War and Peace - Leo Tolstoy [82]
Coming out to the waiting room from Kutuzov’s office, Prince Andrei, holding the papers, went up to his colleague on duty, the adjutant Kozlovsky, who was sitting by the window with a book.
“Well, what is it, Prince?” asked Kozlovsky.
“I’ve been ordered to compose a memorandum explaining why we are not moving forward.”
“And why is it?”
Prince Andrei shrugged his shoulders.
“Any news from Mack?” asked Kozlovsky.
“No.”
“If it were true that he’s been defeated, the news would have come.”
“Probably,” said Prince Andrei and headed for the front door; but just then the door slammed and a tall Austrian general, evidently just arrived, in a frock coat, his head bound in a black bandage and the order of Maria Theresa on his neck, quickly entered the waiting room. Prince Andrei stopped.
“General in Chief Kutuzov?” the just-arrived general spoke quickly, with a strong German accent, glancing to both sides and going to the door of the office without pausing.
“The general in chief is busy,” said Kozlovsky, hastily going up to the unknown general and barring his way to the door. “How shall I announce you?”
The unknown general looked down scornfully at the short Kozlovsky, as if surprised that there could be people who did not know him.
“The general in chief is busy,” Kozlovsky calmly repeated.
The general’s face frowned, his lips twitched and trembled. He took out a notebook, quickly jotted something with a pencil, tore out the page, handed it over, went with quick steps to the window, dropped his body into a chair, and looked around at those who were in the room, as if asking why they were looking at him. Then the general raised his head, stretched his neck, as if intending to say something, but at once, as if casually beginning to hum to himself, produced a strange sound, which at once broke off. The door to the office opened, and Kutuzov appeared on the threshold. The general with the bandaged head, leaning forward as if fleeing from danger, went up to Kutuzov with long, rapid strides of his thin legs.
“Vous voyez le malheureux Mack,”*179 he uttered in a breaking voice.
The face of Kutuzov, who was standing in the doorway of his office, remained perfectly immobile for a few moments. Then a wrinkle passed like a wave over his face, his brow became smooth again, he inclined his head deferentially, closed his eyes, silently allowed Mack to pass, followed him in, and closed the door behind him.
The rumor that had already spread earlier about the defeat of the Austrians and the surrender of the entire army at Ulm turned out to be true. Within half an hour adjutants had been sent out in various directions with orders demonstrating that the Russian troops, so far inactive, would soon also have to meet the enemy.
Prince Andrei was one of the rare officers on the staff who placed his main interest in the general course of military operations. Seeing Mack and hearing the details of his ruin, he understood that half the campaign was lost, understood all the difficulty of the Russian troops’ position, and vividly pictured to himself what awaited the army, and the role he was to play in it. Involuntarily, he experienced an excited, joyful feeling at the thought of the disgrace of self-confident Austria and of the fact that in a week, perhaps, he would have to see and take part in the encounter of the Russians with the French, the first since Suvorov. But he feared the genius of Bonaparte, which might prove stronger than all the courage of the Russian troops, and at the same time he could not allow for the disgrace of his hero.
Excited and irritated by these thoughts, Prince Andrei went to his room to write to