War and Peace - Leo Tolstoy [176]
“There he is, Your Honor!” one of the hussars said behind him.
And before Rostov had time to make out something that loomed up black in the mist, a flash gleamed, a shot cracked, and a bullet, as if complaining about something, whined high up in the mist and flew out of earshot. A second musket misfired, but there was a flash in the pan. Rostov turned his horse and galloped back. Four more shots rang out at various intervals, and bullets went singing in various tones somewhere in the mist. Rostov reined in his horse, who was elated like himself by the shooting, and rode on slowly. “More now, more now!” a cheerful voice was saying in his soul. But there was no more shooting.
Only as he approached Bagration, Rostov sent his horse into a gallop again and, with his hand to his visor, rode up to him.
Dolgorukov was still insisting on his opinion that the French had retreated and lit fires only to deceive us.
“What does that prove?” he was saying as Rostov rode up to them. “They could retreat and leave pickets.”
“Clearly they have not all left, Prince,” said Bagration. “Till tomorrow morning, tomorrow we’ll find out everything.”
“There are pickets on the hill, Your Excellency, in the same place as this evening,” Rostov reported, bending forward, holding his hand to his visor, and unable to repress a cheerful smile, called up in him by his ride and above all by the whine of the bullets.
“Very good, very good,” said Bagration, “thank you, Lieutenant.”
“Your Excellency,” said Rostov, “allow me to make a request.”
“What is it?”
“Tomorrow our squadron is assigned to the reserves. Allow me to request that you attach me to the first squadron.”
“What is your name?”
“Count Rostov.”
“Ah, very well. Stay with me as an orderly officer.”
“Are you Ilya Andreich’s son?” asked Dolgorukov.
But Rostov did not reply.
“So I’ll be counting on it, Your Excellency.”
“I will give the order.”
“Tomorrow,” thought Rostov, “I may very well be sent on some sort of mission to the sovereign. Thank God!”
The cries and fires in the enemy army came from the fact that, while Napoleon’s orders were being read to the troops, the emperor himself rode around his bivouacs. The soldiers, seeing the emperor, set fire to bundles of straw and ran after him, shouting, “Vive l’empereur!” Napoleon’s orders were the following:
Soldiers! The Russian army is marching against us in order to avenge the Austrian army of Ulm. These are the same battalions that you crushed at Hollabrunn7 and have since been pursuing constantly as far as this place. The positions we occupy are strong, and while they move to surround me on the right, they will expose their flank to me! Soldiers! I myself will direct your battalions. I will stay out of fire if you, with your usual courage, bring disorder and confusion to the enemy’s ranks; but if victory should be doubtful even for a moment, you will see your emperor subjecting himself to the first blows of the enemy, because there can be no hesitations about victory, especially on this day when what is at stake is the honor of the French infantry, which is so necessary to the honor of our nation.
Do not break ranks on the pretext of removing the wounded! Let each of you be fully pervaded by the thought that we must defeat these mercenaries of England, inspired by such hatred of our nation. This victory will end our campaign, and we will be able to return to our winter quarters, where new French troops, now being raised in France, will find us; and then the peace which I will conclude will be worthy of my people, you, and myself.
Napoleon.
XIV
At five o’clock in the morning it was still quite dark. The troops of the center, the reserves, and Bagration’s right flank still stood motionless, but on the left flank the columns of infantry, cavalry, and artillery which were to be the first to descend from the heights in order to attack the French right flank and