Book 3 Part 1 Chapter 6 (Chapter 170 overall)

Chapter Summaries: Dole: Balashof's interview with Napoleon. Description of Napoleon. Napoleon's pretended desire for peace. The trembling leg. Kurakin's passport. What might have been. Alexander's reception of Napoleon's enemies. Napoleon's irritation. His threat.
Briggs: Balashev's meeting with Napoleon.
Maude: Balashev's interview with Napoleon

Translation:

VI.

Despite it being in the habit of Balashev to courtier solemnity, luxury and pomp, the court of Napoleon struck him.

The Count Tyuren introduced him in a big reception room, where waited many generals, chamberlains and Polish magnates, of which many Balashev had seen in the court of the Russian emperor. Duroc said that the Emperor Napoleon will accept the Russian general before his walk.

After several minutes of expectations, the on duty chamberlain got out to the big reception room and, courteously bowing to Balashev, invited him to go behind himself.

Balashev entered into the little reception room, of which only a door led into the office, in that very office from which he was sent by the Russian Emperor. Balashev stood two minutes expecting. Behind the door was heard hasty steps. Opened fast both halves of the door, all fell silent, and from the office sounded other solid, decisive steps: this was Napoleon. He had only finished his toilette for a riding drive. He was in a blue uniform, uncovered above white vest, coming down on a round stomach, in white leggings, with tight-fitting fat thighs and short feet, and in jackboots. His short hair had obviously only been combed, but a lone strand of hair lowered down above the middle of his wide forehead. His white, plump neck abruptly came forward from behind his black collar uniform; from him it smelled of cologne. On his youthful, full face with a protruding chin was an expression of gracious and stately imperial greetings.

He got out, quickly trembling in each step and throwing back his head some. All his plump, short figure with broad, thick shoulders and unwittingly exposed forward stomach and breast, had that representation of a portly view, which was in the care of a living in their forties person. Besides this it was seen that he on this day was found in a very good location of spirit.

He nodded his head, answering to the low and respectful bow of Balashev and, coming up to him, immediately again began to speak as a person, cherishing every minute of their time and not indulgent to prepare their speech, but assured that he will always speak okay and what he needs to say.

— Hello, general! — he said. — I received the letter of Emperor Aleksandr, which you delivered, and am very glad to see you. — He looked at the face of Balashev with his own large eyes and immediately again began to look past him.

It was obvious that he was not interested in the personality of Balashev. It was seen that only that what was happening in his soul had an interest for him. All that was beyond him, had for him no meaning because of how all in the world, as to him it seemed, depended only from his commitment.

— I do not want and desire war, — he said, — but I am forced to it. I now (he said this word with emphasis) ready to accept all explanations that you may give me. — And he clearly and shortly began to set out the causes of his displeasure against the Russian government.

Judging by the modestly calm and friendly tone with which spoke the French Emperor, Balashev was firmly convinced that he wished for peace and found it to march into talks.

—Your majesty! Emperor, my sire,584 — started a long time prepared speech by Balashev, when Napoleon, finishing his speech, interrogatively looked at the Russian ambassador; but looking directly into the eyes of the emperor embarrassed him. "You are confused— bounce back," as if said Napoleon, with a little bit of a noticeable smile looking around the uniform and sword Balashev. Balashev recovered and started to speak. He said that the Emperor Aleksandr did not consider the demanding of the passports by Kurakin to be enough of a cause for war, that Kurakin entered so by his arbitrariness and without consent in that from the sovereign, that the Emperor Aleksandr did not wish for war, and that with England there were no relations.

— No more, — inserted Napoleon and, as if fearing to give back his feeling, frowned and a little nod of his head, giving by this the feel for Balashev that he may continue.

