IN APRIL the army was excited by the news of the arrival of the Tsar. Rostov did not succeed in being present at the review the Tsar held at Bartenstein; the Pavlograd hussars were at the advance posts, a long way in front of Bartenstein.
They were bivouacking. Denisov and Rostov were living in a mud hut dug out by the soldiers for them, and roofed with branches and turf. The hut was made after a pattern that had just come into fashion among the soldiers. A trench was dug out an ell and a half in breadth, two ells in depth, and three and a half in length. At one end of the trench steps were scooped out, and these formed the entrance and the approach. The trench itself was the room, and in it the lucky officers, such as the captain, had a plank lying on piles at the further end away from the steps—this was the table. On both sides of the trench the earth had been thrown up, and these mounds made the two beds and the sofa. The roof was so constructed that one could stand upright in the middle, and on the beds it was possible to sit, if one moved up close to the table. Denisov, who always fared luxuriously, because the soldiers of his squadron were fond of him, had a board nailed up in the front part of the roof, and in the board a broken but cemented window pane. When it was very cold, they used to bring red-hot embers from the soldiers' camp-fires in a bent sheet of iron and set them near the steps (in the drawing-room, as Denisov called that part of the hut), and this made it so warm that the officers, of whom there were always a number with Denisov and Rostov, used to sit with nothing but their shirts on.
In April Rostov had been on duty. At eight o'clock in the morning, on coming home after a sleepless night, he sent for hot embers, changed his rain-soaked underclothes, said his prayers, drank some tea, warmed himself, put things tidy in his corner and on the table, and with a wind-beaten, heated face, and with only his shirt on, lay down on his back, folding his hands behind his head. He was engaged in agreeable meditations, reflecting that he would be sure to be promoted for the last reconnoitring expedition, and was expecting Denisov to come in. He wanted to talk to him.
Behind the hut he heard the resounding roar of Denisov, unmistakably irritated. Rostov moved to the window to see to whom he was speaking, and saw the quartermaster, Toptcheenko.
“I told you not to let them stuff themselves with that root—Mary's what do you call it!” Denisov was roaring. “Why, I saw it myself, Lazartchuk was pulling it up in the field.”
“I did give the order, your honour; they won't heed it,” answered the quartermaster.
Rostov lay down again on his bed, and thought contentedly: “Let him see to things now; he's fussing about while I have done my work, and I am lying here—it's splendid!” Through the wall he could hear now some one besides the quartermaster speaking. Lavrushka, Denisov's smart rogue of a valet, was telling him something about some transports, biscuits and oxen, he had seen, while on the look-out for provisions.
Again he heard Denisov's shout from further away, and the words: “Saddle! second platoon!”
“Where are they off to?” thought Rostov.
Five minutes later Denisov came into the hut, clambered with muddy feet on the bed, angrily lighted his pipe, scattered about all his belongings, put on his riding-whip and sword, and was going out of the hut. In reply to Rostov's question, where was he going? he answered angrily and vaguely that he had business to see after.
“God be my judge, then, and our gracious Emperor!” said Denisov, as he went out. Outside the hut Rostov heard the hoofs of several horses splashing through the mud. Rostov did not even trouble himself to find out where Denisov was going. Getting warm through in his corner, he fell asleep, and it was only towards evening that he came out of the hut. Denisov had not yet come back. The weather had cleared; near the next hut two officers were playing quoits, with a laugh sticking big radishes for pegs in the soft muddy earth. Rostov joined them. In the middle of a game the officers saw transport waggons driving up to them, some fifteen hussars on lean horses rode behind them. The transport waggons, escorted by the hussars, drove up to the picket ropes, and a crowd of hussars surrounded them.
“There, look! Denisov was always fretting about it,” said Rostov; “here are provisions come at last.”
“High time, too!” said the officers. “Won't the soldiers be pleased!”
A little behind the hussars rode Denisov, accompanied by two infantry officers, with whom he was in conversation. Rostov went to meet them.
“I warn you, captain,” one of the officers was saying, a thin, little man, visibly wrathful.
“Well, I have told you, I won't give them up,” answered Denisov.
“You will have to answer for it, captain. It's mutiny—carrying off transports from your own army! Our men have had no food for two days.”
