Book 10 Chapter 14

“WELL, is she pretty? But, my boy, my pink girl's charming; her name is Dunyasha.” … But glancing into Rostov's face, Ilyin paused. He saw his hero and superior officer was absorbed in a very different train of thought.

Rostov looked angrily at Ilyin, and without replying, strode off rapidly to the village.

“I'll teach them; I'll pay them out; the scoundrels,” he muttered to himself.

Alpatitch followed Rostov at a quick trot, which he could only just keep from breaking into a run.

“What decision has your honour come to?” he said, overtaking him. Rostov stopped short, and clenching his fists moved suddenly up to Alpatitch with a menacing gesture.

“Decision? What decision, old shuffler?” he shouted. “What have you been thinking about? Eh? The peasants are unruly and you don't know how to manage them? You're a traitor yourself. I know you. I'll flog the skin off the lot of you …” And, as though afraid of wasting the energy of his anger, he left Alpatitch and went quickly ahead. Alpatitch, swallowing his wounded feelings, hurried with a swaying step after Rostov, still giving him the benefit of his reflections on the subject. He said that the peasants were in a very stubborn state, that at the moment it was imprudent to oppositionise them, without an armed force, and would it not be better first to send for armed force.

“I'll give them armed force. … I'll oppositionise them …” Nikolay muttered meaninglessly, choking with irrational animal rage and desire to vent that rage on some one. Without considering what he was going to do, unconsciously, he moved with a rapid, resolute step up to the crowd. And the nearer he approached, the more Alpatitch felt that his imprudent action might produce the happiest results. The peasants in the crowd were feeling the same thing as they watched his firm and rapid step and determined, frowning face.

After the hussars had entered the village and Rostov had gone in to see the princess, a certain hesitation and division of opinion had become apparent in the crowd. Some of the peasants began to say that the horsemen were Russians, and it might be expected they would take it amiss that they had not let their young lady go. Dron was of that opinion; but as soon as he expressed it, Karp and others fell upon him.

“How many years have you been fattening on the village?” shouted Karp. “It's all one to you! You'll dig up your pot of money and make off with it. What is it to you if our homes are ruined or not?”

“We were told everything was to be in order and no one to leave their homes, and not a thing to be moved away—and that's all about it!” shouted another.

“It was your son's turn; but you spared your fat youngster,” a little old man suddenly burst out, pouncing upon Dron, “and sent my Vanka to be shaved for a soldier. Ugh, and yet we all have to die!”

“To be sure, we all have to die!”

“I'm not one to go against the mir,” said Dron.

“Not one to go against it, you have grown fat off it.” …

Two lanky peasants said their say. As soon as Rostov, accompanied by Ilyin, Lavrushka, and Alpatitch approached the crowd, Karp, thrusting his fingers into his sash, walked forward with a slight smile. Dron, on the contrary, retreated to the back, and the crowd huddled closer together.

“Hey! who is elder among you here?” shouted Rostov, walking quickly up to the crowd.

“The elder? What do you want him for? …” asked Karp. But he hardly had time to get the words out when his hat sent flying off his head, and he was sent reeling from a violent blow on the head.

“Caps off, traitors!” shouted Rostov's full-blooded voice. “Where is the elder?” he roared furiously.

“The elder, the elder's wanted. Dron Zaharitch, he calls you,” voices were heard saying, hurriedly subservient, and caps were taken off.

“We can't be said to be unruly; we're following the orders,” declared Karp. And several voices at the back began at the same instant:

“It's as the elders settle; there are too many of you giving orders …”

“Talking? … Mutiny! … Scoundrels! Traitors!” Rostov shouted, without thinking, in a voice unlike his own, as he seized Karp by the collar. “Bind him, bind him!” he shouted, though there was no one to bind him but Lavrushka and Alpatitch.

Lavrushka, however, ran up to Karp and seized his arms from behind.

“Shall I call our fellows from below the hill, your honour?” he shouted.

