“Why are you here?” he asked.
“Your … your excellency,” stammered Alpátych and broke into sobs. “Are we really lost? Master! …”
“Why are you here?” Prince Andréy repeated.
At that moment the flames flared up and showed his young master’s pale worn face. Alpátych told how he had been sent there and how difficult it was to get away.
“Are we really quite lost, your excellency?” he asked again.
Prince Andréy without replying took out a notebook and raising his knee began writing in pencil on a page he tore out. He wrote to his sister:
Smolénsk is being abandoned. Bald Hills will be occupied by the enemy within a week. Set off immediately for Moscow. Let me know at once when you will start. Send by special messenger to Usvyázh.
Having written this and given the paper to Alpátych, he told