He remembered his mother's last letter.

"What would she feel," thought he, "if she saw me here now on this field with the cannon aimed at me?" In the village of Hosjeradek there were Russian troops retiring from the field of battle, who though still in some confusion were less disordered.

The French cannon did not reach there and the musketry fire sounded far away.

Here everyone clearly saw and said that the battle was lost.

No one whom Rostov asked could tell him where the Emperor or Kutuzov was.