Captivity turned out to be the penultimate stage of his quest for Pierre. In one of his letters, Tolstoy claimed that "the idea of ​​the limits of freedom and dependence" was central to the novel. The pictures of the execution of "arsonists" are also devoted to the proof of this idea.

Episode Analysis

• - Who are the participants in this scene and how does Tolstoy portray them? (The participants in this scene are the French, the arsonists and the crowd. The "large crowd of the people" consisted of Russians, Germans, Italians, French and stood in a semicircle. The French troops were located in "two fronts", the arsonists were placed "in a certain order").
• - Why did the French try to put an end to the execution as soon as possible? ("... everyone was in a hurry - and they were in a hurry not in the way they are in a hurry to do a job understandable to everyone, but in the way they are in a hurry to complete the necessary, but unpleasant and incomprehensible matter").
• - How did those sentenced to death behave, how did they feel? (“The guards, having approached the pole, stopped and ... silently looked around them, as a downed beast looks at a suitable hunter.” “The factory could not go. suddenly fell silent ..., waiting for the bandage along with others and, like a shot animal, looked around him ... ". Let's pay attention to the nature of the repeated comparisons).
• - The fraternal bond between people is broken: some people have turned into "killed animals", and others? (In "hunters").
• - How do these "hunters" feel? ("There was smoke, and the French with pale faces and trembling hands were doing something by the pit." "One old mustachioed Frenchman was shaking his lower jaw...").
• - Why? What did everyone, without exception, understand, both those who executed and those who were executed? ("Everyone, obviously, undoubtedly knew that they were criminals who should have covered up the traces of their crime as soon as possible").
• - What question torments Pierre? ("But who does it in the end? They all suffer just like me. Who? Who?").

So it wasn't them, but someone else, or rather something else, that created this whole nightmare. Man is a sliver that is carried along by the flow of history.

How did this thought affect Pierre? ("From the moment Pierre saw this terrible murder committed by people who did not want to do this, it was as if the spring on which everything rested was pulled out in his soul ... and everything fell into a heap of senseless rubbish").

But at this moment it is absolutely necessary in the development of Pierre. To accept new faith, it was necessary to disbelieve in the old beliefs, to abandon faith in human freedom. The whole scene of the execution, even more terrible than the scene of the Battle of Borodino (remember the description of burying the factory), was intended to show both Pierre and readers how man is powerless to change the inevitable fatal order established by someone other than him.

And right here...

Who does Pierre meet in captivity? (with a soldier, former peasant Platon Karataev).

We come to the ideological center of the novel. In Platon Karataev - the ultimate expression of Tolstoy's thoughts about boundaries of freedom and dependence. We must carefully read everything that is said about Platon Karataev. novel scene tolstoy

• - What is Pierre's first impression of Platon Karataev? (“Pierre felt something pleasant, soothing and round…”).
• - What had such an effect on Pierre that interested in this person? ("Round" movements, smell, Plato's busyness, completeness, coherence of movements).
• - What is the manner of Karataev's speech? (His language is folk).

Let's analyze together one of Platon Karataev's remarks (" -Eh, falcon, don't grieve, - he said with that softly melodious caress with which old Russian women speak. - Do not grieve, my friend: endure an hour, but live a century!"). What features of speech did you pay attention to? (colloquial; saturation with proverbs and sayings; manner of communication).

Work on options:

I option: vernacular, elements of folklore (“bude”, “important potatoes”, “hospital”, “self-sem”, “the yard is full of stomachs”, etc.).

Option II: proverbs and sayings (“To endure an hour, but to live a century”, “Ged is a court, it’s not true”, “The worm is worse than cabbage, but before that you disappear”, “Not by our mind, but by God’s judgment”, etc.). We will talk about the meaning of these sayings, but now we will only note the presence of these proverbs as a feature of Karataev's speech.

Option III: the manner of communicating with the interlocutor ("... he said with a tender, melodious affection ...", with a "restrained smile of affection", "he was upset that Pierre did not have parents").

He listened with equal interest and readiness to others and talked about himself. He immediately began to ask Pierre about life. For the first time (!) someone became interested not in the captive Bezukhov, but in the man Bezukhov. In Plato's voice - caress.

Describe the appearance of Karataev. (“When the next day, at dawn, Pierre saw his neighbor, the first impression of something round was completely confirmed: the whole figure of Plato ... was round, his head was completely round, his back, chest, shoulders, even his arms, which he wore like always going to hug something, were round; a pleasant smile and big brown gentle eyes were round).