Expressing all that he was ordered, Balashev said that the Emperor Aleksandr wished for peace, but would not begin negotiations otherwise as with that condition, so that... Here Balashev hesitated: he remembered those words that the Emperor Aleksandr did not write in the letter, but that were an indispensable order inserted in the rescript of Saltykov and that he ordered Balashev to deliver to Napoleon. Balashev remembered about these words: "while one armed enemy will not remain in the land of Russia," but some complicated feeling kept him. He could not say these words, although he wanted to do this. He hesitated and said: with the condition that French troops retreated behind the Neiman.

Napoleon saw the embarrassment of Balashev at the utterance of the last words: his face trembled, the left calf of his leg was beginning to measuredly tremble. Not coming down from his place, his voice, more high and hasty than before, started to speak. In the time of the subsequent speech, Balashev, not a time lowering his eyes, unwittingly watched the trembling calf on the left leg of Napoleon, which by that more intensified the more he elevated his voice.

— I want peace not less than Emperor Aleksandr, — he started. — Whether or not I in eighteen months did all so that to get it? I for eighteen months waited for explanations. Yet so that to start talks, what again does he require from me? — he said, frowning and making an energetically interrogative gesture with his little, white and chubby hand.

— Retreat the troops behind the Neiman, sire, — said Balashev.

— Behind the Neiman? — repeated Napoleon. — So now you want for a retreat behind the Neiman — only behind the Neiman? — repeated Napoleon, all looking at Balashev.

Balashev respectfully tipped his head.

Instead of the demand four months to that backwards to retreat from Pomerania, now was required only a retreat behind the Neiman. Napoleon quickly turned and began to walk by the room.

— You say that from me is required a retreat behind the Neiman for the beginning of negotiations; but from me required exactly so the same two months to that backwards the retreat behind Oder and Vistula and, despite that, you agree to lead talks.

He silently passed from one corner of the room to another and again stopped against Balashev. His face as if petrified in his strict expression and his left leg trembled still faster than before. This trembling of the left calf Napoleon knew for himself. The trembling of my left calf is a great sign,585 — he spoke afterwards.

— Such offers so that to clear Oder and Vistula, you can make to Prince Baden, but not to me, — completely suddenly for himself, almost cried out Napoleon. — If you would give me Petersburg and Moscow, I would not accept these conditions. You say, I started this war? But who before had arrived to the army? — The Emperor Aleksandr, but not I. And you offer me talks then as I wasted millions, then as you are in union with England, and when your position is bad, — you offer me talks! But what is the objective of your union with England? What did she give you? — he spoke hastily, obviously now directing his speech not so that to express the benefit of a conclusion of peace and to discuss its opportunity, but only so that to prove his correctness, his force, and so that to prove the incorrectness and mistakes of Aleksandr.

The introduction of his speech was done obviously with the purpose to express the benefit of his situation and show that, despite that, he accepted the opening of negotiations. But he now started to speak, and the more he spoke, by that the less he was in the condition to manage his speech.

All the objective of his speech now was obviously so that only to raise himself and offend Aleksandr, that was to do that very thing that he only wanted less in the beginning of this meeting.

— They say you have concluded peace with the Turks?

Balashev affirmatively tipped his head.

— Peace concluded... — he started. But Napoleon did not give him a word. He, it was seen, was needing to speak mostly alone, and he continued to speak with that eloquence and intemperate irritation, to which so are inclined spoiled people.

— Yes I know, you concluded peace with Turks, not receiving Moldavia and Wallachia. But I would have given your sovereign these provinces so the same as I gave him Finland. Yes, —he continued, — I promised and would have given Emperor Aleksandr Moldavia and Wallachia, but now he will not have these beautiful provinces. He would have however joined them to his empire, and in one reign he would have expanded Russia from the Bothnian bay to the mouths of the Danube. Catherine the Great could not have done more, — spoke Napoleon, all the more and more flaring up, going by the room and repeating to Balashev almost those same words that he spoke to the very Aleksandr at Tilsit. — All by this he would be by my friendship. Oh, what a beautiful reign— he repeated a few times, stopped, took out a gold snuffbox from his pocket and greedily pulled from his nose.

