“Well, all I can make out is that everything is abominable, abominable, quite abominable!” said Prince Andréy, and he went off to the house where the commander in chief was.

Passing by Kutúzov’s carriage and the exhausted saddle horses of his suite, with their Cossacks who were talking loudly together, Prince Andréy entered the passage. Kutúzov himself, he was told, was in the house with Prince Bagratión and Weyrother. Weyrother was the Austrian general who had succeeded Schmidt. In the passage little Kozlóvski was squatting on his heels in front of a clerk. The clerk, with cuffs turned up, was hastily writing at a tub turned bottom upwards. Kozlóvski’s face looked worn⁠—he too had evidently not slept all night. He glanced at Prince Andréy and did not even nod to him.

“Second line⁠ ⁠… have you written it?” he continued dictating to the clerk. “The Kiev Grenadiers, Podolian⁠ ⁠…”

“One can’t write so fast, your honor,” said the clerk, glancing angrily and disrespectfully at Kozlóvski.