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to build a new chapel in the church at their own expense. In another place he was met by women with nursing babies, who thanked him for their deliverance from hard work. On a third estate he was met by the priest with a cross, surrounded by children whom, thanks to the count, he was instructing in reading, writing, and religion. On all the estates Pierre saw with his own eyes stone buildings under construction or already constructed according to the same plan, to serve as hospitals, schools, and almshouses, which were to be opened in a short time. Everywhere Pierre saw the stewards’ reports on the reduction of the corvée compared to previous norms and heard touching thanks for it from deputations of peasants in blue kaftans.

Pierre did not know that the village where he was offered bread and salt and where a chapel to Peter and Paul was being built was a market village with a fair on St. Peter’s Day, that the chapel had been begun long ago by the wealthy peasants, who were the ones that welcomed him, and that nine-tenths of the peasants in that village were completely destitute. He did not know that since, on his orders, women with nursing babies were no longer sent to do corvée, these same women had to do still harder work on their own land. He did not know that the priest who met him with the cross burdened the peasants with his exactions and that the pupils gathered around him had been sent off with tears by their parents and were bought back for large sums of money. He did not know that the stone buildings were constructed to plan by his own workers and increased their corvée, which was only reduced on paper. He did not know that where a steward showed him in the books that the quitrent had been reduced by a third, as he had ordered, the corvée had been augmented by half. And therefore Pierre was delighted by his visits to the estates and returned fully to that philanthropic state of mind in which he had left Petersburg, and wrote rapturous letters to his mentor-brother, as he called the grand master.

“How easy it is, how little effort it takes, to do so much good,” thought Pierre, “and how little we care about it!”

He was happy with the gratitude shown him, but ashamed as he received it. This gratitude reminded him how much more he could do for these simple, good people.

The steward, a very stupid but cunning man, understood the intelligent but naïve count perfectly and played with him as with a toy. When he saw the effect these prearranged receptions had on Pierre, he addressed him more resolutely with arguments about the impossibility and, above all, the needlessness of emancipating the peasants, who were perfectly happy even without that.

In his heart of hearts Pierre agreed with the steward that it was hard to imagine happier people and that God knows what awaited them in freedom; yet Pierre insisted, albeit reluctantly, on what he considered right. The steward promised to put all his powers to use in fulfilling the count’s will, clearly understanding that the count not only would never be able to check on whether all the measures had been taken for selling the woodlands and estates, so as to pay off the Council, but would probably never ask and never find out that the buildings constructed were standing empty and that the peasants went on giving in work and money all that peasants gave other masters—that is, all they could.

XI

Returning from his southern journey in the happiest state of mind, Pierre carried out a long-standing intention of his—to go and visit his friend Bolkonsky, whom he had not seen for two years.

Having learned at the last posting station that Prince Andrei was not at Bald Hills, but at his newly allotted estate, Pierre went to him there.

Bogucharovo lay in flat, unattractive country covered with fields and first- and second-growth stands of fir and birch. The manor stood at the end of a village that stretched along the high road, behind a newly dug, well-filled pond, its banks not yet overgrown with grass, in the middle of a young woods, amidst which stood a few big pines.

The manor