore the stamp of inconsolable grief, replied, Yes, Princess, to all Princess Mary's questions, and hardly refrained from sobbing as he looked at her. At length, Dron, the village elder, entered the room, and with a deep

Starting point is 06:27:39 bow to Princess Mary came to a halt by the doorpost. Princess Mary walked up and down the room and stopped in front of him. Drenushka, she said, regarding as a sure friend this Dronushka, who always used to bring a special kind of ginger-a-ynges. from his visit to the fair at Vyazma every year and smilingly offer it to her. Drenushka, now since our misfortune, she began, but could not go on. We are all in God's hands, said he with a sigh. They were silent for a while. Drenushka, Al-Paditch has gone off somewhere, and I have no one to turn to. Is it true, as they tell me, that I can't even go away?

Starting point is 06:28:25 "'Why shouldn't you go away, Your Excellency? "'You can go,' said Dron. "'I was told it would be dangerous because of the enemy. "'Dear friend, I can do nothing. "'I understand nothing. "'I have nobody. "'I want to go away tonight or early tomorrow morning.' "'Drawn paused.

Starting point is 06:28:47 "'He looked askance at Princess Mary and said, "'There are no horses. "'I told Yakov all patched so.' "'Why are there none?' asked the princess. "'It's all God's scourge,' said Dron. "'What horses we had have been taken away for the army or have died. "'This is such a year. It's not a case of feeding horses. "'We may die of hunger ourselves.

Starting point is 06:29:13 "'As it is, some go three days without eating. "'We have nothing. We've been ruined.' "'Prin Princess Mary listened attentively to what he told her. "'The peasants are ruined. They have no bread?' she asked. "'They're dying of hunger,' said Dron. "'It's not a case of carting.' "'But why didn't you tell me, Dronushka? Isn't it possible to help them? I'll do all I can.' To Princess Mary, it was strange that now, at a moment when such sorrow was filling her soul,

Starting point is 06:29:48 there could be rich people and poor, and the rich could refrain from helping the poor. She had heard vaguely that there was such a thing as landlord's corn, which was sometimes given to the peasants. She also knew that neither her father nor her brother would refuse to help the peasants in need. She only feared to make some mistake in speaking about the distribution of the grain she wished to give. She was glad such cares presented themselves, enabling her without scruple to forget her own grief. She began asking drawn about the peasant's needs and what there was. cousin Bogacharavo that belonged to the landlord." "'But we have grain belonging to my brother,' she said.

Starting point is 06:30:32 "'The landlord's grain is all safe,' replied Dron proudly. Our prince did not order it to be sold. "'Give it to the peasants. Let them have all they need. I give you leave in my brother's name,' said she." Dron made no answer, but sighed deeply. them that corn if there is enough of it. Distribute it all. I give this order in my brother's name, and tell them that what is ours is theirs. We do not grudge them anything. Tell them so."

Starting point is 06:31:07 Dron looked intently at the princess while she was speaking. "'Discharge me, little mother, for God's sake. Order the keys to be taken from me,' said he. "'I have served twenty-three years and have done no wrong.' "'Discharge me for God's sake!' Princess Mary did not understand what he wanted of her, or why he was asking to be discharged. She replied that she had never doubted his devotion, and that she was ready to do anything for him and for the peasants.

Starting point is 06:31:43 End of Book 10, Chapter 10. Book 10 Chapter 11, Of War and Peace, Volume 3 by Leo Tolstoy, translated by Elmer Maude. This Liberovox recording is in the public domain. Book 10, Chapter 11 An hour later, Donyasha came to tell the princess that Dron had come, and all the peasants had assembled at the barn by the Princess order,

Starting point is 06:32:17 and wished to have word with their mistress. But I never told them to come, said Princess Mary. I only told Dron to let them have the grain. Holy, for God's sake, Princess, dear, have them sent away, and don't go out to them. It's all a trick, said Dunyasha. And when Yakov Al-Patich returns, let us get away, and please don't.

Starting point is 06:32:42 What is a trick? asked Princess Mary in surprise. I know it is. Only listen to me, for God's sake. Ask nurse, too. They say they don't agree to leave Boko Charovo as you ordered. You are making some mistake. I never ordered them to go away, said Princess Mary. Caldranushka. Dron came and confirmed Dunaisha's words. The peasants had come by the Princess Order.

Starting point is 06:33:11 But I never sent for them, declared the Princess. You must have given my message wrong. I only said that you were to give them the grain. Dron only sighed in reply. If you order it, they will go away, said he. No, no. I'll go out to them, said Princess Mary, and in spite of the nurses and Douniasha's protests, she went out into the porch. Dron, Dunaisha, the nurse, and Michael Levanovitch following her.

Starting point is 06:33:44 They probably think I am offering them the grain to bribe them to remain here, while I myself go away leaving them to the mercy of the French, thought Princess Mary. I will offer them monthly rations and housing at our Moscow estate. I am sure Andrew would do even more in my place, she thought as she went out in the twilight toward the crowd standing on the pasture by the barn. The men crowded closer together, stirred, and rapidly took off their hats. Princess Mary lowered her eyes, and tripping over her skirt, came close up to them. So many different eyes, old and young, were fixed on her, and there were so many different faces

Starting point is 06:34:25 that she could not distinguish any of them. and, feeling that she must speak to them all at once, did not know how to do it. But again, the sense that she represented her father and her brother gave her courage, and she boldly began her speech. "'I am very glad you have come,' she said, without raising her eyes, and feeling her heart beating quickly and violently. Drenushka tells me that the war has ruined you. That is our common misfortune, and I shall grudge nothing to help you.

Starting point is 06:34:57 I am myself going away because it is dangerous here. The enemy is near. Because... I am giving you everything, my friends, and I beg you to take everything, all our grain, so that you may not suffer want. And if you have been told that I am giving you the grain to keep you here, that is not true.

Starting point is 06:35:19 On the contrary, I ask you to go with all your belongings to our estate near Moscow, and I promise you, I will see to it that there you shall want for nothing. You shall be given food and lodging. The princess stopped. Sighs were the only sound heard in the crowd. I am not doing this on my own account, she continued. I do it in the name of my dead father, who was a good master to you, and of my brother and his son. Again she paused. No one broke the silence. Ours is a common misfortune, and we

Starting point is 06:35:57 we will share it together. All that is mine is yours, she concluded scanning the faces before her. All eyes were gazing at her with one and the same expression. She could not fathom whether it was curiosity, devotion, gratitude, or apprehension and distrust, but the expression on all the faces was identical. We are all very thankful for your bounty,

Starting point is 06:36:25 but it won't do for us to take the landlord's grave, said a voice at the back of the crowd. "'But why not?' asked the princess. No one replied, and Princess Mary, looking round at the crowd, found that every eye she met was now immediately dropped. "'But why don't you want to take it?' she asked again. No one answered. The silence began to oppress the princess,

Starting point is 06:36:52 and she tried to catch someone's eye. "'Why don't you speak?' she inquired of a very old man who stood just in front of her leaning on his stick. "'If you think something more is wanted, tell me. I will do anything,' said she, catching his eye. But as if this angered him, he bent his head quite low and muttered, "'Why should we agree? We don't want the grain.' "'Why should we give up everything? We don't agree. Don't agree!' "'We are sorry for you, but we're not willing. Go away yourself, alone,' came from various sides of the crowd.

Starting point is 06:37:34 And again, all the faces in that crowd bore an identical expression, though now it was certainly not an expression of curiosity or gratitude, but of angry resolve. "'But you can't have understood me,' said Princess Mary, with a sad smile. "'Why don't you want to go? I promise to house and feel. I promise to house and feed you, while here the enemy would ruin you. But her voice was drowned by the voices of the crowd. "'We're not willing. Let them ruin us. We won't take your grain. We don't agree.' Again, Princess Mary tried to catch someone's eye, but not a single eye in the crowd was turned to her. Evidently, they were all trying to avoid her look. She felt strange

Starting point is 06:38:21 and awkward. Oh, yes, an artful tale. Follow her into slavery. Pull down your houses and go into bondage, I dare say. I'll give you grain indeed, she says, voices in the crowd were heard saying. With drooping head, Princess Mary left the crowd and went back to the house. Having repeated her order to Dron to have horses ready for her departure next morning, she went to her room and remained alone with her own thoughts. End of Book 10, Chapter 11. Book 10, Chapter 12, of War and Peace, Volume 3,

Starting point is 06:39:08 by Leo Tolstoy, translated by Elmer Maude. This Libervox recording is in the public domain. Book 10, Chapter 12. For a long time that night, Princess Mary sat by the open window of her room, hearing the sound of the peasant's voices that reached her from the village,

Starting point is 06:39:28 But it was not of them she was thinking. She felt that she could not understand them, however much she might think about them. She thought only of one thing, her sorrow, which, after the break caused by cares for the present, seemed already to belong to the past. Now she could remember it and weep or pray. After sunset the wind had dropped. The night was calm and fresh. Toward midnight the voices began to subside.

Starting point is 06:39:57 A cock crowed. The full moon began to show from behind the lime trees. A fresh white-dewy mist began to rise, and stillness reigned over the village and the house. Pictures of the near past, her father's illness and last moments, rose one after another to her memory. With mournful pleasure she now lingered over these images, repelling with horror only the last one, the picture of his death, which she felt she could not contemplated. even in imagination at this still and mystic hour of night. And these pictures presented themselves to her so clearly, and in such detail that they seem now present, now past, and now future.

Starting point is 06:40:43 She vividly recalled the moment when he had his first stroke and was being dragged along by his armpits through the garden at Bald Hills, muttering something with his helpless tongue, twitching his gray eyebrows and looking uneasily and timidly at her. Even then he wanted to tell me what he told me the day he died, she thought. He had always thought what he said then. And she recalled in all its detail the night at Bald Hills before he had the last stroke,

Starting point is 06:41:14 when, with a foreboding of disaster, she had remained at home against his will. She had not slept and had stolen downstairs on tiptoe, and going to the door of a conservatory where he had, slept that night, had listened at the door. In a suffering and weary voice he was saying something to Teakin, speaking of the Crimea and its warm nights and of the Empress. Evidently, he had wanted to talk. And why didn't he call me? Why didn't he let me be there instead of Teakin? Princess Mary had thought and thought again now. Now he will never tell anyone what he had in his

Starting point is 06:41:52 soul. Never will that moment return for him or for me when he might have said all he longed to say, and not Tegan, but I might have heard and understood him. Why didn't I enter the room, she thought. Perhaps he would then have said to me what he said the day he died. While talking to Teakin, he asked about me twice. He wanted to see me, and I was standing close by outside the door. It was sad and painful for him to talk to Tekin, who did not understand him. I remember how he began speaking to him about Lisa, as if she were alive. He had forgotten she was dead, and Tiken reminded him that she was no more, and he shouted, Fool!

Starting point is 06:42:38 He was greatly depressed. From behind the door I heard how he lay down on his bed groaning and loudly exclaimed, My God! Why didn't I go in then? what could he have done to me? What could I have lost? And perhaps he would then have been comforted and would have said that word to me. And Princess Mary uttered aloud the caressing word he had said to her on the day of his death. "'Dearest,' she repeated and began sobbing, with tears that relieved her soul. She now saw his face before her, and not the face she had known ever since she could.

Starting point is 06:43:18 could remember and had always seen at a distance, but the timid, feeble face she had seen for the first time quite closely, with all its wrinkles and details, when she stooped near to his mouth to catch what he said. "'Dear est,' she repeated again, "'what was he thinking when he uttered that word? "'What is he thinking now?' This question suddenly presented itself to her, and in answer she saw him before her with the expression that was on his face as he lay in his coffin with his chin bound up with a white

Starting point is 06:43:54 handkerchief. And the horror that had seized her when she touched him and convinced herself that that was not he, but something mysterious and horrible seized her again. She tried to think of something else and to pray, but could do neither. With wide open eyes, she gazed at the moonlight and the shadows, expecting every moment to see his dead face, and she felt, and she felt that the silence brooding over the house and within it held her fast. "'Tunyasha!' she whispered. "'Tunyasha!' she screamed wildly, and tearing herself out of this silence. She ran to the servants' quarters to meet her old nurse and the maid-servants who came running toward her.

Starting point is 06:44:40 End of Book Ten, Chapter Twelve. Book Ten, Chapter 13 of War and Peace, Volume 3, by Leo Tolstoy, translated by Elmer Maud. This Libervox recording is in the public domain. Book 10, Chapter 13 On the 17th of August, Rostov and Ilyan, accompanied by Lavrushka, who had just returned from captivity, and by an Hussar orderly, left their quarters at Yonkovo, ten miles from Bokacharavo, and went for a ride, to try a new horse Elyan had bought, and to find out whether there was any hay to be had in the villages.

Starting point is 06:45:25 For the last three days, Bogacharovo had lain between the two hostile armies, so that it was as easy for the Russian rearguard to get to it as for the French vanguard. Rostov, as a careful squadron commander, wished to take such provisions as remained at Bogacharov before the French could get them. Rostov and Ilyan were in the merriest of moods. On the way to Bogacharov, a princely estate with a dwelling-house and farm where they hope to find many domestic serfs and pretty girls, they questioned Lavrushka about Napoleon and laughed at his stories, and raced one another to try Ilyan's horse. Rostov had no idea that the village

Starting point is 06:46:07 he was entering was the property of that very Bokonski, who had been engaged to his sister. Rostov and Ilyan gave rein to their horses for a last race along the incline before reaching Bogacharavo, and Rostov, outstripping Ilyan, was the first to gallop into the village Street. You're first, cried Ilyan, flushed. Yes, always first, both on the grassland and here, answered Rostov, stroking his heated Donais horse. And I'd have won a my Frenchie, your excellency, said Lavrushka from behind,

Starting point is 06:46:42 alluding to his shabby cart-horse, only I didn't wish to mortify you. They rode at a footpaste to the barn, where a large crowd of peasants was standing. Some of the men bared their heads, others stared at the new arrivals without doffing their caps. Two tall old peasants with wrinkled faces and scanty beards emerged from the tavern, smiling, staggering, and singing some incoherent song, and approached the officers. Fine fellows, said Rostov laughing. Is there any hay here? And how like one another, said Ilyan.

Starting point is 06:47:20 "'A most merry compa,' saying one of the peasants with a blissful smile. One of the men came out of the crowd and went up to Rostov. "'Who do you belong to?' he asked. "'The French,' replied Ilya, gestingly. "'And here is Napoleon himself.' And he pointed to Lavrushka. "'Then you are Russians?' the peasant asked again. "'And is there a large force of you?

Starting point is 06:47:50 force of you here? said another, a short man coming up. Very large, answered Rostov. But why have you collected here? he added. Is it a holiday? The old men have met to talk over the business of a commune, replied the peasant, moving away. At that moment, on the road leading from the big house, two women and a man in a white hat were seen coming toward the officers. The one in pink is mine, so keep off, said Isle. Ilyan on seeing Dunaisha running resolutely toward him.

Starting point is 06:48:24 She'll be ours, said Lovrushka to Ilyan, winking. What do you want, my pretty? said Ilyan with a smile. The princess ordered me to ask your regiment and your name. This is Count Rostov, squadron commander, and I am your humble servant. Company! roared the tipsy peasant, with a beatific smile as he looked at Ilyan talking to the girl. Following Dunyasha, Al-Pattage advanced to Rostov, having bared his head while still at a distance.

Starting point is 06:48:58 "'May I make bold to trouble your honor?' said he respectfully, but with a shade of contempt for the youthfulness of this officer and with a hand thrust into his bosom. "'My mistress, daughter of General-in-Chief Prince Nicholas Bolkonsky, who died on the fifteenth of this month, finding herself in difficulties owing to the boorishness of these people, he pointed to the peasants, asks you to come up to the house. Won't you please ride on a little farther? said El-Pattage with a melancholy smile, as it is not convenient in the presence of. He pointed to the two peasants who kept as close to him as horse flies to a horse.

Starting point is 06:49:40 Ah, El-Pattich! A yuc of El-Petich! Grand! Forgive us for Christ's sake, eh? said the peasant, smiling joyfully at. at him. Rostov looked at the tipsy peasants and smiled. "'Or perhaps the amuse, Your Honor,' remarked El Patech with a staid air as he pointed at the old men with his free hand. "'No, there's not much to be amused at here,' said Rostov,

Starting point is 06:50:07 and rode on a little way. "'What's the matter?' he asked. "'I make bold to inform, Your Honor, that the rude peasants here don't wish to let the mistress leave the estate, and threaten to unharness her horses, so that, though everything has been packed up since morning, her excellency cannot get away. "'Impossible!' exclaimed Rostov. "'I have the honor to report to you the actual truth,' said Al-Pattage. Rostov dismounted, gave his horse to the orderly, and followed Al-Pattich to the house, questioning him as to the state of affairs.

Starting point is 06:50:43 It appeared that the Princess offer of corn to the peasants the previous day, and her talk with Dron and at the meeting, had actually had so bad an effect that Dron had finally given up the keys and joined the peasants, and had not appeared when Elpatic sent for him, and that in the morning when the Princess gave orders to harness for her journey, the peasants had come in a large crowd to the barn, and sent word that they would not let her leave the village, that there was an order not to move, and that they would unharnish the horses. Al-Pattich had gone out to admonish them, but was told, it was chiefly Karp, who did the talking, drawn not showing himself in the crowd,

Starting point is 06:51:25 that they could not let the princess go, that there was an order to the contrary, but that if she stayed they would serve her as before and obey her in everything. At the moment when Rostov and Ilyan were galloping along the road, Princess Mary, despite the dissuations of El Paditch, her nurse and the maids, had given orders to harness and intended to start. But when the cavalrymen were espied, they were taken for Frenchmen. The coachman ran away, and the women in the house began to wail. "'Father, benefactor, God has sent you!' exclaimed deeply moved voices as Rostov passed through the ante-room.

Starting point is 06:52:05 Princess Mary was sitting helpless and bewildered in the large sitting-room. room when Rostov was shown in. She could not grasp who he was and why he had come or what was happening to her. When she saw his Russian face, and by his walk and the first words he uttered, recognized him as a man of her own class, she glanced at him with her deep, radiant look, and began speaking in a voice that faltered and trembled with emotion. This meeting immediately struck Rostov as a romantic event. A helpless girl overwhelmed with her. grief, left to the mercy of coarse rioting peasants. And what a strange fate sent me here!

Starting point is 06:52:47 What gentleness and nobility there are in her features and expression, thought he, as he looked at her and listened to her timid story. When she began to tell him that all this had happened the day after her father's funeral, her voice trembled. She turned away, and then, as if fearing he might take her words as meant to move him to pity, looked at him with an apprehensive glance of inquiry. There were tears in Rostov's eyes. Princess Mary noticed this and glanced gratefully at him

Starting point is 06:53:19 with that radiant look which caused the plainness of her face to be forgotten. I cannot express, Princess, how glad I am that I happen to ride here and am able to show my readiness to serve you, said Rostov, rising. Go when you please, and I give you my mind. word of honor that no one shall dare to cause you annoyance, if only you will allow me to act as your escort." And bowing respectfully, as if to a lady of royal blood, he moved toward the door. Rostov's deferential tones seemed to indicate that, though he would consider himself happy to be acquainted with her, he did not wish to take advantage of her misfortunes to intrude

Starting point is 06:54:01 upon her. Princess Mary understood this and appreciated his delicacy. I am very, very grateful to you, she said in French, but I hope it was all a misunderstanding and that no one is to blame for it. She suddenly began to cry. Excuse me, she said. Rostov, knitting his brows, left the room with another low bow. End of Book 10, Chapter 13. Book 10, Chapter 14, of War and Peace, Volume 3, by Leo Toledo.

Starting point is 06:54:46 translated by Elmer Maude. This Libervox recording is in the public domain. Book 10, Chapter 14 Well, is she pretty? Ah, friend, my pink one is delicious. Her name is Dunyasha. But on glancing at Rostov's face, Illyon stopped short.

Starting point is 06:55:09 He saw that his hero and commander was following quite a different train of thought. Rostov glanced angrily at Ilyan, and without replying, strode off with rapid steps to the village. "'I'll show them. I'll give it to them. The brigands!' he said to himself. El Paditch, at a gliding trot, only just managing not to run, kept up with him with difficulty. "'What decision have you been pleased to come to?' said he. Rostov stopped, and, clenching his fists, suddenly and sternly turned on El Paditch.

Starting point is 06:55:43 Decision? What decision? Old Dotard! cried he. What have you been about, eh? The peasants are rioting, and you can't manage them? You're a traitor yourself. I know you. I'll flay you all alive. And as if afraid of wasting a store of anger, he left Al-Paditch and went rapidly forward. Al-Paditch, mastering his offended feelings, kept pace with Rostov at a gliding gate and continued to impasse. his views. He said the peasants were obdurate, and that at the present moment it would be imprudent to over-resist them without an armed force, and would it not be better first to send for the military? I'll give them armed force. I'll over-resist them, uttered Rostov meaninglessly,

Starting point is 06:56:32 breathless with irrational animal fury and the need to vent it. Without considering what he would do, he moved unconsciously with quick, resolute steps toward the crowd. And the near he drew to it, the more a pattych felt that this unreasonable action might produce good results. The peasants in the crowd were similarly impressed when they saw Rostov's rapid, firm steps and resolute, frowning face. After the hussars had come to the village and Rostov had gone to see the princess, a certain confusion and dissension had arisen among the crowd. Some of the peasants said that these new arrivals were Russians, and might take it amiss that

Starting point is 06:57:12 the mistress was being detained. Dron was of this opinion, but as soon as he expressed it, Carp and others attacked their ex-elder. "'How many years have you been fattening on the commune?' Carp shouted at him. "'It's all one to you. You'll dig up your pot of money and take it away with you. What does it matter to you whether our homes are ruined or not?' "'We've been told to keep order, and that no one is to leave their homes or take away a single grain, and that's all about it,' cried a note. other. It was your son's turn to be conscripted, but no fear. You begrudged your lump of a son.

Starting point is 06:57:49 A little man suddenly began attacking, Dron. And so they took my vanka to be shaved for a soldier. But we all have to die. To be sure, we all have to die. But I'm not against the commune, said Dron. That's it, not against it. You filled your belly. The two tall peasants had their say. As soon as Rostov, followed by Ilyan, Lavrushka and Alpattage, came up to the crowd, Karp, thrusting his fingers into his belt and smiling a little, walked to the front. Drawn, on the contrary, retired to the rear, and the crowd drew closer together. "'Who is your elder here, hey?' shouted Rostov, coming up to the crowd with quick steps. "'The elder? What do you want with him?' asked Karp.

Starting point is 06:58:38 But before the words were well out of his mouth, his cap flew off and a few of his fierce blow jerk his head to one side. "'Caps off, traitors!' shouted Rostov in a wrathful voice. "'Where's the elder?' he cried furiously. "'The elder. He wants the elder. Dronzakarich, you!' Meek and flustered voices here and there were heard calling, and caps began to come off their heads. "'We don't riot. We're following the orders,' declared Karp,

Starting point is 06:59:09 and at that moment several voices began speaking to It's as the old men have decided, there's too many of you giving orders. Arguing? Mutiny! Briggins! Traders! cried Rostov unmeaningly in a voice not his own, gripping carp by the collar. "'Bind him! Bind him!' he shouted, though there was no one to bind him, but Lavrushka in Alpadish. Lavrushka, however, ran up to carp and seized him by the arms from behind. "'Shall I call up our men from beyond the hill?' He called out. Al-Paditch turned to the peasants and ordered two of them by name to come and bind carp.

Starting point is 06:59:49 The men obediently came out of the crowd and began taking off their belts. "'Where's the elder?' demanded Rostov in a loud voice. With a pale and frowning face, Dron stepped out of the crowd. "'Are you the elder? Bind him, Lavrushka!' shouted Rostov, as if that order too could not possibly meet with any opposition. And, in fact, two more peasants began binding drawn, who took off his own belt and handed it to them as if to aid them.

Starting point is 07:00:21 "'And you all listen to me,' said Rostov to the peasants. "'Be off to your houses at once, and don't let one of your voices be heard.' "'Why, we've not done any harm. We did it just out of foolishness. It's all nonsense. I said then that it was not in order,' voices were heard bickering with one another. "'There, what did I say?' said El Paditch, coming into his own again. "'It's wrong, lads.' "'It's our stupidity, Yakov Al-Patic,' came the answers, and the crowd began at once to disperse through the village.

Starting point is 07:00:57 The two bound men were led off to the master's house. The two drunken peasants followed them. "'Aye, when I look at you,' said one of them to Karp, "'how could one talk to the masters like that? "'What were you thinking of, you fool?' added the other. "'A real fool!' Two hours later the carts were standing in the courtyard of the Bogacharvo house. The peasants were briskly carrying out the proprietor's goods and packing them on the carts,

Starting point is 07:01:26 and Dron, liberated at Princess Mary's Widge from the cupboard where he had been confined, was standing in the yard directing the men. "'Don't put it in so carelessly,' said one of the peasants, a man with a round smiling face, taking a casket from a housemaid. You know it has cost money. How can you chuck it in like that, or shove it under the cord where it'll get rubbed? I don't like that way of doing things. Let it all be done properly, according to rule.

Starting point is 07:01:56 Look here. Put it under the bast matting and cover it with hay. That's the way. Eh, books, books, said another peasant, bringing out Prince Andrew's library cupboards. Don't catch up against it. It's heavy, lads. Solid books. Yes, they worked all day and didn't play, remarked the tall, round-faced peasant gravely, pointing with a significant wink at the dictionaries that were on top. Unwilling to obtrude himself on the princess, Rostov did not go back to the house,

Starting point is 07:02:30 but remained in the village awaiting her departure. When her carriage drove out of the house, he mounted and accompanied her eight miles from Bogacharovo to where the road was occupied by our troops. At the inn at Yancovo, he respectfully took leave of her, for the first time permitting himself to kiss her hand. "'How can you speak so?' he blushingly replied to Princess Mary's expression of gratitude for her deliverance as she termed what had occurred. "'Any police officer would have done as much.

Starting point is 07:03:03 If we had had only peasants to fight, we should not have let the enemy come so far. said he with a sense of shame and wishing to change the subject. I am only happy to have had the opportunity of making your acquaintance. Goodbye, Princess. I wish you happiness and consolation, and hope to meet you again in happier circumstances. If you don't want to make me blush, please don't thank me. But the Princess, if she did not again thank him in words, thanked him with the whole expression of her face,

Starting point is 07:03:35 radiant with gratitude and tenderness. She could not believe that there was nothing to thank him for. On the contrary, it seemed to her certain that had he not been there, she would have perished at the hands of the mutineers and of the French, and that he had exposed himself to terrible and obvious danger to save her. And even more certain was it that he was a man of lofty and noble soul, able to understand her position and her sorrow. His kind, honest eyes, with the tears rising in them,

Starting point is 07:04:08 she herself had begun to cry, as she spoke of her loss, did not leave her memory. When she had taken leave of him and remained alone, she suddenly felt her eyes filling with tears, and then, not for the first time, the strange question presented itself to her. Did she love him? On the rest of the way to Moscow, though the princess's position was not a cheerful one, Dunaasha, who went with her in the carriage, more than once noticed that her mistress leaned out of the window, and smiled at something with an expression of mingled joy and sorrow. Well, supposing I do love him, thought Princess Mary. Ashamed as she was of acknowledging to herself that she had fallen in love with a man

Starting point is 07:04:53 who would perhaps never love her. She comforted herself with a thought that no one would ever know it, and that she would not be to blame, if, without ever speaking of it to anyone, she continued to the end of her life to love the man with whom she had fallen in love for the first and last time in her life. Sometimes when she recalled his looks, his sympathy, and his words, happiness did not appear impossible to her. It was at those moments that Dunaasha noticed her smiling as she looked out of the carriage window. "'Was it not fate that brought him to Bogacharavo, and at that very moment?' thought Princess Mary. and that caused his sister to refuse my brother?

Starting point is 07:05:37 And in all this, Princess Mary saw the hand of Providence. The impression the princess made on Mastov was a very agreeable one. To remember her gave him pleasure, and when his comrades, hearing of his adventure at Bogacharovo, rallied him on having gone to look for hay and having picked up one of the wealthiest heiresses in Russia, he grew angry. It made him angry just because the idea of marrying the gentle Princess Mary, who was

Starting point is 07:06:06 attractive to him and had an enormous fortune, had against his will more than once entered his head. For himself personally, Nicholas could not wish for a better wife. By marrying her, he would make the Countess his mother happy, would be able to put his father's affairs in order, and would even, he felt it, ensure Princess Mary's happiness. But Sonia, and his plighted word? That was why Rostov grew angry when he was rallied about Princess Bokanskaya. End of Book 10, Chapter 14.

Starting point is 07:06:49 Book 10 Chapter 15 of War and Peace, Volume 3, by Leo Tolstoy, translated by Elmer Maud. This Libervox recording is in the public domain. Book 10, Chapter 15 On receiving command of the armies, Kutuzov remembered Prince Andrew and sent an order for him to report at headquarters. Prince Andrew arrived at Zarvo Zemisha, on the very day and at the very hour that Kutuzov was reviewing the troops for the first time. He stopped in the village at the priest's house in front of which stood the commander-in-chief's carriage, and he sat down on the bench at the gate awaiting his serene highness, as everyone now called Kutuzov. From the field beyond the village came now sounds of regimental music, and now the roar of many

Starting point is 07:07:40 voices shouting, hurrah! to the new commander-in-chief. Two orderlies, a courier and a major domo, stood nearby, some ten paces from Prince Andrew, availing themselves of Kutuzov's absence and of the fine weather. A short, swarthy lieutenant-colonel of hussars with thick moustaches and whiskers, rode up to the gate, and glancing at Prince Andrew, inquired whether his serene highness was putting up there and whether he would soon be back. Prince Andrew replied that he was not on his serene highness staff, but was himself a new arrival. The lieutenant colonel turned to a smart orderly, who, with a peculiar contempt with which

Starting point is 07:08:21 a commander-in-chief's orderly speaks to officers, replied, "'What? His serene highness? I expect he'll be here soon. What do you want? The lieutenant-colonel of Hussar smiled beneath his mustache at the orderly's tone, dismounted, gave his horse to a dispatch runner, and approached Bolkonsky with a slight bow. Bolkonsky made room for him on the bench, and the lieutenant-colonel sat down beside him.

Starting point is 07:08:48 "'You're also waiting for the commander-in-chief?' said he. "'They say he receives everyone, thank God. It's awful with those sausage-eaters.' "'Ermolov had reason to ask to be promoted to be a German. "'Now, perhaps, Russians will get a look in. "'As it was, devil only knows what was happening. "'We kept retweeting and we tweeting. "'Did you take part in the campaign?' he asked.

Starting point is 07:09:15 "'I had the pleasure,' replied Prince Andrew. "'Not only of taking part in the retreat, "'but of losing in that retreat all I held dear, "'not to mention the estate and home of my birth, my father, who died of grief. I belonged to the province of Smolensk. Ah, you're Prince Bokanski? Very glad to make your acquaintance.

Starting point is 07:09:38 I'm Lieutenant Colonel Denisov, better known as Voska, said Denisov, pressing Prince Andrew's hand and looking into his face with her particularly kindly attention. Yes, I heard, said he sympathetically, and after a short pause added, "'Yes, it's Scythian warfare. It's all very well, only not for those who get it in the neck. "'So you are Prince Andrew Balkansky?' he swayed his head. "'Very pleased, Prince, to make your acquaintance.'

Starting point is 07:10:10 He repeated again, smiling sadly, and he again pressed Prince Andrew's hand. Prince Andrew knew Denisov from what Natasha had told him of her first suitor. This memory carried him sadly and sweetly back to those painful feelings of which he had not thought lately, but which still found place in his soul. Of late he had received so many new and very serious impressions, such as the retreat from Smolensk, his visit to Bald Hills, and the recent news of his father's death, and had experienced so many emotions, that for a long time past, those memories had not entered his mind, and now that they did, they did not act on him with nearly their former strength.

Starting point is 07:10:53 For Denisov, too, the memories awakened by the name of Bolkonsky belonged to a distant, romantic past, when, after supper and after Natasha's singing, he had proposed to a little girl of fifteen without realizing what he was doing. He smiled at the recollection of that time and of his love for Natasha, and passed at once to what now interested him passionately and exclusively. This was a plan of campaign he had devised while, serving at the outpost during the retreat. He had proposed that plan to Barclay de Tully, and now wished to propose it to Kutuzov. The plan was based on the fact that the French

Starting point is 07:11:32 line of operation was too extended, and it proposed that instead of, or concurrently with, action on the front to bar the advance of the French, we should attack their line of communication. He began explaining his plan to Prince Andrew. They can't hold all that line. It's It's impossible. I will undertake to break foe. Give me five hundred men, and I will break the line. That's certain. There's only one way. Coquilla warfare." Denise off rose and began gesticulating as he explained his plan to Bolkonsky. In the midst of his explanation, shouts were heard from the army, growing more incoherent and more diffused, mingling with music and songs and coming from the field where the review was

Starting point is 07:12:18 held. Sounds of hoofs and shouts were nearing the village. "'He's coming! He's coming!' shouted at Cossack, standing at the gate. Bolkonsky and Denisov moved to the gate, at which a knot of soldiers, a guard of honor, was standing, and they saw Katoosov coming down the street mounted on a rather small sorrel horse. A huge suite of generals rode behind him. Barclay was riding almost beside him, and a crowd of officers ran after and around them, shouted. shouting, hurrah! His adjutants galloped into the yard before him.

Starting point is 07:12:54 Katoosov was impatiently urging on his horse, which ambled smoothly under his weight, and he raised his hand to his white horse-guard's cap with a red band and no peak, nodding his head continually. When he came up to the guard of honor, a fine set of grenadiers, mostly wearing decorations, who were giving him the salute, he looked at them silently and attentively for nearly a minute,

Starting point is 07:13:17 with the steady gaze of a commander, and then turned to the crowd of generals and officers surrounding him. Suddenly, his face assumed a subtle expression. He shrugged his shoulders with an air of perplexity. And with such fine fellows to retreat and retreat. Well, goodbye, General, he added, and rode into the yard past Prince Andrew and Denisov. Hurrah! Hurrah! Hurrah! Hurrah! shouted those behind.

Starting point is 07:13:47 him. Since Prince Andrew had last seen him, Katoosov had grown still more corpulent, flaccid, and fat. But the bleached eyeball, the scar, and the familiar weariness of his expression were still the same. He was wearing the white horse-guards cap and a military overcoat with a whip hanging over his shoulder by a thin strap. He sat heavily and swayed limply on the brisk little horse. "'Hugh! Hugh! Hugh! He whew!' he whistled. just audibly as he rode into the yard. His face expressed the relief of relaxed strain felt by a man who means to rest after a ceremony. He drew his left foot out of the stirrup,

Starting point is 07:14:29 and lurching with his whole body and puckering his face with the effort, raised it with difficulty onto the saddle, leaned on his knee, groaned, and slipped down into the arms of the Cossacks and adjutants who stood ready to assist him. He pulled himself together, looked round, screwing up his eyes, glanced at Prince Andrew, and, evidently not recognizing him, moved with his waddling gate to the porch. "'Phew! Phew! He whistled, and again glanced at Prince Andrew.

Starting point is 07:14:59 As often occurs with old men, it was only after some seconds that the impression produced by Prince Andrew's face linked itself up with Katoosov's remembrance of his personality. "'Ah, how do you do, my dear prince? "'How do you do, my dear boy?' "'Come along,' said he, glancing wearily round, and he stepped on to the porch which creaked under his weight. He unbuttoned his coat and sat down on a bench in the porch. "'And how's your father?'

Starting point is 07:15:30 "'I received news of his death yesterday,' replied Prince Andrew abruptly. Kutuzov looked at him with eyes wide open with dismay, and then took off his cap and crossed himself. May the kingdom of heaven be his. God's will be done to us all. He sighed deeply, his whole chest heaving, and was silent for a while. I loved him and respected him and sympathized with you with all my heart. He embraced Prince Andrew, pressing him to his fat breast, and for some time did not let him go.

Starting point is 07:16:06 When he released him, Prince Andrew saw that Kutuzov's flabby lips were trembling, and that tears were in his eyes. He sighed and pressed on the bench with both hands to raise himself. "'Come, come with me, we'll have a talk,' said he. But at that moment, Denisov, no more intimidated by his superiors than by the enemy, came with jingling spurs up the steps of the porch, despite the angry whispers of the adjutants who tried to stop him. Kutuzov, his hand still pressed on the seat, glanced at him glumly.

Starting point is 07:16:40 Denisov, having given his name, announced that he had to communicate to his serene highness a matter of great importance for their country's welfare. Kutuzov looked wearily at him, and lifting his hands with a gesture of annoyance, folded them across his stomach, repeating the words, "'For our country's welfare? Well, what is it? Speak.' Denisov blushed like a girl. It was strange to see the color rise in that shaggy, bibulous, time-worn face,

Starting point is 07:17:10 boldly began to expound his plan of cutting the enemy's lines of communication between Smolensk and Vyazma. Denisov came from those parts and knew the country well. His plan seemed decidedly a good one, especially from the strength of conviction with which he spoke. Kutuzov looked down at his own legs, occasionally glancing at the door of the adjoining hut, as if expecting something unpleasant to emerge from it. And from that hut, while Denisov was speaking, a general

Starting point is 07:17:40 with a portfolio under his arm really did appear. What? said Kutuzov in the midst of Dinov's explanations. Are you ready so soon? Ready, your serene highness, replied the general. Kutuzov swayed his head as much as to say, how is one man to deal with it all? And again listen to Dinoosov. I give my word of honor as a Wushan officer,

Starting point is 07:18:07 said Dinoosov, that I can break Napoleon. line of communication." "'What relation are you to Intended General Kirol Andreevich, Denisov?' asked Kutuzov, interrupting him. "'He is my uncle, Yossouin Highness.' "'Ah, we were friends,' said Kutuzov cheerfully. "'All right, all right, friend. Stay here at the staff, and tomorrow we'll have a talk.'

Starting point is 07:18:34 With a nod to Denisov he turned away and put out his hand for the papers Kodov Nitzin had brought him. Would not your serene highness like to come inside?" said the general on duty in a discontented voice. The plans must be examined and several papers have to be signed." An adjutant came out and announced that everything was in readiness within. But Kutuzov evidently did not wish to enter that room till he was disengaged. He made a grimace.

Starting point is 07:19:05 No, tell them to bring a small table out here, my dear boy. "'Oh, look at them here,' said he. "'Don't go away,' he added, turning to Prince Andrew, who remained in the porch and listened to the General's report. While this was being given, Prince Andrew heard the whisper of a woman's voice and the rustle of a silk dress behind the door. Several times on glancing that way,

Starting point is 07:19:28 he noticed behind that door a plump, rosy, handsome woman in a pink dress with a lilac silk kerchief on her head, holding a dish and evidently awaiting the entrance of the commander-in-chief. Katoosov's adjutant whispered to Prince Andrew that this was the wife of the priest whose home it was, and that she intended to offer his serene highness bread and salt. Her husband has welcomed his serene highness with the cross at the church, and she intends to welcome him in the house. She's very pretty, added the adjutant with a smile.

Starting point is 07:20:02 At those words Kutuzov looked round. He was listening to the General's report, which consisted chiefly of a criticism of the position at Zaravozimisha, as he had listened to Denisov, and seven years previously had listened to the discussion at the Austerlitz Council of War. He evidently listened only because he had ears, which, though there was a piece of toe in one of them, could not help hearing. But it was evident that nothing the General could say would surprise or even interest him, that he knew all that would be said beforehand, and heard it all only because he had to, as one has to listen to the chanting of a service of prayer. All that Denisov had said was clever and to the point.

Starting point is 07:20:46 What the general was saying was even more clever and to the point, but it was evident that Katoosov despised knowledge and cleverness and knew of something else that would decide the matter, something independent of cleverness and knowledge. Prince Andrew watched the commander-in-chief's face attentively, and the only expression he could see there was one of boredom, curiosity as to the meaning of the feminine whispering behind the door, and a desire to observe propriety. It was evident that Katoosov despised cleverness and learning,

Starting point is 07:21:18 and even the patriotic feelings shown by Nenisov, but despised them not because of his own intellect, feelings, or knowledge. He did not try to display any of these, but because of something else. He despised them because of his old age and experience of life. The only instruction Kutuzov gave of his own accord during that report referred to looting by the Russian troops. At the end of the report, the general put before him for signature a paper relating to the recovery of payment from Army commanders for green oats moaned down by the soldiers when landowners lodged petitions for compensation. After hearing

Starting point is 07:21:57 the matter, Kutuzov smacked his lips together and shook his head. "'In to the stove. Into the fire with it.' "'I tell you once for all, my dear fellow,' said he, "'into the fire with all such things. "'Let them cut the crops and burn wood to their heart's content. "'I don't order it or allow it, but I don't exact compensation either. "'One can't get on without it. "'When wood is chopped, the chips will fly.'

Starting point is 07:22:24 He looked at the paper again. "'Oh, this German precision,' he muttered, shaking his head. End of Book 10, Chapter 15. Book 10, Chapter 16, Of War and Peace, Volume 3 by Leo Tolstoy, translated by Elmer Maud.

Starting point is 07:22:51 This Libervox recording is in the public domain. Book 10, Chapter 16. Well, that's all, said Kutuzov, as he signed the last of the documents, and rising heavily and smoothing out the folds in his fat white neck, he moved toward the door with a more cheerful expression. The priest's wife, flushing rosy red, caught up the dish she had, after all, not managed to present at the right moment, though she had so long been preparing for it, and with a low bow

Starting point is 07:23:24 offered it to Kutuzov. He screwed up his eyes, smiled, lifted her chin with his hand and said, "'Ah, what a beauty. Thank you, sweetheart.' He took some gold pieces from his trouser pocket and put them on the dish for her. "'Well, my dear, and how are we getting on?' he asked, moving to the door of the room assigned to him. The priest's wife smiled, and with dimples in her rosy cheeks followed him into the room. The adjutant came out to the porch and asked Prince Andrew to lunch with him. Half an hour later, Prince Andrew was again called to Katoosov.

Starting point is 07:24:01 He found him reclining in an armchair, still in the same unbuttoned overcoat. He had in his hand a French book which he closed as Prince Andrew entered, marking the place with a knife. Prince Andrew saw by the cover that it was Les Chavilliers du Sina by Madame de Jean-I. Well, sit down, sit down here. Let's have a talk, said Kutuzov. It's sad, very sad. But remember, my dear fellow, that I am a father to you, a second father. Prince Andrew told Kutuzov all he knew of his father's death, and what he had seen at Bald

Starting point is 07:24:40 Hills when he passed through it. "'What, what the hell brought us to?' Kutuzov suddenly cried in an agitated voice, evidently picturing vividly to himself from Prince Andrew's story the condition Russia was in. "'But give me time, give me time,' he said with a grim look, evidently not wishing to continue this agitating conversation, and added I sent for you to keep you with me. I thank you, your serene highness, but I fear I am no longer fit for the staff,

Starting point is 07:25:15 replied Prince Andrew with a smile which Kutuzov noticed. Kutuzov glanced inquiringly at him. But above all, added Prince Andrew, I have grown use to my regiment, am fond of the officers, and I fancy the men also like me. I should be sorry to leave the regiment. If I decline the honor of being with you, believe me. A shrewd kindly, yet subtly derisive expression lit up Kutuzov's paji face.

Starting point is 07:25:46 He cut Polkonsky short. "'I am sorry, for I need you. But you're right, you're right. It's not here that men are needed. Advisors are always plentiful, but men are not. The regiments would not be what they are if the would-be advisors serve there as you do. I remember you at Austerlitz. I remember, yes, I remember you with a standard, said Kutuzov, and a flush of pleasure suffused Prince Andrew's face at this recollection.

Starting point is 07:26:19 Taking his hand and drawing him downwards, Kutuzov offered his cheek to be kissed, and again Prince Andrew noticed tears in the old man's eyes. Though Prince Andrew knew that Kutuzov's tears came easily, and that he was particularly tendered to and considering of him from a wish to show sympathy with his loss, yet this reminder of Austerlitz was both pleasant and flattering to him. "'Go your way, and God be with you. I know your path is the path of honor.' He paused. "'I missed you at Bucharest, but I needed someone to send.' And changing the subject,

Starting point is 07:26:59 Kutuzov began to speak of the Turkish war and the peace that have been concluded. "'Yes, I had been much blamed,' he said, "'both for that war and the peace, "'but everything came at the right time. "'Tuvian a-poa'sel we, kisah, Tundra.' "'Everything comes in time to him who knows how to wait. "'And there were as many advisors there as here.' He went on, returning to the subject of advisors,

Starting point is 07:27:30 which evidently occupied him. "'Ah, those advisors,' said he, "'if we had listened to them all, "'we should not have made peace with Turkey "'and should not have been through with that war. "'Everything in haste, but more haste, less speed.' "'Kamensky would have been lost if he had not died. "'He stormed fortresses with thirty thousand men.

Starting point is 07:27:55 "'It is not difficult to capture a fortress, "'but it is difficult to win a campaign. for that, not storming and attacking, but patience and time were wanted. Komensky sent soldiers to Ruschuk, but I only employed these two things, and took more fortresses than Komensky and made them Turks eat horse-flesh. He swayed his head, and the French shall too, believe me, he went on, growing warmer and beating his chest. I'll make them eat horse-flesh!

Starting point is 07:28:29 and tears again dimmed his eyes. But should we have to accept battle? remarked Prince Andrew. We shall, if everybody wants it, it can't be helped. But believe me, my dear boy, there is nothing stronger than those two. Patience and time. They will do it all.

Starting point is 07:28:52 But the advisers, Nantantantan, Pateret d'Oré, voila la Malle. Don't see it that way. That's the trouble. Some want a thing, others don't. What's one to do? He asked, evidently expecting an answer.

Starting point is 07:29:09 Well, what do you want us to do? He repeated, and his eyes shone with a deep, shrewd look. I'll tell you what to do, he continued, as Prince Andrews still did not reply. I will tell you what to do and what I do. "'Dardle do, my cher,' he paused. "'Obstient, thou!' "'When in doubt, my dear fellow, do nothing.' He articulated the French proverb deliberately.

Starting point is 07:29:41 "'Well, good-bye, my dear fellow. Remember that with all my heart I share your sorrow, and that for you I am not a serene highness, nor a prince, nor a commander-in-chief, but a father. If you want anything, come straight to me. Goodbye, my dear boy. Again, he embraced and kissed Prince Andrew. But, before the latter had left the room,

Starting point is 07:30:07 Kutuzov gave a sigh of relief and went on with his unfinished novel, Le Chevalier du Sinha by Madame de Jannis. Prince Andrew could not have explained how or why it was, but after that interview with Kutuzov, he went back to his regiment, reassured as to the general course of a family, affairs, and as to the man to whom it had been entrusted.

Starting point is 07:30:31 The more he realized the absence of all personal motive in that old man, in whom there seemed to remain only the habit of passions, and in place of an intellect, grouping events, and drawing conclusions, only the capacity calmly to contemplate the course of events, the more reassured he was that everything would be as it should. He will not bring in any plan of his own. He will not devise or undertake anything, thought Prince Andrew. But he will hear everything, remember everything, and put everything in its place. He will not hinder anything useful, nor allow anything harmful.

Starting point is 07:31:09 He understands that there is something stronger and more important than his own will, the inevitable course of events, and he can see them and grasp their significance, and seeing that significance can refrain from meddling and renounce his purpose. personal wish directed to something else. And above all, thought Prince Andrew, one believes in him because he's Russian, despite the novel by Jean-Lee and the French Proverbs, and because his voice shook when he said,

Starting point is 07:31:41 What have they brought us to? And had a sob in it when he said he would make them eat horse-flesh. On such feelings, more or less dimly shared by all, the unanimity and general approval were founded, with which, despite court influences, the popular choice of Kutuzov as Commander-in-Chief was received. End of Book 10, Chapter 16. Book 10, Chapter 17, of War and Peace, Volume 3, by Leo Tolstoy, translated by Elmer Maude. This Libre-Vox recording is in the public domain. Book 10, Chapter 17.

Starting point is 07:32:30 After the Emperor had left Moscow, life flowed on there in its usual course, and its course was so very usual that it was difficult to remember the recent days of patriotic elation and order, hard to believe that Russia was really in danger, and that the members of the English Club were also sons of the fatherland, ready to sacrifice everything for it. The one thing that recalled the patriotic fervor everyone had displayed during the Emperor's day was the call for contributions of men and money, a necessity that as soon as the promises have been made assumed a legal, official form and became unavoidable. With the enemy's approach to Moscow, the Moscovites' view of their situation did not grow

Starting point is 07:33:17 more serious, but on the contrary became even more frivolous, as always happens with people who see a great danger approaching. At the approach of danger, there are always two voices that speak with equal power in the human soul. One very reasonably tells a man to consider the nature of the danger and the means of escaping it. The other, still more reasonably, says that it is too depressing and painful to think of the danger, since it is not in man's power to foresee everything and avert the general course of events, and it is therefore better to disregard what is painful till it comes, and to think about what is pleasant. In some of the solitude, a man generally listens to the first voice, but in society to the second.

Starting point is 07:34:05 So it was now with the inhabitants of Moscow. It was long since people had been as gay in Moscow as that year. Rustopchin's broadsheets, headed by woodcuts of a drink shop, a potman, and a Moscow burger called Karpushka Chigarin, who, having been a militiamen and having had rather too much at the pub, heard that Napoleon wished to come to Moscow, grew angry, abused the French in very bad language, came out of the drink shop, and under the sign of the

Starting point is 07:34:36 eagle, began to address the assembled people, were read and discussed, together with the latest of Vasily Levovovich Pushkin's Bouremé. In the corner room at the club, members gathered to read these broadsheets, and some like the way Karpuska

Starting point is 07:34:52 jeered at the French, saying, they will swell up with Russian cabbage, burst with our buckwheat porridge, and choke themselves with cabbage soup. They are all dwarfs, and one peasant woman will toss three of them with a hay fork. Others did not like that tone, and said it was stupid and vulgar. It was said that Rostopchin had expelled all Frenchmen and even all foreigners from Moscow, and that there had been some spies and agents of Napoleon among them. But this was told chiefly to introduce Rostopchin's witty remark on that occasion. The foreigners were deported to Nizhny by boat, and Prostopchin had said to them in French,

Starting point is 07:35:33 "'Randre on you, ma'am, entré down the bark, et nain fe pay an bark de charon.' Think it over. Get into the bark, and take care not to make it a bark of Karen. There was talk of all the government offices having been already removed from Moscow, and to this Shin-Sin Witticism was added, that for that alone Moscow ought to be grateful to Napoleon. It was said that Momanov's regiment would cost him 800,000 rubles, and that Bazukov had spent even more on his,

Starting point is 07:36:08 but that the best thing about Bazukov's action was that he himself was going to don a uniform and ride at the head of his regiment without charging anything for the show. "'You don't spare anyone,' said Julie Drupat Skaia, as she collected and pressed together, a bunch of raveled lint with her thin, beringed fingers. Julie was preparing to leave Moscow next day and was giving a farewell soire. Bezukov a ridicule, but he is so kind and good-natured.

Starting point is 07:36:40 What pleasure is there to be so costique? A forfeit, cried a young man in militia uniform, whom Julie called Mont Chavallier, and who was going with her to Nizhny. In Julie's set, as in many other circles in Moscow, it had been agreed that they would speak nothing but Russian, and that those who made a slip and spoke French should pay fines to the Committee of Voluntary Contributions. "'Another forfeit for a gallicism,' said a Russian writer who was present. "'What pleasure is there to be is not Russian?'

Starting point is 07:37:13 "'You spare no one,' continued Julie to the young man without heeding the author's remark. "'For Kostique, I am guilty and will pay, and I am prepared to pay again for the pleasure of telling you the truth. For gallicisms, I won't be responsible,' she remarked, turning to the author. "'I have neither the money nor the time, like Prince Galitzin, to engage a master to teach me Russian.' "'Ah, here he is,' she added. "'Qu'on—' "'No, no,' she said to the militia officer, "'you won't catch me.' "'Speak of the sun, and you see its rays.'

Starting point is 07:37:53 And she smiled amiably at Pierre. "'We were just talking of you,' she said, with the facility in lying natural to a society woman. We were saying that your regiment would be sure to be better than Mamonovs.' "'Oh, don't talk to me of my regiment,' replied Pierre, kissing his hostess hand and taking a seat beside her. "'I am so sick of it.' "'You will, of course, command it yourself.'

Starting point is 07:38:20 said Julie, directing a sly, sarcastic glance toward the militia officer. The latter, in Pierre's presence, had ceased to be caustic, and his face expressed perplexity as to what Julie's smile might mean. In spite of his absent-mindedness and good nature, Pierre's personality immediately checked any attempt to ridicule him to his face. No, said Pierre, with a laughing glance at his big, stout body. I should make too good a target for the French. Besides, I'm afraid I should hardly be able to climb onto a horse. Among those whom Julie's guests happened to choose to gossip about were the Rostovs.

Starting point is 07:39:03 I heard that their affairs are in a very bad way, said Julie. And he is so unreasonable, the Count himself, I mean. The Razumovsky's wanted to buy his house and his estate near Moscow, but it drags on and on. He asks too much. "'No, I think the sale will come off in a few days,' said someone, though it is madness to buy anything in Moscow now. "'Why?' asked Julie.

Starting point is 07:39:30 "'You don't think Moscow is in danger.' "'Then why are you leaving?' "'Hi, what a question. I am going because—well, because everyone is going. And besides, I am not Joan of Arc or in Amazon.' "'Well, of course, of course. Let me have some more strips of linen. If he manages the business properly,

Starting point is 07:39:54 he will be able to pay off all his debts, said the militia officer, speaking of Rostov. A kindly old man, but not up too much. And why do they stay on so long in Moscow? They meant to leave for the country long ago. Natalie is quite well again now, isn't she? Julie asked Pierre with a knowing smile. They are waiting for their younger,

Starting point is 07:40:18 son, Pierre replied. He joined Obolensky's Cossacks and went to Belaya Serkhov where the regiment is being formed. But now they have had him transferred to my regiment and are expecting him every day. The Count wanted to leave long ago, but the Countess won't on any account leave Moscow till her son returns. I met them the day before yesterday at the Arkharovs. Natalie has recovered her looks and is brighter. She sang a song. How easily some people get over everything. Get over what? inquired Pierre, looking displeased. Julie smiled.

Starting point is 07:40:58 You know, Count, such knights as you are only found in Madame de Sousa's novels. What knights? What do you mean? demanded Pierre, blushing. Oh, come, my dear Count, it's la fable de Tumascou. I've admire my parole d'Anneur. "'It is the talk of all Moscow. My word, I admire you.' "'Forfeit, forfeit!' cried the militia officer. "'All right, one can't talk. How tiresome!'

Starting point is 07:41:31 "'What is the talk of all Moscow?' Pierre asked angrily, rising to his feet. "'Come now, Count, you know—' "'I don't know anything about it,' said Pierre. "'I know you were friendly with Natalie, and so. So, but I was always more friendly with Vera, that dear Vera. No, madame, Pierre continued in a tone of displeasure. I have not taken on myself the role of Natalie Rostova's night at all, and have not been to their house for nearly a month.

Starting point is 07:42:06 But I cannot understand the cruelty. Kese excuse, accuse! Who excuses himself, accuses himself, said Julie, smiling and waving. the lint triumphantly, and to have the last word she promptly changed the subject. Do you know what I heard today? Poor Mary Balkanskaya arrived in Moscow yesterday. Do you know that she has lost her father? Really? Where is she? I should like very much to see her, said Pierre. I spent the evening with her yesterday. She is going to their estate near Moscow,

Starting point is 07:42:42 either today or tomorrow morning, with her nephew. you. Well, and how is she? asked Pierre. She is well, but sad. But do you know who rescued her? It is quite a romance. Nicholas Rostov. She was surrounded, and they wanted to kill her and had wounded some of her people. He rushed in and saved her. Another romance, said the militia officer. Really, this general flight has been arranged to get all the old maids married off. Katishe is one. and Princess Bokenskaya another. Do you know, I really believe she is

Starting point is 07:43:20 a petit poemarouz de Junom. A little bit in love with the young man. Forfeit, forfeit, forfeit! Forfeit! But how could one say that in Russian? End of Book 10, Chapter 17. Book 10, Chapter 18 Of War and Peace, Volume 3, by Leo Tolstoy, translated by Elmer Maud.

Starting point is 07:43:52 This Libervox recording is in the public domain. Book 10, Chapter 18 When Pierre returned home, he was handed two of Rostopchin's broadsheets that had been brought that day. The first declared that the report that Count Rostopchin had forbidden people to leave Moscow was false. On the contrary, he was glad that ladies and tradesmen's wives were leaving the city. There will be less panic and less gossip. ran the broadsheet, "'but I will stake my life on it

Starting point is 07:44:26 "'that that that scounder will not enter Moscow.' "'These words show Pierre clearly for the first time "'that the French would enter Moscow.' "'The second broadsheet stated that our headquarters were at Vyazma "'that Count Wittgenstein had defeated the French. "'But that as many of the inhabitants of Moscow wished to be armed, "'weapons were ready for them at the arsenal, "'sabers, pistols, and muskets, which could be had

Starting point is 07:44:52 at a low price. The tone of the proclamation was not as jocose as in the former Chagarin talks. Pierre pondered over these broadsheets. Evidently, the terrible storm-cloud he had desired with the whole strength of his soul, but which yet aroused involuntary horror in him was drawing near. "'Shall I join the army and enter the service, or wait?' He asked himself for the hundredth time. He took a pack of cars that lay on the table and began to lay them out for a game of patience.

Starting point is 07:45:27 If this patience comes out, he said to himself after shuffling the cars, holding them in his hand and lifting his head, If it comes out, it means, what does it mean? He had not decided what it should mean when he heard the voice of the eldest princess at the door asking whether she might come in. "'Then it will mean that I must go to the army,' said Pierre to himself. "'Come in, come in,' he added to the princess. Only the eldest princess, the one with the stony face and long waist, was still living in Pierre's house. The two younger ones had both married. "'Excuse my coming to you, cousin,' she said in a reproachful and agitated voice.

Starting point is 07:46:14 "'You know some decision must be come to. What is going to happen to?' What is going to happen? Everyone has left Moscow, and the people are rioting. How is it that we are staying on? On the contrary, things seem satisfactory, ma cuisine, said Pierre, in the bantering tone he habitually adopted toward her, always feeling uncomfortable in the role of her benefactor. Satisfactory, indeed!

Starting point is 07:46:41 Very satisfactory. Barbara Ivanovna told me today, how our troops are distinguishing themselves. It certainly does them credit. And the people, too, are quite mutinous. They no longer obey. Even my maid has taken to being rude. At this rate, they will soon begin beating us. One can't walk in the streets. But above all, the French will be here any day now, so what are we waiting for? I ask just one thing of you, cousin, she went on, "'arranged for me to be taken to Petersburg. "'Whatever I may be, I can't live under Bonaparte's rule.

Starting point is 07:47:22 "'Oh, come, ma cuisine. Where do you get your information from? "'On the contrary, I won't submit to your Napoleon. "'Others may, if they please, if you don't want to do this. "'But I will. I'll give the order at once.' The princess was apparently vexed at not having anyone to be angry with, muttering to herself, she sat down on a chair. "'But you have been misinformed,' said Pierre. "'Everything is quiet in the city, and there is not the slightest danger.

