Book Ten: 1812 - Chapter XIV

by Leo Tolstoy

　　Well, is she pretty? Ah, friend- my pink one is delicious; hername is Dunyasha...."

　　But on glancing at Rostov's face Ilyin stopped short. He saw thathis hero and commander was following quite a different train ofthought.

　　Rostov glanced angrily at Ilyin and without replying strode off withrapid steps to the village.

　　"I'll show them; I'll give it to them, the brigands!" said he tohimself.

　　Alpatych at a gliding trot, only just managing not to run, kept upwith him with difficulty.

　　"What decision have you been pleased to come to?" said he.

　　Rostov stopped and, clenching his fists, suddenly and sternly turnedon Alpatych.

　　"Decision? What decision? Old dotard!..." cried he. "What have youbeen about? Eh? The peasants are rioting, and you can't manage them?You're a traitor youself! I know you. I'll flay you all alive!..." Andas if afraid of wasting his store of anger, he left Alpatych andwent rapidly forward. Alpatych, mastering his offended feelings,kept pace with Rostov at a gliding gait and continued to impart hisviews. He said the peasants were obdurate and that at the presentmoment it would be imprudent to "overresist" them without an armedforce, and would it not be better first to send for the military?

　　"I'll give them armed force... I'll 'overresist' them!" utteredRostov meaninglessly, breathless with irrational animal fury and theneed to vent it.

　　Without considering what he would do he moved unconciously withquick, resolute steps toward the crowd. And the nearer he drew to itthe more Alpatych felt that this unreasonable action might producegood results. The peasants in the crowd were similarly impressedwhen they saw Rostov's rapid, firm steps and resolute, frowning face.

　　After the hussars had come to the village and Rostov had gone to seethe princess, a certain confusion and dissension had arisen amongthe crowd. Some of the peasants said that these new arrivals wereRussians and might take it amiss that the mistress was being detained.Dron was of this opinion, but as soon as he expressed it Karp andothers attacked their ex-Elder.

　　"How many years have you been fattening on the commune?" Karpshouted at him. "It's all one to you! You'll dig up your pot ofmoney and take it away with you.... What does it matter to you whetherour homes are ruined or not?"

　　"We've been told to keep order, and that no one is to leave theirhomes or take away a single grain, and that's all about it!" criedanother.

　　"It was your son's turn to be conscripted, but no fear! Youbegrudged your lump of a son," a little old man suddenly beganattacking Dron- "and so they took my Vanka to be shaved for a soldier!But we all have to die."

　　"To be sure, we all have to die. I'm not against the commune,"said Dron.

　　"That's it- not against it! You've filled your belly...."

　　The two tall peasants had their say. As soon as Rostov, followedby Ilyin, Lavrushka, and Alpatych, came up to the crowd, Karp,thrusting his fingers into his belt and smiling a little, walked tothe front. Dron on the contrary retired to the rear and the crowd drewcloser together.

　　"Who is your Elder here? Hey?" shouted Rostov, coming up to thecrowd with quick steps.

　　"The Elder? What do you want with him?..." asked Karp.

　　But before the words were well out of his mouth, his cap flew offand a fierce blow jerked his head to one side.

　　"Caps off, traitors!" shouted Rostov in a wrathful voice. "Where'sthe Elder?" he cried furiously.

　　"The Elder.... He wants the Elder!... Dron Zakharych, you!" meek andflustered voices here and there were heard calling and caps began tocome off their heads.

　　"We don't riot, we're following the orders," declared Karp, and atthat moment several voices began speaking together.

　　"It's as the old men have decided- there's too many of you givingorders."

　　"Arguing? Mutiny!... Brigands! Traitors!" cried Rostov unmeaninglyin a voice not his own, gripping Karp by the collar. "Bind him, bindhim!" he shouted, though there was no one to bind him but Lavrushkaand Alpatych.

　　Lavrushka, however, ran up to Karp and seized him by the arms frombehind.

　　"Shall I call up our men from beyond the hill?" he called out.

　　Alpatych turned to the peasants and ordered two of them by name tocome and bind Karp. The men obediently came out of the crowd and begantaking off their belts.

　　"Where's the Elder?" demanded Rostov in a loud voice.

　　With a pale and frowning face Dron stepped out of the crowd.

　　"Are you the Elder? Bind him, Lavrushka!" shouted Rostov, as if thatorder, too, could not possibly meet with any opposition.

　　And in fact two more peasants began binding Dron, who took off hisown belt and handed it to them, as if to aid them.

　　"And you all listen to me!" said Rostov to the peasants. "Be offto your houses at once, and don't let one of your voices be heard!"

