War and Peace: Original Version

“Bear up, bear up, my friend. He has asked to see you. That is good …” and he was about to leave. But Pierre felt it necessary to ask:

“How is …” He stopped short, not knowing whether it was proper to call the dying man the count, but ashamed to call him father.

“He has suffered another stroke, half an hour ago. Bear up, my friend …”

Pierre was in such a confused state of mind that at the word “stroke” he imagined a blow from some object. He looked at Prince Vasily, perplexed. Only afterwards did he realise that a stroke was the name of the illness. Prince Vasily said a few words to Lorrain as he walked by and went in through the door on tiptoe. He did not know how to walk on tiptoe and his entire body bobbed up and down awkwardly. The eldest princess followed him, then the clergymen and junior deacons went through and a servant also went in at the door. There was the sound of things being moved behind the door and finally Anna Mikhailovna came running out with the same pale face set firm in the performance of her duty and, touching Pierre’s arm, said:

“God’s mercy is inexhaustible. The rite of extreme unction is about to begin. Let us go.”

Pierre went in through the door, walking across the soft carpet, and noticed that the adjutant and the lady he did not know and some other servant all followed him in, as if there were no longer any need to ask permission to enter this room.

XXX

Pierre knew this large room, divided by columns and an arch, its floor completely covered with Persian carpets, very well. The section of the room beyond the columns, where on one side there was a tall mahogany bedstead standing under silk curtains, and on the other an immense icon case with holy images, was brightly and beautifully illuminated, in the same way as churches are lit during the evening service. Standing under the illuminated rizas of the icon frame was a long Voltairian couch, and lying on the couch, which was padded at the top with snow-white, uncreased, pillows that had evidently only just been changed, covered up to the waist by a bright green quilt, lay the familiar majestic figure of Pierre’s father, Count Bezukhov, with that grey mane of hair reminiscent of a lion above the broad forehead, and those large, characteristically noble, wrinkles on the handsome reddish-yellow face. He was lying directly under the icons; both of his large, chubby hands had been freed from under the quilt and were lying on top of it. A wax candle had been set between the thumb and index finger of his right hand, which was lying palm-down, and an old servant, leaning forward out of his armchair, was holding it in place. The clergymen were standing over the couch in their magnificent, glittering robes, with their long, loose hair flowing down over them, holding lighted candles and slowly and solemnly intoning the service. A little way behind them stood the two younger princesses, one clutching her handkerchief and the other pressing hers to her eyes, and in front of them the eldest, Katish, with a spiteful and determined expression, not taking her eyes off the icons for a moment, as though she were telling everyone that she could not answer for herself if she looked away. Anna Mikhailovna, her face expressing meek sorrow and universal forgiveness, and the unknown lady were standing by the door. Prince Vasily was standing at the other side of the door, close to the couch, behind a carved velvet-upholstered chair, the back of which he had turned towards himself, resting his left hand with a candle on it, and was crossing himself with his right hand, each time raising his eyes upwards as he touched his fingers to his forehead. His face expressed serene piety and devotion to the will of God. “If you do not understand these feelings, then so much the worse for you,” his face seemed to say.

Behind him stood the adjutant, the doctors and the male servants; as if they were in church, the men and the women had separated. Everyone there was silent, crossing themselves, and all that could be heard were the words of the service, the rich, restrained, bass singing and, in the moments of silence, the shifting of feet and sighs. Anna Mikhailovna, with that air of importance which indicated she knew what she was doing, walked across the entire room to Pierre and handed him a candle. He lit the candle and, distracted by observing the people around him, began crossing himself with the same hand that was holding it.

