seen were exactly what she had seen in the mirror. She had in fact seen nothing then but had mentioned the first thing that came into her head, but what she had invented then seemed to her now as real as any other recollection. She not only remembered what she had then said - that he turned to look at her and smiled and was covered with something red - but was firmly convinced that she had then seen and said that he was covered with a pink quilt and that his eyes were closed. "Yes, yes, it really was pink!" cried Natasha, who now thought she too remembered the word pink being used, and saw in this the most extraordinary and mysterious part of the prediction. "But what does it mean?" she added meditatively. "Oh, I don’t know, it is all so strange," replied Sonya, clutching at her head. A few minutes later Prince Andrew rang and Natasha went to him, but Sonya, feeling unusually excited and touched, remained at the window thinking about the strangeness of what had occurred. They had an opportunity that day to send letters to the army, and the countess was writing to her son. "Sonya!" said the countess, raising her eyes from her letter as her niece passed, "Sonya, won’t you write to Nicholas?" She spoke in a soft, tremulous voice, and in the weary eyes that looked over her spectacles Sonya read all that the countess meant to convey with these words. Those eyes expressed entreaty, shame at having to ask, fear of a refusal, and readiness for relentless hatred in case of such refusal. Sonya went up to the countess and, kneeling down, kissed her hand. "Yes, Mamma, I will write," said she. Sonya was softened, excited, and touched by all that had occurred that day, especially by the mysterious fulfillment she had just seen of her vision. Now that she knew that the renewal of Natasha’s relations with Prince Andrew would prevent Nicholas from marrying Princess Mary, she was joyfully conscious of a return of that self-sacrificing spirit in which she was accustomed to live and loved to live. So with a joyful consciousness of performing a magnanimous deed - interrupted several times by the tears that dimmed her velvety black eyes - she wrote that touching letter the arrival of which had so amazed Nicholas. CHAPTER IX The officer and soldiers who had arrested Pierre treated him with hostility but yet with respect, in the guardhouse to which he was taken. In their attitude toward him could still be felt both uncertainty as to who he might be - perhaps a very important person - and hostility as a result of their recent personal conflict with him. But when the guard was relieved next morning, Pierre felt that for the new guard - both officers and men - he was not as interesting as he had been to his captors; and in fact the guard of the second day did not recognize in this big, stout man in a peasant coat the vigorous person who had fought so desperately with the marauder and the convoy and had uttered those solemn words about saving a child; they saw in him only No. 17 of the captured Russians, arrested and detained for some reason by order of the Higher Command. If they noticed anything remarkable about Pierre, it was only his unabashed, meditative concentration and thoughtfulness, and the way he spoke French, which struck them as surprisingly good. In spite of this he was placed that day with the other arrested suspects, as the separate room he had occupied was required by an officer. All the Russians confined with Pierre were men of the lowest class and, recognizing him as a gentleman, they all avoided him, more especially as he spoke French. Pierre felt sad at hearing them making fun of him. That evening he learned that all these prisoners (he, probably, among them) were to be tried for incendiarism. On the third day he was taken with the others to a house where a French general with a white mustache sat with two colonels and other Frenchmen with scarves on their arms. With the precision and definiteness customary in addressing prisoners, and which is supposed to preclude human frailty, Pierre like the others was questioned as to who he was, where he had been, with what object, and so on. These questions, like questions put at trials generally, left the essence of the matter aside, shut out the possibility of that essence’s being revealed, and were designed only to form a channel through which the judges wished the answers of the accused to flow so as to lead to the desired result, namely a conviction. As soon as Pierre began to say anything that did not fit in with that aim, the channel was removed and the water could flow to waste. Pierre felt, moreover, what the accused always feel at their trial, perplexity as to why these questions were put to him. He had a feeling that it was only out of condescension or a kind of civility that this device of placing a channel was employed. He knew he was in these men’s power, that only by force had they brought him there, that force alone gave them the right to demand answers to their questions, and that the sole object of that assembly was to inculpate him. And so, as they had the power and wish to inculpate him, this expedient of an inquiry and trial seemed unnecessary. It was evident that any answer would lead to conviction. When asked what he was doing when he was arrested, Pierre replied in a rather tragic manner that he was restoring to its parents a child he had saved from the flames. Why had he fought the marauder? Pierre answered that he "was protecting a woman," and that "to protect a woman who was being insulted was the duty of every man; that..." They interrupted him, for this was not to the point. Why was he in the yard of a burning house where witnesses had seen him? He replied that he had gone out to see what was happening in Moscow. Again they interrupted him: they had