War and Peace - Leo Tolstoy [592]
The captain was so naïvely and good-naturedly merry, and wholesome, and pleased with himself, that Pierre glanced merrily at him and nearly winked himself. The word galant probably prompted the captain to thoughts about the state of Moscow.
“À propos, dites donc, est-ce vrai que toutes les femmes ont quitté Moscou? Une drôle d’idée! Qu’avaient-elles à craindre?”§584
“Est-ce que les dames françaises ne quitteraient pas Paris si les Russes y entraient?”#585 asked Pierre.
“Ah, ah, ah!…” The Frenchman burst into merry, sanguine laughter, patting Pierre on the shoulder. “Ah! elle est forte celle-là,” he said. “Paris?…Mais Paris…Paris…”*586
“Paris la capitale du monde…”†587 said Pierre, finishing his phrase.
The captain looked at Pierre. He had the habit of stopping in the middle of a conversation and gazing intently with laughing, tender eyes.
“Eh bien, si vous ne m’aviez pas dit que vous êtes Russe, j’aurai parié que vous êtes Parisien. Vous avez ce…je ne sais quoi, ce…”‡588 and, having uttered this compliment, he again gave his silent look.
“J’ai été à Paris, j’y ai passé des années,”§589 said Pierre.
“Oh, ça se voit bien. Paris!…Un homme qui ne connaît pas Paris, est un sauvage. Un Parisien, ça se sent à deux lieues. Paris, c’est Talma, la Duchesnois, Potier, la Sorbonne, les boulevards,”21 and, noticing that the conclusion was weaker than what had gone before, he hastily added: “Il n’y a qu’un Paris au monde. Vous avez été à Paris et vous êtes resté Russe. Eh bien, je ne vous en estime pas moins.”#590
Under the influence of the wine he had drunk, and after the days he had spent alone with his dark thoughts, Pierre experienced an involuntary pleasure in conversing with this merry and good-natured man.
“Pour en revenir à vos dames, on les dit bien belles. Quelle fichue idée d’aller s’enterrer dans les steppes, quand l’armée française est à Moscou. Quelle chance elles ont manqué celles-là. Vos moujiks c’est autre chose, mais vous autres gens civilisés vous devriez nous connaître mieux que ça. Nous avons pris Vienne, Berlin, Madrid, Naples, Rome, Varsovie, toutes les capitales du monde…On nous craint, mais on nous aime. Nous sommes bons à connaître. Et puis l’Empereur…”**591 he began, but Pierre interrupted him.
“L’Empereur,” Pierre repeated, and his face suddenly acquired a sad and embarrassed expression. “Est-ce que l’Empereur…”††592
“L’Empereur? C’est la générosité, la clémence, la justice, l’ordre, le génie, voilà l’Empereur! C’est moi, Ramballe, qui vous le dit. Tel que vous me voyez, j’étais son ennemi il y a encore huit ans. Mon père a été comte émigré…Mais il m’a vaincu, cet homme. Il m’a empoigné. Je n’ai pas pu résister au spectacle de grandeur et de gloire dont il couvrait la France. Quand j’ai compris ce qu’il voulait, quand j’ai vu qu’il nous faisait une litière de lauriers, voyez-vous, je me suis dit: voilà un souverain, et je me suis donné à lui. Eh voilà! Oh, oui, mon cher, c’est le plus grand homme des siècles passés et à venir.”*593
“Est-il à Moscou?”†594 asked Pierre, faltering and with a criminal look. The Frenchman looked at Pierre’s criminal face and smiled slightly.
“Non, il fera son entrée demain,”‡595 he said and went on with his stories.
Their conversation was interrupted by the cries of several voices at the gate and the arrival of Morel, who came to tell the captain that the Württemberg hussars had arrived and wanted to put their horses in the same courtyard with the captain’s horses. The difficulty came primarily from the fact that the hussars did not understand what was said to them.
The captain ordered the sergeant major brought to him and asked him in a stern voice what regiment he belonged to, who their commander was, and on what grounds he had allowed himself to occupy quarters which were already occupied. To the first two questions, the German, who had a poor understanding of French, named his regiment and his commander; but to the last question, which he did not understand, he answered, putting broken French words into German, that he was the regimental quartermaster,