Chương Chương 275 · 第275章

After the execution Pierre was separated from the rest of the prisoners

and placed alone in a small, ruined, and befouled church.

Toward evening a noncommissioned officer entered with two soldiers and

told him that he had been pardoned and would now go to the barracks for

the prisoners of war. Without understanding what was said to him, Pierre

got up and went with the soldiers. They took him to the upper end of the

field, where there were some sheds built of charred planks, beams,

and battens, and led him into one of them. In the darkness some twenty

different men surrounded Pierre. He looked at them without understanding

who they were, why they were there, or what they wanted of him. He heard

what they said, but did not understand the meaning of the words and

made no kind of deduction from or application of them. He replied to

questions they put to him, but did not consider who was listening to his

replies, nor how they would understand them. He looked at their faces

and figures, but they all seemed to him equally meaningless.

From the moment Pierre had witnessed those terrible murders committed by

men who did not wish to commit them, it was as if the mainspring of

his life, on which everything depended and which made everything appear

alive, had suddenly been wrenched out and everything had collapsed

into a heap of meaningless rubbish. Though he did not acknowledge it to

himself, his faith in the right ordering of the universe, in humanity,

in his own soul, and in God, had been destroyed. He had experienced this

before, but never so strongly as now. When similar doubts had assailed

him before, they had been the result of his own wrongdoing, and at the

bottom of his heart he had felt that relief from his despair and from

those doubts was to be found within himself. But now he felt that

the universe had crumbled before his eyes and only meaningless ruins

remained, and this not by any fault of his own. He felt that it was not

in his power to regain faith in the meaning of life.

Around him in the darkness men were standing and evidently something

about him interested them greatly. They were telling him something and

asking him something. Then they led him away somewhere, and at last he

found himself in a corner of the shed among men who were laughing and

talking on all sides.

“Well, then, mates... that very prince who...” some voice at the other

end of the shed was saying, with a strong emphasis on the word who.

Sitting silent and motionless on a heap of straw against the wall,

Pierre sometimes opened and sometimes closed his eyes. But as soon as

he closed them he saw before him the dreadful face of the factory

lad—especially dreadful because of its simplicity—and the faces of the

murderers, even more dreadful because of their disquiet. And he opened

his eyes again and stared vacantly into the darkness around him.

Beside him in a stooping position sat a small man of whose presence he

was first made aware by a strong smell of perspiration which came from

him every time he moved. This man was doing something to his legs in the

darkness, and though Pierre could not see his face he felt that the man

continually glanced at him. On growing used to the darkness Pierre saw

that the man was taking off his leg bands, and the way he did it aroused

Pierre’s interest.

Having unwound the string that tied the band on one leg, he carefully

coiled it up and immediately set to work on the other leg, glancing up

at Pierre. While one hand hung up the first string the other was already

unwinding the band on the second leg. In this way, having carefully

removed the leg bands by deft circular motions of his arm following

one another uninterruptedly, the man hung the leg bands up on some pegs

fixed above his head. Then he took out a knife, cut something, closed

the knife, placed it under the head of his bed, and, seating himself

comfortably, clasped his arms round his lifted knees and fixed his eyes

on Pierre. The latter was conscious of something pleasant, comforting,

and well-rounded in these deft movements, in the man’s well-ordered

arrangements in his corner, and even in his very smell, and he looked at

the man without taking his eyes from him.

“You’ve seen a lot of trouble, sir, eh?” the little man suddenly said.

And there was so much kindliness and simplicity in his singsong voice

that Pierre tried to reply, but his jaw trembled and he felt tears

rising to his eyes. The little fellow, giving Pierre no time to betray

his confusion, instantly continued in the same pleasant tones:

“Eh, lad, don’t fret!” said he, in the tender singsong caressing voice

old Russian peasant women employ. “Don’t fret, friend—‘suffer an hour,

live for an age!’ that’s how it is, my dear fellow. And here we live,

thank heaven, without offense. Among these folk, too, there are good

men as well as bad,” said he, and still speaking, he turned on his knees

with a supple movement, got up, coughed, and went off to another part of

the shed.

“Eh, you rascal!” Pierre heard the same kind voice saying at the other

end of the shed. “So you’ve come, you rascal? She remembers... Now, now,

that’ll do!”

And the soldier, pushing away a little dog that was jumping up at

him, returned to his place and sat down. In his hands he had something

wrapped in a rag.

“Here, eat a bit, sir,” said he, resuming his former respectful tone as

he unwrapped and offered Pierre some baked potatoes. “We had soup for

dinner and the potatoes are grand!”

Pierre had not eaten all day and the smell of the potatoes seemed

extremely pleasant to him. He thanked the soldier and began to eat.

“Well, are they all right?” said the soldier with a smile. “You should

do like this.”

He took a potato, drew out his clasp knife, cut the potato into two

equal halves on the palm of his hand, sprinkled some salt on it from the

rag, and handed it to Pierre.

“The potatoes are grand!” he said once more. “Eat some like that!”

Pierre thought he had never eaten anything that tasted better.

“Oh, I’m all right,” said he, “but why did they shoot those poor

fellows? The last one was hardly twenty.”

“Tss, tt...!” said the little man. “Ah, what a sin... what a sin!” he

added quickly, and as if his words were always waiting ready in his

mouth and flew out involuntarily he went on: “How was it, sir, that you

stayed in Moscow?”

