That evening there is a council of war to go over assignments, but little discussion of the wisdom of the plan. Kutozov falls asleep during the meeting.
That evening there is a council of war to go over assignments, but little discussion of the wisdom of the plan. Kutozov falls asleep during the meeting.
Book 3, Chapter 12
That evening there is a council of war to go over assignments, but little discussion of the wisdom of the plan. Kutozov falls asleep during the meeting.
Summary:
A council of war is held to go over the dispositions for tomorrow’s battle. Prince Andrew, Kutozov, and others think the plan bad, but their minority view is not seriously considered. It is too late to change the battle plans, and the majority expect the outcome to be a major defeat for Napoleon. It takes an hour to read through everyone’s assignments. Kutozov falls asleep during the meeting. After midnight the meeting is adjourned do everyone can get some sleep before the battle. Prince Andrew wonders if he will die in the battle, or if perhaps he will be a hero.
quote from the chapter:
The council of war, at which Prince Andrew had not been able to express his opinion as he had hoped to, left on him a vague and uneasy impression. Whether Dolgorúkov and Weyrother, or Kutúzov, Langeron, and the others who did not approve of the plan of attack, were right-he did not know. But was it really not possible for Kutúzov to state his views plainly to the Emperor? Is it possible that on account of court and personal considerations tens of thousands of lives, and my life, my life, he thought, must be risked? Yes, it is very likely that I shall be killed tomorrow, he thought. And suddenly, at this thought of death, a whole series of most distant, most intimate, memories rose in his imagination: he remembered his last parting from his father and his wife; he remembered the days when he first loved her. He thought of her pregnancy and felt sorry for her and for himself, and in a nervously emotional and softened mood he went out of the hut in which he was billeted with Nesvítski and began to walk up and down before it.
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