 Warrant Peace by Leo Dalstoy, translated by Elmer and Louise Maud. Book 14. This is LibriVox Recording. All LibriVox recordings are in the public domain. For all information or to volunteer, please visit LibriVox.org. Recording by Ernst Patinama. Warrant Peace. Book 14. Chapter 1. The Battle of Borodino, with the occupation of Moscow that followed it, and the flight of the French without further conflicts, is one of the most instructive phenomena in history. All historians agree that the external activity of states and nations in their conflicts with one another is expressed in wars, and that as a direct result of greater or less success in war, the political strength of states and nations increases or decreases. Strangers may be the historical account of how some king or emperor, having quarreled with another, collects an army, fights his enemy's army, gains a victory by killing three, five or ten thousand men, and subjugates a kingdom and an entire nation of several millions. All the facts of history, as far as we know it, confirm the truth of the statement that the greater or lesser success of one army against another is the cause, or at least an essential indication, of an increase or decrease in the strength of the nation, even though it is unintelligible why the defeat of an army, the hundredth part of a nation, should oblige that whole nation to submit. An army gains a victory and, at once, the rights of the conquering nation have increased to the detriment of the defeated. An army has suffered defeat, and at once, the people loses its rights in proportion to the severity of the reverse, and if its army suffers a complete defeat, the nation is quite subjugated. So according to history it has been found from the most ancient times, and so it is to our own day. All Napoleon's wars serve to confirm this rule. In proportion to the defeat of the Austrian army, Austria loses its rights, and the rights and the strength of France increase. The victories of the French at Jena and our Stadt destroy the independent existence of Prussia. But then, in 1812, the French gain a victory near Moscow, Moscow is taken and, after that, with no further battles, it is not Russia that ceases to exist, but the French army of 600,000, and then Napoleonic France itself. To strain the facts to fit the rules of history, to say that the fields of battle at Borodino remained in the hands of the Russians, or that after Moscow there were other battles that destroyed Napoleon's army is impossible. After the French victory at Borodino, there was no general engagement, nor any that were at all serious, yet the French army ceased to exist. What does this mean? If it were an example taken from the history of China, we might say that it was not an historic phenomenon, which is the historian's usual expedient when anything does not fit their standards. If there matter concerns some brief conflict, in which only a small number of troops took part, we might treat it as an exception. But this event occurred before our father's eyes, and for them it was a question of the life or death of their fatherland, and it happened in the greatest of all known wars. The period of the campaign of 1812 from the battle of Borodino to the expulsion of the French proved that the winning of a battle does not produce a conquest, and is not even an invariable indication of conquest. It proved that the force which decides the fate of peoples lies not in the conquerors, nor even in armies and battles, but in something else. The French historians, describing the condition of the French army before it left Moscow, affirm that all was in order in the Grand Army, except the cavalry, the artillery, and the transport. There was no forage for the horses or the cattle. That was a misfortune no one could remedy, for the peasants of the district burned their hay rather than let the French have it. The victory gained did not bring the usual results, because the peasants, Carpe and Vlas, who after the French had evacuated Moscow, drove in their carts to pillage the town and in general personally failed to manifest any heroic feelings, and the whole innumerable multitude of such peasants did not bring their hay to Moscow, for the high price offered them, but burned it instead. Let us imagine two men who have come out to fight a duel with rapiers according to all the rules of the art of fencing. The fencing has gone on for some time. Suddenly, one of the combatants, feeling himself wounded and understanding that a matter is no joke, but concerns his life, throws down his rapier and seizing the first cudgel that comes to hand, begins to brandish it. Then let us imagine that the combatant who so sensibly employed the best and simplest means to attain his end was at the same time influenced by traditions of chivalry and, desiring to conceal the facts of the case, insisted that he had gained his victory with the rapier according to all the rules of art. One can imagine what confusion and obscurity would result from such an account of the duel. The fencer who demanded a contest according to the rules of fencing was the French army. His opponent, who threw away the rapier and snatched up the cudgel, was the Russian people. Those who tried to explain the matter according to the rules of fencing are the historians who have described the event. After the burning of Smolensk, a war began which did not follow any previous traditions of war. The burning of towns and villages, the retreats after battles, the blow dealt at Borodino, and the renewed retreat, the burning of Moscow, the capture of marauders, the seizure of transports, and the guerrilla war were all departures from the rules. Napoleon felt this, and from the time he took up the correct fencing attitude in Moscow and instead of his opponent's rapier saw a cudgel raised above his head, he did not cease to complain to Kutuzov and to the Emperor Alexander that war was being carried on contrary to all the rules, as if there were any rules for killing people. In spite of the complaints of the French as to the non-observants of the rules, in spite of the fact that to some highly placed Russians it seemed rather disgraceful to fight with the cudgel and they wanted to assume a pose en carte or en tierce, according to all the rules and to make an adroit thrust en prime, and so on, the cudgel of the people's war was lifted with all its menacing and majestic strength and without consulting anyone's taste for rules and regardless of anything else, it rose and fell with stupid simplicity but consistently and belabored the French till the whole invasion had perished and it is well for a people who do not, as a French did in 1813, salute according to all the rules of art and presenting the hilt of the rapier gracefully and politely handed to their magnanimous conqueror but at the moment of trial without asking what rules others have adopted in similar cases, simply and easily pick up the first cudgel that comes to hand and strike with it till the feeling of resentment and revenge in their soul yields to a feeling of contempt and compassion End of Chapter 1 Recording by Ernst Batinama War and Peace, Book 14, Chapter 2 Read for LibriVox.org by Laurie Ann Walden One of the most obvious and advantageous departures from the so-called Laws of War is the action of scattered groups men pressed together in a mass. Such action always occurs in wars that take on a national character. In such actions, instead of two crowds opposing each other the men disperse, attack singly, run away when attacked by stronger forces but again attack when opportunity offers. This was done by the guerrillas in Spain by the mountain tribes in the Caucasus and by the Russians in 1812. People have called this kind of war guerrilla warfare and assume that by so calling it they have explained its meaning. But such a war does not fit in under any rule and is directly opposed to a well-known rule of tactics which is accepted as infallible. That rule says that an attacker should concentrate his forces in order to be stronger than his opponent at the moment of conflict. Guerrilla war, always successful as history shows directly infringes that rule. This contradiction arises from the fact that military science assumes the strength of an army that is identical with its numbers. Military science says that the more troops, the greater the strength. Les gros bataillons ont toujours raison. Large battalions are always victorious. For military science to say this is like defining momentum in mechanics by reference to the mass only, stating that momenta are equal or unequal to each other simply because the masses involved are equal or unequal. Momentum, quantity of motion, is the product of mass and velocity. In military affairs, the strength of an army is the product of its mass and some unknown x. Military science, seeing in history innumerable instances of the fact that the size of any army does not coincide with its strength and that small detachments defeat larger ones, obscurely admits the existence of this unknown factor and tries to discover it. Now in a geometric formation, now in the equipment employed, and most usually in the genius of the commanders. But the assignment of these various meanings to the factor does not yield results which accord with the historic facts. Yet it is only necessary to abandon the false view adopted to gratify the heroes of the efficacy of the directions issued in wartime by commanders in order to find this unknown quantity. That unknown quantity is the spirit of the army. That is to say, the greater or lesser readiness to fight and face danger felt by all the men composing an army quite independently of whether they are or are not fighting under the command of a genius in two or three line formation with cudgels or with rifles that repeat thirty times a minute. Men who want to fight will always put themselves in the most advantageous conditions for fighting. The spirit of an army is the factor which multiplied by the mass gives the resulting force to define and express the significance of this unknown factor, the spirit of an army, is a problem for science. This problem is only solvable if we cease arbitrarily to substitute for the unknown X itself, the conditions under which that force becomes apparent, such as the commands of the general, the equipment employed, and so on, mistaking these for the real significance of the factor. And if we recognize this unknown quantity in its entirety as being the greater or lesser desire to fight and to face danger, only then expressing known historic facts by equations and comparing the relative significance of this factor can we hope to define the unknown. Ten men, battalions, or divisions, fighting fifteen men, battalions, or divisions, conquer, that is, kill or take captive, all the others, while themselves losing four, so that on the one side four and on the other fifteen were lost. Consequently the four were equal to the fifteen and therefore four X equals fifteen Y. Consequently X over Y equals fifteen over four. This equation does not give us the value of the unknown factor, but gives us a ratio between two unknowns. And by bringing variously selected historic units, battles, campaigns, periods of war, into such equations, a series of numbers could be obtained in which certain laws should exist and might be discovered. The tactical rule that an army should act in masses when attacking and in smaller groups in retreat unconsciously confirms the truth that the strength of an army depends on its spirit. To lead men forward under fire, more discipline, obtainable only by movement in masses, is needed than is needed to resist attacks. But this rule which leaves out of account the spirit of the army continually proves incorrect and is in particularly striking contrast to the facts, when some strong rise or fall in the spirit of the troops occurs as in all national wars. The French retreating in 1812, though according to tactics they should have separated into detachments to defend themselves, congregated into a mass because the spirit of the army had so fallen that only the mass held the army together. The Russians, on the contrary, ought, according to tactics, to have attacked in mass, but in fact they split up into small units because their spirit had so risen that separate individuals, without orders, dealt blows at the French without needing any compulsion to induce them to expose themselves to hardships and dangers. Before partisan warfare had been officially recognized by the government, thousands of enemies, stragglers, marauders and foragers had been destroyed by the Cossacks and the peasants who killed them off as instinctively as dogs, warriors, stray, mad dog to death. Denis Stavidov with his Russian instinct was the first to recognize the value of this terrible cudgel which regardless of the rules of