not asked where he was going, but why he was found near the fire? Who was he? they asked, repeating their first question, which he had declined to answer. Again he replied that he could not answer it. "Put that down, that’s bad... very bad," sternly remarked the general with the white mustache and red flushed face. On the fourth day fires broke out on the Zubovski rampart. Pierre and thirteen others were moved to the coach house of a merchant’s house near the Crimean bridge. On his way through the streets Pierre felt stifled by the smoke which seemed to hang over the whole city. Fires were visible on all sides. He did not then realize the significance of the burning of Moscow, and looked at the fires with horror. He passed four days in the coach house near the Crimean bridge and during that time learned, from the talk of the French soldiers, that all those confined there were awaiting a decision which might come any day from the marshal. What marshal this was, Pierre could not learn from the soldiers. Evidently for them "the marshal" represented a very high and rather mysterious power. These first days, before the eighth of September when the prisoners were had up for a second examination, were the hardest of all for Pierre. CHAPTER X On the eighth of September an officer - a very important one judging by the respect the guards showed him - entered the coach house where the prisoners were. This officer, probably someone on the staff, was holding a paper in his hand, and called over all the Russians there, naming Pierre as "the man who does not give his name." Glancing indolently and indifferently at all the prisoners, he ordered the officer in charge to have them decently dressed and tidied up before taking them to the marshal. An hour later a squad of soldiers arrived and Pierre with thirteen others was led to the Virgin’s Field. It was a fine day, sunny after rain, and the air was unusually pure. The smoke did not hang low as on the day when Pierre had been taken from the guardhouse on the Zubovski rampart, but rose through the pure air in columns. No flames were seen, but columns of smoke rose on all sides, and all Moscow as far as Pierre could see was one vast charred ruin. On all sides there were waste spaces with only stoves and chimney stacks still standing, and here and there the blackened walls of some brick houses. Pierre gazed at the ruins and did not recognize districts he had known well. Here and there he could see churches that had not been burned. The Kremlin, which was not destroyed, gleamed white in the distance with its towers and the belfry of Ivan the Great. The domes of the New Convent of the Virgin glittered brightly and its bells were ringing particularly clearly. These bells reminded Pierre that it was Sunday and the feast of the Nativity of the Virgin. But there seemed to be no one to celebrate this holiday: everywhere were blackened ruins, and the few Russians to be seen were tattered and frightened people who tried to hide when they saw the French. It was plain that the Russian nest was ruined and destroyed, but in place of the Russian order of life that had been destroyed, Pierre unconsciously felt that a quite different, firm, French order had been established over this ruined nest. He felt this in the looks of the soldiers who, marching in regular ranks briskly and gaily, were escorting him and the other criminals; he felt it in the looks of an important French official in a carriage and pair driven by a soldier, whom they met on the way. He felt it in the merry sounds of regimental music he heard from the left side of the field, and felt and realized it especially from the list of prisoners the French officer had read out when he came that morning. Pierre had been taken by one set of soldiers and led first to one and then to another place with dozens of other men, and it seemed that they might have forgotten him, or confused him with the others. But no: the answers he had given when questioned had come back to him in his designation as "the man who does not give his name," and under that appellation, which to Pierre seemed terrible, they were now leading him somewhere with unhesitating assurance on their faces that he and all the other prisoners were exactly the ones they wanted and that they were being taken to the proper place. Pierre felt himself to be an insignificant chip fallen among the wheels of a machine whose action he did not understand but which was working well. He and the other prisoners were taken to the right side of the Virgin’s Field, to a large white house with an immense garden not far from the convent. This was Prince Shcherbatov’s house, where Pierre had often been in other days, and which, as he learned from the talk of the soldiers, was now occupied by the marshal, the Duke of Eckmuhl (Davout). They were taken to the entrance and led into the house one by one. Pierre was the sixth to enter. He was conducted through a glass gallery, an anteroom, and a hall, which were familiar to him, into a long low study at the door of which stood an adjutant. Davout, spectacles on nose, sat bent over a table at the further end of the room. Pierre went close up to him, but Davout, evidently consulting a paper that lay before him, did not look up. Without raising his eyes, he said in a low voice: "Who are you?" Pierre was silent because he was incapable of uttering a word. To him Davout was not merely a French general, but a man notorious for his cruelty. Looking at his cold face, as he sat like a stern schoolmaster who was prepared to wait awhile for an answer, Pierre felt that every instant of delay might cost him his life; but he did not know what to say. He did not venture to repeat what he had said at his first examination, yet to disclose his rank and position was