________________________________________________
_ Princess Mary was not in Moscow and out of danger as Prince Andrew
supposed.
After the return of Alpatych from Smolensk the old prince suddenly
seemed to awake as from a dream. He ordered the militiamen to be
called up from the villages and armed, and wrote a letter to the
commander in chief informing him that he had resolved to remain at
Bald Hills to the last extremity and to defend it, leaving to the
commander in chief's discretion to take measures or not for the
defense of Bald Hills, where one of Russia's oldest generals would
be captured or killed, and he announced to his household that he would
remain at Bald Hills.
But while himself remaining, he gave instructions for the
departure of the princess and Dessalles with the little prince to
Bogucharovo and thence to Moscow. Princess Mary, alarmed by her
father's feverish and sleepless activity after his previous apathy,
could not bring herself to leave him alone and for the first time in
her life ventured to disobey him. She refused to go away and her
father's fury broke over her in a terrible storm. He repeated every
injustice he had ever inflicted on her. Trying to convict her, he told
her she had worn him out, had caused his quarrel with his son, had
harbored nasty suspicions of him, making it the object of her life
to poison his existence, and he drove her from his study telling her
that if she did not go away it was all the same to him. He declared
that he did not wish to remember her existence and warned her not to
dare to let him see her. The fact that he did not, as she had
feared, order her to be carried away by force but only told her not to
let him see her cheered Princess Mary. She knew it was a proof that in
the depth of his soul he was glad she was remaining at home and had
not gone away.
The morning after little Nicholas had left, the old prince donned
his full uniform and prepared to visit the commander in chief. His
caleche was already at the door. Princess Mary saw him walk out of the
house in his uniform wearing all his orders and go down the garden
to review his armed peasants and domestic serfs. She sat by the window
listening to his voice which reached her from the garden. Suddenly
several men came running up the avenue with frightened faces.
Princess Mary ran out to the porch, down the flower-bordered path,
and into the avenue. A large crowd of militiamen and domestics were
moving toward her, and in their midst several men were supporting by
the armpits and dragging along a little old man in a uniform and
decorations. She ran up to him and, in the play of the sunlight that
fell in small round spots through the shade of the lime-tree avenue,
could not be sure what change there was in his face. All she could see
was that his former stern and determined expression had altered to one
of timidity and submission. On seeing his daughter he moved his
helpless lips and made a hoarse sound. It was impossible to make out
what he wanted. He was lifted up, carried to his study, and laid on
the very couch he had so feared of late.
The doctor, who was fetched that same night, bled him and said
that the prince had had seizure a paralyzing his right side.
It was becoming more and more dangerous to remain at Bald Hills, and
next day they moved the prince to Bogucharovo, the doctor accompanying
him.
By the time they reached Bogucharovo, Dessalles and the little
prince had already left for Moscow.
For three weeks the old prince lay stricken by paralysis in the
new house Prince Andrew had built at Bogucharovo, ever in the same
state, getting neither better nor worse. He was unconscious and lay
like a distorted corpse. He muttered unceasingly, his eyebrows and
lips twitching, and it was impossible to tell whether he understood
what was going on around him or not. One thing was certain- that he
was suffering and wished to say something. But what it was, no one
could tell: it might be some caprice of a sick and half-crazy man,
or it might relate to public affairs, or possibly to family concerns.
The doctor said this restlessness did not mean anything and was
due to physical causes; but Princess Mary thought he wished to tell
her something, and the fact that her presence always increased his
restlessness confirmed her opinion.
He was evidently suffering both physically and mentally. There was
no hope of recovery. It was impossible for him to travel, it would not
do to let him die on the road. "Would it not be better if the end
did come, the very end?" Princess Mary sometimes thought. Night and
day, hardly sleeping at all, she watched him and, terrible to say,
often watched him not with hope of finding signs of improvement but
wishing to find symptoms of the approach of the end.
Strange as it was to her to acknowledge this feeling in herself, yet
there it was. And what seemed still more terrible to her was that
since her father's illness began (perhaps even sooner, when she stayed
with him expecting something to happen), all the personal desires
and hopes that had been forgotten or sleeping within her had awakened.
Thoughts that had not entered her mind for years- thoughts of a life
free from the fear of her father, and even the possibility of love and
of family happiness- floated continually in her imagination like
temptations of the devil. Thrust them aside as she would, questions
continually recurred to her as to how she would order her life now,
after that. These were temptations of the devil and Princess Mary knew
it. She knew that the sole weapon against him was prayer, and she
tried to pray. She assumed an attitude of prayer, looked at the icons,
repeated the words of a prayer, but she could not pray. She felt
that a different world had now taken possession of her- the life of
a world of strenuous and free activity, quite opposed to the spiritual
world in which till now she had been confined and in which her
greatest comfort had been prayer. She could not pray, could not
weep, and worldly cares took possession of her.
It was becoming dangerous to remain in Bogucharovo. News of the
approach of the French came from all sides, and in one village, ten
miles from Bogucharovo, a homestead had been looted by French
marauders.