military science destroyed the French and to him, belongs the credit for taking the first step toward regularizing this method of warfare. On August 24, Stavidov's first partisan detachment was formed and then others were recognized. The further the campaign progressed, the more numerous these detachments became. The Irregulars destroyed the great army piecemeal. They gathered the fallen leaves that dropped of themselves from that withered tree, the French army and sometimes shook that tree itself. By October when the French were fleeing toward Smolensk there were hundreds of such companies of various sizes and characters. There were some that adopted all the army methods and had infantry, artillery, staffs, and the comforts of life. Others consisted solely of Cossack cavalry. There were also small scratch groups of foot and horse and groups of peasants and landowners that remained unknown. A Sacriston commanded one party which captured several hundred prisoners in the course of a month and there was Vassilissa, the wife of a village elder who slew hundreds of the French. The partisan warfare flamed up most fiercely in the latter days of October. Its first period had passed when the partisans themselves amazed at their own boldness, feared every minute to be surrounded and captured by the French and hid in the forests without unsettling, hardly daring to dismount and always expecting to be pursued. By the end of October this kind of warfare had taken definite shape. It had become clear to all what could be ventured against the French and what could not. Now only the commanders of detachments with staffs and moving according to rules at a distance from the French still regarded many things as impossible. The small bands that had started their activities long before had already observed the French closely considered things possible which the commanders of the big detachments did not dare to contemplate. The Cossacks and peasants who crept in among the French now considered everything possible. On October 22 a Denisov, who was one of the irregulars, was with his group at the height of the guerrilla enthusiasm. Since early morning he and his party had been on the move. All day long he had been watching the large French convoy of cavalry baggage in Russian prisoners separated from the rest of the army which as was learned from spies and prisoners was moving under a strong escort to Smolensk. Besides Denisov and Dolikov who also led a small party and moved in Denisov's vicinity the commanders of some large divisions with staffs also knew of this convoy and as Denisov expressed it were sharpening their teeth for it. Two of the commanders of large parties one a Pole and the other a German sent invitations to Denisov almost simultaneously requesting him to join up with their divisions to attack the convoy. Now brother I have grown mustaches myself said Denisov on reading these documents and he wrote to the German that despite his heartfelt desire to serve under so valiant and renowned a general he had to forgo that pleasure because he was already under the command of the Polish general. To the Polish general he replied to the same effect informing him that he was already under the command of the German. Having arranged matters thus Denisov and Dolikov intended without reporting matters to the higher command to attack and seize that convoy with their own small forces. On October 22 was moving from the village of Mikulino to that of Shamshevo to the left of the road between Mikulino and Shamshevo there were large forests extending in some places up to the road itself though in others a mile or more back from it. Through these forests Denisov and his party rode all day sometimes keeping well back in them and sometimes coming to the very edge but never losing sight of the moving French. That morning Cossacks of Denisov's party had seized and carried off into the forest two wagons loaded with cavalry saddles which had stuck in the mud not far from Mikulino where the forest ran close to the road. Since then and until evening the party had the movements of the French without attacking. It was necessary to let the French reach Shamshevo quietly without alarming them and then after joining Dolikov who was to come that evening to a consultation at a watchman's hut in the forest less than a mile from Shamshevo to surprise the French at dawn feeling like an avalanche on their heads from two sides and route and capture them all at one blow. In their rear more than a mile from Mikulino where the forest came right up to the road six Cossacks were posted to report if any fresh columns or French should show themselves. Beyond Shamshevo and Dolikov was to observe the road in the same way to find out at what distance there were other French troops. They reckoned that the convoy had fifteen hundred men. Denisov had two hundred and Dolikov might have as many more but the disparity of numbers did not deter Denisov. All that he now wanted to know was what troops these were and to learn that he had to capture a tongue that is a man from the enemy column. That morning's attack and the wagons had been made so hastily that the Frenchmen with the wagons had all been killed. Only a little drummer boy had been taken alive and as he was a straggler he could tell them nothing definite about the troops in that column. Denisov considered it dangerous to make a second attack for fear of putting the whole column on the alert. So he sent Tikhan Sherabati a peasant of his party to Shamshevo to try and seize at least one of the French quartermasters who had been sent on in advance. End of Chapter 3 War and Peace Book 14, Chapter 4 Read for LibriVox.org by Sunny Shields It was a warm, rainy autumn day. The sky and the horizon were both the colour of muddy water. At times a sort of mist descended and then suddenly heavy slanting rain came down. Denisov in a felt cloak in a sheepskin cap was riding a thin, thoroughbred horse with sunken sides. Like his horse which turned its head and laid its ears back he shrank from the driving rain and gazed anxiously before him. His thin face with its short, thick, black beard looked angry. Beside Denisov wrote an airsoil Denisov's fellow worker also in felt cloak and sheepskin cap and riding a large, sleek dawn horse. Airsoil Leveski III was a tall man as straight as an arrow, pale faced, fair-haired with narrow, light eyes and with calm self-satisfaction on his face and bearing. Though it was impossible to say in what the peculiarity of the horse and rider lay yet at first glance at the airsoil and Denisov he was wet and uncomfortable and was a man mounted on a horse. While looking at the airsoil one saw that he was as comfortable and as much at ease as always and that he was not a man who had mounted a horse but a man who was one with his horse a being consequently possessed of twofold strength. A little ahead of them walked a peasant guide wet to the skin and wearing a grey peasant coat and a white knitted cap. Behind, on a poor, small, lean, kurgis mount with an enormous tail and mane and a bleeding mouth rode a young officer and a blue French overcoat. Beside him, Rodin Husser with a boy in a tattered French uniform and blue cap behind him on the copper of his horse the boy held onto the Husser with cold, red hands and raising his eyebrows gazed about him with surprise. The boy captured that morning. Behind them along the narrow, sodden, cut up forest road came Hussers in threes and fours and then Cossacks some in felt cloaks some in French grey coats and some with horse cloths over their heads. The horses being drenched by the rain all looked black with a chestnut or bay. Their necks with their wet, close clinging mains and thin steam rose from them. Clothes, saddles, rains were all wet slippery and sodden like the ground and the fallen leaves that strewed the road. The men sat huddled up trying not to stir so as to warm the water that had trickled to their bodies and not admit the fresh cold water that was leaking in under their seats their knees and at the back of their necks. In the midst of the mud-spread line of Cossacks two wagons drawn by French horses and by saddled Cossack horses that had been hitched on in front rumbled over the tree stumps and branches and splashed through the water that lay in the ruts. Denisov's horse swerved aside to avoid a pool in the track and bumped his riders knee against a tree. Oh, the devil! exclaimed Denisov angrily and showing his teeth he struck his horse three times with his whip splashing himself and his comrades with mud. Denisov was out of sorts both because of the rain and also from hunger. None of them had eaten anything since morning and yet more because he still had no news from Dolokov and the man sent to capture a tongue had not returned. There'll hardly be another chance to fall on the transporters today it's too risky to attack them by oneself and if we put it off till another day one of the big gorilla detachments will snatch the prey from under our noses thought Denisov continually peering forward hoping to see a message from Dolokov on coming to a pass in the forest along which he could see far to the right Denisov stopped there's someone coming said he the air-soul looked in the direction Denisov indicated there are two an officer and a Cossack but it is not presupposable that it is Lieutenant Colonel himself said the air-soul who was fond of using words that Cossacks did not know the approaching riders having descended a decline were no longer visible but they reappeared a few minutes later in front at a weary gallop and using his leather whip wrote an officer dishevelled and drenched whose trousers have worked up to above his knees behind him standing in the stirrups the officer a very young lad with a broad rosy face and keen merry eyes galloped up to Denisov and handed him a sodden envelope from the general said the officer please excuse it's not being quite dry Denisov frowning took the envelope and opened it there they kept telling us it's dangerous it's dangerous to the officer addressing the air-soul while Denisov was reading the dispatch but Comorov and I, he pointed to the Cossack were prepared we have each of us two pistols but what's this he asked noticing the French drummer boy a prisoner you've already been in action may I speak to him Rostov Petcher exclaimed Denisov having run through the dispatch why didn't you say who you were and turning with a smile he held out his hand to the lad the officer was Petcher Rostov all the way Petcher had been preparing himself to behave with Denisov as befitted a grown-up man and an officer without hinting at their previous acquaintance but as soon as Denisov smiled at him Petcher brightened up blushed with pleasure forgot the official manner he had been rehearsing and began telling him how he had already been in a battle near Viasma and how a certain Husser had distinguished himself there well I am glad to see you Denisov interrupted him and his face again assumed its anxious expression Markov Fyokletich said he to the air soul this is again from that German you know he he indicated Petcher is serving under him and Denisov told the air soul that the dispatch just delivered was a repetition of the German general's demand that he should join forces with him for an attack on the transport tomorrow he will snatch it from under our noses he added while Denisov was talking to the air soul Petcher abashed by Denisov's cold tone and supposing it was due to the condition of his trousers furtively tried to pull them down under his great coat so that no one should notice it while maintaining it as martial and air as possible will there be any orders your honour he asked Denisov holding his hand at the salute and resuming the game of adjutant in general for what he had prepared himself or shall I remain with your honour orders Denisov repeated thoughtfully but can you stay till tomorrow oh please may I stay with you called Petcher but just what did the general tell you to return once as Denisov Petcher blushed he gave me no instructions I think I could he returned inquiringly well all right said Denisov depending to his men he directed a party to go up to the halting place arranged near the watchman's hut in the forest and told the officer on the Kyrgyz horse who performed the duties of an adjutant to go and find out where Dolikov was and whether he would come that evening Denisov himself intended to go with the air soul and Petcher to the edge of the forest where it reached out to Shemchevo to have a look at the part of the friendship of work they were to attack the next day well old fellow he said to the peasant guide lead us to Shemchevo Denisov Petcher and the air soul accompanied by some Cossacks and the Husser who had the prisoner rode to the left across a ravine to the edge of the forest end of chapter 4 recorded