as quickly as possible,’ he said in the tone in which servants speak who are anxious to remain on friendly terms though their masters have quarrelled. And he changed the subject; inquiring after the health of the Grand Duke, and recalling the agreeable time he had spent with him in Naples. Then suddenly, as though recollecting his royal dignity, Murat drew himself up majestically, threw himself irtto the pose in which he had stood at his coronation, and waving his right arm, said: ‘I will detain you no longer, general; I wish you success in your mission.’ And, with a flutter of his scarlet cloak and his feathers, and a flash of his precious stones, he rejoined the suite, who were respectfully awaiting him.
Balashov rode on further, expecting from Murat’s words that he would be very shortly brought before Napoleon himself. But at the next village he was detained by the sentinels of Davoust’s infantry corps, just as he had been at the outposts. An adjutant of the commander of that corps was sent for to conduct him to the village to see Marshal Davoust.
V
Davoust was to the Emperor Napoleon what Araktcheev was to Alexander. Davoust was not like Araktcheev a coward, but he was as exacting and as cruel, and as unable to express his devotion except by cruelty.
In the mechanism of the state organism these men are as necessary as wolves in the organism of nature. And they are always to be found in every government; they always make their appearance and hold their own, incongruous as their presence and their close relations with the head of the state may appear. It is only on the theory of this necessity that one can explain the fact that a man so cruel—capable of pulling out grenadiers’ moustaches with his own hand—though unable, from the weakness of his nerves, to face danger, so uncultured, so boorish as Araktcheev, was able to retain such influence with a sovereign of chivalrous tenderness and nobility of character like Alexander.
Balashov found Davoust sitting on a tub in a barn adjoining a peasant’s hut. He was occupied in writing, auditing accounts. An adjutant was standing beside him. Better quarters could have been found, but Marshal Davoust was one of these people who purposely put themselves into the most dismal conditions of life in order to have a right to be dismal. For the same reason they always persist in being busy and in a hurry.
‘How could one be thinking of the bright side of life when, as you see, I am sitting on a tub in a dirty barn, hard at work?’ was what his face expressed.
The great desire and delight of such people on meeting others enjoying life is to throw their own gloomy, dogged activity into their faces. Davoust gave himself that satisfaction when Balashov was brought in. He appeared even more deeply engrossed in his work when the Russian general entered, and glancing through his spectacles at the face of Balashov, who looked cheerful from the brightness of the morning and his talk with Murat, he
did not get up, did not stir even, but scowled more than before, and grinned malignantly.
Observing the disagreeable impression made on Balashov by this reception, Davoust raised his head, and asked him frigidly what he wanted.
Assuming that such a reception could only be due to Davoust’s being unaware that he was a general on the staff of Alexander, and his representative indeed before Napoleon, Balashov hastened to inform him of his rank and his mission. But, contrary to his expectations, Davoust became even surlier and ruder on hearing Balashov’s words.
‘Where is your despatch?’ he said. ‘Give it to me. I will send it to the Emperor.’
Balashov said that he was under orders to hand the document to the Emperor in person.
‘The commands of your Emperor are obeyed in your army; but here,’ said Davoust, ‘you must do what you are told.’
And, as though to make the Russian general still more sensible of his dependence on brute force, Davoust sent the adjutant for the officer on duty.
Balashov took out the packet that contained the Tsar’s letter, and laid it on the table (a table consisting of a door laid across two tubs with the hinges still hanging on it). Davoust took the packet and read the address on it.
‘You are perfectly at liberty to show me respect or not, as you please,’ said Balashov. ‘But, permit me to observe that I have the honour to serve as a general on the staff of his majesty . . .’
Davoust glanced at him without a word, and plainly derived satisfaC’ tion from signs of emotion and confusion on Balashov’s face.
‘You will be shown what is fitting,’ he said, and putting the envelope in his pocket he walked out of the barn.
A minute later an adjutant of the marshal's, Monsieur de Castre, came in and conducted Balashov to the quarters that had been assigned him.
He dined that day in the barn with the marshal, sitting down to the door laid across the tubs.
