War and Peace Ch. 190: When Crisis Calls for

Summary

Count Rostopchin strides in with protruding chin and alert eyes, in a general's uniform with sash, stepping briskly to the front of the gentry. The Emperor will be here in a moment. He is straight from the palace. Seeing the position, he thinks there is little need for discussion. Millions will pour from the merchants' hall. The nobles' business is to supply men and not spare themselves. That is the least they can do.

A conference confined to the magnates at the table passes more than quietly. After all the noise, old voices saying I agree, or for variety I too am of that opinion, sound almost mournful. The secretary is told to write that the Moscow nobility will furnish ten men, fully equipped, out of every thousand serfs, as the Smolensk gentry have done. Chairs scrape. Gentlemen rise with apparent relief and walk arm in arm.

A cry of The Emperor sends the throng to the entrance. He comes through a broad path between two lines of nobles. Pierre stands rather far off and cannot hear all, but understands danger to the empire and hopes placed on the Moscow nobility. A voice reports the resolution. The Emperor, with a quivering voice, says he never doubted the devotion of the Russian nobles, but today it has surpassed his expectations. He thanks them in the name of the Fatherland. Gentlemen, let us act. Time is most precious. Count Rostov, at the back, hearing hardly anything, sobs that it is a royal word.

The Emperor goes to the merchants' hall for about ten minutes and comes out with tears. He had scarcely begun to address them before tears gushed. A fat otkupshchik Pierre knows sobs like a child: our lives and property, take them, Your Majesty. The thin mayor weeps too. Pierre's one feeling is to show he will go all lengths. Ashamed of his constitutional speech, and hearing that Count Mamonov is furnishing a regiment, Bezukhov informs Rostopchin he will give a thousand men and their maintenance. Old Rostov cannot tell his wife without tears, consents to Petya's request, and goes himself to enter the name. Next day the Emperor leaves Moscow. The assembled nobles take off their uniforms, settle again in homes and clubs, and not without groans give stewards enrollment orders, amazed at what they have done.

In this chapter:Terms Characters Key Quotes Modern Story

Why This Matters

Pausing Before Public Pledges

Tears in the room can spend money you have not counted. Pierre promises a thousand men when the Emperor weeps; nobles groan the next day.

Before you match a crisis pledge, ask what you can deliver after the applause stops.

This chapter

Inside the Mind: Count Rostov

Count Rostov stands at the back, hears hardly anything, and sobs that it is a royal word. The next day he will have to tell his wife, and he will also enter Petya's name. He does not weigh men or money: he needs the Emperor's voice to finish a feeling he already had, so authorship arrives as tears, then as a steward's groan.

Continue this thoughtThe Wish to Be Authored

Coming Up in Chapter 191

Napoleon begins the war with Russia because he cannot resist going to Dresden, cannot help having his head turned by the homage he receives, cannot help donning a Polish uniform on a June morning, and cannot refrain from bursts of anger in the presence of Kurakin and then of Balashev.

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Chapter 190

When Crisis Calls for Sacrifice

At that moment Count Rostopchín with his protruding chin and alert eyes, wearing the uniform of a general with sash over his shoulder, entered the room, stepping briskly to the front of the crowd of gentry. “Our sovereign the Emperor will be here in a moment,” said Rostopchín. “I am straight from the palace. Seeing the position we are in, I think there is little need for discussion. The Emperor has deigned to summon us and the merchants. Millions will pour forth from there”—he pointed to the merchants’ hall—“but our business is to supply men and not spare ourselves.... That…

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When Crisis Calls for Sacrifice

Summary

Why This Matters