War and Peace

Chapter 46

Both the Countess and Martha understood that neither Moscow nor Moscow's fire or anything else could ever attract her attention.This morning, when Nates heard that Duke Andrele was seriously injured and was walking with them, she kept asking and asking to visit him, but after others rejected her request, she stopped. asked, without saying a word.She is thinking about one thing, is brewing one thing, maybe she has already decided now.The countess knew that Natess would think about it, but she didn't know what her daughter was thinking, so she became more and more worried and frightened.

At night, Nates listened to the movement inside and outside the house for a long time, it was very quiet.

"Martha, are you still awake? Mom?" she called softly.No one answered.Natsise got up slowly and carefully, crossed herself, and slowly moved her thin, limp feet over the dirty and cold floor.She walked slowly, like a kitten, ran quickly, and finally grabbed the cold doorknob.

She felt that something heavy was beating regularly on the walls of the room.It was the beating of her heart, flustered with terror, with love.

All day long, her main concern was to look forward to seeing him at night.But now, as she was about to see him, she was terrified of what she was about to see.What will he become?Would he be moaning all the time like this lieutenant?Yes, he will be.In her mind, he was the incarnation of this terrible moan.

She saw him, still the same as before, but his face was reddish with fever.He gazed into her shining eyes with ecstasy.His childlike slender neck, which was exposed outside his clothes, gave him an innocent and unique childlike expression.She came up to him and knelt down quickly and lightly.

He smiled immediately, and he held out his hand to her.

[32]

Seven days have passed since Duke Andrele woke up in the infirmary of the Polagello battlefield.During this period, he was often unconscious, and doctors said that high fever and intestinal inflammation caused his fatal illness.

Prince Andrey was beginning to understand where he was and what had happened, and he recalled his pain and his wish to move into the cottage when the carriage arrived in Mytishchi.Then, he passed out again.When he woke up, he recalled everything he had experienced.He sees the suffering of the one he hates, and he immediately has the idea that he may be happy.Just when he woke up from the coma for the second time, it was already late at night.

His mental activity is in an abnormal condition.His mind was more active than ever, very clear, and yet not controlled by will.He thought of Natès clearly, but not only, as in the old days, with the charm of her which he had loved, but also with her heart.For the first time, he understood the cruelty of leaving her, and the cruelty of breaking up with her. "I wish I could see her again, just once, and then I'd look her in the eye and say..."

A light wind blew, and a white sphinx appeared in front of him.The sphinx had a pale face and bright eyes, the very face and eyes of Nadès that he remembered now.Thinking of this, he fell unconscious again.

When he regained consciousness, Natès, this very Natés, the one he loved most in the world, the one whom he now wanted to love with some new, holy feeling, was on his knees. by his side.He knew it was true, and he wasn't surprised, just secretly pleased.Nates knelt motionless, suppressing her sobs, and looked at him in terror.His face was pale and frozen, only his jaw was trembling.

Duke Andrele sighed, smiled and held out a hand. "It's you?" he said, "how happy!" Natess, who was on the ground, moved quickly but carefully to his side, took his hand lightly, bent towards his face, and kissed him tenderly. . "Please forgive me!" She replied softly, looking up at him, "Please don't blame me!" "I love you..." "I hope you forgive..."

"For what things?" asked Andrelet. "Forgive me... for what I did." Natess said intermittently in a voice that was barely audible, and kissed Andrée's hand lightly more frequently. "I love you more than ever." Duke Andrele held her face up so that he could see her eyes.

Those eyes, full of tears of happiness, looked at him timidly, sympathetically, joyfully, and lovingly.Her thin, pale face and pursed lips were not only unattractive, but even frightening.But Duke Andrele didn't look at this face, what he saw was the pair of beautiful eyes full of tears.

A maid came to call her, she had been sent by the countess when she discovered that her daughter had disappeared.

She was like a sleepwalker awakened from a dream. When she walked out of that room and returned to her own room, she fell down on the bed and cried loudly.

From that day on, during all subsequent journeys of the Rostaff family, whether resting or staying overnight, she stayed by Duke Andryl's side at every step.Even the doctor admitted that he did not expect a girl to be so strong and take care of a wounded man so meticulously.

[33]

On September [-]rd, Bin-Air woke up late.His head was uncomfortable, and he vaguely felt that he had done a shameful thing before, and that thing was his conversation with Lei Bang.

It was eleven o'clock, but there was still no light in the yard.Bin-Air stood up, wiped his eyes, and found the pistol with a carved handle lying on the table.He knew where he was and what to do today.Bin-Air fastened his belt, lowered his hat, and walked quietly down the corridor to the street.The fire that he had ignored last night had now spread greatly.The capital is now on fire.Binair's route was to go through several alleys to Cook Street, and then to St. Malar's Church on Arbat Street. This was originally his planned action location.Both the Russian and the French looked at Bin-Air curiously.They were amazed by his fat and tall body, curious about his hostile and painful expression, and even more curious about his unidentified behavior and attire.

However, he was indifferent to everything around him, and he was anxiously thinking about his plan, as if he was carrying a scary and unfamiliar thing. Because of yesterday's lesson, he was afraid that he would lose his resolve again.But Bin-Air was doomed not to go according to plan, because Napoleon had already reached the Kremlin from the Dorogomilov Gate via Arbat Street four hours before he reached his destination.

Bin-Air threw himself wholeheartedly into what he was about to do, but he was distressed, like the distress of someone who stubbornly wants to do something that is impossible.This impossibility, not because of difficulty, but because his nature would hinder him.He will be distressed because he is afraid that he will be weak again at the last moment.

As he approached Cook Street, the smoke grew thicker, and he even felt the heat of the fire.Suddenly, he heard the hopeless cries of a woman beside him.He stopped, and then raised his head like someone waking up from a dream.A middle-aged woman was describing leaving her youngest daughter in a burning building to move things.Seeing Bin Aier's sympathetic and excited expression, she understood that this man could help her.

Guided by the maid, he rescued the little girl from a burning house that was about to collapse.

[34]

Bin-Air led the little girl through many yards and streets to Gruzinski's building on Cook Street.At first he didn't recognize the place where he saw the girl's mother, because it was already crowded with people and furniture dragged from all the houses.In the original position, he did not see the official and his wife.He walked around in the crowd and saw all kinds of faces.A Georgian or Armenian family member caught his attention.Among the family, there is an old man wearing a new leather jacket and new boots with an oriental face. An old lady and a young woman next to him also have the same face. The young woman In his opinion, it is simply a symbol of oriental beauty.

Just as Bin-Air was inquiring everywhere to find out where the little girl's parents were, he found that two French soldiers had already walked up to the oriental family.One of them forced the old man to take off the new pair of boots, while the other walked slowly up to the beautiful oriental beauty and took her by the neck with both hands.With a loud cry, the necklace was ripped from the neck.

Seeing this, Bin-Air forgot everything.He became so powerful that before the Frenchmen had time to draw their daggers, he threw himself on him, threw the Frenchman to the ground, and struck him hard with his fists.There was applause from the onlookers, and at that moment a patrol of mounted Lancers came into the street.It was an arsonist patrol, and they found the dagger from his body, and they immediately believed that Bin-Air was an arsonist.Bin-Air was then placed in solitary confinement in the house under strict guard.

(End of this chapter)