by Sunny Shields this recording is in the public domain or in peace book 14 chapter 5 read for LibriVox.org by Jeff Dugweiler the rain had stopped and only the mist was falling and drops from the trees Denisov the air soul and Petcher rode silently following the peasant in the knitted cap who stepping lightly with outturned toes and moving noiselessly in his bash shoes over the roots and wet leaves silently led them to the edge of the forest he ascended an incline stopped, looked about him in advance to where the screen of trees was less dense on reaching a large oak tree that had not yet shed its leaves he stopped and beckoned mysteriously to them with his hand Denisov and Petcher rode up to him from the spot where the peasant was standing they could see the French immediately beyond the forest on a downward slope lay a field of spring rye to the rye beyond as steep ravine a small village and a land on his house with a broken roof in the village, in the house, in the garden by the well, by the pond over all the rising ground and all along the road uphill from the bridge leading to the village not more than five hundred yards away crowds of men could be seen through the shimmering mist they were on Russian shouting at their horses which were straining uphill with the carts and their calls to one another could be clearly heard the prisoner here, said Denisov in a low voice not taking his eyes off the French a cossack dismounted, lifted the boy down and took him to Denisov pointing to the French troops Denisov asked him what these and those of them were the boy, thrusting his cold hands into his pockets and lifting his eyebrows looked at Denisov in a fright but in spite of an evident desire to say all he knew gave confused answers merely ascending to everything Denisov asked him Denisov turned away from him frowning and addressed the Esau conveying his own conjectures to him Petra, rapidly turning his head looked now at the drummer boy now at Denisov, now at the Esau and now at the French in the village and along the road trying not to miss anything of importance whether Dalikov comes or not we must seize it eh, said Denisov with a merry sparkle in his eyes it is a very suitable spot at the Esau we'll send the infantry down by the swamps Denisov continued they'll queep up to the garden you'll wide up from there with the cossacks he pointed to a spot in the forest beyond the village and I with my hassas from there and at the signal shot the hull was impassable there's a swamp there said the Esau the horses would sink we must ride round more to the left while they were talking in undertones the crack of a shot sounded from the low ground by the pond above a white smoke appeared than another on the sound of hundreds of seemingly merry French voices shouting together came up from the slope for a moment Denisov and the Esau drew back they were so near that they thought they were the cause of the firing and shouting but the firing and shouting did not relate to them down below a man wearing something red was running through the marsh the French were evidently firing and shouting at him well that's our teacon said the Esau so it is it is the wascle said Denisov he'll get away said the Esau screwing up his eyes the man whom they called teacon having run to the stream plunged in so that the water splashed in the air and having disappeared for an instant scrambled out on all fours all black with the wet and ran on the French who had been pursuing him stopped smart that said the Esau what a beast with his former look of vexation what is he been doing all this time who is he asked Petya he's our Plastin I sent him to capture a tongue oh yes said Petya nodding at the first words Denisov uttered as if he understood it all though he really did not understand anything of it teacon for sure buddy was one of the most indispensable men in their band he was a peasant from Pokrovsk near the river Zlat when Denisov had come to Pokrovsk at the beginning of his operations and had as usual summoned the village elder and asked him what he knew about the French the elder as though shielding himself had replied as all village elders did that he had neither seen nor heard anything of them but when Denisov explained that his purpose was to kill the French and asked if no French had strayed that way the elder replied that some more orderers had really been at the village but that teacon for sure buddy was the only man who dealt with such matters Denisov had teacon called and having praised him for his activity said a few words in the elder's presence about loyalty to the Tsar and the country and the hatred of the French that all sons of the fatherland should cherish we don't do the French any harm said teacon evidently frightened by Denisov's words we only fooled about with the lads for fun you know we killed a score so of more orderers but we did no harm else next day when Denisov had left Pokrovsk having quite forgotten about this peasant it was reported to him that teacon had attached himself to their party and asked to be allowed to remain with it Denisov gave orders to let him do so teacon who at first did rough work laying campfires fetching water flaying dead horses and so on soon showed a great liking and aptitude for partisan warfare at night he would go out for booty and always brought back French clothing and weapons and when told to would bring in French captives also Denisov then relieved him from drudgery and began taking him with him when he went out on expeditions and had him enrolled among the Cossacks teacon did not like riding and always went on foot never lagging behind the cavalry he was armed with a muscatune which he carried rather as a joke a pike and an axe which latter he used as a wolf uses its teeth with equaled case picking fleas out of its fur or crunching thick bones teacon with equal accuracy would split logs with blows at an arm's length or holding the head of the axe would cut thin little pigs or carves spoons in Denisov's party he held a peculiar and exceptional position when anything particularly difficult or nasty had to be done to push a cart out of the mud with one's shoulders pull a horse out of a swamp by its tail skin it slinking among the French or walk more than 30 miles in a day everyone pointed laughingly at teacon he won't hurt that devil he's as strong as a horse they said of him once a Frenchman teacon was trying to capture fired a pistol at him and shot him in the fleshy part of the back that wound which teacon treated only with internal and external applications of vodka was the subject of the liveliest jokes by the whole detachment jokes in which teacon readily joined hello mate never again gave you a twist the Cossucks would banter him and teacon purposely writhing and making faces pretended to be angry and swore at the French with the funniest curses the effect of this incident on teacon was that after being wounded he seldom brought in prisoners he was the bravest and most useful man in the party no one found more opportunities for attacking no one captured or killed more Frenchmen and consequently he was made the buffoon of all the Cossucks and Hussars and willingly accepted that role now he'd been sent by Denis Av overnight to Shemshivo to capture a tongue but whether because he had not been able to take only one Frenchman or because he had slept through the night he had crept by day into some bushes right among the French and as Denis Av had witnessed from above had been detected by them end of chapter 5 this recording is in the public domain war and peace book 14 chapter 6 read for Librebox.org by Jeff Dugweiler after talking for some time with the east all about the next day's attack which now seeing how near they were to the French he seemed to have definitely decided on Denis Av turned his horse and rode back now my lad will go and get Dwye he said to Petya as they approached the watch house Denis Av stopped appearing into the forest among the trees a man with long legs and long swinging arms wearing a short jacket, bashed shoes and a Kazan hat was approaching with long light steps he had a muscatoon over his shoulder and an axe stuck in his girdle when he aspired Denis Av he hastily threw something into the bushes removed his sodden hat by its floppy brim and approached his commander it was Teacon his wrinkled and pockmarked face and narrow little eyes beamed with self-satisfied merriment he lifted his head high and gazed at Denis Av as if repressing a laugh well where do you disappear to inquire Denis Av where did I disappear to I went to get Frenchman answered Teacon boldly and hurriedly in a husky but melodious space voice why did you push yourself in there by daylight you ass well why haven't you taken one oh I took one alright said Teacon where is he you see I took him first thing at dawn Teacon continued spreading out his flat feet without turned toes and their bashed shoes I took him into the forest and I seized no good and think I'll go and fetch a likelier one you see what a wog it's just as I thought said Denis Av to the Esau why didn't you bring that one what was the good in bringing him Teacon interrupted hastily and angrily that one wouldn't have done for you as if I don't know what sort you want what a boot you are well I went for another one Teacon continued and I crept like this he would and lay down he suddenly lay down on his stomach with a supple movement to show how he had done it one turned up and I grabbed him like this he jumped up quickly and lightly come along to the Colonel I said he starts yelling and suddenly there are four of them they rushed to me with their little sword so I went for them with my axe this way what are you up to says I Christ be with you shouted Teacon waving his arms to every scowl and throwing at his chest yes we saw from the hill how you took to your heels through the puddles said the Esau screwing up his glittering eyes Petia badly wanted to laugh but noticed that they all refrained from laughing he turned his eyes rapidly from Teacon's face to the Esau's and Denis Av's unable to make out what it all meant don't play the fool said Denis Av coughing angrily why didn't you bring the first one Teacon scratched his back with one hand and his head with the other then suddenly his whole face expanded into a beaming foolish grin disclosing a gap where he had lost a tooth that was why he was called Shashurbati the gap-toothed Denis Av smiled and Petia burst into appeal of merry laughter in which Teacon himself joined oh but he was a regular good for nothing said Teacon the clothes on him poor stuff how could I bring him so rude your honor why he says I'm a general son myself I won't go he says you are a boot said Denis Av I wanted to question but I questioned him said Teacon he said he didn't know much there are a lot of us he says but all poor stuff only soldiers in name he says shout loud at them he says and you'll take them all Teacon concluded looking cheerfully and resolutely into Denis Av's eyes I'll give you a hundred chopped lashes that'll teach you to put the fool said Denis Av severely but why are you angry remonstrated Teacon just as if I'd never seen your Frenchman only wait till it gets dark and I'll fetch you any of them you want three if you like well let's go said Denis Av and rode all the way to the watch house in silence and frowning angrily Teacon followed behind and Petia heard the Cossacks laughing with him and at him about some pair of boots when the fit of laughter that had seized him at Teacon's words and smile and past and Petia realized for a moment that this Teacon had killed a man he felt uneasy he looked around at the captive drummer boy and felt a pang in his heart but this uneasiness lasted only a moment he felt it necessary to hold his head higher to brace himself and to question the esau with an air of importance about tomorrow's undertaking that he might not be unworthy of the company in which he found himself the officer who had been sent to inquire met Denis Av on the way with the news that Dolochov was soon coming and that all was well with him Denis Av had once cheered up and calling Petia to him said well, tell me about yourself and of Chapter 6 this recording is in the public domain War and Peace Book 14 Chapter 7 Read for LibriVox.org by Jeff Dugwala Petia having the time left his people after their departure from Moscow joined his regiment and was soon taken as orderly by a general commanding a large guerrilla detachment from the time he received his commission and especially since he had joined the active army and taken part in the battle of Vyazma Petia had been in a constant state of blissful excitement at being grown up and in a perpetual ecstatic hurry not to miss any chance to do something really heroic Petia had been in a constant state to do something really heroic he was highly delighted