Book Ten: 1812 - Chapter II

by Leo Tolstoy

　　The day after his son had left, Prince Nicholas sent for PrincessMary to come to his study.

　　"Well? Are you satisfied now?" said he. "You've made me quarrel withmy son! Satisfied, are you? That's all you wanted! Satisfied?... Ithurts me, it hurts. I'm old and weak and this is what you wanted. Wellthen, gloat over it! Gloat over it!"

　　After that Princess Mary did not see her father for a whole week. Hewas ill and did not leave his study.

　　Princess Mary noticed to her surprise that during this illness theold prince not only excluded her from his room, but did not admitMademoiselle Bourienne either. Tikhon alone attended him.

　　At the end of the week the prince reappeared and resumed hisformer way of life, devoting himself with special activity to buildingoperations and the arrangement of the gardens and completelybreaking off his relations with Mademoiselle Bourienne. His looksand cold tone to his daughter seemed to say: "There, you see? Youplotted against me, you lied to Prince Andrew about my relationswith that Frenchwoman and made me quarrel with him, but you see I needneither her nor you!"

　　Princess Mary spent half of every day with little Nicholas, watchinghis lessons, teaching him Russian and music herself, and talking toDessalles; the rest of the day she spent over her books, with herold nurse, or with "God's folk" who sometimes came by the back door tosee her.

　　Of the war Princess Mary thought as women do think about wars. Shefeared for her brother who was in it, was horrified by and amazed atthe strange cruelty that impels men to kill one another, but she didnot understand the significance of this war, which seemed to herlike all previous wars. She did not realize the significance of thiswar, though Dessalles with whom she constantly conversed waspassionately interested in its progress and tried to explain his ownconception of it to her, and though the "God's folk" who came to seeher reported, in their own way, the rumors current among the people ofan invasion by Antichrist, and though Julie (now PrincessDrubetskaya), who had resumed correspondence with her, wrote patrioticletters from Moscow.

　　"I write you in Russian, my good friend," wrote Julie in herFrenchified Russian, "because I have a detestation for all the French,and the same for their language which I cannot support to hearspoken.... We in Moscow are elated by enthusiasm for our adoredEmperor.

　　"My poor husband is enduring pains and hunger in Jewish taverns, butthe news which I have inspires me yet more.

　　"You heard probably of the heroic exploit of Raevski, embracinghis two sons and saying: 'I will perish with them but we will not beshaken!' And truly though the enemy was twice stronger than we, wewere unshakable. We pass the time as we can, but in war as in war! Theprincesses Aline and Sophie sit whole days with me, and we, unhappywidows of live men, make beautiful conversations over our charpie,only you, my friend, are missing..." and so on.

　　The chief reason Princess Mary did not realize the full significanceof this war was that the old prince never spoke of it, did notrecognize it, and laughed at Dessalles when he mentioned it at dinner.The prince's tone was so calm and confident that Princess Maryunhesitatingly believed him.

　　All that July the old prince was exceedingly active and evenanimated. He planned another garden and began a new building for thedomestic serfs. The only thing that made Princess Mary anxious abouthim was that he slept very little and, instead of sleeping in hisstudy as usual, changed his sleeping place every day. One day he wouldorder his camp bed to be set up in the glass gallery, another day heremained on the couch or on the lounge chair in the drawing room anddozed there without undressing, while- instead of MademoiselleBourienne- a serf boy read to him. Then again he would spend a nightin the dining room.

　　On August 1, a second letter was received from Prince Andrew. In hisfirst letter which came soon after he had left home, Prince Andrew haddutifully asked his father's forgiveness for what he had allowedhimself to say and begged to be restored to his favor. To thisletter the old prince had replied affectionately, and from that timehad kept the Frenchwoman at at Prince Andrew's second letter,written near Vitebsk after the French had occupied that town, gave abrief account of the whole campaign, enclosed for them a plan he haddrawn and forecasts as to the further progress of the war. In thisletter Prince Andrew pointed out to his father the danger of stayingat Bald Hills, so near the theater of war and on the army's directline of march, and advised him to move to Moscow.

　　At dinner that day, on Dessalles' mentioning that the French weresaid to have already entered Vitebsk, the old prince remembered hisson's letter.

