War And Peace: Book 2 - CHAPTER XXI

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THE WIND had sunk, black storm-clouds hung low over the battlefield, melting

on the horizon into the clouds of smoke from the powder. Darkness had come, and

the glow of conflagrations showed all the more distinctly in two places. The

cannonade had grown feebler, but the snapping of musketry-fire in the rear and

on the right was heard nearer and more often. As soon as Tushin with his

cannons, continually driving round the wounded and coming upon them, had got out

of fire and were descending the ravine, he was met by the staff, among whom was

the staff-officer and Zherkov, who had twice been sent to Tushin's battery, but

had not once reached it. They all vied with one another in giving him orders,

telling him how and where to go, finding fault and making criticisms. Tushin

gave no orders, and in silence, afraid to speak because at every word he felt,

he could not have said why, ready to burst into tears, he rode behind on his

artillery nag. Though orders were given to abandon the wounded, many of them

dragged themselves after the troops and begged for a seat on the cannons. The

jaunty infantry-officer—the one who had run out of Tushin's shanty just before

the battle—was laid on Matvyevna's carriage with a bullet in his stomach. At the

bottom of the hill a pale ensign of hussars, holding one arm in the other hand,

came up to Tushin and begged for a seat.

“Captain, for God's sake. I've hurt my arm,” he said timidly. “For God's

sake. I can't walk. For God's sake!” It was evident that this was not the first

time the ensign had asked for a lift, and that he had been everywhere refused.

He asked in a hesitating and piteous voice, “Tell them to let me get on, for

God's sake!”

“Let him get on, let him get on,” said Tushin. “Put a coat under him, you,

uncle.” He turned to his favourite soldier. “But where's the wounded

officer?”

“We took him off; he was dead,” answered some one.

“Help him on. Sit down, my dear fellow, sit down. Lay the coat there,

Antonov.”

The ensign was Rostov. He was holding one hand in the other. He was pale and

his lower jaw was trembling as though in a fever. They put him on Matvyevna, the

cannon from which they had just removed the dead officer. There was blood on the

coat that was laid under him, and Rostov's riding-breeches and arm were smeared

with it.

“What, are you wounded, my dear?” said Tushin, going up to the cannon on

which Rostov was sitting.

“No; it's a sprain.”

“How is it there's blood on the frame?” asked Tushin.

“That was the officer, your honour, stained it,” answered an artillery-man,

wiping the blood off with the sleeve of his coat, and as it were apologising for

the dirty state of the cannon.

With difficulty, aided by the infantry, they dragged the cannon uphill, and

halted on reaching the village of Guntersdorf. It was by now so dark that one

could not distinguish the soldiers' uniforms ten paces away, and the firing had

begun to subside. All of a sudden there came the sound of firing and shouts

again close by on the right side. The flash of the shots could be seen in the

darkness. This was the last attack of the French. It was met by the soldiers in

ambush in the houses of the village. All rushed out of the village again, but

Tushin's cannons could not move and the artillerymen, Tushin, and the ensign

looked at one another in anticipation of their fate. The firing on both sides

began to subside, and some soldiers in lively conversation streamed out of a

side street.

“Not hurt, Petrov?” inquired one.

“We gave it them hot, lads. They won't meddle with us now,” another was

saying.

“One couldn't see a thing. Didn't they give it to their own men! No seeing

for the darkness, mates. Isn't there something to drink?”

The French had been repulsed for the last time. And again, in the complete

darkness, Tushin's cannons moved forward, surrounded by the infantry, who kept

up a hum of talk.

In the darkness they flowed on like an unseen, gloomy river always in the

same direction, with a buzz of whisper and talk and the thud of hoofs and rumble

of wheels. Above all other sounds, in the confused uproar, rose the moans and

cries of the wounded, more distinct than anything in the darkness of the night.

Their moans seemed to fill all the darkness surrounding the troops. Their moans

and the darkness seemed to melt into one. A little later a thrill of emotion

passed over the moving crowd. Some one followed by a suite had ridden by on a

white horse, and had said something as he passed.

“What did he say? Where we are going now? to halt, eh? Thanked us, what?”

eager questions were heard on all sides, and the whole moving mass began to

press back on itself (the foremost, it seemed, had halted), and a rumour passed

through that the order had been given to halt. All halted in the muddy road,

just where they were.