dangerous and embarrassing. So he was silent. But before he had decided what to do, Davout raised his head, pushed his spectacles back on his forehead, screwed up his eyes, and looked intently at him. "I know that man," he said in a cold, measured tone, evidently calculated to frighten Pierre. The chill that had been running down Pierre’s back now seized his head as in a vise. "You cannot know me, General, I have never seen you..." "He is a Russian spy," Davout interrupted, addressing another general who was present, but whom Pierre had not noticed. Davout turned away. With an unexpected reverberation in his voice Pierre rapidly began: "No, monseigneur," he said, suddenly remembering that Davout was a duke. "No, monseigneur, you cannot have known me. I am a militia officer and have not quitted Moscow." "Your name?" asked Davout. "Bezukhov." "What proof have I that you are not lying?" "Monseigneur!" exclaimed Pierre, not in an offended but in a pleading voice. Davout looked up and gazed intently at him. For some seconds they looked at one another, and that look saved Pierre. Apart from conditions of war and law, that look established human relations between the two men. At that moment an immense number of things passed dimly through both their minds, and they realized that they were both children of humanity and were brothers. At the first glance, when Davout had only raised his head from the papers where human affairs and lives were indicated by numbers, Pierre was merely a circumstance, and Davout could have shot him without burdening his conscience with an evil deed, but now he saw in him a human being. He reflected for a moment. "How can you show me that you are telling the truth?" said Davout coldly. Pierre remembered Ramballe, and named him and his regiment and the street where the house was. "You are not what you say," returned Davout. In a trembling, faltering voice Pierre began adducing proofs of the truth of his statements. But at that moment an adjutant entered and reported something to Davout. Davout brightened up at the news the adjutant brought, and began buttoning up his uniform. It seemed that he had quite forgotten Pierre. When the adjutant reminded him of the prisoner, he jerked his head in Pierre’s direction with a frown and ordered him to be led away. But where they were to take him Pierre did not know: back to the coach house or to the place of execution his companions had pointed out to him as they crossed the Virgin’s Field. He turned his head and saw that the adjutant was putting another question to Davout. "Yes, of course!" replied Davout, but what this "yes" meant, Pierre did not know. Pierre could not afterwards remember how he went, whether it was far, or in which direction. His faculties were quite numbed, he was stupefied, and noticing nothing around him went on moving his legs as the others did till they all stopped and he stopped too. The only thought in his mind at that time was: who was it that had really sentenced him to death? Not the men on the commission that had first examined him - not one of them wished to or, evidently, could have done it. It was not Davout, who had looked at him in so human a way. In another moment Davout would have realized that he was doing wrong, but just then the adjutant had come in and interrupted him. The adjutant, also, had evidently had no evil intent though he might have refrained from coming in. Then who was executing him, killing him, depriving him of life - him, Pierre, with all his memories, aspirations, hopes, and thoughts? Who was doing this? And Pierre felt that it was no one. It was a system - a concurrence of circumstances. A system of some sort was killing him - Pierre - depriving him of life, of everything, annihilating him. CHAPTER XI From Prince Shcherbatov’s house the prisoners were led straight down the Virgin’s Field, to the left of the nunnery, as far as a kitchen garden in which a post had been set up. Beyond that post a fresh pit had been dug in the ground, and near the post and the pit a large crowd stood in a semicircle. The crowd consisted of a few Russians and many of Napoleon’s soldiers who were not on duty - Germans, Italians, and Frenchmen, in a variety of uniforms. To the right and left of the post stood rows of French troops in blue uniforms with red epaulets and high boots and shakos. The prisoners were placed in a certain order, according to the list (Pierre was sixth), and were led to the post. Several drums suddenly began to beat on both sides of them, and at that sound Pierre felt as if part of his soul had been torn away. He lost the power of thinking or understanding. He could only hear and see. And he had only one wish - that the frightful thing that had to happen should happen quickly. Pierre looked round at his fellow prisoners and scrutinized them. The two first were convicts with shaven heads. One was tall and thin, the other dark, shaggy, and sinewy, with a flat nose. The third was a domestic serf, about forty-five years old, with grizzled hair and a plump, well-nourished body. The fourth was a peasant, a very handsome man with a broad, light-brown beard and black eyes. The fifth was a factory hand, a thin, sallow-faced lad of eighteen in a loose coat. Pierre heard the French consulting whether to shoot them separately or two at a time. "In couples," replied the officer in command in a calm voice. There was a stir in the ranks of the soldiers and it was evident that they were all hurrying - not as men hurry to do something they understand, but as people hurry to finish a necessary but unpleasant and incomprehensible task. A French official wearing a scarf came up to the right of the row of prisoners and read out the sentence in Russian and in French. Then two pairs of Frenchmen approached the criminals