Kutuzov is furious when he finds out his sharpshooters have been ordered to change position and he sends Prince Andrey to check. Then the resplendent emperors, Francis and Alexander, with all their staff arrive, restoring confidence to Kutuzov's cheerless retinue. Suddenly the densely massed French appear; they were supposed to be a mile away. As the troops recoil in confusion, Kutuzov turns a tearful face to Prince Andrey. With a weak"Hurrah," Bolkonsky snatches up the flag and rushes forward; a few men follow him. Suddenly Andrey is hit and sinks to the ground. Struggling to keep his men in sight, he sees only the lofty clear sky. The boundless vista promises peace and loveliness and he feels happy."All is vanity, all is a cheat, except that infinite sky," he thinks, and then loses consciousness.
Not yet called to action, Bagration sends Rostov to get orders from Kutuzov. Nikolay gallops through the gunfire and into the village where the commander is to be found. But the town is entirely French-occupied. Clearly the battle is lost. As Rostov galIops on, he discerns his young tsar standing alone and forlorn in the middle of the field. He is too shy to offer assistance to his beloved Alexander and he sees one of the generals approaching the emperor.
Prince Andrey regains his senses while Napoleon and two adjutants inspect the field of dead and wounded. They stop before him."A fine death," Bonaparte says, but to Andrey the words are no more than the"buzzing of the flies." His hero seems insignificant compared with the infinite sky above and the feeling in his soul. Prince Andrey next finds himself in an ambulance which the emperor is inspecting. Recognizing him, Napoleon asks how he feels, but Andrey does not reply. As he gazes into his hero's eyes, he muses on"the nothingness of greatness, on the nothingness of life . . . and on the . . . nothingness of death . . . ." His delirium is filled with images of Bleak Hills, his future son, that"little, petty Napoleon," and over all, the lofty sky.
