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The French have destroyed my home and are on their way to destroy Moscow, they have outraged and are outraging me every moment. They are my enemies. In my opinion they are all criminals. And so thinks Timokhin and the whole army. They should be executed! Since they are my foes they cannot be my friends, whatever may have been said at Tilsit."
And tell me, please I've been meaning to ask how is he behaving himself, and in general..." "As far as the service goes he is quite punctilious, your excellency; but his character..." said Timokhin. "And what about his character?" asked the regimental commander. "It's different on different days," answered the captain.
It was Timokhin's company, which alone had maintained its order in the wood and, having lain in ambush in a ditch, now attacked the French unexpectedly. Timokhin, armed only with a sword, had rushed at the enemy with such a desperate cry and such mad, drunken determination that, taken by surprise, the French had thrown down their muskets and run.
He drank it eagerly, looking with feverish eyes at the door in front of him as if trying to understand and remember something. "I don't want any more. Is Timokhin here?" he asked. Timokhin crept along the bench to him. "I am here, your excellency." "How's your wound?" "Mine, sir? All right. But how about you?" Prince Andrew again pondered as if trying to remember something.
In Moscow they are saying heaven knows what about him.... What do you think of him?" "Ask them," replied Prince Andrew, indicating the officers. Pierre looked at Timokhin with the condescendingly interrogative smile with which everybody involuntarily addressed that officer.
Dolokhov, running beside Timokhin, killed a Frenchman at close quarters and was the first to seize the surrendering French officer by his collar. Our fugitives returned, the battalions re-formed, and the French who had nearly cut our left flank in half were for the moment repulsed. Our reserve units were able to join up, and the fight was at an end.
"But on what then?" "On the feeling that is in me and in him," he pointed to Timokhin, "and in each soldier." Prince Andrew glanced at Timokhin, who looked at his commander in alarm and bewilderment. In contrast to his former reticent taciturnity Prince Andrew now seemed excited. He could apparently not refrain from expressing the thoughts that had suddenly occurred to him.
"I will, your excellency," said Timokhin, showing by his smile that he understood his commander's wish. "Well, of course, of course!" The regimental commander sought out Dolokhov in the ranks and, reining in his horse, said to him: "After the next affair... epaulettes." Dolokhov looked round but did not say anything, nor did the mocking smile on his lips change.
"Well, that's all right," continued the regimental commander. "A cup of vodka for the men from me," he added so that the soldiers could hear. "I thank you all! God be praised!" and he rode past that company and overtook the next one. "Well, he's really a good fellow, one can serve under him," said Timokhin to the subaltern beside him.
The red-nosed Captain Timokhin, formerly Dolokhov's squadron commander, but now from lack of officers a battalion commander, shyly entered the shed followed by an adjutant and the regimental paymaster.
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