IN THE GUARD-ROOM to which Pierre had been taken, the officer and soldiers in charge treated him with hostility, but at the same time with respect. Their attitude to him betrayed both doubt who he might be—perhaps a person of great importance—and hostility, in consequence of the personal conflict they had so recently had with him.

But when on the morning of the next day the guard was relieved, Pierre felt that for his new guard—both officers and soldiers—he was no longer an object of the same interest as he had been to those who had taken him prisoner. And, indeed, in the big, stout man in a peasant's coat, the sentinels in charge next day saw nothing of the vigorous person who had fought so desperately with the pillaging soldier and the convoy, and had uttered that solemn phrase about saving a child; they saw in him only number seventeen of the Russian prisoners who were to be detained for some reason by order of the higher authorities. If there were anything peculiar about Pierre, it lay only in his undaunted air of concentrated thought, and in the excellent French in which, to the surprise of the French, he expressed himself. In spite of that, Pierre was put that day with the other suspicious characters who had been apprehended, since the room he had occupied was wanted for an officer.

All the Russians detained with Pierre were persons of the lowest class. And all of them, recognising Pierre as a gentleman, held aloof from him all the more for his speaking French. Pierre mournfully heard their jeers at his expense.

On the following evening, Pierre learned that all the prisoners (and himself probably in the number) were to be tried for incendiarism. The day after, Pierre was taken with the rest to a house where were sitting a French general with white moustaches, two colonels, and other Frenchmen with scarfs on their shoulders. With that peculiar exactitude and definiteness, which is always employed in the examination of prisoners and is supposed to preclude all human weaknesses, they put questions to Pierre and the others, asking who he was, where he had been, with what object, and so on.

These questions, leaving on one side the essence of the living fact, and excluding all possibility of that essence being discovered, like all questions, indeed, in legal examinations, aimed only at directing the channel along which the examining officials desired the prisoner's answers to flow, so as to lead him to the goal of the inquiry—that is, to conviction. So soon as he began to say anything that was not conducive to this aim, then they pulled up the channel, and the water might flow where it would. Moreover, Pierre felt, as the accused always do feel at all trials, a puzzled wonder why all these questions were asked him. He had a feeling that it was only out of condescension, out of a sort of civility, that this trick of directing the channel of their replies was made use of. He knew he was in the power of these men, that it was only by superior force that he had been brought here, that it was only superior force that gave them the right to exact answers to their questions, that the whole aim of the proceeding was to convict him. And, therefore, since they had superior force, and they had the desire to convict him, there seemed no need of the network of questions and the trial. It was obvious that all the questions were bound to lead up to his conviction. To the inquiry what he was doing when he was apprehended, Pierre replied with a certain tragic dignity that he was carrying back to its parents a child he had “rescued from the flames.” Why was he fighting with the soldiers? Pierre replied that he was defending a woman, that the defence of an insulted woman was the duty of every man, and so on … He was pulled up; this was irrelevant. With what object had he been in the courtyard of a burning house where he had been seen by several witnesses? He answered that he was going out to see what was going on in Moscow. He was pulled up again. He had not been asked, he was told, where he was going, but with what object he was near the fire. Who was he? The first question was repeated, to which he had said he did not want to answer. Again he replied that he could not answer that.

“Write that down, that's bad. Very bad,” the general with the white whiskers and the red, flushed face said to him sternly.

On the fourth day, fire broke out on the Zubovsky rampart.

Pierre was moved with thirteen of the others to a coach-house belonging to a merchant's house on the Crimean Ford. As he passed through the street, Pierre could hardly breathe for the smoke, which seemed hanging over the whole city. Fires could be seen in various directions. Pierre did not at that time grasp what was implied by the burning of Moscow, and he gazed with horror at the fires.

In a coach-house behind a house in the Crimean Ford, Pierre spent another four days, and in the course of those four days he learned, from the conversation of the French soldiers, that all the prisoners in detention here were every day awaiting the decision of their fate by a marshal. Of what marshal, Pierre could not ascertain from the soldiers. For the soldiers, this marshal was evidently the highest and somewhat mysterious symbol of power.

