Prince Andrey glanced at Timohin, who was staring in alarm and bewilderment at his colonel. In contrast to his usual reserved taciturnity, Prince Andrey seemed excited now. Apparently he could not refrain from expressing the ideas that suddenly rose to his mind. “The battle is won by the side that has firmly resolved to win. Why did we lose the battle of Austerlitz？ Our losses were almost equalled by the French losses; but we said to ourselves very early in the day that we were losing the battle, and we lost it. And we said so because we had nothing to fight for then; we wanted to get out of fighting as quick as we could. ‘We are defeated; so let us run！’ and we did run. If we had not said that till evening, God knows what might not have happened. But to-morrow we shan’t say that. You talk of our position, of the left flank being weak, and the right flank too extended,” he went on; “all that’s nonsense; that’s all nothing. But what awaits us to-morrow？ A hundred millions of the most diverse contingencies, which will determine on the instant whether they run or we do; whether one man is killed and then another; but all that’s being done now is all mere child’s play. The fact is that these people with whom you have been inspecting the positions do nothing towards the progress of things; they are a positive hindrance. They are entirely taken up with their own petty interests.”
“At such a moment？” said Pierre reproachfully.
“At such a moment,” repeated Prince Andrey. “To them this is simply a moment on which one may score off a rival and win a cross or ribbon the more. To my mind what is before us to-morrow is this： a hundred thousand Russian and a hundred thousand French troops have met to fight, and the fact is that these two hundred thousand men will fight, and the side that fights most desperataly and spares itself least will conquer. And if you like, I’ll tell you that whatever happens, and whatever mess they make up yonder, we shall win the battle to-morrow; whatever happens we shall win the victory.”
“Your excellency, that’s the truth of it, the holy truth,” put in Timohin; “who would spare himself now！ The soldiers in my battalion, would you believe it, wouldn’t drink their vodka; this isn’t an ordinary day, they say.”
All were silent.
The officers rose. Prince Andrey went with them out of the barn, giving the last instructions to the adjutant. When the officers had gone, Pierre came nearer to Prince Andrey, and was just about to begin talking when they heard the tramp of hoofs not far away on the road, and glancing in that direction Prince Andrey recognised Woltzogen and Klausewitz, accompanied by a Cossack. They rode close by them, still talking, and Pierre and Prince Andrey could not help overhearing the following phrases in German：
“The war ought to be carried on over a wide extent of country. I cannot sufficiently strongly express that view of the matter,” one said in German.
“Oh yes,” said another voice, “since the object is to wear out the enemy, one must not consider the losses of private persons.”
“Certainly not,” acquiesced the first voice.
“Carried into a wide extent of country,” Prince Andrey repeated with a wrathful snort, when they had ridden by. “In that open country I had a father and son and sister at Bleak Hills. He doesn’t care about that. That’s just what I was saying to you： these excellent Germans won’t win the battle to-morrow, they will only make a mess of it, so far as they are able, because they have nothing in their German noddles but calculations that are not worth a rotten egg, and they haven’t in their hearts the one thing that’s wanted for to-morrow, that Timohin has. They have given all Europe up to him, and now they have come to teach us—fine teachers！” he added, his voice growing shrill again
“So you think the battle to-morrow will be a victory,” said Pierre.
“Yes, yes,” said Prince Andrey absently. “There’s one thing I would do, if I were in power,” he began again. “I wouldn’t take prisoners. What sense is there in taking prisoners？ That’s chivalry. The French have destroyed my home and are coming to destroy Moscow; they have outraged and are outraging me at every second. They are my enemies, they are all criminals to my way of thinking. And so thinks Timohin, and all the army with him. They must be put to death. Since they are my enemies, they can’t be my friends, whatever they may have said at Tilsit.”
“Yes, yes,” said Pierre, looking with shining eyes at Prince Andrey. “I entirely agree with you！”