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Book 5 Chapter 9

BILIBIN was now in a diplomatic capacity at the headquarters of the army, and though he wrote in French, with French jests, and French turns of speech, he described the whole campaign with an impartial self-criticism and self-mockery exclusively Russian. Bilibin wrote that the obligation of diplomatic discretion was a torture to him, and that he was happy to have in Prince Andrey a trustworthy correspondent to whom he could pour out all the spleen that had been accumulating in him at the sight of what was going on in the army. The letter was dated some time back, before the battle of Eylau.

“Since our great success at Austerlitz, you know, my dear prince,” wrote Bilibin, “that I have not left headquarters. Decidedly I have acquired a taste for warfare, and it is just as well for me. What I have seen in these three months is incredible.

“I will begin ab ovo. ‘The enemy of the human race,' as you know, is attacking the Prussians. The Prussians are our faithful allies, who have only deceived us three times in three years. We stand up for them. But it occurs that the enemy of the human race pays no attention to our fine speeches, and in his uncivil and savage way flings himself upon the Prussians without giving them time to finish the parade that they had begun, and by a couple of conjuring tricks thrashes them completely, and goes to take up his quarters in the palace of Potsdam.

“ ‘I most earnestly desire,' writes the King of Prussia to Bonaparte, ‘that your majesty may be received and treated in my palace in a manner agreeable to you, and I have hastened to take all the measures to that end which circumstances allowed. May I have succeeded!' The Prussian generals pride themselves on their politeness towards the French, and lay down their arms at the first summons.

“The head of the garrison at Glogau, who has ten thousand men, asks the King of Prussia what he is to do if he is summoned to surrender.…All these are actual facts.

“In short, hoping only to produce an effect by our military attitude, we find ourselves at war in good earnest, and, what is more, at war on our own frontiers with and for the King of Prussia. Everything is fully ready, we only want one little thing, that is the commander-in-chief. As it is thought that the successes at Austerlitz might have been more decisive if the commander-in-chief had not been so young, the men of eighty have been passed in review, and of Prosorovsky and Kamensky the latter is preferred. The general comes to us in a k?bik after the fashion of Suvorov, and is greeted with acclamations of joy and triumph.

“On the 4th comes the first post from Petersburg. The mails are taken to the marshal's room, for he likes to do everything himself. I am called to sort the letters and take those meant for us. The marshal looks on while we do it, and waits for the packets addressed to him. We seek—there are none. The marshal gets impatient, sets to work himself, and finds letters from the Emperor for Count T., Prince V., and others. Then he throws himself into one of his furies. He rages against everybody, snatches hold of the letters, opens them, and reads those from the Emperor to other people.

“ ‘Ah, so that's how I'm being treated! No confidence in me! Oh, ordered to keep an eye on me, very well; get along with you!'

“And then he writes the famous order of the day to General Bennigsen:

“ ‘I am wounded, I cannot ride on horseback, consequently cannot command the army. You have led your corps d'armée defeated to Pultusk! Here it remains exposed and destitute of wood and of forage, and in need of assistance, and so, as you reported yourself to Count Buxhevden yesterday, you must think of retreat to our frontier, and so do today.'

“ ‘All my expeditions on horseback,' he writes to the Emperor, ‘have given me a saddle sore, which, after my former journeys, quite prevents my sitting a horse, and commanding an army so widely scattered; and therefore I have handed over the said command to the general next in seniority to me, Count Buxhevden, having despatched to him all my suite and appurtenances of the same, advising him, if bread should run short, to retreat further into the interior of Prussia, seeing that bread for one day's rations only is left, and some regiments have none, as the commanders Osterman and Sedmoretsky have reported, and the peasantry of the country have had everything eaten up. I shall myself remain in the hospital at Ostrolenka till I am cured. In regard to which I must humbly submit the report that if the army remains another fortnight in its present bivouac, by spring not a man will be left in health.

“ ‘Graciously discharge from his duty an old man who is sufficiently disgraced by his inability to perform the great and glorious task for which he was chosen. I shall await here in the hospital your most gracious acceptance of my retirement, that I may not have to act the part of a secretary rather than a commander. My removal is not producing the slightest sensation—a blind man is leaving the army, that is all. More like me can be found in Russia by thousands!'