“I didn’t think they would come so soon. I stayed accidentally,” replied

Pierre.

“And how did they arrest you, dear lad? At your house?”

“No, I went to look at the fire, and they arrested me there, and tried

me as an incendiary.”

“Where there’s law there’s injustice,” put in the little man.

“And have you been here long?” Pierre asked as he munched the last of

the potato.

“I? It was last Sunday they took me, out of a hospital in Moscow.”

“Why, are you a soldier then?”

“Yes, we are soldiers of the Ápsheron regiment. I was dying of fever. We

weren’t told anything. There were some twenty of us lying there. We had

no idea, never guessed at all.”

“And do you feel sad here?” Pierre inquired.

“How can one help it, lad? My name is Platón, and the surname is

Karatáev,” he added, evidently wishing to make it easier for Pierre to

address him. “They call me ‘little falcon’ in the regiment. How is one

to help feeling sad? Moscow—she’s the mother of cities. How can one see

all this and not feel sad? But ‘the maggot gnaws the cabbage, yet dies

first’; that’s what the old folks used to tell us,” he added rapidly.

“What? What did you say?” asked Pierre.

“Who? I?” said Karatáev. “I say things happen not as we plan but as God

judges,” he replied, thinking that he was repeating what he had said

before, and immediately continued:

“Well, and you, have you a family estate, sir? And a house? So you have

abundance, then? And a housewife? And your old parents, are they still

living?” he asked.

And though it was too dark for Pierre to see, he felt that a suppressed

smile of kindliness puckered the soldier’s lips as he put these

questions. He seemed grieved that Pierre had no parents, especially that

he had no mother.

“A wife for counsel, a mother-in-law for welcome, but there’s none as

dear as one’s own mother!” said he. “Well, and have you little ones?” he

went on asking.

Again Pierre’s negative answer seemed to distress him, and he hastened

to add:

“Never mind! You’re young folks yet, and please God may still have some.

The great thing is to live in harmony....”

“But it’s all the same now,” Pierre could not help saying.

“Ah, my dear fellow!” rejoined Karatáev, “never decline a prison or a

beggar’s sack!”

He seated himself more comfortably and coughed, evidently preparing to

tell a long story.

“Well, my dear fellow, I was still living at home,” he began. “We had

a well-to-do homestead, plenty of land, we peasants lived well and our

house was one to thank God for. When Father and we went out mowing

there were seven of us. We lived well. We were real peasants. It so

happened...”

And Platón Karatáev told a long story of how he had gone into someone’s

copse to take wood, how he had been caught by the keeper, had been

tried, flogged, and sent to serve as a soldier.

“Well, lad,” and a smile changed the tone of his voice, “we thought it

was a misfortune but it turned out a blessing! If it had not been for

my sin, my brother would have had to go as a soldier. But he, my younger

brother, had five little ones, while I, you see, only left a wife

behind. We had a little girl, but God took her before I went as a

soldier. I come home on leave and I’ll tell you how it was, I look and

see that they are living better than before. The yard full of cattle,

the women at home, two brothers away earning wages, and only Michael the

youngest, at home. Father, he says, ‘All my children are the same to

me: it hurts the same whichever finger gets bitten. But if Platón hadn’t

been shaved for a soldier, Michael would have had to go.’ called us

all to him and, will you believe it, placed us in front of the icons.

‘Michael,’ he says, ‘come here and bow down to his feet; and you, young

woman, you bow down too; and you, grandchildren, also bow down before

him! Do you understand?’ he says. That’s how it is, dear fellow. Fate

looks for a head. But we are always judging, ‘that’s not well—that’s

not right!’ Our luck is like water in a dragnet: you pull at it and it

bulges, but when you’ve drawn it out it’s empty! That’s how it is.”

And Platón shifted his seat on the straw.

After a short silence he rose.

“Well, I think you must be sleepy,” said he, and began rapidly crossing

himself and repeating:

“Lord Jesus Christ, holy Saint Nicholas, Frola and Lavra! Lord Jesus

Christ, holy Saint Nicholas, Frola and Lavra! Lord Jesus Christ, have

mercy on us and save us!” he concluded, then bowed to the ground, got

up, sighed, and sat down again on his heap of straw. “That’s the way.

Lay me down like a stone, O God, and raise me up like a loaf,” he

muttered as he lay down, pulling his coat over him.

“What prayer was that you were saying?” asked Pierre.

“Eh?” murmured Platón, who had almost fallen asleep. “What was I saying?

I was praying. Don’t you pray?”

“Yes, I do,” said Pierre. “But what was that you said: Frola and Lavra?”

“Well, of course,” replied Platón quickly, “the horses’ saints. One must

pity the animals too. Eh, the rascal! Now you’ve curled up and got warm,

you daughter of a bitch!” said Karatáev, touching the dog that lay at

his feet, and again turning over he fell asleep immediately.

Sounds of crying and screaming came from somewhere in the distance

outside, and flames were visible through the cracks of the shed, but

inside it was quiet and dark. For a long time Pierre did not sleep, but

lay with eyes open in the darkness, listening to the regular snoring

of Platón who lay beside him, and he felt that the world that had been

shattered was once more stirring in his soul with a new beauty and on

new and unshakable foundations.