2 Golokhvastov, the husband of my father's younger sister, Yelizaveta.
3
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And I smiled with pride, pleased that I had taken part in the war.
'At the beginning we got along somehow, for the first few days, that is; it was only that t\vo or three soldiers would come in and ask by signs whether there wasn't anything to drink ; we would take them a glass each, of course, and they would go away, and touch their caps to us, too. But then, you see, when fires began and k('pt getting worse and \Vorse, there was such disord('r, plundering and all sorts of horrors. At that time we were living in thP lodge at the princess's3 and the house caught fire ; th('n Pavel Ivanovich said, "Let's go to my house: it is built of stone ; it stands far back in the courtyard and the outer walls are properly built."
'So we went, mast('rS and sen·ants all together-there was no difference made; we went out into the Tverskoy Boulevard and th(' trees \vere beginning to burn-we made our way at last to the Golokhvastovs' house and it 'vas simply blazing, flames from every \vindow. Pav('l I vanovich was dumbfounded, he couldn't believe his eyes. B('hind thP house thPre is a big garden, you know; \\"!' "·('nt into it thinking we would be safe there. \Ve sat there on the seats grieving, when, all at once, a mob of drunken soldiers were upon us: one set about trying to pull off Pavel Ivanovich's shePpskin travelling coat; the old man would not give it up, and the soldi('r pulled out his sword and struck him smack in the face with it so that he kept the scar to the end of his days : the others S('t upon us: on(' soldier tore you from your nurse, openPd your baby-clothes to see if ther(' were any moneynot('S or diamonds hidden among thPm, saw there was nothing there, and so in a rage he deliberately tore your clothes to pieces and flung thPm down. As soon as they had gone away, we were in troublP again. Do you rem('mber our Platon who was sent for a soldier) He was dreadfully fond of drink and that day he was very full of courage ; he tied on a sabre and \valked about like that. The day b('fOrP thP enemy ent('red, Count Rostopchin4 had distributed all sorts of weapons at the arsenal ; so that was how he had got hold of a sabre. Towards the evening he sa\v a dragoon ride into tlw yard : there \vas a horse standing near the stable, the dragoon wanted to take it, but Platon rushed head-3 Anna Borisovna Meshchersky. ( A .S.)
4 Rostopchin. Fedor Yasilevich. Count ( 1 763-1826) . Governor of Moscow in 1 8 1 2. Believ<:>d to have set lire to the city when
·
the French entered.
( Tr.)
Nursery and University
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long at him and, catching hold of the bridle, said: "The horse is ours, I won't give it to you." The dragoon threatened him with a pistol, but seemingly it was not loaded ; the master himself saw what was happening and shouted to Platon: "Let the horse alone, it's not your business." But not a bit of it! Platon pulled out his sabre and struck him again and again. "Well," thought we,
"now the hour of our death is come; when his comrades see him, it will be the end of us." But when the dragoon fell off Platon seized him by the feet and dragged him to a pit full of lime and threw him in, poor fellow, and he was still alive; his horse stood there and did not stir from the place, but stamped its foot on the ground as though it understood; our servants shut it in the stable; it must have been burnt there. We all hurried out of the courtyard, the fire was more and more dreadful; worn out and with nothing to eat, we got into a house that was still untouched, and set about getting some rest; in less than an hour, our people were shouting from the street: "Come out, come out !
Fire! Fire ! " Then I took a piece o f green baize from the billiard table and wrapped you in it to keep you from the night air; and so we made our way as far as the Tverskoy Square. There the French were trying to put the fire out, because some great man of theirs was living in the governor's house; we simply sat in the street ; sentries were walking everywhere, others were riding by on horseback. And you were screaming, straining yourself with crying, your nurse had no more milk, no one had a bit of bread.
Natalya Konstantinovna was with us then, a bold wench, you know; she saw that some soldiers were eating something in a corner, took you and went straight to them, showed you and said
"manger for the little one" ; at first they looked at her so sternly and said "allez, allez," but she fell to scolding them. "Ah, you cursed brutes," she said, "You this and that"; the soldiers did not understand a word, but they burst out laughing and gave her some bread soaked in water for you and a crust for herself. Early in the morning an officer came up and gathered together all the men and your papa with them, leaving only the women and Pavel lvanovich who was wounded, and took them to put out the fire in the houses nearby, so we remained alone till evening; we sat and cried and that was all. When it was dusk, the master came back and with him some sort of officer. . . .'
Allow me to take the old woman's place and continue her narrative. When my father had finished his duties as a firebrigade man, he met by the Strastny monastery a squadron of Italian cavalry; he went up to �heir officer and told him in Italian the situation his family was in. When the Italian heard
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la sua dolce favella he promised to speak to the Duke of Treviso,5
and as a preliminary measure to put a sentry to guard us and prevent barbarous scenes such as had taken place in the Golokhvastovs' garden. He sent an officer to accompany my father with these instructions. Hearing that the \vhole party had eaten nothing for two days, the officer led us all to a shop that had been broken into; the choicest tea, with the buds in it, and Levant coffee had been thrown about on the floor, together with a great number of dates, figs, and almonds; our servants stuffed their pockets fulclass="underline" there was no lack of dessert. The sentry turned out to be of the greatest use to us: a dozen times gangs of soldiers began molesting the luckless group of women and servants encamped in the corner of Tverskoy Square, but they moved off immediately at his command.
Mortier remembered that he had known my father in Paris and informed Napoleon ; Napoleon ordered him to be presented next morning. In a shabby, dark blue, short coat with bronze buttons, intended for sporting wear, without his wig, in high boots that had not been cleaned for several days, with dirty linen and unshaven chin, my father-who worshipped decorum and strict etiquette-made his appearance in the throne room of the Kremlin Palace at the summons of the Emperor of the French.
Their conversation which I have heard many times is fairly correctly given in Baron Fain's6 History and in that of Mikhaylovsky-Danilevsky.
After the usual phrases, abrupt words and laconic remarks, to which a deep meaning was ascribed for thirty-five years, till men realised that their meaning was often quite trivial, Napoleon blamed Rostopchin for the fire, said that it was vandalism, declared as usual his invincible love of peace, maintained that his war was against England and not against Russia, boasted that he had set a guard on the Foundling Hospital and the Uspensky Cathedral, complained of Alexander, and said that he was surrounded by bad advisers and that his (Napoleon's) peaceful inclinations were not known to the Emperor.