《War And Peace》　Book9 　CHAPTER XXII
　　　　by Leo Tolstoy

ON THE MORNING of the 15th, the next day but one, a great number of carriages
stood outside the Slobodsky palace.

The great halls were full. In the first were the noblemen in their uniforms;
in the second there were merchants with medals and long beards, wearing blue,
full-skirted coats. The first room was full of noise and movement. The more
important personages were sitting on high-backed chairs at a big table under the
Tsar's portrait; but the greater number of the noblemen were walking about the
hall.

The noblemen, whom Pierre saw every day either at the club or at their
houses, were all in uniforms; some in those of Catherine's court, some in those
of the Emperor Pavel, and some in the new uniforms of Alexander's reign, others
in the common uniforms of the nobility, and the general character of their dress
gave a strange and fantastic look to these old and young, most diverse and
familiar faces. Particularly striking were the older men, dim-eyed, toothless,
bald, and thin, with faces wrinkled or lost in yellow fat. They sat still for
the most part and were silent, or if they walked and talked, attached themselves
to some one younger. Just like the faces Petya had seen in the crowd, all these
faces, in their universal expectation of something solemn, presented a striking
contrast with their everyday, yesterday's aspect, when talking over their game
of boston, Petrushka the cook, the health of Zinaida Dmitryevna, etc.,
etc.

Pierre, who had been since early morning in an uncomfortable uniform, that
had become too tight for him, was in the room. He was in a state of excitement;
this extraordinary assembly, not only of the nobility, but of the merchant class
too-the estates, états généraux-called up in him a whole series of ideas
of the Contrat Social and the French Revolution, ideas imprinted deeply
on his soul, though they had long been laid aside. The words he had noticed in
the manifesto, that the Tsar was coming to the capital for deliberation
with his people, confirmed him in this chain of thought. And supposing that
something of importance in that direction was near at hand, that what he had
long been looking for was coming, he looked and listened attentively, but he saw
nowhere any expression of the ideas that engrossed him.

The Tsar's manifesto was read, and evoked enthusiasm; and then all moved
about, talking. Apart from their everyday interests, Pierre heard discussion as
to where the marshals were to stand when the Tsar should come in, when the ball
was to be given for the Tsar, whether they were to be divided according to
districts or the whole province together... and so on. But as soon as the war and
the whole object of their meeting together was touched upon, the talk was
uncertain and hesitating. Every one seemed to prefer listening to
speaking.

A manly-looking, handsome, middle-aged man, wearing the uniform of a retired
naval officer, was speaking, and a little crowd was gathered about him in one of
the rooms. Pierre went up to the circle that had formed round him, and began to
listen. Count Ilya Andreitch, in his uniform of Catherine's time, was walking
about with a pleasant smile among the crowd, with all of whom he was acquainted.
He too approached this group, and began to listen with a good-humoured smile, as
he always did listen, nodding his head approvingly in token of his agreeing with
the speaker. The retired naval officer was speaking very boldly (that could be
seen from the expression on the faces of the listeners and from the fact that
some persons, known to Pierre as particularly submissive and timid, drew back
from him in disapprobation or expressed dissent). Pierre pushed his way into the
middle of the circle, listened, and gained the conviction that the speaker
certainly was a liberal, but in quite a different sense from what Pierre was
looking for. The naval officer spoke in the peculiarlymellow, sing-song
baritone of a Russian nobleman, with peculiar burring of the r's and
suppression of the consonants, in the voice in which men shout: "Waiter, pipe!"
and such phrases. He talked with the habit of riotous living and of authority in
his voice.

"What if the Smolensk people have offered the Emperor a levy of militia. Are
the Smolensk people any rule for us? If the nobility of the Moscow province
thinks fit, it can show its devotion to our sovereign the Emperor by other
means. Have we forgotten the militia in the year 1807? It was only the beggarly
priests' sons and thieves made a good thing of it...."

Count Ilya Andreitch, smiling blandly, nodded his head in approval.

"And were our militiamen of any service to the state? Not the slightest! They
only ruined our agriculture. Even conscription is better.... As it is, a man comes
back to you neither soldier nor peasant, nothing, but only demoralised. The
nobility don't grudge their lives. We will go ourselves to a man; take recruits,
too; and the Tsar has but to say the word, and we will all die for him," added
the orator, warming up.

Ilya Andreitch's mouth was watering with satisfaction, and he nudged Pierre,
but Pierre wanted to speak too. He moved forward, feeling stirred, though he did
not yet know why nor what he would say. He was just opening his mouth to speak
when he was interrupted by a perfectly toothless senator with a shrewd and
wrathful face, who was standing close by the last orator. Evidently accustomed
to lead debates and bring forward motions, he began speaking in a low but
audible voice:

"I imagine, my dear sir," said the senator, mumbling with his toothless
mouth, "that we are summoned here not to discuss which is more suitable for the
country at the present moment-conscription or the militia. We are summoned to
reply to the appeal which our sovereign the Emperor graciously deigns to make to
us. And to judge which is the fitter means-recruiting or a levy for militia-we
leave to a higher power...."

Pierre suddenly found the right outlet for his excitement. He felt
exasperated with the senator, who introduced this conventional and narrow view
of the duties that lay before the nobility. Pierre stepped forward and cut him
short. He did not know himself what he was going to say, but he began eagerly,
using bookish Russian, and occasionally relapsing into French.

