Chapter 5 chapter Five

The next morning the old Kutuzov got up, said his prayers, put on his clothes, and with the displeasure of having to lead a battle he disapproved of, got into a carriage and drove from Letashevka (5 versts from Tarutino) where the columns for the attack must assemble.Kutuzov sat in the carriage, waking up, waking up, listening to the sound of gunshots on the right, had the battle begun?However, there was silence all around.Only the light of a damp and gloomy autumn morning.As he approached Tarutino, Kutuzov saw in his path horsemen leading horses to water.Kutuzov looked them over carefully, stopped the carriage, and asked to which regiment they belonged.The column of those cavalry should have gone to ambush somewhere far ahead. "Wrong, probably wrong," thought the old Commander-in-Chief.However, walking a little further, Kutuzov saw that the soldiers of the infantry regiment were all armed with guns, wearing only their underpants, some were drinking porridge, and some were holding firewood.An officer was called, who reported that there was no order to attack.

"Why not..." As soon as Kutuzov began, he restrained himself immediately and sent for a senior officer to meet him.He got out of the carriage, bowed his head, panted heavily, walked up and down, and waited without a word.When the summoned General Staff officer Eichen arrived, Kutuzov's face turned purple with rage, not because the officer had made any mistake, but because he was a worthy target for his anger. .So the old man was trembling with rage, panting, already in a state of madness, as he always did when he was rolling on the ground in rage, he attacked Eichen, threatening him with his hands, shouting, Call him the most vulgar words.Another innocent man, Captain Brozin, who happened to come in, suffered the same fate.

"Why are you so bad, you bastard? Shoot you! Scoundrel!" he yelled in a hoarse voice, waving his arms and shaking his body.He felt physical pain.He, Commander-in-Chief, His Excellency, everyone says that no one in Russia has ever had the power he has at any time, and he has now been brought to such a state--a big joke in front of the whole army . "I've been busy praying to God for today, I've stayed up all night in vain, I've wasted my brain thinking about all kinds of things!" he thought to himself. "When I was a little officer, no one dared to make fun of me like this...but now!" He felt physical pain as if he was being whipped, and he couldn't vent it without crying out in anger and pain But he soon lost his temper. He looked around and felt that he had said a lot of bad things just now. He got into the carriage and went back silently.

As soon as his anger had been vented, he ceased to be angry, and Kutuzov listened listlessly to the justifications and defenses (Yermolov himself came to see him only the next day), to Bennigsen Kono Kutuzov again had to agree to Vnitsyn and Thor's insistence that the aborted action be postponed until the next day.