“The marshal is angry with the Emperor and punishes all of us; isn't it logical!

“That is the first act. In the next the interest and the absurdity rise, as they ought. After the marshal has departed it appears that we are within sight of the enemy and shall have to give battle. Buxhevden is commanding officer by right of seniority, but General Bennigsen is not of that opinion, the rather that it is he and his corps who face the enemy, and he wants to seize the opportunity to fight a battle ‘on his own hand,' as the Germans say. He fights it. It is the battle of Pultusk, which is counted a great victory, but which in my opinion is nothing of the kind. We civilians, you know, have a very ugly way of deciding whether battles are lost or won. The side that retreats after the battle has lost, that is what we say, and according to that we lost the battle of Pultusk. In short, we retreat after the battle, but we send a message to Petersburg with news of a victory, and the general does not give up the command to Buxhevden, hoping to receive from Petersburg the title of commander-in-chief in return for his victory. During this interregnum we begin an excessively interesting and original scheme of man?uvres. The aim does not, as it should, consist in avoiding or attacking the enemy, but solely in avoiding General Buxhevden, who by right of seniority should be our commanding officer. We pursue this object with so much energy that even when we cross a river which is not fordable we burn the bridges in order to separate ourselves from our enemy, who, at the moment, is not Bonaparte but Buxhevden. General Buxhevden was nearly attacked and taken by a superior force of the enemy, in consequence of one of our fine man?uvres which saved us from him. Buxhevden pursues us; we scuttle. No sooner does he cross to our side of the river than we cross back to the other. At last our enemy Buxhevden catches us and attacks us. The two generals quarrel. There is even a challenge on Buxhevden's part and an epileptic fit on Bennigsen's. But at the critical moment the messenger who carried the news of our Pultusk victory brings us from Petersburg our appointment as commander-in-chief, and the first enemy, Buxhevden, being overthrown, we are able to think of the second, Bonaparte. But what should happen at that very moment but the rising against us of a third enemy, which is the ‘holy armament' fiercely crying out for bread, meat, biscuits, hay, and I don't know what else! The storehouses are empty, the roads impassable. The ‘holy armament' sets itself to pillage, and that in a way of which the last campaign can give you no notion. Half the regiments have turned themselves into free companies, and are overrunning the country with fire and sword. The inhabitants are totally ruined, the hospitals are overflowing with sick, and famine is everywhere. Twice over the headquarters have been attacked by bands of marauders, and the commander-in-chief himself has had to ask for a battalion to drive them off. In one of these attacks my empty trunk and my dressing-gown were carried off. The Emperor proposes to give authority to all the commanders of divisions to shoot marauders, but I greatly fear this will oblige one half of the army to shoot the other.”

Prince Andrey at first read only with his eyes, but unconsciously what he read (though he knew how much faith to put in Bilibin) began to interest him more and more. When he reached this passage, he crumpled up the letter and threw it away. It was not what he read that angered him; he was angry that the far-away life out there—in which he had no part—could trouble him. He closed his eyes, rubbed his forehead with his hand, as though to drive out all interest in what he had been reading, and listened to what was passing in the nursery. Suddenly he fancied a strange sound through the door. A panic seized him; he was afraid something might have happened to the baby while he was reading the letter. He went on tiptoe to the door of the nursery and opened it.

At the instant that he went in, he saw that the nurse was hiding something from him with a scared face, and Princess Marya was no longer beside the crib.

“My dear,” he heard behind him Princess Marya whisper—in a tone of despair it seemed to him. As so often happens after prolonged sleeplessness and anxiety, he was seized by a groundless panic; the idea came into his mind that the baby was dead. All he saw and heard seemed a confirmation of his terror.

“All is over,” he thought, and a cold sweat came out on his forehead. He went to the crib, beside himself, believing that he would find it empty, that the nurse had been hiding the dead baby. He opened the curtains, and for a long while his hurrying, frightened eyes could not find the baby. At last he saw him. The red-cheeked child lay stretched across the crib, with its head lower than the pillow; and it was making a smacking sound with its lips in its sleep and breathing evenly.