The doctor insisted on the necessity of moving the prince; the
provincial Marshal of the Nobility sent an official to Princess Mary
to persuade her to get away as quickly as possible, and the head of
the rural police having come to Bogucharovo urged the same thing,
saying that the French were only some twenty-five miles away, that
French proclamations were circulating in the villages, and that if the
princess did not take her father away before the fifteenth, he could
not answer for the consequences.
The princess decided to leave on the fifteenth. The cares of
preparation and giving orders, for which everyone came to her,
occupied her all day. She spent the night of the fourteenth as
usual, without undressing, in the room next to the one where the
prince lay. Several times, waking up, she heard his groans and
muttering, the creak of his bed, and the steps of Tikhon and the
doctor when they turned him over. Several times she listened at the
door, and it seemed to her that his mutterings were louder than
usual and that they turned him over oftener. She could not sleep and
several times went to the door and listened, wishing to enter but
not deciding to do so. Though he did not speak, Princess Mary saw
and knew how unpleasant every sign of anxiety on his account was to
him. She had noticed with what dissatisfaction he turned from the look
she sometimes involuntarily fixed on him. She knew that her going in
during the night at an unusual hour would irritate him.
But never had she felt so grieved for him or so much afraid of
losing him. She recalled all her life with him and in every word and
act of his found an expression of his love of her. Occasionally amid
these memories temptations of the devil would surge into her
imagination: thoughts of how things would be after his death, and
how her new, liberated life would be ordered. But she drove these
thoughts away with disgust. Toward morning he became quiet and she
fell asleep.
She woke late. That sincerity which often comes with waking showed
her clearly what chiefly concerned her about her father's illness.
On waking she listened to what was going on behind the door and,
hearing him groan, said to herself with a sigh that things were
still the same.
"But what could have happened? What did I want? I want his death!"
she cried with a feeling of loathing for herself.
She washed, dressed, said her prayers, and went out to the porch. In
front of it stood carriages without horses and things were being
packed into the vehicles.
It was a warm, gray morning. Princess Mary stopped at the porch,
still horrified by her spiritual baseness and trying to arrange her
thoughts before going to her father. The doctor came downstairs and
went out to her.
"He is a little better today," said he. "I was looking for you.
One can make out something of what he is saying. His head is
clearer. Come in, he is asking for you..."
Princess Mary's heart beat so violently at this news that she grew
pale and leaned against the wall to keep from falling. To see him,
talk to him, feel his eyes on her now that her whole soul was
overflowing with those dreadful, wicked temptations, was a torment
of joy and terror.
"Come," said the doctor.
Princess Mary entered her father's room and went up to his bed. He
was lying on his back propped up high, and his small bony hands with
their knotted purple veins were lying on the quilt; his left eye gazed
straight before him, his right eye was awry, and his brows and lips
motionless. He seemed altogether so thin, small, and pathetic. His
face seemed to have shriveled or melted; his features had grown
smaller. Princess Mary went up and kissed his hand. His left hand
pressed hers so that she understood that he had long been waiting
for her to come. He twitched her hand, and his brows and lips quivered
angrily.
She looked at him in dismay trying to guess what he wanted of her.
When she changed her position so that his left eye could see her
face he calmed down, not taking his eyes off her for some seconds.
Then his lips and tongue moved, sounds came, and he began to speak,
gazing timidly and imploringly at her, evidently afraid that she might
not understand.
Straining all her faculties Princess Mary looked at him. The comic
efforts with which he moved his tongue made her drop her eyes and with
difficulty repress the sobs that rose to her throat. He said
something, repeating the same words several times. She could not
understand them, but tried to guess what he was saying and inquiringly
repeated the words he uttered.
"Mmm...ar...ate...ate..." he repeated several times.
It was quite impossible to understand these sounds. The doctor
thought he had guessed them, and inquiringly repeated: "Mary, are
you afraid?" The prince shook his head, again repeated the same
sounds.
"My mind, my mind aches?" questioned Princess Mary.
He made a mumbling sound in confirmation of this, took her hand, and
began pressing it to different parts of his breast as if trying to
find the right place for it.
"Always thoughts... about you... thoughts..." he then uttered much
more clearly than he had done before, now that he was sure of being
understood.
Princess Mary pressed her head against his hand, trying to hide
her sobs and tears.
He moved his hand over her hair.
"I have been calling you all night..." he brought out.
"If only I had known..." she said through her tears. "I was afraid
to come in."
He pressed her hand.
"Weren't you asleep?"
"No, I did not sleep," said Princess Mary, shaking her head.
Unconsciously imitating her father, she now tried to express herself
as he did, as much as possible by signs, and her tongue too seemed
to move with difficulty.
"Dear one... Dearest..." Princess Mary could not quite make out what
he had said, but from his look it was clear that he had uttered a
tender caressing word such as he had never used to her before. "Why
didn't you come in?"
"And I was wishing for his death!" thought Princess Mary.
He was silent awhile.
"Thank you... daughter dear!... for all, for all... forgive!...
thank you!... forgive!... thank you!..." and tears began to flow
from his eyes. "Call Andrew!" he said suddenly, and a childish,
timid expression of doubt showed itself on his face as he spoke.
