Page 1559 - war-and-peace

the table. ‘Gentlemen, I have heard your views. Some of you
will not agree with me. But I,’ he paused, ‘by the authority
entrusted to me by my Sovereign and country, order a re-
treat.’
After that the generals began to disperse with the so-
lemnity and circumspect silence of people who are leaving,
after a funeral.
Some of the generals, in low tones and in a strain very
different from the way they had spoken during the council,
communicated something to their commander in chief.
Malasha, who had long been expected for supper, climbed
carefully backwards down from the oven, her bare little feet
catching at its projections, and slipping between the legs of
the generals she darted out of the room.
When he had dismissed the generals Kutuzov sat a long
time with his elbows on the table, thinking always of the
same terrible question: ‘When, when did the abandonment
of Moscow become inevitable? When was that done which
settled the matter? And who was to blame for it?’
‘I did not expect this,’ said he to his adjutant Schneider
when the latter came in late that night. ‘I did not expect this!
I did not think this would happen.’
‘You should take some rest, your Serene Highness,’ re-
plied Schneider.
‘But no! They shall eat horseflesh yet, like the Turks!’ ex-
claimed Kutuzov without replying, striking the table with
his podgy fist. ‘They shall too, if only..’

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