Prince Andrey rejoiced at seeing the child, as though he had already lost him. He bent down and tried with his lips whether the baby was feverish, as his sister had shown him. The soft forehead was moist; he touched the head with his hand—even the hair was wet: the child was in such a thorough perspiration. He was not dead; on the contrary, it was evident that the crisis was over and he was better. Prince Andrey longed to snatch up, to squeeze, to press to his heart that little helpless creature; he did not dare to do so. He stood over him, gazing at his head and his little arms and legs that showed beneath the quilt. He heard a rustle beside him, and a shadow seemed to come under the canopy of the crib. He did not look round, and still gazing at the baby's face, listened to his regular breathing. The dark shadow was Princess Marya, who with noiseless steps had approached the crib, lifted the canopy, and let it fall again behind her. Prince Andrey knew it was she without looking round, and held out his hand to her. She squeezed his hand.

“He is in a perspiration,” said Prince Andrey.

“I was coming to tell you so.”

The baby faintly stirred in its sleep, smiled and rubbed its forehead against the pillow.

Prince Andrey looked at his sister. In the even half light under the hanging of the crib, Princess Marya's luminous eyes shone more than usual with the happy tears that stood in them. She bent forward to her brother and kissed him, her head catching in the canopy of the crib. They shook their fingers at one another, and still stood in the twilight of the canopy, as though unwilling to leave that seclusion where they three were alone, shut off from all the world. Prince Andrey, ruffling his hair against the muslin hangings, was the first to move away. “Yes, that is the one thing left me now,” he said with a sigh.


此时,比利宾作为一名外交官待在本军的大本营内,他的这封信虽然是用法文写的,文内包含有法国的戏言和特殊表现法,但是在自我谴责和自我嘲笑方面,他却怀着俄国所固有的无所畏惧的态度来描述整个战役。比利宾写道:外交官的discretion①使他痛苦,他身边能有安德烈公爵这么一个忠实可靠的通讯员,他感到无比幸福。他可以向他倾吐他由于目睹军内发生的事情而积累的生活感受。这封信是在普鲁士——艾劳战役之前写就的,现在已经是一封旧信了。

①法语:谦逊。


比利宾写道:

“自从我军在奥斯特利茨赢得辉煌胜利以来,我可爱的公爵,您知道,我始终没有离开大本营。无可置疑,战争使我入迷,而且为此我深感满意,三个月以来的观感,真令人难以置信。

“我alovo(拉丁语:从头)讲起。您所知道的人类

的公敌向普鲁士人发动进攻,普鲁士人是我们志实的盟友,他们在三年之内只骗过我们三次。我们都是庇护他们的。可是,·人·类·的·公·敌对我们具有魅力的话语丝毫不理睬,竟然不让普鲁士人结束他们已经开始的阅兵式,就以野蛮无礼的方式向普鲁士人发动猛攻,击溃他们,并且进驻波茨坦皇宫。

“普鲁士国王在给波拿巴的书函中写道,我深切地希望,让陛下在我皇宫受到心悦神怡的接待,我怀着分外关切的心情,在环境许可下发出各种相应的命令。啊,我唯愿能够达到这个目的!普鲁士的将军们都在法国人面前说些恭维话,引以为荣。只要一开口提出要求,就向敌人投降。警备司令格洛高领着一万人询问普鲁士国王,他应该怎么办。这一切都是千真万确的。总而言之,我们只想凭藉我们的军事态势使他们望而生畏,但我们终于被卷入战争,就是在我们的边境线上打仗,主要是,我们·为·普·鲁·士·国·王而战,我们和他协同作战。我们拥有的东西绰绰有馀,只缺一个小滑头,即是缺少一个总司令。

如果总司令原来不是那样年轻的人,奥斯特利茨战役的胜利可能更具有决定性意义,因此我们逐一评审八十岁的将领们,在普罗佐罗夫斯基和卡缅斯基二人之间挑选了后者。这位将领装出苏沃洛夫的姿态坐着带篷马车向我们驶来,迎接他的是一片欢呼声和隆重仪式。”

“四日,第一个信使从彼得堡到这里来。他把信箱送进元帅办公厅,元帅喜欢亲自办理一切事务。有人叫我去帮助整理信件,把给我们的信件统统拿出来。元帅叫我们干这个活儿,一面瞧着我们,等候寄给他的信。我们找着,找着,可是没有他的信。元帅着急了,他亲自动手干活儿,他找到国王寄给伯爵T.和伯爵B.以及其他人的信件。他怒不可遏,失去自制力,拿着几封寄给他人的信,拆开来看,‘啊,这样对待我,不信任我!吩咐他们监视我。好,滚开吧!'于是他就给贝尼格森伯爵写了一道有名的命令。