and at the officer’s command took the two convicts who stood first in the row. The convicts stopped when they reached the post and, while sacks were being brought, looked dumbly around as a wounded beast looks at an approaching huntsman. One crossed himself continually, the other scratched his back and made a movement of the lips resembling a smile. With hurried hands the soldiers blindfolded them, drawing the sacks over their heads, and bound them to the post. Twelve sharpshooters with muskets stepped out of the ranks with a firm regular tread and halted eight paces from the post. Pierre turned away to avoid seeing what was going to happen. Suddenly a crackling, rolling noise was heard which seemed to him louder than the most terrific thunder, and he looked round. There was some smoke, and the Frenchmen were doing something near the pit, with pale faces and trembling hands. Two more prisoners were led up. In the same way and with similar looks, these two glanced vainly at the onlookers with only a silent appeal for protection in their eyes, evidently unable to understand or believe what was going to happen to them. They could not believe it because they alone knew what their life meant to them, and so they neither understood nor believed that it could be taken from them. Again Pierre did not wish to look and again turned away; but again the sound as of a frightful explosion struck his ear, and at the same moment he saw smoke, blood, and the pale, scared faces of the Frenchmen who were again doing something by the post, their trembling hands impeding one another. Pierre, breathing heavily, looked around as if asking what it meant. The same question was expressed in all the looks that met his. On the faces of all the Russians and of the French soldiers and officers without exception, he read the same dismay, horror, and conflict that were in his own heart. "But who, after all, is doing this? They are all suffering as I am. Who then is it? Who?" flashed for an instant through his mind. "Sharpshooters of the 86th, forward!" shouted someone. The fifth prisoner, the one next to Pierre, was led away - alone. Pierre did not understand that he was saved, that he and the rest had been brought there only to witness the execution. With ever-growing horror, and no sense of joy or relief, he gazed at what was taking place. The fifth man was the factory lad in the loose cloak. The moment they laid hands on him he sprang aside in terror and clutched at Pierre. (Pierre shuddered and shook himself free.) The lad was unable to walk. They dragged him along, holding him up under the arms, and he screamed. When they got him to the post he grew quiet, as if he suddenly understood something. Whether he understood that screaming was useless or whether he thought it incredible that men should kill him, at any rate he took his stand at the post, waiting to be blindfolded like the others, and like a wounded animal looked around him with glittering eyes. Pierre was no longer able to turn away and close his eyes. His curiosity and agitation, like that of the whole crowd, reached the highest pitch at this fifth murder. Like the others this fifth man seemed calm; he wrapped his loose cloak closer and rubbed one bare foot with the other. When they began to blindfold him he himself adjusted the knot which hurt the back of his head; then when they propped him against the bloodstained post, he leaned back and, not being comfortable in that position, straightened himself, adjusted his feet, and leaned back again more comfortably. Pierre did not take his eyes from him and did not miss his slightest movement. Probably a word of command was given and was followed by the reports of eight muskets; but try as he would Pierre could not afterwards remember having heard the slightest sound of the shots. He only saw how the workman suddenly sank down on the cords that held him, how blood showed itself in two places, how the ropes slackened under the weight of the hanging body, and how the workman sat down, his head hanging unnaturally and one leg bent under him. Pierre ran up to the post. No one hindered him. Pale, frightened people were doing something around the workman. The lower jaw of an old Frenchman with a thick mustache trembled as he untied the ropes. The body collapsed. The soldiers dragged it awkwardly from the post and began pushing it into the pit. They all plainly and certainly knew that they were criminals who must hide the traces of their guilt as quickly as possible. Pierre glanced into the pit and saw that the factory lad was lying with his knees close up to his head and one shoulder higher than the other. That shoulder rose and fell rhythmically and convulsively, but spadefuls of earth were already being thrown over the whole body. One of the soldiers, evidently suffering, shouted gruffly and angrily at Pierre to go back. But Pierre did not understand him and remained near the post, and no one drove him away. When the pit had been filled up a command was given. Pierre was taken back to his place, and the rows of troops on both sides of the post made a half turn and went past it at a measured pace. The twenty-four sharpshooters with discharged muskets, standing in the center of the circle, ran back to their places as the companies passed by. Pierre gazed now with dazed eyes at these sharpshooters who ran in couples out of the circle. All but one rejoined their companies. This one, a young soldier, his face deadly pale, his shako pushed back, and his musket resting on the ground, still stood near the pit at the spot from which he had fired. He swayed like a drunken man, taking some steps forward and back to save himself from falling. An old, noncommissioned officer ran out of the ranks and taking him by the elbow dragged him to his