War and Peace

“ell, that’s all!” said Kutúzov as he signed the last of the documents,
and rising heavily and smoothing out the folds in his fat white neck he
moved toward the door with a more cheerful expression.

The priest’s wife, flushing rosy red, caught up the dish she had after
all not managed to present at the right moment, though she had so long
been preparing for it, and with a low bow offered it to Kutúzov.

He screwed up his eyes, smiled, lifted her chin with his hand, and said:

“Ah, what a beauty! Thank you, sweetheart!”

He took some gold pieces from his trouser pocket and put them on the
dish for her. “Well, my dear, and how are we getting on?” he asked,
moving to the door of the room assigned to him. The priest’s wife
smiled, and with dimples in her rosy cheeks followed him into the room.
The adjutant came out to the porch and asked Prince Andrew to lunch with
him. Half an hour later Prince Andrew was again called to Kutúzov.
He found him reclining in an armchair, still in the same unbuttoned
overcoat. He had in his hand a French book which he closed as Prince
Andrew entered, marking the place with a knife. Prince Andrew saw by the
cover that it was Les Chevaliers du Cygne by Madame de Genlis.

“Well, sit down, sit down here. Let’s have a talk,” said Kutúzov. “It’s
sad, very sad. But remember, my dear fellow, that I am a father to you,
a second father....”

Prince Andrew told Kutúzov all he knew of his father’s death, and what
he had seen at Bald Hills when he passed through it.

“What... what they have brought us to!” Kutúzov suddenly cried in an
agitated voice, evidently picturing vividly to himself from Prince
Andrew’s story the condition Russia was in. “But give me time, give me
time!” he said with a grim look, evidently not wishing to continue this
agitating conversation, and added: “I sent for you to keep you with me.”

“I thank your Serene Highness, but I fear I am no longer fit for the
staff,” replied Prince Andrew with a smile which Kutúzov noticed.

Kutúzov glanced inquiringly at him.

“But above all,” added Prince Andrew, “I have grown used to my regiment,
am fond of the officers, and I fancy the men also like me. I should be
sorry to leave the regiment. If I decline the honor of being with you,
believe me...”

A shrewd, kindly, yet subtly derisive expression lit up Kutúzov’s podgy
face. He cut Bolkónski short.

“I am sorry, for I need you. But you’re right, you’re right! It’s not
here that men are needed. Advisers are always plentiful, but men are
not. The regiments would not be what they are if the would-be advisers
served there as you do. I remember you at Austerlitz.... I remember,
yes, I remember you with the standard!” said Kutúzov, and a flush of
pleasure suffused Prince Andrew’s face at this recollection.

Taking his hand and drawing him downwards, Kutúzov offered his cheek to
be kissed, and again Prince Andrew noticed tears in the old man’s eyes.
Though Prince Andrew knew that Kutúzov’s tears came easily, and that he
was particularly tender to and considerate of him from a wish to
show sympathy with his loss, yet this reminder of Austerlitz was both
pleasant and flattering to him.

“Go your way and God be with you. I know your path is the path of
honor!” He paused. “I missed you at Bucharest, but I needed someone to
send.” And changing the subject, Kutúzov began to speak of the Turkish
war and the peace that had been concluded. “Yes, I have been much
blamed,” he said, “both for that war and the peace... but everything
came at the right time. Tout vient à point à celui qui sait attendre. *
And there were as many advisers there as here...” he went on, returning
to the subject of “advisers” which evidently occupied him. “Ah, those
advisers!” said he. “If we had listened to them all we should not have
made peace with Turkey and should not have been through with that war.
Everything in haste, but more haste, less speed. Kámenski would have
been lost if he had not died. He stormed fortresses with thirty thousand
men. It is not difficult to capture a fortress but it is difficult to
win a campaign. For that, not storming and attacking but patience and
time are wanted. Kámenski sent soldiers to Rustchuk, but I only employed
these two things and took more fortresses than Kámenski and made them
Turks eat horseflesh!” He swayed his head. “And the French shall too,
believe me,” he went on, growing warmer and beating his chest, “I’ll
make them eat horseflesh!” And tears again dimmed his eyes.

* “Everything comes in time to him who knows how to wait.”

“But shan’t we have to accept battle?” remarked Prince Andrew.

“We shall if everybody wants it; it can’t be helped.... But believe
me, my dear boy, there is nothing stronger than those two: patience and
time, they will do it all. But the advisers n’entendent pas de cette
oreille, voilà le mal. * Some want a thing—others don’t. What’s one to
do?” he asked, evidently expecting an answer. “Well, what do you want
us to do?” he repeated and his eye shone with a deep, shrewd look.
“I’ll tell you what to do,” he continued, as Prince Andrew still did not
reply: “I will tell you what to do, and what I do. Dans le doute, mon
cher,” he paused, “abstiens-toi” *(2)—he articulated the French proverb
deliberately.

* “Don’t see it that way, that’s the trouble.”

* (2) “When in doubt, my dear fellow, do nothing.”

“Well, good-by, my dear fellow; remember that with all my heart I share
your sorrow, and that for you I am not a Serene Highness, nor a prince,
nor a commander in chief, but a father! If you want anything come
straight to me. Good-by, my dear boy.”

Again he embraced and kissed Prince Andrew, but before the latter
had left the room Kutúzov gave a sigh of relief and went on with his
unfinished novel, Les Chevaliers du Cygne by Madame de Genlis.

Prince Andrew could not have explained how or why it was, but after that
interview with Kutúzov he went back to his regiment reassured as to
the general course of affairs and as to the man to whom it had been
entrusted. The more he realized the absence of all personal motive in
that old man—in whom there seemed to remain only the habit of passions,
and in place of an intellect (grouping events and drawing conclusions)
only the capacity calmly to contemplate the course of events—the more
reassured he was that everything would be as it should. “He will not
bring in any plan of his own. He will not devise or undertake
anything,” thought Prince Andrew, “but he will hear everything, remember
everything, and put everything in its place. He will not hinder
anything useful nor allow anything harmful. He understands that there is
something stronger and more important than his own will—the inevitable
course of events, and he can see them and grasp their significance,
and seeing that significance can refrain from meddling and renounce his
personal wish directed to something else. And above all,” thought Prince
Andrew, “one believes in him because he’s Russian, despite the novel
by Genlis and the French proverbs, and because his voice shook when he
said: ‘What they have brought us to!’ and had a sob in it when he said
he would ‘make them eat horseflesh!’”

On such feelings, more or less dimly shared by all, the unanimity and
general approval were founded with which, despite court influences, the
popular choice of Kutúzov as commander in chief was received.