Chapter 7 Chapter VII

It has been two months since Bald Mountain received the news about the Battle of Austerlitz and the death of Duke Andrew. Although the embassy sent a letter to inquire and made every effort to investigate, the body of the Duke could not be found. There was no sign of him either.To his relatives' distress, they still held out a glimmer of hope that the natives had carried him from the field of battle, and that he might now lie somewhere among strangers, alone, recovering from illness, Or dying, unable to get his own message out.The old prince first learned of the defeat at Austerlitz from the newspapers, which, as usual, were very brief and vague, saying that after several brilliant battles the Russian officers and men had to retreat, and that they did so in strict compliance with the rules. order.From this official news the old prince learned that our army was smashed.A week after the news of the battle of Austerlitz appeared in the newspapers, Kutuzov sent a letter in which he informed the prince of what had happened to his son.

"I saw your son," Kutuzov wrote, "falling before the regiment with a banner in his hand. He was a worthy hero to his father and to his country. To my regret and to the whole army, it is still I don’t know if he is alive or died, otherwise, his name will definitely be included in the list of casualties in the field handed over to me by the envoy.” The old prince received the news at night, when he was alone in his study.The next morning he went out for his usual walk again, and among the stewards, the gardener, and the builder he was silent, and although he looked angry, he did not say a word to anyone.

At the usual hour, Princess Marya, who was called, came into the room to see him. He was standing by the lathe, doing turning work, and as usual he did not turn his head to look at her. "Ah! Princess Marya!" he said suddenly and awkwardly, and dropped the chisel.The wheels of the lathe were still turning due to the momentum, and Princess Marya long remembered the creaking of the wheels that gradually died down, and merged in her mind with the events that followed. Princess Marya moved up to him, and as soon as she saw his face, something suddenly sank in her body.Her eyes were blurred.Her father's face was neither sad nor dejected, but fierce and unnatural, and she saw in his father's face a terrible misfortune, the greatest misfortune in life that she had never experienced, the irremediable Rong Siyi's misfortune, which refers to the death of a loved one, threatens and depresses her mentally.

"Monpere! Is that André?" said the ugly, clumsy princess, whose indescribably sad charm and uncontrollable expression made her father unable to bear her gaze, and choked for a while. , turned around. -------- ①French: Dad. "I've got the news. He's not on the list of prisoners, and he's not on the list of dead. Kutuzov wrote in his letter," he screamed piercingly, as if he wanted to expel Like a princess, "I was beaten to death!" The princess did not fall down, she did not feel dizzy.Her face was pale, but after she heard these few words, her face changed completely, and her beautiful and charming eyes shone with brilliance.It was as if a kind of joy, a joy so great that it was independent of the joys and sorrows of the world, emerged through her anguish.She had completely forgotten her fear of her father. She walked up to him, grabbed his hand, pulled her to her side, and hugged his thin, veined neck.

"Monpere," she said, "don't leave me, let us weep together." "These rascals, wretches!" cried the old man, turning his face away from her. "Buried the army, ruined the people! For what? You go, you go, tell Lisa." The princess sat down feebly in the easy chair beside her father and began to cry.Now she seemed to see her brother taking good-bye to her and Lisa with his gentle and haughty air.She seemed to see him adoring himself with a little idol, mildly and ironically. "Is he religious? Does he regret that he is not? Is he there now? In the palace of eternal peace and bliss?" she thought.

"Monpere, please tell me what happened." She asked tearfully. "Go, go, he was killed in a battle in which many good Russians were killed and the honor of Russia was stained. Go, Princess Marya. Go and tell Liza .I'll be right there." When the princess came back from her father, the little princess was sitting at her needlework, looking at Princess Marya with the peace and happiness that only pregnant women have in their eyes.It was evident that her eyes were not looking at Princess Marya, but were looking into herself, at the happy and mysterious thing in her belly.

"Marie (Maria is called in French)," she said, moving away from the embroidery stand and leaning back, "hold out your hand to me." She took the princess's hand and placed it in hers. on the stomach. Her eyes were smiling, and she waited for her furry lips to turn up, as the lucky child keeps doing. Princess Marya knelt before her, hiding her face in the folds of her sister-in-law's dress. "No, no, do you hear? I think it's very strange. Mary, you know, I love him very much," said Lisa, looking at her sister-in-law with those shining happy eyes.Princess Maria could not raise her head, she was weeping.

"Martha, how are you?" "It's nothing... I'm sad... sad for Andre," she said, wiping her tears on her sister-in-law's knee.Princess Marya told her sister-in-law to prepare her mind several times throughout the morning, and each time she burst into tears, and however lacking the observations of the little princess to understand the reason for her weeping, she Her tears still terrified her.She didn't say a word, but looked around in a panic, looking for something.The old prince, whom she had always been afraid of, had come into her room before dinner, and now he looked very menacing, and he was very restless, and went out without a word.She looked at Princess Marya, and then, lost in thought with the eyes that pregnant women often gaze into themselves, burst into tears.

"Have you heard anything from Andre?" she said. "No, you know there won't be any news yet, but my father's mood is very restless, and I'm afraid." "So, is there nothing wrong?" "Nothing," said Princess Marya, fixing her shining eyes on her sister-in-law.The sister-in-law was due to go into labor in the next few days, and she resolved not to say anything to her, and urged her father to also keep from her the terrible news he had received until she went into labor.Princess Maria and the old prince each suffer and conceal their grief.The old prince, not wanting to hope for anything, asserted that Prince Andrei had been killed, and though he sent an official to Austria to find out what happened to his son, he nevertheless ordered a tombstone for his son in Moscow, intending to place it in the In his own garden, he told everyone that his son had been beaten to death.He tried his best not to change his previous way of life, but his strength was exhausted. He seldom walked, ate less, slept less, and his body was getting weaker day by day.Princess Maria still had a glimmer of hope.She regarded her brother as a living person, prayed for him, and waited for the news of his brother's return every moment.