Briggs: The redoubt is taken and retaken. Pierre tackles a French officer.
Maude: The redoubt captured by the French. Pierre's conflict with a French officer. The redoubt retaken by the Russians
Translation:
XXXII.
Pierre, not remembering himself from fear, jumped up and ran backwards to the battery, as at the only refuge from all the horrors surrounding him.
At that time as Pierre entered in the trench, he saw that in the battery shots were not heard, but that people did something there. Pierre did not have time to understand what were these people. He saw the elder colonel, backwards to him lying on the shaft, as if considering something downwards and saw one, noticing him soldier, who, tearing forward from the people, held him behind the arm, shouted: "Brothers!" and saw still something strange.
Yet he did not still have time to realize that the colonel was killed, that the one that shouted "brothers!" was captive, that at his eyes was stabbed by a bayonet in the back another soldier. He barely ran into the trench, as a thin, yellow, with a sweaty face person in a blue uniform, with a sword in his hand, ran over to him, shouting something. Pierre, instinctively defending from a push, as they had not seen each other fleeing, put up a hand and grabbed this man (this was a French officer) one hand for the shoulder, another for the throat. The officer, releasing his sword, grabbed Pierre for the collar.
For some seconds they both with scared eyes looked at the alien to each other’s face, and were in perplexity about what they had done, and what they were doing."Whether I will take him into captivity, or he will take me into captivity?" thought both of them. Yet obviously the French officer was more bowed to the thought that he will be taken into captivity because of how the strong hand of Pierre, movable by unwitting fear, all tighter and tighter squeezed his throat. The Frenchman wanted to say something, as suddenly above their heads was a low and fearfully whistling cannon ball, and to Pierre it seemed that the head of the French officer was torn off: so fast he bent it.
Pierre also bent down his head and let his hand go. Not thinking more about who will take whom in captivity, the Frenchman ran backwards to the battery, but Pierre under the mountain, stumbling on the slain and wounded, which, it seemed to him, caught him behind his legs. Yet he did not have time to get downwards, as towards him appeared a dense crowd of running Russian soldiers, which, falling, stumbling and shouting, funnily and violently ran to the battery. (This was that attack, which attributed Ermolov to himself, saying that only his courage and fortune could possibly do this feat, and that attack at which he as if would have thrown on the mound a St. George's cross, formerly in his pocket.)
The French who occupied the battery ran. Our troops with a screaming of hoorah, so long away behind the battery drove away the French that it was difficult to stop them.
From the battery was brought captives, including a wounded French General, who was surrounded by officers. A crowd of wounded, acquaintances and strangers to Pierre, Russians and French, with disfigured miserable faces, went, crawling and carried on stretchers from the battery. Pierre entered on the mound, where he spent another hour of time, and from this family circle, which accepted him to themselves, he found nobody. Many here were dead, strangers to him. Yet some he found. The young officer sat, all so the same curled up at the edge of the shaft, in a puddle of blood. The redhead soldier still twitched, but he was not cleared out.
Pierre ran downwards.
"No, now they will leave this, now they are terrified of what they have done!" thought Pierre, aimlessly directing behind the droves of stretchers, moving from the field of the battle.
Yet the sun, covered in smoke, still stood high, and ahead, and in particular to the left at Semenovsky, boiled something in smoke, and the rumble of shots, shooting and cannonade not only did not weaken, but intensified to despair, as a person, who strains to shout from their last forces.
Locations: See previous chapter
Mentioned: French, Russian, Semenovskoe
Pevear and Volokhonsky Notes: Pierre watches the battle fall into further chaos, confusion, and violence. A French officer then grabs Pierre and both of them are confused as to who had who and Pierre's size works to his advantage. A cannonball causes them to run away from each other with the Frenchman "stumbling over the dead and wounded, who, it seemed to him, tried to catch him by the legs."
Parenthetical on some Russian soldiers Pierre sees charging: "This was the attack which Ermolov took credit for, saying that only his courage and good luck had made possible this exploit, during which he supposedly threw up into the barrow some St. George Crosses that he had in his pocket."
After Pierre sees the horrendous dead and wounded, he decides that now the battle must stop because everyone will be some horrified by what has happened. However, things only intensify and get worse.
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 *):
Pierre
Yermolof
Abridged Versions: End of Chapter 4 in Bell.
Gibian: Chapter 32.
Fuller: Chapter is preserved and followed by a line break.
Komroff: Despite it being illustrated, the episode with the French officer and Pierre is removed. The rest of the chapter is preserved.
Kropotkin: Entire chapter is cut.
Bromfield: No apparent corresponding chapter.
Simmons: Chapter 32: The Yermolov section of the chapter is cut.
Additional Notes:
Ure: Page 156: “General Yermolov - a Russian hero of the Napoleonic wars - was sent as Commander-in-Chief to the Caucasus….in 1818, Yermolov had resolved to teach the Chechens a lesson: he left a field gun apparently abandoned, but when the tribesmen descended to make off with it they found that all the surrounding Russian artillery had been trained on this one spot and 200 Chechens were killed and as many again wounded before they realized they had fallen into a trap. Yermolov was not a man to be trifled with.”
Mikaberidze: Page 13: Always an intriguer, Yermolov…”
Roberts: Page 605: “When the 120-house village of Semyonovskoe was captured by Davout in the late morning, Napoleon was able to move up artillery to fire into the Russian left flank. Noon saw the crisis of the battle as several marshals - there were seven present, and two future ones - begged Napoleon to unleash the Imperial Guard to smash through the Russian line while it was still extended. Rapp, who was wounded four times in the battle, also implored Napoleon to do this.”
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