company. The crowd of Russians and Frenchmen began to disperse. They all went away silently and with drooping heads. "That will teach them to start fires," said one of the Frenchmen. Pierre glanced round at the speaker and saw that it was a soldier who was trying to find some relief after what had been done, but was not able to do so. Without finishing what he had begun to say he made a hopeless movement with his arm and went away. CHAPTER XII 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 Apsheron 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 Platon, and the surname is Karataev," 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 Karataev. "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 Karataev, "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 Platon Karataev 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 Platon 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 Platon 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 Platon, 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 Platon 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 Karataev, 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 Platon 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. CHAPTER XIII Twenty-three soldiers, three officers, and two officials were confined in the shed in which Pierre had been placed and where he remained for four weeks. When Pierre remembered them afterwards they all seemed misty figures to him except Platon Karataev, who always remained in his mind a most vivid and precious memory and the personification of everything Russian, kindly, and round. When Pierre saw his neighbor next morning at dawn the first impression of him, as of something round, was fully confirmed: Platon’s whole figure - in a French overcoat girdled with a cord, a soldier’s cap, and bast shoes - was round. His head was quite round, his back, chest, shoulders, and even his arms, which he held as if ever ready to embrace something, were rounded, his pleasant smile and his large, gentle brown eyes were also round. Platon Karataev must have been fifty, judging by his stories of campaigns he had been in, told as by an old soldier. He did not himself know his age and was quite unable to determine it. But his brilliantly white, strong teeth which showed in two unbroken semicircles when he laughed - as he often did - were all sound and good, there was not a gray hair in his beard or on his head, and his whole body gave an impression of suppleness and especially of firmness and endurance. His face, despite its fine, rounded wrinkles, had an expression of innocence and youth, his voice was pleasant and musical. But the chief peculiarity of his speech was its directness and appositeness. It was evident that he never considered what he had said or was going to say, and consequently the rapidity and justice of his intonation had an irresistible persuasiveness. His physical strength and agility during the first days of his imprisonment were such that he seemed not to know what fatigue and sickness meant. Every night before lying down, he said: "Lord, lay me down as a stone and raise me up as a loaf!" and every morning on getting up, he said: "I lay down and curled up, I get up and shake myself." And indeed he only had to lie down, to fall asleep like a stone, and he only had to shake himself, to be ready without a moment’s delay for some work, just as children are ready to play directly they awake. He could do everything, not very well but not badly. He baked, cooked, sewed, planed, and mended boots. He was always busy, and only at night allowed himself conversation - of which he was fond - and songs. He did not sing like a trained singer who knows he is listened to, but like the birds, evidently giving vent to the sounds in the same way that one stretches oneself or walks about to get rid of stiffness, and the sounds were always high-pitched, mournful, delicate, and almost feminine, and his face at such times was very serious. Having been taken prisoner and allowed his beard to grow, he seemed to have thrown off all that had been forced upon him - everything military and alien to himself - and had returned to his former peasant habits. "A soldier on leave - a shirt outside breeches," he would say. He did not like talking about his life as a soldier, though he did not complain, and often mentioned that he had not been flogged once during the whole of his army service. When he related anything it was generally some old and evidently precious memory of his "Christian" life, as he called his peasant existence. The proverbs, of which his talk was full, were for the most part not the coarse and indecent saws soldiers employ, but those folk sayings which taken without a context seem so insignificant, but when used appositely suddenly acquire a significance of profound wisdom. He would often say the exact opposite of what he had said on a previous occasion, yet both would be right. He liked to talk and he talked well, adorning his speech with terms of endearment and with folk sayings which Pierre thought he invented himself, but the chief charm of his talk lay in the fact that the commonest events - sometimes just such as Pierre had witnessed without taking notice of them - assumed in Karataev’s a character of solemn fitness. He liked to hear the folk tales one of the soldiers used to tell of an evening (they were always the same), but most of all he liked to hear stories of real life. He would smile joyfully when listening to such stories, now and then putting in a word or asking a question to make the moral beauty of what he was told clear to himself. Karataev had no attachments, friendships, or love, as Pierre understood them, but loved and lived affectionately with everything life brought him in contact