Once Natasha said about Pierre that he "quadrangular". Pierre is attracted by this "roundness" of Karataev. And Pierre himself must, as it were, "cut corners" in their attitude to life and also become "round", like Karataev.

What is the meaning of Karataev's story about how he got into the soldiers?

Everything will be done as it should, and everything will be for the best. He got into the soldiers illegally, but it turned out that a large brother's family benefited from this. Karataev expresses Tolstoy thought about the fact that the truth is in the rejection of one's "I" and in complete submission to fate. All Karataev's proverbs come down to this belief in the inevitability of doing what is destined, and this inevitable is the best.

• -"Yes, the worm is worse than cabbage, but before that you yourself disappear"- these are his thoughts about the war with the French. The French invasion is eating into Russia like a worm in a cabbage. But Karataev is sure that the worm disappears before the cabbage. This is the belief in the inevitability of God's judgment. Immediately in response to Pierre's request to clarify what this means, Plato answers "not with our mind, but with God's judgment."
• - In this saying - the basis of Karataevshchina: how less people thinks the better. The mind cannot influence the course of life. Everything will be done according to God's will.

If this philosophy is true (quietism), then you can not suffer from the fact that there is so much evil in the world. You just have to give up the idea of ​​changing anything in the world.

Tolstoy tries to prove it, but life refutes this philosophy.

• - How did this Karataev philosophy influence Pierre? (Pierre "felt that the previously destroyed world was now being erected in his soul with new beauty, on some new and unshakable foundations).
• - In what did Pierre find happiness now? (Happiness is now in the absence of suffering, the satisfaction of needs and "as a result, the freedom to choose occupations" ... "Satisfaction of needs - good food, cleanliness, freedom - now that he was deprived of all this, seemed to Pierre perfect happiness ...").

The thought that tries to lift a person above his immediate needs only brings confusion and uncertainty into the soul of a person. A person is not called to do more than that which concerns him personally. (To Pierre "... the thought did not come either about Russia, or about the war, or about politics, or about Napoleon"). A person must determine the boundaries of his freedom, says Tolstoy. And he wants to show that the freedom of man is not outside him, but in himself.

How does Pierre respond to the sentry's rude demand not to leave the ranks of the prisoners? ("And he spoke aloud to himself: - The soldier did not let me in. They caught me, locked me up. They keep me in captivity. Who am I? Me? Me - my immortal soul!").

Feeling inner freedom, becoming indifferent to the external flow of life. Pierre is in an extraordinary happy mood, the mood of a man who finally discovered the truth.

Pierre Bezukhov in captivity

(based on the novel "War and Peace")

Before proceeding to the question of how Pierre spent his time in captivity, we must understand how he got there.

Pierre, like Bolkonsky, had a dream to be like Napoleon, imitate him in every possible way and be like him. But each of them realized his mistake. So, Bolkonsky saw Napoleon when he was wounded at the battle of Austerlitz. Napoleon seemed to him " insignificant person in comparison with what happened between his soul and this high, endless sky with clouds running across it. Pierre, on the other hand, hated Napoleon when he left his home, disguised and armed with a pistol, in order to take part in the popular defense of Moscow. Pierre remembers Kabbalistic meaning his name (number 666, etc.) in connection with the name of Bonaparte and that he is destined to put an end to the power of the “beast”. Pierre is going to kill Napoleon, even if he has to sacrifice own life. Due to circumstances, he could not kill Napoleon, he was captured by the French and imprisoned for 1 month.

If we consider the psychological impulses that took place in the soul of Pierre, then we can say that the Events Patriotic War allow Bezukhov to get out of that closed, insignificant sphere of established habits, everyday relationships that fettered and suppressed him. A trip to the field of the Battle of Borodino opens up a new world for Bezukhov, hitherto unfamiliar to him, reveals a real face ordinary people. On the day of Borodin, on the Raevsky battery, Bezukhov witnesses the high heroism of the soldiers, their amazing self-control, their ability to simply and naturally perform the feat of selflessness. On the Borodino field, Pierre could not avoid a feeling of acute fear. “Oh, how terrible fear, and how shamefully I gave myself to it! And they...they were firm and calm all the way to the end…” he thought. They were soldiers in Pierre's concept, those who were on the battery, and those who fed him, and those who prayed to the icon ... "They do not speak, but do." Bezukhov is seized by the desire to get closer to them, to enter "in this common life whole being, to be imbued with what makes them so.