Starting point is 07:47:55 "'See, I've just been reading.' He showed her the broadsheet. Count Rostopchin writes that he will stake his life on it, that the enemy will not enter Moscow. "'Oh, that count of yours,' said the princess malevolently. He is a hypocrite, a rascal who has himself roused the people to riot. Didn't he write in those idiotic broadsheets that anyone, whoever it might be, should be dragged to the lock-up by his hair? How silly!

Starting point is 07:48:25 An honor and glory to whoever captures him, he says. This is what his cajolery has brought us to. Barbara Ivanovna told me the mob near killed her because she said something in French. Oh, but it's so... "'You take everything so to heart,' said Pierre, and began laying out his cards for patience. Although that patience did come out, Pierre did not join the army, but remained in deserted Moscow ever in the same state of agitation, irresolution, and alarm, and yet at the same time joyfully expecting something terrible.

Starting point is 07:49:03 Next day toward evening the princess set off, and Pierre's head steward came to inform him that the money needed for the equipment of his regiment could not be found without selling one of the estates. In general, the head steward made out to Pierre that his project of raising a regiment would ruin him. Pierre listened to him, scarcely able to repress a smile. "'Well, then, sell it,' said he. "'What's to be done? I can't draw back now.' The worse everything became, especially his own affairs, the better was Pierre pleased, and the more evident was it that the catastrophe he expected was approaching. Hardly anyone he knew was left in town. Julie had gone, and so had Princess Mary. Of his intimate

Starting point is 07:49:51 friends, only the Rostovs remained, but he did not go to see them. To distract his thoughts, he drove that day to the village of Voronsovo to see the great balloon Lepich was constructing to destroy the foe, and a trial balloon that was to go up next day. The balloon was not yet ready, but Pierre learned that it was being constructed by the emperor's desire. The emperor had written to Count Rostopchin as follows. As soon as Leppitch is ready, get together a crew of reliable and intelligent men for his car and send a courier to General Kutuzov to let him know. I have informed him of the matter.

Starting point is 07:50:32 Please impress upon Leppitch to be very careful where he descends for the first time, that he may not make a mistake and fall into the enemy's hands. It is essential for him to combine his movements with those of the commander-in-chief. On his way home from Voronsovo, as he was passing the Bolotno place, Pierre, seeing a large crowd round the Lobno place, stopped and got out of his trap. A French cook accused of being a spy was being flogged. The flogging was only just over, and the executioner was releasing from the flogging bench, a stout man with red whiskers in blue stockings and a green jacket, who was moaning piteously.

Starting point is 07:51:14 Another criminal, thin and pale, stood near. Judging by their faces, they were both Frenchmen. With a frightened and suffering look resembling that on the thin Frenchman's face, Pierre pushed his way in through the crowd. "'What is it? Who is it? What is it? What is it for?' he kept asking. But the attention of the crowd, officials, burgers, shopkeepers, peasants, and women in cloaks and in polices, was so eagerly centered on what was passing in Lobno Place that no one answered him.

Starting point is 07:51:48 The stout man rose, frowned, shrugged his shoulders, and evidently, trying to appear firm, began to pull on his jacket without looking about him. But suddenly, his lips trembled and he began to cry, in the way full-blooded grown-up men cry, though angry with himself for doing so. In the crowd, people began talking loudly, to stifle their feelings of pity as it seemed to Pierre. He's cooked to some prince. "'Eh, monsieur, Russian sauce seems to be sour to a Frenchman. Sets his teeth on edge,' said a wrinkled clerk who was standing behind Pierre when the Frenchman began to cry.

Starting point is 07:52:30 The clerk glanced round, evidently hoping that his joke would be appreciated. Some people began to laugh, others continued to watch in dismay the executioner who was undressing the other man. Pierre choked, his face puckered, and he turned hastily away, went back to his trap, muttering something to himself as he went, and took his seat. As they drove along, he shuddered and exclaimed several times so audibly that the coachman asked him, What is your pleasure?

Starting point is 07:53:01 Where are you going? shouted Pierre to the man who was driving to Le Bianca Street. To the governors, as you ordered, answered the coachman. Fool, idiot! shouted Pierre, abusing his coachman, a thing he rarely did. Home, I told you, and drive faster, blockhead! I must get away this very day, he murmured to himself. At the sight of the tortured Frenchman and the crowd surrounding the Lobno place, Pierre had so definitely made up his mind that he could no longer remain in Moscow

Starting point is 07:53:36 and would leave for the army that very day that it seemed to him that either he had told the coachman this or that the man ought to have known it for himself. On reaching home, Pierre gave orders to have Staffie, his head coachman who knew everything, could do anything and was known to all Moscow, that he would leave that night for the army at Mojaisk, and that his saddle horses should be sent there. This could not all be arranged that day, so on F. Staffy's representation, Pierre had to put off his departure till next day, to allow time for the relay horses to be sent on in advance.

Starting point is 07:54:15 On the 24th, the weather cleared up after a spell of rain, and after dinner, Pierre left Moscow. When changing horses that night in Percushkovo, he learned that there had been a great battle that evening. This was the Battle of Shevardino. He was told that there in Percushkavo, the earth trembled from the firing, but nobody could answer his questions as to who had won. At dawn next day, Pierre was approaching Mojaisk.

Starting point is 07:54:45 Every house in Mojaisk had soldiers quartered in it, and at the hostel where Pierre was met by his groom and coachman, there was no room to be had. It was full of officers. Everywhere in Mojaisk and beyond it, troops were stationed or on the march. Cossacks, foot and horse soldiers, wagons, and cannon were everywhere. Pierre pushed forward as fast as he could, and the farther he left Moscow behind and the deeper he plunged into that sea of troops, the more he was overcome by restless

Starting point is 07:55:19 agitation and a new and joyful feeling he had not experienced before. It was a feeling akin to what he had felt at the Sloboda Palace during the Emperor's visit, a sense of the necessity of undertaking something and sacrificing something. He now experienced a glad consciousness that everything that constitutes men's happiness, the comforts of life, wealth, even life itself, is rubbish, it is pleasant to throw away, compared with something—with what? Pierre could not say, and he did not try to determine for whom and for what he felt such particular delight in sacrificing everything. He was not occupied with the question of what to

Starting point is 07:56:04 sacrifice for. The fact of sacrificing in itself afforded him a new and joyous sensation. End of Book 10, Chapter 18. Book 10 Chapter 19 of War and Peace, Volume 3 by Leo Tolstoy, by Elmer Maude. This Libervox recording is in the public domain. Book 10, Chapter 19 On the 24th of August, the Battle of Shevardino Redoubt was fought. On the 25th, not a shot was fired by either side. And on the 26th, the Battle of Borodino itself took place.

Starting point is 07:56:53 Why and how were the battles of Shevardino and Borodino given and accepted? Why was the Battle of Borodino fought? There was not the least sense in it for either the French or the Russians. Its immediate result for the Russians was, and was bound to be, that we were brought nearer to the destruction of Moscow, which we feared more than anything in the world. And for the French, its immediate result was that

Starting point is 07:57:18 they were brought nearer to the destruction of their whole army, which they feared more than anything in the world. What the result must be was quite obvious, and yet Napoleon offered and Kutuzov accepted that battle. If the commanders have been guided by reason, it would seem that it must have been obvious to Napoleon that by advancing 1,300 miles and giving battle with a probability of losing a quarter of his army, he was advancing to certain destruction.

Starting point is 07:57:48 And it must have been equally clear to Kutuzov that by accepting battle and risking the loss of a quarter of his army, he would certainly lose Moscow. For Kutuzov, this was mathematically clear, as it is that if when playing drafts I have one man less and go on exchanging, I shall certainly lose, and therefore should not exchange. When my opponent has sixteen men and I have fourteen, I am only one-eighth weaker than he. But when I have exchanged thirteen more men, he will be three times as strong as I am. Before the Battle of Borodino, our strength in proportion to the French was about as five to six, but after that battle it was little more than one to two.

Starting point is 07:58:34 Previously, we had a hundred thousand against a hundred and twenty thousand. Afterwards, little more than fifty thousand against a hundred thousand. Yet the shrewd and experienced Kutuzov accepted the battle, while Napoleon, who was said to be a commander of genius, gave it, losing a quarter of his army and lengthening his lines of communication still more. If it is said that he expected to end the campaign by occupying Moscow, as he had ended a previous campaign by occupying Vienna, there is much evidence to the contrary. Napoleon's historians themselves tell us that from Smolensk onwards he wished to stop,

Starting point is 07:59:15 knew the danger of his extended position, and knew that the occupation of Moscow would not be the end of the campaign, for he had seen at Smolensk the state in which Russian towns were left to him, and had not received a single reply to his repeated announcements of his wish to negotiate. In giving and accepting battled Borodino, Kutuzov acted involuntarily and irrationally. But later on, to fit what had occurred, the historians provided cunningly devised evidence of the foresight and genius of the generals, who, of all the blind tools of history, were the most enslaved and involuntary. The ancients have left us model heroic poems, in which the heroes furnished the whole interest of the story, and we are still unable to accustom ourselves to the fact that, for our

Starting point is 08:00:07 epic, histories of that kind are meaningless. On the other question, how the Battle of Borodino and the preceding Battle of Shevardino were fought, there also exists a definite and well-known but quite false conception. All the historians describe the affair as follows. The Russian army, they say, in its retreat from Smolensk, sought out for itself the best position for a general engagement,

Starting point is 08:00:34 and found such a position at Borodino. The Russians, they say, fortified this position in advance on the left of the high road from Moscow to Smolensk, and almost at a right angle to it, from Borodino to Itza at the very place where the battle was fought. In front of this position, they say, a fortified outpost was set up on the Chevardino mound

Starting point is 08:00:58 to observe the enemy. On the 24th, we are told, Napoleon attacked this advanced post and took it. And on the 26th, attacked the whole Russian army, which was in position on the field of Borodino. So the history say, and it is all quite wrong, as anyone who cares to look into the matter can easily convince himself. The Russians did not seek out the best position, but on the contrary, during the retreat, passed many positions better than Borodino. They did not stop at any one of these positions because Kutuzov did not wish to occupy a position he had not himself chosen, because the

Starting point is 08:01:41 popular demand for a battle had not yet expressed itself strongly enough, and because Milorovic had not yet arrived with the militia, and for many other reasons. The fact is that other positions they had passed were stronger, and that the position at Borodino, the one where the battle was fought, far from being strong, was no more a position than any other spot one might find in the Russian Empire, by sticking a pin into the map at hazard. Not only did the Russians not fortified the position on the field of Borodino to the left of and at a right angle to the high road, that is, the position on which the battle took place, but never till the 25th of August 1812 did they think that a battle might be fought there. This was shown first

Starting point is 08:02:27 by the fact that there were no entrenchments there by the 25th, and that those begun on the 25th and 26th were not completed. And secondly, by the position of the Shevardino redoubt. That redoubt was quite senseless in front of the position where the battle was accepted. Why was it more strongly fortified than any other post. And why were all efforts exhausted, and six thousand men's sacrifice to defend it till late at night on the 24th? A Cossack patrol would have sufficed to observe the enemy.

Starting point is 08:03:00 Thirdly, as proof that the position on which the battle was fought had not been foreseen, and that the Chevardino Redoubt was not an advanced post of that position, we have the fact that up to the 25th, Barclay to Lille and Bagradian were convinced that the Shevardino Redoubt was the left flank of the position,

Starting point is 08:03:20 and that Kutuzov himself in his report, written in hot haste after the battle, speaks of the Shevardino redoubt as the left flank of the position. It was much later when reports on the Battle of Borodino were written at leisure, that the incorrect and extraordinary statement was invented, probably to justify the mistakes of a commander-in-chief who had to be represented as infallible, that the Shevardino redoubt was an advanced post, whereas in reality it was simply a fortified point on the left flank, and that the Battle of Borodino was fought by us on an entrenched position previously selected, whereas it was fought on a quite unexpected spot, which was almost

Starting point is 08:04:03 unentrenched. The case was evidently this. A position was selected along the river Colichah, which crosses the high road, not at a right angle, but at an acute angle, so that the left flank was at Chevardino, the right flank near the village of Novo, and the center at Borodino at the confluence of the rivers Colichal and Vojna. To anyone who looks at the field of Borodino without thinking of how the battle was actually fought, this position, protected by the river Colichal, presents itself as obvious for an army whose object was to prevent an enemy from advancing along the Smolensk Road to Moscow. Napoleon, writing to Valuvo on the 24th, did not see, as the history book say he did,

Starting point is 08:04:51 the position of the Russians from Utica to Borodino. He could not have seen that position because it did not exist. Nor did he see an advance post of the Russian army. But while pursuing the Russian rearguard, he came upon the left flank of the Russian position at the Chevardino Redoubt, and unexpectedly for the Russians moved his army across the Kalocha. And the Russians not having time to begin a general engagement, withdrew their left wing from the position they had intended to occupy, and took up a new position which had not been foreseen and was not fortified. By crossing to the other side of the Kolocha to the left of the high road, Napoleon shifted the whole forthcoming battle from right to left, looking from the Russian side,

Starting point is 08:05:35 and transferred it to the plane between Uttica, Semenovsk, and Borodino, a plane no more advantageous as a position than any other plane in Russia, and there the whole battle of the 26th of August took place. Had Napoleon not ridden out on the evening of the 24th to the Colichah, and had he not then ordered an immediate attack on the redoubt, but had begun the attack next morning, no one would have doubted that the Chevardino Redoubt was the left flank of our position, and the battle would have taken place where we expected it. In that case, we should probably have defended the Shevardino Redoubt,

Starting point is 08:06:13 doubt, our left flank still more obstinately. We should have attacked Napoleon in the center or on the right, and the engagement would have taken place on the 25th, in the position we intended and had fortified. But as the attack on our left flank took place in the evening after the retreat of our rear guard, that is, immediately after the fight at Gridnava, and as the Russian commanders did not wish or were not in time to begin a general engagement, then on the evening of the 24th, the first and chief action of the Battle of Borodino was already lost on the 24th, and obviously led to the loss of the one fought on the 26th. After the loss of the Chevardino Redoubt, we found ourselves on the morning of the 25th

Starting point is 08:07:00 without a position for our left flank, and were forced to bend it back and hastily entrench it where it chanced to be. Not only was the Russian army on the 26th defended by weak, unfinished entrenchments, but the disadvantage of that position was increased by the fact that the Russian commanders, not having fully realized what had happened, namely the loss of our position on the left flank and the shifting of the whole field of the forthcoming battle from right to left, maintained their extended position from the village of Novo to Ittica, and consequently had to move their forces from right to left during the battle.

Starting point is 08:07:38 So it happened that throughout the whole battle the Russians opposed the entire front of the war. French army launched against our left flank with but half as many men. Poniatowski's action against Dututsa and Uvarov's on the right flank against the French were actions distinct from the main course of the battle. So, the Battle of Bore Dino did not take place at all, as, in an effort to conceal our commander's mistakes, even at the cost of diminishing the glory due to the Russian army and people it has been described. The Battle of Bore Dino was not fought on a chosen, and entrenched position, with forces only slightly weaker than those of the enemy, but, as a result

Starting point is 08:08:18 of the loss of the Chevardino redoubt, the Russians fought the battle of Borodino on an open and almost unentrenched position, with forces only half as numerous as the French. That is to say, under conditions in which it was not merely unthinkable to fight for ten hours and secure an indecisive result, but unthinkable to keep an army even from complete disintegration, and flight. End of Book 10, Chapter 19. Book 10, Chapter 20, of War and Peace, Volume 3, by Leo Tolstoy, translated by Elmer Maude. This Libervox recording is in the public domain. Book 10, Chapter 20 On the morning of the 25th, Pierre was leaving Mojaisk. At the descent of the high-steep hill,

Starting point is 08:09:17 down which a winding road led out of the town past the cathedral on the right, where a service was being held and the bells were ringing, Pierre got out of his vehicle and proceeded on foot. Behind him, a cavalry regiment was coming down the hill preceded by its singers. Coming up toward him was a train of carts, carrying men who had been wounded in the engagement the day before. The peasant drivers, shouting and lashing their horses, kept crossing from side to side. The carts, in each of which three or four wounded soldiers were lying or sitting, jolted over the stones that had been thrown on the steep incline to make it something like a road. The wounded, bandaged with rags, with pale cheeks, compressed lips, and knitted brows,

Starting point is 08:10:02 held on to the sides of the carts as they were jolted against one another. Almost all of them stared with naive, childlike curiosity at Pierre's white hat and green swallow-tail coat. Pierre's coachman shouted angrily at the convoy of wounded to keep to one side of the road. The cavalry regiment, as it descended the hill with its singers, surrounded Pierre's carriage and blocked the road. Pierre stopped, being pressed against the side of the cutting in which the road ran. The sunshine from behind the hill did not penetrate into the cutting, and there it was cold and damp, but above Pierre's head was the bright August sunshine and the bell sounded memory. One of the carts with wounded stopped by the side of the road close to Pierre.

Starting point is 08:10:49 The driver in his bashed shoes ran panting up to it, placed a stone under one of its tireless hind wheels, and began arranging the breech band on his little horse. One of the wounded, an old soldier with a bandaged arm who was following the cart on foot, caught hold of it with his sound hand and turned to look at Pierre. I say, fellow countrymen, will they set us down to the car, here or take us on to Moscow," he asked. Pierre was so deep in thought that he did not hear the question. He was looking now at the cavalry regiment that had met the convoy wounded, now at the cart by which he was standing, in which two wounded men were sitting and one was lying. One

Starting point is 08:11:33 of those sitting up in the cart had probably been wounded in the cheek. His whole head was wrapped in rags, and one cheek was swollen to the size of a baby's head. His nose of a baby's head. His nose and mouth were twisted to one side. This soldier was looking at the cathedral and crossing himself. Another, a young lad, a fair-haired recruit, as white as though there was no blood in his thin face, looked at Pierre kindly with a fixed smile. The third lay prone so that his face was not visible. The cavalry singers were passing close by. Ah, lost, quite lost, is my head so keen, living in a foreign land. They sang their soldiers' dance song.

Starting point is 08:12:17 As if responding to them, but with a different sort of merriment, the metallic sound of the bells reverberated high above, and the hot rays of the sun bathed the top of the opposite slope with yet another sort of merriment. But beneath the slope, by the cart with the wounded near the panting little nag where Pierre stood, it was damp, somber, and sad. The soldier with a swollen cheek looked angrily at the cavalry singers.

Starting point is 08:12:44 Oh, the coxcoms, he muttered reproachfully. It's not the soldiers only, but I've seen peasants today, too. The peasants, even they have to go, said the soldier behind the cart, addressing Pierre with a sad smile. No distinctions made nowadays. They want the whole nation to fall on them. In a word, it's Moscow. They want to make an end of it." In spite of the obscurity of the soldier's words, Pierre understood what he wanted to say

Starting point is 08:13:17 and nodded approval. The road was clear again. Pierre descended the hill and drove on. He kept looking to either side of the road for familiar faces, but only saw everywhere the unfamiliar faces of various military men of different branches of the service, who all looked with astonishment at his white hat and green tailcoat. Having gone nearly three miles, he at last met an acquaintance and eagerly addressed him. This was one of the head army doctors. He was driving toward Pierre in a covered gig, sitting beside a young surgeon,

Starting point is 08:13:53 and on recognizing Pierre, he told the Cossack who occupied the driver's seat to pull up. "'Cote, Your Excellency, how come you to be here?' asked the doctor. "'Well, you know, I wanted to see. Yes, yes, there will be something to see. Pierre got out and talked to the doctor, explaining his intention of taking part in a battle. The doctor advised him to apply direct to Katoosov. Why should you be God-nose-where out of sight during the battle?

Starting point is 08:14:26 He said, exchanging glances with his young companion. Anyhow, his serene highness knows you and will receive you graciously. That's what you must do. The doctor seemed tired and in a hurry. You think so? Ah, I also wanted to ask you where our position is exactly, said Pierre. The position? repeated the doctor.

Starting point is 08:14:48 Well, that's not my line. Drive past to Taranova. A lot of digging is going on there. Go up the hillock and you'll see. Can one see from there? If you would. But the doctor interrupted him and moved toward his gig. "'I would go with you, but on my honor, I'm up to here.'

Starting point is 08:15:09 And he pointed to his throat. "'I'm galloping to the commander of the Corps. "'How do you matter stand? "'You know, Count, there'll be a battle tomorrow. "'Out of an army of a hundred thousand, "'we must expect at least twenty thousand wounded, "'and we haven't stretchers, or bunks, or dresses, "'or doctors enough for six thousand.

Starting point is 08:15:28 "'We have ten thousand carts, but we need other things as well. "'We must manage as best we can.' The strange thought that of the thousands of men, young and old, who had stared with Mary's surprise at his hat, perhaps the very men he had noticed, twenty thousand were inevitably doomed to wounds and death, amazed Pierre. They may die tomorrow. Why are they thinking of anything but death? And by some latent sequence of thought, the descent of the Mougesk Hill, the carts with

Starting point is 08:16:02 the wounded, the ringing bells, the slanting rays of the, the sun and the songs of the cavalrymen vividly recurred to his mind. The cavalry ride to battle and meet the wounded, and do not for a moment think of what awaits them, but pass by, winking at the wounded. Yet from among these men, twenty thousand are doomed to die, and they wonder at my hat. Strange, thought Pierre, continuing his way to Tataranova. In front of a landowner's house to the left of the road, stood carriages, wagons, and crowds of orderlies and sentinels. The commander-in-chief was putting up there, but just when Pierre arrived he was not in,

Starting point is 08:16:44 and hardly any of the staff were there. They had gone to the church service. Pierre drove on toward Gorky. When he had ascended the hill and reached the Little Village Street, he saw for the first time peasant militiamen in their white shirts and with crosses on their caps, who, talking and laughing loudly, animated and peasant, perspiring, were at work on a huge knoll overgrown with grass to the right of the road. Some of them were digging, others were wheeling barrel loads of earth along planks, while others stood about doing nothing.

Starting point is 08:17:19 Two officers were standing on the knoll, directing the men. On seeing these peasants, who were evidently still amused by the novelty of their position as soldiers, Pierre once more thought of the wounded men at Mojaisk, and understood what the soldier had meant, when he said, They want the whole nation to fall on them. The sight of these bearded peasants at work on the battlefield, with their queer, clumsy boots and perspiring necks,

Starting point is 08:17:46 and their shirts opening from the left toward the middle, unfastened, exposing their sun-burned collar-bones, impressed Pierre more strongly with the solemnity and importance of the moment than anything he had yet seen or heard. End of Book 10, Chapter 20. Book 10, Chapter 21. Of War and Peace, Volume 3 by Leo Tolstoy, translated by Elmer Maude. This Libervox recording is in the public domain.

Starting point is 08:18:24 Book 10, Chapter 21 Pierre stepped out of his carriage, and passing the toiling militiamen, ascended the knoll from which, according to the doctor, the battlefield could be seen. It was about eleven o'clock. The sun shone somewhat to the left and behind him, and brightly lit up the enormous panorama, which, rising like an amphitheater, extended before him in the clear, rarefied atmosphere. From above on the left, bisecting that amphitheater, wound the Smolensk High Road, passing through a village with a white church some five hundred paces in front of the

Starting point is 08:19:00 knoll and below it. This was Borodino. Below the village, the road crossed the river by a bridge, and winding down and up rose higher and higher to the village of Valuvvo, visiting, about four miles away, where Napoleon was then stationed. Beyond Valuvo, the road disappeared into a yellowing forest on the horizon. Far in the distance in that birch and fir forest to the right of the road, the cross and belfry of the Colichai Monastery gleamed in the sun. Here and there, over the whole of that blue expanse, to right and left of the forest and the road, smoking campfires could be seen, and indefinite masses of troops, ours and the enemies. The ground to the right, along the course of the Kolochah and Moskva rivers, was broken and hilly.

Starting point is 08:19:51 Between the hollows the villages of Bezubova and Zakharano showed in the distance. On the left the ground was more level. There were fields of grain, and the smoking ruins of Seminovsk which had been burned down could be seen. All that Pierre saw was so indefinite that neither the left nor the right side of the field fully satisfied his expectations. Nowhere could he see the battlefield he had expected to find, but only fields, meadows, troops, woods, the smoke of campfires, villages, mounds, and streams. And try as he would, he could descry no military position in this place which teemed with life,

Starting point is 08:20:32 nor could he even distinguish our troops from the enemies. I must ask someone who knows, he thought, and addressed an officer who was looking with curiosity at his huge unmilitary figure. "'May I ask you?' said Pierre. "'What village that is in front?' "'Burdineau, isn't it?' said the officer, turning to his companion. "'Borodino,' the other corrected him. "'The officer, evidently glad of an opportunity for a talk, moved up to Pierre.

Starting point is 08:21:03 "'Are those are men in there?' Pierre inquired. "'Yes, and there, further on, are the French,' said the officer. "'There they are. There. You can see them.' "'Where? Where?' asked Pierre. "'One can see them with the naked eye. Why there?' The officer pointed with his hand to the smoke visible on the left beyond the river, and the same stern and serious expression that Pierre had noticed on many of the faces he had met came into his face. "'Ah, those are the French. And over there?' Pierre pointed to a knoll on the left,

Starting point is 08:21:41 near which some troops could be seen. Those are ours. Ah, ours! And there? Pierre pointed to another knoll in the distance with a big tree on it, near a village that lay in a hollow, where also some campfires were smoking, and something black was visible. That's his again, said the officer.

Starting point is 08:22:02 It was the Chavardino redoubt. It was ours yesterday, but now it is his. Then how about our people? position. Our position? replied the officer with a smile of satisfaction. I can tell you quite clearly, because I constructed nearly all our entrenchments. There, you see?

Starting point is 08:22:25 There's our center at Borodino, just there. And he pointed to the village in front of them with the white church. That's where one crosses the Kolacha. You see down there where the rows of hay are lying in the hollow, there's the bridge. That's our center. Our right flank is over there. He pointed sharply to the right, far away in the broken ground. That's where the Moskva River is, and we have thrown up three redouts there, very strong ones.

Starting point is 08:22:54 The left flank—' Here the officer paused. Well, you see, that's difficult to explain. Yesterday our left flank was there at Chavardinot. You see, where the oak is? But now we have withdrawn our left wing. Now it is over there. Do you see that village and the smoke? That Semenovsk, yes, there, he pointed to Ryevsky's knoll. But the battle will hardly be there. His, having moved his troops there, is only a ruse.

Starting point is 08:23:24 He will probably pass round to the right of the Moskva. But wherever it may be, many a man will be missing tomorrow, he remarked. An elderly sergeant who had approached the officer while he was giving these explanations, had waited in silence for him to finish speaking, but at this point, evidently not liking the officer's remark, interrupted him. "'Gabians must be sent for,' said he sternly. The officer appeared abashed, as though he understood that one might think of how many men would be missing tomorrow, but ought not to speak of it.

Starting point is 08:24:01 "'Well, send number three company again,' the officer replied hurriedly. "'And you? Are you one of the doctors?' "'No, I've come on my own,' answered Pierre, and he went down the hill again, passing the militiamen. "'Oh, those damned fellows!' muttered the officer, who followed him, holding his nose as he ran past the men at work. "'There they are! Bringing her! Coming! There they are! They'll be here in a minute!'

Starting point is 08:24:30 Voices were suddenly heard saying, and officers, soldiers, a militiaman began running forward along the road. A church procession was coming up the hill from Bore Dineau. First along the dusty road came the infantry in ranks, bareheaded and with arms reversed. From behind them came the sound of church singing. Soldiers and militiamen ran bareheaded past Pierre toward the procession. They are bringing her, our protectress! The Iberian mother of God! Someone cried. The Smolensk Mother of God! Another corrected him. The militiamen, both those who had been in the village and those who had been at work on the battery,

Starting point is 08:25:11 threw down their spades and ran to meet the church procession. Following the battalion that marched along the dusty road came priests in their vestments, one little old man in a hood with attendants and singers. Behind them, soldiers and officers bore a large, dark-faced icon, with an embossed metal cover. This was the icon that had been brought from Smolensk and had since accompanied the army.

Starting point is 08:25:35 Behind, before, and on both sides, crowds of militiamen with bared heads walked, ran, and bowed to the ground. At the summit of the hill, they stopped with the icon. The men who had been holding it up by linen bands attached to it were relieved by others. The chanters relit their censors, and service began. The hot rays of the sun beat down vertically, and a fresh, soft wind played with the hair of the bared heads and with the ribbons decorating the icon. The singing did not sound loud under the open sky. An immense crowd of bareheaded officers, soldiers, and militiamen surrounded the icon.

Starting point is 08:26:15 Behind the priest and a chanter stood the nobility's on a spot reserved for them. A bald general with a St. George's cross on his neck to adjust behind the priest's back, and without crossing himself, he was evidently a German, patiently awaited the end of the service, which he considered it necessary to hear to the end, probably to arouse the patriotism of the Russian people. Another general stood in a martial pose, crossing himself by shaking his hand in front of his chest while looking about him. Standing among the crowd of peasants,

Starting point is 08:26:49 Pierre recognized several acquaintances among these notables, but did not look at them. His whole attention was absorbed in watching the serious expression on the faces of the crowd of soldiers and militiamen who were all gazing eagerly at the icon. As soon as the tired chanters, who were singing the service for the twentieth time that day, began lazily and mechanically to sing, "'Say from calamity thy servants, O mother of God!'

Starting point is 08:27:15 And the priest and deacon chimed in, "'For to thee, under God, we all flee, as to an inviolable bulwark and protection.' There again kindled in all those faces the same expression of consciousness of the solemnity of the impending moment that Pierre had seen on the faces at the foot of the hill at Mojaisk, and momentarily on many and many faces he had met that morning. And heads were bowed more frequently, and hair tossed back, and sighs, and the sound men made as they crossed themselves were heard. The crowd round the icon suddenly parted, and pressed against Pierre. Someone, a very important personage judging by the haste with which way was made

Starting point is 08:27:57 for him, was approaching the icon. It was Katoosov, who had been writing round the position, and on his way back to Tataranova had stopped where the service was being held. Pierre recognized him at once by his peculiar figure, which distinguished him from everybody else. With a long overcoat on his exceedingly stout, round-shouldered body, with uncovered white head and puffy face showing the white ball of the eye he had lost, Katoosov walked with plunging, swaying gait into the crowd, and stopped behind the priest.

Starting point is 08:28:30 He crossed himself with an accustomed movement, bent till he touched the ground with his hand, and bowed his white head with a deep sigh. Behind Kutuzov was Benigson and the suite. Despite the presence of the commander-in-chief, who attracted the attention of all the superior officers, the militiamen and soldiers continued their prayers without looking at him. When the service was over, Kutuzov stepped up to the icon, sank heavily to his knees, bowed to the ground and for a long time tried vainly to rise, but could not do so on account of his weakness and weight.

Starting point is 08:29:09 His white head twitched with the effort. At last he rose, kissed the icon as a child does with naively pouting lips, and again bowed till he touched the ground with his hand. The other generals followed his example, then the officers, and after them with excited faces, pressing on one another, crowding, panting and pushing, scrambled the soldiers and militiamen. End of Book 10, Chapter 21.

Starting point is 08:29:43 Book 10, Chapter 22, of War and Peace, Volume 3, by Leo Tolstoy, translated by Elmer Maude. This Libervox recording is in the public domain. Book 10, Chapter 22. Staggering amid the crush, Pierre looked about him. Count Peter Carrillovich! How did you get here? said a voice. Pierre looked round.

Starting point is 08:30:11 Boris Trubetskoy, brushing his knees with his hand. He had probably soiled them when he, too, had knelt before the icon, came up to him smiling. Boris was elegantly dressed, with a slightly martial touch appropriate to a campaign. He wore a long coat, and like Kutuzov had a whip slung across his shoulder. Meanwhile Kutuzov had reached the village and seated himself in the shade of the nearest house, on a bench which one Cossack had run to fetch, and another had hastily covered with a rug. An immense and brilliant suite surrounded him. The icon was carried further, accompanied by the throng.

Starting point is 08:30:51 Pierre stopped some thirty paces from Kutuzov, talking to Boris. He explained his wish to be present at the battle and to see the position. "'This is what you must do,' said Boris. "'I will do the honors of the camp to you. You will see everything best from where Count Benningsen will be. I am in attendance on him, you know. I'll mention it to him. But if you want to ride round the position, come along with us.

Starting point is 08:31:17 We are just going to the left flank. Then, when we get back, do spend the night with me, and we'll arrange a game of cards. Of course, you know Dmitri Sergeovitch. Those are his quarters. And he pointed to the third house in the village of Gorky. But I should like to see the right full. They say it's very strong, said Pierre.

Starting point is 08:31:40 I should like to start from the Moscow River and ride round the whole position. Well, you can do that later, but the chief thing is the left flank. Yes, yes, but where is Prince Bokonski's regiment? Can you point it out to me? Prince Andrews? We shall pass it, and I'll take you to him. What about the left flank? asked Pierre. To tell you the truth,

Starting point is 08:32:06 Between ourselves, God only knows what stayed our left flank is in, said Boris confidentially, lowering his voice. It is not at all what Count Bennington intended. He meant to fortify that knoll quite differently, but—Borish shrugged his shoulders. His serene highness would not have it, or someone persuaded him. You see— But Boris did not finish, for at that moment Kaysarov, Kutuzov's adjutant, came up to Pierre. "'Ah, Kaysarov,' said Boris, addressing him with an unembarrassed smile.

Starting point is 08:32:41 "'I was just trying to explain our position to the Count. "'It is amazing how his serene highness could so foresee the intentions of the French.' "'You mean the left flank?' asked Kaysarov. "'Yes, exactly. The left flank is now extremely strong.' "'Though Katoosov had dismissed all unnecessary men from the staff, Boris had contrived to remain at headquarters after the changes. He had established himself with Count Benningson, who, like all in whom Boris had been in attendance,

Starting point is 08:33:13 considered young Prince Dubetskoy an invaluable man. In the higher command, there were two sharply defined parties, Kutuzov's party and that of Benningson, the chief of staff. Boris belonged to the latter, and no one else, while showing servile respect to Kutuzov, could so create an impression. that the old fellow was not much good and that Benningson managed everything. Now the decisive moment of battle had come when Kutuzov would be destroyed, and the power

Starting point is 08:33:43 passed to Bennington, or even if Kutuzov won the battle, it would be felt that everything was done by Benningson. In any case, many great rewards would have to be given for tomorrow's action, and new men would come to the front. So Boris was full of nervous vivacity all day. After Kaysarov, others whom Pierre knew came up to him, and he had not time to reply to all the questions about Moscow that were showered upon him, or to listen to all that was told him. The faces all expressed animation and apprehension, but it seemed to Pierre that the cause of the excitement shown in some of these faces lay chiefly in questions of personal success. His mind, however, was occupied by the different expression he saw on other faces, an expression that spoke not of personal matters, but of the universal questions of life and death. Kutuzov noticed Pierre's figure and the group gathered round him. "'Call him to me,' said Kutuzov.

Starting point is 08:34:45 An adjutant told Pierre of his serene highness wish, and Pierre went toward Kutuzov's bench. But a militiamen got there before him. It was Dolokhov. How did that fellow get here? asked Pierre. He's a creature that wriggles in anywhere, was the answer. He has been degraded, you know. Now he wants to bob up again. He's been proposing some scheme or other

Starting point is 08:35:11 and has crawled into the enemy's picket line at night. He's a brave fellow. Pierre took off his hat and bowed respectfully to Kutuzov. I concluded that if I reported to your serene high, Highness, you might send me away, or say that you knew what I was reporting, but then I shouldn't lose anything,' Dolokhov was saying. "'Yes, yes.' But if I were right, I should be rendering a service to my fatherland for which I am ready to

Starting point is 08:35:41 die. "'Yes, yes.' And should your serene highness require a man who will not spare his skin, please think of me. Perhaps I may prove useful to your serene highness.' "'Yes, yes,' Katoosov repeated, his laughing eye narrowing more and more as he looked at Pierre. Just then, Boris, with his courtier-like adroitness, stepped up to Pierre's side near Kutuzov, and in a most natural manner, without raising his voice, said to Pierre, as though continuing an interrupted conversation, "'The militia have put on clean white shirts to be ready to die. What heroism count?'

Starting point is 08:36:23 Boris evidently said this to Pierre in order to be overheard by his serene highness. He knew Kutuzov's attention would be caught by those words, and so it was. "'What are you saying about the militia?' he asked Boris. "'Preparing for tomorrow, your serene highness, for death. They have put on clean shirts.' "'Ah, a wonderful, a matchless people,' said Kutuzov. And he closed his eyes and swayed his head. "'Ah, matchless people!' he repeated with a sigh. "'So you want to smell gunpowder?' he said to Pierre.

Starting point is 08:37:02 "'Yes, it's a pleasant smell. I have the honor to be one of your wife's adorers. Is she well? My quarters are at your service.' And as often happens with old people, Kutuzov began looking about absent-mindedly, as if forgetting all he wanted to say or do. Then, evidently remembering what he wanted, he beckoned to Andrew Kaysarov, his adjutant's brother. Those verses. Those verses of Marins. How do they go, eh? Those he wrote about Garakov? Lectures for the Corps inditing? Recite them, recite them, said he, evidently preparing to laugh. Kaysarov recited. Kutuzov smilingly nodded his head to the rhythm of the verses.

Starting point is 08:37:47 When Pierre had left Katoosov, Dahlikov came up to him and took his hand. "'I am very glad to meet you here, Count,' he said aloud, regardless of the presence of strangers, and in a particularly resolute and solemn tone. On the eve of a day when God alone knows who of us is fated to survive, I am glad of this opportunity to tell you that I regret the misunderstandings that occurred between us,

Starting point is 08:38:15 and should wish you not to have any ill feeling for me. I beg you to forgive me." Pierre looked at Dolokhov with a smile, not knowing what to say to him. With tears in his eyes, Dolokhov embraced Pierre and kissed him. Boris said a few words to his general, and Count Benningsen turned to Pierre and proposed that he should ride with him along the line. "'It will interest you,' said he. "'Yes, very much,' replied.

Starting point is 08:38:45 Pierre. Half an hour later, Kutuzov left for Tatarinova, and Benningsen and his suite, with Pierre among them, set out on their ride along the line. End of Book 10, Chapter 22. Book 10, Chapter 23, of War and Peace, Volume 3, by Leo Tolstoy, translated by Elmer Maude. This Librevox recording is in the public domain. Book 10, Chapter 23. From Gorky, Benningson descended the high road to the bridge, which, when they had looked at it from the hill, the officer had pointed out as being the center of our position, and where rose of fragrant new-mone hay lay by the riverside. They rode across that bridge into the village of Borodino and thence turned

Starting point is 08:39:42 to the left, passing an enormous number of troops and guns, and came to a high knoll where militiamen were digging. This was the redoubt, as yet unnamed. which afterwards became known as the Ryevsky Redoubt or the Nol battery, but Pierre paid no special attention to it. He did not know that it would become more memorable to him than any other spot on the plain of Borodino. They then crossed the hollow to Seminovsk, where the soldiers were dragging away the last logs from the huts and barns.

Starting point is 08:40:16 Then they rode downhill and uphill, across a rye field trodden and beaten down as if by hail, following a track freshly made by the artillery over the furrows of the plowed land, and reached some Fleshes, a kind of entrenchment, which were still being dug. At the Fleshes, Benningson stopped and began looking at the Chevardino redoubt opposite, which had been hours the day before and where several horsemen could be descried. The officer said that either Napoleon or Moraw was there, and they all gazed eagerly at this little group of horsemen.

Starting point is 08:40:51 Pierre also looked at them. trying to guess which of the scarcely discernible figures was Napoleon. At last those mounted men rode away from the mound and disappeared. Benningston spoke to a general who approached him and began explaining the whole position of our troops. Pierre listened to him, straining each faculty to understand the essential points of the impending battle, but was mortified to feel that his mental capacity was inadequate for the task.

Starting point is 08:41:20 He could make nothing of it. Benningson stopped speaking and noticing that Pierre was listening, suddenly said to him, "'I don't think this interests you.' "'On the contrary, it's very interesting,' replied Pierre, not quite truthfully. "'From the Fleshes, they rode still farther to the left, along a road winding through a thick, low-growing birch wood. In the middle of the wood, a brown hair with white feet sprang out, and scared by the tramp of the many horses, grew so confused that it lo-growing.

Starting point is 08:41:52 leaped along the road in front of them for some time, arousing general attention and laughter, and only when several voices shouted at it did it dart to one side and disappear in the thicket. After going through the wood for about a mile and a half, they came out on a glade where troops of Tuchkov's corps were stationed to defend the left flank. Here, at the extreme left flank, Benningsen talked a great deal and with much heat, and as it seemed to Pierre, gave orders of great military importance. In front of Tuchkov's troops was some high ground, not occupied by troops. Benningson loudly criticized this mistake, saying that it was madness to leave a height which

Starting point is 08:42:34 commanded the country around unoccupied and to place troops below it. Some of the generals expressed the same opinion. One in particular declared with martial heat that they were put there to be slaughtered. Benningson, on his own authority, ordered the troops to occupy the high ground. This disposition on the left flank increased Pierre's doubt of his own capacity to understand military matters. Listening to Benningson and the generals criticizing the position of the troops behind the hill, he quite understood them and shared their opinion, but for that very reason he could not understand how the man who put them there behind the hill could have made

Starting point is 08:43:14 so gross and palpable a blunder. Pierre did not know that these troops were not, as Benningson supposed, put there to defend the position, but were in a concealed position as an ambush, that they should not be seen and might be able to strike an approaching enemy unexpectedly. Benningson did not know this, and moved the troops forward, according to his own ideas, without mentioning the matter to the commander-in-chief. End of Book 10, Chapter 23. Book 10, Chapter 24. Of War and Peace, Volume 3, by Leo Tolstoy.

Starting point is 08:43:58 translated by Elmer Maude. This Libervox recording is in the public domain. Book 10, Chapter 24 On that bright evening of August 25th, Prince Andrew lay leaning on his elbow in a broken-down shed in the village of Kinyazkovo at the further end of his regiment's encampment. Through a gap in the broken wall, he could see, beside the wooden fence, a row of thirty-year-old birches with their lower branches lopped off,

Starting point is 08:44:28 A field on which shocks of oats were standing, and some bushes near which rose the smoke of campfires, the soldier's kitchens. Narrow and burdensome and useless to anyone, as his life now seemed to him, Prince Andrew on the eve of battle felt agitated and irritable as he had done seven years before at Austerlitz. He had received and given the orders for next day's battle and had nothing more to do. But his thoughts, the simplest, clearest, and therefore most terrible thoughts, would give him no peace. He knew that tomorrow's battle would be the most terrible of all he had taken part in, and for the first time in his life the possibility of death presented itself to him,

Starting point is 08:45:14 not in relation to any worldly matter or with reference to its effect on others, but simply in relation to himself, to his own soul. vividly, plainly, terribly, and almost as a certainty. And from the height of this perception, all that had previously tormented and preoccupied him suddenly became illumined by a cold white light without shadows, without perspective, without distinction of outline. All life appeared to him like magic lantern pictures at which he had long been gazing by artificial light through a glass. Now he suddenly saw those badly daubed pictures in clear daylight and without a glass.

Starting point is 08:45:56 Yes, yes, there they are, those false images that agitated, enraptured, and tormented me, said he to himself, passing in review the principal pictures of the magic lantern of life, and regarding them now in the cold white daylight of his clear perception of death. There they are, those rudely painted figures that, once seemed splendid and mysterious. Glory, the good of society, love of a woman, the fatherland itself. How important these pictures appeared to me! With what profound meaning they seemed to be filled!

Starting point is 08:46:34 And it is all so simple, pale, and crude in the cold white light of this morning which I feel is dawning for me. The great sorrows of his life held his attention in particular. His love for a woman, his father's death, and the French inviote the French invixtor. which had overrun half Russia. Love. That little girl who seemed to me brimming over with mystic forces. Yes, indeed, I loved her.

Starting point is 08:47:01 I made romantic plans of love and happiness with her. Oh, what a boy I was, he said aloud bitterly. Ah, me. I believed in some ideal love which was to keep her faithful to me for the whole year of my absence. Like the gentle dove in the fable, she was to pine apart from me. But it was much simpler, really. It was all very simple and horrible. When my father built bald hills, he thought the place was his,

Starting point is 08:47:34 his land, his heir, his peasants. But Napoleon came and swept him aside, unconscious of his existence, as he might brush a chip from his path, and his bald hills and his whole life fell to pieces. "'Princess Mary says it is a trial sent from above. "'What is the trial for when he is not here and will never return? "'He is not here.' "'For whom then is the trial intended? "'The fatherland, the destruction of Moscow.

Starting point is 08:48:08 "'And tomorrow I shall be killed, "'perhaps not even by a Frenchman, but by one of our own men, "'by a soldier discharging a musket close to my ear, as one of them did yesterday. And the French will come and take me by head and heels and fling me into a hole that I may not stink under their noses. And new conditions of life will arise, which will seem quite ordinary to others,

Starting point is 08:48:34 and about which I shall know nothing. I shall not exist. He looked at the row of birches shining in the sunshine, with their motionless green and yellow foliage and white bark. To die. To be killed to, tomorrow, that I should not exist, that all this should still be, but no me. And the birches with their light and shade, the curly clouds, the smoke of the campfires, and all that was around him changed, and seemed terrible and menacing. A cold shiver ran down

Starting point is 08:49:12 his spine. He rose quickly, went out of the shed, and began to walk about. After he had returned, voices were heard outside the shed. Who's that? he cried. The red-nosed Captain Tomokin, formerly Dahlikov Squadron commander, but now, from lack of officers, a battalion commander, shyly entered the shed, followed by an adjutant and the regimental paymaster. Prince Andrew rose hastily, listened to the business they had come about, gave them some further instructions, and was about to dismiss them, when he heard a familiar, lisping voice behind

Starting point is 08:49:49 the shed. "'Devil take it!' said the voice of a man stumbling over something. Prince Andrew looked out of the shed and saw Pierre, who had tripped over a pole on the ground and had nearly fallen, coming his way. It was unpleasant to Prince Andrew to meet people of his own set in general, and Pierre especially, for he reminded him of all the painful moments of his last visit to Moscow. "'You? What a surprise,' said he. "'What brings you here!

Starting point is 08:50:19 This is unexpected. As he said this, his eyes and face expressed more than coldness. They expressed hostility, which Pierre noticed at once. He had approached the shed full of animation, but on seeing Prince Andrew's face he felt constrained and ill at ease. I have come. Simply, you know, come. It interests me, said Pierre,

Starting point is 08:50:46 who had so often that day senselessly repeated, that word interesting. I wish to see the battle. Oh, yes. And what do the Masonic brothers say about war? How would they stop it? said Prince Andrew sarcastically. Well, and how's Moscow?

Starting point is 08:51:05 And my people. Have they reached Moscow at last? He asked seriously. Yes, they have. Julie Drupat-Skaya told me so. I went to see them, but missed them. They have gone to your estate, Near Moscow.

Starting point is 08:51:22 End of Book 10, Chapter 24. Book 10, Chapter 25, of War and Peace, Volume 3, by Leo Tolstoy, translated by Elmer Maude. This Liberbox recording is in the public domain. Book 10, Chapter 25. The officers were about to take leave, but Prince Andrew, apparently reluctant to be left alone with his friend, asked them to stay and have tea. Seats were brought in, and so was the tea. The officers gazed with surprise at Pierre's huge, stout figure,

Starting point is 08:52:04 and listened to his talk of Moscow and the position of our army, run which he had ridden. Prince Andrew remained silent, and his expression was so forbidding that Pierre addressed his remarks chiefly to the good-natured battalion commander. "'So you understand the whole position of our troops?' Prince Andrew interrupted him. "'Yes, that is, how do you mean?' said Pierre.

Starting point is 08:52:30 "'Not being a military man, I can't say I have understood it fully, but I understand the general position.' "'Well, then, you know more than anyone else, be it who it may,' said Prince Andrew. "'Oh,' said Pierre, looking over his spectacles in perplexity at Prince Andrew. "'Well, and what do you think of Kutuzov's appointment?' He asked. I was very glad of his appointment, that's all I know, replied Prince Andrew. And tell me your opinion of Barclay de Tully.

Starting point is 08:53:03 In Moscow, they are saying, Heaven knows what about him. What do you think of him? Ask them, replied Prince Andrew, indicating the officers. Pierre looked at Timokin with the condescendingly interrogative smile with which everybody involuntarily addressed that officer. We see light again, "'Since his serenity has been appointed, Your Excellency,' said Timokin timidly, and continually turning to glance at his colonel.

Starting point is 08:53:31 "'Why so?' asked Pierre. "'Well, to mention only firewood and fodder, let me inform you. Why, when we were retreating from Svetianni, we dare not touch a stick or a wisp of hay or anything. You see, we were going away, so he would get it all. Wasn't it so, Your Excellency?' And again Tomokin turned to the prince. But we daren't.

Starting point is 08:53:56 In our regiment, two officers were court-martialed for that kind of thing. But when his serenity took command, everything became straightforward. Now we see light. Then why was it forbidden? Tomoka looked about in confusion, not knowing what or how to answer such a question. Pierre put the same question to Prince Andrew. Why? So was not to lay waste the country we were abandoning to the enemy, said Prince Andrew, with venomous irony.

Starting point is 08:54:27 It is very sound. One can't permit the land to be pillaged and accustom the troops to marauding. At Smolensk, too, he judged correctly that the French might outflank us, as they had larger forces. But he could not understand this, cried Prince Andrew in a shrill voice that seemed to escape him involuntarily. He could not understand that, there, for the first time we were fighting for Russian soil, and that there was a spirit in the men such as I had never seen before, that we had held the French for two days, and that that success had increased our strength tenfold. He ordered us to retreat, and all our efforts and losses went for nothing. He had no thought of betraying us. He tried to do the best he could. He thought out everything,

Starting point is 08:55:15 and that is why he is unsuitable. He is unsuitable now, just as well. He is unsuitable now, just because he plans out everything very thoroughly and accurately as every German has to. How can I explain? Well, say your father has a German valet, and he is a splendid valet, and satisfies your father's requirements better than you could. Then it's all right to let him serve. But if your father is mortally sick, you'll send the valet away and attend to your father with your own unpracticed, awkward hands, and will soothe him better than a skilled man who is a stranger could. So it has been with Barclay. While Russia was well, a foreigner could serve her and be a splendid minister.

Starting point is 08:55:59 But as soon as she is in danger, she needs one of her own kin. But in your club they have been making him out a traitor. They slander him as a traitor, and the only result will be that, afterwards, ashamed of their false accusations, they will make him out a hero or a genius instead of a traitor, and that will be still more unjust. He is an honest and very punctilious German. And they say he's a skillful commander, rejoined Pierre. I don't understand what is meant by a skillful commander, replied Prince Andrew ironically. A skillful commander? replied Pierre.

Starting point is 08:56:39 Why, one who foresees all contingencies, and foresees the adversary's intentions. But that's impossible, said Prince Andrew, as if it were a matter settled long ago. Pierre looked at him in surprise. And yet they say that war is like a game of chess, he remarked. Yes, replied Prince Andrew, but with this little difference, that in chess you may think over each move as long as you please, and are not limited for time. And with this difference too, that a knight is always stronger than a pawn, and two pawns are always stronger than one, while in war a battalion is sometimes stronger than a division and sometimes weaker than a company. The relative strength of bodies of troops can never be known to anyone.

Starting point is 08:57:29 "'Believe me,' he went on, "'if things depended on arrangements made by the staff, I should be there making arrangements. But instead of that, I have the honor to serve here in the regiment with these gentlemen. And I consider that on us tomorrow's battle will depend, and not on those others. Success never depends and never will depend on position or equipment or even on numbers, and least of all, on position. But on what then? On the feeling that is in me and in him, he pointed to Tomokin, and in each soldier.

Starting point is 08:58:06 Prince Andrew glanced at Timokin, who looked at his commander in alarm and bewilderment. In contrast to his former reticent taciturnity, Prince Andrew now seemed excited. He could apparently not refrain from expressing the thoughts that had suddenly occurred to him. A battle is won by those who firmly resolved to win it. Why did we lose the battle at Austerlitz? The French losses were almost equal to ours, but very early we said to ourselves that we were losing the battle and we did lose it.

Starting point is 08:58:38 And we said so because we had nothing to fight for there. We wanted to get away from the battlefield as soon as we could, could. We've lost, so let us run, and we ran. If we had not said that till the evening, heaven knows what might not have happened. But tomorrow we shan't say it. You talk about our position, the left flank weak and the right flank to extended? He went on, that's all nonsense. There's nothing of the kind. But what awaits us tomorrow? A hundred million most diverse chances which will be decided on the instant by the fact that our men or theirs run or do not run, and that this man or that man is killed, but all that is being done at the present

Starting point is 08:59:20 is only play. The fact is that those men with whom you have ridden round the position not only do not help matters, but hinder. They are concerned with their own petty interests. "'At such a moment?' said Pierre reproachfully. "'At such a moment,' Prince Andrew repeated. "'To them it is only a moment affording opportunities to undermine arrival and obtain an extra cross or ribbon. For me, tomorrow means this. A Russian army of a hundred thousand and a French army of a hundred thousand have met to fight. And the thing is that these two hundred thousand men will fight, and the side that fights more fiercely and spares itself least will

Starting point is 09:00:04 win. And if you like, I will tell you that whatever happens and whatever muddles those at the top may make, we shall win tomorrow's battle. Tomorrow, happen what may, we shall win. "'There now, Your Excellency, that's the truth, the real truth,' said Tomokin. "'Who would spare himself now? The soldiers in my battalion, believe me, wouldn't drink their vodka. It's not the day for that, they say.' All were silent.

Starting point is 09:00:35 The officers rose. Prince Andrew went out of the shed with them, giving final orders to the adjutant. After they had gone, Pierre approached Prince Andrew. and was about to start a conversation when they heard the clatter of three horses' hoofs on the road not far from the shed. And looking in that direction, Prince Andrew recognized Volzgen and Klauswitz, accompanied by a Cossack. They rode close by, continuing to converse,

Starting point is 09:01:01 and Prince Andrew involuntarily heard these words. The Krieg mustn't ram verliked to verdun. The Anzik can I not enough price-gibben. The war must be extended widely. I cannot sufficiently commend that view, said one of them. "'Oh, yeah,' said the other. "'Dert's feck is nor than find, so shakken. So can man give us nick than verdest a private person and aftunamen?'

Starting point is 09:01:27 "'Oh, yes, the only aim is to weaken the enemy, so, of course, one cannot take into account the loss of private individuals.' "'Oh, no,' agreed the other. "'extend widely,' said Prince Andrew with an angry, snort when they had ridden past. In that extend were my father, son, and sister at Bald Hills. That's all the same to him. That's what I was saying to you.

Starting point is 09:01:53 Those German gentlemen won't win the battle tomorrow, but will only make all the mess they can, because they have nothing in their German heads but theories not worth an empty eggshell, and have it in their hearts the one thing needed tomorrow. That which Tomokin has. They have yielded up all Europe to him, and have now come to teach us.

Starting point is 09:02:13 "'Find teachers!' And again his voice grew shrill. "'So you think we shall win tomorrow's battle?' asked Pierre. "'Yes, yes,' answered Prince Andrew absently. "'One thing I would do if I had the power,' he began again, "'I would not take prisoners. Why take prisoners? It's chivalry. The French have destroyed my home and are on their way to destroy Moscow. They have outraged and are outraging me every moment.

Starting point is 09:02:43 They are my enemies. In my opinion, they are all criminals. And so thinks Tomokin and the whole army. They should be executed. Since they are my foes, they cannot be my friends. Whatever may have been said at Tiltzit. Yes, yes, muttered Pierre, looking with shining eyes at Prince Andrew.

Starting point is 09:03:03 I quite agree with you. The question that had perturved Pierre on the Mosec Hill and all that day now seemed to him quite clear and completely solved. He now understood the whole meaning and importance of this war, and of the impending battle. All he had seen that day, all the significant and stern expressions on the faces he had seen in passing, were lit up for him by a new light.

Starting point is 09:03:28 He understood that latent heat, as they say in physics, of patriotism which was present in all these men he had seen, and this explained to him why they all prepared for death calmly, and, as it were, lightheartedly. "'Not take prisoners,' Prince Andrew continued. "'That by itself would quite change the whole war and make it less cruel. "'As it is, we have played at war.

Starting point is 09:03:53 "'That's what's vile.' "'We play at magnanimity and all that stuff. "'Such magnanimity and sensibility "'are like the magnanimity and sensibility of a lady "'who faints when she sees a calf being killed. "'She is so kind-hearted that you can't look at blood, but enjoys eating the calf served up with sauce. They talk to us of the rules of war,

Starting point is 09:04:15 of chivalry, of flags of truce, of mercy to the unfortunate, and so on. It's all rubbish. I saw chivalry and flags of truce in 1805. They humbugged us and we humbugged them. They plunder other people's houses, issue false paper money, and worst of all, they kill my children and my father,

Starting point is 09:04:36 and then talk of rules of war and magnanimity to defunders. Fos! Take no prisoners, but kill and be killed. He who has come to this as I have through the same sufferings—' Prince Andrew, who had thought it was all the same to him, whether or not Moscow was taken as Smolensk had been, was suddenly checked in his speech by an unexpected cramp in his throat. He paced up and down a few times in silence, but his eyes glittered feverishly and his lips quivered as he began speaking. If there was none of this magnanimity in war, we should go to war only when it was worthwhile going to certain death as now. Then there would not be war because Paul Ivanovitch had offended Michael Ivanovich.

Starting point is 09:05:19 And when there was a war, like this one, it would be war. And then the determination of the troops would be quite different. Then all these Westphalians and Hessians, whom Napoleon is leading, would not follow him into Russia, and we should not go to fight in Austria and Prussia without knowing why. War is not courtesy, but the most horrible thing in life. We ought to understand that, and not play at war. We ought to accept this terrible necessity sternly and seriously.

Starting point is 09:05:50 It all lies in that. Get rid of falsehood, and let war be war, and not a game. As it is now, war is the favorite pastime of the idol and frivolous. The military calling is the most highly honored. But what is war? What is needed for success in warfare? What are the habits of the military? The aim of war is murder. The methods of war are spying, treachery, and their encouragement, the ruin of a country's inhabitants, robbing them or stealing to provision the army. And fraud and falsehood termed military craft.

Starting point is 09:06:27 The habits of the military class are the absence of freedom, that is, discipline, idleness, ignorance, cruelty, debauchery, and drunkenness. And in spite of all this, it is the highest class, respected by everyone. All the kings, except the Chinese, wear military uniforms, and he who kills most people receives the highest rewards. They meet, as we shall meet tomorrow, to murder one another. They kill and maim tens of thousands, and then have thanksgiving services for having killed so many people.

Starting point is 09:07:02 They even exaggerate the number, and they announce a victory, "'supposing that the more people they have killed, the greater their achievement. "'How does God above look at them and hear them?' exclaimed Prince Andrew in a shrill, piercing voice. "'Ah, my friend, it has of late become hard for me to live. I see that I have begun to understand too much, and it doesn't do for man to taste of the tree of knowledge of good and evil.' "'Ah, well, it's not for long,' he added. "'However, you're sleepy.' "'And it's time for me to sleep.'