Alpatitch turned to the peasants, calling upon two of them by name to bind Karp. The peasants obediently stepped out of the crowd and began undoing their belts.

“Where's the village elder?” shouted Rostov.

Dron with a pale and frowning face, stepped out of the crowd.

“Are you the elder? Bind him, Lavrushka,” shouted Rostov, as though the order could meet with no sort of opposition. And in fact two peasants did begin binding Dron, who took off his sash, and gave it them as though to assist in the operation.

“And all of you, listen to me,” Rostov turned to the peasants. “March straight to your homes this minute, and don't let me hear your voices again.”

“Why, we haven't done any harm. It was all, do you see, through foolishness. Only a bit of nonsense … I always said that it wasn't the right thing,” said voices, blaming one another.

“Didn't I tell you?” said Alpatitch, resuming his rightful position. “You've done wrong, lads.”

“It was our foolishness, Yakov Alpatitch,” answered voices, and the crowd at once began to break up and to disperse about the village.

The two peasants who were bound they took to the manor-house. The two drunken peasants followed them.

“Ay, now look at you!” said one of them, addressing Karp.

“Do you suppose you can talk to the gentry like that? What were you thinking about? You are a fool,” put in the other; “a regular fool.”

Within two hours the horses and carts required were standing in the courtyard of the Bogutcharovo house. The peasants were eagerly hurrying out and packing in the carts their owners' goods; and Dron, who had at Princess Marya's desire, been released from the lumber-room, where they had shut him up, was standing in the yard, giving directions to the men.

“Don't pack it so carelessly,” said one of the peasants, a tall man with a round, smiling face, taking a casket out of a housemaid's hands. “It's worth money too, you may be sure. Why, if you fling it down like that or put it under the cord, it will get scratched. I don't like to see things done so. Let everything be done honestly, according to rule, I say. There, like this, under the matting, and cover it up with hay; there, that's first-rate.”

“Mercy on us, the books, the books,” said another peasant, bringing out Prince Andrey's bookshelves. “Mind you don't stumble! Ay, but it's heavy, lads; the books are stout and solid!”

“Yes, they must have worked hard to write them!” said a tall, round-faced peasant pointing with a significant wink to a lexicon lying uppermost.

Rostov, not wishing to force his acquaintance on the princess, did not go back to the house, but remained at the village waiting for her to drive out. When Princess Marya's carriage drove out from the house, Rostov mounted his horse and escorted her as far as the road occupied by our troops, twelve versts from Bogutcharovo. At the inn at Yankovo he parted from her respectfully, for the first time permitting himself to kiss her hand.

“How can you speak of it!” he said, blushing in response to Princess Marya's expression of gratitude to him for saving her, as she called it. “Any police officer would have done as much. If we only had to wage war with peasants, we would not have let the enemy advance so far,” he said, trying with a sort of bashfulness to change the conversation. “I am only happy to have had the opportunity of making your acquaintance. Good-bye, princess. I trust you may find happiness and consolation, and I hope I may meet you again in happier circumstances. If you don't want to make me blush, please don't thank me.”

But if the princess thanked him no more in words, she thanked him with the whole expression of her face, which was radiant with gratitude and warmth. She could not believe that she had no cause to thank him. On the contrary, to her mind it was an incontestable fact that had it not been for him, she must inevitably have fallen a victim to the rebellious peasants or the French; that he, to save her, had exposed himself to obvious and fearful danger; and even more certain was the fact that he was a man of noble and lofty soul, able to sympathise with her position and her grief. His kindly and honest eyes, with tears starting to them at the moment when weeping herself she had spoken of her loss, haunted her imagination. When she had said good-bye to him and was left alone, Princess Marya suddenly felt tears in her eyes, and then—not for the first time—the question occurred to her: “Was she in love with him?” On the rest of the way to Moscow, though the princess's position was by no means a joyful one, Dunyasha, who was in the carriage with her, noticed that her mistress's face wore a vaguely happy and pensive smile, as she looked out of the window.

