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Volume I, Part Two, Chapter XV

Having ridden along the whole line from right to left, Prince Andrei made his way up to the battery from which the staff officer had told him the whole field could be seen. Here he dismounted, and stopped beside the farthest of the four unlimbered cannon. Before the guns an artillery sentry was pacing up and down; he stood at attention when the officer arrived, but at a sign resumed his measured, monotonous pacing. Behind the guns were their limbers, and still farther back the picket ropes and the artillerymen's fires. To the left, not far from the farthest cannon, was a newly constructed wattle shed, from which came the sounds of animated officers' voices.

It was true that a view over almost the whole Russian position and the greater part of the enemy's opened out from this battery. Just facing it, on the crest of the opposite hill, the village of Schöngrabern could be seen, and in three places to left and right the French troops could be distinguished amid the smoke of their campfires, the greater part of whom were evidently in the village itself and behind the hill. To the left from that village, amid the smoke, was something resembling a battery, but it was impossible to see it clearly with the naked eye. Our right flank was posted on a rather steep incline which dominated the French position. Our infantry were stationed there, and at the farthest point the dragoons. In the center, where Tushin's battery stood and from which Prince Andrei was surveying the position, was the easiest and most direct descent and ascent to the brook separating us from Schöngrabern. On the left our troops were close to a copse, in which smoked the fires of our infantry who were felling wood. The French line was wider than ours, and it was plain that they could easily outflank us on both sides. Behind our position was a steep and deep ravine, making it difficult for artillery and cavalry to retire. Prince Andrei took out his notebook and, leaning on the cannon, sketched a plan of the position. He made some notes in pencil in two places, intending to mention them to Bagration. He proposed, first, to concentrate all the artillery in the center, and secondly, to withdraw the cavalry to the other side of the ravine. Prince Andrei, being continually near the commander in chief, following the mass movements and general orders, and also constantly studying historical descriptions of battles, involuntarily pictured to himself the course of action in the approaching engagement only in broad outline. He imagined only important possibilities: "If the enemy attacks the right flank," he said to himself, "the Kiev grenadiers and the Podolsk chasseurs must hold their position till the reserves from the center come up. In that case the dragoons could successfully make a flank charge. If they attack our center, we, having the center battery on this elevation, shall withdraw the left flank under its cover, and retreat to the ravine by echelons," so he reasoned...

All the time he had been beside the gun he had heard the voices of the officers conversing in the shed, but as often happens had not understood a word of what they were saying. Suddenly, however, he was struck by a voice from the shed, its tone was so sincere that he could not help listening.

— No, my dear fellow, — said a pleasant and, as it seemed to Prince Andrei, a familiar voice, — what I say is that if it were possible to know what is beyond death, none of us would be afraid of it. That's so, my dear fellow.

Another, a younger voice, interrupted him:

— Afraid or not, you can't escape it anyhow.

— All the same, one is afraid! Oh, you clever people, — said a third, manly voice interrupting them both. — Of course you artillerymen are very wise, because you can take everything with you, vodka and snacks.

And the owner of the manly voice, evidently an infantry officer, laughed.

— Still, one is afraid, — continued the first familiar voice. — One is afraid of the unknown, that's what it is. Whatever we may say about the soul going to the sky... we know there is no sky, but only an atmosphere.

The manly voice again interrupted the artillery officer.

— Well, stand us some of your herb vodka, Tushin, — it said.

"Why, that's the captain who was at the sutler's in his stocking feet," thought Prince Andrei, glad to recognize the pleasant philosophizing voice.

— You can have some herb vodka, — said Tushin, — but still, to conceive a future life... — He did not finish.

Just then there was a whistle in the air; nearer and nearer, faster and louder, louder and faster, and a cannon ball, as if it had not finished saying what was necessary, with superhuman force thudded into the ground, tearing it up, not far from the shed. The earth seemed to groan at the terrible blow.

At the same moment little Tushin, with his pipe bitten on one side, darted out of the shed ahead of the others; his kind, intelligent face was rather pale. After him emerged the owner of the manly voice, a dashing infantry officer, who hurried off to his company, buttoning up his coat as he ran.