Pierre sets out to kill Napoleon but instead stops and helps rescue a small child from a burning house.
Summary:
When Pierre awakes the next day, he takes a dagger and sets out on his half-baked plan to kill Napoleon. He doubts he can do it, but he wants to prove to himself that he has the nerve to try. In fact, Napoleon is somewhere else at the time. Seeing Pierre, people on the street don’t know what to make of him. Pierre himself hardly notices his surroundings. There is smoke everywhere, and the French are looting. But Pierre happens upon a sobbing woman whose young daughter is trapped in a burning building. This snaps Pierre back to himself and he agrees to try to rescue the young girl. He goes into the burning building, and with the help of some French soldiers who are at that moment looting the house, he manages to find the girl who has hidden herself in the garden. Pierre picks up the wet, painfully sobbing child to himself as tenderly as he could and runs with her looking for a way out, as it was now impossible to go back the way he had entered.
quote from the chapter:
He heard nothing and saw nothing of what went on around him. He carried his resolution within himself in terror and haste, like something dreadful and alien to him, for, after the previous night’s experience, he was afraid of losing it. But he was not destined to bring his mood safely to his destination. And even had he not been hindered by anything on the way, his intention could not now have been carried out, for Napoleon had passed the Arbát more than four hours previously on his way from the Dorogomílov suburb to the Krémlin, and was now sitting in a very gloomy frame of mind in a royal study in the Krémlin, giving detailed and exact orders as to measures to be taken immediately to extinguish the fire, to prevent looting, and to reassure the inhabitants. But Pierre did not know this; he was entirely absorbed in what lay before him, and was tortured-as those are who obstinately undertake a task that is impossible for them not because of its difficulty but because of its incompatibility with their natures-by the fear of weakening at the decisive moment and so losing his self-esteem.
Book 11, Chapter 33
Pierre sets out to kill Napoleon but instead stops and helps rescue a small child from a burning house.
Summary:
When Pierre awakes the next day, he takes a dagger and sets out on his half-baked plan to kill Napoleon. He doubts he can do it, but he wants to prove to himself that he has the nerve to try. In fact, Napoleon is somewhere else at the time. Seeing Pierre, people on the street don’t know what to make of him. Pierre himself hardly notices his surroundings. There is smoke everywhere, and the French are looting. But Pierre happens upon a sobbing woman whose young daughter is trapped in a burning building. This snaps Pierre back to himself and he agrees to try to rescue the young girl. He goes into the burning building, and with the help of some French soldiers who are at that moment looting the house, he manages to find the girl who has hidden herself in the garden. Pierre picks up the wet, painfully sobbing child to himself as tenderly as he could and runs with her looking for a way out, as it was now impossible to go back the way he had entered.
quote from the chapter:
He heard nothing and saw nothing of what went on around him. He carried his resolution within himself in terror and haste, like something dreadful and alien to him, for, after the previous night’s experience, he was afraid of losing it. But he was not destined to bring his mood safely to his destination. And even had he not been hindered by anything on the way, his intention could not now have been carried out, for Napoleon had passed the Arbát more than four hours previously on his way from the Dorogomílov suburb to the Krémlin, and was now sitting in a very gloomy frame of mind in a royal study in the Krémlin, giving detailed and exact orders as to measures to be taken immediately to extinguish the fire, to prevent looting, and to reassure the inhabitants. But Pierre did not know this; he was entirely absorbed in what lay before him, and was tortured-as those are who obstinately undertake a task that is impossible for them not because of its difficulty but because of its incompatibility with their natures-by the fear of weakening at the decisive moment and so losing his self-esteem.
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