War and Peace - Leo Tolstoy [418]
The first to begin speaking was General Armfelt, who, to get around the difficulty presented, unexpectedly suggested a new position, totally inexplicable (except by his wish to show that he, too, could have an opinion), away from the Petersburg and Moscow roads, at which, in his opinion, the united army should await the enemy. It was clear that this plan had been put together by Armfelt long ago, and he was now expounding it not so much with the purpose of answering the questions posed, which this plan did not answer, as with the purpose of using the opportunity to speak about it. It was one of the millions of suggestions that could be made, as well-founded as any other, if one had no notion of what character the war would take. Some argued against his opinion, some defended it. The young Colonel Toll argued against the Swedish general’s opinion more vehemently than the others, and during the argument took from his side pocket a notebook full of writing, which he asked permission to read. In an extensively composed project, Toll suggested another plan of campaign—the complete opposite of Armfelt’s plan and Pfuel’s plan. Paulucci, objecting to Toll, suggested a plan of advance and attack, which alone, he said, could take us out of the uncertainty and the trap, as he called the Drissa camp, in which we found ourselves. During this argument, Pfuel and his translator Wolzogen (his bridge in court relations) were silent. Pfuel merely snorted scornfully and looked away, showing that he would never lower himself to objecting to the nonsense he was listening to. But when Prince Volkonsky, who was leading the debate, called on him to express his opinion, he merely said:
“Why ask me? General Armfelt has suggested a beautiful position, with an exposed rear. Or the attack von diesem italienischen Herrn, sehr schön!*422 Or a retreat. Auch gut.†423 Why ask me?” he said. “You yourselves know everything better than I.” But when Volkonsky, frowning, said that he was asking his opinion on behalf of the sovereign, Pfuel stood up and, suddenly animated, began to speak:
“You have ruined everything, confused everything, wanted to know everything better than I, and now you come to me: how can we fix it? There’s nothing to fix. Everything should be carried out precisely according to the foundations I have laid down,” he said, rapping his bony knuckles on the table. “What is the difficulty? Nonsense, Kinderspiel!‡424 He went up to the map and started speaking quickly, jabbing his dry finger at the map and insisting that no chance could alter the expediency of the Drissa camp, that everything had been foreseen, and that if the enemy should indeed outflank it, they would inevitably be destroyed.
Paulucci, who did not know German, started asking questions in French. Wolzogen came to the aid of his principal, who spoke French poorly, and started translating his words, barely keeping up with Pfuel, who rapidly proved that not only everything that had happened, but everything that could happen, had been foreseen in his plan, and that if there were difficulties now, the whole blame lay only in the fact that everything had not been carried out precisely. He kept laughing ironically, demonstrated, and at last contemptuously stopped demonstrating, as a mathematician stops checking in various ways the once-proven correctness of a problem. Wolzogen replaced him, continuing to set forth his thoughts in French and saying to Pfuel every now and then: “Nicht wahr, Exellenz?”§425 Pfuel, like a man who in the heat of battle strikes his own side, shouted angrily at Wolzogen as well:
“Nun ja, was soll denn da noch expliziert werden?”#426
Paulucci and Michaud with two voices fell upon Wolzogen in French. Armfelt addressed Pfuel in German. Toll explained something to Volkonsky in Russian. Prince