War And Peace: Book 2 - CHAPTER V

作者: Leo Tolstoy

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Author: Leo Tolstoy

IN THE EVENING of the same day a lively discussion was taking place in

Denisov's quarters between some officers of the squadron.

“But I tell you, Rostov, that you must apologise to the colonel,” the tall

staff-captain was saying, addressing Rostov, who was crimson with excitement.

The staff-captain, Kirsten, a man with grizzled hair, immense whiskers, thick

features and a wrinkled face, had been twice degraded to the ranks for affairs

of honour, and had twice risen again to holding a commission.

“I permit no one to tell me I'm lying!” cried Rostov. “He told me I was lying

and I told him he was lying. And there it rests. He can put me on duty every

day, he can place me under arrest, but no one can compel me to apologise,

because if he, as the colonel, considers it beneath his dignity to give me

satisfaction, then …”

“But you wait a bit, my good fellow; you listen to me,” interrupted the

staff-captain in his bass voice, calmly stroking his long whiskers. “You tell

the colonel in the presence of other officers that an officer has stolen—”

“I'm not to blame for the conversation being in the presence of other

officers. Possibly I ought not to have spoken before them, but I'm not a

diplomatist. That's just why I went into the hussars; I thought that here I

should have no need of such finicky considerations, and he tells me I'm a liar …

so let him give me satisfaction.”

“That's all very fine, no one imagines that you're a coward; but that's not

the point. Ask Denisov if it's not utterly out of the question for an ensign to

demand satisfaction of his colonel?”

Denisov was biting his moustache with a morose air, listening to the

conversation, evidently with no desire to take part in it. To the captain's

question, he replied by a negative shake of the head.

“You speak to the colonel in the presence of other officers of this dirty

business,” pursued the staff-captain. “Bogdanitch” (Bogdanitch was what they

called the colonel) “snubbed you …”

“No, he didn't. He said I was telling an untruth.”

“Quite so, and you talked nonsense to him, and you must apologise.”

“Not on any consideration!” shouted Rostov.

“I shouldn't have expected this of you,” said the staff-captain seriously and

severely. “You won't apologise, but, my good sir, it's not only him, but all the

regiment, all of us, that you've acted wrongly by; you're to blame all round.

Look here; if you'd only thought it over, and taken advice how to deal with the

matter, but you must go and blurt it all straight out before the officers. What

was the colonel to do then? Is he to bring the officer up for trial and disgrace

the whole regiment? On account of one scoundrel is the whole regiment to be put

to shame? Is that the thing for him to do, to your thinking? It is not to our

thinking. And Bogdanitch did the right thing. He told you that you were telling

an untruth. It's unpleasant, but what could he do? you brought it on yourself.

And now when they try to smooth the thing over, you're so high and mighty, you

won't apologise, and want to have the whole story out. You're huffy at being put

on duty, but what is it for you to apologise to an old and honourable officer!

Whatever Bogdanitch may be, any way he's an honourable and gallant old colonel;

you're offended at that, but disgracing the regiment's nothing to you.” The

staff-captain's voice began to quaver. “You, sir, have been next to no time in

the regiment; you're here to-day, and to-morrow you'll be passed on somewhere as

an adjutant; you don't care a straw for people saying: ‘There are thieves among

the Pavlograd officers!' But we do care! Don't we, Denisov? Do we care?”

Denisov still did not speak or stir; his gleaming black eyes glanced now and

then at Rostov.

“Your pride is dear to you, you don't want to apologise,” continued the

staff-captain, “but we old fellows, as we grew up in the regiment and, please

God, we hope to die in it, it's the honour of the regiment is dear to us, and

Bogdanitch knows that. Ah, isn't it dear to us! But this isn't right; it's not

right! You may take offence or not; but I always speak the plain truth. It's not

right!”

And the staff-captain got up and turned away from Rostov.

“That's the truth, damn it!” shouted Denisov, jumping up. “Come, Rostov,

come!”

Rostov, turning crimson and white again, looked first at one officer and then

at the other.

“No, gentlemen, no … you mustn't think … I quite understand, you're wrong in

thinking that of me … I … for me … for the honour of the regiment I'd … but why

talk? I'll prove that in action and for me the honour of the flag … well, never

mind, it's true, I'm to blame!” … There were tears in his eyes. “I'm wrong,

wrong all round! Well, what more do you want?” …

“Come, that's right, count,” cried the staff-captain, turning round and

clapping him on the shoulder with his big hand.

“I tell you,” shouted Denisov, “he's a capital fellow.”

‘That's better, count,” repeated the captain, beginning to address him by his

title as though in acknowledgment of his confession. “Go and apologise, your

excellency.”

“Gentlemen, I'll do anything, no one shall hear a word from me,” Rostov

protested in an imploring voice, “but I can't apologise, by God, I can't, say

what you will! How can I apologise, like a little boy begging pardon!”

Denisov laughed.

“It'll be the worse for you, if you don't. Bogdanitch doesn't forget things;

he'll make you pay for your obstinacy,” said Kirsten.

“By God, it's not obstinacy! I can't describe the feeling it gives me. I

can't do it.”

“Well, as you like,” said the staff-captain. “What has the scoundrel done

with himself?” he asked Denisov.

“He has reported himself ill; to-morrow the order's given for him to be

struck off,” said Denisov.

“It is an illness, there's no other way of explaining it,” said the

staff-captain.

“Whether it's illness or whether it's not, he'd better not cross my path—I'd

kill him,” Denisov shouted bloodthirstily.

Zherkov walked into the room.

“How do you come here?” the officers cried to the newcomer at once.

“To the front, gentlemen. Mack has surrendered with his whole army.”

“Nonsense!”

“I've seen him myself.”

“What? Seen Mack alive, with all his arms and legs?”

“To the front! to the front! Give him a bottle for such news. How did you

come here?”

“I've been dismissed back to the regiment again on account of that devil,

Mack. The Austrian general complained of me. I congratulated him on Mack's

arrival. … What is it, Rostov, you look as if you'd just come out of a hot

bath?”

“We've been in such a mess these last two days, old boy.”

The regimental adjutant came in and confirmed the news brought by Zherkov.

They were under orders to advance next day.

“To the front, gentlemen!”

“Well, thank God! we've been sticking here too long.”

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