Chapter 14 Chapter Fourteen

"Well, isn't it cute? No, brother, my girl in pink is the most attractive, her name is Dunyasha..." But seeing Rostov's face, Ilyin fell silent.He saw that the hero in his heart-the company commander had completely different thoughts. Rostov gave Ilyin a fierce look, and walked quickly towards the village without answering him. "I'll give them a good look, they must be dealt with, these bandits!" he said to himself. Alpatych tried not to run, but hurried on with rapid steps, barely overtaking Rostov. "May I ask what decision was made?" He asked after catching up.

Rostov stopped, clenched his fists, and suddenly took a stern step towards Alpatych. "Decision? What decision? You old bastard!" he snapped. "How do you manage the house? Ah? The peasants rebelled, you can't manage it? You are a traitor yourself. I know you people. I want to peel off your skin..." He seemed afraid that his anger would be wasted in vain, Leaving Alpatitch behind, he walked quickly forward.Alpatych restrained his feelings of humiliation, and with gliding steps, he followed Rostov closely, and kept putting forward his ideas to him.He said that the peasants are very stubborn. At present, there are no armed forces, and it is unwise to fight against them. Wouldn't it be better to send people to call the army first?

"Call the army to deal with them... I will fight them!" Nicholas said incomprehensibly (this irrational animal anger and the desire to vent his anger overwhelmed him, He does not consider what to do) while walking involuntarily with quick, determined steps towards the crowd.The closer he came to the crowd, the more it seemed to Alpatych that this unwise action of his might have good results.The crowd of peasants felt the same way when they saw his hasty, determined step and the expression on his face that drew his brow. After the hussars had just entered the village and Rostov went to see the princess, there was confusion and quarrels among the crowd.Some farmers said that it was the Russians who came, and they might blame them for detaining the young lady.Delong thought so too, but as soon as he said something, Karp and some other farmers began to attack the village chief who had resigned.

"How many years have you been tyrannical in the commune?" Karp scolded him. "Of course you don't care! You dug up the money pot and took the matter with you. Whether our house is destroyed or not is none of your business, is it? " "There are orders to maintain order, no one is allowed to leave the house, nothing is allowed to be taken away, that's it!" cried another. "It's your son's turn to be a strong man. You must be reluctant to part with your precious bump." Suddenly a little old man started to attack Delong, and he said quickly, "Take my Vanka to shave his head①. Alas, we only have dead It's all over!"

-------- ① At that time, Russian recruits had to shave their heads when they enlisted in the army. "No, we only have to die!" "I am not against the commune," DeLong said. "Of course, you're already full!..." The two tall farmers also expressed their opinions.As soon as Rostov came up to the crowd with Ilyin, Lavrushka, and Alpatych, Karp stepped out with a slight smile and stuck his fingers in his belt.Delon, on the contrary, hid in the back row, and the crowd squeezed even tighter. "Hey, who is the village chief here?" Rostov called, walking quickly to the crowd.

"The village chief? What do you want him for?..." Karp asked. But before he could finish his work, his hat flew off his head.He received a heavy slap and tilted his head to one side. "Hats off, traitor!" Rostov snapped. "Where's the mayor?" he shouted furiously. "Village chief, it's the village chief...Dron Zakharech, I'm calling you." There was a hurried and submissive voice from the crowd, and the hats were taken off their heads. "We will never rebel, we obey the rules." Karp said, at the same time, several people behind suddenly said together:

"It was decided by the old people, there are too many officials..." "Stubborn? ... Rebellion? ... Robber! Traitor!" Rostov howled, uttering meaningless words, his voice changing.He seized Karp by the neck, "Tie him up, tie him up!" he cried, although there was no one there to tie him up except Lavrushka and Alpatych. In the end it was Lavrushka who ran over and snipped Karp's arms behind him. "Do you want to call the people down the mountain from our side?" he shouted. Alpatych called out the names of two peasants to bind Karp, who obediently stepped out of the crowd and untied their belts.

"Where's the mayor?" Rostov called again. Frowning, Delong walked out of the crowd with a pale face. "Are you the mayor? Bind up, Lavrushka!" cried Rostov, as if the order would meet no obstacles.Sure enough, two more peasants came out to tie Delong. As if helping them, Delong untied his belt and handed it to them. "Listen, all of you," Rostov said to the peasants, "you all go home at once, and don't let me hear your voices again." "What? We didn't offend anyone, we were just confused for a while. It was just a mess... Let me just say, it's too messy." The voices of farmers blaming each other can be heard.