Starting point is 09:07:38 "'Go back to Gorky,' said Prince Andrew suddenly. "'Oh, no,' Pierre replied, looking at Prince Andrew with frightened, compassionate eyes. "'Go, go, go. Before a battle, one must have one's sleep out,' repeated Prince Andrew. He came quickly up to Pierre and embraced and kissed him. "'Good-bye, be off,' he shouted. "'Whether we meet again or not, and turning away hurriedly, he entered the shed. It was already dark, and Pierre could not make out whether the expression of Prince Andrew's

Starting point is 09:08:12 face was angry or tender. For some time he stood in silence, considering whether he should follow him or go away. No, he does not want it, Pierre concluded. And I know that this is our last meeting. He sighed deeply and rode back to Gorky. On re-entering the shed, Prince Andrew laid down on a rug, but he could not sleep. He closed his eyes. One picture succeeded another in his imagination.

Starting point is 09:08:43 On one of them he dwelt long and joyfully. He vividly recalled an evening in Petersburg. Natasha, with animated and excited face, was telling him how she had gone to look for mushrooms the previous summer and had lost her way in the big forest. She incoherently described the depths of the forest, her feelings, and a talk with a beekeeper she met, and constantly interrupted her story to say,

Starting point is 09:09:07 say, no, I can't. I'm not telling it right. No, you don't understand. Though he encouraged her by saying that he did understand, and he really had understood all she wanted to say. But Natasha was not satisfied with her own words. She felt that they did not convey the passionately poetic feeling she had experienced that day and wished to convey. He was such a delightful old man, and it was so dark in the forest, and he had such kind—no, I can't describe it, she had said, flushed and excited. Prince Andrews smiled now the same happy smile as then, when he had looked into her eyes. "'I understood her,' he thought. "'I not only understood her, but it was just that inner spiritual force, that sincerity,

Starting point is 09:09:57 that frankness of soul, that very soul of hers which seemed to be fettered by her body. It was that soul I loved in her, loved so strongly and happily. And suddenly he remembered how his love had ended. He did not need anything of that kind. He neither saw nor understood anything of the sort. He only saw in her a pretty and fresh young girl, with whom he did not deign to unite his fate. And I?

Starting point is 09:10:26 And he is still alive and gay. Prince Andrew jumped up as if someone had burned, burned him, and again began pacing up and down in front of the shed. End of Book 10, Chapter 25. Book 10, Chapter 26, of War and Peace, Volume 3, by Leo Tolstoy, translated by Elmer Maude. This Liberbox recording is in the public domain. Book 10, Chapter 26 On August 25th, the eve of the Battle of Borodino, Moseu de Bois Prefect of the French Emperor's palace, arrived at Napoleon's quarters at Valuvo, with Colonel Favier,

Starting point is 09:11:17 the former from Paris and the latter from Madrid. Donning his court uniform, Monsieur de Boet ordered a box he had brought for the Emperor to be carried before him, and entered the first compartment of Napoleon's tent, where he began opening the box while conversing with Napoleon's aide-de-camp who surrounded him. Favier, not entering the tent, remained at the entrance talking to some generals of his acquaintance. The Emperor Napoleon had not yet left his bedroom and was finishing his toilette. Slightly snorting and grunting, he presented now his back and now his plump hairy chest to the brush, with which his valet was rubbing him down.

Starting point is 09:11:58 Another valet, with his finger over the mouth of a bottle, was sprinkling Ode-Cologne on the Emperor's pampered body, with an expression which seemed to say that he alone knew where, and how much Ode-Cologne should be sprinkled. Napoleon's short hair was wet and matted on the forehead, but his face, though puffy and yellow, expressed physical satisfaction. "'Go on, harder, go on,' he muttered to the valet who was rubbing him, slightly twitching and grunting. An aide-de-camp, who had entered the bedroom to report to the emperor

Starting point is 09:12:32 the number of prisoners taken in yesterday's action, was standing by the door after delivering his message, awaiting permission to withdraw. Napoleon, frowning, looked at him from under his brows. "'No prisoners,' said he, repeating the aide-de-camp's words. "'They are forcing us to exterminate them. So much the worse for the Russian army. "'Go on, harder, harder,' he muttered, hunching his back and presenting his fat shoulders. "'All right. Let Monsieur de Boet enter, and Faviers, too,' he said, nodding to the aide-de-camp. "'Yes, sire,' and the aide-de-camp disappeared through the door of the tent.

Starting point is 09:13:13 Two valets rapidly dressed his majesty, and wearing the blue uniform of the guards he went with firm quick steps to the reception-room. Debosset's hands, meanwhile, were busily engaged arranging the present he had brought from the empress, on two chairs directly in front of the entrance. But Napoleon had dressed and come out with such unexpected rapidity that he had not time to finish arranging the surprise. Napoleon noticed at once what they were about, and guessed that they were not ready. He did not wish to deprive them of the pleasure of giving him a surprise, so he pretended not to see De Boet, and called Favier to him, listening silently and with a stern frown

Starting point is 09:13:57 to what Favier told him of the heroism and devotion of his troops fighting at Salamanca, at the other end of Europe, with but one thought, to be worthy of their emperor, and and but one fear, to fail to please him. The result of that battle had been deplorable. Napoleon made ironic remarks during Faviers' account as if he had not expected that matters could go otherwise in his absence. "'I must make up for that in Moscow,' said Napoleon. "'I'll see you later,' he added, and summoned de Bosse,

Starting point is 09:14:31 who by that time had prepared the surprise, having placed something on the chairs and covered it with a claw. D'Bosey bowed low, with that courtly French bow which only the old retainers of the bourbons knew how to make, and approached him presenting an envelope. Napoleon turned to him gaily and pulled his ear. "'You have hurried here. I am very glad. Well, what is Paris saying?' he asked, suddenly changing his former stern expression for a most cordial tone. "'Sire, all Paris regrets your absence,' replied Deboseiose, as was proper. But though Napoleon knew that De Boet had to say something of this kind, and though

Starting point is 09:15:14 in his lucid moments he knew it was untrue, he was pleased to hear it from him. Again he honored him by touching his ear. "'I am very sorry to have made you travel so far,' said he. "'Sire, I expected nothing less than to find you at the gates of Moscow,' replied De Boet. Napoleon smiled, and, lifting his head absent-mindedly, glanced to the right. An aide-de-camp approached with gliding steps and offered him a gold snuff-box, which he took. "'Yes, it has happened luckily for you,' he said, raising the open snuff-box to his nose. "'You are fond of travel, and in three days you will see Moscow.' "'You surely did not expect to see that Asiatic capital.

Starting point is 09:16:03 you will have a pleasant journey." Debosset bowed gratefully at this regard for his taste for travel, of which he had not till then been aware. "'Ha! What's this?' asked Napoleon, noticing that all the courtiers were looking at something concealed under a cloth. With courtly adroitness, De Boet half-turned, and without turning us back to the Emperor, retired two steps, twitching off the cloth at the same time and said,

Starting point is 09:16:31 a present to your majesty from the Empress. It was a portrait, painted in bright colors by Gerard, of the son born to Napoleon by the daughter of the Emperor of Austria, the boy whom, for some reason, everyone called the King of Rome. A very pretty curly-headed boy with a look of the Christ and the Sistine Madonna was depicted playing its stick and ball. The ball represented the terrestrial globe, and the stick in his other hand, a scepter.

Starting point is 09:17:04 Though it was not clear what the artist meant to express by depicting the so-called King of Rome spiking the earth with a stick, the allegory apparently seemed to Napoleon, as it had done to all who had seen it in Paris, quite clear and very pleasing. The King of Rome, he said, pointing to the portrait with a graceful gesture.

Starting point is 09:17:25 Admirable! With the natural capacity of an Italian for change, changing the expression of his face at will, he drew nearer to the portrait and assumed a look of pensive tenderness. He felt that what he now said and did would be historical, and it seemed to him that it would now be best for him, whose grandeur enabled his son to play stick and ball with the terrestrial globe, to show, in contrast to that grandeur, the simplest paternal tenderness. His eyes grew dim, he moved forward, glanced round at a chair, which seemed to place itself under him, and sat down on it before the portrait. At a single gesture from him,

Starting point is 09:18:07 everyone went out on tiptoe, leaving the great man to himself and his emotion. Having sat still for a while, he touched, himself not knowing why, the thick spot of paint representing the highest light in the portrait, rose and recalled de Boise and the officer on duty. He ordered the portrait to be carried outside his tent, that the old guard, stationed round it, might not be deprived of the pleasure of seeing the King of Rome, the son and heir of their adored monarch. And while he was doing Monsieur de Boet, the honor of breakfasting with him, they heard, as Napoleon had anticipated, the rapturous cries of the officers and men of the old guard who had run up to see the portrait.

Starting point is 09:18:53 "'Vive lapeur! Vive la voir de Rome! Vive leper, came those ecstatic cries. After breakfast, Napoleon and de Boet's presence dictated his order of the day to the army. Short and energetic, he remarked when he had read over the proclamation which he had dictated straight off without corrections. It ran,

Starting point is 09:19:17 Soldiers, this is the battle you have so longed for. Victory depends on you. It is essential for us. It will give us all we need, comfortable quarters, and a speedy return to our country. Behave as you did at Austerlitz, Friedland, Videpsk, and Smolensk. Let our remotest posterity recall your achievements this day with pride. Let it be said of each of you. He was in the great battle before Moscow.

Starting point is 09:19:47 Before Moscow, repeated Napoleon, and inviting Monsieur de Boet, who was so fond of travel, to accompany him on his ride, he went out of the tent to where the horses stood saddled. "'Your Majesty is too kind,' replied de Boet to the invitation to accompany the Emperor. He wanted to sleep, did not know how to ride, and was afraid of doing so. But Napoleon nodded to the traveller, and de Boet had to mount. When Napoleon came out of the tent, the shouting of the guards before his son's portrait grew still louder. Napoleon frowned. Take him away, he said, pointing with a gracefully majestic gesture to the portrait.

Starting point is 09:20:32 It is too soon for him to see a field of battle. De Boet closed his eyes, bowed his head, and sighed deeply, to indicate how profoundly he valued and comprehended the Emperor's words. End of Book 10, Chapter 26. Book 10, Chapter 27, of War and Peace, Volume 3.3. by Leo Tolstoy, translated by Elmer Maude. This Libervox recording is in the public domain. Book 10, Chapter 27

Starting point is 09:21:12 On the 25th of August, so his historians tell us, Napoleon spent the whole day on horseback inspecting the locality, considering plans submitted to him by his marshals, and personally giving commands to his generals. The original line of the Russian forces along the river Colercian, have been dislocated by the capture of the Chavardi no redoubt on the 24th, and part of the line, the left flank, had been drawn back. That part of the line was not entrenched, and in front of it the ground was more open and level

Starting point is 09:21:46 than elsewhere. It was evident to anyone, military or not, that it was here the French should attack. It would seem that not much consideration was needed to reach this conclusion, nor any particular care or trouble on the part of the emperor and his marshals, nor was there any need of that special and supreme quality called genius that people are so apt to ascribe to Napoleon. Yet the historians who described the event later, and the men who then surrounded Napoleon, and he himself thought otherwise.

Starting point is 09:22:18 Napoleon rode over the plane and surveyed the locality with a profound air and in silence, nodded with approval, or shook his head dubiously. and without communicating to the generals around him, the profound course of ideas which guided his decisions merely gave them his final conclusions in the form of commands. Having listened to a suggestion from Davao, who was now called Prince Dekmule, to turn the Russian left wing, Napoleon said it should not be done, without explaining why not. To a proposal made by General Campan, who was to attack the Fleshes, to lead his division through the woods, Napoleon agreed, though the so-called Duke of Elchingen, nay, ventured to

Starting point is 09:23:01 remark that a movement through the woods was dangerous and might disorder the division. Having inspected the country opposite the Chavardino Redoubt, Napoleon pondered a little in silence, and then indicated the spots where two batteries should be set up by the morrow to act against the Russian entrenchments, and the places where, in line with them, the field artillery should be placed. After giving these another commands, he returned to his tent, and the dispositions for the battle were written down from his dictation. These dispositions, of which the French historians write with enthusiasm and other historians with profound respect were as follows. At dawn, the two batteries established during the night on the plane occupied by the Prince Dec Mule

Starting point is 09:23:47 will open fire on the opposing batteries of the enemy. At the same time, the command of the of the artillery of the First Corps, General Pernetti, with 30 cannon of Campan's Division and all the howitzers of Desais and Friance divisions, will move forward, open fire, and overwhelm with shell fire the enemy's battery, against which will operate 24 guns of the artillery of the guards, 30 guns of Campan's Division, and eight guns of Friance and DeSays divisions, in all 62 guns. The commander of the artillery of the Third Corps, General Foucher will place the howitzers of the third and eighth corps, 16 and all, on the flanks of the battery that is to bombard the entrenchment on the left, which will have 40 guns and all directed

Starting point is 09:24:33 against it. General Sorbier must be ready at the first order to advance with all the howitzers of the guard's artillery against either one or other of the entrenchments. During the cannonade, Prince Ponyatowski is to advance through the wood on the village and turn the enemy's position. General Campan will move through the wood to seize the first fortification. After the advance has begun in this manner, orders will be given in accordance with the enemy's movements. The cannonade on the left flank will begin as soon as the guns of the right wing are heard. The sharpshooters of Moran's division and of the Vice King's Division will open a heavy fire on seeing the attack commence on the right wing.

Starting point is 09:25:15 The Vice King will occupy the village and cross by its three bridges, advancing to the same Heights as Morans and Jabbar's divisions, which, under his leadership, will be directed against the redoubt and come in line with the rest of the forces. All this must be done in good order. Lettu se far as possible retaining troops in reserve. The Imperial Camp near Mojaisk, September 6, 1812. These dispositions, which are very obscure and confused if one allows oneself to regard the arrangements without religious awe of his genius, related to Napoleon's orders to deal with four points, four different orders. Not one of these was or could be carried out. In the disposition, it was said first that the batteries placed on the spot chosen by Napoleon,

Starting point is 09:26:07 with the guns of Pernetti and Foucher, which were to come in line with them, 102 guns and all, were to open fire and shower shells on the Russian Fleshes and redoubts. This could not be done, as from the spot selected by Napoleon, the projectiles did not carry to the Russian works, and those 102 guns shot into the air until the nearest commander, contrary to Napoleon's instructions, moved them forward. The second order was that Ponyatowski, moving to the village through the wood, should turn the Russian left flank. This could not be done and was not done, because Ponyatowski, advancing on the village through the wood, met Tuchkov there barring his way, and could not and did not turn the Russian

Starting point is 09:26:54 position. The third order was, General Kampan will move through the wood to seize the first fortification. General Kampan's division did not seize the first fortification, but was driven back, for on emerging from the wood it had to reform under grape-shot, of which Napoleon was unaware. the fourth order was, The vice-king will occupy the village, Borodino, and crossed by its three bridges, advancing to the same heights as Morans and Girard's divisions, for whose movements no directions were given, which under his leadership will be directed against the redoubt and come into line with the rest of the forces.

Starting point is 09:27:34 As far as one can make out, not so much from this unintelligible sentence as from the attempts the vice-king made to execute the orders given him, he was to advance from the left through Borodino to the redoubt, while the divisions of Moran and Girard were to advance simultaneously from the front. All this, like the other parts of the disposition, was not and could not be executed. After passing through Borodino, the vice-king was driven back to the Kolachav and could get no farther. While the divisions of Moran and Girard did not take the redoubt but were driven back, and the redoubt was only taken at the end of the battle by the cavalry, a thing probably unforeseen and not heard of by Napoleon.

Starting point is 09:28:18 So, not one of the orders in the disposition was or could be executed. But in the disposition it is said that, after the fight has commenced in this manner, orders will be given in accordance with the enemy's movements. And so it might be supposed that all necessary arrangements would be made by Napoleon during the battle. But this was not and could not be done. For during the whole battle, Napoleon was so far away that, as appeared later,

Starting point is 09:28:47 he could not know the course of the battle, and not one of his orders during the fight could be executed. End of Book 10, Chapter 27. Book 10, Chapter 28, Of War and Peace, Volume 3, by Leo Tolstoy, translated by Elmer Maude. This Libervox recording is in the public domain. Book 10, Chapter 28 Many historians say that the French did not win the Battle of Borodino because Napoleon had a cold, and that if he had not had a cold, the orders he gave before and during the battle

Starting point is 09:29:31 would have been still more full of genius, and Russia would have been lost, and the face of the world have been changed. To historians who believe that Russia was shaped by the will of one man, Peter the Great, and that France, from a republic, became an empire, and French armies went to Russia at the will of one man, Napoleon, to say that Russia remained a power because Napoleon had a bad cold on the 24th of August, may seem logical and convincing. If it had depended on Napoleon's will to fight or not to fight the Battle of Borodino, and if this or that other arrangement depended on his will, then, evidently, a cold affecting the manifestation of his will might have saved Russia. And consequently, the valet who admitted to bring Napoleon his waterproof boots on the 24th

Starting point is 09:30:21 would have been the savior of Russia. Along that line of thought, such a deduction is indubitable, as indubitable as the deduction Voltaire made in jest, without knowing what he was jesting at, when he saw that the massacre of St. Bartholomew was due to Charles the ninth's stomach being deranged. But to men who do not admit that Russia was formed by the will of one man, Peter I, or that the French Empire was formed and the war with Russia begun by the will of one man, Napoleon, that argument seems not merely untrue and irrational, but contrary to all human reality. To the question of what causes historic events, another answer presents itself. namely, that the course of human events is predetermined from on high, depends on the coincidence of the wills of all who take part in the events, and that a Napoleon's influence

Starting point is 09:31:16 on the course of these events is purely external and fictitious. Strange as at first glance it may seem to suppose that the massacre of St. Bartholomew was not due to Charles the Knight's will, though he gave the order for it and thought it was done as a result of that order, and strange as it may seem to be said to be a result of that order, and strange as it may seem to suppose that the slaughter of 80,000 men at Borodino was not due to Napoleon's will, though he ordered the commencement and conduct of the battle and thought it was done because he ordered it. Strange as these suppositions appear, yet human dignity, which tells me that each of us is, if not more, at least not less than a man than the great Napoleon, demands the

Starting point is 09:31:58 acceptance of that solution of the question, and historic investigation abundantly conundably confirms it. At the Battle of Boredino, Napoleon shot at no one and killed no one. That was all done by the soldiers. Therefore, it was not he who killed people. The French soldiers went to kill and be killed at the Battle of Boroedino, not because of Napoleon's orders, but by their own volition. The whole army, French, Italian, German, Polish and Dutch, hungry, ragged and weary of the campaign, felt at the sight of an army blocking their road to Moscow, that the wine was drawn and must be drunk. Had Napoleon then forbidden them to fight the Russians, they would have killed him, and have proceeded to fight the Russians because it was inevitable.

Starting point is 09:32:47 When they heard Napoleon's proclamation offering them, as compensation for mutilation and death, the words of posterity about their having been in the battle before Moscow, they cried, Vive Laperer! Just as they had cried, Vive L'Apereur at the side of the portrait of the boy piercing the terrestrial globe with a toy stick, and just as they would have cried, Vive Lampere at any nonsense that might be told them. There was nothing left for them to do but cry,

Starting point is 09:33:16 Vive Lampereur, and go to fight, in order to get food and rest as conquerors in Moscow. So it was not because of Napoleon's commands that they killed their fellow men. And it was not Napoleon who directed the course of the battle, for none of his orders were executed, and during the battle he did not know what was going on before him. So the way in which these people killed one another was not decided by Napoleon's will, but occurred independently of him, in accord with the will of hundreds of thousands of people who took part in the common action. It only seemed to Napoleon that it all took place by his will. And the same to Napoleon, and

Starting point is 09:33:57 so the question whether he had or had not a cold has no more historic interest than the cold of the least of the transport soldiers. Moreover, the assertion made by various writers that his cold was the cause of his dispositions not being as well planned as on former occasions, and of his orders during the battle not being as good as previously, is quite baseless, which again shows that Napoleon's cold on the 26th of August was unimportant. The dispositions cited above are not at all worse, but are even better than previous dispositions by which he had won victories. His pseudo-orders during the battle were also no

Starting point is 09:34:38 worse than formerly, but much the same as usual. These dispositions and orders only seem worse than previous ones because the Battle of Borodino was the first Napoleon did not win. The profoundest and most excellent dispositions and orders seem very bad, and every learned militarist criticizes them with looks of importance when they relate to a battle that has been lost. And the very worst dispositions in order seem very good, and serious people fill whole volumes to demonstrate their merits when they relate to a battle that has been won. The dispositions drawn up by Veyroter for the Battle of Austerlitz were a model of perfection for that kind of composition. But still, they were criticized, criticized for their very perfection,

Starting point is 09:35:23 for their excessive minuteness. Napoleon, at the Battle of Borodino, fulfilled his office as representative of authority, as well as, and even better than, at other battles. He did nothing harmful to the progress of the battle. He inclined to the most reasonable opinions. He made no confusion, did not contradict himself, did not get frightened or run away from the field of battle,

Starting point is 09:35:49 but with his great tact and military experience, carried out his role of appearing to command, calmly and with dignity. End of Book 10, Chapter 28. Book 10, Chapter 29, of War and Peace, Volume 3, by Leo Tolstoy, translated by Elmer Maude. This Libervox recording is in the public domain. Book 10, Chapter 29. On returning from a second inspection of the lines,

Starting point is 09:36:29 Napoleon remarked, The chessmen are set up. The game will begin tomorrow. Having ordered Punch and summoned Debose, he began to talk to him about Paris and about some changes he meant to make in the Empress' household, surprising the prefect by his memory of minute details relating to the court. He showed an interest in trifles,

Starting point is 09:36:52 joked about De Boet's love of travel, and chatted carelessly, as a famous self-confident surgeon who knows Rose's job does, when turning up his sleeves and putting on his apron while a patient is being strapped to the operating table. The matter is in my hands and is clear and definite in my head. When the time comes to set to work, I shall do it as no one else could, but now I can jest, and the more I jest and the calmer I am, the more tranquil and confident you ought to be,

Starting point is 09:37:22 and the more amazed at my genius. Having finished his second glass of punch, Napoleon went to rest before the serious business which he considered awaited him next day. He was so much interested in that task that he was unable to sleep, and in spite of his cold, which had grown worse from the dampness of the evening, he went into the large division of the tent at three o'clock in the morning, loudly blowing his nose. He asked whether the Russians had not withdrawn, and was told that the enemy's fires were still in the same places. He nodded approval.

Starting point is 09:37:57 The adjutant in attendance came into the tent. "'Well, Rapp, do you think we shall do good business today?' Napoleon asked him. "'Without a doubt, sire,' replied Rapp. Napoleon looked at him. "'Do you remember, sire, what you did me the honor to say at Smolensk?' continued Rapp. "'The wine is drawn and must be drunk.' Napoleon frowned and sat silent for a long time leaning in his room. his head on his hand.

Starting point is 09:38:29 "'This poor army,' he suddenly remarked. "'It has diminished greatly since Smolensk. Fortune is frankly a courtesan rap. I have always said so, and I am beginning to experience it. But the guards, rap, the guards are intact?' he remarked interrogatively. "'Yes, sire,' replied Rapp. Napoleon took a lozenge, put it in his mouth, and glanced at his watch. He was not sleepy, and it was still not nearly morning.

Starting point is 09:39:01 It was impossible to give further orders for the sake of killing time, for the orders had all been given and were now being executed. Have the biscuits and rice been served out to the regiments of the guards? asked Napoleon sternly. Yes, sire. The rice, too? Rapp replied that he had given the Emperor's order about the rice, but Napoleon shook his head in dissatisfaction as if not

Starting point is 09:39:26 not believing that his order had been executed. An attendant came in with punch. Napoleon ordered another glass to be brought for wrap, and silently sipped his own. "'I have neither taste nor smell,' he remarked, sniffing at his glass. "'This cold is tiresome. They talk about medicine. What is the good of medicine when it can't cure a cold?'

Starting point is 09:39:50 Corvissar gave me these lozenges, but they don't help at all. What can doctors cure? One can't cure anything. Our body is a machine for living. It is organized for that. It is its nature. Let life go on in it unhindered and let it defend itself. It will do more than if you paralyze it by encumbering it with remedies.

Starting point is 09:40:15 Our body is like a perfect watch that should go for a certain time. The watchmaker cannot open it. He can only adjust it by fumbling and that blindfold. "'Yes, our body is just a machine for living, that is all.' And having entered on the path of definition, of which he was fond, Napoleon suddenly and unexpectedly gave a new one. "'Do you know, Rapp, what military art is?' asked he. "'It is the art of being stronger than the enemy at a given moment.

Starting point is 09:40:49 That's all.' Rap made no reply. "'Tomorrow we shall have to deal with Kutuzov,' said Napoleon. "'We shall see.' "'Do you remember at Brunau? He commanded an army for three weeks and did not once mount a horse to inspect his entrenchments. "'We shall see.'

Starting point is 09:41:11 He looked at his watch. It was still only four o'clock. He did not feel sleepy. The punch was finished, and there was still nothing to do. He rose, walked to and fro, put on a warm overcoat and a hat, and went out of the tent. The night was dark and damp, scarcely perceptible moisture was descending from above. Nearby, the campfires were dimly burning among the French guards,

Starting point is 09:41:38 and in the distance those of the Russian lines shone through the smoke. The weather was calm, and the rustle and tramp of the French troops already beginning to move to take up their positions was clearly audible. Napoleon walked about in front of his tent, looked at the fires, and listened to these sounds, and as he was passing a tall guardsman in a shaggy cap, who was standing sentinel before his tent and had drawn himself up like a black pillar at sight of the Emperor, Napoleon stopped in front of him.

Starting point is 09:42:07 "'What year did you enter the service?' he asked with that affectation of military bluntness and geniality with which he always addressed the soldiers. The man answered the question. "'Ah, one of the old ones. Has your regiment had its rice?' "'It has your majesty.' Napoleon nodded and walked away. At half-past five, Napoleon rode to the village of Chavardinot. It was growing light, the sky was clearing, only a single cloud lay in the east.

Starting point is 09:42:40 The abandoned campfires were burning themselves out in the faint morning light. On the right, a single deep report of a cannon resounded and died away in the prevailing silence. Some minutes passed. A second and a third report shook the air, then a fourth and a fifth boomed solemnly nearby on the right. The first shots had not yet ceased to reverberate before others rang out, and yet more were heard mingling with and overtaking one another. Napoleon with his suite rode up to the Chavardino Redoubt where he dismounted. The game had begun. End of Book 10, Chapter 29. Book 10, Chapter 30

Starting point is 09:43:31 Of War and Peace Volume 3 by Leo Tolstoy, translated by Elmer Maude. This Liberbox recording is in the public domain. Book 10, Chapter 30 On returning to Gorky after having seen Prince Andrew,

Starting point is 09:43:49 Pierre ordered his groom to get the horses ready and to call him early in the morning, and then immediately fell asleep behind a partition in a corner Boris had given up to him. Before he was thoroughly awake next morning, everybody had already left the hut. The pains were rattling in the little windows, and his groom was shaking him. "'Your excellency! Your Excellency! Your Excellency! He kept repeating pertinaciously,

Starting point is 09:44:14 while he shook Pierre by the shoulder without looking at him, having apparently lost hope of getting him to wake up. "'What? Has it begun? Is it time?' Pierre asked, waking up. "'Here the firing,' said the groom, a discharge. soldier. All the gentlemen have gone out, and his serene highness himself rode past long ago. Pierre dressed hastily and ran out to the porch. Outside all was bright, fresh, dewy, and cheerful. The sun, just bursting forth from behind a cloud that had concealed it was shining, with rays still half broken by the clouds, over the roofs of the street opposite, on the dew-besprinkled dust of the road, on the walls of the houses, on the windows,

Starting point is 09:44:57 the fence and on Pierre's horses standing before the hut. The roar of guns sounded more distinct outside. An adjutant accompanied by a Cossack passed by at a sharp trot. "'It's time, Count, it's time!' cried the adjutant. Telling the groom to follow him with the horses, Pierre went down the street to the knoll from which she had looked at the field of battle the day before. A crowd of military men was assembled there. members of the staff could be heard conversing in French,

Starting point is 09:45:27 and Kutuzov's gray head in a white cap with a red band was visible. His gray nape sunk between his shoulders. He was looking through a field glass down the high road before him. Mounting the steps to the knoll, Pierre looked at the scene before him, spellbound by beauty. It was the same panorama he had admired from that spot the day before, but now the whole place was full of troops and covered by smoke-clothed, from the guns, and the slanting rays of the bright sun, rising slightly to the left behind Pierre,

Starting point is 09:46:00 cast upon it through the clear morning air, penetrating streaks of rosy, golden-tinted light and long dark shadows. The forest at the farthest extremity of the panorama seemed carved in some precious stone of a yellowish-green color. Its undulating outline was silhouetted against the horizon and was pierced beyond Valuevo by the Smolensk High Road crowded with troops. Near at hand glittered golden cornfields interspersed with copses. There were troops to be seen everywhere, in front and to the right and left. All this was vivid, majestic, and unexpected, but what impressed Pierre most of all was the view of the battlefield itself, of Borodino and the hollows on both sides of the Colichat.

Starting point is 09:46:46 Above the Colichae, in Borodino, and on both sides of it, especially to the left, where the Vanya flowing between its marshy banks falls into the Colichah, a mist had spread, which seemed to melt, to dissolve, and to become translucent when the brilliant sun appeared and magically colored and outlined everything. The smoke of the guns mingled with this mist, and over the whole expanse and through that mist the rays of the morning sun were reflected, flashing back like lightning from the water, from the dew, and from the bayonets of the troops, crowded together by the riverbanks and in Borodino. A white church could be seen through the mist, and here and there the roofs of huts in Borodino as well as dense masses of soldiers,

Starting point is 09:47:32 or green ammunition chests and ordnance. All this moved, or seemed to move, as the smoke and mist spread out over the whole space. Just as in the mist enveloped hollow near Borodino, so along the entire line outside and above it, and especially in the woods and fields to the left, in the valleys and on the summits of the high ground. Clouds of powder smoke seemed continually to spring up out of nothing, now singly, now several at a time, some translucent, others dense, which, swelling, growing, rolling and blending, extended over the whole expanse. These puffs of smoke, and, strange to say, the sound of the firing, produced the chief beauty of the spectacle.

Starting point is 09:48:18 Puff! Suddenly, a round, compact cloud of smoke was seen merging from violent into gray and milky white, and, boom, came the report a second later. Puff, puff! And two clouds arose pushing one another and blending together, and boom, boom, came the sounds confirming what the eye had seen. Pierre glanced round at the first cloud, which he had seen as a round. compact ball, and in its place already were balloons of smoke floating to one side, and

Starting point is 09:48:52 puff, with a pause, puff, puff, three and then four more appeared, and then from each, with the same interval, boom, boom, boom, came the fine, firm, precise sounds in reply. It seemed as if those smoke clouds sometimes ran and sometimes stood still, while the woods, fields and glittering bayonets ran past them. From the left, over fields and bushes, those large balls of smoke were continually appearing followed by their solemn reports. While nearer still, in the hollows and woods, there burst from the muskets, small cloudlets that had no time to become balls, but had their little echoes in just the same way. Trach, ta, tak, tak, came the frequent crackle of musketry, but it was irregular and feeble in comparison with the reports

Starting point is 09:49:46 of the cannon. Pierre wished to be there with that smoke, those shining bayonets, that movement, and those sounds. He turned to look at Kutuzov and his suite, to compare his impressions with those of others. They were all looking at the field of battle as he was, and, as it seemed to him, with the same feelings. All their faces were now shining with that latent warmth of feeling Pierre had noticed the day before, and had fully understood after his talk with Prince Andrew. Go, my dear fellow, go! And Christ be with you! Katoosov was saying to a general who stood beside him,

Starting point is 09:50:24 not taking his eye from the battlefield. Having received this order, the general passed by Pierre on his way down the knoll. To the crossing, said the general coldly and sternly, in reply to one of the staff who asked where he was going. I'll go there, too. I too, thought Pierre, and followed the general. The general mounted a horse a Cossack had brought him. Pierre went to his groom who was holding his horses, and, asking which was the quietest, clambered onto it, seized it by the main, and, turning out his toes, pressed his heels

Starting point is 09:50:59 against its sides, and feeling that his spectacles were slipping off, but unable to let go of the main and reins, he galloped after the general, causing the staff officers to smile as they watched him from the knoll. End of Book 10, Chapter 30. Chapter 31 of War and Peace, Volume 3, by Leo Tolstoy, translated by Elmer Maude. This Libervox recording is in the public domain. Book 10, Chapter 31 Having descended the hill, the general, after whom Pierre was galloping, turned sharply

Starting point is 09:51:45 to the left, and Pierre, losing sight of him, galloped in among some ranks of infantry, marching ahead of him. He tried to pass either in front of that, and Pierre, or to the right or left, but there were soldiers everywhere, all with the same preoccupied expression, and busy with some unseen but evidently important task. They all gazed with the same dissatisfied and inquiring expression at this stout man in a white hat, who, for some unknown reason, threatened to trample them under his horse's hoofs. "'Why ride into the middle of the battalion?' One of them shouted at him. Another prodded his horse with the butt end of a musket,

Starting point is 09:52:25 and Pierre, bending over his saddle-bow and hardly able to control his shying horse, galloped ahead of the soldiers where there was a free space. There was a bridge ahead of him, where other soldiers stood firing. Pierre rode up to them. Without being aware of it, he had come to the bridge across the Colacha between Gorki and Borodino, which, the French, having occupied Borodino, were at a town. in the first phase of the battle. Pierre saw that there was a bridge in front of him, and that soldiers were doing something on both sides of it, and in the meadow, among the rows

Starting point is 09:53:00 of New-Mone hay, which he had taken no notice of amid the smoke of the campfires the day before. But despite the incessant firing going on there, he had no idea that this was the field of battle. He did not notice the sound of the bullets whistling from every side, or the projectiles that flew over him, did not see the enemy on the other side of the river, and for a long time did not notice the killed and wounded, though Benny fell near him. He looked about him with a smile which did not leave his face. "'Why is that fellow in front of the line?' shouted somebody at him again. "'To the left! Keep to the right!' the men shouted to him. Pierre went to the right, and unexpectedly encountered one of Ryevsky's adjutants whom he knew.

Starting point is 09:53:48 The adjutant looked angrily at him, evidently, also intending to shout at him, but on recognizing him, he nodded. "'How have you got here?' he said and galloped on. Pierre, feeling out of place there, having nothing to do and afraid of getting in someone's way again, galloped after the adjutant. "'What's happening here? May I come with you?' he asked. "'One moment, one moment,' replied the adjutant, in writing up to a stout colonel who was standing in the meadow, he gave him some message and then addressed Pierre.

Starting point is 09:54:21 "'Why have you come here, Count?' he asked with a smile. "'Still inquisitive?' "'Yes, yes,' assented Pierre. But the adjutant turned his horse about and rode on. "'Here it's tolerable,' said he, but with Bagration on the left flank they're getting it frightfully hot. "'Really?' said Pierre. "'Where is that?'

Starting point is 09:54:43 "'Come along with me to Arnaul. We can get a view from there, and in our battery it is still bearable, said the adjutant. Will you come? Yes, I'll come with you, replied Pierre, looking round for his groom. It was only now that he noticed wounded men staggering along or being carried on stretchers. On that very meadow he had ridden over the day before, a soldier was lying a thwart the rows of scented hay, with his head thrown awkwardly back and a shako off.

Starting point is 09:55:13 Why haven't they carried him away? Pierre was about to ask, but seeing the stern expression of the adjutant who was also looking that way, he checked himself. Pierre did not find his groom, and rode along the hollow with the adjutant to Ryevsky's redoubt. His horse lagged behind the adjutants and jolted him at every step. "'You don't seem to be used to riding, count,' remarked the adjutant. "'No, it's not that. But her action seems so jerky,' said Pierre in a puzzled tone. "'Why, she's wounded,' said the adjutant. "'In the off foreleg above the knee. A bullet, no doubt.

Starting point is 09:55:50 "'I congratulate you, count, on your baptism of fire.' Having ridden in the smoke past the sixth core, behind the artillery which had been moved forward and was in action, deafening them with the noise of firing, they came to a small wood. There it was cool and quiet, with a scent of autumn. Pierre and the adjutant dismounted and walked up the hill on foot. "'Is the general here?' asked the adjutant on reaching the knoll. "'He was here a minute ago, but has just gone that way,' someone told him, pointing to the right. The adjutant looked at Pierre as if puzzled what to do with them now.

Starting point is 09:56:30 "'Don't trouble about me,' said Pierre. "'I'll go up onto the knoll if I may.' "'Yes, do. You'll see everything from there, and it's less dangerous, and I'll come for you.' Pierre went to the battery, and the adjutant rode on. They did not meet again, and only much later did Pierre learn that he lost an arm that day. The no-to-which-which-Pierre assented was that famous one, afterwards known to the Russians as the Nol Battery, or Ryevsky's Redoubt, and to the French as La Grand Redoute, La Fatal Redoubt, the Redoubt, the Redoubt-Doucentra, around which tens of thousands fell, and which the French regarded

Starting point is 09:57:10 as the key to the whole position. This redoubt consisted of a knoll, on three sides of which trenches had been dug. Within the entrenchment stood ten guns that were being fired through the openings in the earthwork. In line with the knoll on both sides stood other guns, which also fired incessantly. A little behind the guns stood infantry.

Starting point is 09:57:33 When ascending that knoll, Pierre had no notion that this spot, on which small trenches had been dug and from which a few guns were firing, was the most important point of the battle. On the contrary, just because he happened to be there, he thought it was one of the least significant parts of the field. Having reached the knoll, Pierre sat down at one end of a trench surrounding the battery,

Starting point is 09:57:57 and gazed at what was going on around him with an unconsciously happy smile. Occasionally, he rose and walked about the battery, still with that same smile, trying not to obstruct the soldiers who were loading, hauling the guns, and continually running past him with bags and charges. The guns of that battery were being fired continually one after another with a deafening roar, enveloping the whole neighborhood in powder smoke. In contrast with the dread felt by the infantrymen placed in support, here in the battery where a small number of men busy at their work were separated from the rest by a trench,

Starting point is 09:58:33 everyone experienced a common and, as it were, family feeling of animation. The intrusion of Pierre's non-military figure in a white hat made an unpleasant impression at first. The soldiers looked askance at him with surprise, and even alarm as they went past him. The senior artillery officer, a tall, long-legged, pock-marked man, moved over to Pierre as if to see the action of the farthest gun and looked at him with curiosity.

Starting point is 09:59:03 A young, round-faced officer, quite a boy still, and evidently only just out of the cadet college, who was zealously commanding the two guns entrusted to him, addressed Pierre sternly. "'Sir,' he said, "'permit me to ask you to stand aside. You must not be here.' The soldiers shook their heads disapprovingly as they looked at Pierre. But when they had convinced themselves that this man in the white hat was doing no harm, but either sat quietly on the slope of the trench with a shy smile, or politely making way for the soldiers, paced up and down the battery under fire as calmly as if he were on a boulevard, their feeling of hostile distrust gradually began to change into a kindly and bantering sympathy, such as soldiers feel for their dogs,

Starting point is 09:59:51 cocks, goats, and in general for the animals that live with a regiment. The men soon accepted Pierre into their family, adopted him, gave him a nickname, our gentleman, and made kindly fun of him among themselves. A shell tore up the earth two paces from Pierre, and he looked around with a smile as he brushed from his clothes some earth it had thrown up. "'And how's it you're not afraid, sir? Really now?' A red-faced, broad-shouldered soldier asked Pierre, with a grin that disclosed a set of sound white teeth.

Starting point is 10:00:25 "'Are you afraid, then?' said Pierre. "'What else do you expect?' answered the soldier. her. She has no mercy, you know. When she comes spluttering down, out go your innards. One can't help being afraid, he said laughing. Several of the men, with bright, kindly faces, stopped beside Pierre. They seemed not to have expected him to talk like anybody else, and the discovery that he did so delighted them. It's the business of us soldiers, but in a gentleman, it's wonderful. There's a gentleman for you. To your places!

Starting point is 10:01:01 cried the young officer to the men gathered round Pierre. The young officer was evidently exercising his duties for the first or second time, and therefore treated both his superiors and the men with great precision and formality. The booming cannonade and the fuselade of musketry were growing more intense over the whole field, especially to the left where Bagration's fleshes were, but where Pierre was, the smoke of the firing made it almost impossible to distinguish anything. Moreover, his whole attention was engrossed by watching the family circle, separated from all else, formed by the men in the battery.

Starting point is 10:01:39 His first unconscious feeling of joyful animation produced by the sights and sounds of the battlefield was now replaced by another, especially since he had seen that soldier lying alone in the hayfield. Now, seated on the slope of the trench, he observed the faces of those around him. By ten o'clock some twenty men had already been carried away from the battery, Two guns were smashed, and cannonballs fell more and more frequently on the battery, and spent bullets buzzed and whistled around. But the men in the battery seemed not to notice this, and merry voices and jokes were heard on all sides. "'A live one!' shouted a man as a whistling shell approached.

Starting point is 10:02:20 "'Not this way! To the infantry!' added another, with loud laughter, seeing the shell fly past and fall into the ranks of the supports. "'Are you bowing to a friend, eh?' remarked another, chafing a peasant who ducked low as a cannonball flew over. Several soldiers gathered by the wall of the trench, looking out to see what was happening in front. "'They've withdrawn the front line. It has retired,' said they, pointing over the earthwork.

Starting point is 10:02:50 "'Mind your own business,' an old sergeant shouted at them. "'If they've retired, it's because there's work for them to do farther back.' And the sergeant, taking one of the men by the shoulders, gave him a shove with his knee. This was followed by a burst of laughter. "'To the fifth gun! Wheel it up!' came shouts from one side. "'Now then, all together, like barges!' rose the merry voices of those who were moving the gun. "'Oh, she nearly knocked her gentleman's hat off!' cried the red-faced humorist, showing his teeth chafing Pierre.

Starting point is 10:03:25 "'Akward baggage!' he added reproachfully to a cannonball that struck a cannon-wheel and a man's leg. "'Now then, you foxes!' said another, laughing at some militiamen who, stooping low, entered the battery to carry away the wounded man. "'So, this gruel isn't to your taste? Oh, you crows! You're scared!' they shouted at the militiamen who stood hesitating before the man whose leg had been torn off. "'There, lads! Oh, oh, they mimic the peasants. They don't like it at all.

Starting point is 10:04:01 Pierre noticed that after every ball that hit the redoubt and after every loss, the liveliness increased more and more. As the flames of the fire hidden within come more and more vividly and rapidly from an approaching thunder-cloud, so as if in opposition to what was taking place, the lightning of hidden fire growing more and more intense glowed in the faces of these men. Pierre did not look at the battlefield and was not concerned to know what was happening there. He was entirely absorbed in watching this fire which burned ever more brightly,

Starting point is 10:04:33 and which he felt was flaming up in some way in his own soul. At ten o'clock, the infantry that had been among the bushes in front of the battery and along the Kamenka streamlet retreated. From the battery they could be seen running back past it, carrying their wounded on their muskets. A general with his suite came to the battery, and after speaking to the colonel gave Pierre an angry look, and went away again, having ordered the infantry supports behind the battery to lie down, so as to be less exposed to fire. After this, from amid the ranks of infantry to the right of the battery came the sound of a drum and shouts of command, and from the battery one saw how those ranks

Starting point is 10:05:15 of infantry moved forward. Pierre looked over the wall of the trench and was particularly particularly struck by a pale young officer, who, letting a sword hang down, was walking backwards and kept glancing uneasily around. The ranks of the infantry disappeared amid the smoke, but their long-drawn shout and rapid musketry firing could still be heard. A few minutes later, crowds of wounded men and stretcher-bears came back from that direction. Projectiles began to fall still more frequently in the battery. Several men were lying about who had not been removed. Around the cannon, the men moved still more briskly and busily.

Starting point is 10:05:55 No one any longer took notice of Pierre. Once or twice he was shouted at for being in the way. The senior officer moved with big, rapid strides from one gun to another with a frowning face. The young officer, with his face still more flushed, commanded the men more scrupulously than ever. The soldiers handed up the charges, turned, loaded, and did their business with strained, smartness. They gave little jumps as they walked, as though they were on springs. The storm cloud had come upon them, and in every face the fire which Pierre had watched

Starting point is 10:06:33 Kindle burned up brightly. Pierre, standing beside the commanding officer. The young officer, his hand to a shako, ran up to his superior. I have the honor to report, sir, that only eight rounds are left. Are we to continue firing? He asked. Grape shot, the senior shouted, without answering the question, looking over the wall of the trench. Suddenly something happened. The young officer gave a gasp, and bending double sat down on the ground like a bird shot on the wing.

Starting point is 10:07:06 Everything became strange, confused, and misty in Pierre's eyes. One cannonball after another whistled by and struck the earthwork, a soldier, or a gun. Pierre, who had not noticed these sounds before, now heard nothing else. On the right of the battery, soldiers shouting, Hurrah! We're running, not forwards, but backwards, it seemed to Pierre. A cannonball struck the very end of the earthwork by which he was standing, crumbling down the earth.

Starting point is 10:07:36 A black ball flashed before his eyes, and at the same instant plumped into something. Some militiamen who were entering the battery ran back. Oh, with grape-shot! shouted the officer. The sergeant ran up to the officer, and in a frightened whisper, informed him, as a butler at dinner informs his master, that there is no more of some wine he asked for, that there were no more charges. The scoundrels! What are they doing?

Starting point is 10:08:05 shouted the officer, turning to Pierre. The officer's face was red and perspiring, and his eyes glittered under his frowning brow. "'Run to the reserves and bring up the ammunition boxes!' he yelled, angrily avoiding Pierre with his eyes and speaking to his men. "'I'll go,' said Pierre. The officer, without answering him, strode across to the opposite side. "'Don't fire! Wait!' he shouted. The man who had been ordered to go for ammunition stumbled against Pierre.

Starting point is 10:08:37 "'Sir, this is no place for you,' said he, and ran down the slope. Pierre ran after him, avoiding the spot where the young officer was sitting. One cannonball, another, and a third flew over him, falling in front, beside and behind him. Pierre ran down the slope. Where am I going? He suddenly asked himself when he was already near the green ammunition wagons. He halted irresolutely, not knowing whether to return or go on.

Starting point is 10:09:08 Suddenly, a terrible concussion threw him backwards to the ground. At the same instant he was dazzled by a great flash of flame, and immediately a deafening roar, crackling, and whistling made his ears tingle. When he came to himself, he was sitting on the ground leaning on his hands. The ammunition wagons he had been approaching no longer existed, only charred green boards and rags littered the scorched grass, and a horse dangling fragments of its shaft behind it galloped past, while another horse lay like Pierre on the ground, uttering prolonged and piercing cries.

Starting point is 10:09:48 End of Book 10, Chapter 31. Book 10, Chapter 32, of War and Peace, Volume 3, by Leo Tolstoy, translated by Elmer Maude. This Libervox recording is in the public domain. Book 10, Chapter 32 Beside himself with terror, Pierre jumped up and ran back to the battery, as to the only refuge from the horrors that surrounded him. On entering the earthwork, he noticed that there were men doing something there, but that no shots were being fired from the battery. He had no time to realize who these men were. He saw the senior officer lying on the earth wall with his back

Starting point is 10:10:34 turned, as if he were examining something down below, and that one of the soldiers he had noticed before was struggling forward, shouting, Brothers! And trying to free himself from some men who were holding him by the arm. He also saw something else that was strange. But he had not time to realize that the Colonel had been killed, that the soldier shouting,

Starting point is 10:10:56 Brothers was a prisoner, and that another man had been bayoneted in the back before his eyes. For hardly had he run into the redoubt before a thin, sallow-faced, perspiring man in a blue uniform rushed on him with a sword in hand, shouting something. Instinctively guarding against the shock, for they had been running together at full speed before they saw one another, Pierre put out his hands and seized the man, a French officer by the shoulder with one hand and by the throat with the other. The officer,

Starting point is 10:11:26 dropping his sword, seized Pierre by his collar. For some seconds they gazed with frightened eyes at one another's unfamiliar faces, and both were perplexed at what they had done and what they were to do next. Am I taken prisoner, or have I taken him prisoner? Each was thinking. But the French officer was evidently more inclined to think he had been taken prisoner because Pierre's strong hand, impelled by instinctive fear, squeezed his throat ever tighter and tighter.

Starting point is 10:11:56 The Frenchman was about to say something, when just above their heads, terrible and low, a cannonball whistled, and it seemed to Pierre that the French officer's head had been torn off, so swiftly had he ducked it. Pierre, too, bent his head and let his hands fall. Without further thought as to who had taken whom prisoner, the Frenchman ran back to the battery, and Pierre ran down the slope, stumbling over the dead and wounded, who, it seemed to him, caught at his feet. But before he reached the foot of the knoll, he was met by a dense crowd of Russian soldiers, who, stumbling, tripping up and shouting, ran merrily and wildly toward the battery.

Starting point is 10:12:38 This was the attack for which Ormolov claimed the credit, declaring that only his courage and good luck made such a feat possible. It was the attack in which he was said to have thrown some St. George's crosses he had in his pocket into the battery for the first soldiers to take who got there. The French who had occupied the battery fled, and our troops shouting, hurrah! pursued them so far beyond the battery that it was difficult to call them back. The prisoners were brought down from the battery, and among them was a wounded French general, whom the officers surrounded. Crowds of wounded, some known to Pierre and some unknown,

Starting point is 10:13:16 Russian and French, with faces distorted by suffering, walked, crawled, and were carried on stretchers from the battery. Pierre again went up onto the gnoble where he had spent over an hour, and of that family circle which had received him as a member, he did not find a single one. There were many dead whom he did not know, but some he recognized. The young officer still sat in the same way, bent double, in a pool of blood at the edge of the earth wall. The red-faced man was still twitching, but they did not carry him away. Pierre ran down the slope once more. Now they will stop it. Now they will be horrified at what they have done.

Starting point is 10:13:58 he thought, aimlessly going toward a crowd of stretcher-bearers moving from the battlefield. But behind the veil of smoke, the sun was still high, and in front, and especially to the left, near Semenovsk, something seemed to be seething in the smoke, and the roar of cannon and musketry did not diminish, but even increased to desperation, like a man who, straining himself, shrieks with all his remaining strength. End of Book 10, Chapter 32. 10, Chapter 33 Of War and Peace, Volume

Starting point is 10:14:40 3, by Leo Tolstoy, translated by Elmer Maude. This Libervox recording is in the public domain. Book 10, Chapter 33 The chief action of the Battle of Borodino was fought within the 7,000 feet

Starting point is 10:14:57 between Borodino and Bagradian's Fletches. Beyond that space, there was, on the one side, a demonstration made by the Russians with Ovarov's cavalry at midday, and on the other side, Bionutitsa, Ponyatowski's collision with Tutskhov. But these two were detached and feeble actions in comparison with what took place in the center of the battlefield. On the field between Bordino and the Fleshes, beside the wood, the chief action of the day took place on an open space visible from both sides, and was fought in the simplest

Starting point is 10:15:29 and most artless way. The battle began on both sides with a cannonade from several hundred guns, Then, when the whole field was covered with smoke, two divisions, Campans and Desais, advanced from the French right, while Maras troops advanced on Borodino from their left. From the Chevardino redoubt, where Napoleon was standing, the Fleshes were two-thirds of a mile away, and it was more than a mile as the crow flies to Borodino, so that Napoleon could not see what was happening there, especially as the smoke mingling with the mist hid the whole locality. the soldiers of Desais's division, advancing against the Fleshes, could only be seen till they had entered the hollow that lay between them and the Fletches.

Starting point is 10:16:14 As soon as they had descended into that hollow, the smoke of the guns and musketry on the Fleshes grew so dense that it covered the whole approach on that side of it. Through the smoke glimpses could be caught of something black, probably men, and at times the glint of bayonets. But whether they were moving or stationary, whether they were French or Russian, could not be discovered from the Chevardino redoubt. The sun had risen brightly, and its slanting rays struck straight into Napoleon's face,

Starting point is 10:16:45 as shading his eyes with his hand he looked at the fleshes. The smoke spread out before them, and at times it looked as if the smoke were moving, at times as if the troops moved. Sometimes shouts were heard through the firing, but it was impossible to tell what was being done there. Napoleon, standing on the knoll, looked through a field-glass, and in its small circlet saw smoke and men, sometimes his own and sometimes Russians, but when he looked again with the naked eye, he could not tell where what he had seen was. He descended the knoll and began walking up and down before it. Occasionally he stopped, listening to the firing, and gazed intently at the battlefield.

Starting point is 10:17:29 But not only was it impossible to make out what was happening from where he was standing, standing down below, or from the knoll above on which some of his generals had taken their stand, but even from the Fleshes themselves, in which by this time there were now Russian and now French soldiers, alternately, or together, dead, wounded, alive, frightened or maddened. Even at those Fleshes themselves it was impossible to make out what was taking place. There, for several hours amid incessant cannon and musketry fire, now Russians were seen alone, now Frenchmen alone, now infantry, and now cavalry. They appeared, fired, fell, collided, not knowing what to do with one another, screamed and ran back again. From the battlefield,

Starting point is 10:18:17 adjutants he had sent out, and orderlies from his marshals, kept galloping up to Napoleon with reports of the progress of the action, but all these reports were false, both because it was impossible in the heat of battle to say what was happening at any given moment, and because many of the adjutants did not go to the actual place of conflict, but reported what they had heard from others. And also, because while an adjutant was riding more than a mile to Napoleon, circumstances changed, and the news he brought was already becoming false. Thus, an adjutant galloped up from Murrah with tidings that Borodino had been occupied, and the bridge over the Colichat was in the hands of the French.

Starting point is 10:18:59 The adjutant asked whether Napoleon wished the troops to cross it, Napoleon gave orders that the troops should form up on the farther side and wait. But before that order was given, almost as soon, in fact, as the adjutant had left Boredino, the bridge had been retaken by the Russians and burned, in the very skirmish at which Pierre had been present at the beginning of the battle. An adjutant galloped up from the fleshes with a pale and frightened face and reported to Napoleon that their attack had been repulsed, Campan wounded and DeVaux killed, yet at the very time the adjutant had been told that the French had been repulsed,

Starting point is 10:19:37 the Fleshes had in fact been recaptured by other French troops, and DeVos was alive and only slightly bruised. On the basis of these necessarily untrustworthy reports, Napoleon gave his orders, which had either been executed before he gave them or could not be and were not executed. The marshals and generals, who were nearer to the field of battle, but like Napoleon, did not take part in the actual fighting, and only occasionally went within musket range, made their own arrangements without asking Napoleon and issued orders where and in what direction to fire, and where cavalry should gallop and infantry should run. But even their orders, like Napoleons, were seldom carried out, and then, but partially. For the most part, things happened contrary to their orders. Soldiers ordered to advance ran back

Starting point is 10:20:27 on meeting Grapeshot. Soldiers ordered to remain where they were, suddenly seeing Russians unexpectedly before them, sometimes rushed back and sometimes forward, and the cavalry dashed without orders in pursuit of the flying Russians. In this way, two cavalry regiments galloped through the Samanovskalo, and as soon as they reached the top of the incline, turn round, and galloped full speed back again. The infantry moved in the same way, sometimes running to quite other places than those they were ordered to go to. All orders as to where and when to move the guns, when to send infantry to shoot or horsemen to ride down the Russian infantry, all such orders were given by the officers on the spot nearest to the units concerned,

Starting point is 10:21:12 without asking either name, devaux, or morat, much less Napoleon. They did not fear getting into trouble for not fulfilling orders, or for acting on their own initiative, for in battle what is at stake is what is dearest to man, his own life. And it sometimes seems that safety lies in running back, sometimes in running forward, and these men, who were right in the heat of the battle, acted according to the mood of the moment. In reality, however, all these movements forward and backward did not improve or alter the position of the troops. All their rushing and galloping at one

Starting point is 10:21:48 another did little harm. The harm of disablement and death was caused by the balls and bullets that flew over the fields on which these men were floundering about. As soon as they left the place where the balls and bullets were flying about, their superiors, located in the background, reformed them and brought them under discipline, and under the influence of that discipline, led them back to the zone of fire, where, under the influence of fear and death, they lost their discipline and rushed about according to the chance promptings of the throng. End of Book 10, Chapter 33 Book 10 Chapter 34 of War and Peace, Volume 3 by Leo Tolstoy.

Starting point is 10:22:37 translated by Elmer Maude. This Libervox recording is in the public domain. Book 10, Chapter 34 Napoleon's generals, Davao, Ney, and Murrah, who were near that region of fire and sometimes even entered it, repeatedly led into it huge masses of well-ordered troops. But contrary to what had always happened in their former battles, instead of the news they expected of the enemy's flight, these orderly masses returned. turned thence as disorganized and terrified mobs. The generals reformed them, but their numbers constantly decreased. In the middle of the day, Mara sent his adjutant to Napoleon to demand

Starting point is 10:23:20 reinforcements. Napoleon sat at the foot of the knoll, drinking punch, when Mara's adjutant galloped up with an assurance that the Russians would be routed if His Majesty would let him have another division. Reinforcements, said Napoleon in a tone of stern surprise, looking at the adjutant, a handsome lad with long black curls arranged like Mara's own, as though he did not understand his words. Reinforcements, thought Napoleon to himself. How can they need reinforcements when they already have half the army directed against a weak,

Starting point is 10:23:56 unentrenched Russian wing? Tell the King of Naples, he said sternly, That, it is not noon yet, and I don't yet see my chestboard clearly. Go!' The handsome young adjutant with the long hair sighed deeply without removing his hand from his hat and galloped back to where men were being slaughtered. Napoleon rose, and having summoned Coulincourt and Bertier began talking to them about matters unconnected with the battle.

Starting point is 10:24:26 In the midst of this conversation, which was beginning to interest Napoleon, Bertier's eyes turned to look at a general with a suite, who was galloping toward the knoll on a lathering horse. It was Beliard. Having dismounted, he went up to the emperor with rapid strides, and in a loud voice began boldly demonstrating the necessity of sending reinforcements. He swore on his honor that the Russians were lost if the emperor would give another division. Napoleon shrugged his shoulders and continued to pace up and down without replying.

Starting point is 10:24:58 Beliard began talking loudly and eagerly to the generals of the suite around him. "'You are very fiery, Beliard,' said Napoleon, when he again came up to the general. "'In the heat of a battle, it is easy to make a mistake. Go and have another look and then come back to me.' Before Beliard was out of sight, a messenger from another part of the battlefield galloped up. "'Now then, what do you want?' asked Napoleon, in the tone of a man irritated at being continually disturbed. Sire, the prince, began the adjutant. Asked for reinforcements, said Napoleon with an angry gesture. The adjutant bent his head affirmatively and began to report, but the emperor turned from him,

Starting point is 10:25:42 took a couple of steps, stopped, came back, and called Bertier. We must give reserves, he said, moving his arm slightly apart. Who do you think should be set there? He asked of Bertier, whom he subsequently termed. that gosling I've made an eagle. Send Cleperet's division, sire, replied Bertier, who knew all the division's regiments and battalions by heart? Napoleon nodded assent.