— Could be the reign of Emperor Aleksandr! Oh, what a beautiful reign!586

He with regret looked at Balashev, and only that Balashev wanted to notice something, so he again hastily interrupted him.

— What could he want and search for such that he would not find in my friendship?.. — said Napoleon, with disbelief shrugging his shoulders. — No, he found it best to surround himself with my enemies, and by whom again? — he continued. — He called upon to himself Stein, Armfeldt, Bennigsen, and Wintsengerode. Stein — banished from his fatherland as a traitor, Armfeldt— libertine and intriguer, Wintsengerode— a fluent subject of France, Bennigsen some more military than the others, but all the same unable, who was unable to do anything in the year of 1807 and whom should excite in Emperor Alexander terrible memories... The place, if they would have been able, can use them, — continued Napoleon, barely having time in words to keep up behind incessantly emerging considerations, showing him his correctness or force (what in his notions was one and the same); — but these are not: they are not fit for war, or for peace! Barclay, they say, is more efficient than all; but this I will not say, judging by his first movements. But they do what all courtiers do! Pful offers, Armfeldt argues, Bennigsen examines, but Barclay, called to act, does not know how to decide, and time passes. Only Bagration — a military person. He is stupid, but in him is experience, eyes and determination... And what for is the role played by your young sovereign in this ugly crowd? They compromise him and on him dump only ongoing liability. The sovereign is supposed to be found in the army only when he is the commander,587 — he said, obviously sending these words all as calling on the face of the sovereign. Napoleon knew how desired the Emperor Aleksandr to be commander.

— Already for a week begins the campaign, and you were not able to defend the Vilna. You are cut off in two and driven away from the Polish provinces. Your army grumbles.

— The opposite, your majesty, — said Balashev, barely having time to remember that what was spoken to him, and with labor followed behind these fireworks of words, — The troops burn in desire...

— I know all, — Napoleon interrupted him, — I know all, and know your number of battalions so the same right as mine. In you is not 200 thousand troops, but in me is three times more: giving you a word of honor, — said Napoleon, forgetting that his word of honor in no way could have meaning, — giving you a word of honor that in me is 530 thousand of people on this side of the Vistula.588 The Turks will not help you: they are nowhere fit and proved this, reconciling with you. The Swedes — their predestination is to be managed by a crazy king. Their king was crazy; they changed him and took another, — Bernadotte, who immediately the same came down with his mind, because that only a crazy, being Swede, may conclude a union with Russia. — Napoleon viciously grinned and again brought to his nose the snuffbox.

In every one of the phrases of Napoleon, Balashev wanted to and had what to object; incessantly he made the move of a man willing to say something, but Napoleon interrupted him. Against the madness of the Swedes Balashev wanted to say that Sweden is an island, when Russia is behind her; but Napoleon angrily cried out so that to drown out his voice. Napoleon was found in this condition of irritation in which he needed to speak, speak and speak, only so that mostly to himself prove his justice. Balashev became heavy: he, as an ambassador, was afraid to drop his dignity and felt miserable to object; but, as a person, he shrank morally before the oblivion of unreasonable anger, in which was obviously found Napoleon. He knew that all words, said now by Napoleon, did not have meaning, that he himself, when he comes to his senses, will be ashamed by them. Balashev stood, lowering his eyes, looking at the moving, thick leg of Napoleon, and tried to avoid his sight.

— And what to me are your allies? — spoke Napoleon. — In me are allies — these Poles: they are 80 thousand, they fight as lions. And they will be 200 thousand.

