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Late
in the evening, when Rostov was about to leave, he asked Denisov
whether
he had no commission for him.
"Yes,
wait a bit," said Denisov, glancing round at the officers, and
taking
his papers from under his pillow he went to the window, where he
had
an inkpot, and sat down to write.
"It
seems it's no use knocking one's head against a wall!" he said,
coming
from the window and giving Rostov a large envelope. In it was the
petition
to the Emperor drawn up by the auditor, in which Denisov,
without
alluding to the offenses of the commissariat officials, simply
asked
for pardon.
"Hand
it in. It seems..."
He
did not finish, but gave a painfully unnatural smile.
CHAPTER
XIX
Having
returned to the regiment and told the commander the state of
Denisov's
affairs, Rostov rode to Tilsit with the letter to the Emperor.
On
the thirteenth of June the French and Russian Emperors arrived in
Tilsit.
Boris Drubetskoy had asked the important personage on whom he
was
in attendance, to include him in the suite appointed for the stay
at
Tilsit.
"I
should like to see the great man," he said, alluding to Napoleon,
whom
hitherto he, like everyone else, had always called Buonaparte.
"You
are speaking of Buonaparte?" asked the general, smiling.
Boris
looked at his general inquiringly and immediately saw that he was
being
tested.
"I
am speaking, Prince, of the Emperor Napoleon," he replied. The
general
patted him on the shoulder, with a smile.
"You
will go far," he said, and took him to Tilsit with him.
Boris
was among the few present at the Niemen on the day the two
Emperors
met. He saw the raft, decorated with monograms, saw Napoleon
pass
before the French Guards on the farther bank of the river, saw
the
pensive
face of the Emperor Alexander as he sat in silence in a tavern
on
the bank of the Niemen awaiting Napoleon's arrival, saw both
Emperors
get
into boats, and saw how Napoleon--reaching the raft
first--stepped
quickly
forward to meet Alexander and held out his hand to him, and how
they
both retired into the pavilion. Since he had begun to move in the
highest
circles Boris had made it his habit to watch attentively all
that
went on around him and to note it down. At the time of the
meeting
at
Tilsit he asked the names of those who had come with Napoleon and
about
the uniforms they wore, and listened attentively to words spoken
by
important personages. At the moment the Emperors went into the
pavilion
he looked at his watch, and did not forget to look at it again
when
Alexander came out. The interview had lasted an hour and fifty-
three
minutes. He noted this down that same evening, among other facts
he
felt to be of historic importance. As the Emperor's suite was a
very
small
one, it was a matter of great importance, for a man who valued
his
success
in the service, to be at Tilsit on the occasion of this
interview
between the two Emperors, and having succeeded in this, Boris
felt
that henceforth his position was fully assured. He had not only
become
known, but people had grown accustomed to him and accepted him.
Twice
he had executed commissions to the Emperor himself, so that the
latter
knew his face, and all those at court, far from cold-shouldering
him
as at first when they considered him a newcomer, would now have
been
surprised
had he been absent.
Boris
lodged with another adjutant, the Polish Count Zhilinski.
Zhilinski,
a Pole brought up in Paris, was rich, and passionately fond
of
the French, and almost every day of the stay at Tilsit, French
officers
of the Guard and from French headquarters were dining and
lunching
with him and Boris.
On
the evening of the twenty-fourth of June, Count Zhilinski arranged
a
supper
for his French friends. The guest of honor was an aide-de-camp of
Napoleon's,
there were also several French officers of the Guard, and a
page
of Napoleon's, a young lad of an old aristocratic French family.
That
same day, Rostov, profiting by the darkness to avoid being
recognized
in civilian dress, came to Tilsit and went to the lodging
occupied
by Boris and Zhilinski.
Rostov,
in common with the whole army from which he came, was far from
having
experienced the change of feeling toward Napoleon and the French-
-who
from being foes had suddenly become friends--that had taken place
at
headquarters and in Boris. In the army, Bonaparte and the French
were
still
regarded with mingled feelings of anger, contempt, and fear. Only
recently,
talking with one of Platov's Cossack officers, Rostov had
argued
that if Napoleon were taken prisoner he would be treated not as a
sovereign,
but as a criminal. Quite lately, happening to meet a wounded
French
colonel on the road, Rostov had maintained with heat that peace
was
impossible between a legitimate sovereign and the criminal
Bonaparte.
Rostov was therefore unpleasantly struck by the presence of
French
officers in Boris' lodging, dressed in uniforms he had been
accustomed
to see from quite a different point of view from the outposts
of
the flank. As soon as he noticed a French officer, who thrust his
head
out of the door, that warlike feeling of hostility which he
always
experienced
at the sight of the enemy suddenly seized him. He stopped at
the
threshold and asked in Russian whether Drubetskoy lived there.
