Chapter 19 Chapter Nineteen

While the conversation was going on in the drawing room and in the princess's bedroom, the carriage in which Pierre (who had already been escorted home) and Anna Mikhaylovna (who thought she should accompany him) Drive into Count Bezukhov's courtyard.When the wheels of the carriage rattled limply over the straw that fell under the window, Anna Mikhaylovna turned her face to Pierre and said a few words of consolation. I fell asleep in a corner of the carriage, and she woke him up.Pierre, waking up from sleep, came out of the carriage after Anna Mikhaylovna, and only then did he think about his meeting with his dying father.He saw that they were not heading for the front door, but for the back door.As he stepped down from the step of the carriage, two figures in philistine attire ran hastily from the back door into the shadows by the wall.Pierre paused for a while, and noticed that there were several similar-looking people in the shadows on both sides of the house.However, neither Anna Mikhaylovna, nor the servant, nor the coachman could lose sight of these people, but paid them no attention.From this point of view, it must be so, Pierre made up his mind, and followed Anna Mikhaylovna.Anna Mikhaylovna hurried up the dimly lit narrow stone staircase, beckoning Pierre, who had fallen behind her, to follow her.Although Pierre did not understand in his heart why he really wanted to see the count, still less why he had to go up the stone steps by the back door, Anna Mikhailovna's firm and hasty look To scrutinize, he secretly concluded that this must be the case, there is no other way.In the middle of the stone stairs, a few men with buckets, wearing leather boots and rattling, ran down the stairs towards them, almost knocking them down.They leaned against the wall and let Pierre and Anna Mikhaylovna pass, and they showed no surprise when they saw Pierre and Anna Mikhaylovna.

"Is there access to the princess's apartment?" asked Anna Mikhaylovna to one of them. "Here," replied a servant boldly and loudly.As if everything is possible now, "Ma'am, the door is on the left." "Perhaps the count did not call me," said Pierre, when he reached the landing, "I will go to my room." Anna Mikhaylovna stopped, wanting to walk side by side with Pierre. "Ah, monami," she said, with the gesture of touching his hand with her son in the morning, "croyez, quejesoffre, autantquevous, maissoyezhomme."

"To tell the truth, shall I go?" asked Pierre, looking tenderly at Anna Mikhaylovna through his spectacles. "Ah, monami, oubliezlestortsquonapuavoirenversvous, pensezquecestvotrepere... peut-etrealagonie she sighed," Jevousaitoutdesuiteaimecommemonfils, fiezvousamoi, Pierre, Jenoublieraipasvosinterets. "② ① French: Ah, my friend, please believe me, I am more uncomfortable than you, but you must be a man. ②French: Ah, my friend, please forget the unfair attitude towards you.Come to think of it, he's your father... Maybe he's dying.Like a son, I fell in love with you all at once.Trust me, Pierre, I will never forget your vital interests.

Pierre, not understanding anything, seemed to feel more and more that everything must be so, and he followed meekly behind Anna Mikhaylovna who opened the door. This door faces the outer room of the back door.An old servant of the princesses was sitting in a corner knitting stockings.Pierre had never been in this half of the house, nor had he even thought about life in such chambers.A serving girl with a tray in her hand was overtaking them, and Anna Mikhaylovna called her little sister, dear, and asked her about the health of the princesses.She led Pierre down a masonry corridor.The first door on the left of the corridor leads to the residence of the princesses.The maidservant with the carafe left the door hastily (the whole house was in a hurry at that moment), and Pierre and Anna Mikhaylovna could not help casting a glance into the room as they passed by, Prince Vasily and the prince's eldest daughter were sitting in this room, very close to each other, talking.Seeing someone passing by, Prince Vasili made a fidgety movement, leaning back in his chair; the prince's young lady jumped up and slammed the door with a reckless and vigorous slam. .

This gesture was so different from the usual serenity of the prince's mistress, and the terror on Prince Vasili's face was not commensurate with his inherent arrogance, so Pierre stopped and looked at him questioningly through his glasses. guide.Anna Mikhaylovna showed no sign of surprise, but smiled and took a breath, as if to show that all this had not come as she had expected. "Soyezhomme, monami, cestmoiquiveilleraiavosinterets," she said, meeting his look, and walked more rapidly along the corridor. ①French: My friend, be a man, and I will protect your interests. Pierre did not understand what was going on, and he still did not understand the meaning of veilleravosintecits, but he knew that it was as it should be.They passed through the passage to the half-dark hall adjoining the Count's reception room.This was one of those cool, luxurious bedrooms that Pierre knew from the front steps.But, right in the middle of the bedroom, stood an empty tub, with water spilled on the carpet.A footman and a clerk with a censer tiptoed towards them, paying no attention to them.They entered the reception room familiar to Pierre, with its two Italianate windows looking onto the winter garden, and displaying a large bust of Catherine and a full-length portrait of her.There were still the same people in the reception room, almost still sitting in the same seats and whispering.Everyone fell silent, and looked back at Anna Mikhaylovna, who had come in, with a tear-stained, pale face; and at Pierre, who was tall and fat, with bowed head, Followed obediently behind Anna Mikhaylovna.