“Mine have had nothing for a fortnight,” answered Denisov.
“It's brigandage; you will answer for it, sir!” repeated the infantry officer, raising his voice.
“But why do you keep pestering me? Eh?” roared Denisov, suddenly getting furious. “It's I will have to answer for it, and not you; and you'd better not cry out till you're hurt. Be off!” he shouted at the officers.
“All right!” the little officer responded, not the least intimidated, and not moving away. “It's robbery, so I tell you.…”
“Go to the devil, quick march, while you're safe and sound.” And Denisov moved towards the officer.
“All right, all right,” said the officer threateningly; and he turned his horse and trotted away, swaying in the saddle.
“A dog astride a fence, a dog astride a fence to the life!” Denisov called after him—the bitterest insult a cavalry man can pay an infantry man on horseback; and riding up to Rostov he broke into a guffaw.
“Carried off the transports, carried them off from the infantry by force!” he said. “Why, am I to let the men die of hunger?”
The stores carried off by the hussars had been intended for an infantry regiment, but learning from Lavrushka that the transport was unescorted, Denisov and his hussars had carried off the stores by force. Biscuits were dealt out freely to the soldiers; they even shared them with the other squadrons.
Next day the colonel sent for Denisov, and putting his fingers held apart before his eyes, he said to him: “I look at the matter like this; see, I know nothing, and will take no steps; but I advise you to ride over to the staff, and there, in the commissariat department, to smooth the thing over, and if possible give a receipt for so much stores. If not, and a claim is entered for the infantry regiments, there will be a fuss, and it may end unpleasantly.”
Denisov went straight from the colonel to the staff with a sincere desire to follow his advice.
In the evening he came back to his hut in a condition such as Rostov had never seen his friend in before. Denisov could not speak, and was gasping for breath. When Rostov asked him what was wrong with him, he could only in a faint and husky voice utter incoherent oaths and threats.
Alarmed at Denisov's condition, Rostov suggested he should undress, drink some water, and sent for the doctor.
“Me to be court-martialled for brigandage—oh! some more water!—Let them court-martial me; I will, I always will, beat blackguards, and I'll tell the Emperor.—Ice,” he kept saying.
The regimental doctor said it was necessary to bleed him. A deep saucer of black blood was drawn from Denisov's hairy arm, and only then did he recover himself sufficiently to relate what had happened.
“I got there,” Denisov said. “ ‘Well, where are your chief's quarters?' I asked. They showed me. ‘Will you please to wait?' ‘I have come on business, and I have come over thirty versts, I haven't time to wait; announce me.' Very good; but the over-thief appears; he, too, thought fit to lecture me. ‘This is robbery!' says he. ‘The robber,' said I, ‘is not the man who takes the stores to feed his soldiers, but the man who takes them to fill his pockets.' ‘Will you please to be silent?' Very good. ‘Give a receipt,' says he, ‘to the commissioner, but the affair will be reported at headquarters.' I go before the commissioner. I go in. Sitting at the table … Who? No, think of it!… Who is it that's starving us to death?” roared Denisov, bringing the fist of his lanced arm down so violently that the table almost fell over, and the glasses jumped on it “Telyanin! … ‘What, it's you that's starving us to death?' said I, and I gave him one on the snout, and well it went home, and then another, so … ‘Ah! … you so-and-so …' and I gave him a thrashing. But I did have a bit of fun, though, I can say that,” cried Denisov, his white teeth showing in a smile of malignant glee under his black moustaches. “I should have killed him, if they hadn't pulled me off.”
“But why are you shouting; keep quiet,” said Rostov; “it's bleeding again. Stay, it must be bound up.”
Denisov was bandaged up and put to bed. Next day he waked up calm and in good spirits.
But at midday the adjutant of the regiment came with a grave and gloomy face to the hut shared by Denisov and Rostov, and regretfully showed them a formal communication to Major Denisov from the colonel, in which inquiries were made about the incidents of the previous day. The adjutant informed them that the affair seemed likely to take a very disastrous turn; that a court-martial was to be held; and that, with the strictness now prevailing as regards pillaging and breach of discipline, it would be a lucky chance if it ended in being degraded to the ranks.