And probably still more outraged by that, how, saying this, he said an obvious untruth and that Balashev in that same submissive pose of fate silently stood before him, he coolly turned backwards, came up to the very face of Balashev and, making an energetic and quick gesture of his own white hands, almost shouted:

— Know that should you shake Prussia against me, know that I will erase her from the map of Europe, — he said with a pale, distorted face of malice, the energetic gesture of one little hand hitting by another. — Yes, I abandon you for moving behind the Dnieper and restore against you that barrier, to which Europe was criminal and blind that it allowed to destroy. Yes, here what is with you, here is what you won, retiring from me, — he said and silently passed some time by the room, with a start of his own thick shoulders. He placed in his vest pocket the snuffbox, again took it out, a few times put it against his nose and stopped against Balashev. He was silent, looking mockingly all at the eyes of Balashev and said in a quiet voice: — but between what a beautiful reign could have had your sovereign!589

Balashev, feeling miserable to object, said that with the parties of Russia affairs did not present such a gloomy view. Napoleon kept silent, mockingly looking at him and obviously not listening to him. Balashev said that Russia awaited from war only good. Napoleon indulgently nodded his head, as he would have said: "I know, so to speak your duty, but you yourself in this do not believe, you are convinced by me."

At the end of the speech of Balashev, Napoleon took out again the snuffbox, sniffed from it and, as a signal, banged his foot two times by the floor. The door opened; a respectfully bending chamberlain gave the emperor his hat and gloves, another gave a nasal handkerchief. Napoleon, not looking at them, turned to Balashev:

— Assure the name of Emperor Aleksandr, — he said taking his hat, — that I am loyal to him still: I know him completely and quite highly appreciate his high qualities. I will not hold you more, general, you get my letter to the sovereign.590— and Napoleon went fast to the door. From the reception all threw forward and downwards by the stairs.

584 Sire! L’Empereur, mon maître, (Sir! The Emperor, my master,)

585 La vibration de mon mollet gauche est un grand signe chez moi, (The vibration of my left calf is a great sign for me,)

586 Tout cela il l’aurait dû à mon amitié. Ah! quel beau règne, quel beau règne! Quel beau règne aurait pu être celui de l’empereur Alexandre! (All of this he should have had in my friendship. Ah! what a beautiful reign, what a beautiful reign! What a beautiful reign could have been that of Emperor Alexander!)

587 Un souverain ne doit être à l’armée que quand il est général, (A sovereign should only be in the army when he is a general,)

588 ma parole d’honneur que j'ai cinq cent trente mille hommes de ce côté de la Vistule. (my word of honor that I have five hundred and thirty thousand men on this side of the Vistula.)

589 cependant quel beau règne aurait pu avoir votre maître! (however, what a beautiful reign your master could have had!)

590 Je ne vous retiens plus, général, vous recevrez ma lettre à l’Empereur. (I will no longer hold you back, General, you will receive my letter to the Emperor.)

Time: see previous chapter, after a few moments, two minutes
Mentioned: four months before

Locations: see previous chapter
Mentioned: Polish (and Poles), Russia (and Russian), French, England, Nyeman, Pomerania (cut in Bell), Oder, Vistula (Vistule in the French), St. Petersburg, Moscow, Turks (Turkey in Maude and Mandelker), Moldavia, Wallachia (Valakhia in Dole), Finland, Bothnia, Danube, Tilsit, Vilna, Sweden (and Swedes), Prussia, Europe, Dvina, Dnieper

Pevear and Volokhonsky Notes:

Balashov sees the decadence and lavishness of the court of Napoleon and has to continue to be redirected and wait before seeing Napoleon, who gets quite a description here.

“It was obvious that Balashov’s person did not interest him in the least. It was clear that only what went on in his soul was of interest to him. Everything that was outside him had no meaning for him, because everything in the
world, as it seemed to him, depended only upon his will.”

Balashov, as other characters have struggled to say what they mean or need to say, struggles to say what Alexander had told him to say about how he would not consider peace until all enemy soldiers were off Russian soil.

“Instead of the demand four months earlier that he withdraw from Pomerania, now they demanded only that he withdraw beyond the Niemen. Napoleon turned quickly and started pacing the room.”

