When he realizes his troops are too exhausted to fight further, Kutuzov also realizes Moscow is doomed. The safety of Russia lies in her army alone, says Kutuzov to his generals at a meeting; it is better to abandon Moscow and maintain the security of our troops. The generals hear the decision and their council is like a funeral meeting. To himself, Kutuzov expresses bewilderment."This I did not expect!" he says. Then he shouts in fury,"But they shall eat horseflesh like the Turks!" and strikes the table with his fist. He still believes himself destined to deliver Russia from the French.
The abandonment and burning of Moscow, says Tolstoy, is as irresistible an event as the army's retreating without a battle. Another"irresistible event" is the evacuation of Moscow. More and more swiftly after Borodino the rich people leave the city, then the poor, with the rest burning or destroying what remains. Although exhorted by the governor to remain and fight, the citizens who depart are responding to a deeper patriotism that they feel but cannot express. Despite the vague and varied reasons that prompt each departure, leaving the wealthy city is the great deed that saves Russia. Count Rastoptchin, governor of Moscow, however, fails to recognize the"tide of destiny." Wishing to be considered as his nation's defender, he issues proclamations demanding the people remain and take a last stand against the French invaders, despite his own inner knowledge of the futility of this action. Tolstoy says Rastoptchin acts like an attention-demanding child frolicking about"the grand and inevitable event of the abandonment and burning of Moscow."
Meantime Countess Bezuhov faces a peculiar dilemma. Two of her lovers appear in town at the same time and to each she says, in effect,"If you wish to have a claim on me, why not marry me?" She decides to convert to Catholicism because then her marriage to Pierre would become invalid, since it took place according to the precepts of a"false religion." Choosing one of her lovers as a husband, she writes to Pierre for a divorce.