One of the younger princesses, Sophia, the rosy-cheeked, giggly one with the mole, was watching him. She smiled, hid her face in her handkerchief and did not uncover it for a long time, but glancing at Pierre, she started laughing again. She clearly did not feel able to look at him without laughing, but was unable to stop herself looking at him, and to avoid temptation she quietly moved behind a column. In the middle of the service the voices of the clergymen suddenly fell silent and they said something to each other in a whisper; the old servant holding the count’s hand stood up and turned to face the ladies. Anna Mikhailovna stepped forward and, leaning over the sick man from behind the back of the couch, beckoned Lorrain to her with her finger. The French doctor, who was standing without a lighted candle and leaning back against a column in the respectful pose of a foreigner demonstrating that, despite the difference in faiths, he understands the great importance of the rite that is being performed and even approves of it, walked over to the patient with the inaudible steps of a man in the full prime of his strength, picked up the free hand from the green quilt with his slim white fingers and, turning away, began taking the pulse and thinking. They gave the sick man something to drink and fussed around him a little, then went back to their places once again and the service continued. During this break Pierre noticed that Prince Vasily came out from behind his chair and, with that same expression which indicated that he knew what he was doing, and if other people did not understand him, then that was so much the worse for them, did not walk across to the sick man but passed by him, joining the eldest princess, and together they moved into the back of the bedroom, towards the tall bedstead under the silk curtains. From the bed the prince and the princess both went out through the back door: but just before the end of the service they returned, one after the other, to their places. Pierre paid no more attention to this circumstance than to any other, having decided once and for all in his own mind that everything that took place in front of his eyes that evening necessarily had to be as it was.

THE DEATH OF COUNT BEZUKHOV Drawing by M.S. Bashilov, 1866 (#ulink_8df4a987-9e03-5ead-96ba-572e42b540bb)

The sounds of church chanting ceased and the voice of one of the clergyman respectfully congratulated the sick man on having taken the sacrament. The sick man lay there as lifeless and motionless as ever. Everyone around him began to stir, there was a sound of footsteps and whispering, among which Anna Mikhailovna’s whisper stood out most sharply of all.

Pierre listened as she said:

“He must be moved to the bed, it will be quite impossible here …”

The doctors, princesses and servants crowded round the sick man so tightly that Pierre could no longer see that reddish-yellow head with the grey mane which, despite the fact that he also looked at other faces, had never been out of his sight for a moment throughout the service. Pierre guessed from the cautious movements of the people who had surrounded the couch that they were lifting up the dying man and moving him.

“Grip my hand, you’ll drop him like that,” he heard one of the servants whisper in alarm. “From underneath … once more,” voices said, and the heavy breathing and foot-shuffling became more urgent, as though the weight they were carrying was more than they could manage.

The bearers, whose number included Anna Mikhailovna, drew level with the young man, and for a moment he could see behind the people’s backs and heads the high, bloated, open chest and fat shoulders of the sick man, raised upwards by the people who were holding him under the arms, and the grey, curly lion’s mane. The head with the unusually broad brow and cheekbones, the beautiful, sensuous mouth and the majestically cool gaze had not been disfigured by the nearness of death. It was the same as Pierre had known it three months ago, when the count had sent him to St. Petersburg. But this head swayed helplessly to the uneven gait of the bearers and the cool, detached gaze did not know what to settle on.