Remaining in Moscow during its capture by French troops, Bezukhov is faced with many unexpected phenomena for him, with conflicting facts and processes.

Arrested by the French, Pierre experiences the tragedy of a man sentenced to death penalty for a crime he did not commit, he experiences the deepest emotional shock, watching the execution of innocent residents of Moscow. And this triumph of cruelty, immorality, inhumanity suppresses Bezukhov: “... in his soul, as if suddenly, the spring on which everything rested was pulled out ...”. Just like Andrei, Bolkonsky, Pierre acutely perceived not only his own imperfection, but also the imperfection of the world.

In captivity, Pierre had to endure all the horrors of a military court, the execution of Russian soldiers. Acquaintance in captivity with Platon Karataev contributes to the formation of a new outlook on life. "... Platon Karataev remained forever in Pierre's soul the strongest and dearest memory and the personification of everything "Russian, kind and round."

Platon Karataev is meek, submissive to fate, gentle, passive and patient. Karataev is a vivid expression of the weak-willed acceptance of good and evil. This image is Tolstoy's first step towards an apology (protection, praise, justification) of the patriarchal naive peasantry, which professed the religion of "non-resistance to evil by violence." The image of Karataev - case in point of how false views can lead to creative breakdowns even brilliant artists. But it would be a mistake to think that Karataev personifies everything Russian peasantry. Plato cannot be imagined with a weapon in his hands on the battlefield. If the army consisted of such soldiers, it would not have been able to defeat Napoleon. In captivity, Plato is constantly busy with something - “he knew how to do everything, not very well, but not bad either. He baked, cooked, sewed, planed, made boots. He was always busy, only at night he allowed himself to talk, which he loved, and songs.

In captivity addresses the question of the sky, which worries many in Tolstov's novel. He sees "a full moon" and "infinite distance". Just as it is impossible to lock this month and the distance in a barn with captives, so it is impossible to lock human soul. Thanks to the sky, Pierre felt free and full of strength for a new life.

In captivity, he will find the way to inner freedom, join the people's truth and folk morality. The meeting with Platon Karataev, the bearer of the people's truth, is an era in Pierre's life. Like Bazdeev, Karataev will enter his life as a spiritual teacher. But all internal energy Pierre's personalities, the whole structure of his soul are such that, happily accepting the offered experience of his teachers, he does not submit to them, but, enriched, goes further on his own path. And this path, according to Tolstoy, is the only one possible for a truly moral person.

Of great importance in the life of Pierre in captivity was the execution of prisoners.

“In front of Pierre, the first two prisoners are shot, then two more. Bezukhov notices that horror and suffering are written not only on the faces of the prisoners, but also on the faces of the French. He does not understand why "justice" is being administered if both the "right" and the "guilty" suffer. Pierre is not shot. The execution has been terminated. From the moment Pierre saw this terrible murder committed by people who did not want to do it, it was as if in his soul that spring was suddenly pulled out, on which everything was supported and seemed to be alive, and everything fell into a heap of senseless rubbish. In him, although he did not realize himself, faith and the improvement of the world, both in the human, and in his soul, and in God, were destroyed.

In conclusion, we can say that “in captivity, Pierre learned not with his mind, but with his whole being, with his life, that man was created for happiness, that happiness is in himself, in satisfying natural human needs, and that all misfortune comes not from lack, but from surplus; but now, in these last three weeks of the campaign, he learned another comforting truth - he learned that there is nothing terrible in the world.

Surprisingly, it is in captivity that Pierre acquires peace of mind, which he had been looking for so long and unsuccessfully. It was here that he understood and realized with all his being that a person was created for happiness, and this happiness must be sought not somewhere, but in oneself. Realizing what the meaning of life is, Pierre was inwardly freed. Wherever he just did not look for this meaning of life ... He was a philanthropist, a freemason, led social life, drank wine, acted like heroes and sacrificed himself, was in love, thought, but did not come to any conclusion. But only folk truth, folk skill to live, which Platon Karataev revealed to the hero, helped him understand what the meaning of life is.

In the image of Karataev, the main thing is loyalty to oneself. He has his only spiritual truth and does not change it under any circumstances. For some time, Pierre also follows this principle.

Giving a characteristic state of mind Bezukhov during this period, Tolstoy inspired his hero with the idea of ​​the inner happiness of a person, which consists in complete spiritual freedom. Each person should be calm and peaceful, regardless of external circumstances. Such is the philosophy of Karataev. But, returning from captivity, Pierre still changes his view of the world. This philosophy influenced him, but by nature the hero cannot be calm, he needs a constant search. And in the epilogue of the novel, we see that Bezukhov chose his own path in life. He argues with Nikolai Rostov about the moral renewal of society, and we understand that this problem is very important to him. According to Pierre, active virtue can lead the country to new level development. But for this honest people should unite.

