Under Fire for the First Time — War and Peace

Only Denisov's hussars remain on the far side facing the French hill while the last infantry and baggage squeeze through the bridge as if through a funnel. Cossack scouts trot down. Blue uniforms appear on the skyline. An empty space of some seven hundred yards is all that separates them. The sun descends brightly on the Danube. Bugle calls and enemy shouts carry across the calm. Tolstoy writes the invisible line between living and dead, and cannonballs begin to whistle over the squadron.

The colonel sends them back to burn the bridge. Rostov, sure Bogdanich is testing him after the Telyanin affair, stumbles in the mud, falls behind, and watches grapeshot knock men down while stretchers cry for bearers. He sees the Danube sun and prays. Denisov says he has smelled powder and that this target-shooting is the very devil; an attack would be pleasant work.

Rostov thinks himself a coward, yet no one noticed: everyone knows the sensation of a cadet under fire for the first time. The bridge burns. The colonel gaily tells Nesvitski and Zherkov to report that he fired the bridge; losses are a trifle: two hussars wounded, and one knocked out, a phrase he pronounces with ringing distinctness and a happy smile he cannot restrain.