"Excuse me, your excellency," he began (Pierre was well acquainted with this
senator, but he felt it necessary on this occasion to address him formally),
"though I differ from the gentleman..." (Pierre hesitated; he would have liked to
say Mon très honorable préopinante) "with the gentleman...whom I have not
the honour of knowing; but I imagine the estate of the nobility, apart from the
expression of its sympathy and enthusiasm, has been convoked also to deliberate
upon the measures by which we can assist our country. I imagine," said Pierre,
growing warmer, "that the Tsar would himself be displeased if he should find in
us only the owners of peasants, whom we give up to him, and chair à
canon, which we offer in ourselves-and should not find in us co...co
...counsel...."

Many persons moved a little away from the circle, noticing the disdainful
smile of the senator and the freedom of Pierre's words. Ilya Andreitch was the
only person pleased at what Pierre said, just as he had been pleased with the
naval officer's speech and the senator's, as he always was with the last speech
he had heard.

"I consider that before discussing these questions," Pierre continued, "we
ought to ask the Emperor, most respectfully to ask his majesty, to communicate
to us what forces we have, what is the position of our men and our army, and
then..."

Pierre had hardly uttered these words when he was promptly attacked on three
sides at once. The most violent onslaught was made upon him by an old
acquaintance and partner at boston, who had always been on the friendliest terms
with him, Stepan Stepanovitch Adraksin. Stepan Stepanovitch was, of course, in
uniform, and whether it was due to the uniform or to other causes, Pierre saw
before him quite a changed man. Stepan Stepanovitch, with an old man's anger in
his face, screamed at Pierre:

"In the first place, let me tell you that we have no right to ask such
questions of the Emperor; and secondly, if the nobility had any such right, the
Emperor could not answer such questions. The movements of the troops depend on
the movements of the enemy; the troops are augmented and decreased..."

Another voice interrupted Adraksin. The speaker was a man of forty, of medium
height, whom Pierre had seen in former days at the gypsies' entertainments, and
knew as a bad card-player. But now he, too, was quite transformed by his
uniform, as he moved up to Pierre.

"Yes, and it's not the time for deliberation," said this nobleman.

"What's needed is action; there is war in Russia. Our foe comes to ruin
Russia, to desecrate the tombs of our fathers, to carry away our wives and
children." The gentleman struck himself a blow on the chest. "We will all rise
up; we will all go to a man, we will follow our father the Tsar!" he cried,
rolling his bloodshot eyes. Several approving voices could be heard in the
crowd. "We are Russians and we do not grudge our blood for the defence of our
faith, our throne, and our country. But we must put a stop to idle talk, if we
are true sons of our fatherland. We will show Europe how Russia can defend
Russia!" shouted this gentleman.

Pierre tried to reply, but he could not get in a word. He felt that the sound
of his words, apart from any meaning they conveyed, was less audible than the
sound of his excited adversary's voice.

In the rear of the group, Ilya Andreitch was nodding approval; several of the
audience turned their shoulders briskly to the orator at the conclusion of a
phrase and said:

"That's so, that's so, indeed!"

Pierre wanted to say that he was by no means averse to the sacrifice of his
money, or his peasants, or himself, but that one ought to know the true position
of affairs, in order to be able to assist, but he could not speak.

A number of voices were speaking and shouting together, so much so that Ilya
Andreitch had not time to nod approval to all of them. And the group grew larger
and broke up into knots, re-formed again, and moved all together with a hum of
talk to the big table in the big room. Pierre was not allowed to speak; they
rudely interrupted him, indeed hustled him and turned their backs on him as
though he were the common foe. This was not really due to their dislike of the
tenor of his speech, which they had forgotten, indeed, after the great number of
speeches that followed it. But a crowd is always pleased to have a concrete
object for its love or its hatred. Pierre furnished it with the latter.

Many orators spoke after the eager nobleman, but all spoke in the same tone.
Some spoke eloquently and originally.

The editor of the Russian Messenger, Glinka, who was recognised and
greeted with shouts of "the author, the author!" said that hell must be driven
back by hell, that he had seen a child smiling at the lightning flash and the
thunder clap, but we would not be like that child.

"Yes, yes, at the thunder clap!" was repeated with approval at the back of
the crowd.

The crowd approached the great table, where grey or bald old noblemen of
seventy were sitting, wearing uniforms and decorations. Almost all of them
Pierre had seen with their buffoons in their own homes or playing boston at the
club. The crowd drew near the table, still with the same buzz of talk. The
orators, squeezed in behind the high chair backs by the surging crowd, spoke one
after another and sometimes two at once. Those who stood further back noticed
what the speaker had left unsaid and hastened to supply the gap. Others were
busy in the heat and crush, ransacking their brains to find some idea and
hurriedly uttering it. The old grandees at the table sat looking from one to
another, and their expression for the most part betrayed nothing but that they
were very hot. Pierre however felt excited, and the general feeling of desire to
show that they were ready for anything, expressed for the most part more in
tones and looks than in the tenor of the speeches, infected him too. He did not
disavow his ideas, but felt somehow in fault and tried to defend himself.

"I only said that we could make sacrifices to better purpose when we know
what is needed," he cried, trying to shout down the other voices.

One old man close by him looked round, but his attention was immediately
called off by a shout at the other end of the table.

"Yes, Moscow will be surrendered! She will be the expiation!" one man was
shouting.

"He is the enemy of mankind!" another shouted.

"Allow me to say..."

"Gentlemen, you are crushing me!..."