Chapter 19 Chapter Nineteen

From the day Pierre came out from the Rostovs' house, he recalled Natasha's grateful eyes, looked at the comet high in the sky, and felt that something new was unfolding before him--the one that always tormented him. Everything in the world is a dream and a meaningless question, which has disappeared from his mind.The dreaded question: why?For what purpose?In the past no matter what he did, he always had this question in his mind. Now, for him, it's not that the question has been replaced, nor is there an answer to the previous question, but that he has her in his heart.Whether he heard or participated in the idle conversation, whether he read a book, or heard the baseness and ignorance of ordinary life, he was not as surprised as before, and he did not ask himself, everything was so short and peaceful. I don't know why people are so busy.But he always recalled the last time he saw her, and all his doubts disappeared, not because she answered the questions that remained in his mind, but because the thought of her immediately led him into another bright and bright world. A spiritual realm where there can be no right or wrong, a realm worth living for its love and beauty.However despicable things in the world may be unfolded before him, he says to himself:

"Let someone steal the country and the tsar, and the country and the tsar honor him; but she smiled at me yesterday and asked me to go. I love her, and no one ever understands that," he thought. . Pierre was still going out and about in the same way, he was still drinking a lot of wine, he was still living in the same idle way, because he had to kill the rest of the time besides his time at the Rostov's, and he got used to being with him. His old acquaintances in Moscow drew him irresistibly into a life which was his own.But lately, when more and more disturbing news came from the field, when Natasha was recovering and she no longer aroused in his mind his tempered feelings of pity, a strange restlessness had increased. Haunted him.He felt that the state he was in could not last long, that a catastrophe was about to change his whole life, and he searched impatiently for all the signs of this approaching catastrophe.A Masonic friend told Pierre a prophecy about Napoleon quoted from St. John's Apocalypse.

"Revelation" chapter 13, verse 18 says: "Here is wisdom; and he who has understanding can count the beast: for this is the number of man, and his number is six hundred and sixty-six." Verse 5 of the same chapter says: "And he was given a mouth for boasting and blasphemy; and power was given to him to do as he pleased for forty-two months." The French letters are arranged according to the numerical value of the Hebrew letters, the first nine letters of which represent the ones, and the rest of the letters represent the tens, and the following meanings are obtained:

abcdefghiklmnopqrstuvwxyz123456789102030405060708090100110120130140150160 According to this alphabet, if the letters of the word l'empereur Napoleon are replaced with numbers, the sum is six hundred and sixty-six, so Napoleon is the beast prophesied in the Apocalypse.In addition, according to this alphabet, the time limit quarantinedeux of the beast who "speaks exaggeration and blasphemy" is written as a number, which is exactly six hundred and sixty-six. From the above, it follows that Napoleon's regime will expire in 1812. The Emperor of France turned forty-two years old.Pierre was so amazed by this prophecy that he often asked himself what determined the duration of the beast, Napoleon, and calculated from the number of that letter, trying to find the answer to the question that interested him. .Pierre wrote the answer to the question: l'empereur Alexandre? La Nation Russe? ③He calculates the numbers of the letters, but the sum of the numbers either greatly exceeds or is less than six hundred and sixty-six.Once, when doing this calculation, he wrote his name—Comte Pierre Be Bsouhoff; the sum of the figures was much worse.He changed the spelling, replaced Z with S, added de and added article④, but in the end he did not get the expected result.Suddenly he had an idea that if the answer to the question was in his name, then the answer must include his nationality.He wrote Lerusse Besuhof⑤, and calculated the data, and got the result as six hundred and seventy-one.Only the number five is added; the e stands for five, and the e can be omitted in the article before the word l'empereur.He also dropped the e, although it was incorrect, and Pierre got the answer l'russe Besuhof (equal to six hundred and sixty-six. This discovery thrilled him. How to relate him to this great event prophesied in the Apocalypse Together, he didn't know; but he had no doubts about the connection. His love for Rostova, the Antichrist, Napoleon's invasion, the comet, 666, l'empereur Napoleon and l'russe Besuhof—all of which necessarily matured , bound to erupt, to save him from the world of obsessed, worthless Moscow habits in which he felt himself captive, which would lead him to great deeds and great happiness. .

-------- ①French: Emperor Napoleon. ②French: forty-two. ③French: Emperor Alexander?Russian nation? ④French: article. ⑤French: Russian Bezukhov. Pierre had promised the Rostovs the day before the Sunday in which the prayers were to be read, to bring them the Address to the Russian Nation and the latest news from the army, which he had received from Count Rastoptchin, whom he knew very well. Got it there.Early the next morning Pierre went to Count Rastopchin's house, where he met a messenger who had just arrived from the army. The messenger was an acquaintance of Pierre's, a regular at Moscow balls.

"For God's sake, can you help me?" said the messenger. "I have a pocket full of letters from home." Among these letters was one from Nikolai Rostov to his father, which Pierre took.In addition, Count Rastopchin gave Pierre the newly printed Emperor's Letter to the People of Moscow, several orders just issued to the army, and the latest notice, and looked at the army's orders.Pierre found a list of casualties and awards, among them Nikolai Rostov, who had been awarded the Order of St. Prince Andrei Bolkonski was appointed commander of the Chasseurs.Although he did not want to mention Bolkonsky to the Rostovs, Pierre could not help delighting them with the news of their son's prize, so he left his address to the people, notices, and other orders for lunch. I brought them to them personally, and sent the printed orders and letters to the Rostovs' house first.

Conversations with Count Rastoptchin, worried and flustered in his tone, encounters with messengers, nonchalantly talking about how bad the military situation is ahead, rumors of spies in Moscow and leaflets scattered all over Moscow saying that Napoleon arrived The capture of the two capitals of Russia in the autumn, the talk of the emperor's coming tomorrow—all this aroused in Pierre with new force a feeling of restlessness and anticipation, since the appearance of the comet, and especially since the outbreak of the war. , Pierre has always cherished this feeling. Pierre had long since thought of enlisting in the army, and he would have realized it if two things had not prevented him from doing so.First, he is a Freemason, bound by an oath, which preaches perpetual peace and the abolition of war; second, he sees many Muscovites in military uniform, preaching patriotism, and he is somehow ashamed to do so Do.The main reason why he did not realize his desire to serve in the army was because he harbored a vague idea: L'Russe Besuhof, which has the meaning of the number 666 of the beast, for ending the authority of the beast who said exaggerated and profane words Great things were already destined for him, so he had nothing to do but sit and wait for what was bound to happen.