　　"Why, we've not done any harm! We did it just out of foolishness.It's all nonsense... I said then that it was not in order," voiceswere heard bickering with one another.

　　"There! What did I say?" said Alpatych, coming into his own again."It's wrong, lads!"

　　"All our stupidity, Yakov Alpatych," came the answers, and thecrowd began at once to disperse through the village.

　　The two bound men were led off to the master's house. The twodrunken peasants followed them.

　　"Aye, when I look at you!..." said one of them to Karp.

　　"How can one talk to the masters like that? What were you thinkingof, you fool?" added the other- "A real fool!"

　　Two hours later the carts were standing in the courtyard of theBogucharovo house. The peasants were briskly carrying out theproprietor's goods and packing them on the carts, and Dron,liberated at Princess Mary's wish from the cupboard where he hadbeen confined, was standing in the yard directing the men.

　　"Don't put it in so carelessly," said one of the peasants, a manwith a round smiling face, taking a casket from a housemaid. "You knowit has cost money! How can you chuck it in like that or shove it underthe cord where it'll get rubbed? I don't like that way of doingthings. Let it all be done properly, according to rule. Look here, putit under the bast matting and cover it with hay- that's the way!"

　　"Eh, books, books!" said another peasant, bringing out PrinceAndrew's library cupboards. "Don't catch up against it! It's heavy,lads- solid books."

　　"Yes, they worked all day and didn't play!" remarked the tall,round-faced peasant gravely, pointing with a significant wink at thedictionaries that were on the top.

　　Unwilling to obtrude himself on the princess, Rostov did not go backto the house but remained in the village awaiting her departure.When her carriage drove out of the house, he mounted and accompaniedher eight miles from Bogucharovo to where the road was occupied by ourtroops. At the inn at Yankovo he respectfully took leave of her, forthe first time permitting himself to kiss her hand.

　　"How can you speak so!" he blushingly replied to Princess Mary'sexpressions of gratitude for her deliverance, as she termed what hadoccurred. "Any police officer would have done as much! If we had hadonly peasants to fight, we should not have let the enemy come so far,"said he with a sense of shame and wishing to change the subject. "I amonly happy to have had the opportunity of making your acquaintance.Good-by, Princess. I wish you happiness and consolation and hope tomeet you again in happier circumstances. If you don't want to makeme blush, please don't thank me!"

　　But the princess, if she did not again thank him in words, thankedhim with the whole expression of her face, radiant with gratitudeand tenderness. She could not believe that there was nothing tothank him for. On the contrary, it seemed to her certain that had henot been there she would have perished at the hands of the mutineersand of the French, and that he had exposed himself to terrible andobvious danger to save her, and even more certain was it that he was aman of lofty and noble soul, able to understand her position and hersorrow. His kind, honest eyes, with the tears rising in them whenshe herself had begun to cry as she spoke of her loss, did leave hermemory.

　　When she had taken leave of him and remained alone she suddenly felther eyes filling with tears, and then not for the first time thestrange question presented itself to her: did she love him?

　　On the rest of the way to Moscow, though the princess' positionwas not a cheerful one, Dunyasha, who went with her in the carriage,more than once noticed that her mistress leaned out of the windowand smiled at something with an expression of mingled joy and sorrow.

　　"Well, supposing I do love him?" thought Princess Mary.

　　Ashamed as she was of acknowledging to herself that she had fallenin love with a man who would perhaps never love her, she comfortedherself with the thought that no one would ever know it and that shewould not be to blame if, without ever speaking of it to anyone, shecontinued to the end of her life to love the man with whom she hadfallen in love for the first and last time in her life.

　　Sometimes when she recalled his looks, his sympathy, and hiswords, happiness did not appear impossible to her. It was at thosemoments that Dunyasha noticed her smiling as she looked out of thecarriage window.

　　"Was it not fate that brought him to Bogucharovo, and at that verymoment?" thought Princess Mary. "And that caused his sister torefuse my brother?" And in all this Princess Mary saw the hand ofProvidence.

　　The impression the princess made on Rostov was a very agreeable one.To remember her gave him pleasure, and when his comrades, hearing ofhis adventure at Bogucharovo, rallied him on having gone to look forhay and having picked up one of the wealthiest heiresses in Russia, hegrew angry. It made him angry just because the idea of marrying thegentle Princess Mary, who was attractive to him and had an enormousfortune, had against his will more than once entered his head. Forhimself personally Nicholas could not wish for a better wife: bymarrying her he would make the countess his mother happy, would beable to put his father's affairs in order, and would even- he felt it-ensure Princess Mary's happiness.

　　But Sonya? And his plighted word? That was why Rostov grew angrywhen he was rallied about Princess Bolkonskaya.