Book Fourteen: 1812 - Chapter IV

by Leo Tolstoy

　　It was a warm rainy autumn day. The sky and the horizon were boththe color of muddy water. At times a sort of mist descended, andthen suddenly heavy slanting rain came down.

　　Denisov in a felt cloak and a sheepskin cap from which the rainran down was riding a thin thoroughbred horse with sunken sides.Like his horse, which turned its head and laid its ears back, heshrank from the driving rain and gazed anxiously before him. Histhin face with its short, thick black beard looked angry.

　　Beside Denisov rode an esaul,* Denisov's fellow worker, also in feltcloak and sheepskin cap, and riding a large sleek Don horse.

　　*A captain of Cossacks.

　　Esaul Lovayski the Third was a tall man as straight as an arrow,pale-faced, fair-haired, with narrow light eyes and with calmself-satisfaction in his face and bearing. Though it was impossible tosay in what the peculiarity of the horse and rider lay, yet at firstglance at the esaul and Denisov one saw that the latter was wet anduncomfortable and was a man mounted on a horse, while looking at theesaul one saw that he was as comfortable and as much at ease as alwaysand that he was not a man who had mounted a horse, but a man who wasone with his horse, a being consequently possessed of twofoldstrength.

　　A little ahead of them walked a peasant guide, wet to the skin andwearing a gray peasant coat and a white knitted cap.

　　A little behind, on a poor, small, lean Kirghiz mount with anenormous tail and mane and a bleeding mouth, rode a young officer in ablue French overcoat.

　　Beside him rode an hussar, with a boy in a tattered French uniformand blue cap behind him on the crupper of his horse. The boy held onto the hussar with cold, red hands, and raising his eyebrows gazedabout him with surprise. This was the French drummer boy captured thatmorning.

　　Behind them along the narrow, sodden, cutup forest road came hussarsin threes and fours, and then Cossacks: some in felt cloaks, some inFrench greatcoats, and some with horsecloths over their heads. Thehorses, being drenched by the rain, all looked black whetherchestnut or bay. Their necks, with their wet, close-clinging manes,looked strangely thin. Steam rose from them. Clothes, saddles,reins, were all wet, slippery, and sodden, like the ground and thefallen leaves that strewed the road. The men sat huddled up trying notto stir, so as to warm the water that had trickled to their bodies andnot admit the fresh cold water that was leaking in under theirseats, their knees, and at the back of their necks. In the midst ofthe outspread line of Cossacks two wagons, drawn by French horsesand by saddled Cossack horses that had been hitched on in front,rumbled over the tree stumps and branches and splashed through thewater that lay in the ruts.

　　Denisov's horse swerved aside to avoid a pool in the track andbumped his rider's knee against a tree.

　　"Oh, the devil!" exclaimed Denisov angrily, and showing his teeth hestruck his horse three times with his whip, splashing himself andhis comrades with mud.

　　Denisov was out of sorts both because of the rain and also fromhunger (none of them had eaten anything since morning), and yet morebecause he still had no news from Dolokhov and the man sent to capturea "tongue" had not returned.

　　"There'll hardly be another such chance to fall on a transport astoday. It's too risky to attack them by oneself, and if we put itoff till another day one of the big guerrilla detachments willsnatch the prey from under our noses," thought Denisov, continuallypeering forward, hoping to see a messenger from Dolokhov.

　　On coming to a path in the forest along which he could see far tothe right, Denisov stopped.

　　"There's someone coming," said he.

　　The esaul looked in the direction Denisov indicated.

　　"There are two, an officer and a Cossack. But it is notpresupposable that it is the lieutenant colonel himself," said theesaul, who was fond of using words the Cossacks did not know.

　　The approaching riders having descended a decline were no longervisible, but they reappeared a few minutes later. In front, at a wearygallop and using his leather whip, rode an officer, disheveled anddrenched, whose trousers had worked up to above his knees. Behind him,standing in the stirrups, trotted a Cossack. The officer, a very younglad with a broad rosy face and keen merry eyes, galloped up to Denisovand handed him a sodden envelope.

　　"From the general," said the officer. "Please excuse its not beingquite dry."

　　Denisov, frowning, took the envelope and opened it.

　　"There, they kept telling us: 'It's dangerous, it's dangerous,'"said the officer, addressing the esaul while Denisov was reading thedispatch. "But Komarov and I"- he pointed to the Cossack- "wereprepared. We have each of us two pistols.... But what's this?" heasked, noticing the French drummer boy. "A prisoner? You've alreadybeen in action? May I speak to him?"

　　"Wostov! Petya!" exclaimed Denisov, having run through the dispatch."Why didn't you say who you were?" and turning with a smile he heldout his hand to the lad.

　　The officer was Petya Rostov.

　　All the way Petya had been preparing himself to behave withDenisov as befitted a grownup man and an officer- without hinting attheir previous acquaintance. But as soon as Denisov smiled at himPetya brightened up, blushed with pleasure, forgot the official mannerhe had been rehearsing, and began telling him how he had alreadybeen in a battle near Vyazma and how a certain hussar haddistinguished himself there.

　　"Well, I am glad to see you," Denisov interrupted him, and hisface again assumed its anxious expression.

　　"Michael Feoklitych," said he to the esaul, "this is again fwom thatGerman, you know. He"- he indicated Petya- "is serving under him."

　　And Denisov told the esaul that the dispatch just delivered was arepetition of the German general's demand that he should join forceswith him for an attack on the transport.

　　"If we don't take it tomowwow, he'll snatch it fwom under ournoses," he added.

　　While Denisov was talking to the esaul, Petya- abashed byDenisov's cold tone and supposing that it was due to the conditionof his trousers- furtively tried to pull them down under his greatcoatso that no one should notice it, while maintaining as martial an airas possible.

　　"Will there be any orders, your honor?" he asked Denisov, holdinghis hand at the salute and resuming the game of adjutant and generalfor which he had prepared himself, "or shall I remain with yourhonor?"

　　"Orders?" Denisov repeated thoughtfully. "But can you stay tilltomowwow?"

　　"Oh, please... May I stay with you?" cried Petya.

　　"But, just what did the genewal tell you? To weturn at once?"asked Denisov.

　　Petya blushed.

　　"He gave me no instructions. I think I could?" he returned,inquiringly.

　　"Well, all wight," said Denisov.

　　And turning to his men he directed a party to go on to the haltingplace arranged near the watchman's hut in the forest, and told theofficer on the Kirghiz horse (who performed the duties of an adjutant)to go and find out where Dolokhov was and whether he would come thatevening. Denisov himself intended going with the esaul and Petya tothe edge of the forest where it reached out to Shamshevo, to have alook at the part of the French bivouac they were to attack next day.

　　"Well, old fellow," said he to the peasant guide, "lead us toShamshevo."

　　Denisov, Petya, and the esaul, accompanied by some Cossacks andthe hussar who had the prisoner, rode to the left across a ravine tothe edge of the forest.