When Orders Go Missing — War and Peace

Bennigsen's note and the Cossack's news that the French left flank was unguarded were only the last signs that an attack had to be ordered. It was fixed for the fifth of October. On the morning of the fourth Kutuzov signed the dispositions. Toll read them to Ermolov and asked him to attend to further arrangements. Ermolov said he had not time just then and left the hut. Toll's paper was excellent, as the Austerlitz dispositions had been, though not in German this time: the First Column will march here, the Second there, and on paper all arrived on time and destroyed the enemy. As always, not a single column reached its place at the appointed hour.

Copies prepared, a young Horse Guards officer, Kutuzov's orderly, was sent to deliver them to Ermolov. The orderly at Ermolov's quarters said he had gone away. A general with whom Ermolov was often found was out too. The officer rode the whole camp until six without eating, terrified of being blamed for the delay. Someone said Ermolov had gone to a ball at General Kikin's. A Cossack pointed to a country house at Echkino, outside the line, with two regiments as outposts and two bands. Past eight o'clock the officer heard a soldier's dance song, whistling, and a torban. In the intact house between the armies, footmen bustled with wine. The chief generals stood flushed in a semicircle, coats unbuttoned, laughing, while a short handsome general with a red face danced the trepak with spirit. They shouted bravo for Nicholas Ivanych.

The orderly felt doubly to blame for arriving with important orders at such a moment. A general spotted him and informed Ermolov, who came forward frowning, took the papers without a word, and went back to the dance. That evening a staff comrade told the Horse Guards officer it had not been chance. It was a trick, done on purpose to get Konovnitsyn into trouble. Tomorrow, he said, they would see what a mess there would be.