Napoleon’s trembling of his left calf operates as a sign to him. He repeatedly claims Russia is in league with England.

“The whole aim of his speech now was obviously to exalt himself and insult Alexander, that is, to do the thing he had least wanted to do at the beginning of the meeting.”

The peace with the Turks is mentioned but overall, Napoleon rants and raves to Balashov in a dramatic fashion.

“The Steins, the Armfelts, the Wintzingerodes, the Bennigsens...Alexander: The Prussian minister Baron von Stein, banished by Napoleon for sympathizing with Spain and seeking to free Prussia from French occupation was
living in Russia in 1812. The Swedish general and statesman G.N. Armfelt, who had been in the service of Russia since 1811 as president of the committee for Finnish affairs and was a member of the State Council, intrigued
against Speransky and played a part in his exile. He accompanied Alexander I during the 1812 campaign. General Wintzingerode could be called a “French subject” only because Napoleon had included his native Hesse in
the Confederation of the Rhine; he had been in service since 1797. General Bennigsen had been defeated by Napoleon at the battle of Friedland in 1807, but “terrible memories” is a reference to his participation in the plot to
assassinate Alexander’s father, the emperor Paul I.”

“Bagration alone is a military man. He’s stupid, but he has experience, a good eye, and determination”

“Napoleon knew how much Alexander wished to be a military commander.”

“Napoleon, forgetting that his word of honor could have no meaning”

“The Turks are no help to you: they’re good for nothing and have proved it by making peace with you. The Swedes--their destiny is to be ruled by mad kings. Their king was insane, they changed him and took another,
Bernadotte, who promptly went out of his mind--because no Swede who wasn’t a madman would conclude alliances with Russia” (“in 1812 Bernadotte went over to the anti-French alliance”)

Balashov keeps wanting to interrupt, but Napoleon interrupts his interruptions and as we’ve seen in a previous note, Napoleon’s madness is associated with getting out his snuffbox.

Characters (characters who do not appear, but are mentioned are placed in italics. First appearances are in Bold. First mentions are underlined. Final appearance denoted by *):

Balashof (also “Russian general”)

Emperor Napoleon

Count Turenne (Dole using this title this time)

Emperor Alexander (also “Russian emperor” and “sovereign”)

Duroc

Kurakin

Saltuikof

Prince of Baden (Briggs makes it “a” instead of “the” and thus doesn’t capitalize “prince”)

Catherine the Great

Stein (technically plural in the first mention, as are the next few characters, which for Napoleon become somewhat of “types”.)

Armfeldt

Benigsen

Winzengerode

Barclay

Pfuhl (as in Dole and Garnett. “Pfuel” in Maude, Briggs, and Mandelker.)

Bagration

Bernadotte (the “insane” king of Sweden before him is also mentioned)

(also a throng of generals, chamberlains, and Polish magnates. Also a chamberlain at the end of the chapter who gives Napoleon his hat, gloves, and handkerchief.)

Abridged Versions: Start of Chapter 4 in Bell but no break.
Gibian: Chapter 6.

Fuller: Entire chapter is cut.

Komroff: Entire chapter is cut.

Kropotkin: Chapter 5: Chapter is preserved, but no break.

Bromfield: Napoleon’s motivation for his speeches is explicitly Alexander and Russia not recognizing him as emperor in 1805-1806 and not allowing him to marry Alexander’s sister. There is also more emphasis
on Stein, as Napoleon was humiliated by Stein because he trusted him. Also, Balashov attempts, unsuccessfully, to defend Sweden. The “what a wonderful reign your sovereign might have had” is repeated more
often. No chapter break.
Simmons: Chapter 6: Napoleon's rantings are cut and replaced with "During the remainder of the interview with Balashev, Napoleon in an angry monologue berates Alexander I, pointing out what a great reign he
might have had if he had remained friendly with him."

