《War And Peace》 Book3 CHAPTER VIII
by Leo Tolstoy
THE DAY AFTER ROSTOV'S VISIT to Boris, the review took place of the Austrian
and Russian troops, both the reinforcements freshly arrived from Russia and the
troops that had been campaigning with Kutuzov. Both Emperors, the Russian
Emperor with the Tsarevitch, and the Austrian with the archduke, were to assist
at this review of the allied forces, making up together an army of eighty
thousand men. From early morning the troops, all smart and clean, had been
moving about the plain before the fortress. Thousands of legs and bayonets moved
with flags waving, and halted at the word of command, turned and formed at
regular intervals, moving round other similar masses of infantry in different
uniforms. With the rhythmic tramp of hoofs, the smartly dressed cavalry in blue,
and red, and GREen laced uniforms rode jingling by on black and chestnut and
grey horses, the bandsmen in front covered with embroidery. Between the infantry
and the cavalry the artillery, in a long line of polished, shining cannons
quivering on their carriages, crawled slowly by with their heavy, brazen sound,
and their peculiar smell from the linstocks, and ranged themselves in their
places. Not only the generals in their full parade uniform, wearing scarves and
all their decorations, with waists, portly and slim alike, pinched in to the
uttermost, and red necks squeezed into stiff collars, not only the pomaded,
dandified officers, but every soldier, with his clean, washed, and shaven face,
and weapons polished to the utmost possibility of glitter, every horse rubbed
down till its coat shone like satin, and every hair in its moistened mane lay in
place—all alike felt it no joking matter, felt that something grave and solemn
was going forward. Every general and every soldier was conscious of his own
significance, feeling himself but a grain of sand in that ocean of humanity, and
at the same time was conscious of his might, feeling himself a part of that vast
whole. There had been strenuous exertion and bustle since early morning, and by
ten o'clock everything was in the required order. The rows of soldiers were
standing on the immense plain. The whole army was drawn out in three lines. In
front was the cavalry; behind, the artillery; still further back, the
infantry.
Between each two ranks of soldiery there was as it were a street. The army
was sharply divided into three parts: Kutuzov's army (on the right flank of
which stood the Pavlograd hussars in the front line), the regiments of the line
and the guards that had arrived from Russia, and the Austrian troops. But all
stood in one line, under one command, and in similar order.
Like a wind passing over the leaves, the excited whisper fluttered over the
plain: “They are coming! they are coming!” There was a sound of frightened
voices, and the hurried men's fuss over the last finishing touches ran like a
wave over the troops.
A group came into sight moving towards them from Olmütz in front of them. And
at the same moment, though there had been no wind, a faint breeze fluttered over
the army, and stirred the streamers on the lances, and sent the unfurled flags
flapping against their flagstaffs. It looked as though in this slight movement
the army itself were expressing its joy at the approach of the Emperors. One
voice was heard saying: “Steady!” Then like cocks at sunrise, voices caught up
and repeated the sound in different parts of the plain. And all sank into
silence.
In the deathlike stillness, the only sound was the tramp of hoofs. It was the
Emperors' suite. The Emperors rode towards the flank, and the trumpets of the
first cavalry regiment began playing a march. It seemed as though the sound did
not come from the trumpeters, but that the army itself was naturally giving
forth this music in its delight at the Emperors' approach. Through the music
could be distinctly heard one voice, the genial, youthful voice of the Emperor
Alexander. He uttered some words of GREeting, and the first regiment boomed out:
“Hurrah!” with a shout so deafening, so prolonged, so joyful, that the men
themselves felt awestruck at the multitude and force of the mass they made
up.
Rostov, standing in the foremost ranks of Kutuzov's army, which the Tsar
approached first of all, was possessed by the feeling, common to every man in
that army—a feeling of self-oblivion, of proud consciousness of their might and
passionate devotion to the man who was the centre of that solemn ceremony.
He felt that at one word from that man all that vast mass (and he, an
insignificant atom bound up with it) would rush through fire and water, to
crime, to death, or to the grandest heroism, and so he could not but thrill and
tremble at the sight of the man who was the embodiment of that word.
“Hurrah! hurrah! hurrah!” thundered on all sides, and one regiment after
another GREeted the Tsar with the strains of the march, then hurrah!…then the
march, and again hurrah! and hurrah! which growing stronger and fuller, blended
into a deafening roar.
Before the Tsar had reached it, each regiment in its speechless immobility
seemed like a lifeless body. But as soon as the Tsar was on a level with it,
each regiment broke into life and noise, which joined with the roar of all the
line, by which the Tsar had passed already. In the terrific, deafening uproar of
those voices, between the square masses of troops, immobile as though turned to
stone, moved carelessly, but symmetrically and freely, some hundreds of men on
horseback, the suite, and in front of them two figures—the Emperors. Upon these
was entirely concentrated the repressed, passionate attention of all that mass
of men.
