War And Peace: Book 2 - CHAPTER XVII

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PRINCE ANDREY mounted his horse but lingered at the battery, looking at the

smoke of the cannon from which the ball had flown. His eyes moved rapidly over

the wide plain. He only saw that the previously immobile masses of the French

were heaving to and fro, and that it really was a battery on the left. The smoke

still clung about it. Two Frenchmen on horseback, doubtless adjutants, were

galloping on the hill. A small column of the enemy, distinctly visible, were

moving downhill, probably to strengthen the line. The smoke of the first shot

had not cleared away, when there was a fresh puff of smoke and another shot. The

battle was beginning. Prince Andrey turned his horse and galloped back to Grunte

to look for Prince Bagration. Behind him he heard the cannonade becoming louder

and more frequent. Our men were evidently beginning to reply. Musket shots could

be heard below at the spot where the lines were closest. Lemarrois had only just

galloped to Murat with Napoleon's menacing letter, and Murat, abashed and

anxious to efface his error, at once moved his forces to the centre and towards

both flanks, hoping before evening and the arrival of the Emperor to destroy the

insignificant detachment before him.

“It has begun! Here it comes!” thought Prince Andrey, feeling the blood rush

to his heart. “But where? What form is my Toulon to take?” he wondered.

Passing between the companies that had been eating porridge and drinking

vodka a quarter of an hour before, he saw everywhere nothing but the same rapid

movements of soldiers forming in ranks and getting their guns, and on every face

he saw the same eagerness that he felt in his heart. “It has begun! Here it

comes! Terrible and delightful!” said the face of every private and officer.

Before he reached the earthworks that were being thrown up, he saw in the

evening light of the dull autumn day men on horseback crossing towards him. The

foremost, wearing a cloak and an Astrachan cap, was riding on a white horse. It

was Prince Bagration. Prince Andrey stopped and waited for him to come up.

Prince Bagration stopped his horse, and recognising Prince Andrey nodded to him.

He still gazed on ahead while Prince Andrey told him what he had been

seeing.

The expression: “It has begun! it is coming!” was discernible even on Prince

Bagration's strong, brown face, with his half-closed, lustreless, sleepy-looking

eyes. Prince Andrey glanced with uneasy curiosity at that impassive face, and he

longed to know: Was that man thinking and feeling, and what was he thinking and

feeling at that moment? “Is there anything at all there behind that impassive

face?” Prince Andrey wondered, looking at him. Prince Bagration nodded in token

of his assent to Prince Andrey's words, and said: “Very good,” with an

expression that seemed to signify that all that happened, and all that was told

him, was exactly what he had foreseen. Prince Andrey, panting from his rapid

ride, spoke quickly. Prince Bagration uttered his words in his Oriental accent

with peculiar deliberation, as though impressing upon him that there was no need

of hurry. He did, however, spur his horse into a gallop in the direction of

Tushin's battery. Prince Andrey rode after him with his suite. The party

consisted of an officer of the suite, Bagration's private adjutant, Zherkov, an

orderly officer, the staff-officer on duty, riding a beautiful horse of English

breed, and a civilian official, the auditor, who had asked to be present from

curiosity to see the battle. The auditor, a plump man with a plump face, looked

about him with a na

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