The case, as presented by the offended parties, was that Major Denisov, after carrying off the transports, had without any provocation come in a drunken condition to the chief commissioner of the commissariat, had called him a thief, threatened to beat him; and, when he was led out, had rushed into the office, attacked two officials, and sprained the arm of one of them.
In response to further inquiries from Rostov, Denisov said, laughing, that it did seem certainly as though some other fellow had been mixed up in it, but that it was all stuff and nonsense; that he would never dream of being afraid of courts of any sort, and that if the scoundrels dared to pick a quarrel with him, he would give them an answer they wouldn't soon forget.
Denisov spoke in this careless way of the whole affair. But Rostov knew him too well not to detect that in his heart (though he hid it from others) he was afraid of a court-martial, and was worrying over the matter, which was obviously certain to have disastrous consequences. Documents began to come every day, and notices from the court, and Denisov received a summons to put his squadron under the command of the officer next in seniority, and on the first of May to appear before the staff of the division for an investigation into the row in the commissariat office. On the previous day Platov undertook a reconnaissance of the enemy with two regiments of Cossacks and two squadrons of hussars. Denisov, with his usual swaggering gallantry, rode in the front of the line. One of the bullets fired by the French sharpshooters struck him in the fleshy upper part of the leg. Possibly at any other time Denisov would not have left the regiment for so slight a wound, but now he took advantage of it to excuse himself from appearing before the staff, and went into the hospital.