Pierre is happily married to Natasha, but he does not leave the public interest. Bezukhov is a member secret society. He is outraged by the situation in the country, theft, Arakcheevism. Pierre opposes all violence. He believes in the people and their strength. And Bezukhov considers moral self-improvement the only way to save Russia. According to the hero, every person should be capable of a selfless act and noble spiritual impulses, devotion in love, true patriotism. So was Pierre Bezukhov himself. He wanted every member of society to become more just and humane, natural and sincere, to strive for self-improvement.

Tolstoy believed that it was impossible to be calm, because. tranquility is a spiritual meanness. To be happy, you must constantly fight, make mistakes, fall, get up and fight again. Only in continuous movement is there life.

Chapter IX

In the guardhouse, where Pierre was taken, the officer and soldiers who took him treated him with hostility, but at the same time respectfully. There was also a sense in their relationship to him of both doubt about who he was (isn't it very important) a person, and hostility due to their still fresh personal struggle with him.

But when, on the morning of the next day, the shift came, Pierre felt that for the new guard - for officers and soldiers - he no longer had the meaning that he had for those who took him. And indeed, in this big, fat man in a peasant's caftan, the guards of the other day no longer saw that living person who fought so desperately with the marauder and the escort soldiers and said a solemn phrase about saving the child, but they saw only the seventeenth of those held for some reason, by order of the higher authorities, taken by the Russians. If there was anything special about Pierre, it was only his non-timid, concentrated, thoughtful look and French, in which, surprisingly for the French, he spoke well. Despite the fact that on the same day Pierre was connected with other suspects taken, since the officer needed a separate room that he occupied.

All the Russians kept with Pierre were people of the lowest rank. And all of them, recognizing the gentleman in Pierre, shunned him, especially since he spoke French. Pierre sadly heard ridicule over himself.

The next day, in the evening, Pierre learned that all these detainees (and, probably, including himself) were to be tried for arson. On the third day, Pierre was taken with others to a house where a French general with a white mustache, two colonels and other Frenchmen with scarves on their hands were sitting. Pierre, on an equal footing with others, was made with that one, allegedly exceeding human weaknesses, the accuracy and definiteness with which the defendants are usually treated, questions about who he is? where he was? for what purpose? and so on.

These questions, leaving aside the essence of life's work and excluding the possibility of disclosing this essence, like all the questions asked at the courts, were aimed only at substituting the groove along which the judges wanted the defendant's answers to flow and lead him to the desired goal, that is, to the accusation. As soon as he began to say something that did not satisfy the purpose of the accusation, they accepted the groove, and the water could flow wherever it wanted. In addition, Pierre experienced the same thing that the defendant experiences in all courts: bewilderment, why did they ask him all these questions. He felt that it was only out of condescension or, as it were, courtesy that this trick of the substituted groove was used. He knew that he was in the power of these people, that only power had brought him here, that only power gave them the right to demand answers to questions, that the only purpose of this meeting was to accuse him. And therefore, since there was power and there was a desire to accuse, there was no need for the trick of questions and trial. It was obvious that all answers had to lead to guilt. When asked what he was doing when they took him, Pierre answered with some tragedy that he was carrying the child to the parents, qu "il avait sauvé des flammes.

Why did he fight the marauder?

Pierre answered that he was defending a woman, that the protection of an offended woman is the duty of every person, that ... He was stopped: it did not go to the point. Why was he in the yard of the burning house where the witnesses saw him? He replied that he was going to see what was being done in Moscow. They stopped him again: they did not ask him where he was going, but why was he near the fire? Who is he? repeated the first question to which he said he did not want to answer. Again he replied that he could not say it.

Write it down, it's not good. Very bad, - the general with a white mustache and a red, ruddy face said sternly to him.

On the fourth day, fires began on Zubovsky Val.

Pierre, with thirteen others, was taken to the Crimean Ford, to the carriage house of the merchant's house. Walking through the streets, Pierre was choking on the smoke that seemed to be rising over the whole city. WITH different parties fires were visible. Pierre did not yet understand the meaning of the burned Moscow and looked at these fires with horror.