“‘我负了伤,不能骑行,因此不能指挥军队。您把您的被击溃的兵团带领到普图斯克去了,在这里暴露自己,既没有木柴,也没有粮秣,不得不加以补助,您昨日给布克斯格夫登伯爵发出了公函,就应当想到向我国边境退却的事,您今日务必履行使命。'

“‘由于四处奔波,'écritil á l'Empereur,①‘我给马鞍擦伤了,再与上几处旧伤,这就完全妨碍我骑马和指挥这支规模庞大的军队,所以我把指挥军队的权力推卸给职位比我略低的将领——布克斯格夫登伯爵,还把司令部的执勤及其所属一切都移交给这位将领,并且给予忠告,如果粮食短缺,就向普鲁士内陆附近撤退,因为只剩下一日的粮食,正如奥斯特曼师长和谢德莫列茨基师长报告中所云,有几个兵团已无一粒口粮。农民的粮食快被吃光了;在擦伤仍未痊愈时,我在奥斯特罗连卡野战医院留医。我诚惶诚恐地呈上这个表报,并且禀奏,如果军队在目前的野营地再待十五天,来春就连一个健康的人都剩不下来。'

①法语:他在给国王的信上写道。


“‘请您免去我这个老头的职务,把我送到农村去,我本来就已名誉扫地,不能完成推选我去完成的伟大而光荣的使命。我在野战医院听候您最仁慈的核准,以免我充当一名·录·事的角色,而不是在军队中充当一名·指·挥·官的角色。我从军队中离职,无非是一个盲人离开军队,决不会造成丝毫轰动,我这样的人,在俄国俯拾可得,岂止数千名。'

“元帅生国王的气,并且惩罚我们所有的人,这是完全合乎逻辑的!

“这就是喜剧的第一幕。不消说,以后几幕越来越有趣和可笑了。元帅离开后,敌人在我们眼前出现,不得不展开战斗。布克斯格夫登按职位是总司令,但是贝尼格森将军持有不同的意见,而且他和他的一军人正处于敌军的视线范围内,他想借此机会打一仗。他于是打了一仗。这就是被认为赢得一次伟大胜利的普图斯克战役,但是依我看,根本不是那么回事。您知道,我们文职人员有一种解决会战胜负问题的不良习惯。凡是在战后退下来的人,就是吃了败仗的人,这就是我们要说的话,据此看来,普图斯克之战,我们是打输了。一言以蔽之,我们在战后撤退,但同时又派遣信使向彼得堡告捷,而且贝尼格森将军在指挥军队方面不把权柄让给布克斯格夫登将军,他指望从彼得堡获得总司令头衔,俄国朝廷以此表示感谢他所获得的胜利。在领导空缺期间,我们发动了一系列很奇特的有趣的机动战。我们的计划不再是它似乎应有的那样——避开或进攻敌军,而只是避开布克斯格夫登将军,论职位高低他应当是我们的首长。我们正集中全副精力来追求这个目的,甚至在我们横渡没有浅滩的河面时烧毁桥梁,其目的也是要我们自己摆脱敌人,此刻我们的敌人不是波拿巴,而是布克斯格夫登。

因为我们采取了一次旨在拯救我们、排斥布克斯格夫登的机动,所以布克斯格夫登将军几乎遭到拥有优势兵力的敌军的袭击和俘获。布克斯格夫登追过来,我们就跑开。他刚刚渡河到了河这边,我们又渡河到了河那边。最后我们的敌人布克斯格夫登不肯放过我们,并且发动一次进攻。这时双方进行对话,想消除误会。两个将军火冒三丈,几乎要闹到两个总司令决斗的地步。幸而在此紧急关头,那个将普图斯克大捷的消息送至彼得堡的信使已返回原地,给我们带来总司令委任状,于是头号敌人布克斯格夫登被挫败了。我们此刻可以考虑第二号敌人——波拿巴。但是正在这个时候,第三号敌人——信奉正教的军人在我们面前出现了,他们大声疾呼,要面包、牛肉、面包干、干草、燕麦,——随便什么都要啊!