with what he saw and experienced in the army but at the same time it always seemed to him that the really heroic exploits were being performed just where he did not happen to be and he was always in a hurry to get where he was not when on the 21st of October his general expressed a wish to send somebody to Denis Av's detachment Petia begged so piteously to be sent that the general could not refuse but when dispatching him he recalled Petia's mad action at the battle of Vyazma where instead of riding by the road to the place to which he had been sent he galloped to the advanced line under the fire of the French and had there twice fired his pistol so now the general explicitly forbade his taking part in any action whatever of Denis Av's that was why Petia had blushed and grown confused when Denis Av asked him whether he could stay before they had written to the outskirts of the forest Petia had considered he must carry out his instructions strictly and return it once but when he saw the French and saw Tikhon and learned that there would certainly be an attack that night he decided with the rapidity which with young people changed their views that the general whom he had greatly respected till then was a rubbishy German that Denis Av was a hero that he saw a hero and Tikhon a hero too and then it would be shameful for him to leave them in a moment of difficulty it was already growing dusk when Denis Av, Petia and the Yusov rode up to the watch house and the twilight saddled horses could be seen and Cossacks and Hussars who had rigged up rough shelters in the glade and were kindling glowing fires in a hollow of the forest where the French could not see the smoke in the passage of the small watch house a Cossack with sleeve rolled up was chopping some mutton in the room three officers of Denis Av's band were converting a door into a tabletop Petia took off his wet clothes gave them to be dried and it once began helping the officers to fix up the dinner table in ten minutes the table was ready and a napkin spread on it on the table were vodka a flask of rum, white bread roast mutton and salt sitting at table with the officers and tearing the fat savory mutton with his hands down which the grease trickled Petia was in an ecstatic childish state of love for all men and consequently of confidence that others loved him in the same way so then what do you think Vasily Dmitrych said he to Denis Av it's alright my staying a day with you and not waiting for reply he answered his own question you see I was told to find out well I am finding out only do let me into the very chief I don't want to reward but I want Petia clenched his teeth and looked around throwing back his head and flourishing his arms into the very chief Denis Av repeated with a smile only please let me command something so that I may really command Petia went on what would it be to you oh you want a knife he said turning to an officer who wished to cut himself a piece of mutton and he handed him his clasp knife the officer admired it please keep it I have several like it said Petia blushing heavens I was quite forgetting he suddenly cried I have some raisins fine ones you know seedless ones we have a new settler and he has such capital things I bought ten pounds I am used to something sweet would you like some and Petia ran out into the passage to his cossack and brought back some bags which contained about five pounds of raisins have some gentlemen have some you know a coffee pot don't you he asked the easel I bought a capital one from our settler he has splendid things and he's very honest that's the chief thing I'll be sure to send it to you perhaps your flints are giving out or are worn out that happens sometimes you know I have brought some with me here they are and he showed a bag a hundred flints I bought them very cheap please take as many as you want or all if you like then suddenly dismayed he had said too much Petia stopped and blushed he tried to remember whether he had not done anything else that was foolish and running over the advance of the day he remembered the French drummer boy it's capital for us here but what of him where have they put him have they fed him haven't they heard his feelings he thought but having caught himself saying too much about the flints he was now afraid to speak out I might ask you thought but they'll say he's a boy himself and so he pit is the boy I'll show them tomorrow whether I'm a boy will it seem odd if I ask Petia thought well never mind immediately blushing and looking anxiously at the officers to see if they appeared ironical he said may I call in that boy who was taken prisoner and give him something to eat perhaps yes he's a poor little fellow said Denisov who evidently saw nothing shameful in this reminder call him in his name is Vincent bossa have him fetched I'll call him said Petia yes yes call him a poor little fellow Denisov repeated Petia was standing at the door when Denisov said this he slipped in between the officers came close to Denisov and said let me kiss you dear old fellow oh how fine how splendid and having kissed Denisov he ran out of the hut bossa Vincent Petia cried stopping outside the door would you want sir asked a voice in the darkness Petia replied that he wanted the French lad who had been captured that day ah Visenny said a Cossack Vincent the boy's name had already been changed by the Cossacks into Visenny vernal and into Visenya by the peasants and soldiers in both these adaptations the reference to spring Vesna matched the impression made by the young lad he's warming himself there by the bonfire oh Visenya Visenya Visenny laughing voices were heard calling to one another in the darkness he's a smart lad said a Husser standing near Petia we gave him something to eat a while ago he was awfully hungry the sound of bare feet splashing to the mud was heard in the darkness and the drummer boy came to the door ah c'est vous c'est Petia voulez vous manger n'allez pas pure on ne vous ferait pas de mal footnote ah it's you do you want something to eat don't be afraid they won't hurt you end of footnote he added shyly and affectionately touching the boy's hand entrez entrez footnote come in come in and footnote merci mon chien footnote thank you sir end footnote said the drummer boy in a trembling almost childish voice and he began scraping his dirty feet on the threshold there were many things Petia wanted to say to the drummer boy but did not dare to he stood here resolutely behind him in the passage and in the darkness he took the boy's hand and pressed it come in come in he repeated in a gentle whisper oh what can I do for him thought and opening the door he let the boy pass in first when the boy had entered the hut Petia sat down at a distance from him considering it beneath his dignity to pay attention to him but he fingered the money in his pocket and wondered whether it would seem ridiculous to give some to the drummer boy end of chapter seven this recording is in the public domain he had diverted Petia's attention from the drummer boy to whom Yanisov had had some mutton and vodka given and whom he had dressed in a Russian coat so that he might be kept with their band and not sent away with the other prisoners Petia had heard in the army many stories of Dolokov's extraordinary bravery and of his cruelty to the French so from the moment he entered the hut Petia did not take his eyes from him but braced himself up more and more and health had high that he might not be unworthy of even such company and was once amazed Petia by its simplicity Yanisov wore a cossack coat had a beard had an icon of Nicholas the wonder worker on his breast and his way of speaking and everything he did indicated his unusual position but Dolokov who in Moscow had worn a Persian costume had now the appearance of a most correct officer of the guards he was clean shaven and wore a guardsman's padded coat with the order of St. George at his buttonhole and a plain forged cap set straight on his head he took off his wet felt cloak in a corner of the room and without greeting anyone went up to Yanisov and began questioning him about the matter in hand Yanisov told him of the designs the large detachments had on the transport of the message Petia had brought and his own replies to both generals then he told him all he knew of the French detachment that's so but we must know what troops they are and their numbers at Dolokov it will be necessary to go there we can't start the affair without knowing for certain how many there are I like to work accurately here now wouldn't one of these young gentlemen like to ride over to the French camp with me I have brought a spare uniform I'll go with you, cried Petia there's no need for you to go at all said Yanisov addressing Dolokov and for him I won't let him go on any account I like that exclaimed Petia why shouldn't I go because it's useless well you must excuse me because I shall go and that's all he'll take me won't you he said turning to Dolokov why not Dolokov answered absently scrutinizing the face of the French drummer boy have you had that youngster with you long he asked Yanisov he was taken today but he knows nothing I'm keeping him with me yes and where do you put the others inquired Dolokov where I send them away and take receipt of them suddenly fleshing boldly that I have not a single man's life on my conscience would it be difficult for you to send 30 or 300 men to town under escort instead of staining I speak bluntly staining the honor of a soldier that kind of amiable talk would be suitable from this young count of 16 said Dolokov with cold irony but it's time you drop it why I have said nothing I only say that I certainly will go with you said Petia Shiley but for you and me old fellow the rest of the communities continue to look of as if you had found particular pleasure in speaking of the subject which irritated Yanisov now why have you kept this lad he went on swaying his head because you are sorry for him don't we know these receipts of yours you send 100 men away and 30 get there the rest either starve or get killed so isn't it the same not to send them the easel screwing up his light colored eyes it's not the point I'm not going to discuss this matter I do not wish to take it on my conscience you say they'll die all right it's not by my fault Dolokov began laughing who has told them not to capture these 20 times over but if they did catch me they'd string me up to an aspen tree and with all your chivalry just the same he paused however we must get to work tell the Cossack to fetch my kit I have two French uniforms in it I yes certainly cried Petya blushing almost to tears and glancing at Yanisov while Dolokov had been disputing with Yanisov what should be done with prisoners Petya had once more felt awkward and restless but again he had no time to grasp fully what they were talking about if grown up distinguished men think so it must be necessary and right but above all Yanisov must not dare to imagine that I'll obey him and that he can order me about I will certainly go to the French camp with Dolokov if he can so can I and to all Yanisov's persuasions Petya replied that he too was accustomed to doing everything accurately and not just anyhow and that he never considered personal danger for you'll admit that if we don't know for sure how many of them there are hundreds of lies may depend on it while there are only two of us besides I want to go very much and certainly will go so don't hinder me said he will only make things worse that is the end of war and peace book 14 chapter 8 war and peace book 14 chapter 9 red4libravox.org having put on French great coats and shakos Petya and Dolokov wrote the clearing from which Yanisov had reconnoitred the French camp and emerging from the forest in pitch darkness they descended into the hollow on reaching the bottom Dolokov told the Cossacks accompanying him to await him there and rode on at a quick trot along the road to the bridge Petya his heart and his mouth with excitement rode by his side if we are caught I won't be taken alive I have a pistol whispered he don't talk Russians at Dolokov in a hurried whisper and at that very moment they heard through the darkness the challenge who goes there and a click of the musket Petya's face and he grasped his pistol Lancers of the 6th Regiment replied Dolokov neither hastening nor slackening his horse's pace the black figure of a sentinel stood there on the bridge password Dolokov reigned in his horse and advanced at a walk tell me is Colonel Gerard here password repeated the sentinel barring the way and not replying when an officer is making his round sentinels don't ask him for the password I am asking you if the Colonel is here and without waiting for an answer from the sentinel who had stepped aside Dolokov ran up the incline at a walk noticing the black