Starting point is 10:26:11 The adjutant galloped to Cleperet's division, and a few minutes later, the young guard stationed behind the knoll moved forward. Napoleon gazed silently in that direction. No, he suddenly said to Bertier, I can't send Cleperet. Send Friant's Division Though there was no advantage in sending Friant's division instead of clappereds, and even an obvious inconvenience and delay in stopping Clappered and sending Friant now,

Starting point is 10:26:38 the order was carried out exactly. Napoleon did not notice that, in regard to his army, he was playing the part of a doctor who hinders by his medicines, a role he so justly understood and condemned. Friand's division disappeared as the others had done into the smoke of the battlefield. From all sides, adjutants continued to arrive at a gallop, and as if by agreement all said the same thing. They all asked for reinforcements, and all said that the Russians were holding their positions and maintaining a hellish fire under which the French

Starting point is 10:27:13 army was melting away. Napoleon sat on a camp-stool, wrapped in thought. Monsieur de Boet, the man so fond of travel, having fasted since morning, came up to the Emperor, and ventured respectfully to suggest lunch to his majesty. "'I hope I may now congratulate your majesty on a victory,' said he. Napoleon silently shook his head in negation. Assuming the negation to refer only to the victory and not to the lunch, Monsieur de Boet ventured with respectful jocularity to remark that there is no reason for not having lunch when one can get it.

Starting point is 10:27:51 Go away, exclaimed Napoleon suddenly and morosely and turned aside. A beatific smile of regret, repentance, and ecstasy beamed on Monsieur de Boet's face, and he glided away to the other generals. Napoleon was experiencing a feeling of depression, like that of an ever-lucky gambler, who, after recklessly flinging money about and always winning, suddenly just when he has calculated all the chances of the game, finds that the more he considers his play, the more surely he loses.

Starting point is 10:28:27 His troops were the same, his generals the same, the same preparations have been made, the same dispositions, and the same proclamation Corté and Erjik, he himself was still the same. He knew that, and knew that he was now even more experienced

Starting point is 10:28:44 and skillful than before. Even the enemy was the same. same as at Austerlitz and Friedland. Yet the terrible stroke of his arm had supernaturally become impotent. All the old methods that had been unfailingly crowned with success, the concentration of batteries on one point, an attack by reserves to break the enemy's line, and a cavalry attack by the men of iron. All these methods had already been employed, yet not only was there no victory, but from all sides came the same news of generals killed and wounded, of reinforcements needed, of the impossibility of driving back the Russians, and of

Starting point is 10:29:23 disorganization among his own troops. Formerly, after he had given two or three orders and uttered a few phrases, marshals and adjutants had come galloping up with congratulations and happy faces, announcing the trophies taken, the corps of prisoners, bundles of enemy eagles and standards, cannons and stores, and Maraugh had only begged leave to loose the cavalry to gather in the baggage wagons. So it had been at Lodi, Marengo, Arcola, Yena, Austerlitz, Vagrum, and so on. But now something strange was happening to his troops. Despite news of the capture of the Fleshes, Napoleon saw that this was not the same, not at all the same as what had happened

Starting point is 10:30:07 in his former battles. He saw that what he was feeling was felt by all the men about him experienced in the art of war. All their faces looked dejected, and they all shunned one another's eyes. Olia de Boet could fail to grasp the meaning of what was happening. But Napoleon, with his long experience of war, well knew the meaning of a battle not gained by the attacking side in eight hours after all efforts had been expended. He knew that it was a lost battle, and that the least accident might now, with the fight balanced on such a strained center, destroy him and his army. When he ran his mind over the whole of this strange Russian campaign, in which not one battle

Starting point is 10:30:54 had been won, and in which not a flag or cannon or army corps had been captured in two months, when he looked at the concealed depression on the faces around him and heard reports of the Russians still holding their ground. A terrible feeling like a nightmare took possession of him, and all the unlucky accidents that might destroy him occurred to his mind. The Russians might fall on his left wing, might break through his center, he himself might be killed by a stray cannonball. All this was possible. In former battles, he had only considered the possibilities of success, but now innumerable unlucky chances presented themselves, and he expected the them all. Yes, it was like a dream in which a man fancies that a ruffian is coming to attack him,

Starting point is 10:31:42 and raises his arm to strike that ruffian a terrible blow which he knows should annihilate him, but then feels that his arm drops powerless and limp like a rag, and the horror of unavoidable destruction seizes him in his helplessness. The news that the Russians were attacking the left flank of the French army aroused that horror in Napoleon. He sat silently on a camp-stool below the Knoll, with head bowed and elbows on his knees. Bertie approached and suggested that they should ride along the line to ascertain the position of affairs.

Starting point is 10:32:15 What? What did you say? Asked Napoleon. Yes, tell them to bring me my horse. He mounted and rode towards Semenovsk. Amid the powder smoke, slowly dispersing over the whole space through which Napoleon rode, horses and men were lying in pools of blood, singly, or in heaps. Neither Napoleon nor any of his generals had ever before seen such horrors, or so many slain in such a small area.

Starting point is 10:32:43 The roar of guns, that had not ceased for ten hours, wearied the ear and gave a peculiar significance to the spectacle, as music does to Tablo Vivant. Napoleon rode up the high ground at Semenovsk, and through the smoke saw ranks of men in uniforms of a color unfamiliar to him. They were Russians. The Russians stood in serried ranks behind Semenov's village and its knoll, and their guns boomed incessantly along their line and sent forth clouds of smoke. It was no longer a battle, it was a continuous slaughter, which could be of no avail either to the French or the Russians. Napoleon stopped his horse and again fell into the reverie from which Bertier had aroused

Starting point is 10:33:27 him. He could not stop what was going on before him and around him, and was supposed to be directed by him and to depend on him. And from its lack of success, this affair, for the first time, seemed to him unnecessary and horrible. One of the generals rode up to Napoleon and ventured to offer to lead the old guard into action.

Starting point is 10:33:50 Ney and Bertier, standing near Napoleon, exchanged looks and smiled contemptuously at this general's senseless offer. Napoleon bowed his head and remained silent a long time. At 800 leagues from France, I will not have my guard destroyed, he said, and turning his horse rode back to Chevardino. End of Book 10, Chapter 34.

Starting point is 10:34:25 Book 10, Chapter 35 of War and Peace, Volume 3 by Leo Tolstoy, translated by Elmer Maude. This Liberbox recording is in the public domain. Book 10, Chapter 35. On the rug-covered bench where Pierre had seen him in the morning sat Kutuzov, his gray head hanging, his heavy body relaxed. He gave no orders, but only assented to or dissented from what others suggested. "'Yes, yes, do that,' he replied to various proposals. "'Yes, yes, go, dear boy, and have a look.'

Starting point is 10:35:03 He would say to one or another of those about him, or, "'No, don't, we'd better wait.' He listened to the reports that were brought him and gave directions when his subordinates demanded that of him. But when listening to the reports, it seemed as if he were not interested in the import of the word spoken, but rather in something else, in the expression of face and tone of voice of those who were reporting.

Starting point is 10:35:30 By long years of military experience, he knew, and with the wisdom of age, understood, that it is impossible for one man to direct hundreds of thousands of thousands of of others struggling with death, and he knew that the result of a battle is decided not by the orders of a commander-in-chief, nor the place where the troops are stationed, nor by the number of cannon or of slaughtered men, but by that intangible force called the spirit of the army. And he watched this force and guided it in as far as that was in his power. Katoosov's general expression was one of concentrated quiet attention, and his face wore a

Starting point is 10:36:08 strained look, as if he found it difficult to master the fatigue of his old and feeble body. At eleven o'clock they brought him news that the fleshes captured by the French had been retaken, but that Prince Brigadion was wounded. Kutuzov groaned and swayed his head. Right over to Prince Peter Ivanovich and find out about it exactly, he said to one of his adjutants, and then turn to the Duke of Vertemberg, who was standing behind him. "'Will your highness please take command of the First Army?' Soon after the Duke's departure, before he could possibly have reached Seminovsk, his adjutant came back from him and told Kutuzov that the Duke asked for more troops.

Starting point is 10:36:51 Kutuzov made a grimace and sent an order to Dakturov to take over the command of the First Army, and a request to the Duke, whom he said he could not spare at such an important moment to return to him. When they brought him news that Mara had been taken prisoner, and the staff officers congratulated him, Kutuzov smiled. "'Wait, a little gentleman,' said he, "'the battle is won, and there is nothing extraordinary in the capture of Mara. Still, it is better to wait before we rejoice.'

Starting point is 10:37:22 But he sent an adjutant to take the news round the army. When Sherbinan came galloping from the left flank with news that the French had captured the Fleshes and the village of Seminovsk, Kutuzov, guessing by the sounds of the battle and by Shcherbinen's looks that the news was bad, rose as if to stretch his legs, and taking Shcherbinan's arm, led him aside. "'Go, my dear fellow,' he said to Rmolov, and see whether something can't be done. Kutuzov was in Gorky, near the center of the Russian position. The attack directed by Napoleon against our left flank had been several times repulsed.

Starting point is 10:37:59 In the center, the French had not got beyond Borodino. In other left flank, Uvarov's cavalry had put the French to flight. Toward three o'clock the French attacks ceased. On the faces of all who came from the field of battle, and of those who stood around him, Kutuzov noticed an expression of extreme tension. He was satisfied with the day's success, a success exceeding his expectations,

Starting point is 10:38:27 but the old man's strength was failing him. him. Several times his head dropped low as if it were falling, and he dozed off. Dinner was brought him. Agonant General Volsoghen, who, when riding past Prince Andrew, had said, "'The war should be extended widely, and whom Bagradian so detested, rode up while Kutuzov was at dinner. Volzogin had come from Barclay de Tully to report on the progress of affairs on the left flank. The sagacious Barclay de Tully, seeing crowds of wounded men running back and the disordered rear of the army, weighed all the circumstances, concluded that the battle was lost, and sent his favorite officer to the commander-in-chief with that news. Kutuzov was chewing a piece of roast

Starting point is 10:39:14 chicken with difficulty, and glanced at Volzokin with eyes that brightened under their puckering lids. Volzokin, nonchalantly stretching his legs, approached Kutuzov with a half-contemptuous smile on his lips, scarcely touching the peak of his cap. He treated his serene highness with a somewhat affected nonchalance, intended to show that, as a highly trained military man, he left it to Russians to make an idol of this useless old man, but that he knew whom he was dealing with. Their altar hair, as in their own set the Germans called Kutuzov, is making himself very comfortable, thought Volzogen, and looking severely at the dishes and

Starting point is 10:39:56 front of Kutuzov, he began to report to, the old gentleman, the position of affairs on the left flank as Barclay had ordered him to, and as he himself had seen and understood it. All the points of our position are in the enemy's hands, and we cannot dislodge them for lack of troops. The men are running away, and it is impossible to stop them, he reported. Kutuzov ceased chewing, and fixed an astonished gaze on Volzhogan, as if not understanding what was said to him. Volsoghen, noticing the old gentleman's agitation, said with a smile, I have not considered it right to conceal from your serene highness what I have seen. The troops are in complete disorder. You have seen! You have seen! Katoosov shouted. Frowning and rising

Starting point is 10:40:46 quickly, he went up to Volzogen. How! How dare you? He shouted, choking and making a threatening gesture with his trembling arms. "'How dare you, sir, say that to me! You know nothing about it!' "'Tell General Barclay from me that his information is incorrect, and that the real course of the battle is better known to me, the commander-in-chief, than to him.' Volsohn was about to make a rejoinder, but Kutuzov interrupted him.

Starting point is 10:41:16 "'The enemy has been repulsed on the left and defeated on the right flank. If you have seen a miss, sir, do not. "'not allow yourself to say what you don't know. "'Be so good as to ride to General Barclay "'and inform him of my firm intention "'to attack the enemy to-morrow,' said Kutuzov sternly. "'All were silent, and the only sound audible "'was the heavy breathing of the panting old general.

Starting point is 10:41:43 "'They are repulsed everywhere, "'for which I thank God and our brave army. "'The enemy is beaten, "'and tomorrow we shall drive him from the sacred soil of Russia. said Kutuzov, crossing himself, and he suddenly sobbed as his eyes filled with tears. Volsogan, shrugging his shoulders and curling his lips, stepped silently aside, marveling at the old gentleman's conceited stupidity. Ah, here he is, my hero, said Kutuzov to a portly, handsome, dark-haired general who was just

Starting point is 10:42:16 ascending the knoll. This was Ryevsky, who had spent the whole day at the most important part of the field of Boredina No. Reevsky reported that the troops were firmly holding their ground, and that the French no longer ventured to attack. After hearing him, Kutuzov said in French, "'Then you do not think, like some others, that we must retreat?' "'On the contrary, Your Highness, in indecisive actions, it is always the most stubborn who remained victors,' replied Ryevsky. "'And, in my opinion, Kaysarov,' Kutov called to his adjutant. Sit down and write out the order of the day for tomorrow.

Starting point is 10:42:57 And you, he continued addressing another, right along the line and announced that tomorrow we attack. While Kutuzov was talking to Ryevsky and dictating the order of the day, Volzogin returned from Barclay and said that General Barclay wished to have written confirmation of the order the field marshal had given. Kutuzov, without looking at Volzogen, gave directions for the order to be written out which the former commander-in-chief, to avoid personal responsibility, very judiciously wished to receive. And by means of that mysterious, indefinable bond which maintains throughout an army one and the same temper, known as the spirit of the army, and which constitutes the sinew of war,

Starting point is 10:43:41 Kutuzov's words, his order for a battle next day, immediately became known from one end of the army to the other. It was far from being the same words or the same order that reached the farthest links of that chain. The tales passing from mouth to mouth at different ends of the army did not even resemble what Kutuzov had said, but the sense of his words spread everywhere because what he said was not the outcome of cunning calculations, but of a feeling that lay in the commander-in-chief's soul as in that of every Russian. And on learning that tomorrow they were to attack the enemy, and hearing from the highest quarters a confirmation of what they wanted to believe, the exhausted, wavering men felt comforted

Starting point is 10:44:25 and inspirited. End of Book 10, Chapter 35. Book 10, Chapter 36, of War and Peace, Volume 3, by Leo Tolstoy, translated by Elmer Maud. This Libervox recording is in the public domain. Book 10, Chapter 36 Prince Andrew's Regiment was among the reserves, which, till after one o'clock, were stationed inactive behind Semenovsk, under heavy artillery fire. Toward two o'clock, the regiment, having already lost more than two hundred men, was moved

Starting point is 10:45:09 forward into a trampled oat-field in the gap between Semenovsk and the Knoll battery, where thousands of men perished that day, and on which an intense concentrated fire from several hundred enemy guns was directed between one and two o'clock. Without moving from that spot or firing a single shot, the regiment there lost another third of its men. From in front, and especially from the right, in the unlifting smoke the guns boomed, and out of the mysterious domain of smoke that overlaid the whole space in front,

Starting point is 10:45:40 quick hissing cannonballs and slow whistling shells flew unceasingly. At times, as if to allow them a respite, a quarter of an hour passed during which the cannonballs and shells all flew overhead, but sometimes several men were torn from the regiment in a minute, and the slain were continually being dragged away, and the wounded carried off. With each fresh blow, less and less chance of life

Starting point is 10:46:05 remained for those not yet killed. The regiment stood in columns of battalion, 300 paces apart, but nevertheless the men were always in one and the same mood. All alike were tabled, Aceturn and Morose. Talk was rarely heard in the ranks, and it ceased altogether every time the thud of a successful shot and the cry of stretchers was heard.

Starting point is 10:46:29 Most of the time, by their officer's order, the men sat on the ground. One, having taken off his Shako, carefully loosened the gathers of its lining and drew them tight again. Another, rubbing some dry clay between his palms, polished his bayonet. Another fingered the strap and pulled the buckle of his band of his band of ear, while another smoothed and refolded his leg-bands and put his boots on again. Some built little houses of the tufts in the plowed ground, or plated baskets from the straw in the cornfield. All seemed fully absorbed in these pursuits. When men were killed or wounded,

Starting point is 10:47:05 when rows of stretchers went past, when some troops retreated, and when great masses of the enemy came into view through the smoke, no one paid any attention to these things. But when our artillery or cavalry advanced, or some of our infantry were seen to move forward, words of approval were heard on all sides. But the liveliest attention was attracted by occurrences quite apart from and unconnected with the battle. It was as if the minds of these morally exhausted men found relief in everyday, commonplace occurrences. A battery of artillery was passing in front of the regiment. The horse of an ammunition cart put its leg over a trace.

Starting point is 10:47:44 "'Hey, look at the trace, horse. Get her leg out. She'll fall. Ah, they don't see it!' came identical shouts from the ranks all along the regiment. Another time, general attention was attracted by a small brown dog, coming heaven-nose-wents, which trotted in a preoccupied manner in front of the ranks with tail stiffly erect, till suddenly a shell fell close by, when it yelped, tucked its tail between its legs, and darted aside. Yells and shrieks of laughter rose from the whole regiment. But such distractions lasted only a moment, and for eight hours the men had been inactive,

Starting point is 10:48:25 without food, in constant fear of death, and their pale and gloomy faces grew ever paler and gloomier. Prince Andrew, pale and gloomy like everyone in the regiment, paced up and down from the border of one patch to another, at the edge of the meadow beside an oat-field, with head bowed in arms behind his back. There was nothing for him to do, and no orders to be given. Everything went on of itself. The killed were dragged from the front, the wound had carried away, and the ranks closed up. If any soldiers ran to the rear, they returned immediately and hastily. At first, Prince Andrew, considering it his duty to rouse the courage of the men and to set them

Starting point is 10:49:06 an example, walked about among the ranks, but he soon became convinced that this was unnecessary and that there was nothing he could teach them. All the powers of his soul, as of every soldier there, were unconsciously bent on avoiding the contemplation of the horrors of their situation. He walked along the meadow, dragging his feet, rustling the grass, and gazing at the dust that covered his boots. Now he took big strides trying to keep the footprints left on the meadow by the mowers, then he counted his steps, calculating how often he must walk from one strip to another to walk a mile.

Starting point is 10:49:42 Then he stripped the flowers from the wormwood that grew along a boundary rut, rubbed them in his palms, and smelled their pungent, sweetly bitter scent. Nothing remained of the previous day's thoughts. He thought of nothing. He listened with weary ears to the ever-recurring sounds, distinguishing the whistle of flying projectiles from the booming of the reports, glanced at the tiresomely familiar faces of the men of the First Battalion, and waited. Here it comes. This one is coming our way again, he thought, listening to an approaching whistle in the hidden region of smoke. One, another.

Starting point is 10:50:20 Again. It has hit. He stopped and looked at the ranks. No, it has gone over. But this one has hit. And again, he started trying to reach the boundary strip in sixteen paces. A whiz and a thud. Five paces from him.

Starting point is 10:50:37 A cannon-bolt tore up the dry earth. and disappeared. A chill ran down his back. Again he glanced at the ranks. Probably many had been hit. A large crowd had gathered near the second battalion. Adjutant, he shouted. Order them not to crowd together! The adjutant, having obeyed this instruction, approached Prince Andrew. From the other side a battalion commander rode up. Look out! came a frightened cry from a soldier, and like a bird whirring in rapid flight and alighting on the ground, a shell dropped with little noise within two steps of

Starting point is 10:51:14 Prince Andrew and close to the battalion commander's horse. The horse first, regardless of whether it was right or wrong to show fear, snorted, reared almost throwing the major, and galloped aside. The horse's terror infected the men. "'Lie down!' cried the adjutant, throwing himself flat on the ground. Prince Andrew hesitated. The smoking shell spun like a top between him. and the prostrate adjutant, near a wormwood plant between the field and the meadow. "'Can this be death?' thought Prince Andrew, looking with a quite new, envious glance at the grass, the wormwood, and the streamlet of smoke that curled up from the rotating black ball.

Starting point is 10:51:56 "'I cannot, I do not wish to die. I love life. I love this grass, this earth, this air.' He thought this, and at the same time remembered that people were looking at him. "'It's shameful, sir,' he said to the adjutant. "'What?' He did not finish speaking. At one in the same moment came the sound of an explosion, a whistle of splinters as from a breaking window frame, a suffocating smell of powder,

Starting point is 10:52:25 and Prince Andrew started to one side, raising his arm, and fell on his chest. Several officers ran up to him. From the right side of his abdomen, blood was welling out, making a large stain on the grass. The militiamen with stretchers who were called up stood behind the officers. Prince Andrew lay on his chest with his face in the grass, breathing heavily and noisily. "'What are you waiting for? Come along!' The peasants went up and took him by his shoulders and legs, but he moaned piteously,

Starting point is 10:52:56 and exchanging looks, they set him down again. "'Pick him up! Lift him! It's all the same!' cried someone. They again took him by the shoulders and laid him on the stretcher. Ah, God. My God! What is it? The stomach? That means death. My God! Voices among the officers were heard saying. It flew a hair's breath past my ear, said the adjutant. The peasants, adjusting the stretcher to their shoulders, started hurriedly along the path they had trodden down to the dressing station. Keep in step! Ah, those peasants! shouted an officer, seizing by their shoulders and checking the peasants, who were walking unevenly and jolting the stretcher.

Starting point is 10:53:40 "'Get into step, Fadour! I say Fadour!' said the foremost peasant. "'Now, that's right,' said the one behind joyfully, when he got into step. "'Your Excellency, eh, Prince?' said the trembling voice of Tomokin, who had run up and was looking down on the stretcher. Prince Andrew opened his eyes and looked up at the speaker from the stretcher into which his head had sunk deep and again his eyelids drooped. The militiamen carried Prince Andrew to the dressing station by the wood, where wagons were stationed. The dressing station consisted of three tents with flaps turned back, pitched at the edge of a birch wood.

Starting point is 10:54:18 In the wood, wagons and horses were standing. The horses were eating oats from their movable troughs, and sparrows flew down and peck the grains that fell. Some crows, scenting blood, flew among the birch trees, cawing impatiently. Around the tents, over more than five acres, blood-stained men in various garbs stood, sat, or lay. Around the wounded stood crowds of soldier's stretcher-bearers, with dismal and attentive faces, whom the officers keeping order tried in vain to drive from the spot. Disregarding the officer's orders, the soldiers stood leaning against their stretchers, and gazing intently, as if trying to comprehend the difficult problem of what was taking place

Starting point is 10:55:02 before them. From the tents came now loud, angry cries, and now plaintive groans. Occasionally, dresses ran out to fetch water, or to point out those who were to be brought in next. The wounded men awaiting their turn outside the tents, groaned, sighed, wept, screamed, swore, or asked for vodka. Some were delirious. Prince Andrews-bearers, stepping over the wounded who had not yet been bandaged, took him, as a regimental commander close up to one of the tents and there stopped, awaiting instructions. Prince Andrew opened his eyes, and for a long time could not make out what was going on around him. He remembered the meadow, the wormwood, the field, the whirling black ball, and his sudden

Starting point is 10:55:49 rush of passionate love of life. Two steps from him, leaning against a branch and talking loudly and attracting general attention, stood a tall, handsome, black-haired, non-commissioned. officer with a bandaged head. He had been wounded in the head and leg by bullets. Around him, eagerly listening to his talk, a crowd of wounded and stretcher-bearers was gathered. We kicked him out from there so that he chucked everything. We grabbed the king himself, cried he, looking around him with eyes that glittered with fever. If only reserves had come up just then, lads, there wouldn't have been nothing left of him. I tell you, surely.

Starting point is 10:56:30 Like all the others near the speaker, Prince Andrew looked at him with shining eyes and experienced a sense of comfort. But isn't it all the same now, thought he. And what will be there, and what has there been here? Why was I so reluctant to part with life? There was something in this life I did not and do not understand. End of Book 10, Chapter 36. Book 10, Chapter 37.

Starting point is 10:57:08 War and Peace, Volume 3, by Leo Tolstoy, translated by Elmer Maude. This Libervox recording is in the public domain. Book 10, Chapter 37 One of the doctors came out of the tent in a blood-stained apron, holding a cigar between the thumb and little finger of one of his small bloodstained hands, so as not to smear it. He raised his head and looked about him, but above the level of the wounded men. He evidently wanted a little respite. After turning his head from right to left for some time, he sighed and looked down. All right, immediately, he replied to a dresser, who pointed Prince Andrew out to him, and he told them to carry him into the tent. Murmurs arose among the wounded who were waiting.

Starting point is 10:58:00 It seems that even in the next world only the gentry are to have a chance, remarked. one. Prince Andrew was carried in and laid on a table that had only just been cleared and which a dresser was washing down. Prince Andrew could not make out distinctly what was in that tent. The pitiful groans from all sides and the torturing pain in his thigh, stomach, and back distracted him. All he saw about him merged into a general impression of naked, bleeding human bodies that seemed to fill the hole of the low tent, as a few weeks previously on that hot August day, such bodies had filled the dirty pond beside the Smolensk Road. Yes, it was the same flesh, the same Chera-canon, the sight of which had even then filled him with horror,

Starting point is 10:58:47 as by a presentiment. There were three operating tables in the tent. Two were occupied, and on the third they placed Prince Andrew. For a little while he was left alone, and involuntarily witnessed what was taking place on the other two tables. On the nearest one sat at Tartar, probably a Cossack, judging by the uniform thrown down beside him. Four soldiers were holding him, and a spectacle doctor was cutting into his muskid or brown back. "'Oh, oh, oh!' grunted the tartar, and suddenly lifting up his swarthy, snub-nosed face with its high cheekbones and bearing his white teeth, he began to wriggle and twitch his body and utter piercing, ringing, and prolonged yells.

Starting point is 10:59:32 On the other table, round which many people were crowding, a tall, well-fed man lay on his back with his head thrown back. His curly hair, its color, and the shape of his head seemed strangely familiar to Prince Andrew. Several dresses were pressing on his chest to hold him down. One large white, plump leg twitched rapidly all the time with a feverish tremor. The man was sobbing and choking convulsively. Two doctors, one of whom was pale, and trembling, were silently doing something to this man's other gory leg.

Starting point is 11:00:07 When he had finished with a tartar, whom they covered with an overcoat, the spectacle doctor came up to Prince Andrew wiping his hands. He glanced at Prince Andrew's face and quickly turned away. Undress him, what are you waiting for? He cried angrily to the dressers. His very first remotest recollections of childhood came back to Prince Andrew's mind, when the dresser with sleeves rolled up began hastily to undo the buttons of his clothes and undressed him. The doctor bent down over the wound, felt it, and sighed deeply.

Starting point is 11:00:41 Then he made a sign to someone, and the torturing pain in his abdomen caused Prince Andrew to lose consciousness. When he came to himself, the splintered portions of his thigh bone had been extracted, the torn flesh cut away, and the wound bandaged. Water was being sprinkled on his face. As soon as Prince Andrew opened his eyes, the doctor bent over, kissed him silently on the lips, and hurried away. After the sufferings he had been enduring, Prince Andrew enjoyed a blissful feeling such as he had not experienced for a long time. All the best and happiest moments of his life, especially his earliest childhood, when he used to be undressed and put to bed, and when leaning over him, his nurse sang him to sleep,

Starting point is 11:01:25 and he, bearing his head in the pillow, felt happy in the mere consciousness of a little, life, returned to his memory, not merely as something past, but as something present. The doctors were busily engaged with the wounded man, the shape of whose head seemed familiar to Prince Andrew. They were lifting him up and trying to quiet him. Show it to me. Oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, his frightened moans could be heard, subdued by suffering and broken by sobs. Hearing those moans, Prince Andrew wanted to weep. Whether because he was dying without glory,

Starting point is 11:02:05 or because he was sorry to part with life, or because of those memories of a childhood that could not return, or because he was suffering and others were suffering, and that man near him was groaning so piteously, he felt like weeping, childlike, kindly, and almost happy tears. The wounded man was shown his amputated leg, stained with clotted blood, and with the boots, still on. Oh, oh, oh, oh, he sobbed like a woman. The doctor who had been standing beside him,

Starting point is 11:02:37 preventing Prince Andrew from seeing his face moved away. My God, what is this? Why is he here? said Prince Andrew to himself. In the miserable, sobbing, enfeebled man whose leg had just been amputated, he recognized Anatole Coragin. Men were supporting him in their arms and offering him a glass of water, but his trembling swollen lips could not grasp its rim. Anatole was sobbing painfully. "'Yes, it is he. Yes, that man is somehow closely and painfully connected with me,' thought Prince Andrew, not yet clearly grasping what he saw before him. "'What is the connection of that man with my childhood and life?' he asked himself,

Starting point is 11:03:23 without finding an answer. And suddenly, a new, unexpected memory from that realm of pure and loving childhood presented itself to him. He remembered Natasha as he had seen her for the first time at the Bald in 1810, with her slender neck and arms, and with a frightened happy face ready for rapture, and love and tenderness for her, stronger and more vivid than ever awoke in his soul. He now remembered the connection that existed between himself and this man who was dimmed gazing at him through tears that filled his swollen eyes.

Starting point is 11:03:58 He remembered everything, and ecstatic pity and love for that man overflowed his happy heart. Prince Andrew could no longer restrain himself, and wept tender, loving tears for his fellow men, for himself, and for his own, and their errors. Compassion, love of our brothers, for those who love us and for those who hate us, love of our enemies. Yes, that love which God preached on earth and which Princess Mary taught me and I did not understand. That is what made me sorry to part with life. That is what remained for me had I lived.

Starting point is 11:04:37 But now, it is too late. I know it. End of Book 10, Chapter 37. Book 10, Chapter 38. Of War and Peace, Volume 3, by Leo Tolstoy, translated by Elmer Maud. This Libervox recording is in the public domain. Book 10, Chapter 38 The terrible spectacle of the battlefield, covered with dead and wounded, together with the heaviness of his head and the news that some twenty generals he knew personally have been killed or wounded, and the consciousness of the impotence of his once mighty arm,

Starting point is 11:05:23 produced an unexpected impression on Napoleon, who usually liked to look at the killed and wounded, thereby he considered testing his strength of mind. This day, the horrible appearance of the battlefield overcame that strength of mind, which he thought constituted his merit and his greatness. He rode hurriedly from the battlefield and returned to the Chevardine O'Nol, where he sat on his camp-stool,

Starting point is 11:05:48 his sallow face swollen and heavy, his eyes dim, his nose red, and his voice hoarse, involuntarily listening with downcast eyes to the sounds of fire. With painful dejection, he awaited the end of this action, in which he regarded himself as a participant, and which he was unable to arrest. A personal human feeling for a brief moment got the better of the artificial phantasm of life he had served so long. He felt in his own person the sufferings and death he had witnessed on the battlefield. The heaviness of his head

Starting point is 11:06:22 and chest reminded him of the possibility of suffering and death for himself. At that moment, he did not desire Moscow, or victory, or glory. What need he for any more glory? The one thing he wished for was rest, tranquility, and freedom. But when he had been on the Semenov heights, the artillery commander had proposed to him to bring several batteries of artillery up to those heights, to strengthen the fire on the Russian troops crowded in front of Kiyazkovo. Napoleon had assented, and had given orders that news should be brought to you,

Starting point is 11:06:58 him of the effect those batteries produced. An adjutant came now to inform him that the fire of two hundred guns have been concentrated on the Russians as he had ordered, but that they still held their ground. Our fire is mowing them down by rows, but they still hold on, said the adjutant. They want more, said Napoleon in a hoarse voice. Sire? asked the adjutant, who had not heard the remark. They want more, croaked Napoleon, frowning.

Starting point is 11:07:29 Let them have it. Even before he gave that order, the thing he did not desire, and for which he gave the order only because he thought it was expected of him, was being done. And he fell back into that artificial realm of imaginary greatness, and again, as a horse walking a treadmill thinks it is doing something for itself, he submissively fulfilled the cruel, sad, gloomy, and inhuman role predestined for him. And not for that day and hour alone were the mind and conscience darkened of this man,

Starting point is 11:08:00 on whom the responsibility for what was happening lay more than on all the others who took part in it. Never to the end of his life could he understand goodness, beauty, or truth, or the significance of his actions which were too contrary to goodness and truth, too remote from everything human, for him ever to be able to grasp their meaning. He could not disavow his actions, belauded as they were by half the world, and so he had to repudiate truth, goodness, and all humanity. Not only on that day, as he rode over the battlefield strewn with men killed and maimed by his will as he believed, did he reckon as he looked at them how many Russians there were for each Frenchman,

Starting point is 11:08:45 and deceiving himself, find reason for rejoicing in the calculation that there were five Russians for every Frenchman. Not on that day alone did he write in a letter to Paris that the battlefield was superb, because fifty thousand corpses lay there. But even on the island of St. Helena, in the peaceful solitude where he said he intended to devote his leisure to an account of the great deeds he had done, he wrote, The Russian War should have been the most popular war of modern times. It was a war of good sense, for real interests, for the tranquility and security of all. It was purely Pacific and conservative.

Starting point is 11:09:25 It was a war for a great cause, the end of uncertainties and the beginning of security. A new horizon and new labors were opening out, full of well-being and prosperity for all. The European system was already founded. All that remained was to organize it. Satisfied on these great points, and with tranquility everywhere, I too should have had my Congress and my Holy Alliance, Those ideas were stolen from me. In that reunion of great sovereigns, we should have discussed our interests like one family,

Starting point is 11:10:00 and have rendered account to the peoples as clerk to master. Europe would in this way soon have been, in fact, but one people, and anyone who traveled anywhere would have found himself always in the common fatherland. I should have demanded the freedom of all navigable rivers for everybody, that the sea should be common to all, and that the great standing army should be reduced henceforth to mere guards for the sovereigns. On returning to France, to the bosom of the great, strong, magnificent, peaceful, and glorious fatherland, I should have proclaimed her frontiers immutable, all future wars purely defensive,

Starting point is 11:10:38 all aggrandizement, anti-national. I should have associated my son in the empire. My dictatorship would have been finished, and his constitutional reign would have begun. Paris would have been the capital of the world, and the French the envy of the nations. My leisure, then, and my old age, would have been devoted, in company with the Empress and during the royal apprenticeship of my son, to leisurely visiting, with our own horses, and like a true country couple, every corner of the empire, receiving complaints, redressing wrongs, and scattering public buildings and benefactions on all sides and everywhere. Napoleon, predestined by providence for the gloomy role of executioner of the peoples,

Starting point is 11:11:23 assured himself that the aim of his actions had been the people's welfare, and that he could control the fate of millions, and by the employment of power, confer benefactions. Of 400,000 who crossed the vistula, he wrote further of the Russian War, half were Austrians, Prussians, Saxons, Poles, Bavarians, Vertenburgers, Mecklenburgers, Spaniards, Italians, and Neapolitans. The Imperial Army, strictly speaking, was one-third composed of Dutch, Belgians, men from the borders of the Rhine, Piedmontese, Swiss, Genovese, Tuscans, Romans, inhabitants of the

Starting point is 11:12:01 32nd military division, of Bremen, of Hamburg, and so on. It included scarcely 140,000 who spoke French. The Russian expedition actually cost France less than 50,000. 50,000 men. The Russian army, in its retreat from Vilna to Moscow, lost in the various battles four times more men than the French army. The burning of Moscow cost the lives of 100,000 Russians, who died of cold and want in the woods. Finally, in its march from Moscow to the odor, the Russian army also suffered from the severity of the season, so that by the time it reached Vilna, it numbered only 50,000, and at Kalish, less than 18,000. He imagined that the war with Russia came about by his will, and the horrors that occurred

Starting point is 11:12:50 did not stagger his soul. He boldly took the whole responsibility for what happened, and his darkened mind found justification in the belief that, among the hundreds of thousands who perished, there were fewer Frenchmen than Hessians and Bavarians. End of Book 10, Chapter 38. Book 10, Chapter 39, of War and Peace Volume 3 by Leo Tolstoy, translated by Omer Maud. This Libervox recording is in the public domain. Book 10, Chapter 39 Several tens of thousands of the slain

Starting point is 11:13:36 lay in diverse postures and various uniforms on the fields and meadows belonging to the Davidoff family and to the crown serfs. Those fields and meadows wear, for hundreds of years, the peasants of Borodino, gorky, Chavardino, and Sèvardino, and Sera, Momenovsk had reaped their harvests and pasture their cattle. At the dressing stations, the grass and earth were soaked with blood for a space of some three acres around.

Starting point is 11:14:02 Crowds of men of various arms, wounded and unwounded, with frightened faces, dragged themselves back to Muges from the one army and back to Valleuevo from the other. Other crowds, exhausted and hungry, went forward led by their officers. Others held their ground and continued to fire. Over the whole field, previously so gaily beautiful with the glitter of bayonets and cloudlets of smoke in the morning sun, they're now spread a mist of damp and smoke and a strange acid smell of salt-peater and blood. Clouds gathered, and drops of rain began to fall on the dead and wounded, on the frightened, exhausted, and hesitating men, as if to say,

Starting point is 11:14:45 enough, men, enough, cease, bethink yourselves, what are you doing? To the men of both sides alike, worn out by want of food and rest, it began equally to appear doubtful whether they should continue to slaughter one another. All the faces expressed hesitation, and the question arose in every soul. For what, for whom must I kill and be killed? You may go and kill whom you please, but I don't want to do you. do so anymore. By evening, this thought had ripened in every soul. At any moment, these men might have been seized with horror at what they were doing, and might have thrown up everything and run away

Starting point is 11:15:29 anywhere. But though toward the end of the battle, the men felt all the horror of what they were doing, though they would have been glad to leave off, some incomprehensible, mysterious power continued to control them, and they still brought up the charges, loaded, aimed, and they still brought up the charges, loaded, aimed, and applied the match, though only one artilleryman survived out of every three, and though they stumbled and panted with fatigue, perspiring and stained with blood and powder. The cannonballs flew just as swiftly and cruelly from both sides, crushing human bodies, and that terrible work which was not done by the will of a man, but at the will of him who governs men and worlds, continued.

Starting point is 11:16:10 Anyone looking at the disorganized rear of the Russian army would have said that if only the French made one more slight effort, it would disappear. And anyone looking at the rear of the French army would have said that the Russians need only make one more slight effort and the French would be destroyed. But neither the French nor the Russians made that effort, and the flame of battle burned slowly out. The Russians did not make that effort because they were not attacked. the French. At the beginning of the battle, they stood blocking the way to Moscow, and they still did so at the end of the battle as at the beginning. But even had the aim of the Russians men to drive the French from their positions, they could not have made this last effort, for all the Russian troops had been broken up. There was no part of the Russian army that had not suffered in the battle,

Starting point is 11:17:03 and though still holding their positions they had lost one half of their army. The French, with the memory of all their former victories during 15 years, with the assurance of Napoleon's invincibility, with the consciousness that they had captured part of the battlefield, and had lost only a quarter of their men, and still had their guards intact, 20,000 strong, might easily have made that effort. The French, who had attacked the Russian army in order to drive it from its position, ought to have made that effort, for as long as the Russians continued to block the road to Moscow as before, the aim of the French had not been attained, and all their efforts and losses were in vain. But the French did not make that effort. Some historians say that

Starting point is 11:17:50 Napoleon need only have used his old guards, who were intact, and the battle would have been won. To speak of what would have happened had Napoleon sent his guards, is like talking of what would happen if autumn became spring. It could not be. Napoleon did not give his guards, not because he did not want to, but because it could not be done. All the generals, officers, and soldiers of the French army knew it could not be done, because the flagging spirit of the troops would not permit it. It was not Napoleon alone who had experienced that nightmare feeling of the mighty arm being stricken powerless, but all the generals and soldiers of his army, whether they had taken part in the battle or not,

Starting point is 11:18:35 after all their experience of previous battles, when after one-tenth of such efforts the enemy had fled, experienced a similar feeling of terror before an enemy who, after losing half its men, stood as threateningly at the end as at the beginning of the battle. The moral force of the attacking French army was exhausted. Not that sort of victory which is defined by the capture of pieces of material fastened to sticks called standards, and of the ground on which the troops had stood and were standing. But a moral victory, that convinces the enemy of the moral superiority of his opponent and of his own impotence was gained by the Russians at Borodino.

Starting point is 11:19:17 The French invaders, like an infuriated animal that has in its onslaught received a mortal wound, felt that they were perishing but could not stop, any more than the Russian army, weaker by one half, could help swerving. By impetus gained, the French army was still able to roll forward to Moscow, but there, without further effort on the part of the Russians, it had to perish, bleeding from the mortal wound it had received at Borodino. The direct consequence of the Battle of Borodino was Napoleon's senseless flight from Moscow, his retreat along the old Smolensk Road, the destruction of the invading army of 500,000 men,

Starting point is 11:19:58 and the downfall of Napoleonic France, on which at Borodino for the first time the hand of an opponent of stronger spirit had been laid. End of Book 10, Chapter 39. Book 11, Chapter 1 of War and Peace, Volume 3, by Leo Tolstoy, translated by Elmer Maude. This Libervox recording is in the public domain. Book 11, 1812. Chapter 1 Absolute continuity of motion is not comprehensible to the human mind. Laws of motion of any kind become comprehensible to man only when he examines

Starting point is 11:20:49 arbitrarily selected elements of that motion. But at the same time, a large proportion of human error comes from the arbitrary division of continuous motion into discontinuous elements. There is a well-known so-called sophism of the ancients consisting in this, that Achilles could never catch up with a tortoise he was following, in spite of the fact that he traveled ten times as fast as the tortoise. By the time Achilles has covered the distance that separated him from the tortoise, the tortoise has covered one-tenth of that distance ahead of him.

Starting point is 11:21:22 When Achilles has covered that tenth, the tortoise has covered another one-hundredth, and so on forever. This problem seemed to the ancients insoluble. The absurd answer, that Achilles could never over-over was. overtake the tortoise, resulted from this. That motion was arbitrarily divided into discontinuous elements, whereas the motion both of Achilles and of the tortoise was continuous. By adopting smaller and smaller elements of motion, we only approach a solution of the problem, but never reach it. Only when we have admitted the conception of the infinitely small, and the resulting geometrical

Starting point is 11:21:59 progression with a common ratio of one-tenth, and have found the sum of this progression to infinity, do we reach a solution of the problem? A modern branch of mathematics, having achieved the art of dealing with the infinitely small, can now yield solutions in other more complex problems of motion which used to appear insoluble. This modern branch of mathematics, unknown to the ancients,

Starting point is 11:22:24 when dealing with problems of motion, admits the conception of the infinitely small, and so conforms to the chief condition of motion, absolute continuity, and thereby corrects the inevitable error which the human mind cannot avoid when it deals with separate elements of motion instead of examining continuous motion. In seeking the laws of historical movement, just the same thing happens. The movement of humanity, arising as it does from innumerable arbitrary human wills,

Starting point is 11:22:54 is continuous. To understand the laws of this continuous movement is the aim of history. But to arrive at these laws, resulting from the sub-sumeration, of all those human wills, man's mind postulates arbitrary and disconnected units. The first method of history is to take an arbitrarily selected series of continuous events and examine it apart from others, though there is and can be no beginning to any event, for one event always flows uninterruptedly from another. The second method is to consider the actions of some one man, a king or a commander, as equivalent to the sum of many individuals,

Starting point is 11:23:33 wills, whereas the sum of individual wills is never expressed by the activity of a single historic personage. Historical science, in its endeavor to draw nearer to truth, continually take smaller and smaller units for examination. But however small the units it takes, we feel that to take any unit disconnected from others, or to assume a beginning of any phenomenon, or to say that the will of many men is expressed by the actions of any one historic personage is in itself false. It needs no critical exertion to reduce utterly to dust any deductions drawn from history.

Starting point is 11:24:13 It is merely necessary to select some larger or smaller unit as the subject of observation, as criticism has every right to do, seeing that whatever unit history observes must always be arbitrarily selected. Only by taking infinitesimely small units for observation, the differential of history, that is, the individual tendencies of men, and attaining to the art of integrating them, that is, finding the sum of these infinitesimals, can we hope to arrive at the laws of history? The first fifteen years of the 19th century in Europe present an extraordinary movement of millions of people.

Starting point is 11:24:52 Men leave their customary pursuits, hasten from one side of Europe to the other, plunder and slaughter one another, triumph and are plunged in dispelior. bear, and for some years the whole course of life is altered and presents an intensive movement which first increases and then slackens. What was the cause of this movement? By what laws was it governed? asks the mind of man. The historians, replying to this question, lay before us the sayings and doings of a few dozen men in a building in the city of Paris, calling these sayings and doings the revolution. Then they give a detailed biography of Napoleon, and

Starting point is 11:25:30 and of certain people favorable or hostile to him. Tell of the influence some of these people had on others, and say, that is why this movement took place, and those are its laws. But the mind of man not only refuses to believe this explanation, but Pliny says that this method of explanation is fallacious, because in it a weaker phenomenon is taken as the cause of a stronger. The sum of human wills produced the revolution and Napoleon,

Starting point is 11:26:00 and only the sum of those wills first tolerated and then destroyed them. But every time there have been conquest, there have been conquerors. Every time there has been a revolution in any state, there have been great men, says history. And indeed, human reason replies, Every time conquerors appear, there have been wars. But this does not prove that the conquerors caused the wars, and that it is possible to find the laws of a war in the personal activity of a single man. Whenever I look at my watch and its hands point to ten, I hear the bells of the

Starting point is 11:26:36 neighboring church. But because the bells begin to ring when the hands of the clock reach ten, I have no right to assume that the movement of the bells is caused by the position of the hands of the watch. Whenever I see the movement of a locomotive, I hear the whistle, and see the valves opening and wheels turning. But I have no right to conclude that the whistling and the turning of the wheels are the cause of the movement of the engine. The peasants say that a cold wind blows in late spring because the oaks are budding, and really every spring cold winds do blow when the oak is budding. But, though I do not know what causes the cold winds to blow when the oak buds unfold,

Starting point is 11:27:16 I cannot agree with the peasants that the unfolding of the oak buds is the cause of the cold wind, for the force of the wind is beyond the influence of the buds. I see only a coincidence of occurrences, such as happens with all the phenomena of life, and I see that, however much and however carefully I observe the hands of the watch, and the valves and wheels of the engine, and the oak, I shall not discover the cause of the bells ringing, the engine moving, or of the winds of spring. To that I must entirely change my point of view, and study the laws of the movement of steam, of the bells and of the wind.

Starting point is 11:27:55 History must do the same. And attempts in this direction have already been made. To study the laws of history, we must completely change the subject of our observation, must leave aside kings, ministers, and generals, and study the common, infinitesimally small elements by which the masses are moved. No one can say in how far it is possible

Starting point is 11:28:19 for man to advance in this way toward an understanding, of the laws of history. But it is evident that only along that path does the possibility of discovering the laws of history lie, and that as yet not a millionth part as much mental effort has been applied in this direction by historians, as has been devoted to describing the actions of various kings, commanders, and ministers, and propounding the historian's own reflections concerning these actions. End of Book 11, Chapter 1. Book 11, Chapter 2 of War and Peace, Volume 3, by Leo Tolstoy, translated by Elmer Maude.

Starting point is 11:29:07 This Libervox recording is in the public domain. Book 11, Chapter 2 The forces of a dozen European nations burst into Russia. The Russian army and people avoided a collision till Smolensk was reached, and again from Smolens to Borodino. The French army pushed on in the French army pushed on in the Russian army. in Moscow its goal, its impetus ever increasing as it neared its aim, just as the velocity of a falling body increases as it approaches the earth. Behind it were 700 miles of hunger-stricken, hostile country. Ahead were a few dozen miles separating it from its goal. Every soldier in Napoleon's

Starting point is 11:29:47 army felt this, and the invasion moved on by its own momentum. The more the Russian army retreated, the more fiercely a spirit of hatred of the enemy flared up, and while it retreated, the army increased and consolidated. At Borodino, a collision took place. Neither army was broken up, but the Russian army retreated immediately after the collision, as inevitably as a ball recoils after colliding with another having a greater momentum.

Starting point is 11:30:17 And with equal inevitability, the ball of invasion that had advanced with such momentum rolled on for some distance, though the collision had deprived it of all its force. The Russians retreated 80 miles to beyond Moscow, and the French reached Moscow, and there came to a standstill. For five weeks after that there was not a single battle. The French did not move. As a bleeding, mortally wounded animal licks its wounds,

Starting point is 11:30:46 they remained inert in Moscow for five weeks, and then suddenly, with no fresh reason, fled back. They made a dash for the Kaluga Road, and, after a victory, for at Malo Yaroslavets, the field of conflict again remained theirs, without undertaking a single serious battle, they fled still more rapidly back to Smolensk, beyond Smolensk, beyond the Berizina, beyond Vilna, and farther still. On the evening of the 26th of August, Kutuzov and the whole Russian army were convinced that the Balaborandino was a victory. Kutuzov reported so to the emperor. He gave orders to prepare for a fresh conflict to finish the enemy, and did this not to deceive anyone, but because he knew that the enemy was beaten,

Starting point is 11:31:35 as everyone who had taken part in the battle knew it. But all that evening and next day, reports came in one after another of unheard of losses, of the loss of half the army, and a fresh battle proved physically impossible. It was impossible to give battle before information had been collected. The wound had gathered in. The supplies of ammunition replenished.

Starting point is 11:31:59 The slain reckoned up. New officers appointed to replace those who had been killed, and before the men had had food and sleep. And meanwhile, the very next morning after the battle, the French army advanced of itself upon the Russians, carried forward by the force of its own momentum, now seemingly increased in inverse proportion to the square of the distance from,

Starting point is 11:32:21 its aim. Kutuzov's wish was to attack next day, and the whole army desired to do so. But to make an attack, the wish to do so is not sufficient. There must also be a possibility of doing it, and that possibility did not exist. It was impossible not to retreat a day's march, and then in the same way it was impossible not to retreat another and a third day's march, and at last, on the 1st of September, when the army drew near Moscow, despite the strength of the feeling that had arisen in all ranks, the force of circumstances compelled it to retire beyond Moscow. And the troops retired one more last day's march and abandoned Moscow to the enemy.

Starting point is 11:33:08 Four people accustomed to think that plans of campaign and battles are made by generals, as any one of us sitting over a map in a study may imagine how he... he would have arranged things in this or that battle. The questions present themselves, Why did Kutuzov during the retreat not do this or that? Why did he not take up a position before reaching Philly? Why did he not retire at once by the Kuluga Road, abandoning Moscow, and so on? People accustomed to think in that way forget, or do not know, the inevitable conditions which always limit the activities of any commander-in-chief. The activity of a commander-in-chief does not at all resemble the activity we imagine to ourselves when we sit at ease

Starting point is 11:33:53 in our studies examining some campaign on the map, with a certain number of troops on this and that side, in a certain known locality, and begin our plans from some given moment. A commander-in-chief is never dealing with the beginning of any event, the position from which we always contemplate it. The commander-in-chief is always in the midst of a series of shifting events, and so he never can at any moment consider the whole import of an event that is occurring. Moment by moment, the event is imperceptibly shaping itself, and at every moment of this continuous, uninterrupted shaping of events, the Commander-in-Chief is in the midst of a most complex play of intrigues, worries, contingencies, authorities, projects, councils, threats, and deceptions,

Starting point is 11:34:39 and is continually obliged to reply to innumerable questions addressed to him, which constantly conflict with one another. Learned military authorities quite seriously tell us that Kutuzov should have moved his army to the Kuluga Road long before reaching Phili, and that somebody actually submitted such a proposal to him. But a commander-in-chief, especially at a difficult moment, has always before him, not one proposal, but doesn't simultaneously. And all these proposals, based on strategies and tactics, contradict each other.

Starting point is 11:35:12 A commander-in-chief's business, it would seem, is simply to choose one of these projects. But even that he cannot do. Events and time do not wait. For instance, on the 28th, it is suggested to him to cross to the Kaluga Road, but just then, an adjutant gallops up from Miladorovich, asking whether he is to engage the French or retire. An order must be given him at once, that instant. And the order to retreat carries us past the two. turn to the Kaluga Road. And after the adjutant comes the commissary general, asking where the

Starting point is 11:35:49 stores are to be taken, and the chief of the hospitals asks where the wounded are to go, and a courier from Petersburg brings a letter from the sovereign which does not admit of the possibility of abandoning Moscow. And the commander-in-chief's rival, the man who is undermining him, and there are always not merely one, but several such, presents a new project diametrically opposed to that of turning to the Caluga Road, and the commander-in-chief himself needs sleep and refreshment to maintain his energy, and a respectable general, who has been overlooked in the distribution of rewards, comes to complain, and the inhabitants of the district pray to be defended, and an officer sent to inspect the locality comes in and gives a report quite contrary to what was said by the officer previously sent.

Starting point is 11:36:34 And a spy, a prisoner, and a general who has been on reconnaissance all described the position of the enemy's army differently. People accustomed to misunderstand or to forget these inevitable conditions of a commander-in-chief's actions described to us, for instance, the position of the army at Philly and assumed that the commander-chief could, on the 1st of September, quite freely decide whether to abandon Moscow or defend it, whereas, with the Russian army less than four miles from Moscow, no such question existed. When had that question been settled? at Drissa and at Smolensk, and most palpably of all, on the 24th of August at Chavardinot,

Starting point is 11:37:15 and on the 26th at Borodino, and each day, an hour and minute of the retreat from Borodino to Philly. End of Book 11, Chapter 2. Book 11 Chapter 3 of War and Peace, Volume 3, by Leo Tolstoy, translated by Elmer Maude. This Libervox recording is in the public domain. Book 11 Chapter 3 When Irmolov, having been sent by Kutuzov to inspect the position, told the field marshal that it was impossible to fight there before Moscow and that they must retreat, Kutuzov looked at him in silence. Give me your hand, said he, and turning it over so as to feel the pulse, added,

Starting point is 11:38:08 You are not well, my fellow. Think what you are saying. Kutuzov could not yet admit the possibility of retreating, on Moscow without a battle. On the Poklani Hill, four miles from the Dora Gamilov gate of Moscow, Katoosov got out of his carriage and sat down on a bench by the roadside. A great crowd of generals gathered round him, and Count Rostopchin, who had come out from Moscow, joined them. This brilliant company separated into several groups who all discussed the advantages and disadvantages

Starting point is 11:38:39 of the position, the state of the army, the plan suggested, the situation of Moscow and military questions generally. Though they had not been summoned for the purpose, and though it was not so called, they all felt that this was really a council of war. The conversations all dealt with public questions. If anyone gave or asked for personal news, it was done in a whisper, and they immediately reverted to general matters. No jokes, or laughter, or smiles even, were seen among all these men. They evidently all made an effort to hold themselves at the height the situation demanded. And all these groups, while talking among themselves, tried to keep near the Commander-in-Chief, whose bench formed the center of the gathering, and to speak so that he

Starting point is 11:39:26 might overhear them. The Commander-in-Chief listened to what was being said, and sometimes asked them to repeat their remarks, but did not himself take part in the conversations or express any opinion. After hearing what was being said by one or other of these groups, he generally turned away with an air of disappointment, as though they were not speaking of anything he wished to hear. Some discussed the position that had been chosen, criticizing not the position itself, so much as the mental capacity of those who had chosen it. Others argued that a mistake had been made earlier, and that a battle should have been fought two days before. Others again spoke of the Battle of Salamanca, which was described by Cro-Sar a newly arrived Frenchman in a Spanish uniform.

Starting point is 11:40:12 This Frenchman and one of the German princes serving with the Russian army were discussing the siege of Saragossa and considering the possibility of defending Moscow in a similar manner. Count Rostopchin was telling a fourth group that he was prepared to die with the city, trained bands under the walls of the capital, but that he still could not help regretting having been left in ignorance of what was happening, and that, had he known it sooner, things would have been different. A fifth group, displaying the profundity of their strategic perceptions, discussed the direction the troops would now have to take. A sixth group was talking absolute nonsense. Kutuzov's expression grew more and more preoccupied and gloomy.

Starting point is 11:40:54 From all this talk he saw only one thing, that to defend Moscow was a physical impossibility in the full meaning of those words, that is to say, so utterly impossible that if any senseless commander were to give orders to fight, confusion would result, but the battle would still not take place. It would not take place, because the commanders not merely all recognized the position to be impossible, but in their conversations were only discussing what would happen after its inevitable abandonment. How could the commanders lead their troops to a field of battle they considered impossible to hold? The lower-grade officers, and even the soldiers, who, too reason, also considered the position impossible, and therefore could not go to fight, fully convinced,

Starting point is 11:41:41 as they were of defeat. If Benningsen insisted on the position being defended, and others still discussed it, the question was no longer important in itself, but only as a pretext for disputes and intrigue. This Kutuzov knew well. Benningsen, who had chosen the position, warmly displayed his Russian patriotism. Kutuzov could not listen to this without wincing. by insisting that Moscow must be defended. His aim was as clear as daylight to Kutuzov. If the defense failed to throw the blame on Kutuzov who had brought the army as far as the Sparrow Hills without giving battle,

Starting point is 11:42:20 if it succeeded to claim the success as his own, or if battle were not given to clear himself of the crime of abandoning Moscow. But this intrigue did not now occupy the old man's mind. One terrible question absorbed him. and to that question he heard no reply from anyone. The question for him now was, have I really allowed Napoleon to reach Moscow, and when did I do so?

Starting point is 11:42:46 When was it decided? Can it have been yesterday when I ordered Platov to retreat, or was it the evening before, when I had a nap and told Benickson to issue orders? Or was it earlier still? When, when was this terrible affair decided? Moscow must be abandoned. The army must retreat, and the order to do so must be given.

Starting point is 11:43:10 To give that terrible order seemed to him equivalent to resigning the command of the army. And not only did he love power to which he was accustomed, the honors awarded to Prince Puzorovsky under whom he had served in Turkey galled him, but he was convinced that he was destined to save Russia, and that that was why, against the emperor's wish and by the will of the people, he had been chosen commander-in-chief. He was convinced that he alone could maintain command of the army in these difficult circumstances,

Starting point is 11:43:41 and that in all the world he alone could encounter the invincible Napoleon without fear, and he was horrified at the thought of the order he had to issue. But something had to be decided, and these conversations around him, which were assuming too free a character, must be stopped. He called the most important generals to him. "'My head, be it good or bad, must depend on itself,' said he, rising from the bench and he rode to Philly where his carriages were waiting. End of Book 11, Chapter 3. Book 11 Chapter 4 of War and Peace, Volume 3, by Leo Tolstoy,

Starting point is 11:44:29 translated by Elmer Maude. This Libervox recording is in the public domain. Book 11, Chapter 4 The Council of War began to assemble at two in the afternoon in the better and roomier part of Andrew Savitzjanov's hut. The men, women, and children of the large peasant family crowded into the back room across the passage. Only Malasha, Andrew's six-year-old granddaughter, whom his serene highness had petted, and to whom he had given a lump of sugar while drinking his tea, remained at the top of the brick oven in the larger room. Malasha looked down. down from the oven with shy delight at the faces, uniforms, and decorations of the generals,

Starting point is 11:45:12 who one after another came into the room and sat down on the broad benches in the corner under the icons. Granddad himself, as Malasha in her own mind called Kirtuzov, sat apart in a dark corner behind the oven. He sat, sunk deep in a folding armchair, and continually cleared his throat and pulled at the collar of his coat, which, though it was unbuttoned, still seemed to pinch his neck. Those who entered went up one by one to the field-martial. He pressed the hands of some and nodded to others. His adjutant, Kaysarov, was about to draw back the curtain of the window facing Kutuzov, but the latter moved his hand angrily, and Kaysarov understood that his serene highness did not wish his face to be seen. Around the peasant's deal table, on which lay

Starting point is 11:45:59 maps, plans, pencils, and papers, so many people gathered that the orderlies brought in another bench and put it beside the table. Urmolov, Kaysarov, and Toll, who had just arrived, sat down on this bench. In the foremost place, immediately under the icons, sat Barclay to Tolly, his high forehead merging into his bald crown. He had a St. George's cross round his neck and looked pale and ill. He had been feverish for two days, and was now shivering and in pain. Beside him sat Uvarov, who, with rabid gesticulations,

Starting point is 11:46:33 was giving him some information, speaking in low tones as they all did. Chubby little Dakturov was listening attentively with eyebrows raised and arms folded on his stomach. On the other side sat Count Osterman Tolstoy, seemingly absorbed in his own thoughts. His broad head with its bold features and glittering eyes was resting on his hand. Ryevsky, twitching forward the black hair in his temples as was his habit, glanced now at Kutuzov and now at the door with a look of impatience. Konewz Nitzin's firm, handsome and kindly face was lit up by a tender, sly smile.

