War and Peace - Leo Tolstoy [504]
Voices came from outside the shed.
“Who’s there?” Prince Andrei called out.
Red-nosed Captain Timokhin, formerly Dolokhov’s company commander, and now, as the numbers of officers diminished, a battalion commander, timidly came into the shed. After him came an adjutant and the regimental paymaster.
Prince Andrei hastily got up, listened to what the officers had to tell him in the line of duty, gave them some further orders, and was about to dismiss them, when he heard a familiar, lisping voice from outside the shed.
“Que diable!”*465 said the voice of a man who had run into something.
Prince Andrei looked out of the shed and saw Pierre, who had stumbled over a pole that was lying there and nearly fallen. It was generally unpleasant for Prince Andrei to see people from his world, especially Pierre, who reminded him of all those painful moments he had lived through during his last visit to Moscow.
“Ah, look at that!” he said. “What fate brings you here? I’d never have expected it.”
As he said this, there was something more than dryness in his eyes and the expression of his whole face—there was a hostility that Pierre noticed at once. He was approaching the shed in the most animated state of mind, but, seeing the expression on Prince Andrei’s face, he felt embarrassed and awkward.
“I’ve come…just…you know…I’ve come…it’s interesting,” said Pierre, who had repeated the senseless word “interesting” so many times that day. “I wanted to see the battle.”
“Yes, yes, and what do your brother Masons say about war? Is there a way to prevent it?” Prince Andrei said mockingly. “Well, what about Moscow? What about my people? Have they finally come to Moscow?” he asked seriously.
“Yes. Julie Drubetskoy told me. I went to see them, but missed them. They’d gone to the estate outside Moscow.”
XXV
The officers wanted to take their leave, but Prince Andrei, as if unwilling to be left alone with his friend, invited them to stay and have tea. Benches and tea were brought. The officers looked not without surprise at Pierre’s fat, enormous figure, and listened to his stories about Moscow and about the disposition of our troops, which he had managed to ride around. Prince Andrei was silent, and his face was so unpleasant that Pierre addressed himself more to the good-natured battalion commander Timokhin than to Bolkonsky.
“So you’ve understood the whole disposition of the troops?” Prince Andrei interrupted him.
“How do you mean?” said Pierre. “As a nonmilitary man I can’t say I do fully, but anyhow I understand the general disposition.”
“Eh bien, vous êtes plus avancé que qui cela soit,”*466 said Prince Andrei.
“Ah!” Pierre said with perplexity, looking through his spectacles at Prince Andrei. “Well, what do you say about the appointment of Kutuzov?” he asked.
“I was very glad of his appointment, that’s all I know,” said Prince Andrei.
“Well, and tell me, what’s your opinion of Barclay de Tolly? In Moscow they’re saying God knows what about him. How do you judge him?”
“Ask them,” said Prince Andrei, pointing to the officers.
Pierre looked at Timokhin with the condescendingly questioning smile with which everyone involuntarily addressed him.
“Light has shone on us, Your Excellency, since his serenity took over,” Timokhin said timidly, glancing continually at his regimental commander.
“How so?” asked Pierre.
“Why, just as regards firewood and fodder, I must tell you. You see, we were retreating from Swienciany, not daring to touch a twig, or a wisp of hay there, or anything. You see, we were leaving, so he would get it, right, Your Excellency?” He turned to his prince. “But don’t you dare! In our regiment, two officers were tried for that sort of thing. Well, as soon as his serenity took over, it got simple in that regard. Light has shone on us…”
“Then why was it forbidden before?”
Timokhin looked around in confusion, not understanding how and what to answer to such a question. Pierre turned with the same question