outline of a man crossing the road Dolokov stopped him and inquired where the commander and officers were the man a soldier with the sack over his shoulder stopped came close up to Dolokov's horse touched it with his hand and explained simply in a friendly way that the commander and the officers were higher up the hill right in the courtyard of the farm as he called the landowner's house having ridden up the road on both sides of which French talk could be heard around the campfires Dolokov turned into the courtyard of the landowner's house having ridden in he dismounted and approached a big blazing campfire around which set several men talking noisily something was boiling in a small cauldron at the edge of the fire and a soldier in a peaked cap and blew overcoat lit up by the fire his kneeling beside it stirring its contents with a ramrod oh he's a hard nut to crack said one of the officers who was sitting in the shadow at the other side of the fire he'll make them get a move on those fellows at another laughing both fell silent peering out through the darkness at the sound of Dolokov's and Petia's steps as they advanced to the fire leading the horses good day gentlemen said Dolokov loudly and clearly there was a stir among the officers walking around the fire and one tall long-necked officer walking around the fire came up to Dolokov is that you Clemont he asked where the devil but noticing his mistake he broke off short and with a frown greeted Dolokov as a stranger asking what he could do for him Dolokov said that he and his companion were trying to overtake their regiment and addressing the company in general asked whether they knew anything of the 6th regiment none of them knew anything the officers were beginning to look at him and Dolokov with hostility and suspicion for some seconds all were silent if you were counting on the evening soup you have come too late said a voice from behind the fire with a repressed laugh Dolokov replied that they were not hungry and must push farther that night he handed the horses over to the soldier who was stirring the pot and squatted down on his heels by the fire beside the officer with the long neck that officer did not take his eyes from Dolokov and again asked to what regiment he belonged Dolokov as if he had not heard the question did not reply but lighting a short French pipe which he took from his pocket began asking the officer in how far the road before them was safe from the Cossacks those brigands are everywhere replied an officer from behind the fire Dolokov remarked that the Cossacks were a danger only to the stragglers such as his companion himself but probably they would not dare to attack large detachments he asked inquiringly no one replied well now he'll come away Petya thought every moment as he stood by the campfire listening to the talk but Dolokov restarted the conversation which had dropped and began putting direct questions as to how many men there were in the battalion how many battalions and how many prisoners asking about the Russian prisoners with that detachment Dolokov said a horrid business dragging these corpses about with one burst into loud laughter so strange that Petya thought the French would immediately detect their disguise and involuntarily took a step back from the campfire no one replied a word to Dolokov's laughter and a French officer whom they could not see he lay wrapped in a great coat rose and whispered something to a companion Dolokov got up and called the soldier who was holding their horses will they be bringing our horses or not thought Petya instinctively drawing near Dolokov the horses were brought good evening gentlemen said Dolokov Petya wished to say good night but he could not utter a word the officers were whispering together Dolokov was a long time mounting his horse which would not stand still then he rode out of the yard at a foot pace Petya rode beside him longing to look around to see whether or not French men were running after them but not daring to coming out onto the road Dolokov did not ride back across the open country but through the village in a spot he stopped and listened do you hear he asked Petya recognized the sound of Russian voices and saw the dark figures of Russian prisoners round their campfires when they had descended to the bridge Petya and Dolokov rode past the sentinel who without saying a word paced morosely up and down it then they descended into the hollow where the Cossacks awaited them well now, goodbye Chiltonisov at first shot at daybreak said Dolokov to write away what Petya seized hold of him really he cried you are such a hero oh how fine, how splendid how I love you alright alright said Dolokov but Petya did not let go of him and Dolokov saw through the gloom that Petya was bending toward him and wanted to kiss him Dolokov kissed him, laughed turned his horse and vanished into the darkness that concludes war and peace book 14 chapter 9 war and peace book 14 chapter 10 read for LibriVox.org having returned to the watchman's hut Petya found Denisov in the passage he was awaiting Petya's return in a state of agitation, anxiety and self-approach for having let him go thank God he exclaimed yes thank God he repeated listening to Petya's rapturous account but devil take you, I haven't slept because of you well thank God now lie down we can still get a nap before morning but no said Petya I don't want to sleep yet besides I know myself if I fall asleep it's finished and then I am used to not sleeping before a battle he sat a while in the hut joyfully recalling the details of his expedition and vividly picturing to himself what would happen next day then noticing that Denisov was asleep he rose and went out of doors it was still quite dark outside and the sun was over but drops were still falling from the trees near the watchman's hut the black shapes of the Cossack's shanties and of horses tethered together could be seen behind the hut was the dark shapes of the two wagons with their horses beside them discernible and in the hollow the dying campfire gleamed red not all the Cossacks and Hussars were asleep here and there amid the sounds of falling drops and the munching of the horses nearby could be heard low voices which seemed to be whispering Petia came out, peered into the darkness and went up to the wagons someone was snoring under them and around them stood saddled horses munching their oats in the dark Petia recognized his own horse which he called Karabakh though it was of Ukrainian breed and went up to it well Karabakh we'll do some service tomorrow as he sniffing its nostrils and kissing it why aren't you asleep sirs no ah Likachev isn't it, isn't that your name do you know I have only just come back we've been into the French camp and Petia gave the Cossack a detailed account not only of his ride but also of his object and why he considered it better to risk his life than to act just anyhow well you should get some sleep now sir the Cossack no I am used to this at Petia I say aren't the flints in your pistols worn out I brought some with me don't you want any you can have some the Cossack bent forward under the wagon to get a closer look at Petia because I am accustomed to doing everything accurately said Petia some fellows do things just anyhow without preparation and then they're sorry for it afterwards I don't like that just so said the Cossack oh yes another thing please my dear fellow will you sharpen my saber for me it's got Petia fear to tell a lie and the saber never had been sharpened can you do it of course I can look at Chev got up rummaged in his pack and soon Petia heard the warlike sound of steel on wet stone he climbed onto the wagon and sat on its edge the Cossack was sharpening the saber under the wagon I say are those lads asleep as Petia some aren't some aren't like us well and that boy yes any he's thrown himself down there in the passage fast asleep after his fright he was that glad after that Petia remained silent for a long time listening to the sounds he heard footsteps in the darkness and a black figure appeared what are you sharpening asked a man coming up to the wagon why this gentleman's saber that's right said the man whom Petia took to be Hussar was that cup left here there by the wheel the Hussar took the cup it must be daylight soon said he was yawning and went away Petia ought to have known that he was in a forest with Denisov's guerrilla band less than a mile from the road sitting on a wagon captured from the French beside which the horses were tethered that under it Likachev was sharpening a saber for him that big dark blotch to the right was a watchman's hut that the red blotch below to the left was the dying embers of the campfire that the man who had come for the cup wanted to drink but he neither knew nor wanted to know anything of all of this he was in a fairy kingdom where nothing resembled reality the big dark blotch might really be the watchman's hut or it might be a cavern leading to the very depths of the earth perhaps the red spot was a fire or it might be the eye of an enormous monster perhaps he was really sitting on a wagon but it might very well be that he was not sitting on a wagon but on a terribly high tower from which if he fell he would have to fall for a whole day or a whole month or go on falling and never reach the bottom perhaps it was just the Cossack Likachev who was sitting under the wagon but it might be the kindest, bravest most wonderful, most splendid man in the world whom no one knew of it might really have been that the hussar came for water and went back into the hollow but perhaps he had simply vanished disappeared altogether or dissolved into nothingness nothing petia could have seen now would have surprised him he was in a fairy kingdom where everything was possible he looked up at the sky and the sky was a fairy realm like the earth it was clearing and over the tops of the trees clouds were swiftly sailing as if unveiling the stars sometimes it looked as if the clouds were passing and a clear black sky appeared sometimes it seemed as if the black spaces were clouds sometimes the sky seemed to be rising high overhead and then it seemed to sink low so that no one could touch it with one's hand Petia's eyes began to close and he swayed a little the trees were dripping quiet talking was heard the horses nade and jostled one another some snored Ozek, Seg, Ozek, Seg hissed the saber against the wet stone and suddenly Petia heard a harmonious orchestra playing some unknown, sweetly solemn hymn Petia was as musical as Natasha and more than Nicholas but had never learned music or thought about it and so the melody that unexpectedly came to his mind seemed to him particularly fresh and attractive the music became more and more audible the melody grew and passed from one instrument to another and what played was a fugue though Petia had not the slightest conception of what a fugue is each instrument now resembling a violin now a horn played its own part and before it had finished the melody merged with another instrument that began almost the same air and then with a third and a fourth and they all blended into one again and became separate and again blended now into solemn church music now into something dazzlingly brilliant and triumphant oh why that was in a dream Petia said to himself as he lurched forward it's in my ears perhaps it's music of my own well go on my music now he closed his eyes and from all sides as if from a distance sounds fluttered grew into harmonious separated blended and again all mingled into the same sweet and solemn hymn oh this is delightful as much as I like and as I like said Petia to himself he tried to conduct that enormous orchestra now softly softly die away and the sounds obeyed him now fuller more joyful still more and more joyful and from an unknown depth rose increasingly triumphant sounds now voices join in ordered Petia and at first from afar he heard men's voices and then women's the voices grew in harmonious triumphant strength and Petia listened to their surpassing beauty and awe and joy with a solemn and triumphal march there mingled a song of the sabre oh sick sick sick and again the horses jostled one another in nade not disturbing the choir but joining in it Petia did not know how long this lasted he enjoyed himself all the time wondered at his enjoyment and regretted that there was no one to share it he was awakened by Likachev's kindly voice it's ready your honor you can split a Frenchman in half with it Petia woke up it's getting light it's really getting light he exclaimed the horses that had previously been invisible can now be seen to their very tails and a watery light showed itself through the bare branches Petia shook himself jumped up took a ruble from his pocket and gave it to Likachev then he flourished the sabre tested it and sheathed it the