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War And Peace: Book 9 - CHAPTER XXII
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ON THE MORNING of the 15th, the next day but one, a great number of carriages
stood outside the Slobodsky palace.
The great halls were full. In the first were the noblemen in their uniforms;
in the second there were merchants with medals and long beards, wearing blue,
full-skirted coats. The first room was full of noise and movement. The more
important personages were sitting on high-backed chairs at a big table under the
Tsar's portrait; but the greater number of the noblemen were walking about the
hall.
The noblemen, whom Pierre saw every day either at the club or at their
houses, were all in uniforms; some in those of Catherine's court, some in those
of the Emperor Pavel, and some in the new uniforms of Alexander's reign, others
in the common uniforms of the nobility, and the general character of their dress
gave a strange and fantastic look to these old and young, most diverse and
familiar faces. Particularly striking were the older men, dim-eyed, toothless,
bald, and thin, with faces wrinkled or lost in yellow fat. They sat still for
the most part and were silent, or if they walked and talked, attached themselves
to some one younger. Just like the faces Petya had seen in the crowd, all these
faces, in their universal expectation of something solemn, presented a striking
contrast with their everyday, yesterday's aspect, when talking over their game
of boston, Petrushka the cook, the health of Zinaida Dmitryevna, etc.,
etc.
Pierre, who had been since early morning in an uncomfortable uniform, that
had become too tight for him, was in the room. He was in a state of excitement;
this extraordinary assembly, not only of the nobility, but of the merchant class
too¡ªthe estates, ¨¦tats g¨¦n¨¦raux¡ªcalled up in him a whole series of ideas
of the Contrat Social and the French Revolution, ideas imprinted deeply
on his soul, though they had long been laid aside. The words he had noticed in
the manifesto, that the Tsar was coming to the capital for deliberation
with his people, confirmed him in this chain of thought. And supposing that
something of importance in that direction was near at hand, that what he had
long been looking for was coming, he looked and listened attentively, but he saw
nowhere any expression of the ideas that engrossed him.
The Tsar's manifesto was read, and evoked enthusiasm; and then all moved
about, talking. Apart from their everyday interests, Pierre heard discussion as
to where the marshals were to stand when the Tsar should come in, when the ball
was to be given for the Tsar, whether they were to be divided according to
districts or the whole province together¡ and so on. But as soon as the war and
the whole object of their meeting together was touched upon, the talk was
uncertain and hesitating. Every one seemed to prefer listening to
speaking.
A manly-looking, handsome, middle-aged man, wearing the uniform of a retired
naval officer, was speaking, and a little crowd was gathered about him in one of
the rooms. Pierre went up to the circle that had formed round him, and began to
listen. Count Ilya Andreitch, in his uniform of Catherine's time, was walking
about with a pleasant smile among the crowd, with all of whom he was acquainted.
He too approached this group, and began to listen with a good-humoured smile, as
he always did listen, nodding his head approvingly in token of his agreeing with
the speaker. The retired naval officer was speaking very boldly (that could be
seen from the expression on the faces of the listeners and from the fact that
some persons, known to Pierre as particularly submissive and timid, drew back
from him in disapprobation or expressed dissent). Pierre pushed his way into the
middle of the circle, listened, and gained the conviction that the speaker
certainly was a liberal, but in quite a different sense from what Pierre was
looking for. The naval officer spoke in the peculiarly mellow, sing-song
baritone of a Russian nobleman, with peculiar burring of the r's and
suppression of the consonants, in the voice in which men shout: ¡°Waiter, pipe!¡±
and such phrases. He talked with the habit of riotous living and of authority in
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