War And Peace

‘Oh, leave him alone. Why not?’ said Pierre, taking Nikolay by the arm. He had more to say. ‘I told them it won’t do. We need something else. While you’re standing there waiting for something to give, while everybody’s waiting for the coup that is bound to come, as many people as possible ought to get together, close ranks and join hands against the disaster that’s coming to us all. All our youth and strength is being enticed away and corrupted. Some are seduced by women, some by honours, others by ambition or money – they’re all going over to the other side. When it comes to independent, honest men like you and me – there’s nobody left. I’ll tell you what to do: broaden the scope of our Society. Let the watchword be not just loyalty, but independence and action!’

Nikolay had walked away from his nephew, and now he moved an armchair up, and irritably sat down in it. As he listened to Pierre he kept clearing his throat to show he wasn’t happy, and his scowl grew darker and darker.

‘Yes action, but what for?’ he shouted. ‘And how will you stand in relation to the government?’

‘I’ll tell you how. We’ll be on the government’s side! Maybe the Society doesn’t have to be a secret one, as long as the government will allow it. We’re not hostile to the government, we’re a society of real conservatives. A society of gentlemen, in the fullest sense of the word. We’re here to stop Pugachov¹⁷ coming along tomorrow and massacring my children and yours, to stop Arakcheyev sending me to a labour camp. That’s why we’re joining hands – with the sole object of ensuring everybody’s welfare and security.’

‘Yes, but it’s a secret society, so it’s hostile and dangerous. It can only spawn evil.’

‘Why’s that, then? Did the Tugendbund¹⁸ that saved Europe turn out to be dangerous?’ (At that time no one was bold enough to think that Russia had saved Europe.) ‘That’s what it is, a League of Virtue. It’s love and mutual help. It’s what Christ preached on the cross . . .’

Natasha came in at this point, in mid-conversation, and looked at her husband with great delight. It was not what he was saying that made her happy. That didn’t seem particularly interesting, because she saw it all as very straightforward, something she had known for a very long time. (She saw it this way because she knew where it all came from – the depths of Pierre’s soul.) What pleased her was his eager, enthusiastic presence.

Pierre was being watched with even more solemn rapture by the forgotten boy with the slender neck protruding from its turned-down collar. Every word Pierre uttered set his heart on fire, and his fingers moved nervously as he picked up sticks of sealing-wax and quill pens that came to hand on his uncle’s desk and snapped them in pieces without realizing what he was doing.

‘It’s not what you’re thinking. What I’m proposing is a society just like the German Tugendbund.’

‘Well, my fwend, it may be all wight for the kwauts, this Tugendbund, but I can’t understand it. I can’t even pwonounce it pwoperly,’ came the loud, authoritative voice of Denisov. ‘Everything’s wotten and cowwupt, I give you that. But I can’t understand all this Tugendbund wigmawole. Now give me a good old Wussian bunt¹⁹ and I’m your man!’

Pierre smiled and Natasha laughed, but Nikolay scowled more darkly than ever, and began arguing with Pierre that no coup was in the offing, and the danger he was on about didn’t exist outside his imagination. Pierre took the opposite line, and since his intellectual capacity was sharper and more versatile, Nikolay was soon at a loss for words. This made him angrier than ever, because deep down he felt convinced, not by reason but by something stronger than reason, that his point of view was the right one.

‘Well, let me tell you this,’ he said, getting to his feet, trying nervously to stand his pipe up in the corner, and then flinging it down. ‘I can’t prove what I’m saying. You say everything’s rotten, and there’s going to be a coup. I can’t see it. But you also say our oath of allegiance is only provisional, and what I say is this – you’re my closest friend, as you well know, but if you formed a secret society and began working against the government – any government of ours – I know it would be my duty to obey the government. And if Arakcheyev tells me today to march a squadron against you and finish you off, I shan’t hesitate for a second, I shall go. So there you have it.’

An awkward silence ensued. Natasha was the first to break it by defending her husband and attacking her brother. Her defence was feeble and clumsy, but it did its job. The discussion began again, and without the unpleasant hostility engendered by Nikolay’s last words.

When they all got up to go in to supper little Nikolay went over to Pierre with a pale face and a gleam in his luminous eyes.

‘Uncle Pierre . . . you . . . er, no . . . If Papa had been alive . . . would he have been on your side?’ he asked.