Starting point is 11:47:12 His glance met Malachas, and the expression of his eyes caused the little girl to smile. They were all waiting for Benningson, who, on the pretext of inspecting the position, was finishing his savory dinner. They waited for him from four till six o'clock, and did not begin their deliberations all that time but talked in low tones of other matters.

Starting point is 11:47:33 Only when Benningson had entered the hut did Kutuzov leave his corner and draw it toward the table, but not near enough for the candles that had been placed there to light up his face. Benningson opened the council with a question, Are we to abandon Russian's ancient and sacred capital without a struggle, or are we to defend it? A prolonged and general silence followed. There was a frown on every face, and only Kutuzov's angry grunts and occasional cough broke the silence. All eyes were gazing at him. Malasha too looked at Granddad. She was nearest to him and saw how his face puckered. He seemed about to cry, but this did not last long.

Starting point is 11:48:17 Russia's ancient and sacred capital, he suddenly said, repeating Benningson's words in an angry voice and thereby drawing attention to the false note in them. Allow me to tell you, your excellency, that that question has no meaning for a Russian. He lurched his heavy body forward. Such a question cannot be put. It is senseless. The question I have asked these gentlemen to meet to discuss is a military one. The question is that of saving Russia.

Starting point is 11:48:48 Is it better to give up Moscow without a battle, or by accepting battle to risk losing the army as well as Moscow? That is the question on which I want your opinion. And he sank back in his chair. The discussion began. Benningson did not yet consider his game lost. Admitting the view of Barclay and the others that a defensive battle at Philly was impossible, but imbued with Russian patriotism and the love of Moscow,

Starting point is 11:49:15 he proposed to move troops from the right to the left flank during the night and attacked the French right flank the following day. Opinions were divided, and arguments were advanced for and against that project. Ermolov, Dakturov, and Ryevsky agreed with Benningsen. Whether feeling it necessary to make a sacrifice before abandoning the Capitol or guided by other personal considerations, these generals seemed not to understand that this Council could not alter the inevitable course of events, and that Moscow was in effect already abandoned. The other generals, however, understood it, and leaving aside the question of Moscow, spoke

Starting point is 11:49:55 of the direction the army should take in its retreat. Malasha, who kept her eyes fixed on what was going on before her, understood the meaning of the council differently. It seemed to her that it was only a personal struggle between Grandad and Longcoat, as she termed Bennington. She saw that they grew spiteful when they spoke to one another, and in her heart she sided with Grandad. In the midst of the conversation, she noticed Grandad give Benickson a quick, subtle glance, and then to her joys she saw that Granddad said something to Longcoat which settled him. Benningson suddenly reddened and paced angrily up and down the room. What so affected him was Kutuzov's calm and quiet comment on the advantage or

Starting point is 11:50:39 disadvantage of Benningson's proposal to move troops by night from the right to the left flank to attack the French right wing. "'Gentlemen,' said Kutuzov, "'I cannot approve of the Count's plan. Moving troops in close proximity to an enemy is always dangerous, and military history supports that view. For instance, Kutuzov seemed to reflect, searching for an example. Then, with a clear, naive look at Benningson, he added, Oh yes, take the Battle of Friedland, which I think the Count well remembers, and which was

Starting point is 11:51:15 not fully successful, only because our troops were rearranged too near the enemy. There followed a momentary pause, which seemed very long to them all. The discussion recommenced, but pauses frequently occurred, and they all felt that there was no more to be said. During one of these pauses, Kutuzov heaved a deep sigh as if preparing to speak. They all looked at him. "'Well, gentlemen, I see that it is I who will have to pay for the broken crockery,' said he, and rising slowly he moved to the table.

Starting point is 11:51:52 "'Gentlemen, I have heard your views. Some of you will not agree with me.' "'But I,' he paused, "'by the authority entrusted to me by my sovereign and country, "'order a retreat.' After that, the generals began to disperse with the solemnity and circumspect silence of people who are leaving after a funeral.

Starting point is 11:52:17 Some of the generals, in low tones and in a strain very different from the way they had spoken during the council, communicated something to their commander-in-chief. Malasha, who had long been expected for supper, climbed carefully backwards down from the oven, her bare little feet catching at its projections, and slipping between the legs of the generals she darted out of the room. When he had dismissed the generals, Kutuzov sat a long time with his elbows on the table, thinking always of the same terrible question.

Starting point is 11:52:49 When—when did the abandonment of Moscow become an ever. when was that done which settled the matter, and who was to blame for it?' "'I did not expect this,' said he to his adjutant Schneider when the latter came in late that night. "'I did not expect this. I did not think this would happen.' "'You should take some rest, your serene highness,' replied Schneider. "'But no, they shall eat horse-flesh yet, like the Turks,' exclaimed Kutuzov, without replying, striking the table with his podgy fist.

Starting point is 11:53:25 They shall, too, if only. End of Book 11, Chapter 4. Book 11, Chapter 5, of War and Peace, Volume 3, by Leo Tolstoy, translated by Elmer Maude. This Libervox recording is in the public domain. Book 11, Chapter 5 At that very time, in circumstances even more important than retreating without a battle, namely the evacuation and burning of Moscow, Prostopchin, who is usually represented as being the instigator of that event,

Starting point is 11:54:08 acted in an altogether different manner from Kutuzov. After the Battle of Borodino, the abandonment and burning of Moscow was as inevitable as the retreat of the army beyond Moscow without fighting. Every Russian might have predicted it, not by reasoning, but by the feeling implanted in each of us and in our fathers. The same thing that took place in Moscow had happened in all the towns and villages on Russian soil beginning with Smolensk, without the participation of Count Rostopchin and his broadsheets. The people awaited the enemy unconcernedly, did not riot or become excited or tear anyone to pieces,

Starting point is 11:54:47 but faced its fate, feeling within it the strength to find what it should do at the most difficult moment. And as soon as the enemy drew near, the wealthy classes went away, abandoning their property, while the poor remained and burned and destroyed what was left. The consciousness that this would be so, and would always be so, was and is present in the heart of every Russian. And a consciousness of this, and a foreboding that Moscow would be taken, was present in Russian Moscow society in 1812. Those who had quitted Moscow already in July, and at the beginning of August, showed that they expected this. Those who went away,

Starting point is 11:55:27 taking what they could and abandoning their houses and half their belongings, did so from the latent patriotism which expresses itself, not by phrases or by giving one's children to save the fatherland and similar unnatural exploits, but unobtrusively, simply, organically, and therefore in the way that always produces the most powerful results. It is disgraceful to run away from danger. Only cowards are running away from Moscow, they were told.

Starting point is 11:55:56 In his broadsheets, impressed on them that to leave Moscow was shameful. They were ashamed to be called cowards, ashamed to leave, but still they left, knowing it had to be done. Why did they go? It is impossible to suppose that Rostopchin had scared them by his accounts of horrors Napoleon had committed and conquered countries. The first people to go away were the rich educated people,

Starting point is 11:56:22 who knew quite well that Vienna and Berlin had remained intact, and that during Napoleon's occupation, the inhabitants had spent their time pleasantly in the company of the charming Frenchmen, whom the Russians, and especially the Russian ladies, then liked so much. They went away because, for Russians, there could be no question as to whether things would go well or ill under French rule in Moscow. It was out of the question to be under French rule. It would be the worst thing that could happen. They went away even before the Battle of Borodino, and still more rapidly after it, despite Rostopchin's calls to defend Moscow, or the announcement of his intention to take the wonder-working icon of the Iberian Mother of God and go to fight,

Starting point is 11:57:08 or of the balloons that were to destroy the French, and despite all the nonsense Rostopchin wrote in his broadsheets. They knew that it was for the army to fight, and that if it could not succeed, it would not do to take young ladies and house-surfs to the Three Hills Quarter of Moscow to fight Napoleon, and that they must go away, sorry as they were to abandon their property to destruction. They went away without thinking of their tremendous significance of that immense and wealthy city being given over to destruction, for a great city with wooden buildings was certain when abandoned by its inhabitants to be burned. They went away each on his own account, and yet it was only in consequence of their going away that the momentous event was accomplished that will always remain

Starting point is 11:57:54 the greatest glory of the Russian people. The lady, who, afraid of being stopped by Count Rostopchin's orders, had already, in June, moved with her Negroes and her women gestures from Moscow to her Saratova state, with a vague consciousness that she was not Bonaparte's servant, was really, simply, and truly, carrying out the great work which saved Russia. But Count Rostopchin, who now taunted those who left Moscow, and now had the government offices removed, now distributed quite useless weapons to the drunken rabble. Now had processions displaying the icons, and now forbade Father Augustine to remove icons or

Starting point is 11:58:34 the relics of the saints. Now seized all the private carts in Moscow, and on 136 of them removed the balloon that was being constructed by Lepich. Now hinted that he would burn Moscow, and related how he had set fire to his own house. Now wrote a proclamation to the French, solemnly upbraiding them for having destroyed his orphanage. Now claimed the glory of having hinted that he would burn Moscow, and now repudiated the deed. Now ordered the people to catch all spies and bring them to him, and now reproached them for doing so. Now expelled all the French residents from Moscow, and now allowed Madame Obert Chalmey, the center of the whole French colony in Moscow, to remain.

Starting point is 11:59:17 But ordered the venerable old postmaster Klucharov to be arrested and exiled for no particular offence. Now assembled the people at the three hills to fight the French, and now, to get rid of them, handed over to them a man to be killed and himself drove away by a back gate. Now declared that he would not survive the fall of Moscow, and now wrote French verses in albums concerning his share in the affair. This man did not understand the meaning of what was happening, but merely wanted to do something himself that would astonish people, to perform some patriotically heroic feat. And, like a child, he made sport of the momentous and unavoidable event,

Starting point is 11:59:58 the abandonment and burning of Moscow, and tried with his puny hand, now to speed, and now to stay the enormous popular tide that bore him along with it. End of Book 11, Chapter 5. Book 11 Chapter 6 Of War and Peace, Volume 3, by Leo Tolstoy, translated by Elmer Maude. This Libervox recording is in the public domain.

Starting point is 12:00:33 Book 11, Chapter 6 Elaine, having returned with the court from Vilna to Petersburg, found herself in a difficult position. In Petersburg, she had enjoyed the special protection of a grandee who occupied one of the highest posts in the empire. In Vilna, she had formed an intimacy with a young foreign prince. When she returned to Petersburg, both the magnate and the prince were there, and both claimed their rights. Elaine was faced by a new problem. How to preserve her intimacy with both without offending either?

Starting point is 12:01:10 What would have seemed difficult or even impossible to another woman did not cause the least embarrassment to Countess Bezikova, who evidently deserved her reputation of being a very clever woman. had she attempted concealment or tried to extricate herself from her awkward position by cunning, she would have spoiled her case by acknowledging herself guilty. But Elaine, like a really great man who can do whatever he pleases, at once assumed her own position to be correct, as she sincerely believed it to be, and that everyone else was to blame. The first time the young foreigner allowed himself to reproach her,

Starting point is 12:01:50 She lifted her beautiful head, and half-turning to him, said firmly, "'That's just like a man, selfish and cruel. "'I expected nothing else. "'A woman sacrifices herself for you. "'She suffers, and this is her reward. "'What right have you, Monseigneur, "'to demand an account of my attachments and friendships? "'He is a man who has been more than a father to me.'

Starting point is 12:02:19 The prince was about to say something, but Elaine interrupted him. "'Well, yes,' said she, "'it may be that he has other sentiments for me than those of a father, but that is not a reason for me to shut my door on him. I am not a man that I should repay kindness with ingratitude.' "'No, Monseigneur, that in all that relates to my intimate feelings, I render account only to God and to my conscience,' she concluded, laying her hand on her beautiful, fully expanded bosom and looking up to heaven.

Starting point is 12:02:55 But, for heaven's sake, listen to me. Marry me, and I will be your slave. But that's impossible. You won't deign to demean yourself by marrying me, you—' said Elaine, beginning to cry. The prince tried to comfort her, but Elaine, as if quite distraught, said through her tears that there was nothing to prevent her marrying. that there were precedents. There were up to that time very few,

Starting point is 12:03:24 but she mentioned Napoleon and some other exalted personages, that she had never been her husband's wife, and that she had been sacrificed. But the law, religion, said the prince, already yielding. The law, religion, what have they been invented for if they can't arrange that? said Elaine. The prince was surprised that it's so simple and I'm,

Starting point is 12:03:49 idea had not occurred to him, and he applied for advice to the Holy Brethren of the Society of Jesus, with whom he was on intimate terms. A few days later, at one of those enchanting fetes which Elaine gave at her country house on the Stone Island, the charming Monsieur de Jobert, a man no longer young, with snow-white hair and brilliant black eyes, a Jesuit, a robe court, lay member of the Society of Jesus, was presented to her. and in the garden, by the light of the illuminations, and to the sound of music, talk to her for a long time of the love of God, of Christ, of the sacred heart, and of the consolations the one true Catholic religion affords in this world and the next.

Starting point is 12:04:36 Elaine was touched, and more than once tears rose to her eyes and to those of Monsieur de Jobert, and their voices trembled. A dance, for which her partner came to seeker, put an end to her discourse with her future director de conscience, but the next evening Monsieur de Jobert came to see Elaine when she was alone, and after that often came again. One day he took the countess to a Roman Catholic church, where she knelt down before the altar to which she was led. The enchanting middle-aged Frenchman laid his hands on her head, and as she herself afterwards described it, she felt something like a fresh breeze waffed into her soul. It was explained to her that this was La Grasse. After that, a long-frocked Abbe was brought to her.

Starting point is 12:05:29 She confessed to him, and he absolved her from her sins. Next day she received a box containing the sacred host, which was left at her house for her to partake of. A few days later, Elaine learned with pleasure that she had now been admitted to the true Catholic Church, and that in a few days the Pope himself would hear of her and would send her a certain document. All that was done around her, and to her at this time, all the attention devoted to her by so many clever men and expressed in such pleasant, refined ways, and the state of dove-like purity she was now in—she wore only white dresses and white ribbons all the time, gave her pleasure, but her pleasure did not cause her for a moment to forget her aim.

Starting point is 12:06:15 and, as it always happens in contests of cunning that a stupid person gets the better of clever ones, Elaine, having realized that the main object of all these words and all this trouble, was, after converting her to Catholicism, to obtain money from her for Jesuit institutions, as to which she received indications, before parting with her money, insisted that the various operations necessary to free her from her husband should be performed. In her view, the aim of every religion was merely to preserve certain proprieties while affording satisfaction to human desires. And with this aim, in one of her talks with her father confessor, she insisted on an answer to the question, in how far was she bound by her marriage?

Starting point is 12:07:03 They were sitting in the twilight by a window in the drawing-room. The scent of flowers came in at the window. Elaine was wearing a white dress, transparent over her shoulders and bosom. The Abbe, a well-fed man with a plump, clean-shaven chin, a pleasant, firm mouth and white hands meekly folded on his knees, sat close to Elaine, and, with a subtle smile on his lips and a peaceful look of delight at her beauty, occasionally glanced at her face as he explained his opinion on the subject. Elaine, with an uneasy smile, looked at his curly hair, and he, and his plump, clean-shaven, blackest cheeks, and every moment expected the conversation to take a fresh turn.

Starting point is 12:07:47 But the Abbe, though he evidently enjoyed the beauty of his companion, was absorbed in his mastery of the matter. The course of the father-confessor's arguments ran as follows. Ignorant of the import of what you're undertaking, you made a vow of conjugal fidelity to a man who, on his part, by entering the married state, without faith in the religious significance of marriage, committed an act of sacrilege. That marriage lacked the dual significance it should have had. Yet, in spite of this, your vow was binding. You swerved from it. What did you commit by so acting? A venial or

Starting point is 12:08:29 a mortal sin. A venial sin, for you acted without evil intention. If now you married again, with the object of bearing children, your sin might be forgiven. But the question is again a twofold one. Firstly—' But suddenly Elaine, who was getting bored, said with one of her bewitching smiles, "'But I think that having espoused the true religion, I cannot be bound by what a false religion laid upon me.' The director of her conscience was astounded at having the case presented to him thus with the simplicity of Columbus Egg. He was delighted at the unexpected rapidity of his people's progress, but could not abandon the edifice of argument he had laboriously constructed.

Starting point is 12:09:19 "'Let us understand one another countess,' said he with a smile, and began refuting his spiritual daughter's arguments. End of Book 11, Chapter 6. Book 11 Chapter 7 of War and Peace, Volume 3, by Leo Tolstoy, translated by Elmer Maud. This Libervox recording is in the public domain. Book 11, Chapter 7 Elaine understood that the question was very simple and easy

Starting point is 12:09:58 from the ecclesiastical point of view, and that her directors were making difficulties only because they were apprehensive as to how the matter would be regarded by the secular authorities. So she decided that it was necessary to prepare the appeal. opinion of society. She provoked the jealousy of the elderly magnate and told him what she had told her other suit her. That is, she put the matter so that the only way for him to obtain a right over her was to marry her. The elderly magnate was at first as much taken aback by this

Starting point is 12:10:30 suggestion of marriage with a woman whose husband was alive as the younger man had been. But Elaine's imperturbable conviction that it was as simple and natural as marrying a maiden had its effect on him too. Had Elaine herself shown the least sign of hesitation, shame or secrecy, her cause would certainly have been lost. But not only did she show no signs of secrecy or shame, on the contrary, with good-natured naivete she told her intimate friends, and these were all Petersburg, that both the prince and the magnate had proposed to her, and that she loved both and was afraid of grieving either. A rumor immediately spread in Petersburg, not that Elaine wanted to be divorced from her husband. Had such a report spread, many would have opposed so illegal and intention, but simply that the

Starting point is 12:11:21 unfortunate and interesting Elaine was in doubt which of the two men she should marry. The question was no longer whether this was possible, but only which was the better match and how the matter would be regarded at court. There were, it is true, some rigid indifeses, individuals unable to rise to the height of such a question, who saw in the project a desecration of a sacrament of marriage. But there were not many such, and they remained silent, while the majority were interested in Elaine's good fortune and in the question which match would be the more advantageous. Whether it was right or wrong to remarry while one had a husband living they did not discuss, for that question had evidently been settled by people, wiser than you

Starting point is 12:12:07 or me, as they said. And to doubt the correctness of that decision would be to risk exposing one stupidity and incapacity to live in society. Only Maria Dmitrievna Akrasimova, who had come to Petersburg that summer to see one of her sons, allowed herself plainly to express an opinion contrary to the general one. Meeting Elaine at a ball, she stopped her in the middle of the room, and, amid general silence, said in her gruff voice, "'So, wives of living men have started marrying again. Perhaps you think you have invented a novelty. You have been forestalled, my dear.

Starting point is 12:12:46 It was thought of long ago. It is done in all the brothels.' And with these words, Maria Dmitrievna, turning up her wide sleeves with her usual threatening gesture, and glancing sternly round, moved across the room. Though people were afraid of Maria Dimitrievna, she was regarded in Petersburg as a buffoon, and so of what she had said they only noticed and repeated in a whisper the one coarse word she had used, supposing the whole sting of her remark to lie in that word.

Starting point is 12:13:20 Prince Vasily, who of late very often forgot what he had said and repeated one and the same thing a hundred times, remarked to his daughter whenever he chanced to see her, "'Elean, I have a word to say to you,' and he will lead her aside, drawing her hand downward. "'I have heard of certain projects concerning, you know, "'well, my dear child, you know how your father's heart rejoices to know that you, "'you have suffered so much. "'But, my dear child, consult only your own heart.

Starting point is 12:13:53 "'That is all I have to say.' "'And concealing his unvarying emotion, he would press his cheek against his daughters and move away. Belibin, who had not lost his reputation of an exceedingly clever man, and who was one of the disinterested friends, so brilliant a woman as Elaine always has, men friends who can never change into lovers, once gave her his view of the matter at a small and intimate gathering.

Starting point is 12:14:20 "'Listen, Belibin,' said Elaine, she always called friends of that sort by their surnames, and she touched his coat-sleeve with her white, berringed fingers. "'Tell me, as you would assist her, what I ought to do? Which of the two?' Belieben wrinkled up the skin over his eyebrows and pondered with a smile on his lips. "'You are not taking me unawares, you know,' said he. "'As a true friend, I have thought and thought again about your affair. You see, if you marry the prince—'

Starting point is 12:14:54 He met the younger man, and he crooked one finger. You forever lose the chance of marrying the other, and you will displease the court besides. You know there is some kind of connection. But if you marry the old Count, you will make his last days happy, and as widow of the grand, the prince would no longer be making a miscelliance by marrying you,

Starting point is 12:15:18 and Belibin smoothed out his forehead. "'That's a true friend,' said Elaine, beaming, and again touching Belibin's sleeve. But I love them, you know, and don't want to distress either of them. I would give my life for the happiness of them both. Belieben shrugged his shoulders, as much as to say that not even he could help in that difficulty. Umatress femme.

Starting point is 12:15:44 A masterly woman. That's what is called putting things squarely. She would like to be married to all three at the same time, thought he. "'But tell me, how will your husband look at the matter?' Belibin asked, his reputation being so well established that he did not fear to ask so naive a question. "'Will he agree?' "'Oh, he loves me so,' said Elaine, who, for some reason, imagine that Pierre too loved her. "'He will do anything for me.'

Starting point is 12:16:17 Belibin puckered his skin in preparation for something witty. "'Even divorce you?' said he. Elaine laughed. Among those who ventured to doubt the justifiability of the proposed marriage was Elaine's mother, Princess Coragina. She was continually tormented by jealousy of her daughter, and now that jealousy concerned a subject near to her own heart. She could not reconcile herself to the idea.

Starting point is 12:16:46 She consulted a Russian priest as to the possibility of divorce and remarriage during a husband's lifetime, and the priest told her that, it was impossible, and to her delight showed her a text in the gospel, which, as it seemed to him, plainly forbids remarriage while the husband is alive. Armed with these arguments, which appeared to her unanswerable, she drove to her daughter's early one morning so as to find her alone. Having listened to her mother's objections, Elaine smiled blandly and ironically. But it says plainly, whosoever shall marry her that is divorced, said the old princess.

Starting point is 12:17:26 Ah, mamma, ne dee pas de petees. You ne capraine rion. Don't my position, Jean d'I de Bois. Oh, Mama, don't talk nonsense. You don't understand anything. In my position, I have obligations,

Starting point is 12:17:43 said Elaine, changing from Russian, in which language she always felt that her case did not sound quite clear into French, which suited it better. But my dear, Dear, oh, Mama, how is it you don't understand that the Holy Father, who has the right to grant dispensations—' Just then, the lady companion who lived with Elaine came in to announce that His Highness was in the ballroom and wished to see her.

Starting point is 12:18:10 "'No, tell him that I never want la voie. "'That I am furious, contra Lui. "'Pas he ma'amaké parol.' "'No, tell him I don't wish to see him. I am furious with him for not keeping his word to me. "'Contess, at tu-pache m'est record!' "'Countess, there is mercy for every sin,' said a fair-haired young man with a long face and nose as he entered the room.

Starting point is 12:18:40 The old princess rose respectfully and curtsied. The young man who had entered took no notice of her. The princess nodded to her daughter and sidled out of the room. "'Yes, she is right.' thought the old princess, all her convictions dissipated by the appearance of His Highness. She is right, but how is it that we in our irrecoverable youth did not know it? Yet it is so simple, she thought as she got into her carriage. By the beginning of August, Elaine's affairs were clearly defined, and she wrote a letter to her husband,

Starting point is 12:19:17 who, as she imagined, loved her very much, informing him of her intention to marry N.N., and of her having embraced the one true faith, and asking him to carry out all the formalities necessary for a divorce, which would be explained to him by the bearer of the letter. And so I pray God to have you, my friend, in his holy and powerful keeping, your friend Elaine. This letter was brought to Pierre's house when he was on the field of Borodino. End of Book 11, Chapter 7.

Starting point is 12:19:58 Book 11 Chapter 8 of War and Piers. Peace, Volume 3, by Leo Tolstoy, translated by Elmer Maude. This Libervox recording is in the public domain. Book 11, Chapter 8 Toward the end of the Battle of Borodino, Pierre, having run down from Rievsky's battery a second time, made his way through a gully to Canyascovo, with a crowd of soldiers, reached the dressing station, and seeing blood and hearing cries and groans, hurried on, still entangled in the crowds of soldiers.

Starting point is 12:20:32 The one thing he now desired with his whole soul was to get away quickly from the terrible sensations amid which he had lived that day, and returned to ordinary conditions of life, and sleep quietly in a room in his own bed. He felt that only in the ordinary conditions of life would he be able to understand himself, and all he had seen and felt.

Starting point is 12:20:53 But such ordinary conditions of life were nowhere to be found. though shells and bullets did not whistle over the road along which he was going, still on all sides there was what there had been on the field of battle. There was still the same suffering, exhausted, and sometimes strangely indifferent faces, the same blood, the same soldier's overcoats, the same sounds of firing, which, though distant now, still aroused terror, and besides this, there were the foul air and the dust. Having gone a couple of miles along the Mougey's road, Pierre sat down by the roadside. Dusk had fallen, and the roar of guns died away. Pierre lay leaning on his elbow for a long time, gazing at the shadows that move past him in

Starting point is 12:21:39 the darkness. He was continually imagining that a cannonball was flying toward him with a terrific whiz, and then he shuddered and sat up. He had no idea how long he had been there. In the middle of the night, three soldiers, having brought some firewood, settled down near him and began lighting a fire. The soldiers, who threw sidelong glances at Pierre, got the fire to burn, and placed an iron pot on it, into which they broke some dried bread and put a little dripping. The pleasant odor of greasy vines mingled with the smell of smoke. Pierre sat up and sighed. The three soldiers were eating and talking among themselves, taking no notice of him. "'And who may you be?' one of them suddenly asked Pierre, evidently meaning what Pierre himself

Starting point is 12:22:26 had in mind, namely, if you want to eat, we'll give you some food. Only let us know whether you're an honest man. I... I... said Pierre, feeling it necessary to minimize his social position as much as possible, so as to be nearer to the soldiers and better understood by them.

Starting point is 12:22:45 By rights, I'm a militia officer, but my men are not here. I came to the battle and have lost them. There now, said one of the soldiers. Another shook his head. "'Would you like a little mash?' The first soldier asked, and handed Pierre a wooden spoon after licking it clean. Pierre sat down by the fire and began eating the mash, as they called the food in the

Starting point is 12:23:08 cauldron, and he thought it more delicious than any food he had ever tasted. As he sat bending greedily over it, helping himself to large spoonfuls and chewing one after another, his face was lit up by the fire, and the soldiers looked at him in silence. "'Where have you got to go to? Tell us,' said one of them. "'To Mojaisk. "'You're a gentleman, aren't you?' "'Yes.' "'And what's your name?' Peter Carillich.

Starting point is 12:23:37 "'Well, then, Peter Carrillich, come along with us. We'll take you there.' In the total darkness, the soldiers walked with Pierre to Mojaisk. By the time they got near Mojaisk and began ascending the steep hill into the town, the cocks were already crowing. Pierre went on with the soldiers, quite forgetting that his inn was at the bottom of the hill, and that he had already passed it. He would not soon have remembered this, such was his state of forgetfulness, had he not halfway up the hill stumbled upon his groom, who had been looking for him in the town and was returning to the inn. The groom recognized Pierre in the darkness by his white hat. "'Your Excellency,' he said, "'why, we were beginning to despair. How is it

Starting point is 12:24:21 You are on foot. And where are you going, please? Oh, yes, said Pierre. The soldier stopped. So, you found your folk, said one of them. Well, good-bye, Peter Carrillich, isn't it? Goodbye, Peter Carrillich. Pierre heard the other voices repeat. Goodbye, he said, and turned with his groom toward the inn. I ought to give them something, he thought and felt in his pocket. No, better not.

Starting point is 12:24:51 said another inner voice. There was not a room to be had at the inn. They were all occupied. Pierre went out into the yard, and covering himself up, head and all, laid down in his carriage. End of Book 11, Chapter 8. Book 11, Chapter 9,

Starting point is 12:25:15 of War and Peace, Volume 3, by Leo Tolstoy, translated by Elmer Maude. This Liberbox recording is in the public domain. Book 11, Chapter 9. had Pierre laid his head on the pillow before he felt himself falling asleep. But suddenly, almost with the distinctness of reality, he heard the boom, boom, boom of firing, the thud of projectiles, groans and cries, and smelled blood and powder, and a feeling of horror and dread of

Starting point is 12:25:47 death seized him. Filled with fright, he opened his eyes and lifted his head from under his cloak. All was tranquil in the yard. Only someone's orderly passed through the gateway, splashing through the mud, and talked to the innkeeper. Above Pierre's head, some pigeons, disturbed by the movement he had made in sitting up, fluttered under the dark roof of the penthouse. The whole courtyard was permeated by a strong, peaceful smell of stable-yards,

Starting point is 12:26:14 delightful to Pierre at that moment. He could see the clear, starry sky between the dark roofs of the two penthouses. Thank God there is no more of that, he thought, covering up his head again. Oh, what a terrible thing is fear, and how shamefully I use. yielded to it. But they, they were steady and calm all the time, to the end, thought he.

Starting point is 12:26:38 They, in Pierre's mind, were the soldiers, those who had been at the battery, those who had given him food, and those who had prayed before the icon. They, those strange men he had not previously known, stood out clearly and sharply from everyone else. To be a soldier, just a soldier, thought Pierre as he fell asleep. to enter communal life completely, to be imbued by what makes them what they are. But how to cast off all the superfluous, devilish burden of my outer man? There was a time when I could have done it. I could have run away from my father as I wanted to,

Starting point is 12:27:17 or I might have been sent to serve as a soldier after the duel with Dolokhov. And the memory of the dinner at the English club when he had challenged Dolokhov flashed through Pierre's mind, and then he remembered his benefactor at Torzok. And now a picture of a solemn meeting of the lodge presented itself to his mind. It was taking place at the English club, and someone near and dear to him sat at the end of the table. Yes, that is he. It is my benefactor. But he died, thought Pierre. Yes, he died, and I did not know he was alive. How sorry I am that he died, and how glad I am that he is alive again.

Starting point is 12:27:57 On one side of the table sat Anatole, Dolokhov, Nesv, Nesvsky, Denisov, and others like them. In his dream, the category to which these men belonged was as clearly defined in his mind as the category of those he termed they. And he heard those people, Anatole and Dolokov, shouting and singing loudly. Yet, through their shouting, the voice of his benefactor was heard speaking all the time, and the sound of his words was as weighty and uninterrupted as the booming on the battle-fifference. field, but pleasant and comforting. Pierre did not understand what his benefactor was saying, but he knew, the categories of

Starting point is 12:28:36 thoughts were also quite distinct in his dream, that he was talking of goodness and the possibility of being what they were. And they, with their simple, kind, firm faces, surrounded his benefactor on all sides. But though they were kindly, they did not look at Pierre and did not know him. Wishing to speak and to attract their attention, he got a little bit of a goodeneffered. up, but at that moment his legs grew cold and bare. He felt ashamed, and with one arm covered his legs from which his cloak had in fact slipped. For a moment, as he was rearranging his cloak, Pierre opened his eyes and saw the same penthouse roofs, posts, and yard, but now they were all

Starting point is 12:29:17 bluish, lit up, and glittering with frost or dew. "'It is dawn,' thought Pierre. "'But that's not what I want. I want to hear and understand. might benefactor's words. Again he covered himself up with his cloak, but now neither the lodge nor his benefactor was there. There were only thoughts clearly expressed in words, thoughts that someone was uttering or that he himself was formulating. Afterwards, when he recalled those thoughts, Pierre was convinced that someone outside himself had spoken them, though the impressions of that day had evoked them. He had never, it seemed to him, been able to think and express his thoughts like that when awake.

Starting point is 12:30:00 To endure war is the most difficult subordination of man's freedom to the law of God. The voice had said, Simplicity is submission to the will of God. You cannot escape from him, and they are simple. They do not talk, but act. The spoken word is silver, but the unspoken is golden. Man can be master of nothing while he fears death, but he who does not fear it possesses all.

Starting point is 12:30:27 If there were no suffering, man would not know his limitations, would not know himself. The hardest thing, Pierre went on thinking or hearing in his dream, is to be able in your soul to unite the meaning of all. To unite all? he asked himself. No, not to unite. Thoughts cannot be united, but to harness all these thoughts together is what we need. Yes, one must harness them. must harness them.

Starting point is 12:30:58 He repeated to himself with inward rapture, feeling that these words and they alone expressed what he wanted to say, and solved the question that tormented him. Yes, one must harness. It is time to harness. Time to harness. Time to harness, your excellency. Your excellency, some voice was repeating. We must harness. It is time to harness.

Starting point is 12:31:23 It was the voice of the groom, trying to wake him. The sun shone straight into Pierre's face. He glanced at the dirty in-yard at the middle of which soldiers were watering their lean horses at the pump, while carts were passing out of the gate. Pierre turned away with repugnance, and closing his eyes quickly, fell back on the carriage seat. "'No, I don't want that. I don't want to see and understand that. I want to understand what was revealing itself to me in my dream. One second more, and I should have understood it all. But what am I to do? Harness. But how can I harness everything? And Pierre felt with horror that the meaning of all he had seen and thought in the dream had been destroyed.

Starting point is 12:32:09 The groomed the coachman and the innkeeper told Pierre that an officer had come with news that the French army were already near Mojaisk and that our men were leaving it. Pierre got up, having told them to harness and overtake him, went on foot through the town. The troops were moving on, leaving about ten thousand wounded behind them. They were wounded in the yards at the windows of the houses, and the streets were crowded with them. In the streets, around carts that were to take some of the wounded away, shouts, curses, and blows could be heard.

Starting point is 12:32:41 Pierre offered the use of his carriage, which had overtaken him, to a wounded general he knew, and drove with him to Moscow. On the way, Pierre was told of the death of his brother-in-law, Anatole, and of that of Prince Andrew. End of Book 11, Chapter 9. Book 11 Chapter 10 Of War and Peace, Volume 3, by Leo Tolstoy, translated by Elmer Maude.

Starting point is 12:33:15 This Liberbox recording is in the public domain. Book 11, Chapter 10. On the 30th of August, Pierre reached Moscow. Close to the gates of the city, he was met by Count Rostopchin's adjutant. "'We have been looking for you everywhere,' said the adjutant. "'The Count wants to see you particularly. He asks you to come to him at once on a very important matter.'

Starting point is 12:33:43 Without going home, Pierre took a cab and drove to see the Moscow commander-in-chief. Count Rostopchin had only that morning returned to town from his summer villa at Sokolniki. The ante-room and reception-room of his house were full of officials who had been summoned or had come for orders. Vasilchikov and Platov had already seen the Count, and explained to him that it was impossible to defend Moscow and that it would have to be surrendered. Though this news was being concealed from the inhabitants, the officials, the heads of the various government departments, knew that Moscow would soon be in the enemy's hands, just as Count Rostopchin himself knew it, and to escape personal responsibility they had all

Starting point is 12:34:25 come to the Governor to ask how they were to deal with their various departments. As Pierre was entering the reception room, a courier from the army came out of Restoption's private room. In answer to questions with which he was greeted, the courier made a despairing gesture with his hand and passed through the room. While waiting in the reception room, Pierre, with weary eyes, watched the various officials, old and young, military and civilian, who were there. They all seemed dissatisfied and uneasy. Pierre went up to a group of men, one of whom he knew. After greeting Pierre, they continued their conversation. If they're sent out and brought back again later on, it will do no harm,

Starting point is 12:35:09 but as things are now, one can't answer for anything. But you see what he writes, said another, pointing to a printed sheet he held in his hand. That's another matter. That's necessary for the people, said the first. What is it? "'Oh, it's a fresh broadsheet.' Pierre took it and began reading.

Starting point is 12:35:31 "'His serene highness has passed through Mosheesk in order to join up with the troops moving toward him and has taken up a strong position where the enemy will not soon attack him. Forty-eight guns with ammunition have been sent him from here, and his serene highness says he will defend Moscow to the last drop of blood, and is even ready to fight in the streets. Do not be upset, brothers, that the law courts are closed. things have to be put in order, and we will deal with villains in our own way. When the time comes I shall want both town and peasant lads,

Starting point is 12:36:05 and will raise the cry a day or two beforehand, but they are not wanted yet, so I hold my peace. An axe will be useful, a hunting spear not bad, but a three-pronged fork will be best of all. A Frenchman is no heavier than a sheaf of rye. Tomorrow after dinner I shall take the Iberian icon of the Mother of God, to the wounded in the Catherine Hospital, where we'll have some water blessed. That will help them to get well quicker. I too am well now. One of my eyes was sore,

Starting point is 12:36:38 but now I am on the lookout with both. But military men have told me that it is impossible to fight in the town, said Pierre, and that the position, well, of course, that's what we were saying, replied the first speaker. And what does he mean by, one of my eyes was sore, but now I am on the lookout with both? asked Pierre. The Count had a sty, replied the adjutant, smiling, and was very much upset when I told him people had come to ask what was the matter with him. By the by-the-by, Count, he added suddenly, addressing Pierre with a smile,

Starting point is 12:37:16 "'We heard that you have family troubles, "'and that the Countess, your wife—' "'I have heard nothing,' Pierre replied unconcernedly. "'But what have you heard?' "'Oh, well, you know people often invent things. "'I only say what I heard.' "'But what did you hear?' "'Well, they say,' continued the adjutant with the same smile,

Starting point is 12:37:40 "'that the Countess, your wife, is preparing to go abroad. "'I expect its nonsense.' "'Possibly,' remarked Pierre, looking about him absent-mindedly. "'And who is that?' he asked, indicating a short old man in a clean blue peasant overcoat, with a big snow-white beard and eyebrows and a ruddy face. "'He?' "'That's a tradesman. That is to say, he's the restaurant-keeper, Veris Chagin.

Starting point is 12:38:07 Perhaps you have heard of that affair with the proclamation.' "'Oh, so that is Veris Chagin,' said Pierre, looking at the firm, calm face of the old man. and seeking any indication of his being a traitor. That's not he himself. That's the father of the fellow who wrote the proclamation, said the adjutant. The young man is in prison, and I expect it will go hard with him. An old gentleman wearing a star, and another official, a German wearing a cross round his neck, approached the speaker.

Starting point is 12:38:39 It's a complicated story, you know, said the adjutant. That proclamation appeared about two months ago. The Count was informed of it. He gave orders to investigate the matter. Gabriel Ivanovich here made the inquiries. The proclamation had passed through exactly 63 hands. He asked one, "'From whom did you get it? From so and so. He went to the next one. From whom did you get it? And so on till he reached Veras Joggin, a half-educated tradesman, you know, a pet of a trader,' said the adjutant smiling. They asked him,

Starting point is 12:39:15 Who gave it you? And the point is that we knew from whom he had it from. He could only have had it from the postmaster. But evidently they had come to some understanding. He replied, From no one, I made it up myself. They threatened and questioned him, but he stuck to that. I made it up myself.

Starting point is 12:39:36 And so it was reported to the Count, who sent for the man, From whom did you get the proclamation? I wrote it myself. "'Well, you know the Count,' said the adjutant cheerfully, with a smile of pride. He flared up dreadfully, and just think of the fellow's audacity, lying, and obstinacy. And the Count wanted him to say was from Clucarov. "'I understand,' said Pierre. "'Not at all,' rejoined the adjutant in dismay.

Starting point is 12:40:06 Clue Chorov had his own sins to answer for, without that, and that is why he has been banished. But the point is that the count was much annoyed. "'How could you have written it yourself?' said he, and he took up the Hamburg Gazette that was lying on the table. "'Here it is. You did not write it yourself, but translated it, and translated it abominably, because you don't even know French, you fool.' "'And what do you think?' "'No,' said he, "'I have not read any papers. I made it up myself.'

Starting point is 12:40:37 "'If that's so, you're a traitor, and I'll have you tried, and you'll be hanged. Say from whom you had it. I have seen no papers. I made it up myself. And that was the end of it. The Count had the father fetched, but the fellow stuck to it. He was sent for trial, and condemned to hard labor, I believe. Now the father has come to intercede for him. But he's a good-for-nothing, lad. You know that sort of tradesman, son, a dandy and lady-killer. He attended some lecture somewhere, and imagines that the devil is no match for him. That's the sort of fellow he is. His father keeps a cook-shop here by the stone bridge, and you know there was a large icon of God Almighty painted with a sceptre in one hand and an orb in the other. Well, he took that

Starting point is 12:41:27 icon home with him for a few days, and what did he do? He found some scoundrel of a painter. End of Book 11, Chapter 10. Book 11 Chapter 11 of War and Peace, Volume 3. by Leo Tolstoy, translated by Elmer Maude. This Libervox recording is in the public domain. Book 11, Chapter 11 In the middle of this fresh tale, Pierre was summoned to the commander-in-chief. When he entered the private room, Count Rostopchin, puckering his face, was rubbing his forehead and eyes with his hand.

Starting point is 12:42:12 A short man was saying something, but when Pierre entered, he stopped speaking and went out. "'Ah, how do you do, great warrior?' said Rostopchin as soon as the short man had left the room. "'We have heard of your prowess.' But that's not the point. "'Between ourselves, Monserre, do you belong to the Masons?' He went on severely, as though there were something wrong about it, which he nevertheless intended to pardon. Pierre remained silent. "'I am well informed, my friend, but I am aware that there are masons, and I hope that you

Starting point is 12:42:46 you are not one of those who, on pretense of saving mankind, wished to ruin Russia. "'Yes, I am a Mason,' Pierre replied. "'There, you see, Monshire. I expect you know that Monsieur's Spiransky and Magnitsky have been deported to their proper place. Mr. Clucharev has been treated in the same way, and so have others who, on the plea of building up the Temple of Solomon, have tried to destroy the Temple of their fatherland. You can understand that there are reasons for this, and that I could not have exiled the postmaster had he not been a harmful person. It has now come to my knowledge that you lent him your carriage for his removal from town,

Starting point is 12:43:26 and that you have even accepted papers from him for safe custody. I like you, and don't wish you any harm, and, as you are only half my age, I advise you, as a father would, to cease all communication with men of that stamp and to leave here as soon as possible. But what did Klucharev do wrong, count? asked Pierre. That is for me to know, but not for you to ask, shouted Rostopchin. If he is accused of circulating Napoleon's proclamation, it is not proved that he did so, said Pierre, without looking at Rostopchin.

Starting point is 12:44:03 And Veris Chagin, There we are! Rostopchin shouted at Pierre louder than before, frowning suddenly. Veris Chagin is a renegade and a traitor. who will be punished as he deserves, said he with the vindictive heat with which people speak when recalling an insult. But I did not summon you to discuss my actions, but to give you advice, or in order if you prefer it. I beg you to leave the town and break off all communication with such menace Clucharev, and I will knock the nonsense out of anybody.' But probably realizing that he was shouting at Buzukov, who so far was not guilty of anything, he added,

Starting point is 12:44:43 taking Pierre's hand in a friendly manner. We are on the eve of a public disaster, and I haven't time to be polite to everybody who has business with me. My head is sometimes in a whirl. Well, monchar, what are you doing personally? Why nothing, answered Pierre without raising his eyes or changing the thoughtful expression of his face. The Count frowned.

Starting point is 12:45:07 A word of friendly advice, Monshire. Be off as soon as you can. That's all I have to. tell you. Happy he who has ears to hear. Goodbye, my dear fellow. Oh, by the bye, he shouted through the doorway at Pierre. Is it true that the Countess has fallen into the clutches of the Holy Fathers of the Society of Jesus? Pierre did not answer, and left Rostopchin's room more sullen and angry than he had ever before shown himself. When he reached home, it was already getting dark. Some eight people had come to see him that evening. The secretary of a committee

Starting point is 12:45:43 the colonel of his battalion, his steward, his Major Domo, and various petitioners. They all had business with Pierre and wanted decisions from him. Pierre did not understand. It was not interested in any of these questions, and only answered them in order to get rid of these people. When left alone at last, he opened and read his wife's letter. "'They, the soldiers at the battery, Prince Andrew killed. That old man!

Starting point is 12:46:10 Simplicity is submission to God. Suffering is necessary. The meaning of all. One must harness. My wife is getting married. One must forget and understand. And going to his bed, he threw himself on it without undressing and immediately fell asleep. When he awoke next morning, the Major Domo came to inform him that a special messenger,

Starting point is 12:46:36 a police officer, had come from Count Rostopchin to know whether Count Buzukov had left or was leaving the town. A dozen persons who had business with Pierre were awaiting him in the drawing room. Pierre dressed hurriedly, and, instead of going to see them, went to the back porch and out through the gate. From that time till the end of the destruction of Moscow, no one of Bizzukov's household, despite all the search they made, saw Pierre again, or knew where he was. End of Book 11, Chapter 11. Book 11 Chapter 12. Of War and Peace, Volume 3.3. by Leo Tolstoy, translated by Elmer Maude. This Libervox recording is in the public domain.

Starting point is 12:47:28 Book 11, Chapter 12 The Rostovs remained in Moscow to the first of September, that is, till the eve of the enemy's entry into the city. After Petya had joined Obolensky's regiment of Cossacks and left for Belayat-Zirkov, where that regiment was forming, the countess was seized with terror. The thought that both her sons were at the war, had both gone from under her wing, that today or tomorrow, either or both of them, might be killed, like the three sons of one of her

Starting point is 12:48:00 acquaintances, struck her that summer for the first time with cruel clearness. She tried to get Nicholas back and wished to go herself to join Petya, or to get him an appointment somewhere in Petersburg, but neither of these proved possible. Petya could not return unless his regiment did so, or unless he was transferred to another regiment on active service. Nicholas was somewhere with the army, and had not sent a word since his last letter, in which he had given a detailed account of his meeting with Princess Mary. The Countess did not sleep at night, or when she did fall asleep, dreamed that she saw her sons lying dead.

Starting point is 12:48:39 After many consultations and conversations, the Count at last devised means to tranquil equalizer. He got Petya transferred from Obolensky's regiment to Bazukovs, which was in training near Moscow. Though Petya would remain in the service, this transfer would give the countess the consolation of seeing at least one of her sons under her wing, and she hoped to arrange matters for her Petya so as not to let him go again, but always get him appointed to places where he could not possibly take part in a battle. As long as Nicholas alone was in danger, the Countess imagined that she loved her firstborn more than all her other children, and even reproached herself for it. But when her youngest, the scapegrace, who had been bad at lessons, was always breaking

Starting point is 12:49:26 things in the house and making himself a nuisance to everybody, that snub-nosed Petya, with his merry black eyes and fresh rosy cheeks, where soft down was just beginning to show, when he was thrown amid those big, dreadful, cruel men who were fighting somewhere about something and apparently finding pleasure in it, then his mother thought she loved him more, much more, than all her other children. The nearer the time came for Petya to return, the more uneasy grew the Countess.

Starting point is 12:49:55 She began to think she would never live to see such happiness. The presence of Sonia, of her beloved Natasha, or even of her husband irritated her. "'What do I want with them? I want no one but Petya,' she thought. At the end of August, the Rostovs received another letter from Nicholas. He wrote from the province of Veronej, where he had been sent to procure remounts, but that letter did not set the countess at ease.

Starting point is 12:50:25 Knowing that one son was out of danger, she became the more anxious about Petya. Though by the 20th of August, nearly all the Rostov's acquaintances had left Moscow, and though everybody tried to persuade the countess to get away as quickly as possible, she would not hear of leaving before her treasure, her adored Petya, returned. On the 28th of August he arrived. The passionate tenderness with which his mother received him did not please the 16-year-old officer. Though she concealed from him her intention of keeping him under her wing, Petya guessed her designs, and instinctively fearing that he might give way to emotion when with her,

Starting point is 12:51:05 might become womanish as he termed it to himself. He treated her coldly, avoided her, and during his stay in Moscow, attached himself exclusively to Natasha, for whom he had always had a particularly brotherly tenderness, almost lover-like. Owing to the Count's customary carelessness, nothing was ready for their departure by the 28th of August, and the carts that were to come from their Riazan and Moscow estates to remove their household belongings did not arrive till the 30th. From the 28th till the 31st, all Moscow was in a bustle and commotion. Every day, thousands of men wounded at Borodino were brought in by the Dora Gamilov gate

Starting point is 12:51:46 and taken to various parts of Moscow, and thousands of carts conveyed the inhabitants and their possessions out by the other gates. In spite of Rostopchin's broadsheets, or because of them, or independently of them, the strangest and most contradictory rumors were current in the town. Some said that no one was to be allowed to leave the city. Others, on the contrary, said that all the icons had been taken out of the churches and everybody was to be ordered to leave. Somebody said there had been another battle after Borodino at which the French had been routed,

Starting point is 12:52:20 while others, on the contrary, reported that the Russian army had been destroyed. Some talked about the Moscow militia, which, preceded by the clergy, would go to the three hills. Others whispered that Augustine had been forbidden to leave, that traitors had been seized, that the peasants were rioting and robbing people on their way from Moscow, and so on. But all this was only talk. In reality, though the Council of Philly at which it was decided to abandon Moscow had not yet been held, both those who went away and those who remained behind felt, though they did not show it, that Moscow would certainly be abandoned, and that they ought to get away as quickly,

Starting point is 12:53:01 as possible and save their belongings. It was felt that everything would suddenly break up and change, but up to the 1st of September nothing had done so. As a criminal who is being led to execution knows that he must die immediately, but yet looks about him and straightens the cap that is awry on his head, so Moscow involuntarily continued its wanted life, though it knew that the time of its destruction was near

Starting point is 12:53:27 when the conditions of life to which its people were accustomed to submit would be completely upset. During the three days preceding the occupation of Moscow, the whole Rostov family was absorbed in various activities. The head of the family, Count Ilya Rostov, continually drove about the city collecting the current rumors from all sides, and gave superficial and hasty orders at home about the preparations for their departure.

Starting point is 12:53:55 The Countess watched the things being packed, was dissatisfied with everything, was constantly in pursuit of Petya, who was always running away from her, and was jealous of Natasha with whom he spent all his time. Sonia alone directed the practical side of matters by getting things packed. But of late, Sonia had been particularly sad and silent. Nicholas' letter, in which he mentioned Princess Mary, had elicited, in her presence, joyous comments from the Countess,

Starting point is 12:54:24 who saw an intervention of providence in this meeting of the Princess and Nicholas. "'I was never pleased at Bolkonsky's engagement to Natasha,' said the Countess. "'But I always wanted Nicholas to marry the princess, and had a presentiment that it would happen. What a good thing it would be!' Sonia felt that this was true, that the only possibility of retrieving the Rostov's affairs was by Nicholas marrying a rich woman, and that the princess was a good match. It was very bitter for her, but despite her grief, or perhaps just because of it, she took on herself all the difficult work of directing the storing and packing of their things

Starting point is 12:55:04 and was busy for whole days. The Count and Countess turned to her when they had any orders to give. Petia and Natasha, on the contrary, far from helping their parents, were generally a nuisance and a hindrance to everyone. Almost all day long the house resounded with their running feet, their cries, and their spontaneous laughter. They laughed and were gay, not because there was any reason to laugh, but to laugh. because gaiety and mirth were in their hearts, and so everything that happened was a cause for gaiety and laughter to them. Pedia was in high spirits, because having left home a boy, he had returned, as everybody told him, a fine young man, because he was at home, because he had left Belaya Circoff where there was no hope of soon taking part in a battle, and had come to Moscow

Starting point is 12:55:51 where there was to be fighting in a few days, and chiefly because Natasha, whose lead he always followed, in high spirits. Natasha was gay because she had been sad too long, and now nothing reminded her of the cause of her sadness, and because she was feeling well. She was also happy because she had someone to adore her. The adoration of others was a lubricant the wheels of her machine needed to make them run freely, and Petya adored her. Above all, they were gay because there was a war near Moscow.

Starting point is 12:56:26 There would be fighting at the town gates, arms were being given out, everybody was escaping, going away somewhere, and in general something extraordinary was happening, and that is always exciting, especially to the young. End of Book 11, Chapter 12. Book 11 Chapter 13 of War and Peace, Volume 3, by Leo Tolstoy, translated by Elmer Maude. This Libervox recording is in the public domain. Book 11, Chapter 13. On Saturday, the 31st of August, everything in the Rostov's house seemed topsy-turvy. All the doors were open, all the furniture was being carried out or moved about,

Starting point is 12:57:18 and the mirrors and pictures had been taken down. There were trunks in the rooms, and hay, wrapping paper, and ropes were scattered about. The peasants and house serfs carrying out the things were treading heavily on the parquet floors. The yard was crowded with peasant carts, some loaded high, and all over. already courted up, others still empty." The voices and footsteps of the many servants and of the peasants who had come with the carts resounded as they shouted to one another in the yard and in the house. The Count had been out since morning.

Starting point is 12:57:51 The Countess had a headache brought on by all the noise and turmoil and was lying down in the new sitting-room with a vinegar compress on her head. Petya was not at home. He had gone to visit a friend with whom he met to obtain a transfer from the militia to the active army. Sonia was in the ballroom looking after the packing of the glass in China. Natasha was sitting on the floor of her dismantled room with dresses, ribbons and scarves strewn all about her, gazing fixedly at the floor and holding in her hands the old ball-dress,

Starting point is 12:58:21 already out of fashion, which she had worn at her first Petersburg ball. Natasha was ashamed of doing nothing when everyone else was so busy, and several times that morning had tried to set to work, but her heart was not in it. and she could not and did not know how to do anything except with all her heart and all her might. For a while she had stood beside Sonia while the china was being packed, and tried to help, but soon gave it up and went to a room to pack her own things. At first she found it amusing to give away dresses and ribbons to the maids, but when that was done and what was left had still to be packed, she found it dull.

Starting point is 12:59:02 "'Tunyasha, you pack. You will, won't you, dear?' And when Dunaisha willingly promised to do it all for her, Natasha sat down on the floor, took her old ball-dress and fell into a reverie quite unrelated to what ought to have occupied her thoughts now. She was roused from her reverie by the talk of the maids in the next room, which was theirs, and by the sound of their hurried footsteps going to the back porch. Natasha got up and looked out of the window. An enormously long row of carts full of wounded men had stopped in the street.

Starting point is 12:59:34 The housekeeper, the old nurse, the cooks, coachman, maids, footmen, postilions, and scullions stood at the gate, staring at the wounded. Natasha, throwing a clean pocket handkerchief over her hair and holding an end of it in each hand, went out into the street. The former housekeeper, old Mavra Kuzmanichna, had stepped out of the crowd by the gate, gone up to a cart with a hood constructed of bashed mats, and was speaking to a pale young officer who lay inside. Natasha moved a few steps forward and stopped shyly, still holding her handkerchief and

Starting point is 13:00:11 listened to what the housekeeper was saying. "'Then you have nobody in Moscow?' she was saying. "'You would be more comfortable somewhere in a house. In ours, for instance. The family are leaving.' "'I don't know if it would be allowed,' replied the officer in a weak voice. "'Here is our commanding officer. Ask him.'

Starting point is 13:00:32 and he pointed to a stout major who was walking back along the street past the row of carts. Natasha glanced with frightened eyes at the face of the wounded officer and at once went to meet the major. May the wounded men stay in our house, she asked. The major raised his hand to his cap with a smile. "'Which one do you want, mademoiselle?' said he, screwing up his eyes and smiling. Natasha quietly repeated her question, and her face and whole manner were so serious. though she was still holding the ends of her handkerchief, that the Major ceased smiling, and after some reflection, as if, considering and how far the thing was possible, replied in the

Starting point is 13:01:13 affirmative. "'Oh, yes, why not? They may,' he said. With a slight inclination of her head, Natasha stepped back quickly to Mavra Kuzmanichna, who stood talking compassionately to the officer. "'They may, he says they may,' whispered Natasha. The cart in which the officer lay was turned into the Rostov's yard, and dozens of carts with wounded men began at the invitation of the townsfolk to turn into the yards and to draw

Starting point is 13:01:43 up at the entrances of the houses in Povarskaya Street. Natasha was evidently pleased to be dealing with new people outside the ordinary routine of her life. She and Mavra Kuzmanichna tried to get as many of the wounded as possible into their yard. "'Your papa must be told, though,' said Mavra. Kuzmanichna. Never mind, never mind. What does it matter? For one day we can move into the drawing-room.

Starting point is 13:02:11 They can have all our half of the house. There, now, young lady, you do take things into your head. Even if we put them into the wing, the men's room or the nurse's room, we must ask permission. Well, I'll ask. Natasha ran into the house and went on tiptoe through the half-open door into the sitting-room. where there was a smell of vinegar and Hoffman's drops. Are you asleep, Mama?

Starting point is 13:02:38 Oh, what sleep? said the Countess, waking up just as she was dropping into a doze. Mama, darling, said Natasha, kneeling by her mother and bringing her face close to her mothers. I am sorry, forgive me. I'll never do it again. I woke you up. Mavra Kuzmanichna has sent me. They have brought some wounded here. Officers. Will you let them come? They have nowhere to go.

Starting point is 13:03:04 I knew you let them come, she said quickly, all in one breath. What, officers? Whom have they brought? I don't understand anything about it, said the Countess. Natasha laughed, and the Countess too smiled slightly. I knew you'd give permission, so I'll tell them. And having kissed her mother, Natasha got up and went to the door. In the hall she met her father, who had returned with bad news.

Starting point is 13:03:32 "'We've stayed too long,' said the Count with involuntary vexation. "'The club is closed, and the police are leaving.' "'Papa, is it all right? I've invited some of the wounded into the house,' said Natasha. "'Of course it is,' he answered absently. "'That's not the point. I beg you not to indulge in trifles now, but to help to pack, and tomorrow we must go, go, go!' And the Count gave a similar order to the Major Doors. and the servants.

Starting point is 13:04:05 At dinner, Petya, having returned home, told them the news he had heard. He said the people had been getting arms in the Kremlin, and that, though Rostopchin's broadsheet had said that he would sound a call two or three days in advance, the order had certainly already been given for everyone to go armed to the three hills tomorrow, and that there would be a big battle there. The Countess looked with timid horror at her son's eager, excited face as he said this. She realized that if she said a word about his not going to the battle, she knew he enjoyed the thought of the impending engagement.

Starting point is 13:04:40 He would say something about men, honor, and the fatherland, something senseless, masculine, and obstinate, which there would be no contradicting, and her plans would be spoiled. And so, hoping to arrange to leave before then and take Petya with her as their protector and defender, she did not answer him. But after dinner, called the countesside, and implored him with tears. to take her away quickly, that very night, if possible. With a woman's involuntary loving cunning, she, who till then had not shown any alarm,

Starting point is 13:05:12 said that she would die of fright if they did not leave that very night. Without any pretense, she was now afraid of everything. End of Book 11, Chapter 13. Book 11 Chapter 14 of War and Peace, Volume 3, by Leo Tolstoy, translated by Homer Maw. This Libervox recording is in the public domain. Book 11, Chapter 14 Madam Shos, who had been out to visit her daughter,

Starting point is 13:05:52 increased the Countess fear still more by telling what she had seen at a spirit-heaters in Miesnitsky Street. When returning by that street, she had been unable to pass because of a drunken crowd rioting in front of the shop. She had taken a cab and driven home by a side street, and the cabman had told her that the people were breaking open the barrels at the drink store, having received orders to do so. After dinner, the whole Rostov household set to work with enthusiastic haste,

Starting point is 13:06:21 packing their belongings and preparing for their departure. The old count, suddenly setting to work, kept passing from the yard to the house and back again, shouting confused instructions to the hurrying people, and flurrying them still more. Petya directed things in the yard. Sonia, owing to the Count's contradictory orders, lost her head and did not know what to do. The servants ran noisely about the house and yard, shouting and disputing.