These first days, up to the 8th of September, when the prisoners were brought up for a second examination, were the most painful for Pierre.

在皮埃尔被带去的那间拘留所里，逮捕他的军官和士兵对他怀有敌意，但是又很尊敬他。他们对他的态度令人觉察到他们还有疑虑，因为不知他是谁（会不会是大人物），他们怀有敌意，是因为他们同他的殴斗刚刚过去。

但是，第二天早晨看守换班时，皮埃尔感到，新的卫队——军官和士兵们，已不像逮捕他的人那样对他感兴趣了。的确，从这个穿农夫大褂的大个儿胖子身上，第二天的守卫已看不出那个曾绝望地同抢劫者和押送他的士兵斗殴，并说出拯救孩子的豪言壮语的活生生的人，而只看到一个因某种原因按上级命令逮捕和关押的第十七号俄国人犯的。假如说皮埃尔身上有什么特别之处，那也只是他并不胆怯和专心沉沉思的样子，以及他交谈时操的那一口好得令法国人惊奇的法语。尽管如此，这天把他同其他被怀疑的人关在一起，因为他占的单间给一位军官占用了。

和皮埃尔一道被关押的全部俄国人，都是最低阶层的。他们认出他的老爷身份后，对他会说法语而更疏远他。皮埃尔抑郁地听任他们嘲笑自己。

第二天晚上，皮埃尔得知，这些人（他也可能包括在内）将以纵火罪受审。第三天，皮埃尔同另一些人被带进一座房子，里面坐着一名白胡子的法国将军，两名上校和另几名臂上系绶带的法国人。这些法国人对皮埃尔等人，用自以为可以超脱人类弱点的精确和肯定语气（通常对待被告就是如此），问了：他是谁？到过哪里？有什么目的？诸如此类的问题。

这些问题，像法庭上问的全部问题一样，抛开事情的本质，排除显示其本质的可能性，其目的只是要选成一道沟渠，法官们希望被告的回答顺着这道沟渠流出来，把被告引向预期目标，即是判处他的罪行。每当被告开始讲出不适宜判决目的的话，沟渠就被移开，水就可以随便流到什么地方。皮埃尔更体会到了被告在所有法庭上都体验到的莫名其妙的心情：——这就是对他提出各种问题的目的。他觉得，不过是出于宽容，或者是出于礼貌，才使用虚设的沟渠这种手段。他知道，他处于这些人的权力之下，也只有这种权力把他带到这里来，也只有这种权力赋予他们要求他回答提问的权利，他们开会的唯一目的是给他定罪。那末，既然拥有权力，又有定罪的意图，那就不须要审讯和法庭这种手段了。显而易见，任何回答均可作为招供的罪状。问他被捕时在干什么，他有些悲壮地回答说，他正在把那个qu'ilavaitsauvédesflammes（从火里救出的）孩子交给他的父母。问他为什么同抢劫者斗殴呢？皮埃尔回答，他在保护女人，保护受辱的女人是人人的责任，而且……他被阻止了：这与案情无关。问他为什么到着火的房屋的院子里去呢，这是证人看到的？他回答说他要看看莫斯科发生的事情。他又被打断：没问他到哪里去，而是问为什么在火场附近呆着？又问他是谁？——第一个问题又重复提出来，他曾说他不肯回答。现在他依然回答，说他不想谈这个问题。

“记下来，这不好。很不好。”白胡子将军红着本来就微带红色的脸严厉地说。

第四天，祖博夫斯基要塞起火。

皮埃尔同另外十三人被押送到克里米亚浅滩一家商人的马车房。通过街道时，皮埃尔被似乎笼罩全城的烟闷得透不过气来。四面都在着火。皮埃尔当时还不明白莫斯科被焚烧的意义，只是恐怖地看着各处在燃烧。

在克里米亚浅滩边那座房子的马车棚里，皮埃尔又过了四天，在此期间，从法兵谈话中得知，所有关押的人每天都在等着大元帅随时作出的决定。哪位大元帅，皮埃尔未能从士兵口里听说出来。对士兵说来，大元帅显然是代表最高层的有点神秘的权力。

九月八日前，即被俘者第二次受审那天以前的日子，皮埃尔觉得最难过。