商店都是空荡荡的,道路难以通行。信奉正教的军人开始抢劫,这场抢劫到达骇人的程度,就连上次战役也不能使您产生一点同样的观念。有半数兵团组成自由帮会,脚迹遍布各地,极尽烧杀之能事。居民已沦为赤贫,病人充斥于医院,到处在闹饥荒。那些掠夺兵甚至有两次袭击大本营,总司令只得带领一管士兵把他们赶走。在一次这样的袭击中,他们夺走了我的一只空箱笼和一件长罩衫。国王意欲授权各师师长就地枪决掠夺兵,但是我很担心,这样势必迫使一半军队去枪毙另一半军

队。”①

①这封信是用法文写的。


开初安德烈公爵只是用两只肉眼睛念信,但是后来他念到的内涵不由地越来越使他发生兴趣(尽管他晓得比利宾的话只有几分可信)。他读到此处,把信揉皱,扔开了。使他生气的不是他在信中念到的内容,而是他觉得陌生的当地的生活可能会使他焦虑不安。他闭上眼睛,用手揩了揩额头,仿佛在驱散他对他念到的内容的任何兴趣,他倾听儿童室里发生的什么事情。忽然他仿佛觉得门后有什么奇怪的声音。他觉得非常害怕,他害怕当他念信的时候,婴孩发生了什么事情。他踮起脚尖,走到儿童室门前,把门打开了。

当他走进来的时候,他望见保姆带着惶恐的神态藏着什么不让他瞧见,公爵小姐玛丽亚已经不在小床旁边了。

“我的亲人,”他仿佛觉得从后面传来公爵小姐玛利亚绝望的耳语声。这是在长期失眠和心绪不安之后常有的现象,他感到一种无缘无故的恐惧向他袭来,他忽然想到,这婴孩死了。他觉得好像他的所见所闻证实了他的恐惧是有缘由的。

“一切都完了。”他想了想,他那额角上冒出了一阵冷汗。他张皇失措地走到小床前,心里相信,他将会发现那是一张空床,保姆把死去了的婴孩藏起来了。他打开帘子,他那惊恐的散光眼睛很久都没有找到孩子。他终于看见他了,红脸蛋的男孩四仰八叉地横卧在小床上,他把头低低地放在枕头下面,在梦中吧嗒有声,逐一地掀动嘴唇,均匀地呼吸。

安德烈公爵看见了男孩,非常快活,他还觉得他好像失去了他似的。正像他妹妹教他那样,他俯下身去,用嘴唇试试婴孩是不是还在发烧。细嫩的额角是湿润的,他用手摸了一下头,连头发也是湿的,这孩子冒出一身大汗了。他不仅没有死,而且很明显,疾病的极期过去了,他在复原了。安德烈公爵很想把这个无能为力的小生物抱起来,揉一揉,紧紧地偎在自己怀里,但是他不敢这样做。他在他身前站着,注视他的头和在被子底下显露出轮廓的小手和小脚。从他旁边传来沙沙的响声,他觉得小床的帐子下面露出了一个影子。他没有环顾四周,只是看着婴孩的面孔,仍然倾听他的均匀的呼吸。那个黑影是公爵小姐玛丽亚,她悄悄地走到小床前,撩起帐子,又随手把它放下来。安德烈公爵没有回头看看,就知道是她,于是向她伸出手来。她紧紧握住他的手。

“他出汗了。”安德烈公爵说。

“我到你身边来,就是要向你说出这句话的。”

婴孩在梦中稍微动了一动,流露出笑容,用额头擦了一下枕头。

安德烈公爵看了看妹妹。公爵小姐玛丽亚那双闪闪发光的眼睛噙满着幸福的眼泪,在光线暗淡的帐子里面显得异常明亮了。公爵小姐玛丽亚向哥哥探过身子,吻了吻他,略微碰了一下小床的帐子。他们互相威吓了一下,在光线暗淡的帐子里面站了一阵子,好像不愿意离开这个小世界,他们三个人在这里仿佛与整个世界隔绝了。安德烈公爵的头发碰着细纱帐子,给弄得蓬乱不堪,头一个从床边走开,“是的,这是现在留给我的唯一的东西。”他叹一口气说。



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