Leo Tolstoy - War and Peace

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October-2010

ISBN : 1-4121-7634-4

"W ell, Prince, soGenoa and Lucca are now just family estates of the Buonapartes. ButI warn you, if you don't tell me that this means war, if you stilltry to defend the infamies and horrors perpetrated by thatAntichrist-I really believe he is Antichrist-I will have nothingmore to do with you and you are no longer my friend, no longer my'faithful slave,' as you call yourself! But how do you do? I see Ihave frightened you-sit down and tell me all the news."

It was in July, 1805, and the speaker was thewell-known Anna Pavlovna Scherer, maid of honor and favorite of theEmpress Marya Fedorovna. With these words she greeted Prince VasiliKuragin, a man of high rank and importance, who was the first toarrive at her reception. Anna Pavlovna had had a cough for somedays. She was, as she said, suffering from la grippe; grippe beingthen a new word in St. Petersburg, used only by the elite.

All her invitations without exception, written inFrench, and delivered by a scarlet-liveried footman that morning,ran as follows:

"If you have nothing better to do, Count [orPrince], and if the prospect of spending an evening with apoor invalid is not too terrible, I shall be very charmed to seeyou tonight between 7 and 10- Annette Scherer."

"Heavens! what a virulent attack!" replied theprince, not in the least disconcerted by this reception. He hadjust entered, wearing an embroidered court uniform, knee breeches,and shoes, and had stars on his breast and a serene expression onhis flat face. He spoke in that refined French in which ourgrandfathers not only spoke but thought, and with the gentle,patronizing intonation natural to a man of importance who had grownold in society and at court. He went up to Anna Pavlovna, kissedher hand, presenting to her his bald, scented, and shining head,and complacently seated himself on the sofa.

"First of all, dear friend, tell me how you are. Setyour friend's mind at rest," said he without altering his tone,beneath the politeness and affected sympathy of which indifferenceand even irony could be discerned.

"Can one be well while suffering morally? Can one becalm in times like these if one has any feeling?" said AnnaPavlovna. "You are staying the whole evening, I hope?"

"And the fete at the English ambassador's? Today isWednesday. I must put in an appearance there," said the prince. "Mydaughter is coming for me to take me there."

"I thought today's fete had been canceled. I confessall these festivities and fireworks are becoming wearisome."

"If they had known that you wished it, theentertainment would have been put off," said the prince, who, likea wound-up clock, by force of habit said things he did not evenwish to be believed.

"Don't tease! Well, and what has been decided aboutNovosiltsev's dispatch? You know everything."

"What can one say about it?" replied the prince in acold, listless tone. "What has been decided? They have decided thatBuonaparte has burnt his boats, and I believe that we are ready toburn ours."

Prince Vasili always spoke languidly, like an actorrepeating a stale part. Anna Pavlovna Scherer on the contrary,despite her forty years, overflowed with animation andimpulsiveness. To be an enthusiast had become her social vocationand, sometimes even when she did not feel like it, she becameenthusiastic in order not to disappoint the expectations of thosewho knew her. The subdued smile which, though it did not suit herfaded features, always played round her lips expressed, as in aspoiled child, a continual consciousness of her charming defect,which she neither wished, nor could, nor considered it necessary,to correct.

In the midst of a conversation on political mattersAnna Pavlovna burst out:

"Oh, don't speak to me of Austria. Perhaps I don'tunderstand things, but Austria never has wished, and does not wish,for war. She is betraying us! Russia alone must save Europe. Ourgracious sovereign recognizes his high vocation and will be true toit. That is the one thing I have faith in! Our good and wonderfulsovereign has to perform the noblest role on earth, and he is sovirtuous and noble that God will not forsake him. He will fulfillhis vocation and crush the hydra of revolution, which has becomemore terrible than ever in the person of this murderer and villain!We alone must avenge the blood of the just one.... Whom, I ask you,can we rely on?... England with her commercial spirit will not andcannot understand the Emperor Alexander's loftiness of soul. Shehas refused to evacuate Malta. She wanted to find, and still seeks,some secret motive in our actions. What answer did Novosiltsev get?None. The English have not understood and cannot understand theself-abnegation of our Emperor who wants nothing for himself, butonly desires the good of mankind. And what have they promised?Nothing! And what little they have promised they will not perform!Prussia has always declared that Buonaparte is invincible, and thatall Europe is powerless before him.... And I don't believe a wordthat Hardenburg says, or Haugwitz either. This famous Prussianneutrality is just a trap. I have faith only in God and the loftydestiny of our adored monarch. He will save Europe!"

She suddenly paused, smiling at her ownimpetuosity.

"I think," said the prince with a smile, "that ifyou had been sent instead of our dear Wintzingerode you would havecaptured the King of Prussia's consent by assault. You are soeloquent. Will you give me a cup of tea?"

"In a moment. A propos," she added, becoming calmagain, "I am expecting two very interesting men tonight, le Vicomtede Mortemart, who is connected with the Montmorencys through theRohans, one of the best French families. He is one of the genuineemigres, the good ones. And also the Abbe Morio. Do you know thatprofound thinker? He has been received by the Emperor. Had youheard?"

"I shall be delighted to meet them," said theprince. "But tell me," he added with studied carelessness as if ithad only just occurred to him, though the question he was about toask was the chief motive of his visit, "is it true that the DowagerEmpress wants Baron Funke to be appointed first secretary atVienna? The baron by all accounts is a poor creature."

Prince Vasili wished to obtain this post for hisson, but others were trying through the Dowager Empress MaryaFedorovna to secure it for the baron.

Anna Pavlovna almost closed her eyes to indicatethat neither she nor anyone else had a right to criticize what theEmpress desired or was pleased with.

"Baron Funke has been recommended to the DowagerEmpress by her sister," was all she said, in a dry and mournfultone.

As she named the Empress, Anna Pavlovna's facesuddenly assumed an expression of profound and sincere devotion andrespect mingled with sadness, and this occurred every time shementioned her illustrious patroness. She added that Her Majesty haddeigned to show Baron Funke beaucoup d'estime, and again her faceclouded over with sadness.