Several moments passed in commotion beside the tall bedstead: the people who had been carrying the sick man dispersed; Anna Mikhailovna touched Pierre’s arm and said: “Come.” She and Pierre approached the bed on which the sick man had been placed in a ceremonial pose that was evidently related to the sacrament that had just been celebrated. He was lying with his head propped up high on a pillow. His arms were laid out symmetrically on the green silk quilt, palms down. When Pierre approached, the count looked at him, but looked at him with that gaze, the meaning and import of which no man can understand. That gaze either said absolutely nothing at all, except that as long as one has eyes, one must look somewhere, or it said too much. Pierre halted, not knowing what he should do, and glanced enquiringly at his guide, Anna Mikhailovna. With a rapid gesture of her eyes, Anna Mikhailovna indicated the sick man’s hand, blowing a kiss to it with her lips. Pierre, painstakingly craning his neck forward to avoid catching the quilt, did as she advised and pressed his lips to the broad-boned, fleshy hand. The hand did not even twitch, nor did a single one of the count’s muscles. Pierre again glanced enquiringly at Anna Mikhailovna, asking what he ought to do now. With her eyes Anna Mihailovna indicated to him the armchair standing by the bed. Pierre obediently began sitting down on the chair, continuing to ask with his eyes whether he was doing as he ought. Anna Mikhailovna nodded approvingly. Pierre again assumed the symmetrical pose of an Egyptian statue, clearly regretting that his awkward and fat body occupied such a large amount of space and exerting all his inner strength to appear as small as possible. He looked at the count. The count looked at the spot where Pierre’s face had been when he was standing. Through her expression Anna Mikhailovna demonstrated her awareness of the touching gravity of this final moment of meeting between father and son. This continued for two minutes, which seemed like an hour to Pierre. Suddenly a trembling began in the large muscles and wrinkles of the count’s face. The trembling intensified, the handsome mouth twisted (it was only at this point that Pierre realised how close his father was to death) and a vague, hoarse sound issued from the distorted mouth. Anna Mikhailovna looked hard into the sick man’s eyes and, trying to guess what it was he wanted, pointed first to Pierre, then to the drink, then pronounced Prince Vasily’s name in a whisper, then pointed to the quilt. The sick man’s eyes and face expressed impatience. He made an effort to glance at the servant who was standing fixedly at the head of the bed.

“His excellency wants to turn on his other side,” the servant whispered and stepped up in order to turn the count’s heavy body to face the wall.

Pierre stood up in order to assist the servant.

While they were turning the count over, one of his arms fell back helplessly, and he made a vain effort to pull it across. Whether or not the count noticed the glance of horror with which Pierre watched that helpless arm, or whether some other fleeting thought passed through his dying mind at that moment, he looked at the insubordinate arm, at the expression of horror on Pierre’s face, then again at the arm, and a weak smile of suffering, quite unsuited to his features, flickered across his face, seeming to express mockery at his own helplessness. At the sight of that smile, Pierre unexpectedly felt a trembling in his chest and a tingling in his nose, and tears clouded his vision. They turned the sick man onto his side, facing the wall. He sighed.

“He has fallen asleep,” said Anna Mikhailovna, noticing one of the princesses coming to take their place. “Let us go.”

Pierre left the room.

XXXI

There was no longer anyone in the reception room apart from Prince Vasily and the eldest princess, who were sitting under the portrait of Catherine the Great and talking animatedly about something. As soon as they saw Pierre and his guide, they fell silent. The princess hid something, or so it seemed to Pierre, and whispered:

“I hate the sight of that woman.”

“Katish has ordered tea to be served in the small drawing room,” Prince Vasily said to Anna Mikhailovna, “why don’t you go and take some refreshment, my poor Anna Mikhailovna, or your strength will give out.”

He said nothing to Pierre, merely squeezed his arm with feeling just below the shoulder. Pierre and Anna Mikhailovna went through into the small drawing room.

“Nothing is so restorative after a sleepless night as a cup of this excellent Russian tea,” Lorrain said with an expression of restrained vivacity, sipping from a fine handleless Chinese cup as he stood in the small round drawing room in front of the table laid with a tea set and a cold supper. Everyone who was present in Count Bezukhov’s house that night had gathered round the table in order to restore their strength. Pierre remembered this little drawing room very well, with its mirrors and little tables. During balls at the count’s house Pierre, who did not know how to dance, had loved to sit in this small hall of mirrors and observe the ladies in their ball gowns, with diamonds and pearls adorning bare shoulders, passing through this room, examining themselves in the brightly illuminated mirrors that repeated their reflections several times over. Now that same room was barely lit by two candles in the middle of the night and a set of tea things and supper dishes stood untidily on a single little table, and a diverse collection of dull people were sitting there, talking to each other in whispers, demonstrating with their every movement and every word that no one was forgetting what was happening just then and what was yet to take place in the bedroom. Pierre did not eat, although he felt hungry. He glanced round enquiringly at his guide and saw her tiptoeing back out into the reception room, where Prince Vasily and the eldest princess had remained. Pierre assumed that this too was as it ought to be and, after waiting for a moment, he followed her. Anna Mikhailovna was standing beside the princess and they were both talking at the same time in excited whispers:

“Be so good, my dear princess, as to permit me to know what is necessary and what is not,” said the younger woman, evidently still in the same state of excitement in which she had slammed the door of her room.