Boris,
hearing a strange voice in the anteroom, came out to meet him. An
expression
of annoyance showed itself for a moment on his face on first
recognizing
Rostov.
"Ah,
it's you? Very glad, very glad to see you," he said, however,
coming
toward him with a smile. But Rostov had noticed his first
impulse.
"I've
come at a bad time I think. I should not have come, but I have
business,"
he said coldly.
"No,
I only wonder how you managed to get away from your regiment.
Dans
un
moment je suis a vous," * he said, answering someone who called
him.
*
"In a minute I shall be at your disposal."
"I
see I'm intruding," Rostov repeated.
The
look of annoyance had already disappeared from Boris' face:
having
evidently
reflected and decided how to act, he very quietly took both
Rostov's
hands and led him into the next room. His eyes, looking
serenely
and steadily at Rostov, seemed to be veiled by something, as if
screened
by blue spectacles of conventionality. So it seemed to Rostov.
"Oh,
come now! As if you could come at a wrong time!" said Boris, and
he
led
him into the room where the supper table was laid and introduced
him
to
his guests, explaining that he was not a civilian, but an hussar
officer,
and an old friend of his.
"Count
Zhilinski--le Comte N. N.--le Capitaine S. S.," said he, naming
his
guests. Rostov looked frowningly at the Frenchmen, bowed
reluctantly,
and remained silent.
Zhilinski
evidently did not receive this new Russian person very
willingly
into his circle and did not speak to Rostov. Boris did not
appear
to notice the constraint the newcomer produced and, with the same
pleasant
composure and the same veiled look in his eyes with which he
had
met Rostov, tried to enliven the conversation. One of the
Frenchmen,
with
the politeness characteristic of his countrymen, addressed the
obstinately
taciturn Rostov, saying that the latter had probably come to
Tilsit
to see the Emperor.
"No,
I came on business," replied Rostov, briefly.
Rostov
had been out of humor from the moment he noticed the look of
dissatisfaction
on Boris' face, and as always happens to those in a bad
humor,
it seemed to him that everyone regarded him with aversion and
that
he was in everybody's way. He really was in their way, for he
alone
took
no part in the conversation which again became general. The looks
the
visitors cast on him seemed to say: "And what is he sitting here
for?"
He rose and went up to Boris.
"Anyhow,
I'm in your way," he said in a low tone. "Come and talk over my
business
and I'll go away."
"Oh,
no, not at all," said Boris. "But if you are tired, come and lie
down
in my room and have a rest."
"Yes,
really..."
They
went into the little room where Boris slept. Rostov, without
sitting
down, began at once, irritably (as if Boris were to blame in
some
way) telling him about Denisov's affair, asking him whether,
through
his general, he could and would intercede with the Emperor on
Denisov's
behalf and get Denisov's petition handed in. When he and Boris
were
alone, Rostov felt for the first time that he could not look
Boris
in
the face without a sense of awkwardness. Boris, with one leg
crossed
over
the other and stroking his left hand with the slender fingers of
his
right, listened to Rostov as a general listens to the report of a
subordinate,
now looking aside and now gazing straight into Rostov's
eyes
with the same veiled look. Each time this happened Rostov felt
uncomfortable
and cast down his eyes.
"I
have heard of such cases and know that His Majesty is very severe
in
such
affairs. I think it would be best not to bring it before the
Emperor,
but to apply to the commander of the corps.... But in general,
I
think..."
"So
you don't want to do anything? Well then, say so!" Rostov almost
shouted,
not looking Boris in the face.
Boris
smiled.
"On
the contrary, I will do what I can. Only I thought..."
At
that moment Zhilinski's voice was heard calling Boris.
"Well
then, go, go, go..." said Rostov, and refusing supper and
remaining
alone in the little room, he walked up and down for a long
time,
hearing the lighthearted French conversation from the next room.
CHAPTER
XX
Rostov
had come to Tilsit the day least suitable for a petition on
Denisov's
behalf. He could not himself go to the general in attendance
as
he was in mufti and had come to Tilsit without permission to do
so,
and
Boris, even had he wished to, could not have done so on the
following
day. On that day, June 27, the preliminaries of peace were
signed.
The Emperors exchanged decorations: Alexander received the Cross
of
the Legion of Honor and Napoleon the Order of St. Andrew of the
First
Degree,
and a dinner had been arranged for the evening, given by a
battalion
of the French Guards to the Preobrazhensk battalion. The
Emperors
were to be present at that banquet.
Rostov
felt so ill at ease and uncomfortable with Boris that, when the
latter
looked in after supper, he pretended to be asleep, and early next
morning
went away, avoiding Boris. In his civilian clothes and a round
hat,
he wandered about the town, staring at the French and their
uniforms
and at the streets and houses where the Russian and French
Emperors
were staying. In a square he saw tables being set up and
preparations
made for the dinner; he saw the Russian and French colors
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