In the carriage house of a house near the Crimean Ford, Pierre stayed for another four days, and during these days from the conversation French soldiers I learned that everyone contained here was expecting the decision of the marshal every day. What marshal, Pierre could not learn from the soldiers. For a soldier, obviously, the marshal seemed to be the highest and somewhat mysterious link in power.

These first days, until September 8, the day on which the prisoners were taken for a second interrogation, were the most difficult for Pierre.

They were brought to the porch and one by one they began to enter the house. Pierre was brought in sixth. Through a glass gallery, a vestibule, a front hall familiar to Pierre, he was led into a long, low office, at the door of which an adjutant stood.

Davout sat at the end of the room, above the table, his glasses on his nose. Pierre came close to him. Davout, without raising his eyes, seemed to be coping with some paper lying in front of him. Without raising his eyes, he quietly asked:

Pierre was silent because he was unable to utter words. Davout for Pierre was not just a French general; for Pierre Davout was a man known for his cruelty. Looking at the cold face of Davout, who, like a strict teacher, agreed to have patience and wait for an answer for the time being, Pierre felt that every second of delay could cost him his life; but he didn't know what to say. He did not dare to say the same thing that he had said at the first interrogation; to reveal one's rank and position was both dangerous and shameful. Pierre was silent. But before Pierre had time to decide on anything, Davout raised his head, raised his spectacles to his forehead, narrowed his eyes and looked intently at Pierre.

I know this man, - he said in a measured, cold voice, obviously calculated in order to frighten Pierre.

The cold that had previously run down Pierre's back seized his head like a vise.

Mon general, vous ne pouvez pas me connaître, je ne vous ai jamais vu...

Comment me prouverez vous la vérité de ce que vous me dites - said Davout coldly.

Pierre remembered Rambal and named his regiment, and the name and street on which the house was.

Oui, sans doute! - said Davout, but Pierre did not know what "yes".

Pierre did not remember how, how long he walked and where. He, in a state of complete senselessness and stupefaction, not seeing anything around him, moved his legs along with others until everyone stopped, and he stopped. One thought for all this time was in the head of Pierre. It was the thought of who, who, finally, sentenced him to death. These were not the same people who interrogated him in the commission: none of them wanted and, obviously, could not do this. It was not Davout who looked at him so humanly. Another minute, and Davout would have understood what they were doing badly, but this minute was prevented by the adjutant who entered. And this adjutant, obviously, did not want anything bad, but he might not have entered.

Chapter XI

From the house of Prince Shcherbatov, the prisoners were led straight down the Maiden Field, to the left of the Maiden Monastery, and led to the garden, on which stood a pillar. Behind the pillar was a large pit with freshly dug Earth, and a large crowd of people stood in a semicircle around the pit and the pillar. The crowd consisted of a small number of Russians and a large number Napoleonic troops out of order: Germans, Italians and French in heterogeneous uniforms. To the right and left of the pillar stood fronts of French troops in blue uniforms with red epaulettes, boots and shakos.

The criminals were placed in a certain order, which was on the list (Pierre was the sixth), and brought to the post. Several drums suddenly struck from both sides, and Pierre felt that with this sound, a part of his soul seemed to be torn off. He lost the ability to think and reason. He could only see and hear. And he had only one desire - the desire that something terrible be done as soon as possible, which had to be done. Pierre looked back at his comrades and examined them. Two people from the edge were shaved guards. One is tall, thin; the other is black, furry, muscular, with a flattened nose. The third was a courtyard, about forty-five years old, with graying hair and a full, well-fed body. The fourth was a peasant, very handsome, with a bushy blond beard and black eyes. The fifth was a factory, yellow, thin fellow, about eighteen years old, in a dressing gown. Pierre heard that the French were conferring how to shoot - one at a time or two at a time? "Two each," the senior officer answered coldly and calmly. There was a movement in the ranks of the soldiers, and it was noticeable that everyone was in a hurry - and they were in a hurry not in the way they are in a hurry to do something understandable to everyone, but in the way they are in a hurry to complete a necessary, but unpleasant and incomprehensible business. scarf went to right side ranks of criminals and read the verdict in Russian and French. Then two pairs of Frenchmen approached the criminals and, at the direction of the officer, took two guards who were standing on the edge. The watchmen, going up to the post, stopped and, while they brought the bags, silently looked around them, as a downed animal looks at a suitable hunter. One kept crossing himself, the other scratched his back and made a movement like a smile with his lips. The soldiers, hurrying with their hands, began to blindfold them, put on bags and tie them to a post.