“Well, what if I have fallen in love with him?” Though she was ashamed at acknowledging to herself that she had fallen in love with a man who would perhaps never care for her, she comforted herself with the reflection that no one would ever know it, and she was not to blame, if she loved in secret for the first and last time and for her whole life long.

Sometimes she recalled his looks, his sympathy, his words, and happiness seemed to her not quite impossible. And then it was that Dunyasha noticed that she looked out of the window smiling.

“And to think that he should come to Bogutcharovo and at that very moment!” thought Princess Marya. “And that his sister should have refused Andrey!” And in all that, Princess Marya saw the hand of Providence.

The impression made on Rostov by Princess Marya was a very agreeable one. When he thought of her, he felt pleased. And when his comrades, hearing of his adventure at Bogutcharovo, rallied him on having gone to look for hay, and having picked up one of the greatest heiresses in Russia, it made him angry. He was angry just because the idea of marrying the gentle, and, to his mind, charming Princess Marya with her enormous fortune had more than once, against his own will, occurred to his mind. As far as he personally was concerned, Nikolay could have asked nothing better than to have Princess Marya for his wife. To marry her would make the countess, his mother, happy, and would repair his father's broken fortunes. And it would even—Nikolay felt it—make the happiness of the princess herself.

But Sonya? And his promise? And that was why it made Rostov angry to be rallied about the Princess Bolkonsky.

“怎么样，可爱吗？不，老弟，我的那个穿粉红衣裳的女郎才迷人呢，她叫杜尼亚莎……”可是伊林一瞧罗斯托夫的脸色，就不吭声了。他看见他心中的英雄——连长完全怀着另一番心思。

罗斯托夫凶狠狠地瞪了伊林一眼，没有答理他，就快步流星地向村子走去。

“我给他们个厉害瞧瞧，非收拾他们不可，这群土匪！”他自言自语地说。

阿尔帕特奇尽力做到不跑，只迈着急速的步子紧赶，勉强追上罗斯托夫。

“请问作了什么决定？”他追上后，问道。

罗斯托夫停下脚步，握紧拳头，忽然神色严厉地向阿尔帕特奇迈了一步。

“决定？什么决定？你这个老东西！”他呵斥道。“你怎么管的家？啊？农民造反，你就管不了？你自己就是叛徒。我清楚你们这些人。我要剥掉你们的皮……”他仿佛怕他那满腔怒火被白白浪费掉，扔下阿尔帕特奇，快步向前走去。阿尔帕特奇克制住受辱的感情，迈开滑行的步子，紧紧追赶罗斯托夫，不断向他提出自己的想法。他说，农民非常顽固，在目前，没有武装队伍，跟他们斗是不明智的，先派人去把军队叫来，这样是不是会好些。

“把军队叫来收拾他们……我要斗倒他们较量！”尼古拉一边不知所云地说着（这种没有理智的兽性愤怒和要发泄愤怒的欲望，压得他喘不过气来，他并不考虑应当怎么办）一边不自觉地迈着急促、坚定的步子向人群走去。他越走近人群，阿尔帕特奇就越觉得，他这种不明智的行动可能产生良好的效果。那群农民一见他那急促而坚定的步子和拧紧的眉头的面部表情，也有同样的感觉。

在这几个骠骑兵刚进村，罗斯托夫去见公爵小姐之后，人群中发生了混乱和争吵。有些农民说，来的是俄国人，可能怪罪他们扣留小姐。德龙也这么认为，但当他刚一有所表示时卡尔普和另外一些农民就开始攻击这位已经辞职的村长。

“你在公社横行霸道有多少年了？”卡尔普斥责他，“你当然不在乎啦！你挖出钱罐子，带走了事，我们的家毁不毁掉，与你都不相干，是吗？”

“有命令，要维持秩序，任何人不准离开家，什么都不准运走，就是这样！”另一个叫道。

“轮到你儿子去当壮丁了，你准是舍不得你那宝贝疙瘩。”忽然一个小老头开始攻击德龙，他说得很快，“拿我家万卡去剃头①。唉，我们只有死的份儿了！”

