- Voilà l'agrément des camps, monsieur le prince 1," said the duty staff officer.
They went to the opposite mountain. From this mountain, the French were already visible. Prince Andrei stopped and began to look.
- This is where our battery stands," said the staff officer, pointing to the highest point, "the same weirdo who was sitting without his boots; from there you can see everything: let's go, Prince.
- Thank you very much, I'm going to drive alone now," said Prince Andrei, wishing to get rid of the Staff Officer, "please don't worry.
The staff officer fell behind, and Prince Andrew went alone.
The further he moved forward, the closer he got to the enemy, the more decent and fun the kind of troops became. The biggest mess and despondency was in that trailer in front of Znaim, who was going around Prince Andrew in the morning and who was ten versts away from the French. There was also some anxiety and fear of something in the ground. But the closer Prince Andrew came to the chain of the French, the more confident our troops became. Soldiers in a row stood in overcoats, and the soldiers and the company were counting people, pointing their fingers at the chest of the last soldier in the ward and ordering him to raise his hand; Soldiers scattered all over the space dragged wood and brushwood and built ballaganchiki, laughing and talking; at the fires sat dressed and naked, drying shirts, podvertki or fixing boots and overcoats, crowded near pots and cashmere. In one company, dinner was ready, and the soldiers with greedy faces looked at the smoking pots and waited for an audition, which was brought in a wooden cup by Captainarmus to the officer sitting on a log against his balagan.
In the other, happier company, because not everyone had vodka, the soldiers, crowded, stood near the rippled broad-shouldered feldfebel, who, bending the keg, poured into the alternately substituted covers of manners. Soldiers with devout faces brought manners to their mouths, overturned them, and, with their mouths and sleeves of overcoats, moved away from the feldshmallow with their cheerful faces. All the faces were so calm, as if everything was not in the eyes of the enemy, before the case, where at least half of the squad was to stay in place, but as if somewhere in the country waiting for a quiet parking lot. Having passed the jäger regiment, in the ranks of the Kiev grenadiers, the well-trained people occupied with the same peace affairs, prince Andrey near to high, different from other balaganas of the regimental commander has run over on the front of a platoon the grenadier in front of which there was a naked person. Two soldiers were holding him, and two were waving flexible rods and hitting him on the naked back. He was punished by shouting unnaturally. The fat major walked in front of the front, without stopping or noticing the scream, saying:
- It is shameful to steal a soldier, a soldier must be honest, noble and brave, and if he stole from his brother, so there is no honor in him, it is a scoundrel. More, more!
And everybody heard flexible blows and a desperate, but pretend shout.
- Still, still, - the major said.
The young officer, with the expression of perplexity and suffering in his face, departed from the punished, looking back questioningly at the passing adjutant.
Prince Andrei, having left the front line, went to the front. Our chain and the enemy's chain stood on the left and right flank far from each other, but in the middle, in the place where the parliamentarians passed in the morning, the chains came so close that they could see each other's faces and talk to each other. In addition to the soldiers in the chain, there were many curious people on either side of the chain who laughed and looked at strange and strange enemies.
From the early morning, despite the prohibition to approach the chain, the bosses could not fight off the curious. The soldiers, standing in chains like people showing something rare, did not look at the French, but made their observations on the arrivals and, bored, waiting for a shift. Prince Andrei stopped to look at the French.
- Look at this," a soldier said to a comrade, pointing to a Russian musketeer-soldier who approached the chain with an officer and spoke often and warmly to the French Grenadier. - See, he's spinning like a dodger! The Frenchman doesn't keep up with him. Come on, Sidorov...
- Wait, listen to me. You are clever! - Sidorov answered, who was considered a master of French.
The soldier pointed to by the laughers was Dolokhov. Prince Andrew recognized him and listened to his conversation. Dolokhov together with his company came into the chain from the left flank, on which stood their regiment.
- Well, more, more! - The company commander was incited by the company commander, leaning forward and trying not to say a word he didn't understand. - Please, more often. What is he saying?
Dolokhov did not answer his mouth; he was involved in a heated argument with the French Grenadier. They talked about the campaign as it should have been. The Frenchman proved, mixing the Austrians with the Russians, that the Russians surrendered and fled from Ulm himself; Dolokhov proved that the Russians did not surrender, but beat the French.
- Here they tell us to banish you, and we will banish you, - said Dolokhov.
- Just try not to be taken away with all your Cossacks," said the French grenadier.
Spectators and listeners of the French laughed.
- You'll have to dance like you danced under Suvorov (on vous fera danser) 2," said Dolokhov.
- Qu'est-ce qu'il chante? 3" said one Frenchman.
- De l'histoire ancienne," said the other, guessing that it was about past wars. - L'Empereur va lui faire voir à votre Souvara, comme aux autres... 4
- Bonaparte... - began with Dolokhov, but the Frenchman interrupted him.
- No Bonaparte. There is an emperor! Sacré nom... 5 - He shouted angrily.
- Damn it, your emperor!
And Dolokhov fought in Russian, rudely, soldierly, and, having thrown his gun, went away.
- Let's go, Ivan Lukich," he said to his mouth.
- That's the way it is in French," said the soldiers in chains. - Come on, you, Sidorov!
Sidorov winked and, addressing the French, began to sputter often, often obscure words.
- Kari, small, taffa, safi, muther, helmet," he sputtered, trying to give expressive intonations to his words.
- Go, go, go! Ha, ha, ha, ha, ha! Ugh! Ugh! - There was a rumble of such a healthy and cheerful laughter between the soldiers, unwittingly through the chain of communicating and the French, that after that, it seemed that it was necessary to discharge the guns as soon as possible, blow up the charges and disperse quickly to all the houses.
But the rifles remained loaded, and the loopholes in the houses and fortifications were looking ahead just as menacingly, and just as before, there were guns turned against each other, removed from the front of the gun.
1 Here's the pleasure of the camp, Prince.
2 you're gonna have to dance.
3 What's he singing there?
4 Ancient history. The emperor will show your Suvar as well as the others...
5 Damn it...
about the text/construction...