บทที่ บทที่ 283 · 第283章

Bennigsen’s note and the Cossack’s information that the left flank

of the French was unguarded were merely final indications that it was

necessary to order an attack, and it was fixed for the fifth of October.

On the morning of the fourth of October Kutúzov signed the dispositions.

Toll read them to Ermólov, asking him to attend to the further

arrangements.

“All right—all right. I haven’t time just now,” replied Ermólov, and

left the hut.

The dispositions drawn up by Toll were very good. As in the Austerlitz

dispositions, it was written—though not in German this time:

“The First Column will march here and here,” “the Second Column will

march there and there,” and so on; and on paper, all these columns

arrived at their places at the appointed time and destroyed the enemy.

Everything had been admirably thought out as is usual in dispositions,

and as is always the case, not a single column reached its place at the

appointed time.

When the necessary number of copies of the dispositions had been

prepared, an officer was summoned and sent to deliver them to Ermólov

to deal with. A young officer of the Horse Guards, Kutúzov’s orderly,

pleased at the importance of the mission entrusted to him, went to

Ermólov’s quarters.

“Gone away,” said Ermólov’s orderly.

The officer of the Horse Guards went to a general with whom Ermólov was

often to be found.

“No, and the general’s out too.”

The officer, mounting his horse, rode off to someone else.

“No, he’s gone out.”

“If only they don’t make me responsible for this delay! What a nuisance

it is!” thought the officer, and he rode round the whole camp. One man

said he had seen Ermólov ride past with some other generals, others said

he must have returned home. The officer searched till six o’clock in the

evening without even stopping to eat. Ermólov was nowhere to be found

and no one knew where he was. The officer snatched a little food at

a comrade’s, and rode again to the vanguard to find Milorádovich.

Milorádovich too was away, but here he was told that he had gone to a

ball at General Kíkin’s and that Ermólov was probably there too.

“But where is it?”

“Why, there, over at Échkino,” said a Cossack officer, pointing to a

country house in the far distance.

“What, outside our line?”

“They’ve put two regiments as outposts, and they’re having such a spree

there, it’s awful! Two bands and three sets of singers!”

The officer rode out beyond our lines to Échkino. While still at a

distance he heard as he rode the merry sounds of a soldier’s dance song

proceeding from the house.

“In the meadows... in the meadows!” he heard, accompanied by whistling

and the sound of a torban, drowned every now and then by shouts. These

sounds made his spirits rise, but at the same time he was afraid that

he would be blamed for not having executed sooner the important order

entrusted to him. It was already past eight o’clock. He dismounted

and went up into the porch of a large country house which had remained

intact between the Russian and French forces. In the refreshment room

and the hall, footmen were bustling about with wine and viands. Groups

of singers stood outside the windows. The officer was admitted and

immediately saw all the chief generals of the army together, and among

them Ermólov’s big imposing figure. They all had their coats unbuttoned

and were standing in a semicircle with flushed and animated faces,

laughing loudly. In the middle of the room a short handsome general with

a red face was dancing the trepák with much spirit and agility.

“Ha, ha, ha! Bravo, Nicholas Iványch! Ha, ha, ha!”

The officer felt that by arriving with important orders at such a moment

he was doubly to blame, and he would have preferred to wait; but one of

the generals espied him and, hearing what he had come about, informed

Ermólov.

Ermólov came forward with a frown on his face and, hearing what the

officer had to say, took the papers from him without a word.

“You think he went off just by chance?” said a comrade, who was on the

staff that evening, to the officer of the Horse Guards, referring to

Ermólov. “It was a trick. It was done on purpose to get Konovnítsyn into

trouble. You’ll see what a mess there’ll be tomorrow.”