War And Peace: Book 10 - CHAPTER XXIII

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FROM GORKY Bennigsen went down the high-road to the bridge, which the officer

on the knoll had pointed out to Pierre as the centre of the position, where by

the riverside lay rows of sweet-scented, new-mown hay. They crossed the bridge

to the village of Borodino, then turned to the left, and passing immense numbers

of men and cannons, came out on to the high knoll on which militiamen were at

work excavating. This was the redoubt, as yet unnamed, afterwards called

Raevsky's redoubt, or the battery on the mound.

Pierre did not take special notice of this redoubt. He did not dream that

that spot would be more memorable for him than any other part of the plain of

Borodino. Then they crossed a hollow to Semyonovskoye, where the soldiers were

dragging away the last logs of the huts and barns. Then they rode on downhill

and uphill again, across a field of rye, trampled and laid as though by hail,

along the track newly made by the artillery, over the ridges of the ploughed

field, to the earthworks, at which the men were still at work.

Bennigsen halted at the earthworks, and looked in front at the redoubt of

Shevardino, which had been ours the day before. Several horsemen could be

descried upon it. The officers said that Napoleon and Murat were there. And all

gazed eagerly at the little group of horsemen. Pierre too stared at them, trying

to guess which of the scarcely discernible figures was Napoleon. At last the

group of horsemen descended the hill and passed out of sight.

Bennigsen began explaining to a general who had ridden up to him the whole

position of our troops. Pierre listened to his words, straining every faculty of

his mind to grasp the essential points of the coming battle, but to his

mortification he felt that his faculties were not equal to the task. He could

make nothing of it. Bennigsen finished speaking, and noticing Pierre's listening

face, he said, turning suddenly to him:

“It's not very interesting for you, I expect.”

“Oh, on the contrary, it's very interesting,” Pierre repeated, not quite

truthfully.

From the earthworks they turned still more to the left of the road that ran

winding through a thick, low-growing, birch wood. In the middle of the wood a

brown hare with white feet popped out on the road before them, and was so

frightened by the tramp of so many horses, that in its terror it hopped along

the road just in front of them for a long while, rousing general laughter, and

only when several voices shouted at it, dashed to one side and was lost in the

thicket. After a couple of versts of woodland, they came out on a clearing,

where were the troops of Tutchkov's corps, destined to protect the left

flank.

At this point, at the extreme left flank, Bennigsen talked a great deal with

much heat; and gave instructions, of great importance from a military point of

view, as it seemed to Pierre. Just in front of the spot where Tutchkov's troops

were placed there rose a knoll, which was not occupied by troops. Bennigsen was

loud in his criticism of this oversight, saying that it was insane to leave a

height that commanded the country round unoccupied and place troops just below

it. Several generals expressed the same opinion. One in particular, with martial

warmth, declared that they were doomed there to certain destruction. Bennigsen,

on his own responsibility, ordered the troops to be moved on to the

high-road.

This change of position on the left flank made Pierre more than ever doubtful

of his capacity for comprehending military matters. As he heard Bennigsen and

the other generals criticising the position of the troops at the foot of the

hill, Pierre fully grasped and shared their views. But that was why he could not

imagine how the man who had placed them there could have made so gross and

obvious a blunder.

Pierre did not know that the troops had not been placed there to defend their

position, as Bennigsen supposed, but had been stationed in that concealed spot

in ambush, in order unobserved to deal a sudden blow at the enemy unawares.

Bennigsen, ignorant of this project, moved the troops into a prominent position

without saying anything about this change to the commander-in-chief.

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