①当时俄国新兵入伍时要剃头。

“可不是，我们只有死的份儿！”

“我和公社并不是对立的，”德龙说。

“当然罗，你已经填满肚皮了！……”

那两个高个农民也说了自己的意见。罗斯托夫带着伊林、拉夫鲁什卡和阿尔帕特奇刚来到人群跟前，卡尔普就走出来，露出一丝轻笑，把手指插进宽腰带里。德龙却相反，他躲到后排去了，人群更紧地挤在一起。

“喂，你们这儿谁是村长？”罗斯托夫快步走到人群前，喊道。

“村长吗？您找他干什么？……”卡尔普问。

可是没等他把活说完，他的帽子就从头上飞走了。他挨了重重的一掌，脑袋向一旁歪了一下。

“脱帽，叛徒！”罗斯托夫厉声命令道，“村长在哪儿？”他狂怒地喊起来。

“村长，叫村长呢……德龙·扎哈雷奇，叫您呢。”人群中传出急促顺从的声音，帽子都从头上脱了下来。

“我们决不造反，我们是守规矩的。”卡尔普说，同时，后面有几个人突然一齐说：

“是老人们决定的，当官的太多了……”

“还犟嘴？……造反？……强盗！叛徒！”罗斯托夫嚎叫着，说出一些毫无意义的话，嗓音都变了。他抓住卡尔普的脖领，“捆起来，把他捆起来！”他喊道，虽然那儿除了拉夫鲁什卡和阿尔帕特奇，没有可以捆他的人。

最后还是拉夫鲁什卡跑过去，反剪起卡尔普的两只胳膊。

“是不是要把我们那边山下的人叫来？”他喊道。

阿尔帕特奇喊出两个农民的名字，叫他们来捆卡尔普，那两个农民顺从地从人群中走出来并解下腰带。

“村长在哪儿？”罗斯托夫又喊道。

德龙蹙起眉头，脸色苍白，从人群中走出来。

“你是村长吗？捆起来，拉夫鲁什卡！”罗斯托夫喊道，好像这道命令也不会遇到什么障碍似的。果然，又有两个农民出来捆德龙，德龙好像帮他们似的，把自己的腰带解下来递给他们。

“你们大家都听着，”罗斯托夫对那些农民说，“你们马上都统统回家，别让我再听到你们的声音。”

“怎么？我们并没有什么得罪人的，我们只不过一时糊涂。只是瞎闹了一场……我就说嘛，是太乱了。”可以听见农民们互相责备的声音。

“我不是对你们说了吗？”阿尔帕特奇说，他开始行使他的权力了。“这样不好，孩子气的人！”

“都怪我们糊涂，雅科夫·阿尔帕特奇。”一些人回答，人们立刻在村子里四散了。

两个绑着的农民被带到了主人的宅院。那两个喝醉酒的农民尾随着他们。

“嘿，我倒要看看你！”其中一个对卡尔普说。

“怎么能这样跟老爷们讲话呀？你想到哪儿去了？”

“笨蛋，”另一个附和说，“真是个大笨蛋！”

两小时后，几辆大车停在博古恰罗沃住宅的庭院。农民们起劲地搬出主人的东西装到车上，关在大柜子里的德龙，按照玛丽亚公爵小姐的意思被释放出来，他站在院子里指挥农民们。

“你那样放，不对。”一个总是笑嘻嘻的高个子圆脸农民，从女仆手中抢过一只小箱笼，说道。“要知道，这也值钱呀，你干吗乱扔？干吗要捆上绳子——它会磨坏的。我不喜欢这样。做什么都要认真仔细，都要有个定规。这就应当用席子这样包上，盖上干草。这一点很重要！”

“哦，这是书，书，”另一个搬出安德烈公爵的书橱的农民说。“你当心别绊着！老沉老沉的伙伴们，书真多啊！”