　　"There was a letter from Prince Andrew today," he said to PrincessMary- "Haven't you read it?"

　　"No, Father," she replied in a frightened voice.

　　She could not have read the letter as she did not even know it hadarrived.

　　"He writes about this war," said the prince, with the ironic smilethat had become habitual to him in speaking of the present war.

　　"That must be very interesting," said Dessalles. "Prince Andrew isin a position to know..."

　　"Oh, very interesting!" said Mademoiselle Bourienne.

　　"Go and get it for me," said the old prince to MademoiselleBourienne. "You know- under the paperweight on the little table."

　　Mademoiselle Bourienne jumped up eagerly.

　　"No, don't!" he exclaimed with a frown. "You go, Michael Ivanovich."

　　Michael Ivanovich rose and went to the study. But as soon as hehad left the room the old prince, looking uneasily round, threw downhis napkin and went himself.

　　"They can't do anything... always make some muddle," he muttered.

　　While he was away Princess Mary, Dessalles, MademoiselleBourienne, and even little Nicholas exchanged looks in silence. Theold prince returned with quick steps, accompanied by MichaelIvanovich, bringing the letter and a plan. These he put down besidehim- not letting anyone read them at dinner.

　　On moving to the drawing room he handed the letter to PrincessMary and, spreading out before him the plan of the new building andfixing his eyes upon it, told her to read the letter aloud. When shehad done so Princess Mary looked inquiringly at her father. He wasexamining the plan, evidently engrossed in his own ideas.

　　"What do you think of it, Prince?" Dessalles ventured to ask.

　　"I? I?..." said the prince as if unpleasantly awakened, and nottaking his eyes from the plan of the building.

　　"Very possibly the theater of war will move so near to us that..."

　　"Ha ha ha! The theater of war!" said the prince. "I have said andstill say that the theater of war is Poland and the enemy will neverget beyond the Niemen."

　　Dessalles looked in amazement at the prince, who was talking ofthe Niemen when the enemy was already at the Dnieper, but PrincessMary, forgetting the geographical position of the Niemen, thought thatwhat her father was saying was correct.

　　"When the snow melts they'll sink in the Polish swamps. Only theycould fail to see it," the prince continued, evidently thinking of thecampaign of 1807 which seemed to him so recent. "Bennigsen should haveadvanced into Prussia sooner, then things would have taken a differentturn..."

　　"But, Prince," Dessalles began timidly, "the letter mentionsVitebsk...."

　　"Ah, the letter? Yes..." replied the prince peevishly. "Yes...yes..." His face suddenly took on a morose expression. He paused."Yes, he writes that the French were beaten at... at... what riveris it?"

　　Dessalles dropped his eyes.

　　"The prince says nothing about that," he remarked gently.

　　"Doesn't he? But I didn't invent it myself."

　　No one spoke for a long time.

　　"Yes... yes... Well, Michael Ivanovich," he suddenly went on,raising his head and pointing to the plan of the building, "tell mehow you mean to alter it...."

　　Michael Ivanovich went up to the plan, and the prince after speakingto him about the building looked angrily at Princess Mary andDessalles and went to his own room.

　　Princess Mary saw Dessalles' embarrassed and astonished look fixedon her father, noticed his silence, and was struck by the fact thather father had forgotten his son's letter on the drawing-room table;but she was not only afraid to speak of it and ask Dessalles thereason of his confusion and silence, but was afraid even to thinkabout it.

　　In the evening Michael Ivanovich, sent by the prince, came toPrincess Mary for Prince Andrew's letter which had been forgotten inthe drawing room. She gave it to him and, unpleasant as it was toher to do so, ventured to ask him what her father was doing.

　　"Always busy," replied Michael Ivanovich with a respectfullyironic smile which caused Princess Mary to turn pale. "He's worryingvery much about the new building. He has been reading a little, butnow"- Michael Ivanovich went on, lowering his voice- "now he's athis desk, busy with his will, I expect." (One of the prince's favoriteoccupations of late had been the preparation of some papers he meantto leave at his death and which he called his "will.")

　　"And Alpatych is being sent to Smolensk?" asked Princess Mary.

　　"Oh, yes, he has been waiting to start for some time."