He himself seemed aware that his demand was meaningless. So at least
it seemed to Princess Mary.
"I have a letter from him," she replied.
He glanced at her with timid surprise.
"Where is he?"
"He's with the army, Father, at Smolensk."
He closed his eyes and remained silent a long time. Then as if in
answer to his doubts and to confirm the fact that now he understood
and remembered everything, he nodded his head and reopened his eyes.
"Yes," he said, softly and distinctly. "Russia has perished. They've
destroyed her."
And he began to sob, and again tears flowed from his eyes.
Princess Mary could no longer restrain herself and wept while she
gazed at his face.
Again he closed his eyes. His sobs ceased, he pointed to his eyes,
and Tikhon, understanding him, wiped away the tears.
Then he again opened his eyes and said something none of them
could understand for a long time, till at last Tikhon understood and
repeated it. Princess Mary had sought the meaning of his words in
the mood in which he had just been speaking. She thought he was
speaking of Russia, or Prince Andrew, of herself, of his grandson,
or of his own death, and so she could not guess his words.
"Put on your white dress. I like it," was what he said.
Having understood this Princess Mary sobbed still louder, and the
doctor taking her arm led her out to the veranda, soothing her and
trying to persuade her to prepare for her journey. When she had left
the room the prince again began speaking about his son, about the war,
and about the Emperor, angrily twitching his brows and raising his
hoarse voice, and then he had a second and final stroke.
Princess Mary stayed on the veranda. The day had cleared, it was hot
and sunny. She could understand nothing, think of nothing and feel
nothing, except passionate love for her father, love such as she
thought she had never felt till that moment. She ran out sobbing
into the garden and as far as the pond, along the avenues of young
lime trees Prince Andrew had planted.
"Yes... I... I... I wished for his death! Yes, I wanted it to end
quicker.... I wished to be at peace.... And what will become of me?
What use will peace be when he is no longer here?" Princess Mary
murmured, pacing the garden with hurried steps and pressing her
hands to her bosom which heaved with convulsive sobs.
When she had completed the tour of the garden, which brought her
again to the house, she saw Mademoiselle Bourienne- who had remained
at Bogucharovo and did not wish to leave it- coming toward her with
a stranger. This was the Marshal of the Nobility of the district,
who had come personally to point out to the princess the necessity for
her prompt departure. Princess Mary listened without understanding
him; she led him to the house, offered him lunch, and sat down with
him. Then, excusing herself, she went to the door of the old
prince's room. The doctor came out with an agitated face and said
she could not enter.
"Go away, Princess! Go away... go away!"
She returned to the garden and sat down on the grass at the foot
of the slope by the pond, where no one could see her. She did not know
how long she had been there when she was aroused by the sound of a
woman's footsteps running along the path. She rose and saw Dunyasha
her maid, who was evidently looking for her, and who stopped
suddenly as if in alarm on seeing her mistress.
"Please come, Princess... The Prince," said Dunyasha in a breaking
voice.
"Immediately, I'm coming, I'm coming!" replied the princess
hurriedly, not giving Dunyasha time to finish what she was saying, and
trying to avoid seeing the girl she ran toward the house.
"Princess, it's God's will! You must be prepared for everything,"
said the Marshal, meeting her at the house door.
"Let me alone; it's not true!" she cried angrily to him.
The doctor tried to stop her. She pushed him aside and ran to her
father's door. "Why are these people with frightened faces stopping
me? I don't want any of them! And what are they doing here?" she
thought. She opened the door and the bright daylight in that
previously darkened room startled her. In the room were her nurse
and other women. They all drew back from the bed, making way for
her. He was still lying on the bed as before, but the stern expression
of his quiet face made Princess Mary stop short on the threshold.
"No, he's not dead- it's impossible!" she told herself and
approached him, and repressing the terror that seized her, she pressed
her lips to his cheek. But she stepped back immediately. All the force
of the tenderness she had been feeling for him vanished instantly
and was replaced by a feeling of horror at what lay there before
her. "No, he is no more! He is not, but here where he was is something
unfamiliar and hostile, some dreadful, terrifying, and repellent
mystery!" And hiding her face in her hands, Princess Mary sank into
the arms of the doctor, who held her up.
In the presence of Tikhon and the doctor the women washed what had
been the prince, tied his head up with a handkerchief that the mouth
should not stiffen while open, and with another handkerchief tied
together the legs that were already spreading apart. Then they dressed
him in uniform with his decorations and placed his shriveled little
body on a table. Heaven only knows who arranged all this and when, but
it all got done as if of its own accord. Toward night candles were
burning round his coffin, a pall was spread over it, the floor was
strewn with sprays of juniper, a printed band was tucked in under
his shriveled head, and in a corner of the room sat a chanter
reading the psalms.
Just as horses shy and snort and gather about a dead horse, so the
inmates of the house and strangers crowded into the drawing room round
the coffin- the Marshal, the village Elder, peasant women- and all
with fixed and frightened eyes, crossing themselves, bowed and
kissed the old prince's cold and stiffened hand. _
Read next: Book Ten: 1812: Chapter 9
Read previous: Book Ten: 1812: Chapter 7
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