War and Peace - Leo Tolstoy [269]
The entire suite now drew back, and Rostov saw the general speak about something with the sovereign for a rather long time.
The sovereign said a few words to him and took a step towards his horse. Again the crowd of the suite and the crowd of the street, in which Rostov stood, moved towards the sovereign. Stopping by his horse and placing his hand on the saddle, the sovereign turned to the cavalry general and spoke in a loud voice, obviously wishing everyone to hear him.
“I cannot, General, and the reason why I cannot is that the law is stronger than I,” said the sovereign, and he raised his foot to the stirrup. The general inclined his head deferentially, the sovereign mounted and rode down the street at a gallop. Rostov, beside himself with rapture, ran after him with the crowd.
XXI
On the square to which the sovereign was riding there stood facing each other on the right the Preobrazhensky battalion and on the left the battalion of the French guards in their bearskin hats.
As the sovereign was approaching one flank of the battalions, which presented arms, another group of horsemen was riding up to the opposite flank, and at the head of them Rostov recognized Napoleon. It could not have been anyone else. He rode at a gallop, in a small hat, with the sash of St. Andrew across his shoulder, in a blue tunic unbuttoned over a white camisole, on an extraordinary purebred gray Arabian stallion, on a gold-embroidered crimson shabrack. Riding up to Alexander, he raised his hat, and as he did so Rostov’s cavalry eye could not help noticing that Napoleon sat his horse poorly and unsteadily. The battalions shouted “Hurrah!” and “Vive l’Empereur!” Napoleon said something to Alexander. The two emperors got off their horses and took each other’s hands. Napoleon’s face wore an unpleasantly false smile. Alexander was saying something to him with a benign expression.
Rostov, not taking his eyes away, despite the trampling of the French gendarmes’ horses, attempting to move the crowd back, followed every movement of the emperor Alexander and Bonaparte. He was struck, as if it was unexpected, by the fact that Alexander behaved as an equal with Bonaparte, and that Bonaparte, quite freely, as if such closeness to the sovereign was natural and habitual to him, treated the Russian tsar as an equal.
Alexander and Napoleon, with the long tail of their suite, approached the right flank of the Preobrazhensky battalion, riding straight at the crowd that was standing there. The crowd unexpectedly found itself so close to the emperors that Rostov, who was standing in the first rows, was afraid he would be recognized.
“Sire, je vous demande la permission de donner la Légion d’honneur au plus brave de vos soldats,”*333 said a sharp, precise voice, articulating every letter.
This was spoken by the short Bonaparte, looking from below straight into Alexander’s eyes. Alexander listened attentively to what was said to him and, inclining his head, smiled pleasantly.
“À celui qui s’est le plus vaillamment conduit dans cette dernière guerre,”†334 Napoleon added, rapping out every syllable with a calm and assurance that Rostov found outrageous, and looking over the ranks of Russian soldiers standing at attention before him, still presenting arms and looking fixedly at the face of their emperor.
“Votre Majesté me permettra-t-elle de demander l’avis du colonel,”‡335 said Alexander, and took a few hasty steps towards Prince Kozlovsky, the commander of the battalion. Bonaparte meanwhile began to remove the glove from his small white hand, tore it, and threw it down. An adjutant, hastily rushing forward from behind, picked it up.
“To whom should