四月份，国君驾临军中的喜讯使部队十分振奋。国君在巴滕施泰因举行阅兵式，罗斯托夫未能出席；保罗格勒兵团驻扎在离前面的巴滕施泰因很远的前哨阵地。
他们在宿营。杰尼索夫和罗斯托夫住在士兵替他们挖掘的土窑里，土窑覆盖有树枝和草皮。土窑是采用当时合乎时尚的方法筑成的：挖出一条沟——一俄尺半宽，二俄尺深，三俄尺半长。沟的一端做成梯蹬，这就是斜坡和台阶，沟本身就是一个房间：幸运者（如同骑兵连连长）的房间里，在那梯蹬对面的另一端，有一块木板搁在几根木桩上，这就是桌子。沿着沟的两边，挖掉一立方俄尺的土，这就是两张床和长沙发。土窑窑顶要做得那样高，人在土窑中可以站起来，如果把身子靠近桌子的一端，甚至可以在床上坐起来，杰尼索夫的日子过得挺阔气，因为连里的士兵都喜爱他。窑顶的山墙是一块木板，木板上面嵌有一块破了的、但却被粘起来的玻璃。当天气非常寒冷的时候，人们从士兵的篝火中用弯弯的铁片舀取烧红的炭火放在梯蹬前面（杰尼索夫把土窑的这个部分称为接待室），土窑里变得暖和起来了，杰尼索夫和罗斯托夫身边经常有许多军官，他们都觉得暖和，只要穿一件衬衫坐在那儿就行了。
四月间，罗斯托夫值勤。早晨七点多种，他熬过一个不眠之夜后走回来了，吩咐把烧红的炭火拿来，换下一套被雨淋湿的衣裳，祈祷了上帝，喝足了茶，烤烤火取暖，把他自己的角落和桌上的东西收拾得整整齐齐，之后他就穿着一件衬衫，仰卧下来，把两只手放在脑袋下面，露出一张风吹日晒变得粗糙的脸。他一边愉快地想到，他因最近一次现地侦察有功，将于几天之内晋升官阶，一边等待着不知前往何地的杰尼索夫。罗斯托夫想和他谈谈。
土窑外面可以听见杰尼索夫时断时续的叫喊声，他显然在发脾气，罗斯托夫移动脚步，向窗口走去，看看他和什么人打交道，他看见骑兵连司务长托普琴科。
“我已经命令你不让他们吃甜根，叫什么玛莎甜根啊！”杰尼索夫喊道，“我亲眼看见拉扎丘克从田里把这种甜根抱来了。”
“大人，我下了命令，他们都不听。”骑兵连司务长回答。
罗斯托夫又躺在自己床上，心里高兴地想想：“现在让他来磨蹭，让他来忙合，我干完了我的活，躺在床上——妙极了！”他听见土墙外面除了骑兵连司务长，还有拉夫鲁什卡说话的声音，拉夫鲁什卡是个机灵的、有几分狡猾的听差——杰尼索夫的听差。他不知因为什么正在讲他外出寻找食物时，看见几辆大车、面包干和几头公牛。
土窑外面又传来渐向远处消逝的杰尼索夫的叫喊声和话语声：“备马鞍，第二排！”
“打算到哪里去啊？”罗斯托夫想了想。
隔了五分钟，杰尼索夫走进临时建筑的土窑里，两腿粘满了污泥，但是他仍然爬上床去，愤懑地抽完一袋烟，把他自己的东西向四处乱扔，把马鞭插在腰间，佩戴马刀，便从土窑里走出去了。罗斯托夫发问：“到哪里去了？”他气忿地、含糊其词地回答，说有点事情。
“让上帝和国君审判我吧！”杰尼索夫走出土窑时说，罗斯托夫听见土窑外面有几匹马在烂泥路上走着，发出啪嗒啪嗒的响声。罗斯托夫甚至不想知道杰尼索夫骑马到何处去。他使他自己的角落变得暖和后，便睡熟了，到傍晚以前才起床，走出了土窑。杰尼索夫还没有回来。黄昏时分天放晴。有两个军官和一名士官生在邻近的土窑旁边玩投钉游戏。他们哈哈大笑地把萝卜裁在疏松的泥地里。罗斯托夫也加入他们一伙了。玩到半中间的时候，军官们看见几辆向他们驶来的大车，莫约十五名骠骑兵骑着瘦马尾随于车后。由几名骠骑兵押送的大车驶近了系马桩，一群骠骑兵把几辆大车围起来了。
“你看，杰尼索夫还很悲哀，”罗斯托夫说，“军用食粮还是运来了。”
“果然运到了！”军官们说，“士兵们可真高兴啊！”在骠骑兵后面不太远的地方，杰尼索夫由两名步兵军官陪同，骑着马走过来了，杰尼索夫和他们谈论着什么事情。罗斯托夫向他迎面走来。
“大尉，我要向您提出警告。”一名军官说，这个人身体消瘦，个子矮小，看样子，是很愠怒的。
“要知道我说了，决不交出去。”杰尼索夫回答。
“要由您负责，大尉，这是横行霸道——掠夺自己人的交能工具！我们的人有两天没有吃食物了。”
“而我的人有两个星期没有吃食物了。”杰尼索夫回答。
“阁下，这是抢劫行径，您要负责的！”这个步兵军官提高嗓音重复地说。
“可是您干嘛纠缠着我呢？啊？”杰尼索夫勃然大怒，高声喊道，“是由我，不是由您负责，您不要在这里讨厌地叨叨，还是好好的走开！”他对着那些军官喊道。
“好啦！”那个身材矮小的军官不畏葸，也不走开，大声嚷道：“抢劫，我叫您晓得……”
“你还是好好的，赶快走开，你见鬼去吧。”杰尼索夫于是向那名军官掉转马头。
