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- Author: graf Leo Tolstoy
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âHe is a man in a gray overcoat, very anxious that I should call him âYour Majesty,â but who, to his chagrin, got no title from me! Thatâs the sort of man he is, and nothing more,â replied DolgorĂșkov, looking round at BilĂbin with a smile.
âDespite my great respect for old KutĂșzov,â he continued, âwe should be a nice set of fellows if we were to wait about and so give him a chance to escape, or to trick us, now that we certainly have him in our hands! No, we mustnât forget SuvĂłrov and his ruleânot to put yourself in a position to be attacked, but yourself to attack. Believe me in war the energy of young men often shows the way better than all the experience of old Cunctators.â
âBut in what position are we going to attack him? I have been at the outposts today and it is impossible to say where his chief forces are situated,â said Prince Andrew.
He wished to explain to DolgorĂșkov a plan of attack he had himself formed.
âOh, that is all the same,â DolgorĂșkov said quickly, and getting up he spread a map on the table. âAll eventualities have been foreseen. If he is standing before BrĂŒnn...â
And Prince DolgorĂșkov rapidly but indistinctly explained Weyrotherâs plan of a flanking movement.
Prince Andrew began to reply and to state his own plan, which might have been as good as Weyrotherâs, but for the disadvantage that Weyrotherâs had already been approved. As soon as Prince Andrew began to demonstrate the defects of the latter and the merits of his own plan, Prince DolgorĂșkov ceased to listen to him and gazed absent-mindedly not at the map, but at Prince Andrewâs face.
âThere will be a council of war at KutĂșzovâs tonight, though; you can say all this there,â remarked DolgorĂșkov.
âI will do so,â said Prince Andrew, moving away from the map.
âWhatever are you bothering about, gentlemen?â said BilĂbin, who, till then, had listened with an amused smile to their conversation and now was evidently ready with a joke. âWhether tomorrow brings victory or defeat, the glory of our Russian arms is secure. Except your KutĂșzov, there is not a single Russian in command of a column! The commanders are: Herr General Wimpfen, le Comte de Langeron, le Prince de Lichtenstein, le Prince de Hohenlohe, and finally Prishprish, and so on like all those Polish names.â
âBe quiet, backbiter!â said DolgorĂșkov. âIt is not true; there are now two Russians, MilorĂĄdovich, and DokhtĂșrov, and there would be a third, Count ArakchĂ©ev, if his nerves were not too weak.â
âHowever, I think General KutĂșzov has come out,â said Prince Andrew. âI wish you good luck and success, gentlemen!â he added and went out after shaking hands with DolgorĂșkov and BilĂbin.
On the way home, Prince Andrew could not refrain from asking KutĂșzov, who was sitting silently beside him, what he thought of tomorrowâs battle.
KutĂșzov looked sternly at his adjutant and, after a pause, replied: âI think the battle will be lost, and so I told Count TolstĂły and asked him to tell the Emperor. What do you think he replied? âBut, my dear general, I am engaged with rice and cutlets, look after military matters yourself!â Yes... That was the answer I got!â
Shortly after nine oâclock that evening, Weyrother drove with his plans to KutĂșzovâs quarters where the council of war was to be held. All the commanders of columns were summoned to the commander in chiefâs and with the exception of Prince BagratiĂłn, who declined to come, were all there at the appointed time.
Weyrother, who was in full control of the proposed battle, by his eagerness and briskness presented a marked contrast to the dissatisfied and drowsy KutĂșzov, who reluctantly played the part of chairman and president of the council of war. Weyrother evidently felt himself to be at the head of a movement that had already become unrestrainable. He was like a horse running downhill harnessed to a heavy cart. Whether he was pulling it or being pushed by it he did not know, but rushed along at headlong speed with no time to consider what this movement might lead to. Weyrother had been twice that evening to the enemyâs picket line to reconnoiter personally, and twice to the Emperors, Russian and Austrian, to report and explain, and to his headquarters where he had dictated the dispositions in German, and now, much exhausted, he arrived at KutĂșzovâs.
He was evidently so busy that he even forgot to be polite to the commander in chief. He interrupted him, talked rapidly and indistinctly, without looking at the man he was addressing, and did not reply to questions put to him. He was bespattered with mud and had a pitiful, weary, and distracted air, though at the same time he was haughty and self-confident.
KutĂșzov was occupying a noblemanâs castle of modest dimensions near Ostralitz. In the large drawing room which had become the commander in chiefâs office were gathered KutĂșzov himself, Weyrother, and the members of the council of war. They were drinking tea, and only awaited Prince BagratiĂłn to begin the council. At last BagratiĂłnâs orderly came with the news that the prince could not attend. Prince Andrew came in to inform the commander in chief of this and, availing himself of permission previously given him by KutĂșzov to be present at the council, he remained in the room.
âSince Prince BagratiĂłn is not coming, we may begin,â said Weyrother, hurriedly rising from his seat and going up to the table on which an enormous map of the environs of BrĂŒnn was spread out.
KutĂșzov, with his uniform unbuttoned so that his fat neck bulged over his collar as if escaping, was sitting almost asleep in a low chair, with his podgy old hands resting symmetrically on its arms. At the sound of Weyrotherâs voice, he opened his one eye with an effort.
âYes, yes, if you please! It is already late,â said he, and nodding his head he let it droop and again closed his eye.
If at first the members of the council thought that KutĂșzov was pretending to sleep, the sounds his nose emitted during the reading that followed proved that the commander in chief at that moment was absorbed by a far more serious matter than a desire to show his contempt for the dispositions or anything elseâhe was engaged in satisfying the irresistible human need for sleep. He really was asleep. Weyrother, with the gesture of a man too busy to lose a moment, glanced at KutĂșzov and, having convinced himself that he was asleep, took up a paper and in a loud, monotonous voice began to read out the dispositions for the impending battle, under a heading which he also read out:
âDispositions for an attack on the enemy position behind Kobelnitz and Sokolnitz, November 30, 1805.â
The dispositions were very complicated and difficult. They began as follows:
âAs the enemyâs left wing rests on wooded hills and his right extends along Kobelnitz and Sokolnitz behind the ponds that are there, while we, on the other hand, with our left wing by far outflank his right, it is advantageous to attack the enemyâs latter wing especially if we occupy the villages of Sokolnitz and Kobelnitz, whereby we can both fall on his flank and
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