with, particularly with man - not any particular man, but those with whom he happened to be. He loved his dog, his comrades, the French, and Pierre who was his neighbor, but Pierre felt that in spite of Karataev’s affectionate tenderness for him (by which he unconsciously gave Pierre’s spiritual life its due) he would not have grieved for a moment at parting from him. And Pierre began to feel in the same way toward Karataev. To all the other prisoners Platon Karataev seemed a most ordinary soldier. They called him "little falcon" or "Platosha," chaffed him good-naturedly, and sent him on errands. But to Pierre he always remained what he had seemed that first night: an unfathomable, rounded, eternal personification of the spirit of simplicity and truth. Platon Karataev knew nothing by heart except his prayers. When he began to speak he seemed not to know how he would conclude. Sometimes Pierre, struck by the meaning of his words, would ask him to repeat them, but Platon could never recall what he had said a moment before, just as he never could repeat to Pierre the words of his favorite song: native and birch tree and my heart is sick occurred in it, but when spoken and not sung, no meaning could be got out of it. He did not, and could not, understand the meaning of words apart from their context. Every word and action of his was the manifestation of an activity unknown to him, which was his life. But his life, as he regarded it, had no meaning as a separate thing. It had meaning only as part of a whole of which he was always conscious. His words and actions flowed from him as evenly, inevitably, and spontaneously as fragrance exhales from a flower. He could not understand the value or significance of any word or deed taken separately. CHAPTER XIV When Princess Mary heard from Nicholas that her brother was with the Rostovs at Yaroslavl she at once prepared to go there, in spite of her aunt’s efforts to dissuade her - and not merely to go herself but to take her nephew with her. Whether it were difficult or easy, possible or impossible, she did not ask and did not want to know: it was her duty, not only to herself, to be near her brother who was perhaps dying, but to do everything possible to take his son to him, and so she prepared to set off. That she had not heard from Prince Andrew himself, Princess Mary attributed to his being too weak to write or to his considering the long journey too hard and too dangerous for her and his son. In a few days Princess Mary was ready to start. Her equipages were the huge family coach in which she had traveled to Voronezh, a semiopen trap, and a baggage cart. With her traveled Mademoiselle Bourienne, little Nicholas and his tutor, her old nurse, three maids, Tikhon, and a young footman and courier her aunt had sent to accompany her. The usual route through Moscow could not be thought of, and the roundabout way Princess Mary was obliged to take through Lipetsk, Ryazan, Vladimir, and Shuya was very long and, as post horses were not everywhere obtainable, very difficult, and near Ryazan where the French were said to have shown themselves was even dangerous. During this difficult journey Mademoiselle Bourienne, Dessalles, and Princess Mary’s servants were astonished at her energy and firmness of spirit. She went to bed later and rose earlier than any of them, and no difficulties daunted her. Thanks to her activity and energy, which infected her fellow travelers, they approached Yaroslavl by the end of the second week. The last days of her stay in Voronezh had been the happiest of her life. Her love for Rostov no longer tormented or agitated her. It filled her whole soul, had become an integral part of herself, and she no longer struggled against it. Latterly she had become convinced that she loved and was beloved, though she never said this definitely to herself in words. She had become convinced of it at her last interview with Nicholas, when he had come to tell her that her brother was with the Rostovs. Not by a single word had Nicholas alluded to the fact that Prince Andrew’s relations with Natasha might, if he recovered, be renewed, but Princess Mary saw by his face that he knew and thought of this. Yet in spite of that, his relation to her - considerate, delicate, and loving - not only remained unchanged, but it sometimes seemed to Princess Mary that he was even glad that the family connection between them allowed him to express his friendship more freely. She knew that she loved for the first and only time in her life and felt that she was beloved, and was happy in regard to it. But this happiness on one side of her spiritual nature did not prevent her feeling grief for her brother with full force; on the contrary, that spiritual tranquility on the one side made it the more possible for her to give full play to her feeling for her brother. That feeling was so strong at the moment of leaving Voronezh that those who saw her off, as they looked at her careworn, despairing face, felt sure she would fall ill on the journey. But the very difficulties and preoccupations of the journey, which she took so actively in hand, saved her for a while from her grief and gave her strength. As always happens when traveling, Princess Mary thought only of the journey itself, forgetting its object. But as she approached Yaroslavl the thought of what might await her there - not after many days, but that very evening - again presented itself to her and her agitation increased to its utmost limit. The courier who had been sent on in advance to find out where the Rostovs were staying in Yaroslavl, and in what condition Prince Andrew was, when he met the big coach just entering the town gates was appalled by the terrible pallor of the princess’ face that looked out at him from the window. "I have found out