WAR AND PEACE - Complete 15 Volume Edition. Leo Tolstoy

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СКАЧАТЬ in greatcoats?” said he reproachfully to the battalion commander. “Oh, my God!” he added, stepping resolutely forward. “Company commanders!” he shouted in a voice accustomed to command. “Sergeants major!… How soon will he be here?” he asked the aide-de-camp with a respectful politeness evidently relating to the personage he was referring to.

      “In an hour’s time, I should say.”

      “Shall we have time to change clothes?”

      “I don’t know, General….”

      The regimental commander, going up to the line himself, ordered the soldiers to change into their greatcoats. The company commanders ran off to their companies, the sergeants major began bustling (the greatcoats were not in very good condition), and instantly the squares that had up to then been in regular order and silent began to sway and stretch and hum with voices. On all sides soldiers were running to and fro, throwing up their knapsacks with a jerk of their shoulders and pulling the straps over their heads, unstrapping their overcoats and drawing the sleeves on with upraised arms.

      In half an hour all was again in order, only the squares had become gray instead of black. The regimental commander walked with his jerky steps to the front of the regiment and examined it from a distance.

      “Whatever is this? This!” he shouted and stood still. “Commander of the third company!”

      “Commander of the third company wanted by the general!… commander to the general… third company to the commander.” The words passed along the lines and an adjutant ran to look for the missing officer.

      When the eager but misrepeated words had reached their destination in a cry of: “The general to the third company,” the missing officer appeared from behind his company and, though he was a middle-aged man and not in the habit of running, trotted awkwardly stumbling on his toes toward the general. The captain’s face showed the uneasiness of a schoolboy who is told to repeat a lesson he has not learned. Spots appeared on his nose, the redness of which was evidently due to intemperance, and his mouth twitched nervously. The general looked the captain up and down as he came up panting, slackening his pace as he approached.

      “You will soon be dressing your men in petticoats! What is this?” shouted the regimental commander, thrusting forward his jaw and pointing at a soldier in the ranks of the third company in a greatcoat of bluish cloth, which contrasted with the others. “What have you been after? The commander in chief is expected and you leave your place? Eh? I’ll teach you to dress the men in fancy coats for a parade…. Eh…?”

      The commander of the company, with his eyes fixed on his superior, pressed two fingers more and more rigidly to his cap, as if in this pressure lay his only hope of salvation.

      “Well, why don’t you speak? Whom have you got there dressed up as a Hungarian?” said the commander with an austere gibe.

      “Your excellency…”

      “Well, your excellency, what? Your excellency! But what about your excellency?… nobody knows.”

      “Your excellency, it’s the officer Dolokhov, who has been reduced to the ranks,” said the captain softly.

      “Well? Has he been degraded into a field marshal, or into a soldier? If a soldier, he should be dressed in regulation uniform like the others.”

      “Your excellency, you gave him leave yourself, on the march.”

      “Gave him leave? Leave? That’s just like you young men,” said the regimental commander cooling down a little. “Leave indeed…. One says a word to you and you… What?” he added with renewed irritation, “I beg you to dress your men decently.”

      And the commander, turning to look at the adjutant, directed his jerky steps down the line. He was evidently pleased at his own display of anger and walking up to the regiment wished to find a further excuse for wrath. Having snapped at an officer for an unpolished badge, at another because his line was not straight, he reached the third company.

      “H-o-o-w are you standing? Where’s your leg? Your leg?” shouted the commander with a tone of suffering in his voice, while there were still five men between him and Dolokhov with his bluish-gray uniform.

      Dolokhov slowly straightened his bent knee, looking straight with his clear, insolent eyes in the general’s face.

      “Why a blue coat? Off with it… Sergeant major! Change his coat… the ras…” he did not finish.

      “General, I must obey orders, but I am not bound to endure…” Dolokhov hurriedly interrupted.

      “No talking in the ranks!… No talking, no talking!”

      “Not bound to endure insults,” Dolokhov concluded in loud, ringing tones.

      The eyes of the general and the soldier met. The general became silent, angrily pulling down his tight scarf.

      “I request you to have the goodness to change your coat,” he said as he turned away.

      CHAPTER II

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      “He’s coming!” shouted the signaler at that moment.

      The regimental commander, flushing, ran to his horse, seized the stirrup with trembling hands, threw his body across the saddle, righted himself, drew his saber, and with a happy and resolute countenance, opening his mouth awry, prepared to shout. The regiment fluttered like a bird preening its plumage and became motionless.

      “Attention!” shouted the regimental commander in a soul-shaking voice which expressed joy for himself, severity for the regiment, and welcome for the approaching chief.

      Along the broad country road, edged on both sides by trees, came a high, light blue Viennese caleche, slightly creaking on its springs and drawn by six horses at a smart trot. Behind the caleche galloped the suite and a convoy of Croats. Beside Kutuzov sat an Austrian general, in a white uniform that looked strange among the Russian black ones. The caleche stopped in front of the regiment. Kutuzov and the Austrian general were talking in low voices and Kutuzov smiled slightly as treading heavily he stepped down from the carriage just as if those two thousand men breathlessly gazing at him and the regimental commander did not exist.

      The word of command rang out, and again the regiment quivered, as with a jingling sound it presented arms. Then amidst a dead silence the feeble voice of the commander in chief was heard. The regiment roared, “Health to your ex… len… len… lency!” and again all became silent. At first Kutuzov stood still while the regiment moved; then he and the general in white, accompanied by the suite, walked between the ranks.

      From the way the regimental commander saluted the commander in chief and devoured him with his eyes, drawing himself up obsequiously, and from the way he walked through the ranks behind the generals, bending forward and hardly able to restrain his jerky movements, and from the way he darted forward at every word or gesture of the commander in chief, it was evident that he performed his duty as a subordinate with even greater zeal than his duty as a commander. Thanks to the strictness and assiduity of its commander the regiment, in comparison with others that had reached Braunau at the same time, was in splendid condition. There were only 217 sick and stragglers. Everything СКАЧАТЬ