War and Peace - Leo Tolstoy [462]
Recently, after the sovereign’s arrival from the army, some sort of flurry had gone on in these opposing salon circles, and there had been some sort of demonstrations against each other, but the tendencies of the circles remained the same. In Anna Pavlovna’s circle, Frenchmen were accepted only from among the inveterate legitimists, and here the patriotic thought was upheld that one should not go to the French theater and that maintaining a company of actors cost as much as maintaining an entire army corps. Military events were eagerly followed, and the most advantageous rumors were spread about our army. The pro-French circle of Hélène and Rumyantsev refuted the rumors about the cruelty of the enemy and the war, and discussed all of Napoleon’s attempts at reconciliation. This circle reproached those who advised overly hasty arrangements to do with preparing the court and the girls’ institutes, under the dowager empress’s patronage, for departure to Kazan. In general, the whole matter of the war was presented in Hélène’s salon as empty demonstrations, which would quite soon end in peace, and there reigned the opinion of Bilibin, now in Petersburg and a familiar at Hélène’s (every intelligent person had to be received in her salon), that the matter would be resolved not by gunpowder, but by those who invented it.8 This circle ironically and quite intelligently, though also quite cautiously, laughed at the Moscow raptures, news of which had come to Petersburg with the sovereign.
In Anna Pavlovna’s circle, those raptures, on the contrary, were admired and spoken of as Plutarch speaks of the ancients. Prince Vassily, who occupied all the same important posts, was the connecting link between the two circles. He visited ma bonne amie Anna Pavlovna, and he visited dans le salon diploma-tique de ma fille,*433 and often, in his ceaseless moves from one camp to the other, became confused and said at Anna Pavlovna’s what ought to have been said at Hélène’s, and vice versa.
Soon after the sovereign’s arrival, Prince Vassily got to talking at Anna Pavlovna’s about matters of the war, harshly denouncing Barclay de Tolly and finding himself undecided about who should be named commander in chief. One of the guests, known under the name of un homme de beaucoup de mérite,†434 9 having told how he had seen Kutuzov, who had just been chosen as commander of the Petersburg militia, sitting in the treasury office over the enlistment of soldiers, allowed himself to cautiously voice the suggestion that Kutuzov might be the man who would satisfy all the requirements.
Anna Pavlovna smiled sadly and observed that Kutuzov had never caused the sovereign anything but trouble.
“I said over and over at the Assembly of the Nobility,” Prince Vassily interrupted, “but they didn’t listen to me. I said that his selection as commander of the militia wouldn’t please the sovereign. They didn’t listen to me.
“It’s all some sort of mania for ‘fronding,’”10 he went on. “And before whom? And it’s all because we want to ape those stupid Moscow raptures,” said Prince Vassily, becoming confused for a moment and forgetting that at Hélène’s one had to make fun of the Moscow raptures, but at Anna Pavlovna’s to admire them. But he corrected himself at once. “Well, is it suitable for Count Kutuzov, the oldest general in Russia, to sit in an office, et il en restera pour sa peine!*435 Is it possible to appoint as commander in chief a man who cannot mount a horse, who falls asleep at a council, a man of the lowest morals! A nice reputation he made for himself in Bucharest! I’m not even speaking of his qualities as a general, but is it possible at such