A dreaded foe be thou, kindhearted as a man, A Rhipheus at home, a Caesar in the field! E’en fortunate Napoleon Knows by experience, now, Bagratión, And dare not Herculean Russians trouble …
But before he had finished reading, a stentorian majordomo announced that dinner was ready! The door opened, and from the dining room came the resounding strains of the polonaise:
Conquest’s joyful thunder waken, Triumph, valiant Russians, now! …
and Count Ilyá Andréevich, glancing angrily at the author who went on reading his verses, bowed to Bagratión. Everyone rose, feeling that dinner was more important than verses, and Bagratión, again preceding all the rest, went in to dinner. He was seated in the place of honor between two Alexanders—Bekleshëv and Narýshkin—which was a significant allusion to the name of the sovereign. Three hundred persons took their seats