Cossacks were untying their horses and tightening their saddle girths and here's the commander said Likachev Ginny Sov came out of the watchman's hut and then called Petia gave orders to get ready end of chapter 10 war and peace book 14 chapter 11 read for Librebox.org by Kate McKenzie the men rapidly picked out their horses in the semi-darkness tightened their saddle girths and formed companies Denisov stood by the watchman's hut giving final orders the infantry of the detachment passed along the road and quickly disappeared among the trees in the midst of early dawn hundreds of feet splashing through the mud the easel gave some orders to his men Petia held his horse by the bridle impatiently awaiting the order to mount his face, having been bathed in cold water was all aglow and his eyes were particularly brilliant cold shivers ran down his spine and his whole body pulsed rhythmically well, is Evvifing weddy? asked Denisov bring the horses the horses were brought Denisov was angry with the cossack because the saddle girths were too slack reproved him and mounted Petia put his foot in the stirrup his horse by habit made as if to nip his leg but Petia leaped quickly into the saddle unconscious of his own weight and turning to look at the hussars starting in the darkness behind him rode up to Denisov he said in a strange language and trust me with some commission please, for God's sake said he Denisov seemed to have forgotten Petia's very existence he turned to glance at him I ask one thing of you he said sternly to obey me and not shove yourself forward anywhere he did not say another word to Petia but rode in silence all the way when they had come to the edge of the forest it was noticeably growing light over the field Denisov talked in whispers with the easel and the cossacks rode past Petia and Denisov when they had all ridden by Denisov touched his horse and rode down the hill slipping onto their haunches and sliding the horses descended with their riders into the ravine Petia rode beside Denisov the pulsation of his body constantly increasing it was getting lighter and lighter but the mist still hid distant objects having reached the valley Denisov looked back and nodded to a cossack behind him the signal said he the cossack raised his arm and a shot rang out in an instant the tramp of horses galloping forward was heard shouts came from various sides and then more shots at the first sound of trampling hooves and shouting Petia lashed his horse and loosening his reign galloped forward not heeding Denisov who shouted at him it seemed to Petia that at the moment the shot was fired he still became as bright as noon he galloped to the bridge cossacks were galloping along the road in front of him on the bridge he collided with the cossack who had fallen behind but he galloped on in front of him soldiers probably Frenchmen were running from right to left across the road one of them fell in the mud under his horses feet cossacks were crowding about a hut busy with something from the midst of that crowd Petia galloped up and the first thing he saw was the pale face and trembling jaw of a Frenchman clutching the handle of a lance that had been aimed at him lads hours shouted Petia and giving reign to his excited horse he galloped forward along the village street he could hear shooting ahead of him cossacks, cossacks and ragged Russian prisoners who had come running from both sides of the road were shouting something loudly and incoherently a gallant-looking Frenchman in a blue overcoat, capless and with a frowning red face had been defending himself against the hossacks when Petia galloped up the Frenchman had already fallen too late again flashed through Petia's mind and he galloped on to the place from which the rapid firing could be heard the shots came from the yard of the land owner's house he had visited the night before with Dolokov the French were making a stand there behind a wattle fence in a garden thickly overgrown with bushes and were firing at the cossacks who crowded at the gateway through the smoke as he approached the gate Petia saw Dolokov whose face was of a pale greenish tint shouting to his men go round, wait for the infantry he exclaimed as Petia rode up to him wait RAAAA shouted Petia and without pausing a moment there were sounds of firing and where the smoke was thickest a volley was heard and some bullets whistled past while others plashed against something the cossacks and Dolokov galloped after Petia into the gateway of the courtyard in the dense, wavering smoke some of the French threw down their arms and ran out of the bushes to meet the cossacks while others ran down the hill toward the pond Petia was galloping along the courtyard but instead of holding the reins he waved both his arms about rapidly and strangely slipping farther and farther to one side in his saddle his horse having galloped up to a campfire that was smouldering in the morning light stop suddenly and Petia fell heavily onto the wet ground the cossacks saw that his arms and legs jerked rapidly so his head was quite motionless a bullet had pierced his skull after speaking to the senior French officer who came out of the house with a white handkerchief tied to his sword and announced that they surrendered Dolokov dismounted and went up to Petia who led motionless without stretched arms done for he said with a frown and went to the gate to meet Denisov who was riding toward him killed cried Denisov recognizing from a distance the unmistakably lifeless attitude very familiar to him in which Petia's body was lying done for repeated Dolokov the utterance of these words afforded him pleasure and he went quickly up to the prisoners who were surrounded by cossacks who had hurried up we won't take them he called out to Denisov Denisov did not reply he rode up to Petia dismounted and with trembling hands turned toward himself the blood-stained mud-bespattered face which had already gone white I am used to something sweet raisins, fine ones, take them all he recalled Petia's words the cossacks looked round and surprised at the sound like the yell of a dog with which Denisov turned away walked to the wattle fence and seized hold of it among the Russian prisoners rescued by Denisov and Dolokov was Pierre Bezukov End of Chapter 11 This recording is in the public domain War and Peace, Book 14, Chapter 12 Read for LibriVox.org by Kate McKenzie During the whole of their march from Moscow no fresh orders had been issued by the French authorities concerning the party of prisoners among whom was Pierre On the 22nd of October that party was no longer with the same troops and baggage trains with which it had left Moscow half the wagons laid in with hard-tuck that had travelled the first stages with them had been captured by cossacks the other half had gone on ahead not one of the prisoners not one of those dismounted cavalry men who had marched in front of the prisoners was left they had all disappeared the artillery the prisoners had seen in front of them during the first days was now replaced by Marshal Junot's enormous baggage train convoyed by Westphalians behind the prisoners came a cavalry baggage train from Vyazma onwards the French army in three columns went on as a single group the symptoms of disorder that Pierre had noticed at their first halting place after leaving Moscow had now reached the utmost limit the road along which they moved was bordered on both sides by dead horses ragged men who had fallen behind from various regiments continually changed about now joining the moving column now again lagging behind it several times during the march false alarms had been given and the soldiers of the escort had raised their muskets fired and run headlong crushing one another but had afterwards reassembled and abused each other for their causeless panic these three groups travelling together the cavalry stores, the convoy of prisoners and Junot's baggage train still constituted a separate and united whole though each of the groups was rapidly melting away of the artillery baggage train which had consisted of 120 wagons not more than 60 now remained the rest had been captured or left behind some of Junot's wagons also had been captured or abandoned three wagons had been raided and robbed by stragglers from Davouskor from the talk of the Germans Pierre learned that a larger guard had been allotted to that baggage train than to the prisoners and that one of their comrades a German soldier had been shot by the Marshal's own order because a silver spoon belonging to the Marshal had been found in his possession the group of prisoners had melted away most of all of the 330 men who had set out from Moscow fewer than a hundred now remained the prisoners were more burdensome to the escort than even the cavalry saddles or Junot's baggage they understood that the saddles and Junot's spoon might be of some use but that cold and hungry soldiers should have to stand and guard equally cold and hungry Russians who froze and lagged behind on the road in which case the order was to shoot them was not merely incomprehensible but revolting in the escort as if afraid in the grievous condition they themselves were in of giving way to the pity they felt for the prisoners or so rendering their own plight still worse treated them with particular meroseness and severity at the Rogoburge while the soldiers of the convoy after locking the prisoners in a stable had gone off to pillage their own stores several of the soldier prisoners tunneled under the wall and run away but were recaptured by the French and shot the arrangement adopted when they started that the office of prisoners should be kept separate from the rest had long since been abandoned all who could walk went together and after the third stage Pierre had rejoined Karateev and the grey-blue bandy-legged dog that had chosen Karateev for its master on the third day after leaving Moscow Karateev again fell ill with the fever he had suffered from in the hospital in Moscow and as he grew gradually weaker Pierre kept away from him Pierre did not know why but since Karateev had begun to grow weaker it had cost him an effort to go near him when he did so and heard the subdued moaning with which Karateev generally lay down at the halting places and when he smelled the odour emanating from him which was now stronger than before Pierre moved farther away and did not think about him while imprisoned in the shed Pierre had learned not with his intellect but with his whole being by life itself that man is created for happiness that happiness is within him in the satisfaction of simple human needs and that all unhappiness arises not from privation but from superfluty and now during these last three weeks of the march he had learned still another new consulatory truth that nothing in this world is terrible he had learned that as there is no condition in which man can be happy and entirely free so there is no condition in which he need be unhappy and lack freedom he learned that suffering and freedom have their limits and that those limits are very near together that the person in a bed of roses with one crumpled petal suffered as keenly as he now sleeping on the bare damp earth with one side growing chilled while the other was warming that when he had put on tight dancing shoes he had suffered just as he did now when he walked with bare feet that were covered with sores his foot gear having long since fallen to pieces he discovered that when he had married his wife of his own free will as it had seemed to him he had been no more free than now when they locked him up at night in a stable of all that he himself subsequently termed his sufferings but which at the time he scarcely felt the worst was the state of his bare, raw and scab covered feet the horse flesh was appetising and nourishing the salt-peeter flavour of the gunpowder they used instead of salt was even pleasant there was no great cold it was always warm walking in the daytime and at night there were the campfires the lice that devoured him and his body the one thing that was at first hard to bear was his feet after the second day's march Pierre having examined his feet by the campfire thought it would be impossible to walk on them but when everybody got up he went along limping and when he had warmed up walked without feeling the pain though at night his feet were more terrible to look at than before however he did not look at them now but thought of other things only now did Pierre realise the full strength of life in man and the saving power he has of transferring his attention from one thing to another which is like the safety valve of a boiler that allows superfluous steam to blow off when the pressure exceeds a certain limit he did not see and did not hear how they shot the prisoners who lagged behind though more than a hundred perished in that way he