"Didn't I tell you?" said Alpatych, beginning to exercise his power. "It's not good, you childish man!" "It's our stupidity, Yakov Alpatitch," some answered, and the village immediately dispersed. The two bound peasants were taken to the master's house.The two drunk farmers followed them. "Hey, I want to see you!" said one of them to Karp. "How can you talk to gentlemen like that? Where are you thinking?" "Stupid," echoed another, "what a stupid one!" Two hours later, several large vehicles stopped in the courtyard of the Bogucharovo residence.The peasants vigorously moved out the owner's things and loaded them into the cart. Delon, who was locked in a large cabinet, was released according to Princess Maria's wishes. He stood in the yard directing the peasants.

"It's not right for you to put it like that," said a tall, round-faced farmer who was always smiling, snatching a small cage from the maid. "It's worth a fortune, you know, and why are you throwing it around? Why put a rope on it—it'll wear out. I don't like it. You have to be careful about what you do, and have a rule. That's where the matting should be." Wrap it like this, cover it with hay. It's important!" "Oh, here are books, books," said another peasant who had brought out Prince Andrew's bookcase. "Be careful not to trip over! Lao Chen, Lao Shen's friends, there are so many books!"

"Yeah, I'm always writing, and I don't take a break!" The tall, round-faced farmer pointed at the thick dictionary on top and said with a meaningful wink. Rostov didn't want to go out of his way to make friends with the princess, and instead of going to see her, he waited for her to come out in the village.When Princess Marya's carriage came out of the courtyard, Rostov mounted his horse and drove her to the road where our troops were stationed twelve versts from Bogucharovo.In Yankovo's he bid her farewell respectfully and kissed her hand for the first time. "As you say," he replied, blushing, when Princess Marya thanked him for saving her (which she called his action), "any police chief can do it. If we are fighting against If we were peasants, we wouldn’t let the enemy penetrate so far.” For some reason, he was a little shy and tried to change the subject. "It has been a great honor to have made your acquaintance this time. Farewell, Princess, I wish you happiness and consolation, and hope to see you next time in more pleasant surroundings. If you will not make me blush, Please stop saying thank you." But if she had ceased to thank him with words, she had thanked him with all the expression of her face, which was radiant with gratitude and tenderness.She could not believe that he should not be thanked.On the contrary, she thought it undisputed that without him she would have been ruined by the mob and the French; he had risked the most obvious and most terrible dangers to save her, a man of great soul and dignity, She is also unquestionably good at understanding her situation and misfortune.His kind, honest eyes, when she cried as she told her misfortune, his eyes welling up with tears, were always in her mind. When Princess Marya said good-bye to him, and she was alone, she thought with tears—not for the first time that strange question occurred to her: Was she in love with him? On the subsequent journey to Moscow, Dunyasha, who was riding with her, saw more than once the princess leaning out of the window, smiling with mixed joy and sorrow, despite the fact that the princess was in an unsatisfactory situation. "I just fell in love with him, so what?" thought Princess Marya. No matter how ashamed she was to admit that her first love was for someone who might never love her, she consoled herself by saying that no one would ever know about it if she didn't tell anyone about her first love until the last moment of her life. The first and last time she fell in love with someone, she would never regret it. She sometimes recalled his eyes, his sympathy, his words, and she felt that happiness was not impossible.At this time, Dunyasha saw that she was looking out of the car window with a smile on her face. "It so happened that he came to Bogucharovo, and at the right time!" thought Princess Marya. "It just so happened that his sister rejected Prince Andrew!" ① Princess Marya seemed to see the will of God in all this. -------- ①Russian custom: sister-in-law is not allowed to marry sister-in-law's brother.If Andrei and Natasha were married, Maria could not marry Nikolai Rostov. Princess Marya made a very pleasant impression on Rostov.He was glad when he thought of her.When his colleagues learned about his adventures in Bogucharovo and joked with him that he was looking for hay but found the richest fiancée in Russia, Rostov was very angry.Rostov was annoyed because more than once the idea of ​​marrying his favorite princess Marya, who had a great fortune and a mild temper, had crossed his mind against his will.Personally, Nicholas could not have found a more suitable wife than Princess Marya: her marriage would please the countess, his mother; it would improve the situation of his father, Nicholas also thought. , that would make Princess Marya happy. But what about Sonia?What about the promise you made?It was for this reason that Rostov was offended when people made fun of Princess Bolkonsky.