“好，好，”那名军官用威胁的口吻说，他颠簸着坐在马鞍上，纵马疾速地驰去。
“板墙上的狗，板墙上的活狗。”杰尼索夫朝他身后说出了骑兵嘲笑骑马的步兵的最恶毒的话。他奔驰到罗斯托夫跟前，哈哈大笑起来。
“你从步兵手里夺来了，用武力夺来了运输车！”他说道。
“怎么，大伙儿不会饿死吧？”
那几辆向骠骑兵驶近的大车，是给步兵团用的，杰尼索夫从拉夫鲁什卡处得知运输车单独驶行，于是带领骠骑兵把它夺过来。他们把相当多的面包干分发给士兵，他们甚至与其他连队共享一顿饱餐。
翌日团长已传唤杰尼索夫，团长伸开手指蒙着自己的眼睛，对他说：“我对这件事有这种看法：我什么都不知道，我不着手办理这件事，但是要劝您去司令部走一趟，就在那个军粮管理处办好这件事，假如有可能的话，要签个字，证明收到多少军粮，否则，就得写在步兵团的帐上，会引起诉讼的，结果可能很不利。”
杰尼索夫从团长那里迳直地到司令部去了，真诚地履行团长的忠告。夜晚他回到自己的土窑，罗斯托夫从来没有看见自己的朋友会露出这种神态。杰尼索夫说不出话，喘不上气来。罗斯托夫问他出了什么事，他只用嘶哑而微弱的嗓音破口大骂，说一些恫吓的话。
罗斯托夫被杰尼索夫的狼狈相吓了一跳，便叫他脱下衣裳，喝一点水，然后就着人去延请医生。
“审判我，因为犯有抢劫罪，哎呀！再给我一点儿水。就让他们审判吧。可是我要，永远要揍这些卑鄙家伙，我要向国王禀告。给我一点冰。”他说。
前来治病的兵团的医师说要放血。从杰尼索夫毛茸茸的手臂上放出一深盘黑血，只有在这种场合他才能讲出他所发生的一切情况。
“我到了，”杰尼索夫讲，“喂，你们这里的长官在哪里？”他们指给我看了。稍微等一等，好不好？我有任务，我走到三十俄里以外的地方来，我没有时间等候，你去报告。好，这个贼王走出来了，他也想教训我了：这是抢劫啊！我说，干抢劫勾当的不是拿军粮来维持士兵伙食的人，而是把军粮塞进自己腰包的人！'好，他说，‘您到代理人那里去签个字，不过您的案子要转送上级。'我走到代理人那里。我一进门，在桌旁坐的……究竟是谁呢？你想想！……是谁使我们挨饿，”杰尼索夫大声喊道，握紧他那个病人的拳头在桌上捶了一下，用力过猛，险些儿把桌子捶倒了，桌上的几只茶杯给捶得跳了起来，“捷利亚宁啊！‘怎么，你使我们挨饿吗？'那回子我打了他一下嘴巴，真利落……‘啊，没出息的家伙……'我于是把他推倒，让他滚来滚去！揍得真痛快，可以说，”杰尼索夫大声嚷着，在他那乌黑的胡子下面愉快而凶狠地露出洁白的牙齿。“要不是他人把我拖开，我真会把他揍死的。”
“你为什么总要大声喊叫，安静下来吧，”罗斯托夫说，“你瞧，又出血了。等一等，要重新包扎一下。”
有人给杰尼索夫重新包扎好伤口，让他上床睡觉。第二天醒来，他心地平和，看起来非常高兴。
但在正午的时候，一名团部副官带着严肃而忧愁的面容来到杰尼索夫和罗斯托夫的公共土窑里，十分惋惜地拿出团长给少校杰尼索夫的正式公文，其中说到查问昨天的事件，这名副官通知说，案情必定会急剧地恶化，目前已经成立军事法庭，对军队抢劫与肆虐行为实行严厉制裁，遇机运时，亦应遭受降级处分，才能了结这个案子。
从受委屈者方面看来，案子是这样的：杰尼索夫少校抢走运输车之后，酩酊大醉，未经传唤贸然去见军粮管理委员会主席，谩骂他是窃贼，且以斗殴相威胁，有人把他拖出去了，他就闯进办公厅，痛殴两名官吏，把其中一人的手弄脱臼了。
在回答罗斯托夫一再提出的各种问题时，杰尼索夫笑着说，仿佛有个人给扭伤了，不过这全是无稽之谈，是废话，他根本不会想到害怕什么法庭，如果这些卑鄙家伙胆敢动他一根汗毛，他就要报复，让他们永远记得他的厉害。
杰尼索夫虽然轻蔑地谈起这件案子，但是罗斯托夫知之甚稔，不会发觉不出他内心害怕法庭，并且为其后果显然不利的案子而遭受折磨，不过他瞒着不让他人知道罢了。每日均有调查公文和传票送来，五月一号，首长命令杰尼索夫将骑兵连移交给比他低一级的军官，然后到师司令部去说明他在军粮管理委员会的肆虐行为。前一天，普拉托夫率领两个哥萨克兵团和两个骠骑兵连对敌军作了一次现地侦察。像平时一样，杰尼索夫疾驰于散兵线之前，藉以炫耀自己的英勇果断。法国步兵发射的一颗子弹打中了他的大腿。也许在别的时候，杰尼索夫负了这一点轻伤，不会离开兵团，可是现在他借此机会不到师部去，而进了野战医院。
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