Starting point is 13:06:49 Natasha, with the ardor characteristic of all she did, suddenly set to work too. At first, her intervention in the business of packing was received skeptically. Everybody expected some prank from her and did not wish to obey her, but she resolutely and passionately demanded obedience. grew angry and nearly cried because they did not heed her, and at last succeeded in making them

Starting point is 13:07:13 believer. Her first exploit, which caused her immense effort and established her authority, was the packing of the carpets. The Count had valuable goblin tapestries and Persian carpets in the house. When Natasha set to work, two cases were standing open in the ballroom, one almost full up with crockery, the other with carpets. There was also much china standing on the table. tables, and still more was being brought in from the storeroom. A third case was needed, and servants had gone to fetch it. Sonia, wait a bit, we'll pack everything into these, said Natasha. You can't, miss, we have tried to, said the butler's assistant. No, wait a minute, please. And Natasha began rapidly taking out of the case dishes and plates wrapped in paper.

Starting point is 13:08:04 The dishes must go in here among the carpets, said she. she. "'Why, it's of mercy if we can get the carpets alone into three cases,' said the butler's assistant. "'Oh, wait, please!' And Natasha began rapidly and deftly sorting out the things. "'These aren't needed,' said she, putting aside some plates of Kievware. "'These, yes, these must go among the carpets,' she said, referring to the Saxony China dishes. "'Don't, Natasha, leave it alone. We'll get it all packed. urged Sonia reproachfully. "'What a young lady she is!' remarked the Major Domo.

Starting point is 13:08:44 But Natasha would not give in. She turned everything out and began quickly repacking, deciding that the inferior Russian carpets and unnecessary crockery should not be taken at all. When everything had been taken out of the cases, they recommenced packing, and it turned out that when the cheaper things not worth taking had nearly all been rejected,

Starting point is 13:09:05 the valuable ones really did all go into the two cases. Only the lid of the case containing the carpets would not shut down. A few more things might have been taken out, but Natasha insisted on having her own way. She packed, repacked, pressed, made the butler's assistant and Petya, whom she had drawn into the business of packing, press on the lid, and made desperate efforts herself.

Starting point is 13:09:30 "'That's enough, Natasha,' said Sonia. "'I see you were right.' but just take out the top one. I won't, cried Natasha, with one hand holding back the hair that hung over her perspiring face, while with the other she pressed down the carpets. Now press, Petya, press Vasilich, press hard, she cried. The carpets yielded and the lid closed.

Starting point is 13:09:56 Natasha, clapping her hands, screamed with delight and tears fell from her eyes. But this only lasted a moment. She at once set to work afresh, and they now trusted her completely. The Count was not angry, even when they told him that Natasha had countermanded an order of his, and the servants now came to her to ask whether a cart was sufficiently loaded, and whether it might be corded up. Thanks to Natasha's directions, the work now went on expeditiously, unnecessary things were left, and the most valuable pact as compactly as possible.

Starting point is 13:10:30 But hard as they all worked till quite late that night, they could not get everything packed. The Countess had fallen asleep, and the Count, having put off their departure till next morning, went to bed. Sonia and Natasha slept in the sitting-room without undressing. That night, another wounded man was driven down the Povarskaya, and Mavra Kuzmanichna, who was standing at the gate, had him brought into the Rostov's yard. Mavra Kuzmanichna concluded that he was a very important man. He was being conveyed in a kalesh with a raised hood and was quite covered by an apron. On the box beside the driver sat a venerable old attendant. A doctor and two soldiers followed the carriage in a cart.

Starting point is 13:11:17 "'Please, come in here. The masters are going away and the whole house will be empty,' said the old woman to the old attendant. "'Well, perhaps,' said he with a sigh. We don't expect to get him home alive. We have a house of our own in Moscow, but it's a long way from here, and there's nobody living in it. Do us the honor to come in.

Starting point is 13:11:39 There's plenty of everything in the master's house. Come in, said Mavra Kuzmanichna. Is he very ill? She asked. The attendant made a hopeless gesture. We don't expect to get him home. We must ask the doctor. And the old servant got down from the box,

Starting point is 13:11:57 and went up to the cart. All right, said the doctor. The old servant returned to the Kalesh, looked into it, shook his head disconsolately, told the driver to turn into the yard, and stopped beside Mavra Kuzmanichna. Oh, Lord Jesus Christ, she murmured. She invited them to take the wounded man into the house. The masters won't object, she said. But they had to avoid carrying the man upstairs,

Starting point is 13:12:26 so they took him into the wing, and put him in the room that had been Madame Shos. This wounded man was Prince Andrew Bokunsky. End of Book 11, Chapter 14. Book 11 Chapter 15 of War and Peace, Volume 3, by Leo Tolstoy, translated by Elmer Maude. This Libervox recording is in the public domain. Book 11, Chapter 15

Starting point is 13:13:01 Moscow's Last Day had come. It was a clear, bright autumn day, a Sunday. The church bells everywhere were ringing for service, just as usual on Sundays. Nobody seemed yet to realize what awaited the city. Only two things indicated the social condition of Moscow, the rabble, that is the poor people, and the price of commodities. An enormous crowd of factory hands, house serfs, and peasants, with whom some officials, seminarists and gentry were mingled,

Starting point is 13:13:33 had gone early that morning to the three hills. Having waited there for restoption, who did not turn up, they became convinced that Moscow would be surrendered, and then dispersed all about the town to the public houses and cook-shops. Prices too that day indicated the state of affairs. The price of weapons, of gold, of carts and horses, kept rising, but the value of paper money and city articles kept falling, so that by midday there were instances,

Starting point is 13:14:03 of carders removing valuable goods, such as cloth, and receiving in payment a half of what they carded, while peasant horses were fetching 500 rubles each, and furniture, mirrors, and bronzes were being given away for nothing. In the Rostov stayed old-fashioned house, the dissolution of former conditions of life was but little noticeable. As to the serfs, the only indication was that three out of their huge retinue disappeared during the night, but nothing was stolen. and as to the value of their possessions, the thirty peasant carts that had come in from their estates, and which many people envied, proved to be extremely valuable, and they were offered enormous sums of money for them. Not only were huge sums offered for the horses and carts,

Starting point is 13:14:50 but on the previous evening and early in the morning of the first of September, orderlies and servants sent by wounded officers came to the Rostovs, and wounded men dragged themselves there from the Rostovs and from neighboring houses where they were accommodated, entreating the servants to try to get them a lift out of Moscow. The Major Domo to whom these entreaties were addressed, though he was sorry for the wounded, resolutely refused, saying that he dare not even mention the matter to the count. Pity these wounded men as one might. It was evident that if they were given one cart, there would be no reason to refuse another,

Starting point is 13:15:27 or all the carts and one's own carriages as well. Thirty carts could not save all the wounded, and in the general catastrophe one could not disregard oneself and one's own family. So thought the Major Domo on his master's behalf. On waking up that morning, Count Ilya Rostov left his bedroom softly, so as not to wake the countess who had fallen asleep only toward morning, and came out to the porch in his lilac silk dressing-gown. In the yard stood the carts ready-corded. The character were at the front porch. The Major Domo stood at the porch talking to an elderly-ordery and to a pale young officer with a bandaged arm. On seeing the Count, the Major Domo made a

Starting point is 13:16:12 significant and stern gesture to them both to go away. "'Well, Vasilich, is everything ready?' asked the Count. And stroking his bald head, he looked good-naturely at the officer and the orderly, and nodded to them. He liked to see new faces. "'We can harness at once, Your Excellency.' "'Well, that's right. As soon as the Countess wakes, we'll be off, God willing.' "'What is it, gentleman?' he added, turning to the officer. "'Are you staying in my house?' The officer came nearer, and suddenly his face flushed crimson.

Starting point is 13:16:48 "'Count, be so good as to allow me. For God's sake, to get into some corner of one of your carts. "'I have nothing here with me. I shall be all right on a loaded cart.' Before the officer had finished speaking, the orderly made the same request on behalf of his master. "'Oh, yes, yes, yes,' said the Count hastily. "'I shall be very pleased, very pleased. Vasilich, you'll see to it. Just unload one or two carts.

Starting point is 13:17:15 Well, what of it? Do what's necessary,' said the Count, muttering some indefinite order. But at the same moment, an expression of warm gratitude on the officer's face had already sealed the order. The Count looked around him. In the yard, at the gates, at the window of the wings, wounded officers and their orders were to be seen. They were all looking at the Count and moving toward the porch.

Starting point is 13:17:40 "'Please step into the gallery, Your Excellency,' said the Major Domo. "'What are your orders about the pictures?' The Count went into the house with him, repeating his order not to refuse the wounded who asked for a lift. "'Well, never mind. Some of the things can be unloaded,' he added in a soft, confidential voice, as though afraid of being overheard. At nine o'clock the Countess woke up, a matrena timofievna, who had been her lady's maid before her marriage, and now performed a sort of chief gendarme's duty for her,

Starting point is 13:18:14 came to say that Madame Chos was much offended, and the young lady's summer dresses could not be left behind. On inquiry, the Countess learned that Madame Chos was offended because her trunk had been taken down from its cart, and all the loads were being uncorded, and the luggage taken out of the carts, to make room for wounded men whom the Count, in the simplicity of his heart, had ordered that they should take with them. The Countess sent for her husband. "'What is this, my dear? I hear that the luggage is being unloaded.' "'You know, love, I wanted to tell you, Countess, dear.'

Starting point is 13:18:52 An officer came to me to ask for a few carts for the wounded. After all, ours are are things that can be bought, but think what being left behind means to them. Really, now, in our own yard. We ask them in ourselves, and there are offices among them. You know, I think, my dear, let them be taken. Where's the hurry?' The Count spoke timidly, as he always did when talking of money matters. The Countess was accustomed to this tone as a precursor of news of something detrimental to the children's interests, such as the building of a new gallery, or conservatory, the inauguration of a private theater or an orchestra.

Starting point is 13:19:31 She was accustomed always to oppose anything announced in that timid tone, and considered it her duty to do so. She assumed her dolefully submissive manner and said to her husband, Listen to me, Count. You have managed matters so that we are getting nothing for the house, and now you wish to throw away all our—all the children's property. You said yourself that we have a hundred thousand roubles worth of things in the house. I don't consent, my dear. I don't. Do as you please. It's the government's business to look after the wounded. They know that. Look at the Lepukin's opposite. They cleared out everything two days ago.

Starting point is 13:20:13 That's what other people do. It's only we who are such fools. If you have no pity on me, have some for the children. Pershing his arms in despair, the Count left the room without replying. "'Papa, what are you doing that for?' asked Natasha, who had followed him into her mother's room. "'Nothing. What business is it of yours?' muttered the Count angrily. "'But I heard,' said Natasha. "'Why does Mama object?' "'What business is it of yours?' cried the Count. Natasha stepped up to the window and pondered.

Starting point is 13:20:51 "'Papa! Here's Berg coming to see us,' said she, looking out of the window. End of Book 11, Chapter 15. Book 11 Chapter 16 of War and Peace, Volume 3, by Leo Tolstoy, translated by Elmer Maude. This Libravox recording is in the public domain. Book 11, Chapter 16 Berg, the Rostov's son-in-law, was already a colonel wearing the orders of Vladimir and Anna, and he still filled the quiet and agreeable post of assistant to the head of the staff of the assistant commander of the First Division of the Second Army. On the 1st of September he had come to Moscow from the Army.

Starting point is 13:21:45 He had nothing to do in Moscow, but he had noticed that everyone in the Army was asking for leave to visit Moscow and had something to do there. so he considered it necessary to ask for leave of absence for family and domestic reasons. Berg drove up to his father-in-law's house in his spruce little trap with a pair of sleek roans, exactly like those of a certain prince. He looked attentively at the carts in the yard, and while going up to the porch, took out a clean pocket-handkerchief and tied a nod in it. From the ante-room, Berg ran with smooth, though impatient steps into the drawing-room,

Starting point is 13:22:20 where he embraced the count, kiss the hand, of Natasha and Sonia, and hastened to inquire after Mama's health. "'Health? At a time like this?' said the Count. "'Come, tell us the news. Is the army retreating, or will there be another battle?' "'God Almighty alone can decide the fate of our fatherland, Papa,' said Berg. "'The army is burning with a spirit of heroism, and the leaders, so to say, have now assembled in council. No one knows what is coming. But in general, I can't. can tell you, Papa, that such a heroic spirit, the truly antique valor of the Russian army,

Starting point is 13:22:59 which they—which it, he corrected himself, has shown or displayed in the Battle of the 26th. There are no words worthy to do it justice. I tell you, Papa—he smote himself on the breast as a general he had heard speaking had done, but Berg did it a trifle late, for he should have struck his breast at the words Russian Army. I tell you frankly that we the commanders, far from having to urge the men on or anything of that kind, could hardly restrain those. Those... Yes, those exploits of antique valor.

Starting point is 13:23:32 He went on rapidly. General Barclay de Tully risked his life everywhere at the head of the troops, I can assure you. Our Corps was stationed on a hillside. You can imagine. And Berg related all that he remembered of the various tales he had heard those days. Natasha watched him with an intent gaze

Starting point is 13:23:51 that confused him, as if she were trying to find in his face the answer to some question. Altogether, such heroism as was displayed by the Russian warriors cannot be imagined or adequately praised, said Berg, glancing round at Natasha, and as if anxious to conciliate her, replying to her intent look with a smile. "'Rushy is not in Moscow. She lives in the hearts of her sons. Isn't it so, Papa?' said he. Just then the Countess came in from the sitting-room with a weary and dissatisfied expression. Berg hurriedly jumped up, kissed her hand, asked about her health, and, swaying his head from side to side to express sympathy, remained standing beside her.

Starting point is 13:24:36 "'Yes, Mama, I tell you sincerely that these are hard and sad times for every Russian. But why are you so anxious? You have still time to get away.' "'I can't think what the servants are about. said the Countess turning to her husband. "'I have just been told that nothing is ready yet. Somebody, after all, must see to things. One Mrs. Mitinka at such times. There won't be any end to it.'

Starting point is 13:25:03 The Count was about to say something, but evidently restrained himself. He got up from his chair and went to the door. At that moment, Berg drew out his handkerchief as if to blow his nose, and seeing the nod in it, pondered, shaking his head sadly and significantly. And I have a great favor to ask of you, Papa, said he. Hmm? said the Count and stopped. I was driving past you Supov's house just now, said Berg with a laugh, when the steward, a man I know, ran out and asked me whether I wouldn't buy something.

Starting point is 13:25:38 I went in out of curiosity, you know, and there is a small chiffonere and a dressing-table. You know how dear Vera wanted a chiffonier like that, and how we had a dispute about it. At the mention of the chiffonier and dressing-table, Berg involuntarily changed his tone to one of pleasure at his admirable domestic arrangements. "'And it's such a beauty. It pulls out and has a secret English drawer, you know, and dear Vera has long wanted one. I wish to give her a surprise, you see. I saw so many of those peasant carts in your yard. Please, let me have one. I will pay the man well, and—' The Count frowned and coughed. "'Ask the Countess. I don't give orders.' "'If it's inconvenient, please don't,' said Berg.

Starting point is 13:26:25 "'Only I so wanted it, for dear Vera's sake.' "'Oh, go to the devil, all of you! To the devil! "'The devil! The devil! cried the old Count. "'My head's in a whirl!' And he left the room. The Countess began to cry. "'Yes, Mama, yes, these are very hard times,' said Berg. Natasha left the room with her father, and, as if finding it difficult to reach some decision, first followed him and then ran downstairs.

Starting point is 13:26:57 Petya was in the porch, engaged in giving out weapons to the servants who were to leave Moscow. The loaded carts were still standing in the yard. Two of them had been uncorded, and a wounded officer was climbing into one of them helped by an orderly. Do you know what it's about? Petya asked Natasha. She understood that he met what were their parents quarreling about. She did not answer. "'It's because Papa wanted to give up all the carts to the wounded,' said Petya.

Starting point is 13:27:27 Vasilich told me, "'I consider—I consider—' Natasha suddenly almost shouted, turning her angry face to Petya. "'I consider it so horrid, so abominable, so I don't know what. Are we despicable Germans?' Her throat quivered with convulsive sobs, and afraid of weakening and letting the force of her anger run to waste. She turned and rushed headlong up the stairs. Berg was sitting beside the countess, consoling her, with the respectful attention of a

Starting point is 13:27:59 relative. The Count, pipe in hand, was pacing up and down the room, when Natasha, her face distorted by anger, burst in like a tempest and approached her mother with rapid steps. "'It's horrid! It's abominable!' she screamed. you can't possibly have ordered it. Berg and the Countess looked at her, perplexed and frightened. The Count stood still at the window and listened. Mama, it's impossible. See what is going on in the yard, she cried.

Starting point is 13:28:30 They will be left. What's the matter with you? Who are they? What do you want? Why, the wounded! It's impossible, Mama. It's monstrous. No, Mama, darling.

Starting point is 13:28:43 It's not the thing. "'Please forgive me, darling. Mama, what does it matter what we take away? Only look what is going on in the yard. Mama, it's impossible!' The Count stood by the window and listened without turning round. Suddenly he sniffed and put his face closer to the window. The Countess glanced at her daughter, saw her face full of shame for her mother,

Starting point is 13:29:07 saw her agitation, and understood why her husband did not turn to look at her now, and she glanced round quite disconcerted. Oh, do as you like. Am I hindering anyone? She said, not surrendering at once. Mama, darling, forgive me. But the Countess pushed her daughter away and went up to her husband. My dear, you order what is right.

Starting point is 13:29:32 You know I don't understand about it, said she, dropping her eyes shamefacedly. The eggs. The eggs are teaching the hen, muttered the Count, through tears of joy, and he embraced his wife, who was glad to hide her look of shame on his breast. "'Papa! Mama! May I see to it? May I?' asked Natasha.

Starting point is 13:29:52 "'We will still take all the most necessary things.' The Count nodded affirmatively, and Natasha, at the rapid pace at which she used to run when playing at tag, ran through the ballroom to the ante-room and downstairs into the yard. The servants gathered round Natasha, but could not believe the strange order she brought them, until the Count himself, in his wife's name, confirmed the order to give up all the carts to the wounded, and take the trunks to the storerooms. When they understood that order, the servants set to work at this new task with pleasure and zeal. It no longer seems strange to them, but on the contrary, it seemed the only thing that could be done. Just as a quarter of an

Starting point is 13:30:33 hour before, it had not seemed strange to anyone that the wounded should be left behind and the goods carted away, but that had seemed the only thing to do. The whole household, as if to atone for not having done it sooner, set eagerly to work at the new task of placing the wounded in the carts. The wounded dragged themselves out of their rooms and stood with pale but happy faces round the carts. The news that carts were to be had spread to the neighboring houses, from which wounded men began to come into the Rostov's yard. Many of the wounded asked them not to unload the carts, but only to let them sit on top of the things. But the work of unloading, once started, could not be able to be able to

Starting point is 13:31:11 be arrested. It seemed not to matter whether all or only half the things were left behind. Cases full of china, bronzes, pictures, and mirrors that had been so carefully packed the night before, now lay about the yard, and still they went on searching for and finding possibilities of unloading this or that and letting the wounded have another and yet another cart. "'We can take four more men,' said the steward. "'They can have my trap, or else what is to become of them.' "'Let them have my wardrobe-cart,' said the Countess.

Starting point is 13:31:45 "'Tunyasha can go with me in the carriage.' They unloaded the wardrobe-cart and sent it to take wounded men from a house two doors off. The whole household, servants included, was bright and animated. Natasha was in a state of rapturous excitement, such as she had not known for a long time. "'What could we fasten this on to?' asked the servants, trying to fix a trunk on the narrow footboard behind a carriage. We must keep at least one cart. What's in it? asked Natasha.

Starting point is 13:32:15 The Count's books. Leave it. Vasilich will put it away. It's not wanted. The phaeton was full of people, and there was a doubt as to where Count Peter could sit. On the box. You'll sit on the box, won't you pet you? cried Natasha. Sonia, too, was busy all this time, but the aim of her efforts was quite different from Natasha's. She was putting away the things that had to be left behind and making a list of them as the Countess wished, and she tried to get as much taken away with them as possible. End of Book 11, Chapter 16.

Starting point is 13:32:57 Book 11 Chapter 17 of War and Peace, Volume 3, by Leo Tolstoy, translated by Elmer Maud. This Libervox recording is in the public domain. Book 11, Chapter 17 Before two o'clock in the afternoon, the Rostov's four carriages, packed full and with the horse's harnessed, stood at the front door. One by one, the carts with the wounded have moved out of the yard. The calesh in which Prince Andrew was being taken attracted Sonia's attention as it passed the front porch. With the help of a maid, she was arranging a seat for the countess in the huge high coach that stood at the entrance. "'Whose calesh is that?' she inquired. "'What, Kaleh is that?' she,

Starting point is 13:33:43 inquired, leaning out of the carriage window. "'Why, didn't you know, miss?' replied the maid. "'The wounded prince. He spent the night in our house and is going with us.' "'But who is it? What's his name?' "'It's our intended that was—' "'Prince Polkonsky himself. They say he is dying,' replied the maid with a sigh. Sonia jumped out of the coach and ran to the countess. The countess, tired out and already dressed in shawl and,

Starting point is 13:34:13 and bonnet for her journey, was pacing up and down the drawing-room, waiting for the household to assemble for the usual silent prayer with closed doors before starting. Natasha was not in the room. "'Mama,' said Sonia, "'Prince Andrew is here, mortally wounded. He is going with us.' The Countess opened her eyes in dismay, and seizing Sonia's arm glanced around. "'Natasha,' she murmured. "'At that moment this news had only one significant. for both of them. They knew their Natasha, and alarm as to what would happen if she heard this news stifled all sympathy for the man they both liked.

Starting point is 13:34:53 Natasha does not know yet, but he is going with us, said Sonia. You say he is dying? Sonia nodded. The Countess put her arms around Sonia and began to cry. The ways of God are past finding out, she thought, feeling that the Almighty hand hitherto unseen was becoming manifest in all that was now taking place. "'Well, Mama, everything is ready. What's the matter?' asked Natasha, as with animated face, she ran into the room. "'Nothing,' answered the Countess. "'If everything is ready, let us start.' And the Countess bent over her reticule to hide her agitated face. Sonia embraced Natasha and kissed her. Natasha looked at her inquiringly.

Starting point is 13:35:42 What is it? What has happened? Nothing? No. Is it something very bad for me? What is it? Persisted Natasha with her quick intuition. Sonia sighed and made no reply. The Count, Petya, Madame Shos, Mavra Kuzmenich, and Vasilich came into the drawing-room, and having closed the doors, they all sat down and remained for some moments, silently seated without looking at one another. The Count was the first to rise, and with a loud sigh crossed himself before the icon.

Starting point is 13:36:16 All the others did the same. Then the Count embraced Mavra Kuzmanichna and Vasilich, who were to remain in Moscow. And while they caught at his hand and kissed his shoulder, he patted their backs lightly with some vaguely affectionate and comforting words. The Countess went into the oratory, and there Sonia found her on her knees before the icons that have been left here and there hanging on the wall. The most precious ones, with which some family tradition was connected, were being taken with them.

Starting point is 13:36:47 In the porch and in the yard, the men Humpetia had armed with swords and daggers, with trousers tucked inside their high boots, and with belts and girdles tightened, were taking leave of those remaining behind. As is always the case at a departure, much had been forgotten or put in the wrong place, and for a long time two men-servants stood one uneasurable, side of the open door and the carriage steps waiting to help the Countess in, while maids rushed with cushions and bundles from the house to the carriages, the Kalesh, the Fayaton, and back again. They always will forget everything, said the Countess.

Starting point is 13:37:23 Don't you know I can't sit like that? And Dunyasha, with clenched teeth, without replying but with an aggrieved look on her face, hastily got into the coach to rearrange the seat. Oh, those servants, said the Count. the Count swaying his head. Athene, the old coachman, who was the only one the Countess trusted to driver, sat perched up high on the box, and did not so much as glance round at what was going on behind him. From thirty years' experience, he knew it would be some time yet before the order

Starting point is 13:37:57 be off in God's name would be given him, and he knew that even when it was said he would be stopped once or twice more while they sent back to fetch something that had been forgotten, and even after that he would again be stopped, and the Countess herself would lean out of the window and beg him for the love of heaven to drive carefully down the hill. He knew all this, and therefore waited calmly for what would happen, with more patience than the horses, especially the near one, the Chestnut Falcon, who was pawing the ground and champing his bit. At last all were seated.

Starting point is 13:38:32 The carriage steps were folded and pulled up, the door was shut, somebody was sent for a traveling case, and the Countess leaned out and said what she had to say. Then Afim deliberately doffed his hat and began crossing himself. The Postillion and all the other servants did the same. "'Off in God's name!' said Afim, putting on his hat. "'Start!' The postillion started the horses. The off-pole horse tugged at his collar. The high springs creaked, and the body of the coat swayed. The footmen sprang onto the box of the moving coach, which jolted as it passed out of the yard onto the uneven roadway. The other vehicles jolted in their turn, and the procession of carriages moved up the street.

Starting point is 13:39:18 In the carriages, the Kalesh and the Fayaton all crossed themselves as they passed the church opposite the house. Those who were to remain in Moscow walked on either side of the vehicle seeing the travelers off. Rarely had Natasha experience so joyful a feeling as now, sitting in the carriage beside the countess and gazing at the slowly receding walls of forsaken, agitated Moscow. Occasionally she leaned out of the carriage window and looked back and then forward at the long train of wounded in front of them. Almost at the head of the line she could see the raised hood of Prince Andrew's calesh. She did not know who was in it, but each time she looked at the procession, her eyes sought that calesh. She knew it was right in front.

Starting point is 13:40:05 In Cadrino, from the Nikitsky, Presnya, and Ponovinsk streets came several other trains of vehicles similar to the Rostovs, and as they passed along the Satavaya Street, the carriages and carts formed two rows abreast. As they were going round the Sukarev Water Tower, Natasha, who was inquisitively and alertly scrutinizing the people driving or walking past, suddenly cried out in joyful surprise. "'Dear me! Mama, Sonia! Look! It's he!' "'Who! Who? Who?' "'Look! Yes, on my word, it's Pizukov!' said Natasha, putting her head out of the carriage

Starting point is 13:40:45 and staring at a tall, stout man in a coachman's long coat, who, from his manner of walking and moving was evidently a gentleman in disguise, and who was passing under the arch of the Sukharov Tower, accompanied by a small, sallow-faced, beardless old man in a freeze coat. Yes, it really is Bazukov in a coachman's coat with a queer-looking old boy. Really, said Natasha. Look, look. No, it's not he.

Starting point is 13:41:15 How can you talk such nonsense? Mama, screamed Natasha. I'll stake my head, it's he. I assure you, stop, stop, she cried to the coachman. But the coachman could not stop, for from the Mashansky Street came more carts and carriages, and the Rostovs were being shouted at to move on and not block the way. In fact, however, though now much farther off than before, the Rostovs all saw Pierre, or someone extraordinarily like him, in a coachman's coat, going down the street with head bent

Starting point is 13:41:49 and a serious face beside a small, beardless old man who looked like a footman. That old man noticed a face thrust out of the carriage window gazing at them, and respectfully touching Pierre's elbow said something to him and pointed to the carriage. Pierre, evidently engrossed in thought, could not at first understand him. At length, when he had understood and looked in the direction the old man indicated, he recognized Natasha, and following his first impulse, stepped instantly and rapidly toward the coach. But having taken a dozen steps, he seemed to remember something and stopped. Natasha's face, leaning out of the window, beamed with quizzical kindness. Peter Karolovich, come here.

Starting point is 13:42:33 We have recognized you. This is wonderful, she cried, holding out her hand to him. What are you doing? Why are you like this? Pierre took her outstretched hand and kissed it awkwardly, as he walked along beside her while the coat still moved on. "'What is the matter, Count?' asked the Countess in a surprised and commiserating tone. "'What? What? What? Why? Don't ask me,' said Pierre,

Starting point is 13:43:00 and looked round at Natasha, whose radiant, happy expression, of which he was conscious without looking at her, filled him with enchantment. "'Are you remaining in Moscow, then?' Pierre hesitated. "'In Moscow?' he said in a questioning tone. "'Yes, in Moscow. Good-bye.' "'Ah, if only I were a man, I'd certainly stay with you.' "'How splendid!' said Natasha. "'Mama, if you'll let me, I'll stand.

Starting point is 13:43:30 "'A!' Pierre glanced absently at Natasha and was about to say something, but the Countess interrupted him. "'You were at the battle we heard.' "'Yes, I was,' Pierre answered. "'There will be another battle to-morrow,' he began, but Natasha interrupted him. "'But what is the matter with you, Count? You are not like yourself.' "'Oh, don't ask me, don't ask me. I don't know myself. "'Tomorrow—but no. Good-bye, good-bye,' he muttered. "'It's an awful time.'

Starting point is 13:44:06 And dropping behind the carriage, he stepped on to the pavement. Natasha continued to lean out of the window for a long time, beaming at him with her kindly, slightly quizzical, happy smile. End of Book 11, Chapter 17. Book 11 Chapter 18 of War and Peace, Volume 3, by Leo Tolstor. translated by Elmer Maude. This Libervox recording is in the public domain. Book 11, Chapter 18

Starting point is 13:44:45 For the last two days, ever since leaving home, Pierre had been living in the empty house of his deceased benefactor, Basdave. This is how it happened. When he woke up on the morning after his return to Moscow and his interview with Count Rostopchin, he could not for some time make out where he was, and what was expected of him. When he was informed that, among others,

Starting point is 13:45:09 awaiting him in his reception room, there was a Frenchman who had brought a letter from his wife, the Countess Elaine. He felt suddenly overcome by that sense of confusion and hopelessness, to which he was apt to succumb. He felt that everything was now at an end. All was in confusion and crumbling to pieces, that nobody was right or wrong.

Starting point is 13:45:29 The future held nothing, and there was no escape from this position. smiling unnaturally and muttering to himself, he first sat down on the sofa in an attitude of despair, then rose, went to the door of the reception room, and peeped through the crack, returned, flourishing his arms, and took up a book. His major-domo came in a second time to say that the Frenchman who had brought the letter from the Countess was very anxious to see him, if only for a minute, and that someone from Bess deev's widow had called to ask Pierre to take charge of her husband's books,

Starting point is 13:46:03 as she herself was leaving for the country. "'Oh, yes, in a minute. Wait. Or no, no, of course. Go and say I will come directly,' Pierre replied to the Major Domo. But as soon as the man had left the room, Pierre took up his hat which was lying on the table and went out of his study by the other door. There was no one in the passage. He went along the whole length of this passage to the stairs, and frowning and rubbing his forehead with both hands, went down as far as the first landing. The hall porter was standing at the front door. From the landing where Pierre stood, there was a second staircase leading to the back entrance. He went down that staircase and out into the yard. No one had seen him. But there were some

Starting point is 13:46:50 carriages waiting, and as soon as Pierre stepped out of the gate, the coachman and the yard porter noticed him and raised their caps to him. When he felt he was being looked at, he behaved like an ostrich, which hides its head in a bush, in order not to be seen. He hung his head, and quickening his pace, went down the street.

Starting point is 13:47:09 Of all the affairs awaiting Pierre that day, the sorting of Joseph Bessdave's books and papers appeared to him the most necessary. He hired the first cab he met and told the driver to go to the patriarch's ponds, where the widow Bessdave's house was. continually turning round to look at the rows of loaded carts that were making their way from all sides out of Moscow, and balancing his bulky body, so as not to slip out of the ramshackle old vehicle,

Starting point is 13:47:36 Pierre, experiencing the joyful feeling of a boy escaping from school, began to talk to his driver. The man told him that arms were being distributed that day at the Kremlin, and that tomorrow everyone would be sent out beyond the Three Hills Gates, and a great battle would be fought there. Having reached the patriarch's ponds, Pierre found the Bazdayev's house, where he had not been for a long time past. He went up to the gate. Goresum, that sallow, beardless old man Pierre had seen at Torgh, five years before with

Starting point is 13:48:08 Joseph Bazdayev, came out in answer to his knock. At home, asked Pierre, Owing to the present state of things, Sophia Denedanovna has gone to the Torzhak estate with the children, Your Excellency. I will come in all the same. I have to look through the books, said Pierre. Be so good as to step in. Makar Alexeovitch, the brother of my late master, may the kingdom of heaven be his, has remained here, but he is in a weak state as you know, said the old servant. Pierre knew that Makar Alexeov was Joseph Baldayev's half-insane brother and a hard drinker.

Starting point is 13:48:49 "'Yes, yes, I know,' "'let us go in,' said Pierre, and entered the house. A tall bald-headed old man with a red nose, wearing a dressing-gown and with galoshes on his bare feet, stood in the ante-room. On seeing Pierre, he muttered something angrily and went away along the passage. "'He was a very clever man, but has now grown quite feeble, as your honor sees,' said Garassim.

Starting point is 13:49:16 "'Will you step into the study?' Pierre nodded. As it was sealed up, so it has remained, but Sophia Danilovna gave orders that, if anyone should come from you, they were to have the books. Pierre went into that gloomy study which he had entered with such trepidation in his benefactor's lifetime. The room, dusty and untouched since the death of Joseph Mazdaev,

Starting point is 13:49:40 was now even gloomier. Gerasim opened one of the shutters and left the room on tiptoe. Pierre went round the study. approached the cupboard in which the manuscripts were kept, and took out what had once been one of the most important, the Holy of Holies of the Order. This was the authentic Scotch acts, with Baldayev's notes and explanations.

Starting point is 13:50:03 He sat down to the dusty writing-table, and having laid the manuscripts before him, opened them out, closed them, finally pushed them away, and, resting his head on his hand, sank into meditation. Gerasum looked cautiously into the study several times, and saw Pierre always sitting in the same attitude. More than two hours passed,

Starting point is 13:50:24 and Gerasim took the liberty of making a slight noise of the door to attract his attention, but Pierre did not hear him. "'Is the cabman to be discharged, Your Honor?' "'Oh, yes,' said Pierre, rousing himself and rising hurriedly. "'Look here,' he added, taking Gerasim by a button of his coat and looking down to the old man with moist, shining, and ecstatic eyes. I say, do you know that there is going to be a battle tomorrow? We heard so, replied the man.

Starting point is 13:50:55 I beg you not to tell anyone who I am, and to do what I ask you. Yes, Your Excellency, replied Gerasim. Will you have something to eat? No, but I want something else. I want peasant clothes and a pistol, said Pierre, unexpectedly blushing. Yes, Your Excellency, said Gerasum, after thinking for a moment. All the rest of that day, Pierre spent alone in his benefactor's study, and Gerasim heard him pacing restlessly from one corner to another and talking to himself, and he spent

Starting point is 13:51:29 the night on a bed made up for him there. Garasim, being a servant who in his time had seen many strange things, accepted Pierre's taking up his residence in the house without surprise, and seemed pleased to have someone to wait on. That same evening, without even asking himself what they were wanted to. for, he procured a coachman's coat and cap for Pierre, and promised to get him the pistol next day. McCar Alexeyevich came twice that evening, shuffling along in his galoshes, as far as the door,

Starting point is 13:52:01 and stopped and looked ingratiatingly at Pierre. But as soon as Pierre turned toward him, he wrapped his dressing-gown around him with a shame-faced and angry look and hurried away. It was when Pierre, wearing the coachman's coat which Garassum had procured for him and had disinfected by steam, was on his way with the old man to buy the pistol at the Sukarev market that he met the Rostovs. End of Book 11, Chapter 18. Book 11, Chapter 19, of War and Peace, Volume 3, by Leo Tolstoy, translated by Elmer Maude.

Starting point is 13:52:45 This Libervox recording is in the public domain. Book 11, Chapter 19 Kutuzov's order to retreat through Moscow to the Riazon Road, was issued at night on the 1st of September. The first troops started at once, and during the night they marched slowly and steadily without hurry. At daybreak, however, those nearing the town at the Dorogamilov Bridge

Starting point is 13:53:09 saw ahead of them masses of soldiers crowding and hurrying across the bridge, ascending on the opposite side and blocking the streets and alleys, while endless masses of troops were bearing down on them from behind, and an unreasoning hurry and alarm overcame them. They all rushed forward to the bridge, onto it, and to the fords and the boats. Katoosov himself had driven round by side streets to the other side of Moscow. By ten o'clock in the morning of the 2nd of September, only the rearguard remained in the Dorogamilov suburb, where they had ample room. The main army was on the other side of Moscow

Starting point is 13:53:47 or beyond it. At that very time at ten in the morning of the second of September, Napoleon was standing among his troops on the Poccoloni hill looking at the panorama spread out before him. From the 26th of August to the 2nd of September, that is, from the Battle of Borodino to the entry of the French into Moscow, during the whole of that agitating memorable week, there had been the extraordinary autumn weather that always comes as a surprise, when the sun hangs low and gives more heat than in spring, when everything shines so brightly in the rare, clear atmosphere that the eyes smart, when the lungs are strengthened and refreshed by inhaling the aromatic autumn air, when even the nights are warm, and when in those dark warm nights

Starting point is 13:54:34 golden stars startle and delight us continually by falling from the sky. At ten in the morning of the 2nd of September, this weather still held. The brightness of the morning was magical. Moscow, seen from the Pauklawny Hill, lay spaciously spread out, with her river, her gardens, and her churches, and she seemed to be living her usual life, her cupolas glittering like stars in the sunlight. The view of the strange city, with its peculiar architecture, such as he had never seen before, filled Napoleon with the rather envious and uneasy curiosity men feel when they see an alien

Starting point is 13:55:14 form of life that has no knowledge of them. This city was evidently living with the full force of its own life. By the indefinite signs which, even at a distance, distinguish a living body from a dead one, Napoleon from the Poclone Hill perceived the throb of life in the town, and felt, as it were, the breathing of that great and beautiful body. Every Russian looking at Moscow feels her to be a mother. Every foreigner who sees her, even if ignorant of her significance as the mother's city, must feel her feminine character, and Napoleon felt it.

Starting point is 13:55:52 This Ville Asiatic O innumerable Iglis, Moscow, La Sain. La Vala don't a fan, this famous village, Itte Tom. That Asiatic city of the innumerable churches, Holy Moscow, Here it is then, at last, that famous city. It was high time, said he, And dismounting, he ordered a plan of Moscow to be spread out before him, and summoned Le Lorne-Didville, the interpreter.

Starting point is 13:56:25 A town captured by the enemy is like a mate who has lost her honor, thought he. He had said so to Tuchkov at Smolensk. From that point of view, he gazed at the Oriental beauty he had not seen before. It seemed strange to him that his long-felt wish, which had seemed unattainable, had at last been realized. In the clear morning light he gazed now at the city and now with the plan, considering its details, and the assurance of possessing it agitated and awed him. "'But could it be otherwise?' he thought.

Starting point is 13:57:00 "'Here is this capital at my feet. "'Where is Alexander now? And of what is he thinking?' "'A strange, beautiful, and majestic city. And a strange and majestic moment. "'In what light must I appear to them?' thought he, thinking of his troops. "'Here she is, the reward for all those. faint-hearted men. He reflected, glancing at those near him and at the troops who were approaching and forming up. "'One word from me, one movement of my hand, and that ancient capital of the Tsars would perish. But my clemency is always ready to descend upon the vanquished.

Starting point is 13:57:39 I must be magnanimous and truly great. But no, it can't be true that I am in Moscow,' he suddenly thought. Yet, here she is, lying at my feet, with her golden domes and crosses scintillating and twinkling in the sunshine. But I shall spare her. On the ancient monuments of barbarism and despotism, I will inscribe great words of justice and mercy. It is just this which Alexander will feel most painfully.

Starting point is 13:58:08 I know him. It seemed to Napoleon that the chief import of what was taking place lay in the personal struggle between himself and Alexander. "'From the height of the Kremlin. Yes, there is the Kremlin. Yes, I will give them just laws. I will teach them the meaning of true civilization. I will make generations of Boyars remember their conqueror with love.

Starting point is 13:58:33 I will tell the deputation that I did not and do not desire war, that I have waged war only against the false policy of their court. That I love and respect Alexander, and that in Moscow I will accept terms of peace worthy of myself and of my people. I do not wish to utilize the fortunes of war to humiliate an honored monarch. Boyars, I will say to them, I do not desire war. I desired the peace and welfare of all my subjects. However, I know their presence will inspire me, and I shall speak to them as I always do.

Starting point is 13:59:10 clearly, impressively, and majestically. But can it be true that I am in Moscow? Yes, there she lies. Quo my men le boyars? Bring the boyars to me, said he to his suite. A general with a brilliant suite galloped off at once to fetch the boyars. Two hours passed. Napoleon had lunched and was again standing in the same place on the Poccoloni Hill

Starting point is 13:59:37 awaiting the deputation. His speech to the Boyars had already taken definite shape in his imagination. That speech was full of dignity and greatness, as Napoleon understood it. He was himself carried away by the tone of magnanimity he intended to adopt toward Moscow. In his imagination, he appointed days for assemblies at the Palace of the Tsars, at which Russian notables and his own would mingle. He mentally appointed a governor, one who would win the hearts of the people. Having learned that there were many charitable institutions in Moscow, he mentally decided that

Starting point is 14:00:15 he would shower favors on them all. He thought that, as in Africa, he had to put on a Bernouce and sit in a mosque, so in Moscow he must be beneficent like the Tsars. And in order finally to touch the hearts of the Russians, and being like all Frenchmen, unable to imagine anything sentimental without a reference to Machere, Matandra, my poor my mare, my dear, my tender, my poor mother, he decided that he would place an inscription on all these establishments in large letters, this establishment is dedicated to my dear mother. Or, no, it should be simply, Maisonde de ma'er, house of my mother, he concluded.

Starting point is 14:01:01 But am I really in Moscow? Yes, here it lies before me. But why is the deputation from the city so long in appearing, he wondered. Meanwhile, an agitated consultation was being carried on in whispers among his generals and marshals at the rear of his suite. Those sent to fetch the deputation have returned with the news that Moscow was empty, that everyone had left it. The face of those who were not conferring together were pale and perturbed.

Starting point is 14:01:32 They were not alarmed by the fact that Moscow had been abandoned by its inhabitants, grave as that fact seemed, but by the question how to tell the emperor, without putting him in the terrible position of appearing ridiculous, that he had been awaiting the boyar so long in vain, that there were drunken mobs left in Moscow, but no one else. Some said that a deputation of some sort must be scraped together. Others disputed that opinion, and maintained that the emperor should first be carefully and skillfully prepared, and then told the truth. He will have to be told all the same, said some gentlemen of the suite. But gentlemen—

Starting point is 14:02:11 The position was the more awkward because the emperor, meditating upon his magnanimous plans, was pacing patiently up and down before the outspread map, occasionally glancing along the road to Moscow from under his lifted hand with a bright and proud smile. "'But it's impossible,' declared the gentleman of the suite, shrugging their shoulders, but not venturing to utter the implied word, Le ridicule. At last, the emperor, tired of futile expectation, his actor's instinct suggesting to him

Starting point is 14:02:45 that the sublime moment, having been too long drawn out, was beginning to lose its sublimity, gave a sign with his hand. A single report of a signaling gun followed, and the troops, who were already spread out on different size of Moscow, moved into the city through the Vair, Kuluga, and Orgamilov gates.

Starting point is 14:03:03 Faster and faster, vying with one another, they moved at the double or at a trot, vanishing amid the clouds of dust they raised and making the air ring with a deafening roar of mingling shouts. Drawn on by the movement of his troops, Napoleon rode with them as far as the Dorogamilov gate, but there again stopped, and dismounting from his horse, paced for a long time by the Kameur Koleski Rampart awaiting the deputation. End of Book 11, Chapter 19. Book 11, Chapter 20

Starting point is 14:03:43 Of War and Peace, Volume 3, by Leo Tolstoy, translated by Elmer Maude. This Libervox recording is in the public domain. Book 11, Chapter 20 Meanwhile, Moscow was empty. There were still people in it, perhaps a 50th part of its former inhabitants, had remained, but it was empty. It was empty in the sense that a dying queen is high,

Starting point is 14:04:11 is empty. In a queenless hive, no life is left, though to a superficial glance it seems as much alive as other hives. The bees circle round a queenless hive in the hot beams of the midday sun as gaily as around the living hives. From a distance it smells of honey like the others, and bees fly in and out in the same way. But one has only to observe that hive to realize that there is no longer any life in it. The bees do not fly in the same way. The smell and the sound that meet the beekeeper are not the same. Do the beekeepers tap on the wall of the sick hive, instead of the former instant unanimous humming of tens of thousands of bees with their abdomens threateningly compressed, and producing by the rapid vibration of their wings an aerial living sound, the only reply is a disconnected buzzing from different parts of the deserted hive. from the alighting board, instead of the former,

Starting point is 14:05:09 spiritual fragrant smell of honey and venom, and the warm whiffs of crowded life, comes an odor of emptiness and decay mingling with the smell of honey. There are no longer sentinels sounding the alarm with their abdomens raised and ready to die in defense of the hive. There is no longer the measured quiet sound of throbbing activity, like the sound of boiling water, but diverse discordant sounds of disorder. In and out of the hive, long black robber bees smeared with honey fly timidly and shiftily. They do not sting, but crawl away from danger.

Starting point is 14:05:47 Formerly, only bees laden with honey flew into the hive, and they flew out empty. Now they fly out laden. The beekeeper opens the lower part of the hive and peers in. Instead of black, glossy bees, tamed by toil, clinging to one another's legs on drawing out the wax with a ceaseless home of labor that used to hang in long clusters down to the floor of the hive. Drowsy, shriveled bees crawl about separately in various directions, on the floor and walls of the hive. Instead of a neatly glued floor, swept by the bees with the fanning of their wings, there is a floor littered with bits of wax, excrement, dying bees, scarcely moving their legs,

Starting point is 14:06:29 and dead ones that have not been cleared away. The beekeeper opens the upper part of the hive and examines the super. Instead of serried rows of bees sealing up every gap in the combs and keeping the brood warm, he sees the skillful complex structure of the combs, but no longer in their former state of purity. All is neglected and foul. Black robber bees are swiftly and stealthly prowling about the combs, and the short home bees, shriveled and lissless as if they were old, creep slowly about without trying to hinder the robbers, having lost all motive and all sense of life.

Starting point is 14:07:06 Drones, bumblebees, wasps, and butterflies knock awkwardly against the walls of the hive in their flight. Here and there, among the cells containing dead brood and honey, an angry buzzing can sometimes be heard. Here and there, a couple of bees, by force of habit and custom, cleaning out the brood cells, with efforts beyond their strength, laboriously drag away a dead bird, or bumblebee without knowing why they do it. In another corner two old bees are languidly fighting, or cleaning themselves, or feeding one another, without themselves knowing whether they do it with friendly or hostile intent. In a third place, a crowd of bees, crushing one another, attack some victim and fight and smother it, and the victim, enfeebled or killed, drops from above

Starting point is 14:07:54 slowly and lightly as a feather, among the heap of corpses. The keeper opens the two center partitions to examine the brood cells. In place of the former, close dark circles formed by thousands of bees sitting back to back and guarding the high mystery of generation, he sees hundreds of dull, listless and sleepy shells of bees. They have almost all died unawares, sitting in the sanctuary they had guarded and witches now no more. They reek of decay and death.

Starting point is 14:08:25 Only a few of them still move, rise, and feebly fly to settle. on the enemy's hand, lacking the spirit to die stinging him. The rest are dead and fall as lightly as fish scales. The beekeeper closes the hive, chalks a mark on it, and when he has time, tears out its contents, and burns it clean. So, in the same way, Moscow was empty when Napoleon, weary, uneasy and morose, paced up and down in front of the Kammer Koleski rampart, awaiting what to his mind was a necessary if but formal observance of the proprieties, a deputation. In various corners of Moscow, there still remained a few people aimlessly moving about, following their old habits and hardly aware of what they were doing.

Starting point is 14:09:14 When, with due circumspection, Napoleon was informed that Moscow was empty, he looked angrily at his informant, turned away, and silently continued to walk to and fro. "'My carriage,' he said. He took his seat beside the aide-de-camp on duty and drove into the suburb. Moscow deserted, he said to himself, What an incredible event. He did not drive into the town, but put up and an inn in the Dorogamilov suburb. The coup de Teatro had not come off.

Starting point is 14:09:51 End of Book 11, Chapter 20. Book 11 Chapter 21 of War and Peace, Volume 3, by Leo Toll. Stoy, translated by Elmer Maude. This Libervox recording is in the public domain. Book 11, Chapter 21 The Russian troops were passing through Moscow from 2 o'clock at night till 2 in the afternoon, and bore away with them the wounded and the last of the inhabitants who were leaving.

Starting point is 14:10:26 The greatest crush during the movement of the troops took place at the Stone, Moscow, and Yeusa bridges. While the troops, dividing in the, into two parts when passing around the Kremlin, were thronging the Moskva and the stone bridges. A great many soldiers, taking advantage of the stoppage and congestion, turned back from the bridges and slipped stealthily and silently past the Church of Vasily the Beattified and under the Borovitsky Gate, back up the hill to the red square, where some instinct told them they could easily take things not belonging to them. Crowds of the kind seen at cheap sales filled all the passages and alleys of

Starting point is 14:11:03 the bazaar. But there were no dealers with voices of ingratiating affability inviting customers to enter. There were no hawkers, nor the usual motley crowd of female purchasers, but only soldiers, in uniforms and overcoats, though without muskets, entering the bazaar empty-handed and silently making their way out through its passages with bundles. Tradesmen and their assistants, of whom there were but few, moved about among the soldiers quite bewildered. They unlocked their shops and locked them up again, and themselves carried goods away with the help of their assistance. On the square in front of the bazaar were drummers beating the muster call. But the roll of the drums did not make the looting soldiers run in the direction of the drum as

Starting point is 14:11:47 formerly, but made them, on the contrary, run farther away. Among the soldiers in the shops and passages, some men were to be seen in gray coats with closely shaven heads. Two officers, one with a scarf over his uniform, and mounted on a lean, dark gray horse, the other in an overcoat and on foot, stood at the corner of Ilyinka Street, talking. A third officer galloped up to them. The General orders them all to be driven out at once without fail.

Starting point is 14:12:17 This is outrageous. Half the men have dispersed. Where are you off to? Where? He shouted to three infantrymen without muskets, who, holding up the skirts of their overcoats, were slipping past them into the bizarre passage. "'Stop, you rascals!'

Starting point is 14:12:33 "'But how are you going to stop them?' replied another officer. "'There is no getting them together. "'The army should push on before the rest bolt, that's all.' "'How can one push on? "'They are stuck there, wedged on the bridge, and don't move. "'Should we put a cordon round to prevent the rest from running away?' "'Come, go in there and drive them out,' shouted the senior officer. "'The officer in the scarf dismounted.

Starting point is 14:13:02 called up a drummer and went with him into the arcade. Some soldiers started running away in a group. A shopkeeper with red pimples on his cheeks near the nose and a calm, persistent, calculating expression on his plump face, hurriedly and ostentatiously approached the officer, swinging his arms. "'Your Honor,' said he, "'be so good as to protect us. We won't grudge trifles. You are welcome to anything.

Starting point is 14:13:28 We shall be delighted. Pray, I'll fetch a piece of cloth at one. for such an honorable gentleman, or even two pieces with pleasure. For we feel how it is. But what's all this? Shear robbery! If you please, could not guards be placed, if only to let us close the shop?' Several shopkeepers crowded round the officer.

Starting point is 14:13:49 "'Eh, what twaddle!' said one of them, a thin, stern-looking man. "'When one's head is gone, one doesn't weep for one's hair. Take what any of you like.' And flourishing his arm energetically, he turned sideways to the officer. "'It's all very well for you, Ivan Sidorish, to talk,' said the first tradesman angrily. "'Please, step inside, Your Honor.' "'Talk indeed,' cried the thin one. "'In my three shops here, I have a hundred thousand roubles worth of goods.

Starting point is 14:14:21 Can they be saved when the army is gone? Eh, what people! Against God's might, our hands can't fight.' "'Come inside, Your Honor,' repeated the tradesman, bowing. The officer stood perplexed, and his face showed indecision. "'It's not my business,' he exclaimed, and strode on quickly down one of the passages. From one open shop came the sound of blows and vituperation, and just as the officer came up to it, a man in a gray coat with a shaven head was flung out violently. This man, bent double, rushed past the tradesman and the officer.

Starting point is 14:15:00 The officer pounced on the soldiers who were in the shops, but at that moment, fearful screams reached them from the huge crowd on the Moskva bridge, and the officer ran out into the square. "'What is it? What is it?' he asked, but his comrade was already galloping off pass Vasily the Beatified, in the direction from which the screams came. The officer mounted his horse and rode after him. When he reached the bridge, he saw two unlimbered guns,

Starting point is 14:15:26 the infantry crossing the bridge, several overturned carts, and frightened and laughing faces among the troops. Beside the cannon, a cart was standing to which two horses were harnessed. Four borzoys with collars were pressing close to the wheels. The cart was loaded high, and at the very top, beside a child's chair with its legs in the air, said a peasant woman uttering piercing and desperate shrieks. He was told by his fellow officers that the screams of the crowd and the shrieks of the woman were due to the fact that General Ormolov, coming up to the crowd and learning that officers,

Starting point is 14:15:59 were dispersing among the shops while crowds of civilians blocked the bridge, had ordered two guns to be unlimbered, and made a show of firing at the bridge. The crowd, crushing one another, upsetting carts and shouting and squeezing desperately, had cleared off the bridge, and the troops were now moving forward. End of Book 11, Chapter 21. Book 11, Chapter 22 of War and Peace, Volume 3, by Leo Tolstoy, translated by Elmer Maud. This Libervival recording is in the public domain. Book 11. Chapter 22 Meanwhile, the city itself was deserted.

Starting point is 14:16:47 There was hardly anyone in the streets. The gates and shops were all closed. Only here and there round the taverns, solitary shouts or drunken songs could be heard. Nobody drove through the streets and footsteps were rarely heard. The Povarskaya was quite still and deserted. The huge courtyard of the Rostov's house was littered with wisps of hay and with dung from the horses, and not a soul was to be seen there. In the great drawing-room of the house, which had been left with all it contained, were

Starting point is 14:17:17 two people. They were the Yard-Porter Ignat and the page-boy Mishka, Fasilich's grandson, who had stayed in Moscow with his grandfather. Mishka had opened the clavichord and was strumming on it with one finger. The Yard-porter, his arms akimbo, stood smiling with satisfaction before the large mirror. "'Isn't it fine, eh, Uncle Ignat?' said the boy, suddenly beginning to strike the keyboard with both hands. "'Only fancy,' answered Ignat, surprised at the broadening grin on his face in the mirror. Impudence! Impudence!' they heard behind them the voice of Mavra Kuzmenichna, who had entered silently. "'How he's grinning, the fat mug! Is that what you're here for? Nothing's cleared away down there, and Vasilich is worn out.

Starting point is 14:18:05 "'Just you wait a bit!' Ignat left off smiling, adjusted his belt, and went out of the room with meekly downcast eyes. "'Aunt, I did it gently,' said the boy. "'I'll give you something gently, you monkey you!' cried Mavra Kuzmanichna, raising your arm threateningly. "'Go and get the samovar to boil for your grandfather!' Mavra Kuzmanichna flicked the dust off the clavacord and closed it, and with a deep sigh, left the drawing-room and locked its main door.

Starting point is 14:18:35 Going out into the yard, she paused to consider where she should go next, to drink tea in the servants' wing with Vasilich, or into the storeroom to put away what still lay about. She heard the sound of quick footsteps in the quiet street. Someone stopped at the gate, and the latch rattled as someone tried to open it. Mavra Kuzmanichna went to the gate. "'What do you want?' "'The Count, Count Ilya Andreevich Rostov.' "'And who are you?'

Starting point is 14:19:05 "'An officer, I have to see him,' came the reply in a pleasant, well-bred Russian voice. Mavra Kuzmanichna opened the gate, and an officer of eighteen, with the round face of Arasov, entered the yard. "'They have gone away, sir. Went away yesterday at Vesper time,' said Mavra Kuzmanichna cordially. The young officer standing in the gateway, as if hesitating whether to enter or not, clicked his tongue. "'Ah, how annoying!' he muttered. "'I should have come yesterday. Ah, what a pity!'

Starting point is 14:19:40 Meanwhile Mavrakusmanichna was attentively and sympathetically examining the familiar Rostov features of the young man's face, his tattered coat and trodden down boots. "'What did you want to see the count for?' she asked. "'Oh, well, it can't be helped,' said he in a tone of vexation, and placed his hand on the gate as if to leave. He again paused in indecision. "'You see,' he suddenly said, "'I am a kinsman of the Counts, and he has been very kind to me.

Starting point is 14:20:14 As you see, he glanced with an amused air and good-nature smile that is coat in boots. My things are worn out, and I have no money. So I was going to ask the Count.' Mavra Kuzmanichna did not let him finish. "'Just a minute, sir. One little moment, said she. And as soon as the officer let go of the gate handle,

Starting point is 14:20:37 she turned and hurrying away on her old legs, went through the backyard to the servants' quarters. While Mavra Kuzmanichna was running to her room, the officer walked about the yard, gazing at his worn-out boots with lowered head and a faint smile on his lips. "'What a pity I've missed, Uncle. What a nice old woman!

Starting point is 14:20:58 Where has she run off to?' "'And how am I to find the nearest way to overtake my regiment, which must by now be getting near the Rogoski Gate?' thought he. Just then, Mavra Kuzmenichna appeared from behind the corner of the house, with a frightened yet resolute look, carrying a rolled-up check kerchief in her hand. While still a few steps from the officer, she unfolded the kerchief and took out of it, a white twenty-five rubo Assignanier and hastily handed it to him. If His Excellency had been at home, as a kinsman, he would, of course, but as it is.

Starting point is 14:21:36 Mavra Kuzmanichna grew abashed and confused. The officer did not decline, but took the note quietly and thanked her. If the Count had been at home, Mavra Kuzmanichna went on apologetically, "'Christ be with you, sir. May God preserve you,' said she, bowing as she saw him out. Swaying his head and smiling as if amused at himself, the officer ran almost at a trot through the deserted streets toward the Ausa Bridge to overtake his regiment. But Mavra Kuzmenichna stood at the closed gate for some time with moist eyes, pensively swaying her head and feeling an unexpected flow of motherly tenderness and pity for the unknown young officer.

Starting point is 14:22:21 End of Book 11, Chapter 22. Book 11 Chapter 23 Of War and Peace, Volume 3 by Leo Tolstoy, translated by Elmer Maude. This Libervox recording is in the public domain. Book 11, Chapter 23 From an unfinished house on the Varvarka,

Starting point is 14:22:49 the ground four of which was a dram shop, came drunken shouts and songs. On benches round the tables in a dirty little room sat some ten factory hands. tipsy and perspiring, with dim eyes and wide-open mouths, they were all laboriously singing some song or other. They were singing discordantly, arduously, and with great effort, evidently not because they wished to sing, but because they wanted to show they were drunk and on a spree. One, a tall, fair-haired lad in a clean blue coat, was standing over the others.

