"When I saw, your excellency, that their first battalion was disorganized, I stopped in the road and thought: 'I'll let them come on and will meet them with the fire of the whole battalion'--and that's what I did.

" The general had so wished to do this and was so sorry he had not managed to do it that it seemed to him as if it had really happened.

Perhaps it might really have been so? Could one possibly make out amid all that confusion what did or did not happen? "By the way, your excellency, I should inform you," he continued--remembering Dolokhov's conversation with Kutuzov and his last interview with the gentleman-ranker--"that Private Dolokhov, who was reduced to the ranks, took a French officer prisoner in my presence and particularly distinguished himself.

" "I saw the Pavlograd hussars attack there, your excellency," chimed in Zherkov, looking uneasily around.

He had not seen the hussars all that day, but had heard about them from an infantry officer.