everything, your excellency: the Rostovs are staying at the merchant Bronnikov’s house, in the Square not far from here, right above the Volga," said the courier. Princess Mary looked at him with frightened inquiry, not understanding why he did not reply to what she chiefly wanted to know: how was her brother? Mademoiselle Bourienne put that question for her. "How is the prince?" she asked. "His excellency is staying in the same house with them." "Then he is alive," thought Princess Mary, and asked in a low voice: "How is he?" "The servants say he is still the same." What "still the same" might mean Princess Mary did not ask, but with an unnoticed glance at little seven-year-old Nicholas, who was sitting in front of her looking with pleasure at the town, she bowed her head and did not raise it again till the heavy coach, rumbling, shaking and swaying, came to a stop. The carriage steps clattered as they were let down. The carriage door was opened. On the left there was water - a great river - and on the right a porch. There were people at the entrance: servants, and a rosy girl with a large plait of black hair, smiling as it seemed to Princess Mary in an unpleasantly affected way. (This was Sonya.) Princess Mary ran up the steps. "This way, this way!" said the girl, with the same artificial smile, and the princess found herself in the hall facing an elderly woman of Oriental type, who came rapidly to meet her with a look of emotion. This was the countess. She embraced Princess Mary and kissed her. "Mon enfant!" she muttered, "je vous aime et vous connais depuis longtemps." * * "My child! I love you and have known you a long time." Despite her excitement, Princess Mary realized that this was the countess and that it was necessary to say something to her. Hardly knowing how she did it, she contrived to utter a few polite phrases in French in the same tone as those that had been addressed to her, and asked: "How is he?" "The doctor says that he is not in danger," said the countess, but as she spoke she raised her eyes with a sigh, and her gesture conveyed a contradiction of her words. "Where is he? Can I see him - can I?" asked the princess. "One moment, Princess, one moment, my dear! Is this his son?" said the countess, turning to little Nicholas who was coming in with Dessalles. "There will be room for everybody, this is a big house. Oh, what a lovely boy!" The countess took Princess Mary into the drawing room, where Sonya was talking to Mademoiselle Bourienne. The countess caressed the boy, and the old count came in and welcomed the princess. He had changed very much since Princess Mary had last seen him. Then he had been a brisk, cheerful, self-assured old man; now he seemed a pitiful, bewildered person. While talking to Princess Mary he continually looked round as if asking everyone whether he was doing the right thing. After the destruction of Moscow and of his property, thrown out of his accustomed groove he seemed to have lost the sense of his own significance and to feel that there was no longer a place for him in life. In spite of her one desire to see her brother as soon as possible, and her vexation that at the moment when all she wanted was to see him they should be trying to entertain her and pretending to admire her nephew, the princess noticed all that was going on around her and felt the necessity of submitting, for a time, to this new order of things which she had entered. She knew it to be necessary, and though it was hard for her she was not vexed with these people. "This is my niece," said the count, introducing Sonya - "You don’t know her, Princess?" Princess Mary turned to Sonya and, trying to stifle the hostile feeling that arose in her toward the girl, she kissed her. But she felt oppressed by the fact that the mood of everyone around her was so far from what was in her own heart. "Where is he?" she asked again, addressing them all. "He is downstairs. Natasha is with him," answered Sonya, flushing. "We have sent to ask. I think you must be tired, Princess." Tears of vexation showed themselves in Princess Mary’s eyes. She turned away and was about to ask the countess again how to go to him, when light, impetuous, and seemingly buoyant steps were heard at the door. The princess looked round and saw Natasha coming in, almost running - that Natasha whom she had liked so little at their meeting in Moscow long since. But hardly had the princess looked at Natasha’s face before she realized that here was a real comrade in her grief, and consequently a friend. She ran to meet her, embraced her, and began to cry on her shoulder. As soon as Natasha, sitting at the head of Prince Andrew’s bed, heard . 1 2 3 , 4 . 5 - 6 - 7 . 8 9 " , , ! " , 10 , 11 . 12 13 " ? " . 14 15 " , , , " , 16 . 17 18 , 19 , , 20 . 21 22 23 , 24 . 25 26 " ! " , 27 , " , ? " , 28 , 29 . 30 , , , 31 . 32 33 , , . 34 35 " , , , " . 36 37 , , 38 , 39 . 40 , 41 - 42 . 43 - 44 - 45 . 46 47 48 49 50 51 52 53 54 , . 55 56 - - 57 . 58 59 , 60 - - 61 ; 62 , 63 64 ; 65 . , 66 . 67 , , 68 , , 69 . 70 , 71 . 72 73 , 74 , , 75 . . 76 77 ( , , 78 ) . 79 80 . 81 , 82 , 83 , , , 84 . 85 86 , , 87 , 88 , 89 90 , . 91 , 92 . , , 93 , 94 . 95 . 96 , 97 , 98 , 99 . , 100 , . 101 . 102 , 103 104 . ? " 105 , " " 106 ; . . . " , 107 . 108 ? 109 . : 110 , ? ? 111 , , . 112 . 113 114 " , . . . , " 115 . 116 117 118 . 119 120 121 . 122 123 . . 124 , 125 . 126 127 128 , , 129 130 . , 131 . " " 132 . 133 134 , 135 , . 136 137 138 139 140 141 142 143 - 144 - 145 . , , 146 , , 147 " . " 148 , 149 150 . 151 . , 152 , . 153 154 , . 155 , , 156 . 157 , 158 . 159 . 160 . , 161 , 162 . 163 . 164 165 . 166 : , 167 168 . 169 170 , 171 , 172 , , 173 . 174 , , 175 ; 176 , 177 . 178 , 179 180 . 181 , 182 , 183 . : 184 " , " 185 , , 186 187 188 . 189 190 . 