Starting point is 14:23:24 His face with its fine straight nose would have been handsome had it not been for his thin, impressed, twitching lips and dull, gloomy, fixed eyes. Evidently possessed by some idea, he stood over those who were singing, and solemnly and jerkily flourished above their heads his white arm with the sleeve turned up to the elbow, trying unnaturally to spread out his dirty fingers. The sleeve of his coat kept slipping down, and he always carefully rolled it up again with his left hand, as if it were most important that the sinewy white arm he was flourishing should be bare.

Starting point is 14:23:57 In the midst of the song cries were heard, and fighting and blows in the passage and porch. The tall lad waved his arm. "'Stop it!' he exclaimed peremptorily. "'There's a fight, lads!' And still rolling up his sleeve, he went out to the porch. The factory hands followed him. These men, who under the leadership of the tall lad, were drinking in the dram shop that morning, had brought the publicans some skins from the factory, and for this had had drinks

Starting point is 14:24:27 served them. The blacksmiths from a neighboring smithy, hearing the sounds of revelry in the tavern and supposing it to have been broken into, wished to force their way in, too, and a fight in the porch had resulted. The publican was fighting one of the smiths at the door, and when the workman came out, the smith, wrenching himself free from the tavern-keeper, fell face downward on the pavement. Another smith tried to enter the doorway, pressing against the publican with his chest. The lad with a turned up sleeve, gave the Smith a blow in the face, and cried wildly, "'They're fighting us, lads!' At that moment the first Smith got up, and scratching his bruised face to make it bleed,

Starting point is 14:25:08 shouted in a tearful voice, "'Police! Murder! They've killed a man, lads!' "'Oh, gracious me! A man beaten to death! Killed!' screamed a woman coming out of a gate close by. A crowd gathered round the blood-stained Smith. "'How would you rob people enough, taking their last shirts?' said a voice addressing the publican. "'What have you killed a man for, you thief?' The tall lad, standing in the porch, turned his bleared eyes from the publican to the smith and back again, as if considering whom he ought to fight now.

Starting point is 14:25:45 "'Murterer?' he shouted suddenly to the publican. "'Bind him, lads!' "'I dare say you would like to bind me!' shouted the publican, pushing away the men advancing on him, and snatching his cap from his head, he flunged on the ground. As if this action had some mysterious and menacing significance, the workmen surrounding the publican paused in indecision. "'I know the law very well, mates. I'll take the matter to the captain of the police. You think I won't get to him? Robbery is not permitted to anybody nowadays,' shouted the publican,

Starting point is 14:26:19 picking up his cap. "'Come along, then. Come along, then!' The publican and the tall young fellow repeated one after the other, and they moved up the street together. The blood-stained Smith went beside them. The factory hands and others followed behind, talking and shouting. At the corner of the Moroseca, opposite a large house with closed shutters and bearing a bootmaker's signboard, stood a score of thin, worn-out, gloomy-faced boot-makers, wearing overalls and long, tattered

Starting point is 14:26:49 coats. "'He should pay folks off properly,' a thin working man. with frowning brows and a straggly beard was saying, "'But he sucked our blood, and now he thinks he's quit of us. He's been misleading us all the week, and now that he's brought us to this pass, he's made off.' On seeing the crowd in the blood-stained man, the workmen ceased speaking,

Starting point is 14:27:12 and with eager curiosity all the bootmakers joined the moving crowd. "'Where are all the folks going? Why, to the police, of course?' "'I say, is it true?' that we have been beaten? And what do you think? Look what folks are saying! Questions and answers were heard.

Starting point is 14:27:32 The publican, taking advantage of the increased crowd, dropped behind and returned to his tavern. The tall youth, not noticing the disappearance of his foe, waved his bare arm and went on talking incessantly, attracting general attention to himself. It was round him that the people chiefly crowded, expecting answers from him to the questions that occupied all their minds.

Starting point is 14:27:56 He must keep order, keep the law, that's what the government is there for. Am I not right, good Christians? said the tall youth with a scarcely perceptible smile. He thinks there's no government. How can one do without government? Or else there would be plenty who'd rob us. Why talk nonsense? Rejoined voices in the crowd.

Starting point is 14:28:20 Will they give up Moscow like this? They told you that for fun, and you believed it. Aren't there plenty of troops on the march? Let him in, indeed. That's what the government is for. You better listen to what people are saying, said some of the mob pointing to the tall youth. By the wall of Chinatown,

Starting point is 14:28:40 a smaller group of people were gathered round a man in a freeze coat who held a paper in his hand. Anou case! They are reading in who case! Reading in who case! cried voices in the crowd. and the people rushed toward the reader. The man in the freeze-code was reading the broadsheet of August 31st. When the crowd collected round him, he seemed confused,

Starting point is 14:29:03 but at the demand of the tall lad who had pushed his way up to him, he began in a rather tremulous voice to read the sheet from the beginning. "'Early to-morrow I shall go to his Siren Highness,' he read. "'Syrynne highness,' said the tall fellow with a triumphant smile on his lips and a frown on his brow. To consult with him to act, and to aid the army to exterminate these scoundrels.

Starting point is 14:29:30 We too will take part. The reader went on, and then paused. Do you see? shouted the youth victoriously. He's going to clear up the whole affair for you. In destroying them, and will send these visitors to the devil. I will come back to dinner and we'll set to work. We will do,

Starting point is 14:29:51 completely do and undo these scoundrels." The last words were read out in the midst of complete silence. The tall lad hung his head gloomily. It was evident that no one had understood the last part. In particular, the words, I will come back to dinner, evidently displeased both reader and audience. The people's minds were tuned to a high pitch,

Starting point is 14:30:17 and this was too simple and needlessly comprehensible. It was what any one of them was what any one of them might have said, and therefore, was what a new case emanating from the highest authority should not say. They all stood despondent and silent. The tall youth moved his lips and swayed from side to side. "'We should ask him. That's he himself?' "'Yes. Ask him indeed. Why not? We'll explain!' voices in the rear of the crowd were suddenly heard saying, and the general attention turned to the police superintendent's trap which drove into the square attended by two mounted dragoons.

Starting point is 14:30:54 The superintendent of police, who had gone that morning by Count Rostopchin's orders to burn the barges and had in connection with that matter, acquired a large sum of money, which was at that moment in his pocket. On seeing a crowd bearing down upon him, told his coachman to stop. "'What people are these?' he shouted to the men, who were moving singly and timidly in the direction of his trap. "'What people are these?' he shouted again, receiving no answer. "'Your honor,' replied the shopman in the freeze coat.

Starting point is 14:31:26 "'Your honor, in accord with the proclamation of his highest excellency the Count, "'they desire to serve, not sparing their lives. "'And it is not any kind of riot, but as his highest excellence said, "'The Count has not left. He is here, and an order will be issued concerning you,' said the superintendent of police. "'Go on,' he ordered his coachman. The crowd halted, pressing around those who had heard what the superintendent had said and looking up at the departing trap.

Starting point is 14:31:58 The superintendent of police turned round at that moment with a scared look, said something to his coachman and his horses increased their speed. "'It's a fraud, lads. Lead the way to him himself!' shouted the tall youth. "'Don't let him go, lads. Let him answer us. Cape him!' shouted different people, and the people dashed in pursuit of the trap. Following the superintendent of police and talking loudly, the crowd went in the direction

Starting point is 14:32:25 of the Lubyanka Street. There now, the gentry and merchants have gone away and left us to perish. Do they think we're dogs? Voices in the crowd were heard saying, more and more frequently. End of Book 11, Chapter 23. Book 11, Chapter 24 of War and Peace, Volume 3, by Leo Tolstoy, translated by Elmer Maude. This Libervox recording is in the public domain.

Starting point is 14:33:04 Book 11, Chapter 24 On the evening of the 1st of September, after his interview with Kutuzov, Count Rostopchin had returned to Moscow, mortified and offended, because he had not been invited to attend the Council of War, and because Kutuzov had paid no attention to his offer to take part in the defense of the city. amazed also with the novel outlook revealed to him at the camp, which treated the tranquility of the capital and its patriotic fervor as not merely secondary,

Starting point is 14:33:35 but quite irrelevant and unimportant matters. Distressed, offended, and surprised by all this, Rostopchin had returned to Moscow. After supper he lay down on a sofa without undressing, and was awakened soon after midnight by a courier bringing him a letter from Kutuzov. This letter requested the count to send police officers to guide the troops through the town, as the army was retreating to the Rizan Road beyond Moscow. This was not news to restoption. He had known that Moscow would be abandoned,

Starting point is 14:34:09 not merely since his interview the previous day with Kutuzov on the Poclani Hill, but ever since the Battle of Borodino. For all the generals who came to Moscow after that battle had said unanimously that it was impossible to fight another battle. and since then the government property had been removed every night, and half the inhabitants had left the city with Rostopchin's own permission. Yet all the same, this information astonished and irritated the Count, coming as it did in the form of a simple note with an order from Kutuzov,

Starting point is 14:34:41 and received at night breaking in on his beauty sleep. When later on in his memoirs, Count Rostopchin explained his actions at this time, he repeatedly says that he was then actuated by two important considerations, to maintain tranquility in Moscow and expedite the departure of the inhabitants. If one accepts this two-fold aim, all Restoption's actions appear irreproachable. Why were the holy relics, the arms, ammunition, gunpowder, and stores of corn not removed? Why were thousands of inhabitants deceived into believing that Moscow would not be given up, and thereby ruined?

Starting point is 14:35:20 "'To preserve the tranquility of the city,' explains Count Restoption. "'Why were bundles of useless papers from the government offices, "'and Lepage's balloon and other articles removed?' "'To leave the town empty,' explains Count Restoption. "'One need only admit that public tranquility is in danger, "'and any action finds a justification. "'All the horrors of the reign of terror were based only on solicitude for public tranquility.' On what then was Count Rostopchin's fear for the tranquility of Moscow based in 1812?

Starting point is 14:35:55 What reason was there for assuming any probability of an uprising in the city? The inhabitants were leaving it, and the retreating troops were filling it. Why should that cause the masses to riot? Neither in Moscow nor anywhere in Russia did anything resembling an insurrection ever occur when the enemy entered a town. More than 10,000 people were still in Moscow on the first and the first and 2nd of September, and except for a mob in the governor's courtyard, assembled there at his bidding, nothing happened. It is obvious that there would have been even less reason to expect a disturbance among the people if, after the Battle of Borodino, when the surrender of Moscow became certain,

Starting point is 14:36:37 or at least probable, restoption, instead of exciting the people by distributing arms and broadsheets, had taken steps to remove all the holy relics, the gunpowder, munitions, and money, and had told the population plainly that the town would be abandoned. Rostopchin, though he had patriotic sentiments, was a sanguine and impulsive man, who had always moved in the highest administrative circles and had no understanding at all of the people he supposed himself to be guiding. Ever since the enemy's entry into Smolensk, he had, in imagination, been playing the role of director of the popular feeling of the heart of Russia.

Starting point is 14:37:16 Not only did it seem to him, as to all administrators, that he controlled the external actions of Moscow's inhabitants, but he also thought he controlled their mental attitude by means of his broadsheets and posters, written in a coarse tone which the people despise in their own class and do not understand from those in authority. Rostopchin was so pleased with the fine role of leader of popular feeling and had grown so used to it

Starting point is 14:37:42 that the necessity of relinquishing that role and abandoning Moscow without any heroic display, took him unawares, and he suddenly felt the ground slip away from under his feet, so that he positively did not know what to do. Though he knew it was coming, he did not, till the last moment, wholeheartedly believe that Mauska would be abandoned, and did not prepare for it. The inhabitants left against his wishes. If the government offices were removed, this was only done on the demand of officials to whom the count yielded reluctant. He was absorbed in the role he had created for himself. As is often the case with those gifted with an ardent imagination,

Starting point is 14:38:25 though he had long known that Moscow would be abandoned, he knew it only with his intellect. He did not believe it in his heart, and did not adapt himself mentally to this new position of affairs. All his pains-taking and energetic activity, in how far it was useful and had any effect on the people as another question, had been simply directed toward arousing in the masses his own feeling of patriotic hatred of the French. But when events assumed their true historical character, when expressing hatred for the French in words proved insufficient,

Starting point is 14:38:59 when it was not even possible to express that hatred by fighting a battle, when self-confidence was of no avail in relation to the one question before Moscow, when the whole population streamed out of Moscow as one man, abandoning their belongings and proving by that negative action all the depth of their national feeling. Then the role chosen by restoption suddenly appeared senseless. He unexpectedly felt himself ridiculous, weak and alone, with no ground to stand on. When awakened from his sleep, he received that cold peremptory note from Katoosov. He felt the more irritated, the more he felt himself to blame.

Starting point is 14:39:40 All that he had been specially put in charge of, the state property which he should have removed, was still in Moscow, and it was no longer possible to take the whole of it away. Who is to blame for it? Who has let things come to such a pass? He ruminated. Not I, of course. I had everything ready. I had Moscow firmly in hand.

Starting point is 14:40:05 And this is what they have let it come to. Villains, traitors, he thought. without clearly defining who the villains and traitors were, but feeling it necessary to hate those traders, whoever they might be, who were to blame for the false and ridiculous position in which he found himself. All that night, Count Restoption issued orders,

Starting point is 14:40:27 for which people came to him from all parts of Moscow. Those about him had never seen the Count so morose and irritable. Your Excellency, the Director of the Registrar's Department has sent for instructions. From the consistory, from the Senate, from the university, from the founding hospital, the suffragan has sent, asking for information, what are your orders about the fire brigade, from the governor of the prison, from the superintendent of the lunatic asylum? All night long such announcements were continually being received by the count.

Starting point is 14:41:01 To all these inquiries he gave brief and angry replies, indicating that orders from him were not now needed, that the whole affair, carefully prepared by him, had now been ruined by somebody, and that that somebody would have to bear the whole responsibility for all that might happen. "'Oh, tell that blockhead,' he said in reply to the question from the registrar's department, that he should remain to guard his documents. Now, why are you asking silly questions about the fire brigade? They have horses. Let them be off to Vladimir, and not leave them to the French.' Your Excellency, the superintendent of the lunatic asylum has come. What are your commands?

Starting point is 14:41:43 My commands? Let them go away, that's all. And let the lunatics out into the town. When lunatics command our armies, God evidently means these other madmen to be free. In reply to an inquiry about the convicts in the prison, Count Rostopchin shouted angrily at the governor, Do you expect me to give you two battalions, which we have not got, for a convoy? Release them.

Starting point is 14:42:10 That's all about it. Your Excellency, there are some political prisoners. Meskhov. Veris Chagin? Veris Chagin? Hasn't he been hanged yet? shouted Rostopchin. Bring him to me.

Starting point is 14:42:27 End of Book 11, Chapter 24. Book 11, Chapter 25. Of War and Peace, Volume 3. by Leo Tolstoy, translated by Elmer Maud. This Libervox recording is in the public domain. Book 11, Chapter 25. Toward 9 o'clock in the morning, when the troops were already moving through Moscow, nobody came to the count anymore for instructions.

Starting point is 14:43:01 Those who were able to get away were going of their own accord. Those who remained behind decided for themselves what they must do. the Count ordered his carriage that he might drive to Sokolniki, and sat in his study with folded hands, morose, sallow, and taciturn. In quiet and untroubled times, it seems to every administrator that it is only by his efforts that the whole population under his rule is kept going. And in this consciousness of being indispensable, every administrator finds the chief reward of his labor and efforts. While the Sea of History remains calm, the ruler administrator in his frail bark, holding on with a boat-hook

Starting point is 14:43:45 to the ship of the people and himself moving, naturally imagines that his efforts move the ship he is holding on to. But as soon as a storm arises and the sea begins to heave and the ship to move, such a delusion is no longer possible. The ship moves independently with its own enormous motion. The boat-hook no longer reaches the moving vessel, and suddenly the administrator, instead of appearing a ruler and a source of power, becomes an insignificant, useless, feeble man. Rostopchin felt this, and it was this which exasperated him. The superintendent of police, whom the crowd had stopped, went in to see him at the same time as an adjutant who informed the count that the horses were harnessed.

Starting point is 14:44:32 They were both pale, and the superintend were both pale, and the superintend were not. superintendent of police after reporting that he had executed the instructions he had received, informed the count that an immense crowd had collected in the courtyard and wished to see him. Without saying a word, Rostopchin rose and walked hastily to his light, luxurious drawing-room, went to the balcony door, took hold of the handle, let it go again, and went to the window from which he had a better view of the whole crowd. The tall lad was standing in front, flourishing his arm and saying something with the a stern look. The blood-stained Smith stood beside him with a gloomy face. A drone of voices

Starting point is 14:45:11 was audible through the closed window. "'Is my carriage ready?' asked Rostopchin, stepping back from the window. "'It is your excellency,' replied the adjutant. Rostopchin went again to the balcony door. "'But what do they want?' he asked of the superintendent of police. "'Your excellency, they say they have got ready, according to your orders, to go against the French, and they shouted something about treachery. But it is a turbulent crowd, Your Excellency, I hardly managed to get away from it. Your Excellency, I ventured to suggest, you may go. I don't need you to tell me what to do,

Starting point is 14:45:54 exclaimed Rostopchin angrily. He stood by the balcony door looking at the crowd. This is what they have done with Russia. This is what they have done with me. This is what they have done with me, thought he, full of an irrepressible fury that welled up within him against the someone to whom what was happening might be attributed. As often happens with passionate people, he was mastered by anger, but was still seeking an object on which to vent it. Here is that mob, the dregs of the people, he thought as he gazed at the crowd. This rabble they have roused by their folly. They want a victim, he thought, as he looked at the tall lad flourishing his arm.

Starting point is 14:46:37 And this thought occurred to him just because he himself desired a victim, something unwished to vent his rage. "'Is the carriage ready?' he asked again. "'Yes, Your Excellency. What are your orders about Verish Chagin?' "'He is waiting at the porch,' said the adjutant. "'Ah!' exclaimed Rustopchin, as if struck by an unexpected recollection. And rapidly opening the door, he went resolutely

Starting point is 14:47:04 out onto the balcony. The talking instantly ceased, hats and caps were doffed, and all eyes were raised to the Count. "'Good morning, lads,' said the Count briskly and loudly. "'Thank you for coming. I'll come out to you in a moment, but we must first settle with the villain. We must punish the villain who has caused the ruin of Moscow. Wait for me.' And the Count stepped as briskly back into the room and slammed the door behind him. A murmur of Approbation and satisfaction ran through the crowd. He'll settle with all the villains. You'll see. And you said the French.

Starting point is 14:47:43 He'll show you what the law is! The mob were saying as if reproving one another for their lack of confidence. A few minutes later, an officer came hurriedly out of the front door, gave an order, and the dragoons formed up in line. The crowd moved eagerly from the balcony toward the porch. Rostopchin, coming out there with quick angry stout. looked hastily around as if seeking someone. "'Where is he?' he inquired.

Starting point is 14:48:10 And as he spoke, he saw a young man coming round the corner of the house between two dragoons. He had a long, thin neck and his head that had been half-saved was again covered by short hair. This young man was dressed in a threadbare blue-cloth coat lined with fox fur that had once been smart and dirty hempen convict trousers, over which were pulled his thin, dirty, trodden-down boots. On his thin, weak legs were heavy chains, which hampered his irresolute movements. Ah, said Rostopchin, hurriedly turning away his eyes

Starting point is 14:48:45 from the young man in the fur-line coat and pointing to the bottom step of the porch. Put him there. The young man in his clattering chains stepped clumsily to the spot indicated, holding away with one finger, the coat-collar which chafed his neck, Turned his long neck twice this way and that, sighed and submissively folded before him his thin hands unused to work. For several seconds, while the young man was taking his place on the step, the silence continued.

Starting point is 14:49:16 Only among the back rows of the people, who were all pressing toward the one spot, could sighs, groans, and the shuffling of feet be heard. While waiting for the young man to take his place on the step, Rostopchin stood frowning and rubbing his face with his hand. "'Lads,' said he with a metallic ring in his voice, "'This man, Veris Chagin, is the scoundrel by who's doing, Moscow is perishing.' The young man in the fur-lined coat, stooping a little, stood in a submissive attitude, his fingers clasped before him. His emaciated young face disfigured by the half-shaven head, hung down hopelessly. At the Count's first words, he raised it slowly and looked up at him,

Starting point is 14:50:00 as if wishing to say something, or at least to meet his eye. But Rostopchin did not look at him. A vein in the young man's long thin neck swelled like a cord and went blue behind the ear, and suddenly his face flushed. All eyes were fixed on him. He looked at the crowd, and rendered more hopeful by the expression he read on the faces there, he smiled sadly and timidly, and lowering his head shifted his feet on the step. He has been, trade his Tsar and his country. He has gone over to Bonaparte. He alone, of all the Russians, has disgraced the Russian name. He has caused Moscow to perish, said Rostopchin in a sharp, even voice, but suddenly he glanced down at Verisjagan, who continued to stand in the same

Starting point is 14:50:52 submissive attitude. As if inflamed by the sight, he raised his arm and addressed the people, almost shouting. deal with him as you think fit. I hand him over to you." The crowd remained silent and only pressed closer and closer to one another. To keep one another back, to breathe in that stifling atmosphere, to be unable to stir, and to await something unknown, uncomprehended, and terrible was becoming unbearable. Those standing in front, who had seen and heard what had taken place before them, all stood with wide open eyes and mouths, straining with. all their strength and held back the crowd that was pushing behind them.

Starting point is 14:51:34 "'Beat him! Let the traitor perish and not disgrace the Russian name!' shouted Rostopchin. "'Cut him down! I command it!' Hearing not so much the words as the angry tone of Rostopchin's voice, the crowd moaned and heaved forward, but again paused. "'Count!' exclaimed the timid, yet theatrical voice of Erish Chagin in the midst of the momentary silence that ensued. "'Count! One God is above us both!' He lifted his head, and again the thick vein in his thin neck filled with blood,

Starting point is 14:52:11 and the color rapidly came and went in his face. He did not finish what he wished to say. "'Cut him down! I commend it!' shouted Rostopchin, suddenly growing pale like Verus Joggin. "'Draw sabres!' cried the dragoon officer, drawing his arm. own. Another still stronger wave flowed through the crowd, and reaching the front ranks carried it swaying to the very steps of the porch. The tall youth, with a stony look on his face and rigid and uplifted arm, stood beside Verus Chagin. "'Saber him!' the dragoon officer almost whispered. And one of the soldiers, his face all at once distorted with fury, struck Verus Chagin

Starting point is 14:52:55 on the head with the blunt side of his saber. "'Ah!' cried Veris Chagin in meek surprise, looking round with a frightened glance as if not understanding why this was done to him. A similar moan of surprise and horror ran through the crowd. "'Oh, Lord!' exclaimed a sorrowful voice. But after the exclamation of surprise that had escaped from Verischagin, he uttered a plaintive cry of pain, and that cry was fatal. The barrier of human feeling, strained to the utmost, that had held the crowd in check,

Starting point is 14:53:30 suddenly broke. The crime had begun, and must now be completed. The plaintive moan of reproach was drowned by the threatening and angry roar of the crowd. Like the seventh and last wave that shatters a ship, that last irresistible wave burst from the rear and reached the front ranks, carrying them off their feet and engulfing them all. The dragoon was about to repeat his blow. Verisjagan, with a cry of horror, covered his head with his hands, rushed toward the crowd. The tall youth, against whom he stumbled, seized his thin neck with his hands, and yelling wildly, fell with him under the feet of the pressing, struggling crowd. Some beat and tore at Verisjagan, others at the tall youth. And the screams of those that were being

Starting point is 14:54:17 trampled on, and of those who tried to rescue the tall lad, only increased the fury of the crowd. It was a long time before the dragoons could extricate the bleeding youth, beaten almost to death. And for a long time, despite the feverish haste with which the mob tried to end the work that had been begun, those who were hitting, throttling, and tearing at Ferris Chagin were unable to kill him. For the crowd pressed from all sides, swaying as one mass with them in the center, and rendering it impossible for them either to kill him or let him go. Hit him with the axe, eh? Crushed?

Starting point is 14:54:55 Trader, he sold Christ. Still alive. Tenacious? Serves him right. Torture serves a thief right. Use the hatchet. What? Still alive?

Starting point is 14:55:09 Only when the victim ceased to struggle and his cries changed to a long-drawn, measured death rattle, did the crowd around his prostrate bleeding corpse begin rapidly to change places. Each one came up, glanced at what had been done, and with horror, reproach, and astonishment, pushed back again. "'Oh, Lord! The people are like wild beasts!' "'How could he be alive?' voices in the crowd could be heard, saying,

Starting point is 14:55:36 "'Quite a young fellow, too. Must have been a merchant's son!' "'What, men! And they say he's not the right one! How not the right one!' "'Oh, Lord! And there's another has been beaten, too!' They say he's nearly done for. Oh, the people, aren't they afraid of sinning? said the same mob now, looking with pain distress at the dead body with its long, thin, half-severed neck, and its livid face stained with blood and dust. A painstaking police officer, considering the presence of a corpse in his Excellency's

Starting point is 14:56:12 courtyard unseemly, told the dragoons to take it away. Two dragoons took it by its distorted legs and dragged it along the ground. The gory, dust-stained, half-shaven head, with its long neck trailed twisting along the ground. The crowd shrank back from it. At the moment when Verus Joggin fell and the crowd closed in with savage yells and swayed about him, Rastopchin suddenly turned pale, and instead of going to the back entrance where his carriage awaited him, went with hurried steps and bent head, not knowing where and why, along the passage leading to the rooms on the ground floor.

Starting point is 14:56:48 The Count's face was white, and he could not control the feverish twitching of his lower jaw. "'This way, Your Excellency, where are you going? This way, please,' said a trembling, frightened voice behind him. Count Rostoption was unable to reply, and turning obediently, went in the direction indicated. At the back entrance stood his kalesh. The distant roar of the yelling crowd was audible even there. He hastily took his seat and told the coachman to drive him to his country house in Sokolniki. When they reached the Miyaznizky Street and could no longer hear the shouts of the mob, the count began to repent. He remembered with dissatisfaction, the agitation and fear he had betrayed before his subordinates.

Starting point is 14:57:37 The mob is terrible, disgusting, he said to himself in French. They are like wolves whom nothing but flesh can have. appease. Count one God is above us both! Verus Chagin's words suddenly recurred to him, and a disagreeable shiver ran down his back. But this was only a momentary feeling, and Count Rostopchin smiled disdainfully at himself. I had other duties, thought he. The people had to be appeased. Many other victims have perished and are perishing for the public good.

Starting point is 14:58:13 And he began thinking of his social duties to be appeased. to his family and to the city entrusted to him, and of himself, not himself as Theodore Vesilovitch Rostopchin. He fancied that Theodore Vesilievich Rostopchin was sacrificing himself for the public good, but himself as governor, the representative of authority and of the Tsar. Had I been simply Theodore Vesilovitch, my course of action would have been quite different, but it was my duty to safeguard my life and dignity as commander-in-chief. Lightly swaying on the flexible springs of his carriage and no longer hearing the terrible sounds of the crowd, Rostopchin grew physically calm, and as always happens, as soon as he

Starting point is 14:58:57 became physically tranquil, his mind devised reasons why he should be mentally tranquil too. The thought which tranquilized Rostopchin was not a new one. Since the world began, and men have killed one another, no one has ever committed such a crime against his fellow man, without comfort himself with this same idea. This idea is de bien-public, the hypothetical welfare of other people. To a man not swayed by passion, that welfare is never certain, but he who commits such a crime always knows just where that welfare lies, and Rostopchin now knew it.

Starting point is 14:59:37 Not only did his reason not reproach him for what he had done, but he even found cause for self-satisfaction, and having so successfully contrived to avail himself of a convenient opportunity, to punish a criminal, and at the same time pacify the mob. Veris Chagin was tried and condemned to death, thought restoption, though the Senate had only condemned Veris Chagin to hard labor. He was a traitor and a spy. I could not let him go unpunished, and so I have killed two birds with one stone.

Starting point is 15:00:09 To appease the mob, I gave them a victim, and at the same time punished a miscreant. Having reached his country house and begun to give orders about domestic arrangements, the Count grew quite tranquil. Half an hour later, he was driving with his fast horses across the Sokolniki Field, no longer thinking of what had occurred, but considering what was to come. He was driving to the Yeusa Bridge, where he had heard that Katoosov was. Count Rostopchin was mentally preparing the angry,

Starting point is 15:00:43 and stinging reproaches he meant to address to Kutuzov for his deception. He would make that foxy old courtier feel that the responsibility for all the calamities that would follow the abandonment of the city and the ruin of Russia, as Rostopchin regarded it, would fall upon his doting old head. Planning beforehand what he would say to Kutuzov, Rostopchin turned angrily in his Kalesh and gazed sternly from side to side. The Sokolniki feel was deserted. Only at the end of it, in front of the almshouse and the lunatic asylum,

Starting point is 15:01:17 could be seen some people in white, and others like them, walking singly across the field, shouting and gesticulating. One of these was running to cross the path of Count Rostopchin's carriage, and the Count himself, his coachman, and his dragoons looked with vague horror and curiosity at these released lunatics, and especially at the one running toward them. swaying from side to side on his long, thin legs in his fluttering dressing-gown, this lunatic was running impetuously, his gaze fixed on restoption, shouting something in a hoarse voice and making signs for him to stop.

Starting point is 15:01:53 The lunatic's solemn, gloomy face was thin and yellow, with its beard growing in uneven tufts. His black, agate pupils with saffron yellow whites, moved restlessly near the lower eyelids. "'Stop! Pull up! I tell you!' He cried in a piercing voice, and again shouted something breathlessly with emphatic intonations and gestures. Coming abreast of the Kalesh, he ran beside it.

Starting point is 15:02:19 "'Thrice they have slain me! Thrice have I risen from the dead! They stoned me! Crucified me! I shall rise! Shall rise! Shall rise! They have torn my body! The kingdom of God will be overthrown. Thrice will I overthrow it, and thrice re-establish it! He cried, raising his voice higher and higher. Count Rostopchin suddenly grew pale as he had done when the crowd closed in on Veris Joggin. He turned away. Go!

Starting point is 15:02:50 Fast! Faster! He cried in a trembling voice to his coachman. The Kaleche flew over the ground as fast as the horses could draw it. But for a long time, Count Rostopchin still heard the insane, despairing screams growing fainter in the distance, while his eyes saw nothing but the astonished, frighten. blood-stained face of the traitor in the fur-lined coat. Recent as that mental picture was,

Starting point is 15:03:15 Rostopchin already felt that it had cut deep into his heart and drawn blood. Even now he felt clearly that the gory trace of that recollection would not pass with time, but that the terrible memory would, on the contrary, dwell in his heart ever more cruelly and painfully to the end of his life. He seemed still to hear the sound of his own words, "'Cut him down! I command it!' "'Why did I utter those words?

Starting point is 15:03:42 "'It was by some accident I said them. "'I need not have said them,' he thought. "'And then nothing would have happened.' "'He saw the frightened and then infuriated face "'of the dragoon who dealt the blow, "'the look of a silent, timid reproach "'that boy in the fur-line coat had turned upon him. "'But I did not do it for my own sense,

Starting point is 15:04:06 sake, I was bound to act that way. The mob, the traitor, the public welfare, thought he. Troops were still crowding at the Yeusa Bridge. It was hot. Kutuzov, dejected and frowning, sat on a bench by the bridge, toying with his whip in the sand when a Kalesh dashed up noisily. A man in a general's uniform with plumes in his hat went up to Kutuzov and said something in French. It was Count Rostov. He told Kutuzov that he had come because Moscow, the capital, was no more, and only the army remained. Things would have been different if your serene highness had not told me that you would not abandon Moscow without another battle. All this would not have happened, he said.

Starting point is 15:04:56 Kutuzov looked at Rastopchin as if, not grasping what was said to him, he was trying to read something peculiar written at that moment on the face of the man addressing him. Rostopchin grew confused and became silent. Kutuzov slightly shook his head, and not taking his penetrating gaze from Rostopchin's face, muttered softly, No, I shall not give up Maska without a battle. Whether Kutuzov was thinking of something entirely different

Starting point is 15:05:25 when he spoke those words, or uttered them purposely, knowing them to be meaningless, at any rate, Rostopchin made no reply and hastily left him. And strange to say, the governor of Moscow, the proud Count Rostopchin, took up a Cossack whip, and went to the bridge where he began with Shouse to drive on the carts that block the way. End of Book 11, Chapter 25. Book 11, Chapter 26, of War and Peace, Volume 3, by Leo Tolstoy, translated by Elmer Maud. This Libervox recording is in the public domain.

Starting point is 15:06:12 Book 11. Chapter 26. Toward four o'clock in the afternoon, Mara's troops were entering Moscow. In front rode a detachment of Vertembourg Hussars, and behind them, rode the King of Naples himself, accompanied by a numerous suite. About the middle of the Arbat Street, near the Church of the miraculous icon of St. Nicholas, Mara halted to await news from the advanced detachment as to the condition in which they had found the citadel, Le Cremlin. A round Mara gathered a group of those who had remained in Moscow.

Starting point is 15:06:47 They all stared in timid bewilderment at the strange, long-haired commander dressed up in feathers and gold. "'Is that the Tsar himself? He's not bad,' low voices could be heard, saying. An interpreter rode up to the group. "'Take off your caps! Your caps!' These words went from one to another in the crowd. The interpreter addressed an old porter and asked, if it was far to the Kremlin. The porter, listening in perplexity to the unfamiliar Polish accent

Starting point is 15:07:18 and not realizing that the interpreter was speaking Russian, did not understand what was being said to him and slipped behind the others. Mara approached the interpreter and told him to ask where the Russian army was. One of the Russians understood what was asked, and several voices at once began answering the interpreter. A French officer, returning from the advanced detachment, wrote up to Murat and reported that the gates of the citadel have been barricaded and that there was probably an ambuscade there.

Starting point is 15:07:49 Good, said Mara, and turning to one of the gentlemen in his suite, ordered four light guns to be moved forward to fire at the gates. The guns emerged at a trot from the column following Mara and advanced up the Arbat. When they reached the end of the Vajivanska Street, they halted and drew in the square. Several French officers superintended the placing of the guns and looked at the Kremlin through field glasses.

Starting point is 15:08:16 The bells in the Kremlin were ringing for Vespers, and this sound troubled the French. They imagined it to be a call to arms. A few infantrymen ran to the Katafiev gate. Beams and wooden screens had been put there, and two musket shots rang out from under the gate as soon as an officer and men began to run toward it. A general who was standing by the guns shouted some words of command to the officer,

Starting point is 15:08:44 and the latter ran back again with his men. The sound of three more shots came from the gate. One shot struck a French soldier's foot, and from behind the screens came the strange sound of a few voices shouting. Instantly, as at a word of command, the expression of cheerful serenity on the faces of the French general, officers, and men, changed to one of determined concentrated readiness for strife and suffering. To all of them, from the marshal to the least soldier,

Starting point is 15:09:14 that place was not the Vazjavenga, Mokovaya, or Kutaviev Street, nor the Troitska Gate, places familiar in Moscow, but a new battlefield which would probably prove sanguinary. And all made ready for that battle. The cries from the gate ceased. The guns were advanced, the artillerymen blew the air. off their linstocks, and an officer gave the word,

Starting point is 15:09:38 Fire! This was followed by two whistling sounds of canister shot, one after another. The shot rattled against the stone of the gate, and upon the wooden beams and screens, and two wavering clouds of smoke rose over the square. A few instance after the echo of the reports resounding over the stone-built Kremlin had died away,

Starting point is 15:10:00 the French heard a strange sound above their head. Thousands of crows rose above the walls and circled in the air, cawing and noisily flapping their wings. Together with that sound came a solitary human cry from the gateway, and amid the smoke appeared the figure of a bareheaded man in a peasant's coat. He grasped a musket and took aim at the French. Fire, repeated the officer once more, and the reports of a musket and of two cannon shots were heard simultaneously.

Starting point is 15:10:30 the gate was again hidden by smoke. Nothing more stirred behind the screens, and the French infantry soldiers and officers advanced to the gate. In the gateway lay three wounded and four dead. Two men and peasant-coats ran away at the foot of the wall toward the Znamenka. Clear that away, said the officer, pointing to the beams and the corpses, and the French soldiers, after dispatching the wounded, threw the corpses over the parapet. Who these men were, nobody knew.

Starting point is 15:11:05 Clear that away was all that was said of them, and they were thrown over the parapet and removed later on that they might not stink. Tierra alone dedicates a few elegant lines to their memory. These wretches had occupied the sacred citadel, having supplied themselves with guns from the arsenal and fired the wretches at the French. Some of them were sabred, and the Kremlin was purged of their presence. Moraw was informed that the way had been cleared.

Starting point is 15:11:34 The French entered the gates and began pitching their camp in the Senate Square. Out of the windows of the Senate House, the soldiers threw chairs into the square for fuel and kindled fires there. Other detachments passed through the Kremlin and encamped along the Morizeka, the Lubyanka, and Pokrovka streets. Others quartered themselves along the Voszvigna, the Nikolsky, and the Verscoy streets. No masters of the houses being found anywhere, the French were not billeted on the inhabitants, as as usual in towns, but lived in it as in a camp.

Starting point is 15:12:08 Though tattered, hungry, worn out, and reduced to a third of their original number, the French entered Moscow in good marching order. It was a weary and famished, but still a fighting and menacing army. But it remained an army only until its soldiers had dispersed into their different lodgings. As soon as the men of the various regiments began to disperse among the wealthy and deserted houses, the army was lost forever, and there came into being something nondescript, neither citizens nor soldiers, but what are known as marauders. When five weeks later these same men left Moscow, they no longer formed an army.

Starting point is 15:12:47 They were a mob of marauders, each carrying a quantity of articles which seemed to him valuable or useful. The aim of each man when he left Moscow was no longer, as it had been, to conquer, but merely to keep what he had acquired. Like a monkey which puts his paw into the narrow neck of a jug, and having seized a handful of nuts will not open its fist for fear of losing what it holds, and therefore perishes. The French, when they left Moscow, had inevitably to perish because they carried their loot with them, yet to abandon what they had stolen was as impossible for them as it is for the monkey

Starting point is 15:13:23 to open its paw and let go of its nuts. Ten minutes after each regiment had entered a Moscow district, not a soldier or officer was left. Men in military uniforms and Hessian boots could be seen through the windows, laughing, and walking through the rooms. In cellars and storerooms, similar men were busy among the provisions, and in the yards unlocking or breaking open coach-house and stable doors, lighting fires and kitchens, and kneading and baking.

Starting point is 15:13:53 bread with rolled-up sleeves and cooking, or frightening, amusing, or caressing women and children. There were many such men, both in the shops and houses, but there was no army. Order after order was issued by the French commanders that day, forbidding the men to disperse about the town, sternly forbidding any violence to the inhabitants or any looting, and announcing a roll call for that very evening. But despite all these measures, the men, who have had till then constituted an army, flowed all over the wealthy, deserted city with its comforts and plentiful supplies.

Starting point is 15:14:31 As a hungry herd of cattle keeps well together when crossing a barren field, but gets out of hand and at once disperses uncontrollably as soon as it reaches rich pastures, so did the army disperse all over the wealthy city. No residents were left in Moscow, and the soldiers, like water percolating through sand, spread irresistibly through the city,

Starting point is 15:14:53 in all directions from the Kremlin into which they had first marched. The cavalry, on entering a merchant's house that had been abandoned and finding there stabling more than sufficient for their horses, went on all the same to the next house which seemed to them better. Many of them appropriated several houses, chalked their names on them, and quarreled and even fought with other companies for them. Before they had time to secure quarters, the soldiers ran out into the streets to see the same.

Starting point is 15:15:23 city, and, hearing that everything had been abandoned, rushed to places where valuables were to be had for the taking. The officers followed to check the soldiers, and were involuntarily drawn into doing the same. In carriage row, carriages had been left in the shops, and generals flocked there to select colleshes and coaches for themselves. The few inhabitants who had remained invited commanding officers to their houses, hoping thereby to secure themselves from being plundered. There were masses of wealth, and there seemed no end to it. All around the quarters occupied by the French were other regions still unexplored and unoccupied, where they thought, yet greater riches might be found.

Starting point is 15:16:08 And Moscow engulfed the army ever deeper and deeper. When water is spilled on dry ground, both the dry ground and the water disappear, and mud results. And in the same way, the entry of the famished army in the same way, the entry of the famished army into the rich and deserted city, resulted in fires and looting and the destruction of both the army and the wealthy city. The French attributed the fire of Moscow

Starting point is 15:16:35 of Petritismé ferros de Rastopchin to Rostopchin's ferocious patriotism. The Russians to the barbarity of the French. In reality, however, it was not and could not be possible to explain the burning of Moscow by making any individual, or any group of people responsible for it.

Starting point is 15:16:56 Moscow was burned because it found itself in a position in which any town built of wood was bound to burn, quite apart from whether it had or had not, 130 inferior fire engines. Deserted Moscow had to burn, as inevitably as a heap of shavings has to burn on which sparks continually fall for several days. A town built of wood,

Starting point is 15:17:20 where scarcely a day passes without con, conflagrations when the house owners are in residence and a police force is present, cannot help burning when its inhabitants have left it, and it is occupied by soldiers who smoke pipes, make campfires of the Senate chairs in the Senate Square, and cook themselves meals twice a day. In peacetime, it is only necessary to billet troops in the villages of any district, and the number of fires in that district immediately increases. How much then must the probability of fire be increased in an abandoned wooden town where foreign troops are quartered. Le Petritism of Faroes de Rostopchin and the barbarity of the French were not to blame in the matter.

Starting point is 15:18:03 Moscow was set on fire by the soldiers' pipes, kitchens, and campfires, and by the carelessness of enemy soldiers occupying houses they did not own. Even if there was any arson, which is very doubtful, for no one had any reason to burn the houses, in any case a troublesome and dangerous thing to do. Arson cannot be regarded as the cause, for the same thing would have happened without any incendiarism. However tempting it might be for the French to blame Rostopchin's ferocity and for the Russians to blame the scoundrel Bonaparte, or later on to place an heroic torch in the hands of their own people, it is impossible not to see that there could be no such direct cause of the fire. For Moscow had to burn,

Starting point is 15:18:48 as every village, factory, or house must burn, which is left by its owners, and in which strangers are allowed to live and cook their porridge. Moscow was burned by its inhabitants, it is true, but by those who had abandoned it and not by those who remained in it. Moscow, when occupied by the enemy, did not remain intact, like Berlin, Vienna, and other towns, simply because its inhabitants abandoned it and did not welcome the French with bread and salt, nor bring them the keys of the city. End of Book 11, Chapter 26. Book 11, Chapter 27,

Starting point is 15:19:34 of War and Peace, Volume 3, by Leo Tolstoy, translated by Elmer Maude. This Liberbox recording is in the public domain. Book 11, Chapter 27. The absorption of the French by Moscow, radiating star-wise as it did, only reached the quarter where Pierre was staying

Starting point is 15:19:56 by the evening of the 2nd of September. After the last two days spent in solitude and unusual circumstances, Pierre was in a state bordering on insanity. He was completely obsessed by one persistent thought. He did not know how or when this thought had taken such possession of him, but he remembered nothing of the past, understood nothing of the present, and all he saw and heard appeared to him like a dream.

Starting point is 15:20:23 He had left home only to escape the intricate tangle of life's demands that enmeshed him, and which in his present condition he was unable to unravel. He had gone to Joseph Alexeyevich's house on the plea of sorting the deceased books and papers, only in search of rest from life's turmoil, for in his mind the memory of Joseph Alexeovitch was connected with the world of eternal, solemn, and calm thoughts, quite contrary to the restless confusion into which he felt himself being drawn. He sought a quiet refuge, and in Joseph Alexeyevitch's study, he really found it. When he sat with his elbows on the dusty writing-table

Starting point is 15:21:03 in the death-like stillness of the study, calm and significant memories of the last few days rose one after another in his imagination, particularly of the Battle of Bore Dino, and of that vague sense of his own insignificance and insincerity compared with the truth, simplicity, and strength of the class of men he mentally classed as they. When Gerasim roused him from his reverie, the idea occurred to him of taking part in the popular

Starting point is 15:21:31 defense of Moscow, which he knew was projected. And with that object, he had asked Gerasim to get him a peasant's coat and a pistol, confiding to him his intentions of remaining in Joseph Alexeyevich's house and keeping his name secret. Then, during the first day spent in inaction and solitude, he tried several times to fix his attention on the Masonic manuscripts, but was unable to do so. The idea that had previously occurred to him of the cabalistic significance of his name in connection with Bonaparts more than once vaguely presented itself.

Starting point is 15:22:06 But the idea that he, Lerousse Besuhoff, was destined to set a limit to the power of the beast was as yet only one of the fancies that often passed through his mind and left no trace behind. When, having bought the coat merely with the object of taking part among the people in the defense of Moscow, Pierre had met the Rostovs, and Natasha had said to him, "'Are you remaining in Moscow? How splendid!'

Starting point is 15:22:31 The thought flashed into his mind that it really would be a good thing, even if Moscow were taken, for him to remain there and do what he was predestined to do. Next day, with the sole idea of not sparing himself and not lagging in any way behind them, Pierre went to the Three Hills Gate. But when he returned to the house convinced that Moscow would not be defended, he suddenly felt that what before had seemed to him merely a possibility had now become absolutely necessary and inevitable. He must remain in Moscow, concealing his name,

Starting point is 15:23:07 and must meet Napoleon and kill him, and either perish or put an end to the misery of all Europe, which seemed to him was solely due to Napoleon. Pierre knew all the details of the attempt on Bonaparte's life in 1809 by a German student in Vienna, and knew that the student had been shot. And the risk to which he would expose his life by carrying out his design excited him still more.

Starting point is 15:23:33 Two equally strong feelings drew Pierre irresistibly to this purpose. The first was a feeling of the necessity of sacrifice and suffering in view of the common calamity, the same feeling that had caused him to go to Moseysk on the 25th and to make his way to the very thick of the battle, and had now caused him to run away from his home, and in place of the luxury and comfort to which he was accustomed, to sleep on a hard sofa without undressing and eat the same food as Gerasim. The other was that vague and quite

Starting point is 15:24:04 Russian feeling of contempt for everything conventional, artificial, and human, for everything the majority of men regard as the greatest good in the world. Pierre had first experienced this strange and fascinating feeling at the Sloboda Palace, when he had suddenly felt that wealth, power and life, all that men so painstakingly acquire and guard, if it has any worth, has so only by reason of the joy with which it can all be renounced. It was that feeling that induces a volunteer recruit to spend his last penny on drink, and a drunken man to smash mirrors are glasses for no apparent reason, and knowing that it will cost him all the money he possesses.

Starting point is 15:24:47 The feeling which causes a man to perform actions, which from an ordinary point of view are insane, to test, as it were, his personal power and strength, affirming the existence of a higher, non-human criterion of life. From the very day Pierre had experienced this feeling for the first time at the Sloboda Palace, he had been continuously under its influence, but only now found full satisfaction for it. Moreover, at this moment, Pierre was supported in his design and prevented from announcing it by what he had already done in that direction. If he were now to leave Moscow, like everyone else,

Starting point is 15:25:26 his flight from home, the peasant coat, the pistol, and his announcement to the Rostovs that he would remain in Moscow, would all become not merely meaningless, but contemptible and ridiculous, and to this Pierre was very sensitive. Pierre's physical condition, as is always the case, corresponded to his mental state. The unaccustomed coarse food, the vodka he had, he drank during those days, the absence of wine and cigars, his dirty unchanged linen,

Starting point is 15:25:56 two almost sleepless nights passed on a short sofa without betting. All this kept him in a state of excitement bordering on insanity. It was two o'clock in the afternoon. The French had already entered Moscow. Pierre knew this, but instead of acting, he only thought about his undertaking, going over its minutest details in his mind. In his fancy, he did not clearly picture to himself either the striking of the blow or the death of Napoleon, but with extraordinary vividness and melancholy enjoyment imagined his own destruction and heroic endurance.

Starting point is 15:26:34 "'Yes, alone and for the sake of all, I must do it or perish,' he thought. "'Yes, I will approach, and then suddenly, with pistol or dagger. But that is all the same. It is not I, but the hand of providence that punishes thee, I shall say, thought he, imagining what he would say when killing Napoleon. Well, then, take me and execute me. He went on, speaking to himself and bowing his head with a sad but firm expression.

Starting point is 15:27:06 While Pierre, standing in the middle of the room, was talking to himself in this way, the study door opened, and on the threshold, appeared the figure of Makar Alexeyevich, always so timid before, but now quite transformed. His dressing-gown was unfastened, his face red and distorted. He was obviously drunk. On seeing Pierre, he grew confused at first, but noticing embarrassment on Pierre's face immediately grew bold, and staggering on his thin legs advanced into the middle of the room. "'They're frightened,' he said confidentially in a hoarse voice. I say, I won't surrender.

Starting point is 15:27:45 I say, am I not right, sir?' He paused, and then suddenly, seeing the pistol on the table, seized it with unexpected rapidity and ran out into the corridor. Gerasim and the porter, who had followed McCar Alexeyevich, stopped him in the vestibule and tried to take the pistol from him. Pierre, coming out into the corridor, looked with pity and repulsion at the half-crazy old man. Macar Alexeovitch, frowning with his arm,

Starting point is 15:28:13 exertion, held on to the pistol, and screamed hoarsely, evidently with some heroic fancy in his head. "'To arms! Bored them! No! You shan't get it!' he yelled. "'That will do, please, that will do! Have the goodness—' "'Please, sir, to let go! Please, sir!' pleaded Gerasim, trying carefully to steer McCar Alexeyevich by the elbows back to the door. "'Who are you? Bonaparte!' shouted McCar-Alexeyovie. "'That's not right, sir. Come to your room, please, and rest. Allow me to have the pistol. "'Be off, thou be slave! Touch me not! See this!' shouted McCar-Alexevich, brandishing the pistol.

Starting point is 15:28:58 "'Bored them!' "'Catch hold!' whispered Gerasim to the porter. They seized Macar-Alexovitch by the arms and dragged him to the door. The vestibule was filled with the discordant sounds of a struggle and of a tipsy hoarse voice. Suddenly, a fresh sound, a piercing feminine scream, reverberated from the porch, and the cook came running into the vestibule. "'It's them! Gracious heavens! Oh, Lord! Four of them! Horsemen!' she cried. Gerasim and the porter let McCarar Elexeyevich go, and in the now silent corridor the sound of several hands knocking at the front door could be heard.

Starting point is 15:29:39 End of Book 11, Chapter 27. Book 11, Chapter 28 of War and Peace, Volume 3, by Leo Tolstoy, translated by Elmer Maude. This Livervox recording is in the public domain. Book 11, Chapter 28 Pierre, having decided that until he had carried out his design, he would disclose neither his identity nor his knowledge of French, stood at the half-open door of the corridor, intending to conceal him, himself as soon as the French entered. But the French entered, and still Pierre did not retire.

Starting point is 15:30:24 An irresistible curiosity kept him there. There were two of them. One was an officer, a tall, soldierly handsome man, the other evidently a private or an orderly, sunburned short and thin, with sunken cheeks and a dull expression. The officer walked in front, leaning on a stick, and slightly limping. When he had advanced a few steps, he stopped, having apparently decided that these were good quarters, turned round to the soldier standing at the entrance, and, in a loud voice of command,

Starting point is 15:30:56 ordered them to put up the horses. Having done that, the officer, lifting his elbow with a smart gesture, stroked his mustache and lightly touched his hat. "'Bonjour la company!' "'Good day, everybody,' said he gaily, smiling and looking about him. No one gave any reply.

Starting point is 15:31:16 "'Vuey! Are you the master here?' The officer asked Gerasim. Gerasium gazed at the officer with an alarmed and inquiring look. Quatier, quartier, loggings! Quarters, quarters, lodgings, said the officer, looking down at the little man with a condescending and good-natured smile. "'Lé francsons de bon and fond.

Starting point is 15:31:40 "'Key diabéble, foyon! "'N'en no facie, mon vieu!' "'The French are good fellows. What the devil? There, don't let us be cross, old fellow,' added he, clapping the scared and silent Gerasim on the shoulder. "'Well, does no one speak French in this establishment?' He asked again in French, looking around and meeting Pierre's eyes.

Starting point is 15:32:03 Pierre moved away from the door. Again the officer turned to Gerasim and asked him to show him the rooms in the house. "'Master, not here. Don't understand. Me, you,' said Gerasim, trying to render his words more comprehensible by contorting them. Still smiling, the French officer spread out his hands before Gerasim's nose, intimating that he did not understand him either,

Starting point is 15:32:30 and moved limping to the door at which Pierre was standing. Pierre wished to go away and conceal himself, but at that moment he saw McCar Alexeovich appearing, at the open kitchen door with a pistol in his hand. With a madman's cunning, Makar Alexeyevich eyed the Frenchman, raised his pistol, and took aim. Boyd them!

Starting point is 15:32:51 yelled the tipsy man, trying to press the trigger. Hearing the yell, the officer turned round, and at the same moment Pierre threw himself on the drunkard. Just when Pierre snatched at and struck up the pistol, Macar Alexeovic at last got his fingers on the trigger. There was a deafening report, and all were enveloped in a cloud of smoke.

Starting point is 15:33:13 The Frenchman turned pale and rushed to the door. Forgetting his intention of concealing his knowledge of French, Pierre, snatching away the pistol and throwing it down, ran up to the officer and addressed him in French. "'You are not wounded?' he asked. "'I think not,' answered the Frenchman, feeling himself over. "'But I have had a lucky escape this time,' he added, pointing to the damaged plaster of the wall.

Starting point is 15:33:41 "'Who is that man?' said he, looking sternly at Pierre. "'Oh, I am really in despair at what has occurred,' said Pierre rapidly, quite forgetting the part he had intended to play. "'He is an unfortunate madman who did not know what he was doing.' The officer went up to Makar Aleczeevich and took him by the collar. Macar Alexeovitch was standing with parted lips, swaying as if about to fall asleep, as he leaned against the wall. Briggand, you shall pay for this, said the Frenchman, letting go of him.

Starting point is 15:34:14 We French are merciful after victory, but we do not pardon traitors, he added, with a look of gloomy dignity and a fine energetic gesture. Pierre continued in French to persuade the officer not to hold that drunken impassal to account. The Frenchman listened in silence with the same gloomy expression, but suddenly turned to Pierre with a smile. For a few seconds he looked at him in silence. His handsome face assumed a melodramatically gentle expression, and he held out his hand. "'You have saved my life. You are French,' said he. For a Frenchman, that deduction was indubitable. Only a Frenchman could perform a great deed, and to save his life, the life of Monsieur Rambal, captain of the 13th Light Regiment, was undoubtedly a very

Starting point is 15:35:04 great deed. But however indubitable that conclusion and the officer's conviction based upon it, Pierre felt it necessary to disillusion him. I am Russian, he said quickly. Tut, tut, tut, tell that to others, said the officer, waving his finger before his nose and smiling. You shall tell me all about that presently. I am delighted to meet a compatriot. Well, and what are we to do with this man? He added, addressing. himself to Pierre as to a brother. Even if Pierre were not a Frenchman, having once received that loftiest of human appellations,

Starting point is 15:35:43 he could not renounce it, said the officer's look and tone. In reply to his last question, Pierre again explained who McCar-Alexevich was and how just before their arrival, that drunken imbecile had seized the loaded pistol, which they had not had time to recover from him, and begged the officer to let the deed go unpunished. The Frenchman expanded his chest and made a majestic gesture with his arm.

Starting point is 15:36:10 "'You have saved my life. You are French. You ask his pardon? I granted you. Lead that man away,' said he quickly and energetically, and taking the arm of Pierre whom he had promoted to be a Frenchman for saving his life, he went with him into the room. The soldiers in the yard, hearing the shot, came into the passage asking what had happened, and expressed their readiness to punish the culprits, but the officer sternly checked them. "'You will be called in when you are wanted,' he said. The soldiers went out again, and the orderly, who had meanwhile had time to visit the kitchen, came up to his officer.

Starting point is 15:36:50 "'Captain, there is soup and a leg of mutton in the kitchen,' said he. "'Shall I serve them up?' "'Yes, and some wine,' answered the captain. End of Book 11, Chapter 28. Book 11, Chapter 29 of War and Peace, Volume 3 by Leo Tolstoy, translated by Elmer Maude. This Libervox recording is in the public domain. Book 11, Chapter 29 When the French officer went into the room with Pierre, the latter again thought it his duty to assure him that he was not French and wished to go away, but the officer would not hear of it.

Starting point is 15:37:38 He was so very polite, amiable, good-natured, and genuinely grateful to Pierre for saving his life, that Pierre had not the heart to refuse, and sat down with him in the parlor, the first room they entered. To Pierre's assurances that he was not a Frenchman, the captain, evidently not understanding how anyone could decline so flattering in appellation, shrugged his shoulders, and said that, if Pierre absolutely insisted on passing for a Russian, let it be so. but for all that he would be forever bound to Pierre by gratitude for saving his life. Had this man been endowed with the slightest capacity for perceiving the feelings of others, and had he at all understood what Pierre's feelings were, the latter would probably have left him,

Starting point is 15:38:24 but the man's animated obtuseness to everything other than himself disarmed Pierre. A Frenchman or a Russian prince incognito, said the officer, looking at Pierre's fine, though dirty linen and at the ring on his finger. I owe my life to you and offer you my friendship. A Frenchman never forgets either an insult or a service. I offer you my friendship. That is all I can say. There was so much good nature and nobility,

Starting point is 15:38:55 in the French sense of the word, in the officer's voice, in the expression of his face and in his gestures, that Pierre, unconsciously smiling in response to the Frenchman's smile, pressed the hand held out to him. Captain Rambal, of the 13th Light Regiment, Chevalier of the Legion of Honor for the Affair on the 7th of September. He introduced himself, a self-satisfied, irrepressible smile puckering his lips under his mustache.

Starting point is 15:39:23 Will you now be so good as to tell me with whom I have the honor of conversing so pleasantly, instead of being in the ambulance with that maniac's bullet in my body? Pierre replied that he could not tell him his name. and Blushing began to try to invent a name and to say something about his reason for concealing it, but the Frenchman hastily interrupted him. "'Oh, please,' said he, "'I understand your reasons. You are an officer, a superior officer, perhaps.

Starting point is 15:39:51 You have borne arms against us. That's not my business. I owe you my life. That is enough for me. I am quite at your service. You belong to the gentry?' He concluded with a shade of inquiry in his tone. Pierre bent his head.

Starting point is 15:40:09 "'Your baptismal name, if you please? That is all I ask. Monsieur Pierre, you say. That's all I want to know.' When the mutton and an omelet had been served and a samovar and vodka brought, with some wine which the French had taken from a Russian cellar and brought with them, Rambald invited Pierre to share his dinner, and himself began to eat greedily and quickly, like a healthy and hungry man,

Starting point is 15:40:34 munching his food rapidly with his strong teeth, continually smacking his lips and repeating, Excellent, delicious! His face grew red and was covered with perspiration. Pierre was hungry and shared the dinner with pleasure. Morel, the orderly, brought some hot water in a saucepan and placed a bottle of claret in it. He also brought a bottle of cavass,

Starting point is 15:40:57 taken from the kitchen for them to try. That beverage was already known to the French and had been given a special name. They called it Limonade de Couchon, pig's lemonade, and Morel spoke well of the liminade de Couchon he had found in the kitchen. But as the captain had the wine they had taken

Starting point is 15:41:17 while passing through Moscow, he left the Cavas to Morel and applied himself to the bottle of Bordeaux. He wrapped the bottle up to its neck in a table napkin and poured out wine for himself and for Pierre. The satisfaction of his hunger and the wine rendered the captain still more lively, and he chatted incessantly all through dinner. "'Yes, my dear Monsieur Pierre, I owe you a fine vote of candle for saving me from that maniac.

