There were a great many ladies and some of Nikoláy’s Moscow acquaintances, but there were no men who could at all vie with the cavalier of St. George, the hussar remount officer, the good-natured and well-bred Count Rostóv. Among the men was an Italian prisoner, an officer of the French army; and Nikoláy felt that the presence of that prisoner enhanced his own importance as a Russian hero. The Italian was, as it were, a war trophy. Nikoláy felt this, it seemed to him that everyone regarded the Italian in the same light, and he treated him cordially though with dignity and restraint.