Twelve men of riflemen with measured, firm steps stepped out from behind the ranks and stopped eight paces from the post. Pierre turned away so as not to see what was to come. Suddenly there was a crash and a roar, which seemed to Pierre louder than the most terrible thunderclaps, and he looked around. There was smoke, and the French, with pale faces and trembling hands, were doing something by the pit. They took the other two. In the same way, with the same eyes, these two looked at everyone, in vain, with the same eyes, silently, asking for protection and, apparently, not understanding and not believing what would happen. They could not believe, because they alone knew what their life was like for them, and therefore did not understand and did not believe that it was possible to take it away.

Pierre wanted not to look and turned away again; but again, as if a terrible explosion struck his hearing: and together with these sounds he saw smoke, someone's blood, and the pale, frightened faces of the French, again doing something at the post, pushing each other with trembling hands. Pierre, breathing heavily, looked around him, as if asking: what is this? The same question was in all the looks that met Pierre's.

On all the faces of Russians, on the faces of French soldiers, officers, all without exception, he read the same fear, horror and struggle that were in his heart. “But who is doing this after all? They all suffer just like me. Who? Who?” - for a second flashed in Pierre's soul.

Tirailleurs du 86-me, en avan! someone shouted.

They took the fifth, who was standing next to Pierre, - one. Pierre did not understand that he was saved, that he and all the others were brought here only to be present at the execution. He looked at what was being done with ever-increasing horror, feeling neither joy nor calm. The fifth was a factory worker in a dressing gown. As soon as they touched him, he jumped back in horror and grabbed Pierre (Pierre shuddered and pulled away from him). The factory worker could not go. He was dragged under the armpits, and he was shouting something. When they brought him to the post, he suddenly fell silent. He seemed to suddenly understand something. Either he realized that it was useless to shout, or that it was impossible for people to kill him, but he stood at the post, waiting for the bandage along with the others and, like a wounded animal, looking around him with shining eyes.

Pierre could no longer take it upon himself to turn away and close his eyes. The curiosity and excitement of him and the whole crowd at this fifth murder reached the highest degree. Like the others, this fifth one seemed calm: he wrapped his dressing gown and scratched one bare foot about another.

When they began to blindfold him, he straightened the very knot on the back of his head, which cut him; then, when they leaned him against a bloodied post, he fell back, and, as he was uncomfortable in this position, he recovered and, putting his legs straight, leaned calmly. Pierre did not take his eyes off him, not missing the slightest movement.

A command must have been heard; after the command, shots of eight guns must have been heard. But Pierre, no matter how much he tried to remember later, did not hear the slightest sound from the shots. He only saw how, for some reason, the factory worker suddenly sank down on the ropes, how blood appeared in two places, and how the very ropes, from the weight of the hanging body, unraveled and the factory worker, unnaturally lowering his head and twisting his leg, sat down. Pierre ran up to the post. Nobody held him back. Frightened people were doing something around the factory, pale people. An old, mustachioed Frenchman's jaw shook as he untied the ropes. The body went down. The soldiers awkwardly and hurriedly dragged him behind a post and began to push him into the pit.

Everyone, obviously, undoubtedly knew that they were criminals who needed to hide the traces of their crime as soon as possible. Pierre looked into the pit and saw that the factory worker was lying there with his knees up, close to his head, one shoulder higher than the other. And this shoulder convulsively, evenly fell and rose. But already shovels of earth were falling all over the body. One of the soldiers angrily, viciously and painfully shouted at Pierre to return. But Pierre did not understand him and stood at the post, and no one drove him away.

When the pit was already filled up, a command was heard. Pierre was taken to his place, and the French troops, standing in fronts on both sides of the pillar, made a half-turn and began to walk past the pillar with measured steps. Twenty-four men of riflemen with unloaded rifles, standing in the middle of the circle, ran up to their places, while the companies passed by them.

Pierre was now looking with meaningless eyes at these shooters, who ran out of the circle in pairs. All but one joined the companies. A young soldier with a deadly pale face, in a shako that had fallen back, having lowered his gun, was still standing opposite the pit in the place from which he had fired. He staggered like a drunk, taking a few steps forward and then back to support his falling body. An old soldier, a non-commissioned officer, ran out of the ranks and, grabbing a young soldier by the shoulder, dragged him into the company. The crowd of Russians and French began to disperse. Everyone walked in silence, with their heads bowed.

“Ça leur apprendra à incendier,” said one of the French.

Pierre looked back at the speaker and saw that it was a soldier who wanted to console himself with something in what had been done, but could not. Without finishing what he started, he waved his hand and walked away.