Chapter 23 Chapter Twenty-Three

At this time, the group of nobles gave way, and Count Rastoptchin quickly walked into the hall from the crowd out of the way. s eyes. "His Majesty will be here at once," said Count Rastoptchin. "I have just come from there, and I think that in our present state there is nothing to blame. We and the merchants have been summoned by decree of the Emperor. ’ said Count Rastoptchin. "Millions of people have donated over there (he pointed to the Merchant Hall), and our mission is to provide volunteers and not spare ourselves...that's the least we can do!" The high officials sitting at the table started a meeting to discuss.The whole meeting was very quiet.After the previous commotion, I heard the voices of the old people saying "agreed" one after another, and some, in order to change their appearance, said, "I also have that opinion,"

Wait, it will be very dull. The document was ordered to record the resolution of the Moscow nobles: the Moscow nobles, like the Smolensk nobles, drew ten volunteers for every thousand serfs and were equipped with full equipment.The gentlemen in the meeting breathed a sigh of relief, made the sound of moving chairs, walked around the middle of the hall one by one, took anyone's arm at random, and chatted. "Your Majesty! Your Majesty!" A sudden shout spread throughout the hall, and everyone rushed to the door. The nobles stood in two human walls, and the emperor walked into the hall through the passage between the wide human walls.Everyone had a curious expression of respect and fear on their faces.Pierre stood at a distance, and could not hear the Emperor's words very clearly.He only understood the emperor's talk of the danger to the country, of the hopes he had placed in the nobility of Moscow.Someone reported to the emperor the decision made by the nobles just now.

"Gentlemen!" the Emperor's voice trembled; the crowd stirred and fell silent, and Pierre distinctly heard the Emperor's melodious, human voice, which was deeply moved: "I have never doubted the enthusiasm of the Russian nobles. However, the enthusiasm of the nobles today is still beyond my estimation. On behalf of the motherland, I thank you. Gentlemen, we must act - time is of the essence..." The emperor stopped, and the crowd began to crowd around him, surrounded by joyous admiration. "Yes, the most precious thing is ... the emperor's words," Ilya Andreitch wept bitterly behind him, but he heard nothing, and took everything for granted.

The emperor stepped from the hall of nobles into the hall of merchants.He stayed there for ten minutes.Pierre and the others saw that the emperor came out of the merchant's hall with tears of emotion in his eyes.It was later learned that the Emperor had just begun to speak to the merchants with tears streaming down his face, and he finished speaking in a trembling voice, when Pierre saw the Emperor coming out, accompanied by two merchants.One was a fat contractor whom Pierre did not know, and the other was the chief merchant, with a thin, yellow face and a goatee.Both were sobbing.The thin man had tears in his eyes, while the fat contractor was crying like a child and kept saying:

"It is necessary to live, but also to obtain wealth, Your Majesty!" -------- ① In the 19th century in Russia, a businessman who contracted taxes to the state or contracted a certain patent, a certain enterprise, etc. Pierre felt nothing else at this moment, he only expressed his indifference to everything and his willingness to sacrifice everything.He still felt guilty thinking about his constitutional tendencies, and he was looking for an opportunity to correct that.Knowing that Mamonov was donating a corps, Bezukhov told Count Rastoptchin that he would send him a thousand men and pay.

Old Rostov told his wife what had happened tearfully, and he agreed to Petya's request and went to register him himself. The next day the emperor left.All the nobles attending the rally took off their uniforms, and then went back to their homes and clubs respectively, issuing orders to the steward to establish the Volunteer Army from time to time, and were surprised at what they did.