Page 1492 - war-and-peace

‘There, lads... oh, oh!’ they mimicked the peasants, ‘they
don’t like it at all!’
Pierre noticed that after every ball that hit the redoubt,
and after every loss, the liveliness increased more and
more.
As the flames of the fire hidden within come more and
more vividly and rapidly from an approaching thunder-
cloud, so, as if in opposition to what was taking place, the
lightning of hidden fire growing more and more intense
glowed in the faces of these men.
Pierre did not look out at the battlefield and was not
concerned to know what was happening there; he was en-
tirely absorbed in watching this fire which burned ever
more brightly and which he felt was flaming up in the same
way in his own soul.
At ten o’clock the infantry that had been among the bush-
es in front of the battery and along the Kamenka streamlet
retreated. From the battery they could be seen running back
past it carrying their wounded on their muskets. A general
with his suite came to the battery, and after speaking to the
colonel gave Pierre an angry look and went away again hav-
ing ordered the infantry supports behind the battery to lie
down, so as to be less exposed to fire. After this from amid
the ranks of infantry to the right of the battery came the
sound of a drum and shouts of command, and from the bat-
tery one saw how those ranks of infantry moved forward.
Pierre looked over the wall of the trench and was partic-
ularly struck by a pale young officer who, letting his sword
hang down, was walking backwards and kept glancing un-

1492 War and Peace