War and Peace - Leo Tolstoy [589]
“Who are you? Bonaparte!…” cried Makar Alexeich.
“That’s not nice, sir. Please go inside, have some rest. That little pistol, if you please.”
“Away, contemptible slave! Don’t touch me! See this?” cried Makar Alexeich, brandishing the pistol. “Board ’em!”
“Grab him,” Gerasim whispered to the yard porter.
Makar Alexeich was seized by the arms and dragged towards the door.
The front hall was filled with the ugly noise of the scuffle and the drunken, wheezing sounds of a breathless voice.
Suddenly a new, piercing woman’s cry came from the porch, and the cook rushed into the front hall.
“It’s them! Saints alive!…It’s them, by God! Four, on horseback!…” she cried.
Gerasim and the yard porter let go of Makar Alexeich, and in the hushed corridor they clearly heard the knocking of several hands on the front door.
XXVIII
Pierre, having decided to himself that, before carrying out his intention, he must reveal neither his rank nor his knowledge of French, stood in the half-opened doors to the corridor, intending to disappear as soon as the French came in. But the French came in, and Pierre still did not leave the doors: an invincible curiosity kept him there.
There were two of them. One was an officer, a tall, gallant, and handsome man; the other was obviously a soldier or an orderly, a low-slung, skinny, sunburned man with sunken cheeks and a dull expression on his face. The officer, leaning on a stick and limping slightly, came in first. Having gone several steps, the officer, as if deciding to himself that the quarters were good, stopped, turned around to the soldiers who were standing in the doorway, and in a loud, commanding voice called to them to bring the horses. Having finished with that, the officer, raising his elbow high in a dashing gesture, smoothed his mustache and touched his hat with his hand.
“Bonjour, la compagnie!”*561 he said gaily, smiling and looking around him.
No one made any reply.
“Vous êtes le bourgeois?”†562 the officer addressed Gerasim.
Gerasim gave the officer a fearfully questioning look.
“Quartire, quartire, logement,” said the officer, looking at the small man from above with an indulgent and good-natured smile. “Les Français sont de bons enfants. Que diable! Voyons! Ne nous fâchons pas, mon vieux,”‡563 he added, patting the frightened and silent Gerasim on the shoulder.
“Ah ça! Dites donc, on ne parle donc pas français dans cette boutique?”§564 he added, looking around and meeting Pierre’s eyes. Pierre moved away from the door.
The officer turned to Gerasim again. He requested that Gerasim show him the rooms of the house.
“Master no here—not understand…my your…” said Gerasim, trying to make his words clearer by saying them incorrectly.
The French officer, smiling, spread his hands before Gerasim’s nose, giving him to feel that he did not understand him either, and, limping, walked to the door where Pierre was standing. Pierre wanted to go away and hide from him, but just then he saw Makar Alexeich thrusting himself out of the open kitchen door with the pistol in his hand. With a madman’s cunning, Makar Alexeich looked the Frenchman over, raised the pistol, and took aim.
“Board ’em!!!” shouted the drunk man, feeling for the trigger. The French officer turned at the shout, and at the same moment Pierre threw himself on the drunk man. Just as Pierre seized the pistol and raised it up, Makar Alexeich finally managed to put his finger on the trigger, and a shot rang out, deafening them all and drowning them in smoke. The Frenchman paled and rushed back to the door.
Forgetting his intention not to reveal his knowledge of French, Pierre, tearing the pistol away and dropping it, ran to the officer and began speaking to him in French.
“Vous n’êtes pas blessé?”#565 he said.
“Je crois que non,” replied the officer, feeling himself all over, “mais je l’ai manqué belle cette fois-ci.” he added, pointing to the broken plaster of the wall. “Quel est cet homme?”**566 the officer asked sternly, looking at Pierre.
“Ah, je suis vraiment au désespoir de ce qui vient d’arriver,” Pierre said