Book Nine: 1812 - Chapter XIX

by Leo Tolstoy

　　From the day when Pierre, after leaving the Rostovs' withNatasha's grateful look fresh in his mind, had gazed at the comet thatseemed to be fixed in the sky and felt that something new wasappearing on his own horizon- from that day the problem of thevanity and uselessness of all earthly things, that had incessantlytormented him, no longer presented itself. That terrible question"Why?" "Wherefore?" which had come to him amid every occupation, wasnow replaced, not by another question or by a reply to the formerquestion, but by her image. When he listened to, or himself tookpart in, trivial conversations, when he read or heard of humanbaseness or folly, he was not horrified as formerly, and did not askhimself why men struggled so about these things when all is sotransient and incomprehensible- but he remembered her as he had lastseen her, and all his doubts vanished- not because she had answeredthe questions that had haunted him, but because his conception ofher transferred him instantly to another, a brighter, realm ofspiritual activity in which no one could be justified or guilty- arealm of beauty and love which it was worth living for. Whateverworldly baseness presented itself to him, he said to himself:

　　"Well, supposing N. N. swindled the country and the Tsar, and thecountry and the Tsar confer honors upon him, what does that matter?She smiled at me yesterday and asked me to come again, and I love her,and no one will ever know it." And his soul felt calm and peaceful.

　　Pierre still went into society, drank as much and led the sameidle and dissipated life, because besides the hours he spent at theRostovs' there were other hours he had to spend somehow, and thehabits and acquaintances he had made in Moscow formed a current thatbore him along irresistibly. But latterly, when more and moredisquieting reports came from the seat of war and Natasha's healthbegan to improve and she no longer aroused in him the former feelingof careful pity, an ever-increasing restlessness, which he could notexplain, took possession of him. He felt that the condition he wasin could not continue long, that a catastrophe was coming whichwould change his whole life, and he impatiently sought everywherefor signs of that approaching catastrophe. One of his brother Masonshad revealed to Pierre the following prophecy concerning Napoleon,drawn from the Revelation of St. John.

　　In chapter 13, verse 18, of the Apocalypse, it is said:

　　Here is wisdom. Let him that hath understanding count the numberof the beast: for it is the number of a man; and his number is Sixhundred threescore and six.

　　And in the fifth verse of the same chapter:

　　And there was given unto him a mouth speaking great things andblasphemies; and power was given unto him to continue forty and twomonths.

　　The French alphabet, written out with the same numerical values asthe Hebrew, in which the first nine letters denote units and theothers tens, will have the following significance:

　　a b c d e f g h i k 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 l m n o p q r s 20 30 40 50 60 70 80 90 t u v w x y 100 110 120 130 140 150 z 160Writing the words L'Empereur Napoleon in numbers, it appears thatthe sum of them is 666, and that Napoleon therefore the beast foretoldin the Apocalypse. Moreover, by applying the same system to thewords quarante-deux,* which was the term allowed to the beast that"spoke great things and blasphemies," the same number 666 wasobtained; from which it followed that the limit fixed for Napoleon'spower had come in the year 1812 when the French emperor was forty-two.This prophecy pleased Pierre very much and he often asked himself whatwould put an end to the power of the beast, that is, of Napoleon,and tried by the same system of using letters as numbers and addingthem up, to find an answer to the question that engrossed him. Hewrote the words L'Empereur Alexandre, La nation russe and added uptheir numbers, but the sums were either more or less than 666. Oncewhen making such calculations he wrote down his own name in French,Comte Pierre Besouhoff, but the sum of the numbers did not come right.Then he changed the spelling, substituting a z for the s and adding deand the article le, still without obtaining the desired result. Thenit occurred to him: if the answer to the question were contained inhis name, his nationality would also be given in the answer. So hewrote Le russe Besuhof and adding up the numbers got 671. This wasonly five too much, and five was represented by e, the very letterelided from the article le before the word Empereur. By omitting thee, though incorrectly, Pierre got the answer he sought. L'russeBesuhof made 666. This discovery excited him. How, or by what means,he was connected with the great event foretold in the Apocalypse hedid not know, but he did not doubt that connection for a moment. Hislove for Natasha, Antichrist, Napoleon, the invasion, the comet,666, L'Empereur Napoleon, and L'russe Besuhof- all this had tomature and culminate, to lift him out of that spellbound, petty sphereof Moscow habits in which he felt himself held captive and lead him toa great achievement and great happiness.

　　*Forty-two.

　　On the eve of the Sunday when the special prayer was read, Pierrehad promised the Rostovs to bring them, from Count Rostopchin whomhe knew well, both the appeal to the people and the news from thearmy. In the morning, when he went to call at Rostopchin's he metthere a courier fresh from the army, an acquaintance of his own, whooften danced at Moscow balls.

　　"Do, please, for heaven's sake, relieve me of something!" said thecourier. "I have a sackful of letters to parents."

　　Among these letters was one from Nicholas Rostov to his father.Pierre took that letter, and Rostopchin also gave him the Emperor'sappeal to Moscow, which had just been printed, the last army orders,and his own most recent bulletin. Glancing through the army orders,Pierre found in one of them, in the lists of killed, wounded, andrewarded, the name of Nicholas Rostov, awarded a St. George's Cross ofthe Fourth Class for courage shown in the Ostrovna affair, and inthe same order the name of Prince Andrew Bolkonski, appointed to thecommand of a regiment of Chasseurs. Though he did not want to remindthe Rostovs of Bolkonski, Pierre could not refrain from making themhappy by the news of their son's having received a decoration, so hesent that printed army order and Nicholas' letter to the Rostovs,keeping the appeal, the bulletin, and the other orders to take withhim when he went to dinner.

　　His conversation with Count Rostopchin and the latter's tone ofanxious hurry, the meeting with the courier who talked casually of howbadly things were going in the army, the rumors of the discovery ofspies in Moscow and of a leaflet in circulation stating thatNapoleon promised to be in both the Russian capitals by the autumn,and the talk of the Emperor's being expected to arrive next day- allaroused with fresh force that feeling of agitation and expectationin Pierre which he had been conscious of ever since the appearanceof the comet, and especially since the beginning of the war.

　　He had long been thinking of entering the army and would have doneso had he not been hindered, first, by his membership of the Societyof Freemasons to which he was bound by oath and which preachedperpetual peace and the abolition of war, and secondly, by the factthat when he saw the great mass of Muscovites who had donned uniformand were talking patriotism, he somehow felt ashamed to take the step.But the chief reason for not carrying out his intention to enter thearmy lay in the vague idea that he was L'russe Besuhof who had thenumber of the beast, 666; that his part in the great affair of settinga limit to the power of the beast that spoke great and blasphemousthings had been predestined from eternity, and that therefore he oughtnot to undertake anything, but wait for what was bound to come topass.