War and Peace - Leo Tolstoy [609]
Everyone knew very well that the lovely countess’s illness came from the inconvenience of marrying two husbands at once, and that the Italian’s treatment consisted in removing that inconvenience; but in Anna Pavlovna’s presence not only did no one dare to think about it, but it was as if no one knew it.
“On dit que la pauvre comtesse est très mal. Le médecin dit que c’est l’angine pectorale.”*634
“L’angine? Oh, c’est une maladie terrible!”†635
“On dit que les rivaux se sont réconciliés grâce à l’angine…”‡636
The word angine was repeated with great pleasure.
“Le vieux comte est touchant à ce qu’on dit. Il a pleuré comme un enfant quand le médecin lui a dit que le cas était dangereux.”§637
“Oh, ce serait une perte terrible. C’est une femme ravissante.”#638
“Vous parlez de la pauvre comtesse,” said Anna Pavlovna, approaching. “J’ai envoyé savoir de ses nouvelles. On m’a dit qu’elle allait un peu mieux. Oh, sans doute, c’est la plus charmante femme du monde,” said Anna Pavlovna with a smile at her own rapturousness. “Nous appartenons à des camps différents, mais cela ne m’empêche pas de l’éstimer, comme elle le mérite. Elle est bien malheureuse,”**639 Anna Pavlovna added.
Supposing that by these words Anna Pavlovna had slightly lifted the veil of secrecy over the countess’s illness, one imprudent young man allowed himself to express surprise that, instead of calling in famous doctors, the countess was being treated by a charlatan who might give her dangerous remedies.
“Vos informations peuvent être meilleures que les miennes,” Anna Pavlovna suddenly fell venomously upon the inexperienced young man. “Mais je sais de bonne source que ce médecin est un homme très savant et très habile. C’est le médecin intime de la reine d’Espagne.”*640 And having thus annihilated the young man, Anna Pavlovna turned to Bilibin, who, in another circle, having gathered his skin and clearly preparing to release it again in order to utter un mot, was talking about the Austrians.
“Je trouve que c’est charmant,”†641 he said of a diplomatic paper sent to Vienna together with the Austrian standards taken by Wittgenstein, le héros de Pétropol3 (as he was known in Petersburg).
“How, how is that?” Anna Pavlovna addressed him, inducing silence for the hearing of the mot, which she already knew.
And Bilibin repeated the following actual words from the diplomatic dispatch he had composed:
“L’Empereur renvoie les drapeaux Autrichiens,” said Bilibin, “drapeaux amis et égarés qu’il a trouvé hors de la route,”‡642 Bilibin concluded, releasing his skin.
“Charmant, charmant,” said Prince Vassily.
“C’est la route de Varsovie peut-être,”§643 Prince Ippolit said loudly and unexpectedly. Everyone turned to him, not understanding what he meant to say by that. Prince Ippolit also looked around with merry surprise. Like everyone else, he did not understand the meaning of the words he had spoken. In the course of his diplomatic career, he had noticed more than once that words spoken suddenly like that turned out to be very witty, and, just in case, he had spoken these words, the first that came to his tongue. “Maybe it will turn out very well,” he thought, “and if it doesn’t, they’ll be able to fix things up.” Indeed, during the awkward silence that ensued, the insufficiently patriotic person whom Anna Pavlovna was waiting for in order to convert came in, and she, smiling and shaking her finger at Ippolit, invited Prince Vassily to the table and, giving him two candles and the manuscript, asked him to begin. Everything became silent.
“Most Gracious Sovereign Emperor!” Prince Vassily proclaimed sternly and looked the public over as if asking if anyone had anything to say against it. But no one said anything. “The first capital, Moscow, the New Jerusalem, receives her Christ,” he suddenly emphasized the word her, “as a mother her zealous sons into her embrace, and through the gathering darkness, foreseeing the brilliant glory of thy dominion,