“But my dear princess,” Anna Mikhailovna said mildly and earnestly, blocking the way from the bedroom and not allowing the eldest princess to pass, “will it not be too distressing for poor uncle at such a moment, when he is in need of rest? A discussion of worldly matters at such a moment, when his soul has already been prepared …”

Prince Vasily was sitting in an armchair in his familiar pose, with one leg crossed high over the other. His cheeks were twitching violently and had sunk so that they appeared fatter at the bottom, but he had the air of a man little interested in the two ladies’ conversation.

“Listen, my dear Anna Mikhailovna, leave Katish to do as she knows best. You know how the count loves her.”

“I do not even know what is in this document,” said Katish, turning towards Prince Vasily and indicating the mosaic document case that she was holding. “I only know that the genuine will is in his bureau, and this forgotten piece of paper …” She tried to walk round Anna Mikhailovna, but with a little hop Anna Mikhailovna barred her way once again.

“I know, my dear, kind princess,” said Anna Mikhailovna, grabbing hold of the document case with one hand so tightly that it was clear that she would not let it go easily. “My dear princess, I beg you, I implore you, have pity on him. I implore you.”

The eldest princess said nothing. The only thing to be heard were the sounds of the struggle for the document case. It was evident that if she were to speak, it would be to say something unflattering to Anna Mikhailovna. Anna Mikhailovna was clinging on tight, but despite that, her voice remained as sweet and syrupy as ever.

“Pierre, come over here, my friend. I think he has a place in a family council, does he not, prince?”

“Why do you say nothing, cousin?” the eldest princess suddenly screeched so loudly that they heard it in the drawing room and took fright at the sound of her voice. “Why do you say nothing, when anyone who wishes to can take it upon themselves to interfere and make scenes at the door of a dying man’s room? Schemer!” she whispered venomously and tugged on the document case with all her strength, but Anna Mikhailovna took a few steps forward in order not to be separated from the case and renewed her grip.

“Oh!” said Prince Vasily in reproachful amazement. He stood up. “This is absurd. Come now, let go, I tell you.”

The eldest princess let go.

“And you.”

Anna Mikhailovna did not obey him.

“Let go, I tell you. I take everything on myself. I shall go and ask him. I … enough of this from you.”

“But prince, after such a great sacrament, allow him a moment’s peace. You, Pierre, tell us your opinion,” she said to the young man, who had come right up close to them and was staring in astonishment at the princess’s embittered face that had lost all decorum, and at Prince Vasily’s twitching cheeks.

“Remember that you will answer for all the consequences,” Prince Vasily said severely. “You do not know what you are doing.”

“Loathsome woman,” screeched the eldest princess, unexpectedly throwing herself at Anna Mikhailovna and snatching away the document case. Prince Vasily lowered his head and spread his arms in despair.

At that moment the terrible door at which Pierre had been looking for so long and which had always opened so quietly, was noisily thrown wide open, banging against the wall, and the middle princess ran out fluttering her arms in the air.

“What are you doing?” she said in a desperate voice. “He is dying, and you leave me alone!”

The eldest princess dropped the document case. Anna Mikhailovna quickly bent down, snatched up the object of contention and ran into the bedroom. The eldest princess and Prince Vasily came to their senses and followed her. The first to emerge a few minutes later was the eldest princess, her face pale and cold and her lower lip bitten. At the sight of Pierre, her face assumed an expression of irrepressible spite. “Yes, now you can rejoice,” she said, “this what you were waiting for.” Bursting into sobs, she hid her face in her handkerchief and ran out of the room.

THE STRUGGLE FOR THE DOCUMENT CASE Drawing by M.S. Bashilov, 1866 (#ulink_ebb4c7a9-e312-534d-b1f6-2f4eaee92873)