War and Peace - Leo Tolstoy [665]
To a man who does not understand the workings of a machine, it naturally seems, when he sees it in operation, that the most important part of the machine is the chip of wood that accidentally got into it and is tossed about in it, interfering with its working. A man who does not know the construction of the machine cannot understand that it is not this harmful and interfering chip of wood, but that little transmission gear turning noiselessly that is one of the most essential parts of the machine.
On the tenth of October, the same day that Dokhturov got halfway to Fominskoe and halted in the village of Aristovo, preparing to carry out with precision the order he had been given, the entire French army, having reached in its convulsive movement the position of Murat, seemingly in order to give battle, suddenly, without any reason, turned left onto the new Kaluga road and began to enter Fominskoe, which had previously been occupied only by Broussier. At that time Dokhturov had under his command, besides Dorokhov, the two small detachments of Figner and Seslavin.
In the evening of the eleventh of October, Seslavin came to the headquarters in Aristovo with a French guard who had been taken prisoner. The prisoner said that the troops that had just entered Fominskoe were the vanguard of the whole big army, that Napoleon was there, that the whole army had already left Moscow five days ago. That same evening a servant from Borovsk told how he had seen an enormous army enter the town. The Cossacks of Dorokhov’s detachment reported that they had seen French guards going down the road to Borovsk. From all this information it became obvious that, where they had thought to find one division, there was now the whole French army, coming from Moscow in an unexpected direction—down the old Kaluga road. Dokhturov did not want to undertake anything, since it was not clear to him now what his duty was. He had been ordered to attack Fominskoe. But earlier only Broussier had been in Fominskoe, now there was the whole French army. Ermolov wanted to act at his own discretion, but Dokhturov insisted that they had to have an order from his serenity. It was decided to send a report to the staff.
For that a sensible officer was chosen, Bolkhovitinov, who, besides the written report, was to recount the whole matter in his own words. It was past eleven when Bolkhovitinov, having received the envelope and verbal instructions, galloped to staff headquarters, accompanied by a Cossack and spare horses.
XVI
The night was dark, warm, autumnal. Light rain was falling for the fourth day. Having changed horses twice and galloped twenty miles in an hour and a half over a muddy, sticky road, Bolkhovitinov reached Letashevka before two o’clock in the morning. Dismounting at a cottage where a sign reading “Staff Headquarters” was hung on a wattle fence, he left his horse and went into the dark front hall.
“The general on duty, quickly! A matter of great importance!” he said to someone who was getting up and puffing in the darkness of the front hall.
“He was very sick in the evening, it’s the third night he hasn’t slept,” the solicitous voice of an orderly whispered. “Better wake the captain first.”
“A very important message from General Dokhturov,” said Bolkhovitinov, feeling his way to the door and opening it. The orderly went ahead of him and began waking someone up:
“Your Honor, Your Honor—a coullier.”
“What, what? From whom?” said someone’s sleepy voice.
“From Dokhturov and Alexei Petrovich. Napoleon is in Fominskoe,” said Bolkhovitinov, not seeing in the darkness who was questioning him, but supposing by the voice that it was not Konovnitsyn.
The awakened man yawned and stretched.
“I really don’t want to wake him up,” he said, feeling for something. “He’s quite