did not think of Karateev who grew weaker every day and evidently would soon have to share that fate still less did Pierre think about himself the harder his position became and the more terrible the future the more independent of that position in which he found himself were the joyful and comforting things memories and imaginings that came to him End of Chapter 12 This recording is in the public domain War and Peace, Book 14, Chapter 13 Read for LibraBox.org LibraBox.org by Kate McKenzie At midday on the 22nd of October Pierre was going uphill along the muddy slippery road looking at his feet and at the roughness of the way Occasionally he glanced at the familiar crowd around him and then again at his feet the former and the latter were alike familiar and his own the blue grey bandy legged dog ran merrily along the side of the road sometimes in proof of its agility and self-satisfaction lifting one hind leg and hopping along on three and then again going on all four and rushing to bark at the crows that sat on the carrion the dog was merrier and sleeker than it had been in Moscow all around lay the flesh of different animals from men to horses in various stages of decomposition and as the wolves were kept off all it wanted it had been raining since morning and had seemed as if at any moment it might cease and the sky clear but after a short break it began raining harder than before the saturated road no longer absorbed the water which ran along the ruts in streams Pierre walked along looking from side to side counting his steps in threes and reckoning them off on his fingers mentally addressing the rain repeated now then now then go on pelt harder it seemed to him that he was thinking of nothing but far down and deep within him his soul was occupied with something important and comforting this something was a most subtle spiritual deduction from a conversation with Karateev the day before at their yesterday's halting place feeling chilly by a dying campfire Pierre had got up and gone to the next one which was burning better there, Platon Karateev was sitting covered up head and all with his great coat as if it were a vestment telling the soldiers in his effective and pleasant though now feeble voice a story Pierre knew it was already past midnight the hour when Karateev was usually free of his fever and particularly lively when Pierre reached his fire and heard Platon's voice and feebled by illness and saw his pathetic face lit up by the blaze he felt a painful prick at his heart his feeling of pity for this man frightened him and he wished to go away but there was no other fire and Pierre sat down trying not to look at Platon well, how are you he asked how am I if we grumble at sickness God wouldn't grant us death replied Platon and a once resumed the story he had begun and so brother a smile on his pale emaciated face and a particularly happy light in his eyes you see brother Pierre had long been familiar with that story Karateev had told it to him alone some half dozen times and always with a specially joyful emotion but well as he knew it Pierre now listened to that tale as to something new and the quiet rapture Karateev evidently felt as he told it communicated itself also to Pierre the story was of an old merchant who lived a good and God fearing life with his family and who went once to the Nizhny Fair with a companion, a rich merchant having put up at an inn they both went to sleep and next morning his companion was found robbed and with his throat cut a bloodstained knife was found under the old merchant's pillow he was tried, knotted and his nostrils having been torn off all in due form as Karateev put it a hard labour in Siberia and so brother it was at this point that Pierre came up ten years or more passed by the old man was living as a convict submitting as he should and doing no wrong only he prayed to God for death well one night the convicts were gathered just as we are with the old man among them and they began telling what each was suffering for and how they had sinned against God one told how he had taken a life another had taken two a third had set a house on fire while another had simply been a vagrant and had done nothing so they asked the old man what are you being punished for daddy I, my dear brothers said he I am being punished for my own and other men's sins but I have not killed anyone or taken anything that was not mine but have only helped my poor brothers I was a merchant my dear brothers and had much property and he went on to tell them all about it in due order I don't grieve for myself he says God it seems has chasen me only I am sorry for my old wife and the children and the old man began to weep now it happened that in the group was the very man who had killed the other merchant where did it happen daddy he said when and in what month he asked all about it and his heart began to ache so he comes up to the old man like this and falls down at his feet you are perishing because of me daddy he says it's quite true lads that this man he says is being tortured innocently and for nothing I he says did that deed and I put the knife under your head and sleep forgive me daddy he says for Christ's sake Karatev paused smiling joyously as he gazed into the fire and he drew the logs together and the old man said God will forgive you we are all sinners in his sight I suffer for my own sins and he wept bitter tears well and what do you think dear friends Karatev continued his face brightening more and more with a rapturous smile as if what he now had to tell contained the chief charm and the whole meaning of his story what do you think dear fellows that murderer confessed to the authorities I have taken six lives he says he was a great sinner but what I am most sorry for is this old man don't let him suffer because of me so he confessed and it was all written down and the papers sent off into form the place was a long way off and he began to look for the old man what with one thing and another filling in the papers all in due form the authorities I mean time passed the affair reached the tar after a while the tar's decree came to set the merchant free and give him a compensation that had been awarded the paper arrived and they began to look for the old man where is the old man who has been suffering innocently in vain a paper has come from the tar here Karateev's lower jaw trembled but God had already forgiven him he was dead that's how it was dear fellows Karateev concluded and sat for a long time silent gazing before him with a smile and Pierre's soul was dimly but joyfully filled not by the story itself but by its mysterious significance by the rapturous joy that lit up Karateev's face as he told it and the mystic significance of that joy end of chapter 13 this recording is in the public domain war and peace book 14 chapter 14 read for LibriVox.org by Kate McKenzie have a blast suddenly cried a voice to your places a pleasant feeling of excitement and an expectation of something joyful and solemn was aroused among the soldiers of the convoy and the prisoners from all sides came shouts of command and from the left came smartly dressed cavalrymen on good horses passing the prisoners at a trot the expression on all faces showed the tension people feel at the approach of those in authority the prisoners thronged together and were pushed off the road the convoy formed up the emperor, the emperor the marshal, the duke and hardly had the sleek cavalry passed before a carriage drawn by six grey horses rattled by Pierre caught a glimpse of a man in a three-cornered hat with a tranquil look on his handsome plump white face it was one of the marshals his eye fell on Pierre's large and striking figure and in the expression with which he frowned and looked away Pierre thought he detected sympathy in a desire to conceal that sympathy the general in charge of the stores galloped after the carriage with a red and frightened face a skinny horse several officers formed a group and some soldiers crowded round them their faces all looked excited and worried what did he say? what did he say? Pierre heard the mask while the marshal was passing the prisoners had huddled together in a crowd and Pierre saw Karateev whom he had not yet seen that morning he sat in his short overcoat leaning against a birch tree on his face yesterday while telling the tale of the merchant who suffered innocently there was now an expression of quiet solemnity Karateev looked at Pierre with his kindly round eyes now filled with tears evidently wishing him to come near that he might say something to him but Pierre was not sufficiently sure of himself he made as if he did not notice that look and moved hastily away when the prisoners again went forward Pierre looked round Karateev was still sitting at the side of the road under the birch tree and two Frenchmen were talking over his head Pierre did not look round again but when limping up the hill from behind where Karateev had been sitting came the sound of a shot Pierre heard it plainly but at that moment he remembered that he had not yet finished reckoning up how many stages still remain through Smolensk a calculation he had begun before the marshal went by and he again started reckoning two French soldiers ran past Pierre one of whom carried a lowered and smoking gun they both looked pale and in the expression on their faces one of them glanced timidly at Pierre there was something resembling what he had seen on the face of the young soldier at the execution Pierre looked at the soldier and remembered that two days before that man had burned his shirt whilst drying it at the fire and how they had laughed at him behind him where Karateev had been sitting the dog began to howl what a stupid beast why is it howling? thought Pierre his comrades, the prisoner soldiers walking beside him avoided looking back at the place where the shot had been fired and the dog was howling just as Pierre did but there was a set look on all their faces end of chapter 14 this recording is in the public domain the stores, the prisoners and the marshals baggage train stopped at the village of Chamchevo the men crowded together around the campfires Pierre went up to the fire ate some roast horse flesh lay down with his back to the fire and immediately fell asleep he again slept as he had done at Mojaisk after the battle of Borodino again real events mingled with dreams and again someone, he or another gave expression to his thoughts and even to the same thoughts that had been expressed in his dream at Mojaisk life is everything life is God everything changes and moves and that movement is God and while there is life there is joy in consciousness of the divine to love life is to love God harder and more blessed than all else is to love this life in one's sufferings Karatiev came to Pierre's mind and suddenly he saw vividly before him a long forgotten, kindly old man who had given him geography lessons in Switzerland wait a bit said the old man and showed Pierre a globe this globe was alive a vibrating ball without fixed dimensions its whole surface consisted of drops closely pressed together each drop moved and changed places sometimes several of them merging into one sometimes one dividing into many each drop tried to spread out and occupy as much space as possible but others striving to do the same compressed it sometimes destroyed it and sometimes merged with it that is life said the old teacher how simple and clear it is thought Pierre I know it before God is in the midst and each drop tries to expand so as to reflect him to the greatest extent and it grows merges, disappears from the surface sinks to the depths and again emerges there now Karatiev has spread out and disappeared do you understand my child said the teacher do you understand damn you shouted a voice he lifted himself and sat up a Frenchman who had just pushed a Russian soldier away was squatting by the fire engaged in roasting a piece of meat stuck on a ramrod his sleeves were rolled up and his sinewy, hairy, red hands with their short fingers deftly turned to the ramrod his brown morose face with frowning brows was clearly visible by the glow of the charcoal I saw the same to him turning quickly to a soldier who stood behind him brigand, get away and twisting the ramrod he looked gloomily at Pierre who turned away engaged into the darkness a prisoner the Russian soldier the Frenchman had pushed away was sitting near the fire patting something with his hand looking more closely Pierre recognized the blue grey dog sitting beside the soldier wagging its tail ah, he's come he said Pierre and plat, he began, but did not finish suddenly and simultaneously a crowd of memories awoke in his fancy of the look Platon had given him as he sat under the tree of the shot heard from that spot of the dog's howl of the guilty faces of the two Frenchmen as