Fires were lighted and the talk became more audible. Captain Tushin, after

giving instructions to his battery, sent some of his soldiers to look for an

ambulance or a doctor for the ensign, and sat down by the fire his soldiers had

lighted by the roadside. Rostov too dragged himself to the fire. His whole body

was trembling with fever from the pain, the cold, and the damp. He was

dreadfully sleepy, but he could not go to sleep for the agonising pain in his

arm, which ached and would not be easy in any position. He closed his eyes, then

opened them to stare at the fire, which seemed to him dazzling red, and then at

the stooping, feeble figure of Tushin, squatting in Turkish fashion near him.

The big, kindly, and shrewd eyes of Tushin were fixed upon him with sympathy and

commiseration. He saw that Tushin wished with all his soul to help him, but

could do nothing for him.

On all sides they heard the footsteps and the chatter of the infantry going

and coming and settling themselves round them. The sounds of voices, of steps,

and of horses' hoofs tramping in the mud, the crackling firewood far and near,

all melted into one fluctuating roar of sound.

It was not now as before an unseen river flowing in the darkness, but a

gloomy sea subsiding and still agitated after a storm. Rostov gazed vacantly and

listened to what was passing before him and around him. An infantry soldier came

up to the fire, squatted on his heels, held his hands to the fire, and turned

his face.

“You don't mind, your honour?” he said, looking inquiringly at Tushin. “Here

I've got lost from my company, your honour; I don't know myself where I am. It's

dreadful!”

With the soldier an infantry officer approached the fire with a bandaged

face. He asked Tushin to have the cannon moved a very little, so as to let a

store waggon pass by. After the officer two soldiers ran up to the fire. They

were swearing desperately and fighting, trying to pull a boot from one

another.

“No fear! you picked it up! that's smart!” one shouted in a husky

voice.

Then a thin, pale soldier approached, his neck bandaged with a bloodstained

rag. With a voice of exasperation he asked the artillerymen for water.

“Why, is one to die like a dog?” he said.

Tushin told them to give him water. Next a good-humoured soldier ran up, to

beg for some red-hot embers for the infantry.

“Some of your fire for the infantry! Glad to halt, lads. Thanks for the loan

of the firing; we'll pay it back with interest,” he said, carrying some glowing

firebrands away into the darkness.

Next four soldiers passed by, carrying something heavy in an overcoat. One of

them stumbled.

“Ay, the devils, they've left firewood in the road,” grumbled one.

“He's dead; why carry him?” said one of them.

“Come on, you!” And they vanished into the darkness with their burden.

“Does it ache, eh?” Tushin asked Rostov in a whisper.

“Yes, it does ache.”

“Your honour's sent for to the general. Here in a cottage he is,” said a

gunner, coming up to Tushin.

“In a minute, my dear.” Tushin got up and walked away from the fire,

buttoning up his coat and setting himself straight.

In a cottage that had been prepared for him not far from the artillerymen's

fire, Prince Bagration was sitting at dinner, talking with several commanding

officers, who had gathered about him. The little old colonel with the half-shut

eyes was there, greedily gnawing at a mutton-bone, and the general of twenty-two

years' irreproachable service, flushed with a glass of vodka and his dinner, and

the staff-officer with the signet ring, and Zherkov, stealing uneasy glances at

every one, and Prince Andrey, pale with set lips and feverishly glittering

eyes.

In the corner of the cottage room stood a French flag, that had been

captured, and the auditor with the na

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1. Ebooks list page : 82
2. War And Peace: Book 4 - CHAPTER V
3. War And Peace: Book 2 - CHAPTER III
4. War And Peace: Book 2 - CHAPTER II
5. War And Peace: Book 2 - CHAPTER I
6. War And Peace: Book 2 - CHAPTER IV
7. War And Peace: Book 3 - CHAPTER XIX
8. War And Peace: Book 3 - CHAPTER XVI
9. War And Peace: Book 3 - CHAPTER XV
10. War And Peace: Book 3 - CHAPTER XIV
11. War And Peace: Book 2 - CHAPTER V
12. War And Peace: Book 2 - CHAPTER VI
13. War And Peace: Book 2 - CHAPTER XIX
14. War And Peace: Book 2 - CHAPTER XVI
15. War And Peace: Book 2 - CHAPTER XIV
16. War And Peace: Book 2 - CHAPTER XV