191 192 193 , 194 . , 195 , , 196 , , ( ) . 197 198 . 199 . , 200 , , , 201 . 202 203 , , 204 . , , 205 , . , 206 : 207 208 " ? " 209 210 . 211 , 212 . , 213 , 214 ; 215 . 216 , 217 . . , 218 , , 219 , . 220 221 " , " , , 222 . 223 224 225 . 226 227 " , , . . . " 228 229 " , " , 230 , . 231 232 . 233 : 234 235 " , , " , . 236 " , , . 237 . " 238 239 " ? " . 240 241 " . " 242 243 " ? " 244 245 " ! " , 246 . 247 248 . 249 , . 250 , . 251 252 , 253 . 254 255 , 256 , 257 , 258 , 259 . . 260 261 " ? " 262 . 263 264 , 265 . 266 267 " , " . 268 269 , 270 . 271 272 . 273 274 , 275 . . 276 277 , 278 . 279 : 280 281 . 282 283 284 . 285 286 " , ! " , " " , 287 . 288 289 , , 290 . , , 291 292 . 293 : 294 ? - 295 , , . , 296 . 297 , 298 . , , 299 . 300 , , - , , 301 , , , ? ? 302 . 303 304 - . 305 306 - - , 307 , . 308 309 310 311 312 313 314 315 316 , , 317 . 318 , 319 . 320 - , , 321 , . 322 323 . 324 325 , 326 ( ) , . 327 , 328 . 329 . . - 330 . 331 . 332 333 . , 334 , , , . 335 , - , 336 , - . , 337 , - . 338 , , - . 339 340 341 . " , " 342 . 343 - 344 , 345 . 346 347 348 . 349 350 351 . 352 , 353 , 354 . , 355 . 356 , , 357 . 358 359 360 . 361 . , 362 363 , . , 364 , . 365 . , 366 367 , 368 . 369 , 370 . 371 372 ; 373 , 374 , , , 375 , 376 . , , 377 . . 378 379 380 , , , 381 . " , , ? 382 . ? ? " 383 . 384 385 " , ! " . 386 , , - . 387 , 388 . - , 389 , . 390 . 391 . ( 392 . ) . 393 , , . 394 , . 395 396 , 397 , , 398 . 399 400 . 401 , , 402 . ; 403 . 404 405 406 ; 407 , , 408 , , , 409 . 410 . 411 412 413 ; 414 . 415 , 416 , 417 , , 418 . . 419 . , . 420 421 . . 422 . 423 424 425 . 426 427 428 . 429 , 430 . 431 , , 432 . , 433 . 434 435 . 436 , 437 . - 438 , 439 , . 440 441 442 . . 443 , , , , 444 , 445 . , 446 . , 447 448 . . 449 . 450 451 " , " . 452 453 454 , 455 . 456 . 457 458 459 460 461 462 463 464 465 , , . 466 467 468 469 . , 470 . 471 , , , 472 , . 473 . 474 , , . 475 , 476 . 477 , 478 , . 479 , . 480 481 482 , 483 , 484 , 485 . 486 , , , 487 , , . 488 , . 489 , , 490 491 . 492 493 , . 494 . 495 496 497 . 498 . , 499 500 . 501 502 " , , . . . . . . " 503 , . 504 505 , 506 . 507 508 - - 509 , . 510 . 511 512 513 514 . 515 , 516 . 517 , 518 . 519 520 , 521 , 522 . 523 . , 524 525 , 526 . , , 527 , , , 528 , 529 . , , 530 - , - 531 , , 532 . 533 534 " , , ? " . 535 536 537 , 538 . , 539 , : 540 541 " , , ! " , 542 . " , - , 543 ! , . , 544 , . , , 545 , " , , 546 , , , 547 . 548 549 " , ! " 550 . " , ? . . . , , 551 ! " 552 553 , 554 , . 555 . 556 557 " , , , " , 558 . " 559 ! " 560 561 562 . . 563 564 " , ? " . " 565 . " 566 567 , , 568 , 569 , . 570 571 " ! " . " ! " 572 573 . 574 575 " , , " , " 576 ? . " 577 578 " , . . . ! " . " , . . . ! " 579 , 580 : " , , 581 ? " 582 583 " . , " 584 . 585 586 " , ? ? " 587 588 " , , , 589 . " 590 591 " , " . 592 593 " ? " 594 . 595 596 " ? , . " 597 598 " , ? " 599 600 " , . . 601 . . 602 , . " 603 604 " ? " . 605 606 " , ? , 607 , " , 608 . " . 609 ? - . 610 ? , 611 ; , " . 612 613 " ? ? " . 614 615 " ? ? " . " 616 , " , 617 , : 618 619 " , , , ? ? 620 , ? ? , 621 ? " . 622 623 , 624 625 . , 626 . 627 628 " , - - , 629 ! " . " , ? " 630 . 631 632 , 633 : 634 635 " ! , . 636 . . . . " 637 638 " , " . 639 640 " , ! " , " 641 ! " 642 643 , 644 . 645 646 " , , , " . " 647 - - , , 648 . 649 . . . 650 . . . " 651 652 653 , , 654 , , . 655 656 " , , " " 657 ! 658 , . , 659 , , , , 660 . , 661 . , 662 . , 663 , , 664 , . , , 665 : . 666 , . 667 , , . 668 , , ; , 669 , ; , , 670 ! ? . , . 671 . , - 672 ! : 673 , ! . " 674 675 . 676 677 . 678 679 " , , " , 680 : 681 682 " , , ! 683 , , ! , 684 ! " , , 685 , , . " . 686 , , , " 687 , . 688 689 " ? " . 690 691 " ? " , . " ? 692 . ? " 693 694 " , , " . " : ? " 695 696 " , , " , " . 697 . , ! , 698 ! " , 699 , . 700 701 702 , , 703 . , 704 , 705 , 706 707 . 708 709 710 711 712 713 714 715 - , , 716 717 . 718 719 720 , 721 , 722 , . 723 , , : 724 - , 725 , - . , 726 , , , , 727 , , 728 , . 729 730 , 731 , . 732 . 733 , 734 - - , 735 , 736 . 737 738 , , , 739 , . 740 . 741 , 742 743 . 744 745 746 747 . , : " , 748 ! " 749 , : " , . " 750 , , 751 , 752 , . 753 , . , , , 754 , . , 755 - - . 756 , , 757 758 , 759 - , , , , 760 . 761 762 , 763 - 764 - . 765 766 " - , " . 767 768 , 769 , 770 . 771 " " , 772 . , , 773 774 , 775 , 776 . 777 778 779 , . , 780 781 , 782 - 783 - 784 . 785 ( ) , 786 . 787 , 788 789 . , , , 790 , 791 , - 792 , . , 793 , , , 794 ( 795 ) 796 . 797 . 798 799 800 . " " " , " 801 - , . 802 : , , 803 . 804 805 . 806 . 807 808 , , 809 , 810 , 811 : 812 , , . 813 , , 814 . 815 , . , 816 , . 817 . 818 , , 819 . 820 . 821 822 823 824 825 826 827 828 829 , 830 - 831 . , 832 , : , 833 , , 834 , 835 . , 836 837 . 838 839 . 840 , 841 , . , 842 , , , , 843 . 844 845 , 846 , 847 , , , 848 , , 849 . 850 851 , , 852 853 . , 854 . , 855 , 856 . 857 858 . 859 . 860 , , 861 . 862 , 863 . 864 , 865 . 866 , , 867 , 868 . 869 870 , - , , 871 - , 872 873 . 874 875 , . 876 877 878 ; , 879 880 . 881 , 882 , , 883 . 884 , , 885 . 886 887 , 888 , . 889 - , 890 - 891 . 892 893 894 , 895 , 896 897 . 898 899 " , : 900 , , 901 , " . 902 903 , 904 : 905 ? . 906 907 " ? " . 908 909 " . " 910 911 " , " , : 912 " ? " 913 914 " . " 915 916 " " , 917 - - , 918 , 919 , , 920 , . 921 . 922 923 . - 924 - . : 925 , , 926 . ( 927 . ) . " , ! " 928 , , 929 , 930 . . 931 . 932 933 " ! " , " 934 . " * 935 936 * " ! . " 937 938 939 , 940 . 941 , 942 , 943 : " ? " 944 945 " , " , 946 , 947 . 948 949 " ? - ? " . 950 951 " , , , ! ? " 952 , . 953 " , . , 954 ! " 955 956 , 957 . , 958 . 959 . , 960 , - ; , 961 . 962 . 963 , 964 965 . 966 967 , 968 969 , 970 971 , , 972 . , 973 . 974 975 " , " , - " 976 , ? " 977 978 , 979 , . 980 981 . 982 983 " ? " , . 984 985 " . , " , . " 986 . , . " 987 988 . 989 , 990 , , . 991 , - 992 993 . 994 995 996 , . 997 , , . 998 999 , , 1000