“Do, please, for heaven’s sake, relieve me of something!” said the courier. “I have a sackful of letters to parents.”

Among these letters was one from Nikoláy Rostóv to his father. Pierre took that letter, and Rostopchín also gave him the Emperor’s appeal to Moscow, which had just been printed, the last army orders, and his own most recent bulletin. Glancing through the army orders, Pierre found in one of them, in the lists of killed, wounded, and rewarded, the name of Nikoláy Rostóv, awarded a St. George’s Cross of the Fourth Class for courage shown in the Ostróvna affair, and in the same order the name of Prince Andréy Bolkónski, appointed to the command of a regiment of Chasseurs. Though he did not want to remind the Rostóvs of Bolkónski, Pierre could not refrain from making them happy by the news of their son’s having received a decoration, so he sent that printed army order and Nikoláy’s letter to the Rostóvs, keeping the appeal, the bulletin, and the other orders to take with him when he went to dinner.