Additional Notes: Maude: “Baron H. F. K. (Mandelker gives us “Heinrich Friedrich Karl") von Stein...Prussian statesman noted for his liberal views...Count Gustaf Mauritz Armfelt...Swedish soldier and statesman
who commanded the forces opposing Napoleon in Pomerania (1805-7)...governorship of Finland after its annexation by Russia in 1808..”

“Baron Carl Ludwig August Pfuel (1751-1826), a Prussian general who offered his services to the Russian army after the Battle of Jena in 1806”

“Jean Baptiste Bernadotte (1763-1844), marshal in the French army; made Crown Prince of Sweden in 1810 and Charles XIV, King of Sweden, some eight years later”

Briggs: “Bernadotte...founded the Swedish royal family in 1818 as Karl XIV.”

Mandelker: “Stein...proposed the abolition of serfdom, later accomplished (in Prussia) by Hardenberg in 1811….Armfeldt used his influence with Alexander I to secure for the Finns the retention of their ancient constitution."

Troubetzkoy/Davidov Page 65: None of the portraits that I had seen bore the least resemblance to him. Believing them, I had supposed that Napoleon sported a rather large hooked nose, dark eyes and dark hair - in a

word, the true Italian facial type. In fact, his face was slightly swarthy, with regular features. His nose was not very large, but straight, with a very slight, hardly noticeable bend. The hair on his head was not black, but

dark reddish-blond, his eyebrows and eyelashes were much darker than the colour of his hair, and his blue eyes, set off by the almost black lashes, gave him a most pleasing expression. Finally, no matter how many

times I had occasion to see him, I never noticed those frowning eyebrows with which the portrait-pamphleteers endowed him. The man I saw was of short stature, just over five feet tall, rather heavy although he was

only 37 years old and despite the fact that the lifestyle he followed should not, on the face of it, have let him put on much weight. He held himself erect without the least effort, as is common with all short people. But

what was peculiar to him alone was a nobility of bearing and an urbane, martial air, which undoubtedly was derived from the habit of commanding men and a consciousness of moral superiority. No less remarkable

were the ease and frankness of his approach, his natural dexterity and the quickness of his movements

Amphoux/Troyat: Page 324: "The historical figures are painted "in motion" like the fictional (Page 325) ones. For them, too, the author chooses a few physical traits that recur, rather like a leitmotiv, and assist in their

rapid identification: Napoleon--his rounded belly and "plump hands"; Kutuzov--his sleepiness, his fat neck, his one eye and his scar. But although Tolstoy remains remarkably impartial toward the products of its own

imagination, he loses every semblance of self-control when Napoleon enters the scene. The rage he felt long ago in the crypt at the Invalides in Paris pours into his brain. Unconsciously, the veteran of Sevastopol is

wreaking his vengeance on the French, pen in hand. His descriptive method serves him admirably in this work of demolition...At all costs, the Latin tyrant, the profaner of Russian soil, must be made to appear

grotesque...No psychological intuition, no military genius, nothing but nervous twitches. The fate of the world hanging upon one man's digestion. "An insignificant tool of history who never, anywhere, even in exile,

displayed any human dignity," one reads in War and Peace. And what he didn't put in his book..."

Herold: Page 181: “With Russia, Napoleon hoped to come to an agreement. To put Czar Alexander in a receptive frame of mind, he had instructed his ambassador to the Porte, General Horace Sebastiani, to

encourage Sultan Selim III to make an aggressively anti-Russian stand; accordingly, Selim dismissed the pro-Russian governors of Moldavia and Walachia (modern Rumania), a move that Alexander promptly

countered by sending an army of eighty thousand men to occupy these principalities. With a large part of his forces tied up in the war with Turkey (which was to end only in 1812), Alexander might well choose to

come to terms with Napoleon rather than fight him. To secure his cooperation Napoleon was prepared to offer a partition of the Ottoman Empire---his ally, whom he had just incited into war with Russia---and to

propose a joint Russo-French attack on India.”