they ran past him of the lowered and smoking gun and of Karateev's absence at this halt and he was on the point realizing that Karateev had been killed but just to that instant he knew not why the recollection came to his mind of a summer evening he had spent with a beautiful Polish lady in the veranda of his house in Kiev and without linking up the events of the day or drawing a conclusion from them Pierre closed his eyes seeing a vision of the country in summertime mingled with memories of bathing and of the liquid vibrating globe and he sank into water so that it closed over his head before sunrise he was awakened by shouts and loud and rapid firing French soldiers were running past him the Cossacks one of them shouted and a moment later a crowd of Russians surrounded Pierre for a long time he could not understand what was happening to him all around he heard his comrades sobbing with joy brothers, dear fellows darlings old soldiers exclaimed weeping as they embraced Cossacks and Hussars the Hussars and Cossacks crowded round the prisoners one offered them clothes, another boots and a third bread Pierre sobbed as he sat among them and could not utter a word he hugged the first soldier who approached him and kissed him weeping Dolikov stood at the gate of the ruined house letting a crowd of disarmed Frenchmen pass by the French, excited by all that had happened, were talking loudly among themselves but as they passed Dolikov who gently switched his boots with his whip and watched them with cold, glassy eyes that voted no good they became silent on the opposite side stood Dolikov's Cossack counting the prisoners and marking off each hundred with a chalk line on the gate how many, Dolikov asked the Cossack the second hundred, replied the Cossack filet filet, get along get along Dolikov kept saying having adopted this expression from the French and when his eyes met those of the prisoners they flashed with a cruel light Dennis off, bareheaded and with a gloomy face walked behind some Cossacks who were carrying the body of Petcher Rostov that had been dug in the garden after the 28th of October when the frosts began the flight of the French assumed a still more tragic character with men freezing or roasting themselves to death at the campfires while carriages with people dressed in furs continued to drive past carrying away the property that had been stolen by the emperor kings and dukes but the process of the flight and disintegration of the French army went on essentially as before from Moscow to Vyazma the French army of 73,000 men not reckoning the guards who did nothing during the whole war but pillage was reduced to 36,000 though not more than 5,000 had fallen in battle from this beginning the succeeding terms of the progression could be determined mathematically the French army melted away and perished at the same rate from Moscow to Vyazma from Vyazma to Smolensk from Smolensk to the Berezina and from the Berezina to Vilna independently of the greater or lesser intensity of the cold the pursuit, the barring of the way or any other particular conditions beyond Vyazma the French army, instead of moving in three columns, huddled together into one mass and so went on to the end Bertier wrote to his emperor we know how far commanding officers allow themselves to diverge from the truth in describing the condition of an army and this is what he said I deem it my duty to report to your majesty the condition of the various corps I have had occasion to observe during different stages of the last two or three days march almost disbanded scarcely a quarter of the soldiers remain with the standards of their regiments the others go off by themselves in different directions hoping to find food and escape discipline in general they regard Smolensk as the place where they hope to recover during the last few days many of the men have been seen to throw away their cartridges and their arms in such a state of affairs whatever your ultimate plans may be your majesty's service demands that the army should be rallied at Smolensk and should first of all be freed from ineffective such as dismounted cavalry, unnecessary baggage and artillery material that is no longer in proportion to the present forces the soldiers who are worn out with hunger and fatigue need these supplies as well as a few days rest many have died last days on the road or at the bivouacs this state of things is continually becoming worse and makes one fear that unless a prompt remedy is applied the troops will no longer be under control in case of an engagement November 9, 20 miles from Smolensk after staggering into Smolensk which seemed to them a promised land the French, searching for food killed one another sacked their own stores and when everything had been plundered fled farther they all went without knowing whither or why they were going still less did that genius Napoleon know it for no one issued any orders to him but still he and those about him retained their old habits wrote commands, letters, reports and orders of the day called one another, Sire, Mon Cousin Prince Technul, Roy de Naples and so on but these orders and reports were only on paper nothing in them was acted upon for they could not be carried out and though they entitled one another Majesties, Highnesses or Cousins they all felt that they were miserable wretches who had done much evil for which they had now to pay and though they pretended to be concerned about the army each was thinking only of himself and of how to get away quickly and save himself End of chapter 16 this recording is in the public domain in which two players are blindfolded and one of them occasionally rings a little bell to inform the catcher of his whereabouts first he rings his bell fearlessly but when he gets into a tight place he runs away as quietly as he can and often thinking to escape runs straight into his opponent's arms at first while they were still moving along the Kaluga Road he runs away as quietly as he can and often thinking to escape runs straight into his opponent's arms when they were still moving along the Kaluga Road Napoleon's armies made their presence known but later when they reached the Smolensk Road they ran holding the clapper of their bell tight and often thinking they were escaping ran right into the Russians owing to the rapidity of the French flight and the Russian pursuit and the consequent exhaustion of the horses the chief means of approximately excerpting the enemy's position by cavalry scouting was not available besides as a result of the frequent and rapid change of position by each army even what information was obtained could not be delivered in time if news was received one day that the enemy had been in a certain position the day before by the third day when something could have been done that army was already two days march farther on and in quite another position one army fled and the other pursued beyond Smolensk there were several different roads available for the French and one would have thought that during their stay of four days they might have learned where the enemy was might have arranged some more advantageous plan and had taken something new but after a four days halt the mob with no manoeuvres or plans again began running along the beaten track neither to the right nor to the left but along the old the worst road through Krasnoy and Arsha expecting the enemy from behind and not in front the French separated in their flight and spread out over a distance of 24 hours in front of them all fled the emperor then the kings, then the dukes the Russian army expecting Napoleon to take the road to the right beyond the Dnieper which was the only reasonable thing for him to do themselves turned to the right and came out onto the high road at Krasnoy and here in the name of blind man's bluff the French ran to our vanguard seeing their enemy unexpectedly the French fell into confusion and stopped short from the sudden fright but then they resumed their flight abandoning their comrades who were farther behind then for three days separate portions of the French army first Muras, the vice-kings then Davos and then Nays, ran as it were the gauntlet of the Russian army they abandoned one another abandoned all their heavy baggage their artillery and half their men and fled, getting past the Russians by night by making semicircles to the right Nays, who came last had been busying himself blowing up the walls of Smolensk which were in nobody's way because despite the unfortunate plight of the French or because of it they wished to punish the floor against which they had hurt themselves Nays, who had had a call of 1,000 men, reached Napoleon at Osha with only 1,000 men left having abandoned all the rest and all his cannon and having crossed the Dnieper at night by stealth at a wooden spot from Osha they fled farther along the road to Vilne still playing at Leintmann's bluff with the pursuing army at the Berzine they again became disorganized many were drowned and many surrendered but those who got across the river fled farther their supreme chief donned the fur coat and having seated himself in a sleigh, galloped on alone, abandoning his companions the others who could do so drove away too leaving those who could not to surrender or die End of Chapter 17 War and Peace Book 14, Chapter 18 Read for Liberox.org by Anna Simon This campaign consisted in a flight of the French during which they did all they could to destroy themselves from the time they turned on to the Kaluga road to the day their leader fled from the army none of the movement of the crowd had any sense so one might have thought that regarding this period of the campaign the historians who attributed the actions of the mass to the will of one man would have found it impossible to make the story of the retreat but no mountains of books have been written by the historians about this campaign and everywhere are described Napoleon's arrangements the maneuvers and his profound plans which guided the army as well as the military genius shown by his marshals the retreat from Maloyarslavits when he had a free road into a well supplied district and the parallel road was open to him along which Kutuzov afterwards pursued him this unnecessary retreat along a devastated road is explained to us as being due to profound considerations similarly profound considerations are given for his retreat from Smolensk to Orsha then his heroism at Krasnoy is described where he is reported to have been prepared to accept battle and take personal command and to have walked about with a birch-tick and said I have acted the emperor long enough it is time to act the general but nevertheless immediately ran away again abandoning to its fate the scattered fragments of the army he left behind then we are told of the greatness of soul of the marshals especially of Ney the greatness of soul consisting in this that he made his way by night around through the forest and across the Dnieper and escaped to Orsha abandoning standards, artillery and nine tenths of his men and lastly the final departure of the great emperor from his heroic army is presented to us by the historians as something great and characteristic of genius even that final running away described in ordinary language as the lowest death of baseness which every child is told to be ashamed of even that act finds justification in the historians language when it is impossible to stretch the very elastic threats of historical raciocination any farther when actions are clearly contrary to all that humanity calls right or even just the historians produce a saving conception of greatness greatness it seems excludes the standards of right and wrong for the great man nothing is wrong there is no atrocity for which a great man can be blamed sacran translated it is great say the historians and there no longer exists either good or evil but only grand and not grand grand is good not grand is bad grand is the characteristic in their conception of some special animals called heroes and napoleon escaping home in a warm fur coat and leaving to perish those who were not merely his comrades but were in his opinion men he had brought there feels que c'est grand translated that it is great and his soul is tranquil le sublime he saw something sublime in himself au ridicule il n'y a comme pas said he translated from sublime to the ridiculous is but a step and the whole world for 50 years has been repeating sublime grand napoleon le grand du sublime au ridicule il n'y a comme pas and it occurs to no one that to admit a greatness not commensurable with the standard of right and wrong is merely to admit one's own nothingness and immeasurable meanness for us with the standard of good and evil given us by Christ no human actions are incommensurable and there is no greatness where simplicity, goodness and truth are absent