The handsome, youthful Emperor Alexander, in the uniform of the Horse Guards,
in a triangular hat with the base in front, attracted the GREater share of
attention with his pleasant face and sonorous, low voice.
Rostov was standing near the trumpeters, and with his keen eyes he recognised
the Tsar from a distance and watched him approaching. When the Tsar was only
twenty paces away, and Nikolay saw clearly in every detail the handsome, young,
and happy face of the Emperor, he experienced a feeling of tenderness and
ecstasy such as he had never known before. Everything in the Tsar—every feature,
every movement—seemed to him full of charm.
Halting before the Pavlograd regiment, the Tsar said something in French to
the Austrian Emperor and smiled.
Seeing that smile, Rostov unconsciously began to smile himself and felt an
even stronger rush of love for his Emperor. He longed to express his love for
the Tsar in some way. He knew it was impossible, and he wanted to cry. The Tsar
called up the colonel of the regiment and said a few words to him.
“By God! what would happen to me if the Emperor were to address me!” thought
Rostov; “I should die of happiness.”
The Tsar addressed the officers, too.
“All of you, gentlemen” (every word sounded to Rostov like heavenly music),
“I thank you with all my heart.”
How happy Rostov would have been if he could have died on the spot for his
Emperor.
“You have won the flags of St. George and will be worthy of them.”
name=Marker20>“Only to die, to die for him!” thought Rostov.
The Tsar said something more which Rostov did not catch, and the soldiers,
straining their lungs, roared “hurrah!”
Rostov, too, bending over in his saddle, shouted with all his might, feeling
he would like to do himself some injury by this shout, if only he could give
full expression to his enthusiasm for the Tsar.
The Tsar stood for several seconds facing the hussars, as though he were
hesitating.
“How could the Emperor hesitate?” Rostov wondered; but then, even that
hesitation seemed to him majestic and enchanting, like all the Tsar did.
The Tsar's hesitation lasted only an instant. The Tsar's foot, in the
narrow-pointed boot of the day, touched the belly of the bay English
thoroughbred he was riding. The Tsar's hand in its white glove gathered up the
reins and he moved off, accompanied by the irregularly heaving sea of adjutants.
Further and further he rode away, stopping at the other regiments, and at last
the white plume of his hat was all that Rostov could see above the suite that
encircled the Emperors.
Among the gentlemen of the suite, Rostov noticed Bolkonsky, sitting his horse
in a slack, indolent pose. Rostov remembered his quarrel with him on the
previous day and his doubt whether he ought or ought not to challenge him. “Of
course, I ought not,” Rostov reflected now.…”And is it worth thinking and
speaking of it at such a moment as the present? At the moment of such a feeling
of love, enthusiasm, and self-sacrifice, what are all our slights and squabbles?
I love every one, I forgive every one at this moment,” thought Rostov.
When the Tsar had made the round of almost all the regiments, the troops
began to file by him in a parade march, and Rostov on Bedouin, which he had
lately bought from Denisov, was the officer at the rear, that is, had to pass
last, alone, and directly in view of the Tsar.
Before he reached the Tsar, Rostov, who was a capital horseman, set spurs
twice to his Bedouin, and succeeded in forcing him into that frantic form of
gallop into which Bedouin always dropped when he was excited. Bending his
foaming nose to his chest, arching his tail, and seeming to skim through the air
without touching the earth, Bedouin, as though he, too, were conscious of the
Tsar's eye upon him, flew by in superb style, with a graceful high action of his
legs.
Rostov himself drew back his legs and drew in his stomach, and feeling
himself all of a piece with his horse, rode by the Tsar with a frowning but
blissful face, looking a regular devil, as Denisov used to say.
“Bravo, Pavlograds!” said the Tsar.
“My God! shouldn't I be happy if he bade me fling myself into fire this
instant,” thought Rostov.
When the review was over, the officers, both of the reinforcements and of
Kutuzov's army, began to gather together in groups. Conversations sprang up
about the honours that had been conferred, about the Austrians and their
uniforms, and their front line, about Bonaparte and the bad time in store for
him now, especially when Essen's corps, too, should arrive, and Prussia should
take our side. But the chief subject of conversation in every circle was the
Emperor Alexander; every word he had uttered, every gesture was described and
expatiated upon with enthusiasm.
There was but one desire in all: under the Emperor's leadership to face the
enemy as soon as possible. Under the command of the Emperor himself they would
not fail to conquer any one whatever: so thought Rostov and most of the officers
after the review.
After the review they all felt more certain of victory than they could have
been after two decisive victories.