Starting point is 15:41:44 You see, I have bullets enough in my body already. Here is one I got at Vagram,' he touched his side, and a second at Smolensk. He showed a scar on his cheek. And this leg, which, as you see, does not want to march, I got that on the seventh at the Great Battle of the Battle of of La Moscaua. Sacre d'E, it was splendid. That deluge of fire was worth seen. It was a tough job, you said as there, my word. You may be proud of it. And on my honor, in spite of the cough I caught there, I should be ready to begin again. I pity those who did not see it. I was there, said Pierre. Bah, really? So much the better. You are certainly brave foes.

Starting point is 15:42:32 "'The great redoubt held out well by my pipe,' continued the Frenchman. "'And you made us pay dear for it. "'I was at it three times, sure as I sit here. "'Three times we reached the guns, "'and three times we were thrown back like cardboard figures. "'Oh, it was beautiful, Monsieur Pierre. "'Your grenadiers were splendid by heaven.' "'I saw them close up their rank six times in succession

Starting point is 15:43:00 "'and march as if on parade, fine fellows. Our king of Naples, who knows what's what, cried, Bravo! Ha! ha! So you are one of us soldiers, he added, smiling after a momentary pause. So much the better, so much the better, Monsieur Pierre. Terrible in battle, gallant, with the fair.

Starting point is 15:43:24 He winked and smiled. That's what the French are, Monsieur Pierre, aren't they? The captain was so naively in good-de-year. humorily gay, so real and so pleased with himself, that Pierre almost winked back as he looked merrily at him. Probably the word gallant turned the captain's thoughts to the state of Moscow. "'Apropos, tell me, please, is it true that the women have all left Moscow? What a queer idea! What had they to be afraid of?' "'Would not the French ladies leave Paris if the Russians entered it?' asked Pierre.

Starting point is 15:44:00 Ha, ha, ha, ha, the Frenchman admitted a merry, sanguine chuckle, patting Pierre on the shoulder. What a thing to say, he exclaimed, Paris? But, Paris, Paris, the capital of the world, Pierre finished his remark for him. The captain looked at Pierre. He had a habit of stopping short in the middle of his talk and gazing intently with his laughing kindly eyes. "'Well, if you hadn't told me you were Russian, I should have wagered that you were a Parisian. You have that—I don't know what—that—' And having uttered this compliment, he again gazed at him in silence.

Starting point is 15:44:45 "'I have been in Paris. I spent years there,' said Pierre. "'Oh, yes, one sees that plainly. "'Paris. A man doesn't know Paris is a savage. You can tell a Parisian two leagues off. Paris is Talma, La Duchet Noir, Poutier, the Sorbonne, the boulevards. And noticing that his conclusion was weaker than what had gone before, he added quickly, There is only one Paris in the world.

Starting point is 15:45:15 You have been to Paris and have remained Russian. Well, I don't esteem you the less for it. Under the influence of the wine he had drunk, and after the days he had spent alone with his depressed, thoughts, Pierre involuntarily enjoyed talking with this cheerful and good-natured man. To return to your ladies. I hear they are lovely. What a wretched idea to go and bury themselves in the steps when the French army is in Moscow. What a chance those girls have missed. You're peasants now. That's another thing. But you civilized people. You ought to know us better

Starting point is 15:45:53 than that. We took Vienna, Berlin, Madrid, Naples, Rome, Warsaw, all the world's capitals. We were feared, but we were loved. We are nice to know. And then the emperor. He began, but Pierre interrupted him. The emperor, Pierre repeated, and his face suddenly became sad and embarrassed, is the emperor—the emperor? He is generosity, mercy, justice, order, genius. That's what the emperor is. It is I, Rambal, who tell you so. I assure you, I was his enemy eight years ago. My father was an emigrant count. But that man has vanquished me. He has taken hold of me. I could not resist the sight of the grandeur and glory with which he has covered France. When I understood what he wanted, when I saw that he was preparing a bed of Loros for us,

Starting point is 15:46:48 you know, I said to myself, that is a monarch. and I devoted myself to him. So there! Oh, yes, mon cher. He is the greatest man of the ages, past or future. Is he in Moscow? Pierre stammered with a guilty look. The Frenchman looked at his guilty face and smiled.

Starting point is 15:47:11 No, he will make his entry tomorrow. He replied and continued his talk. Their conversation was interrupted by the cries of several voices at the gate and by Morel, who came to say that some Wurttemberg hussars had come and wanted to put up their horses in the yard where the captain's horses were. This difficulty had arisen chiefly because the hussars did not understand what was said to them in French. The captain had their senior sergeant called in, and in a stern voice asked him to what regiment he belonged, who was his commanding officer, and by what right he allowed himself to claim quarters that were already occupied. The German,

Starting point is 15:47:49 who knew little French, answered the two first questions by giving the names of his regiment and of his commanding officer. But in reply to the third question, which he did not understand, said, introducing broken French into his own German, that he was the quartermaster of the regiment and his commander had ordered them to occupy all the houses one after another. Pierre, who knew German, translated what the German said to the captain and gave the captain's reply to the Wurtenberghussar in German. When he had understood what was said to him, the Germans submitted and took his man elsewhere.

Starting point is 15:48:24 The captain went out into the porch and gave some orders in a loud voice. When he returned to the room, Pierre was sitting in the same place as before, with his head in his hands. His face expressed suffering. He really was suffering at that moment. When the captain went out and he was left alone, suddenly he came to himself and realized the position he was in. It was not that Moscow had been taken, or that the happy conquerors were masters in it and were patronizing him. Painful as that was, it was not that which tormented Pierre at the moment. He was tormented by the consciousness of his own weakness.

Starting point is 15:49:03 The few glasses of wine he had drunk, and the conversation with this good-natured man had destroyed the mood of concentrated gloom in which he had spent the last few days, and which was essential for the execution of his design. The pistol, dagger, and peasant coat were ready. Napoleon was to enter the town next day. Pierre still considered that it would be a useful and worthy action to slay the evil-doer, but now he felt that he would not do it. He did not know why, but he felt a foreboding that he would not carry out his intention.

Starting point is 15:49:37 He struggled against the confession of his weakness, but dimly felt that he could not overcome it, and that his former gloomy frame of mind concerning vengeance, killing and self-sacrifice had been dispersed like dust by contact with the first man he met. The captain returned to the room, limping slightly and whistling a tune. The Frenchman's chatter, which had previously amused Pierre, now repelled him. The tune he was whistling, his gait, and the gesture with which he twirled his mustache all now seemed offensive. "'I will go away immediately. I won't say another word to him,' thought Pierre.

Starting point is 15:50:16 He thought this, but still sat in the same place. A strange feeling of weakness tied him to the spot. He wished to get up and go away, but could not do so. The captain, on the other hand, seemed very cheerful. He paced up and down the room twice. His eyes shone and his mustache twitched as if he were smiling to himself at some amusing thought. "'The colonel of those Vertembergers is delightful,' he suddenly said. "'He's a German, but a nice fellow.'

Starting point is 15:50:46 all the same, but he's a German. He sat down facing Pierre. By the way, you know German then? Pierre looked at him in silence. What is the German for shelter? Shelter, Pierre repeated. The German for shelter is under-compt. How do you say it? The captain asked quickly and doubtfully. Unter-cumft, Pierre repeated. "'Untr cough,' said the captain, and looked at Pierre for some seconds with laughing eyes. "'These Germans are first-rate fools, don't you think so, Monsieur Pierre?' he concluded. "'Well, let's have another bottle of this Moscow-Bordeaux, shall we?

Starting point is 15:51:30 Morel will warm us up another little bottle. "'Morel!' he called out gaily. Morel brought candles and a bottle of wine. The captain looked at Pierre by the candlelight, and was evidently struck by the troubled expression on his companion's face. Rambal, with genuine distress and sympathy in his face, went up to Pierre and bent over him. "'There, now, we're sad,' said he, touching Pierre's hand.

Starting point is 15:51:56 "'Have I upset you? No, really. Have you anything against me?' he asked Pierre. "'Perhaps it's the state of affairs?' Pierre did not answer, but looked cordially into the Frenchman's eyes, whose expression of sympathy was pleasing to him. Honestly, without speaking of what I owe you, I feel friendship for you. Can I do anything for you?

Starting point is 15:52:19 Dispose of me. It is for life and death. I say it with my hand on my heart, said he, striking his chest. Thank you, said Pierre. The captain gazed intently at him, as he had done, when he learned that shelter was intercomte in German, and his face suddenly brightened. "'Well, in that case, I drink to our friendship,' he cried gaily, filling two glasses with wine.

Starting point is 15:52:47 Pierre took one of the glasses and emptied it. Rambal emptied his two, again pressed Pierre's hand, and leaned his elbows on the table in a pensive attitude. "'Yes, my dear friend,' he began, "'such is fortune's caprice. "'Who would have said that I should be a soldier and a captain of dragoons in the service of Bonaparte, as we used to call him. Yet, here I am in Moscow with him. I must tell you, Monser. He continued in the sad and measured tones of a man

Starting point is 15:53:18 who intends to tell a long story, that our name is one of the most ancient in France. And with a Frenchman's easy and naive frankness, the captain told Pierre the story of his ancestors, his childhood, youth, and manhood, and all about his relations and his financial and family affairs. my poor mare, playing, of course, an important part in the story. But all that is only life-setting.

Starting point is 15:53:43 The real thing is love. Love! Am I not right, Monsieur Pierre? Said he, growing animated. Another glass? Pierre again emptied his glass and poured himself out a third. Oh, women, women, said the captain, looking with glistening eyes at Pierre, began talking of love and of his love affairs.

Starting point is 15:54:04 There were very many of these, as one could easily believe, looking at the officer's handsome, self-satisfied face, and noting the eager enthusiasm with which he spoke of women. Though all Rambal's love stories had the sensual character which Frenchmen regard as the special charm and poetry of love, yet he told his story with such sincere conviction that he alone had experienced and known all the charm of love, and he described women so alluringly that Pierre listened to him with curiosity. It was plain that Le Mour, which the Frenchman was so fond of, was not that low and simple kind that Pierre had once felt for his wife,

Starting point is 15:54:44 nor was it the romantic love stimulated by himself that he experienced for Natasha. Rambal despised both these kinds of love equally, the one he considered the love of Coddhoppers and the other the love of simpletons. Le Mour which the Frenchman worshipped consisted principally in the world. the unnaturalness of his relation to the woman, and in a combination of incongruities, giving the chief charm to the feeling. Thus the captain touchingly recounted the story of his love for a fascinating marquise of thirty-five, and at the same time, for a charming, innocent child of seventeen, daughter of the bewitching marquise. The conflict of magnanimity between the mother and the daughter,

Starting point is 15:55:26 ending in the mother's sacrificing herself and offering her daughter in marriage to her lover, even now agitated the captain, though it was the memory of a distant past. Then he recounted an episode in which the husband played the part of the lover, and he, the lover, assumed the role of the husband, as well as several droll incidents from his recollections of Germany, where shelter is called Untercomte and where the husbands eat sauerkraut and the young girls are too blonde. Finally, the latest episode in Poland, still fresh in the captain's memory, in which he narrated with rapid gestures and glowing face as of how he had saved the life of a

Starting point is 15:56:04 pole. In general, the saving of life continually occurred in the captain's stories, and the pole had entrusted to him his enchanting wife, Parisienne de Cure, while himself entering the French service. The captain was happy. The enchanting Polish lady wished to elope with him, but, prompted by magnanimity, the captain restored the wife to the husband, saying, as he did so, I have saved your life, and I save your honor." Having repeated these words, the captain wiped his eyes and gave himself a shake, as if driving away the weakness which assailed him at this touching recollection. Listening to the captain's tales, Pierre, as often happens late in the evening and under

Starting point is 15:56:48 the influence of wine, followed all that was told him, understood it all, and at the same time followed a train of personal memories, which he knew not why, suddenly arose in his mind. While listening to these love stories, his own love for Natasha unexpectedly rose to his mind, and going over the pictures of that love in his imagination, he mentally compared them with Rambal's tales. Listening to the story of the struggle between love and duty, Pierre saw before his eyes every minutest detail of his last meeting with the object of his love at the Sukharav Water Tower. At the time of that meeting, it had not produced an effect upon him. He had not even once recalled it. But now it seemed to him that that meeting had

Starting point is 15:57:34 had in it something very important and poetic. Peter Karilovich, come here! We have recognized you! He now seemed to hear the word she had uttered, and to see before him her eyes, her smile, her traveling hood, and a stray lock of her hair. And there seemed to him something pathetic and touching in all this. Having finished his tale about the enchanting Polish lady, the captain asked Pierre if he had ever experienced a similar impulse to sacrifice himself for love and a feeling of envy of the legitimate husband. Challenged by this question, Pierre raised his head and felt a need to express the thoughts that filled his mind. He began to explain that he understood love for a woman somewhat differently. He said that in all his life he had loved and still loved only one woman,

Starting point is 15:58:25 and that she could never be his. Teans, said the captain. Pierre then explained that he had loved this woman from his earliest years, but that he had not dared to think of her because she was too young, and because he had been an illegitimate son without a name. Afterwards, when he had received a name and wealth, he dared not think of her because he loved her too well, placing her far above everything in the world,

Starting point is 15:58:52 and especially therefore above himself. When he had reached this point, Pierre asked the captain whether he understood that. The captain made a gesture signifying that even if he did not understand it, he begged Pierre to continue. Platonic love, clouds, he muttered. Whether it was the wine he had drunk or an impulse of frankness, or the thought that this man did not and never would know any of those who played a part in his story, or whether it was all these things together, something loosened Pierre's tongue. speaking thickly and with a far-away look in his shining eyes, he told the whole story of his

Starting point is 15:59:32 life, his marriage, Natasha's love for his best friend, her betrayal of him, and all his own simple relations with her. Urged on by Rambal's questions, he also told what he had at first concealed, his own position, and even his name. More than anything else in Pierre's story, the captain was impressed by the fact that Pierre was very rich, had two mansions in Moscow, and that he had abandoned everything and not left the city, but remained there concealing his name and station. When it was late at night they went out together into the street. The night was warm and light. To the left of the house on the Pokrovka, a fire glowed, the first of those that were beginning in Moscow. To the right and high up in the sky was the sickle of the waning moon, and

Starting point is 16:00:26 opposite to it hung that bright comet which was connected in Pierre's heart with his love. At the gate stood Gerasim, the cook, and two Frenchmen. Their laughter and their mutually incomprehensible remarks in two languages could be heard. They were looking at the glow seen in the town. There was nothing terrible in the one small, distant fire in the immense city. Gazing at the high starry sky, at the moon, at the comet, and at the glow from the fire, Pierre experienced a joyful emotion. There now, how good it is, what more does one need, thought he. And suddenly remembering his intention, he grew dizzy and felt so faint that he leaned against

Starting point is 16:01:12 the fence to save himself from falling. Without taking leave of his new friend, Pierre left the gate with unsteady steps and returning to his room, laid down on the sofa, and immediately fell asleep. End of Book 11, Chapter 29. Book 11, Chapter 30, of War and Peace, Volume 3, by Leo Tolstoy, translated by Elmer Maude. This Libervox recording is in the public domain. Book 11, Chapter 30 The glow of the first fire that began on the 2nd of September was watched from the

Starting point is 16:01:58 various roads by the fugitive Muscovites and by the retreating troops, with many different feelings. The Rostov party spent the night at Miteschi, 14 miles from Moscow. They had started so late on the 1st of September, the road had been so blocked by vehicles and troops, so many things have been forgotten for which servants were sent back, that they had decided to spend that night at a place three miles out of Moscow. The next morning they woke late and were again, delayed so often that they only got as far as great Matisji. At ten o'clock that evening, the Rostov family and the wounded traveling with them were all distributed in the yards and huts of that large village.

Starting point is 16:02:42 The Rostov's servants and coachmen and the orderlies of the wounded officers, after attending to their masters, had supper, fed the horses, and came out into the porches. In a neighboring hut lay Ryevsky's adjutant with a fractured wrist. The awful pain he suffered made him moan incessantly and piteously, and his moaning sounded terrible in the darkness of the autumn night. He had spent the first night in the same yard as the Rostovs. The Countess said she had been unable to close her eyes on account of his moaning, and at Matisci she moved into a worse hut simply to be farther away from the wounded man.

Starting point is 16:03:22 In the darkness of the night, one of the servants noticed above the high high body of a coach standing before the porch, the small glow of another fire. One glow had long been visible, and everybody knew that it was Little Matisci burning, set on fire by Mamanov's Cossacks. But look here, brothers, there's another fire, remarked in orderly. All turned their attention to the glow. But they told us Little Matisci had been set on fire by Mamanov's Cossacks. But that's not Matisji. It's farther away.

Starting point is 16:04:01 Look, it must be in Moscow. Two of the gazers went round to the other side of the coach and sat down on its steps. It's more to the left. Why, little Matisji is over there, and this is right on the other side. Several men joined the first two. See how it's flaring, said one. That's a fire in Moscow. either in the Sushchevsky or the Raghoski quarter. No one replied to this remark,

Starting point is 16:04:33 and for some time they all gazed silently at the spreading flames of the second fire in the distance. Old Daniel Tarentage, the Count's valet, as he was called, came up to the group and shouted at Mishka. "'What are you staring at? You good for nothing? The Count will be calling, and there's nobody there. Go and gather the clothes together!' I only ran out to get some water, said Mishka.

Starting point is 16:04:59 But what do you think, Daniel Tarentage? Doesn't it look as if that glow were in Moscow? remarked one of the footmen. Daniel Tarentage made no reply, and again, for a long time, they were all silent. The glow spread, rising and falling, farther and farther still. God have mercy, it's windy and dry, said another voice. Just look.

Starting point is 16:05:26 See what it's doing now! Oh, Lord, you can even see the crows flying! Lord, have mercy on us sinners! They'll put it out, no fear! Who's to put it out? Daniel Tarentage, who had hitherto been silent, was heard to say. His voice was calm and deliberate. Moscow it is, brothers, said he.

Starting point is 16:05:50 Mother Moscow, the white. His voice faltered, and he gave him. gave way to an old man's sob. And it was as if they had all only waited for this to realize the significance for them of the glow they were watching. Sighs were heard, words of prayer, and the sobbing of the Count's old valet. End of Book 11, Chapter 30. Book 11, Chapter 31, of War and Peace, Volume 3, by Leo Tolstoy, translated by Elmer Maude. This Libervox recording is in the public domain. Book 11 Chapter 31

Starting point is 16:06:37 The valet, returning to the cottage, informed the Count that Moscow was burning. The Count donned his dressing-gown and went out to look. Sonia and Madame Chos, who had not yet undressed, went out with him. Only Natasha and the Countess remained in the room. Petya was no longer with the family. He had gone on with his regiment, which was making for Troitsa. The Countess, on hearing that Moscow was on fire, began to cry. Natasha, pale with a fixed look, was sitting on the bench under the icons just where she had

Starting point is 16:07:13 sat down on arriving and paid no attention to her father's words. She was listening to the ceaseless moaning of the adjutant three houses off. "'Oh, how terrible!' said Sonia, returning from the yard, chilled and frightened. "'I believe the whole of Moscow will burn. there's an awful glow. Natasha, do look! You can see it from the window, she said to her cousin, evidently wishing to distract her mind. But Natasha looked at her as if not understanding what was said to her, and again fixed her eyes on the corner of the stove. She had been in this condition of stupor since the morning, when Sonia, to the surprise and annoyance of the countess,

Starting point is 16:07:54 had for some unaccountable reason found it necessary to tell Natasha of Prince Andrew's wound, and of his being with their party. The Countess had seldom been so angry with anyone as she was with Sonia. Sonia had cried and begged to be forgiven, and now, as if trying to atone for her fault, paid unceasing attention to her cousin. "'Look, Natasha, how dreadfully it is burning,' said she. "'What's burning?' asked Natasha.

Starting point is 16:08:23 "'Oh, yes, Moscow.' "'And, as if in order not to offend Sonia and to get rid of her, She turned her face to the window, looked out in such a way that it was evident that she could not see anything, and again settled down in her former attitude. "'But you didn't see it.' "'Yes, I really did,' Natasha replied in a voice that pleaded to be left in peace. Both the Countess and Sonia understood that, naturally, neither Moscow nor the burning of Moscow, nor anything else could seem of importance to Natasha.

Starting point is 16:08:57 The Count returned and laid down behind the partition. The Countess went up to her daughter and touched her head with the back of her hand, as she was one to do when Natasha was ill, then touched her forehead with her lips as if to feel whether she was feverish and finally kissed her. "'You are cold. You are trembling all over. You'd better lie down,' said the Countess. "'Lie down? All right, I will. I'll lie down at once,' said the Countess. "'All right, I will. I'll lie down at once,' said Natasha. When Natasha had been told that morning that Prince Andrew was seriously wounded

Starting point is 16:09:33 and was traveling with their party, she had at first asked many questions. "'Where was he going? How was he wounded? Was it serious? And could she see him?' But after she had been told that she could not see him, that he was seriously wounded but that his life was not in danger, she ceased to ask questions or to speak at all. evidently disbelieving what they told her, and convinced that say what she might, she would still be told the same. All the way, she had sat motionless in a corner of the coach with wide open eyes, and the expression in them which the countess knew so well and feared so much, and now she sat in the same way on the bench where she had seated herself on arriving.

Starting point is 16:10:17 She was planning something, and either deciding or had already decided something in her mind. The Countess knew this, but what it might be she did not know, and this alarmed and tormented her. "'Natasha! Undressed, darling! Lie down on my bed!' A bed had been made on a bedstead for the Countess only. Madame Choss and the two girls were to sleep on some hay on the floor.

Starting point is 16:10:43 "'No, Mama, I will lie down here on the floor,' Natasha replied irritably, and she went to the window and opened it. Through the open window, the moans of the agonels of the agonement. could be heard more distinctly. She put her head out into the damp night air, and the countess saw her slim neck shaking with sobs and throbbing against the window frame. Latasha knew it was not Prince Andrew who was moaning.

Starting point is 16:11:08 She knew Prince Andrew was in the same yard as themselves, and in a part of the hut across the passage. But this dreadful, incessant moaning made her sob. The countess exchanged a look with Sonia. "'Lie down, darling. "'Lay down, my pet,' said the Countess, softly touching Natasha's shoulders. "'Come, lie down.' "'Oh, yes, I'll lie down at once,' said Natasha,

Starting point is 16:11:35 and began hurriedly undressing, tugging at the tapes of her petticoat. When she had thrown off her dress and put on a dressing jacket, she sat down with her foot under her on the bed that had been made up on the floor, jerked her thin and rather short plate of hair to the front, and began replating it. Her long, thin, practice fingers rapidly unplated, replated, and tied up her plate. Her head moved from side to side from habit, but her eyes, feverishly wide, looked fixedly before her. When her toilette for the night was finished, she sank gently onto the sheet spread over the

Starting point is 16:12:10 hay on the side nearest the door. "'Natasha, you'd better lie in the middle,' said Sonia. "'I'll stay here,' muttered Natasha. Do lie down," she added crossly, and buried her face in the pillow. The Countess, Madame Choss, and Sonia undressed hastily and lay down. The small lamp in front of the icons was the only light left in the room. But in the yard there was a light from the fire at Little Matisci a mile and a half away, and through the night came the noise of people shouting at a tavern Mamanov's Cossacks

Starting point is 16:12:46 had set up across the street, and the adjutant's unceasing moans could still be heard. For a long time, Natasha listened attentively to the sounds that reached her from inside and outside the room and did not move. First, she heard her mother praying and sighing, and the creak of her bed under her, then Madame Shaw's familiar whistling snore and Sonia's gentle breathing. Then the countess called to Natasha. Natasha did not answer. "'I think she's asleep, Mama,' said Sonia softly. After short silence, the Countess spoke again, but this time no one replied. Soon after that, Natasha heard her mother's even breathing.

Starting point is 16:13:30 Natasha did not move, though her little bare foot, thrust out from under the quilt, was growing cold on the bare floor. As if to celebrate a victory over everybody, a cricket chirped in a crack in the wall. A cock rowed far off, and another replied nearby. The shouting in the tavern had died down. Only the moaning of the adjutant was heard. Natasha sat up. Sonia, are you asleep?

Starting point is 16:13:57 Mama? she whispered. No one replied. Natasha rose slowly and carefully, crossed herself, and stepped cautiously on the cold and dirty floor with her slim, supple, bare feet. The bores of the floor creaked. Stepping cautiously from one foot to the other, she ran like a kitten the few steps to the door

Starting point is 16:14:17 and grasped the cold door handle. It seemed to her that something heavy was beating rhythmically against all the walls of the room. It was her own heart, sinking with alarm and terror and overflowing with love. She opened the door and stepped across the threshold and onto the cold, damp, earthen floor of the passage. The cold she felt refreshed her. With her bare feet she touched a sleeping man, stepped over him, and opened the door into the part of the hut where Prince Andrew lay. It was dark in there. In the farthest corner, on a bench beside a bed on which something was lying, stood a tallow

Starting point is 16:14:56 candle with a long, thick and smoldering wick. From the moment she had been told that morning of Prince Andrew's wound and his presence there, Natasha had resolved to see him. She did not know why she had to. She knew the meeting would be painful, but felt the more convinced that it was necessary. day she had lived only in hope of seeing him that night. But now that the moment had come, she was filled with dread of what she might see. How was he maimed? What was left of him? Was he like that incessant moaning of the adjutants? Yes, he was altogether like that. In her

Starting point is 16:15:37 imagination, he was that terrible moaning personified. When she saw an indistinct shape in the corner and mistook his knees raised under the quilt for his shoulders, She imagined a horrible body there and stood still in terror. But an irresistible impulse drew her forward. She cautiously took one step and then another, and found herself in the middle of a small room containing baggage. Another man, Tomokin, was lying in a corner on the benches beneath the icons, and two others, the doctor and a valet lay on the floor.

Starting point is 16:16:13 The valet sat up and whispered something. Tomokin, kept awake by the pain in his wounded leg, gazed with wide open eyes at this strange apparition of a girl in a white chemise, dressing-jacket, and nightcap. The valet's sleepy, frightened exclamation, "'What do you want? What's the matter?' May Natasha approach more swiftly to what was lying in the corner. Horribly unlike a man as that body looked. She must see him. She passed the valet. The snuff fell from the candle-wick, and she saw a

Starting point is 16:16:45 Prince Andrew clearly, with his arms outside the quilt, and such as she had always seen him. He was the same as ever, but the feverish color of his face, his glittering eyes rapturously turned toward her, and especially his neck, delicate as a child's revealed by the turned-down collar of his shirt, gave him a peculiarly innocent, childlike look, such as she had never seen on him before. She went up to him, and with a swift, flexible, youthful movement, dropped on her knees. He smiled and held out his hand to her. End of Book 11, Chapter 31. Book 11, Chapter 32, of War and Peace, Volume 3, by Leo Tolstoy, translated by Elmer Maude. This Libervox recording is in the public domain.

Starting point is 16:17:45 Book 11, Chapter 32 Seven days had passed since Prince Andrew found himself in the ambulance station on the field of Borodino. His fevered state and the inflammation of his bowels, which were injured, were in the doctor's opinion, sure to carry him off. But on the seventh day he ate with pleasure a piece of bread with some tea, and the doctor noticed that his temperature was lower. He had regained consciousness that morning.

Starting point is 16:18:13 The first night after they left Moscow had been fairly warm, and he had remained in the Kalesh, but at Matisci, the wounded man himself asked to be taken out and given some tea. The pain caused by his removal into the hut had made him groan aloud and again lose consciousness. When he had been placed on his camp-bed, he lay for a long time motionless with closed eyes.

Starting point is 16:18:36 Then he opened them and whispered softly, "'And the tea?' His remembering such a small detail of everyday life astonished the doctor. He felt Prince Andrew's pulse, and to his surprise and dissatisfaction, found it had improved. He was dissatisfied because he knew by experience that if his patient did not die now,

Starting point is 16:18:58 he would do so a little later with greater suffering. Tomokin, the red-nosed major of Prince Andrews regiment, had joined him in Moscow and was being taken along with him, having been wounded in the leg at the Battle of Borodino. They were accompanied by a doctor, Prince Andrew's valet, his coachman, and two orderlies. They gave Prince Andrews some tea. He drank it eagerly. looking with feverish eyes at the door in front of him, as if trying to understand and remember something.

Starting point is 16:19:29 "'I don't want any more. Is Tomokin here?' he asked. Tomokin crept along the bench to him. "'I am here, Your Excellency.' "'How's your wound?' "'Mine, sir? All right. But how about you?'

Starting point is 16:19:44 Prince Andrew again pondered as if trying to remember something. "'Couldn't one get a book?' he asked. What book? The Gospels. I haven't one. The doctor promised to procure it for him and began to ask how he was feeling. Pritz Andrew answered all his questions reluctantly but reasonably, and then said he wanted a bolster placed under him as he was uncomfortable and in great pain.

Starting point is 16:20:12 The doctor and valet lifted the cloak with which he was covered, and making wry faces at the noisome smell of mortifying flesh that came from the wound, began examining that dreadful place. The doctor was very much displeased about something and made a change in the dressings, turning the wounded man over so that he groaned again and grew unconscious and delirious from the agony. He kept asking them to give him a book and put it under him.

Starting point is 16:20:39 "'What trouble would it be to you?' he said. "'I have not got one. Please get it for me and put it under for a moment.' He pleaded in a piteous voice. The doctor went into the passage to wash his hands. "'You fellows have no conscience,' said he to the valet, who was pouring water over his hands. "'For just one moment I didn't look after you. It's such pain, you know, that I wonder how he can bear it.' "'By the Lord Jesus Christ, I thought we had put something under him,' said the valet.

Starting point is 16:21:13 The first time Prince Andrew understood where he was and what was the matter with him, and remember being wounded and how, was when he asked him. to be carried into the hut after his calesh had stopped at Matisci. After growing confused from pain while being carried into the hut, he again regained consciousness, and while drinking tea once more recalled all that had happened to him, and above all vividly remembered the moment at the ambulance station, when, at the sight of the sufferings of a man he disliked, those new thoughts had come to him, which promised him happiness. And those thoughts, though now vague and indefinite, again possessed his soul.

Starting point is 16:21:50 He remembered that he had now a new source of happiness, and that this happiness had something to do with the Gospels. That was why he asked for a copy of them. The uncomfortable position in which they had put him and turned him over again confused his thoughts, and when he came to himself a third time it was in the complete stillness of the night. Everybody near him was sleeping. A cricket chirped from across the passage.

Starting point is 16:22:18 Someone was shouting and singing in the street. Cockroaches rustled on the table, on the icons, and on the walls, and a big fly flopped at the head of the bed and around the candle beside him, the wick of which was charred and had shaped itself like a mushroom. His mind was not in a normal state. A healthy man usually thinks of, feels and remembers innumerable things simultaneously, but has the power and will to select one sequence of thoughts or events on which to fix his whole attention.

Starting point is 16:22:49 A healthy man can tear him so. away from the deepest reflections to say a civil word to someone who comes in, and can then return again to his own thoughts. But Prince Andrew's mind was not in a normal state in that respect. All the powers of his mind were more active and clear than ever, but they acted apart from his will. Most diverse thoughts and images occupied him simultaneously. At times his brain suddenly began to work with a vigor, clearness, and depth it had never reached when he was in health. But suddenly, in the midst of its work, it would turn to some unexpected idea, and he had not the strength to turn it back again. Yes, a new happiness was revealed to me of which

Starting point is 16:23:32 man cannot be deprived. He thought, as he lay in the semi-darkness of the quiet hut, gazing fixedly before him with feverish, wide-open eyes. A happiness lying beyond material forces, outside the material influences that act on man, a happiness of the soul alone, the happiness of loving. Every man can understand it, but to conceive it and enjoy it was possible only for God. But how did God enjoin that law? And why was the sun? And suddenly the sequence of these thoughts broke off, and Prince Andrew heard, without

Starting point is 16:24:11 knowing whether it was a delusion or reality, a soft whispering voice. incessantly and rhythmically repeating, Pity, Pity, Pity, and then Titty, and then again, Pity, Pity, Pity, and Tee, Tee once more. At the same time, he felt that above his face, above the very middle of it, some strange airy structure was being erected out of slender needles or splinters to the sound of this whispered music. He felt that he had to balance carefully, though it was difficult, so that this airy Mary's structure should not collapse.

Starting point is 16:24:47 But nevertheless, it kept collapsing and again slowly rising to the sound of whispered rhythmic music. "'It stretches, stretches, spreading out and stretching,' said Prince Andrew to himself. While listening to this whispering and feeling the sensation of this drawing out and the construction of this edifice of needles, he also saw by glimpses a red halo round the candle and heard the rustle of the cockroaches and the buzzing of the fly that flopped against his pillow and his face. Each time the fly touched his face, it gave him a burning sensation, and yet to his surprise it did not destroy the structure,

Starting point is 16:25:28 though it knocked against the very region of his face where it was rising. But besides this, there was something else of importance. It was something white by the door, the statue of a sphinx, which also oppressed him. "'But perhaps that's my shirt on the table,' he thought. "'And that's my legs, and that is the door. "'But why is it always stretching and drawing itself out, "'and pity, pity, pity, pity, pity, pity, and pitty, pity? "'That's enough, please leave off,' Prince Andrew painfully entreated someone.

Starting point is 16:26:03 "'And suddenly thoughts and feelings again swam to the surface of his mind "'with peculiar clearness and force. "'Yes, love you. love, he thought again quite clearly. But not love which loves for something, for some quality, for some purpose, or for some reason, but the love which I, while dying, first experienced when I saw my enemy and yet loved him. I experienced that feeling of love which is the very essence of the soul and does not require an object. Now again I feel that bliss. To love one's neighbor, to love one's enemies, to love everything, to love God in all his manifestations.

Starting point is 16:26:48 It is possible to love someone dear to you with human love, but an enemy can only be loved by divine love. That is why I experienced such joy when I felt that I loved that man. What has become of him? Is he alive? When loving with human love, one may pass from love to hatred, but divine love cannot change. No, neither death nor anything else can destroy it. It is the very essence of the soul. Yet, how many people have I hated in my life? And of them all, I loved and hated none as I did her. And he vividly pictured to himself Natasha, not as he had done in the past with nothing but her charms which gave him delight, but for the first time picturing to himself her soul. and he understood her feelings, her sufferings, shame, and remorse.

Starting point is 16:27:46 He now understood for the first time all the cruelty of his rejection of her, the cruelty of his rupture with her. If only it were possible for me to see her once more, just once, looking into those eyes to say, Pity, Pity, Pity, and Titi and Pity, Pity, Bipity, boom, flopped the fly, and this attention was suddenly carried into a night. another world, a world of reality and delirium in which something particular was happening. In that world, some structure was still being erected and did not fall, something was still

Starting point is 16:28:22 stretching out, and the candle with its red halo was still burning, and the same shirt-like sphinx lay near the door. But besides all this, something creaked. There was a whiff of fresh air, and a new white sphinx appeared, standing at the door. And that sphinx had the pale face and shining eyes of the very Natasha of whom he had just been thinking. Oh, how oppressive this continual delirium is, thought Prince Andrew, trying to drive that face from his imagination. But the face remained before him with the force of reality and drew nearer. Prince Andrew wished to return to that former world a pure thought, but he could not, and Delirium drew him back into its domain. The soft wish,

Starting point is 16:29:10 whispering voice continued its rhythmic murmur. Something oppressed him and stretched out, and the strange face was before him. Prince Andrew collected all his strength in an effort to recover his senses. He moved a little, and suddenly there was a ringing in his ears, a dimness in his eyes, and like a man plunged into water he'd lost consciousness. When he came to himself, Natasha, that same living Natasha, whom of all people he most long to love with this new, pure, divine love that had been revealed to him, was kneeling before him. He realized that it was the real living Natasha, and he was not surprised, but quietly happy. Natasha, motionless on her knees, she was unable to stir, with frightened eyes riveted on him,

Starting point is 16:29:59 was restraining her sobs. Her face was pale and rigid, only in the lower part of it something quivered. Prince Andrews sighed with relief, smiled, and held out his hand. "'You?' he said. "'How fortunate!' With a rapid but careful movement, Natasha drew nearer to him on her knees, and taking his hand carefully, bend her face over it and began kissing it, just touching it lightly with her lips.

Starting point is 16:30:30 "'Forgive me!' she whispered, raising her head and glancing at him. "'Forgive me!' "'I love you,' said Prince Andrew. "'Forgive?' "'Forgive what?' he asked. "'Forgive me for what I have done,' faltered Natasha in a scarcely audible, broken whisper, and began kissing his hand more rapidly, just touching it with her lips. "'I love you more, better than before,' said Prince Andrew,

Starting point is 16:31:02 lifting her face with his hand so as to look into her eyes. Those eyes, filled with happy tears, gazed at him timidly, compassionately, and with joyous love. Natasha's thin, pale face, with its swollen lips, was more than plain. It was dreadful. But Prince Andrew did not see that. He saw her shining eyes which were beautiful. They heard the sound of voices behind them.

Starting point is 16:31:29 Peter the valet, who was now wide awake, had roused the doctor. Tomokin, who had not slept at all because of the pain in his leg, had long been watching all that was going on, carefully covering his bare body with the sheet as he huddled up on his bench. "'What's this?' said the doctor, rising from his bed. "'Please go away, madam!' At that moment a mate sent by the Countess, who had noticed her daughter's absence, knocked at the door. Like a somnambulist aroused from her sleep, Natasha went out of the room, and returning to her hut, fell sobbing on her bed.

Starting point is 16:32:06 From that time, during all the rest of the Rostov's journey, at every halting place and wherever they spent a night, Natasha never left the wounded Balkansky, and the doctor had to admit that he had not expected from a young girl either such firmness or such skill in nursing a wounded man. Dreadful as the countess imagined it would be should Prince Andrew die in her daughter's arms during the journey, as, judging by what the doctor said it seemed might easily happen, she could not oppose Natasha.

Starting point is 16:32:37 Though, with the intimacy now established between the wounded man and Natasha, the thought occurred that, should he recover, their former engagement would be renewed. No one, least of all Natasha and Prince Andrew, spoke of this. The unsettled question of life and death, which hung not only over Bolkonsky, but over all Russia, shut out all other considerations. End of Book 11, Chapter 32. Book 11, Chapter 33. Of War and Peace, Volume 3, by Leo Tolstoy, translated by Elmer Maude.

Starting point is 16:33:20 This Libervox recording is in the public domain. Book 11, Chapter 33. On the 3rd of September, Pierre awoke late. His head was aching, the clothes in which he had slept without undressing felt uncomfortable on his body, and his mind had a dim consciousness of something shameful he had done the day before. That something shameful was his yesterday's conversation with Captain Rambal. It was eleven by the clock, but it seemed peculiarly dark out of doors.

Starting point is 16:33:56 Pierre Rose rubbed his eyes, and seeing the pistol with an engraved stock which Garasim had replaced on the writing table, he remembered where he was and what lay before him that very day. "'Am I not too late?' he thought. "'No. Probably he won't make his entry to Moscow before noon.' Pierre did not allow himself to reflect on what lay before him, but hastened to act. After arranging his clothes, he took the pistol and was about to go out. But it then occurred to him for the first time that he certainly could not carry the weapon in his hand through the streets. It was difficult to hide such a big pistol, even under his

Starting point is 16:34:37 wide coat. He could not carry it unnoticed in his belt or under his arm. Besides, it had been discharged and he had not had time to reload it. No matter, the dagger will do, he said to himself, though when planning his design, he had more than once come to the conclusion that the chief mistake made by this student in 1809 had been to try to kill Napoleon with a dagger. But as his Chief Aim consisted, not in carrying out his design, but in proving to himself that he would not abandon his intention and was doing all he could to achieve it. Pierre hastily took the blunt, jagged dagger in a green sheath which he had bought at the Sukarev market with the pistol, and hid it under his waistcoat. Having tied a girdle over his coat and pulled his cap low on his

Starting point is 16:35:28 head, Pierre went down the corridor, trying to avoid making a noise or meeting the captain, and passed out into the street. The conflagration, at which he had looked with so much indifference the evening before, had greatly increased during the night. Moscow was on fire in several places. The buildings in carriage row, across the river, in the bazaar and the Pavarskoy, as well as the barges on the Moscow River, and the timber yards by the Dorgomilov Bridge, were all ablaze.

Starting point is 16:35:59 Pierre's way led through side streets to the Pavarskoy, and from there to the Church of St. Nicholas, on the Arbat, where he had long before decided that the deed should be done. The gates of most of the houses were locked, and the shutters up. The streets and lanes were deserted. The air was full of smoke and the smell of burning. Now and then he met Russians with anxious and timid faces, and Frenchmen with an air not of the city, but of the camp,

Starting point is 16:36:28 walking in the middle of the streets. Both the Russians and the French looked at Pierre with surprise. Besides his height and stoutness, and the strange morose look of suffering on his face and whole figure, the Russians stared at Pierre because they could not make out to what class he could belong. The French followed him with astonishment in their eyes, chiefly because Pierre, unlike all the other Russians who gazed at the French with fear and curiosity, paid no attention to them.

Starting point is 16:36:59 At the gate of one house, three Frenchmen, who were explaining something to some Russians who did not understand them, stopped Pierre asking if he did not know French. Pierre shook his head and went on. In another side street, a sentinel standing beside a green case on shouted at him, but only when the shout was threateningly repeated and he heard the click of the man's musket as he raised it, did Pierre understand that he had to pass on the other side of the street. He heard nothing and saw nothing of what went on around him. He carried his round him. He carried his resolution within himself in terror and haste, like something dreadful and alien to him, for after the previous night's experience he was afraid of losing it.

Starting point is 16:37:44 But he was not destined to bring his mood safely to his destination. And even had he not been hindered by anything on the way, his intention could not now have been carried out, for Napoleon had passed the Arbat more than four hours previously on his way from the Dorogamilov suburb to the Kremlin, and was that, you know, now sitting in a very gloomy frame of mine in a royal study in the Kremlin, giving detailed and exact orders as to measures to be taken immediately to extinguish the fire, to prevent looting, and to reassure the inhabitants. But Pierre did not know this. He was entirely absorbed in what lay before him, and was tortured, as those are who obstinately undertake a task that

Starting point is 16:38:27 is impossible for them, not because of its difficulty, but because of its incompatibility with their natures, by the fear of weakening at the decisive moment and so losing his self-esteem. Though he heard and saw nothing around him, he found his way by instinct and did not go wrong in the side streets that led to the Pavarskoi. As Pierre approached that street, the smoke became denser and denser. He even felt the heat of the fire. Occasionally, curly tongues of flame rose from under the roofs of the houses. He met more people in the streets, and they were more excited. But Pierre, though he felt that something unusual was happening around him,

Starting point is 16:39:09 did not realize that he was approaching the fire. As he was going along a footpath across a wide-open space adjoining the Pavarskoi on one side and the gardens of Prince Grosinski's house on the other, Pierre suddenly heard the desperate weeping of a woman close to him. He stopped as if awakening from a dream and lifted, his head. By the side of the path, on the dusty dry grass, all sorts of household goods lay in a heap, feather beds, a samovar, icons and trunks. On the ground, beside the trunks, sat a thin woman no longer young, with long, prominent upper teeth and wearing a black

Starting point is 16:39:48 cloak and cap. This woman, swaying to and fro and muttering something, was choking with sobs. Two girls of about ten and twelve, dressed in dirty short frocks and cloaks, were staring at their mother with a look of stupefaction on their pale, frightened faces. The youngest child, a boy of about seven, who wore an overcoat and an immense cap evidently not his own, was crying in his old nurse's arms. A dirty, barefooted maid was sitting on a trunk, and having undone her pale-colored plate was pulling it straight and sniffing at her singed hair. The woman's husband, a short, round-shouldered man in the undress uniform of a civilian official, with sausage-shaped whiskers and showing under his square-set cap, the hair smoothly

Starting point is 16:40:37 brushed forward over his temples, with expressionless face was moving the trunks, which were placed one on another, and was dragging some garments from under them. As soon as she saw Pierre, the woman almost threw herself at his feet. "'Dear people, good Christians, Save me! Help me, dear friends. Help us somebody! She muttered between her sobs. My girl, my daughter, my youngest daughter is left behind. She's burned. Oh, was it for this I nursed you? Oh! Don't, Mary Nikolayevna, said her husband to her in a low voice, evidently only to justify

Starting point is 16:41:18 himself before the stranger. Sister must have taken her, or else where can she be? he added. Monster! Villain! shouted the woman angrily, suddenly ceasing to weep. You have no heart. You don't feel for your own child! Another man would have rescued her from the fire.

Starting point is 16:41:37 But this is a monster, and neither a man nor a father. You honored, sir, or a noble man, she went on addressing Pierre rapidly between her sobs. The fire broke out alongside and blew our way. The maid called out fire, and we rushed to you. to collect our things. We ran out just as we were. This is what we have brought away. The icons and my dowry bed, and all the rest is lost. We seized the children, but not Katie. Oh, oh, Lord! And again she began to sob. My child, my dear one! Burned! Burned! But where was she

Starting point is 16:42:17 left? asked Pierre. From the expression of his animated face, the woman saw her. that this man might help her. "'Oh, dear sir!' she cried, seizing him by the legs. "'My benefactor! Set my heart at ease! Aniska, go, you horrid girl! Show him the way!' She cried to the maid, angrily opening her mouth and still farther exposing her long teeth. "'Show me the way! Show me, I—I'll do it!' gasped Pierre rapidly. The dirty maid-servant stepped from behind the trunk, put up her plate, sighed, and went on her short bare feet along the path.

Starting point is 16:42:55 Pierre felt as if he had come back to life after a heavy swoon. He held his head higher, his eyes shone with the light of life, and with swift steps he followed the maid, overtook her, and came out on the Pavarskoi. The whole street was full of clouds of black smoke. Tongues of flame here and there broke through that cloud. A great number of people crowded in front of the conflagration. In the middle of the street stood a French general saying something to those. around him. Pierre, accompanied by the maid, was advancing to the spot where the general stood,

Starting point is 16:43:28 but the French soldier stopped him. "'O'ne pass, you can't pass,' cried a voice. "'This way, uncle,' cried the girl, "'we'll pass through the side street by the Nekulans.' Pierre turned back, giving a spring now and then to keep up with her. She ran across the street, turned down a side street to the left, and passing three houses turned into a yard on the right. "'It's here, close by,' said she, and, running across the yard, opened a gate in a wooden fence, and stopping, pointed out to him a small wooden wing of the house, which was burning brightly and fiercely. One of its sides had fallen in, another was on fire, and bright flames

Starting point is 16:44:11 issued from the openings of the windows and from under the roof. As Pierre passed through the fence gate, he was enveloped by hot air and involuntarily stopped. "'Which is it? Which is your house?' he asked. "'Oh!' wailed the girl, pointing to the wing. "'That's it! That was our lodging. "'You've burned to death, our treasure! Katie! My precious little Missy!' "'Oh!' lamented Aniska, who, at the side of the fire, felt that she too must give expression to her feelings. Pierre rushed to the wing, but the heat was so great that he involuntarily

Starting point is 16:44:50 passed round in a curve and came upon the large house that was as yet burning only at one end, just below the roof, and around which swarmed a crowd of Frenchmen. At first Pierre did not realize what these men, who were dragging something out, were about. But seeing before him a Frenchman hitting a peasant with a blunt saber and trying to take from him a fox-fur coat, he vaguely understood that looting was going on there, but he had no time to dwell on that idea. The sounds of crackling and the din of falling walls and ceilings, the whistle and hiss of the flames, the excited shouts of the people, and the sight of the swaying smoke, now gathering into thick black clouds, and now soaring up with glittering sparks, with here and there dense sheaves

Starting point is 16:45:36 of flame, now red, and now like golden fish scales creeping along the walls, and the heat and smoke and rapidity of motion, produced on Pierre the usual animating effects of a conflagration. It had a peculiarly strong effect on him because at the side of the fire he felt himself suddenly freed from the ideas that had weighed him down. He felt young, bright, adroit, and resolute. He ran round to the other side of the lodge and was about to dash into that part of it, which was still standing, when just above his head he heard several voices shouting, and then a crackling sound and the ring of something heavy falling close beside him. Pierre looked up and saw at a window of the large house some Frenchman who had just

Starting point is 16:46:22 thrown out the drawer of a chest filled with metal articles. Other French soldiers standing below went up to the drawer. "'What does this fellow want?' shouted one of them, referring to Pierre. "'There's a child in that house. Haven't you seen a child?' cried Pierre. "'What's he talking about? Get along!' said several voices, and one of the soldiers, evidently afraid that Pierre might want to take from them some of the plate and bronzes that were in the drawer, moved threateningly toward him. "'A child?' shouted a Frenchman from above.

Starting point is 16:46:56 "'I did hear something squealing in the garden. Perhaps it's his brat that the fellow was looking for. After all, one must be human, you know.' "'Where is it? Where?' said Pierre. "'There, there!' shouted the Frenchman at the window. pointing to the garden at the back of the house. Wait a bit. I'm coming down. And a minute or two later, the Frenchman, a black-eyed fellow with a spot on his cheek in shirt-sleeves,

Starting point is 16:47:25 really did jump out of a window on the ground floor, and clapping Pierre on the shoulder, ran with him into the garden. "'Hurry up, you others!' he called out to his comrades. "'It's getting hot!' When they reached a gravel path behind the house, the Frenchman pulled Pierre by the arm and pointed to a round, gravel space where a three-year-old girl in a pink dress

Starting point is 16:47:46 was lying under a seat. "'There is your child. Oh, a girl. So much the better,' said the Frenchman. "'Good-bye, Fatty. We must be human. We are all mortal, you know.' And the Frenchman, with the spot on his cheek,

Starting point is 16:48:01 ran back to his comrades. Breathless with joy, Pierre ran to the little girl and was going to take her in his arms. But seeing a stranger, The sickly, scrawfulness-looking child, unattractively like her mother, began to yell and run away. Pierre, however, seized her and lifted her in his arms. She screamed desperately and angrily, and tried with her little hands to pull Pierre's hands away

Starting point is 16:48:27 and to bite them with their slobbering mouth. Pierre was seized by a sense of horror and repulsion, such as he had experienced when touching some nasty little animal. But he made an effort not to throw the child down, and ran with her to the large house. It was now, however, impossible to get back the way he had come. The maid Aniska was no longer there, and Pierre, with a feeling of pity and disgust,

Starting point is 16:48:55 pressed the wet, painfully sobbing child to himself as tenderly as he could, and ran with her through the garden seeking another way out. End of Book 11, Chapter 33. Book 11, Chapter 34, of War and Peace Volume 3 by Leo Tolstoy, translated by Elmer Maude. This Libervox recording is in the public domain. Book 11, Chapter 34 Having run through different yards and side streets, Pierre got back with his little

Starting point is 16:49:36 burden to the Grisinski Garden at the corner of the Povarskoy. He did not at first recognize the place from which he had set out to look for the child, so crowded was it now with people and goods that had been dragged out of the houses. besides Russian families who had taken refuge here from the fire with their belongings, there were several French soldiers in a variety of clothing. Pierre took no notice of them. He hurried to find the family of that civil servant in order to restore the daughter to her mother and go to save someone else.

Starting point is 16:50:07 Pierre felt that he had still much to do and to do quickly. Glowing with the heat and from running, he felt at that moment more strongly than ever the sense of youth, animation, and deterrenties. that had come on him when he ran to save the child. She had now become quiet and clinging with her little hands to Pierre's coat, sat on his arm gazing about her, like some little wild animal. He glanced at her occasionally with a slight smile. He fancied he saw something pathetically innocent in that frightened, sickly little face. He did not find the civil servant or his wife where he had left them. He walked among the crowd with rapid steps, scanning the various faces he

Starting point is 16:50:49 met. Involuntarily, he noticed a Georgian or Armenian family consisting of a very handsome old man of oriental type, wearing a new cloth-covered sheepskin coat and new boots, an old woman of similar type and a young woman. That very young woman seemed to pierre the perfection of oriental beauty, with her sharply outlined, arched black eyebrows, and the extraordinarily soft, bright color of her long, beautiful, expressionless face. Amid the scattered property. Amid the scattered property, and the crowd on the open space, she, in her rich satin cloak with a bright lilac shawl on her head, suggested a delicate exotic plant thrown out onto the snow. She was sitting on some bundles a little behind the old woman, and looked from under her long lashes with motionless,

Starting point is 16:51:36 large, almond-shaped eyes at the ground before her. Evidently, she was aware of her beauty and fearful because of it. Her face struck Pierre, and hurrying along by the fence, he turned several times to look at her. When he had reached the fence, still, without finding those he sought, he stopped and looked about him. With a child in his arms, his figure was now more conspicuous than before, and a group of Russians, both men and women, gathered about him. "'Have you lost anyone, my dear fellow? You're of the gentry yourself, aren't you? Whose child is it?' they asked him. Pierre replied that the child belonged to a woman in a black coat, who had been sitting there with her other children.

Starting point is 16:52:18 and he asked whether anyone knew where she had gone. "'Why, that must be the Inferovs,' said an old deacon, addressing a pock-marked peasant woman. "'Lord have mercy! Lord have mercy!' he added in his customary base. "'The Inferovs?' "'No,' said the woman. "'They left in the morning. That must be either Mary Nikolaevna's or the Ivanov's.'

Starting point is 16:52:42 "'He says a woman, and Mary Nikolaevna is a lady,' remarked to house-surf. "'Do you know her? She's thin, with long teeth,' said Pierre. "'That's Mary Nikolavna. They went inside the garden when these wolves swooped down,' said the woman, pointing to the French soldiers. "'Oh, Lord, have mercy,' added the deacon. "'Go over that way. They're there. It's she. She kept on lamenting and crying,' continued the woman. "'It's she. Here, this way!' But Pierre was not listening to the woman. He had to the woman. He had

Starting point is 16:53:18 for some seconds been intently watching what was going on a few steps away. He was looking at the Armenian family and at two French soldiers who had gone up to them. One of these, a nimble little man, was wearing a blue coat tied round the waist with a rope. He had a nightcap on his head and his feet were bare. The other, whose appearance particularly struck Pierre, was a long-length, round-shouldered, fair-haired man, slow in his movements and with an idiotic expression of face. He wore a woman's loose gown of frieze, blue trousers, and large, torn, Heshen boots. The little barefooted Frenchman in the blue coat went up to the Armenians, and saying

Starting point is 16:53:58 something, immediately seized the old man by his legs, and the old man at once began pulling off his boots. The other in the freeze gown stopped in front of the beautiful Armenian girl, and with his hands in his pockets stood staring at her, motionless and silent. "'Here, take the child,' said Pierre, peremptorily and hurriedly, to the woman, handing the little girl to her. Give her back to them! Give her back!"

Starting point is 16:54:23 He almost shouted, putting the child who began screaming on the ground, and again looking at the Frenchman and the Armenian family. The old man was already sitting barefoot. The little Frenchman had secured his second boot and was slapping one boot against the other. The old man was saying something in a voice broken by sobs, but Pierre caught but a glimpse of this. His whole attention was directed to the Frenchman in the freeze gown.

Starting point is 16:54:48 who, meanwhile, swaying slowly from side to side, had drawn nearer to the young woman, and taking his hands from his pockets, had seized her by the neck. The beautiful Armenian still sat motionless and in the same attitude, with her long lashes drooping as if she did not see or feel what the soldier was doing to her. While Pierre was running the few steps that separated him from the Frenchman, the tall marauder in the frie's gown was already tearing from her neck the necklace the young Armenian was wearing, and the young woman, clutching at her neck, screamed piercingly. "'Let that woman alone!' exclaimed Pierre, hoarsely in a furious voice,

Starting point is 16:55:26 seizing the soldier by his round shoulders and throwing him aside. The soldier fell, got up, and ran away, but his comrade, throwing down the boots and drawing his sword, moved threateningly toward Pierre. "'Voyant! Pad de Pettice!' "'Look here, no nonsense,' he cried. Pierre was in such a transport of rage that he remembered nothing, and his strength increased tenfold. He rushed at the bare-footed Frenchman, and before the latter had time to draw his sword,

Starting point is 16:55:57 knocked him off his feet, and hammered him with his fists. Shouts of approval were heard from the crowd around, and at the same moment a mounted patrol of French eulence appeared from around the corner. The eulans came up at a trot to Pierre and the Frenchman and surrounded them. Pierre remembered nothing of what happened after that. He only remembered beating someone and being beaten, and finally, feeling that his hands were bound and that a crowd of French soldiers stood around him and were searching him. Lieutenant, he has a dagger, were the first words Pierre understood.

Starting point is 16:56:31 "'Ah, a weapon?' said the officer, and turned to the bare-footed soldier who had been arrested with Pierre. "'All right, you can tell all about it at the court-martial.' Then he turned to Pierre. Do you speak French? Pierre looked around him with bloodshot eyes and did not reply. His face probably looked very terrible, for the officer said something in a whisper,

Starting point is 16:56:54 and four more Ulyans left the ranks and placed themselves on both sides of Pierre. Do you speak French? The officer asked again, keeping at a distance from Pierre. Call the interpreter. A little man in Russian civilian clothes rode out from the ranks, and by his clothes and manner of speaking, Pierre at once knew him to be a French salesman from one of the Moscow shops. "'He does not look like a common man,' said the interpreter, after a searching look at Pierre.

Starting point is 16:57:24 "'Ah, he looks very much like an incendiary,' remarked the officer. "'And ask him who he is,' he added. "'Who are you?' asked the interpreter in poor Russian. "'You must answer the chief.' "'I will not tell you who you. who I am. I am your prisoner. Take me!' Pierre suddenly replied in French. "'Ah, ah!' muttered the officer with a frown. "'Well, then, March!' A crowd had collected round the Uelands. Nearest to Pierre stood the pock-marked peasant

Starting point is 16:57:57 woman with the little girl, and when the patrol started, she moved forward. "'Where are they taking you to, you poor dear?' said she. "'And the little girl! The little girl! "'What am I to do with her if she's not theirs?' said the woman. "'What does that woman want?' asked the officer. Pierre was as if intoxicated. His elation increased at the sight of the little girl he had saved. "'What does she want?' he murmured. "'She is bringing me my daughter, whom I have just saved from the flames,' said he. "'Good-bye.'

Starting point is 16:58:33 And without knowing how this aimless lie had escaped him, he went along with resolute and triumphant steps between the French soldiers. The French patrol was one of those set out through the various streets of Moscow by Durinel's order to put a stop to the pillage, and especially to catch the incendiaries, who, according to the general opinion which had that day originated among the higher French officers, were the cause of the conflagrations. After marching through a number of streets, the patrol arrested five more Russian suspects, a small shopkeeper, two seminary students, a peasant,

Starting point is 16:59:09 and a house-surf, besides several looters. But, of all these various suspected characters, Pierre was considered to be the most suspicious of all. When they had all been brought for the night to a large house on the Zubov rampart that was being used as a guardhouse, Pierre was placed apart under strict guard. End of Book 11, Chapter 34. End of War and Peace, Volume 3, by Leo Tolstoy, translated by Elmer Maud. Thank you.

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