① French: to safeguard his interests. Anna Mikhaylovna's expression showed that she was aware of the critical moment.She would not let Pierre leave her side, and with the practical air of a lady of Petersburg, she entered the room, more daringly than in the morning.She felt that she was leading a person whom the dying earl wanted to meet, so her interview was guaranteed.With a quick glance at all the people in the room, she caught sight of the count's confessor, who did not bow, but suddenly grew smaller.She walked up to the priest with small strides, and respectfully accepted the blessings of one priest after another.

"Thank goodness it has come at last," she said to one of the clergy. "What a worry these relatives are, all of us. This young man is the earl's son," she added, lowering her voice, "what a dreadful moment!" After saying these words, she walked towards the doctor. "Cherdocteur," she said to him, "cejeune hommeestlefilsducomte... ya-t-ildelespoir?" The doctor was silent, quickly raised his eyes, shrugged his shoulders, and Anna Mikhaylovna raised her shoulders in the same way, raised her almost closed eyes, sighed, and left the doctor, and turned to the skin. El walks over.She turned her face to Pierre with a peculiarly humble, gentle, and melancholy air.

"Ayez confiance ensamisericorde!" she said to him, pointing to the little sofa, telling him to sit down and wait for her, and she herself went quietly to the door which everyone was staring at; Hidden later. ①French: Dear doctor, this young man is the son of the count... Is there hope? ②French: Trust in God and be kind! Pierre made up his mind to obey his guide in everything, and he went to the little sofa she had shown him.As soon as Anna Mikhaylovna hid behind the door, he found that all the eyes in the room were fixed on him with excessive curiosity and sympathy.He noticed that everyone was whispering and showing him with eyes that seemed to show fear, even servility.Everyone paid him unprecedented tribute.A lady whom he did not know, who had been talking to some clergymen, stood up and offered him her seat.The adjutant picked up a glove he had accidentally dropped and handed it to him.The doctors fell silent as he passed, and moved aside to make way for him.Pierre would have liked to take another seat so that the lady would not be restrained, would have picked up the gloves himself, and passed the doctors who were not in the way, but suddenly he felt that this seemed inappropriate, he felt He was a man who had to perform a dreadful and anticipated ceremony this evening, and therefore he had to accept their service.He silently took the glove from the adjutant and sat down on the lady's seat, as innocently as an Egyptian statue, resting his large hands on his well-balanced laps.He secretly made up his mind that it was necessary to act in this way, that in order not to lose his temper and do something stupid this evening, he should not act according to his own opinions, but must be completely at the mercy of those who directed him.

In less than two minutes, Prince Vasili walked into the room arrogantly, wearing the long coat with the three star emblems, his head raised high.He seemed to have grown thinner since the morning, and when he looked around the room and saw Pierre, his eyes were wider than usual.He walked up to Pierre, took his hand (he had never held his hand before), and shook it downwards, as if to test the strength of the arm. "Courage, courage, monami Ilademandeavousvoir, Cestbien..." ① He started to go. But Pierre thought it necessary to ask. "How are you..." He hesitated, wondering if it would be proper to call the dying man the count; he felt ashamed to call him father.

"Ilaeuencoreuncoup, ilyaunedemi-heure, and once again. Courage, monami..."② ①French: My friend, don't be discouraged, don't be discouraged.He ordered you to be called.This is good…… ②French: There was another attack half an hour ago. ...my friend...don't be discouraged... Pierre was in a state of confusion, and when he heard "apoplexy," he imagined the word as being struck by an object.He looked at Prince Vasily in bewilderment, and then he remembered that there is a disease called apoplexy.Prince Vasily said a few words to Roland as he walked, and then tiptoed into the door.He was not good at walking on tiptoe, and his whole body shrugged awkwardly.The prince's lady followed him, followed by the priests and clerks, and the servants entered through the door.Through the door a movement could be heard, and at last Anna Mikhaylovna ran out, still pale, but resolute in her duty, and touched Pierre's cheek. arm, said:

"Labonte di vine estine puisable, Cest laceremoniedelex-tremeonctionquivacommencervenez."① ① French: God's charity is infinite.The anointing ceremony is about to take place.Let's go. Pierre walked through the door on a soft carpet. He found an adjutant, an unknown lady, and someone from the servants walking in behind him, as if he could enter this place without permission at this moment. room up.