“是啊，老在写，也不休息休息！”那个高个子圆脸农民指着放在顶上的厚厚的辞典，意味深长地使了个眼色说道。

罗斯托夫不愿死气白赖地去结交公爵小姐，没去见她，在村子里等她出来。等到玛丽亚公爵小姐的车辆从宅院里出来时，罗斯托夫骑上马，一直把她送到离博古恰罗沃十二俄里驻扎我军的路上。在扬科沃客店里，他恭恭敬敬地和她告别，第一次吻了吻她的手。

“看您说的，”当玛丽亚公爵小姐感谢他搭救她（她说他的行为是搭救）的时候，他红着脸回答，“任何一个警察局长都办得到的事。如果我们打仗的对手是农民的话，我们就不会让敌人深入这么远了。”不知是什么缘故他有点害羞，极力要改变一下话题。“这次有机缘同您结识，是我的荣幸。再见，公爵小姐，祝您幸福并得到慰藉，希望下次在比较欢愉的环境中和您相会。如果您不愿使我脸红的话，请不要再说感谢的话。”

但是，如果说她不再用言词来感谢他的话，她已经用她那由于感激和柔情而容光焕发的脸上的全部表情来感谢他了。她不能相信他不应当受到感谢。相反，她认为毫无异议，如果没有他的话，她准毁在暴徒和法国人手里；他为了搭救她，甘冒最明显的最可怕的危险，他是一个具有崇高灵魂、高贵气度的人，善于理解她的处境和不幸，这一点也是毫无疑义的。他那善良、正直的眼睛，在她诉说自己不幸的遭遇而哭泣的时候，他那双涌出泪水的眼睛，总在她的脑际萦回。

当玛丽亚公爵小姐和他告别，只剩下她一人时，她含着眼泪思忖——不是头一回才想到那个奇怪的问题：她是不是爱上他了？

在此后去莫斯科的途中，虽然公爵小姐的处境并不称心，同她坐一辆车的杜尼亚莎不止一次看见，公爵小姐向车窗外探出身子，不知什么缘故又喜又悲地微笑。

“我就爱上了他，又怎么样？”玛丽亚公爵小姐想着。

无论她怎样羞于承认她的初恋是爱那个可能永远不会爱她的人，但她安慰自己说，永远不会有人知道这件事，如果直到生命的最后一刻也不对任何人提起她第一次也是最后一次爱上一个人，她也决不悔恨。

她有时回忆起他的眼神、他的同情、他说的话，她觉得幸福不是不可能的。这个时候，杜尼亚莎看见她正含着微笑望着车窗外。

“正巧他到博古恰罗沃来，而且恰当其时！”玛丽亚公爵小姐想着。“正巧他的妹妹拒绝了安德烈公爵！”①玛丽亚公爵小姐似乎从这一切中看到了神的意旨。

①俄国习俗：小姑子不许和嫂嫂的兄弟结婚。如果安德烈和娜塔莎结婚，玛丽亚就不能嫁给尼古拉·罗斯托夫。

玛丽亚公爵小姐给罗斯托夫的印象是很愉快的。他一想起她，心里就很高兴。当同事们知道他在博古恰罗沃的奇遇，跟他开玩笑，说他找干草，却找到一位全俄国最富有的未婚妻时，罗斯托夫一听就怒形于色。罗斯托夫所以恼火，是因为和他所中意的、拥有巨大财产、性情温和的玛丽亚公爵小姐结婚，这个念头不止一次违反他的意志在他头脑中闪现。对尼古拉个人来说，他不可能娶到一个比玛丽亚公爵小姐更合适的妻子了：和她结婚会使伯爵夫人——他的母亲高兴；会改善他父亲的境况，尼古拉还觉得，这样会使玛丽亚公爵小姐幸福。

但是索尼娅怎么办？曾许下的誓言呢？当人们拿博尔孔斯基公爵小姐跟他开玩笑的时候，也正是这个缘故惹得罗斯托夫生气。