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A few days later, on 17th March, he wrote of his first interview with Gortchak?f:

Le prince Gortchak?f n'?tait pas ici. Hier il vient d'arriver et je viens de chez lui. Il m'a re?u mieux que je ne croyais--en vrai parent. Il m'a embrass?, il m'a engag? de venir d?ner tous les jours chez lui et il veut me garder aupr?s de lui, mais ce n'est pas encore d?cid?.

Pardon, ch?re tante, que je vous ?cris peu--je n'ai pas encore la t?te ? moi,--cette grande et belle ville, toutes ces pr?sentations, l'op?ra italien, le th??tre fran?ais, les deux jeunes Gortchak?f qui sont de tr?s braves gar?ons ... de sorte que je ne suis pas rest? deux heures chez moi, et je n'ai pas pens? ? mes occupations.

Prince Gortchak?f was not here. He arrived yesterday, and I have just come from his lodgings. He received me better than I expected--quite as a relation. He embraced me, and made me promise to dine at his house every day. He wants to keep me near him, but this is not yet decided.

Forgive me, dear Aunt, for writing but little to you--I have not yet collected my wits; this large and fine town, all these presentations, the Italian opera, the French theatre, the two young Gortchak?fs, who are very fine lads ... so that I have not remained two hours at home, and have not thought of my duties.

On 22nd March he adds: 'I learnt yesterday that I am not to remain with the Prince, but am to go to Oltenitza to join my battery.'

In May he wrote:

While you are fancying me exposed to all the dangers of war, I have not yet smelt Turkish powder, but am very quietly at Bucharest, strolling about, making music, and eating ices. In fact, all this time, except for two weeks I spent at Oltenitza, where I was attached to a battery, and one week I passed making excursions in Moldavia Wallachia and Bessarabia by order of General Serzhpout?vsky, on whose staff I now am by special appointment, I have been at Bucharest; and to speak frankly, the rather dissipated, quite idle and very expensive kind of life that I lead here, displeases me very much. Formerly it was the service that kept me here; but now for three weeks I have been kept here by a fever caught during my journey, but from which, thank God, I have for the present recovered sufficiently to be able in two or three days' time to rejoin my General, who is in camp near Silistria. Apropos of my General, he appears to be a very fine fellow, and though we know each other very slightly, seems well disposed toward me. What is also agreeable is that his staff consists for the most part of gentlemen.

Je vais vous parler donc de mes souvenirs de Silistrie. J'y ai vu tant de choses int?ressantes, po?tiques et touchantes que le temps que j'y ai pass? ne s'effacera jamais de ma m?moire. Notre camp ?tait dispos? de l'autre c?t? du Danube c.? d. sur la rive droite sur un terrain tr?s ?lev? au milieu de superbes jardins, appartenant ? Mustafa Pasha--le gouverneur de Silistrie. La vue de cet endroit est non seulement magnifique, mais pour nous tous du plus grand int?r?t. Sans parler du Danube, de ces ?les et de ces rivages, les uns occup?s par nous, les autres par les Turcs, on voyait la ville, la forteresse, les petits forts de Silistrie comme sur la main. On entendait les coups de canons, de fusils qui ne cessaient ni jour ni nuit, et avec une lunette d'approche on pouvait distinguer les soldats turcs. Il est vrai que c'est un dr?le de plaisir que de voir de gens s'entretuer et cependant tous les soirs et matins je me mettais sur ma cart et je restais des heures enti?res ? regarder et ce n'?tait pas moi le seul qui le faisait. Le spectacle ?tait vraiment beau, surtout la nuit. Les nuits ordinairement mes soldats se mettent aux travaux des tranch?es, et les Turcs se jettent sur eux pour les en emp?cher, alors il fallait voir et entendre cette fusillade. La premi?re nuit que j'ai pass?e au camp ce bruit terrible m'a reveill? et effray?, je croyais qu'on est all? a l'assaut et j'ai bien vite fait seller mon cheval, mais ceux qui avait d?j? pass? quelque temps au camp me dirent que je n'avais qu'? me tenir tranquille, que cette canonnade et fusillade ?tait une chose ordinaire et qu'on appela en plaisantant, 'Allah'; alors je me suis recouch?, mais ne pouvant m'endormir je me suis amus?, une montre ? la main, ? compter les coups de canon que j'entendais et j'ai compt? 110 explosions dans l'espace d'une minute. Et cependant tout ceci n'a eu de pr?s l'air aussi effrayant que cela le para?t. La nuit, quand on n'y voyait rien, c'?tait ? qui br?lerait le plus de poudre et avec ces milliers de coups de canons on tuait tout au plus une trentaine d'hommes de part et d'autre.

Ceci donc est un spectacle ordinaire que nous avions tous les jours et dans lequel, quand on m'envoyait avec des ordres dans les tranch?es, je prenais aussi ma part; mais nous avions aussi des spectacles extraordinaires, comme celui de la veille de l'assaut quand on a fait sauter une mine de 240 pouds de poudre sous un des bastions de l'ennemi. Le matin de cette journ?e le prince avait ?t? aux tranch?es avec tout son ?tat-major pour faire les dispositions d?finies--vu pour l'assaut du lendemain. Le plan, trop long pour que je puisse l'expliquer ici, ?tait si bien fait, tout ?tait si bien pr?vu que personne ne doutait de la r?ussite. A propos de cela il faut que je vous dise encore que je commence ? avoir de l'admiration pour le prince .

Je l'ai vu au feu pour la premi?re fois pendant cette matin?e. Il faut voir cette figure un peu ridicule avec sa grande taille, ses mains derri?re le dos, sa casquette en arri?re, ses lunettes et sa mani?re de parler comme un dindon. On voit qu'il ?tait tellement occup? de la marche g?n?rale des affaires que les balles et les boulets n'existaient pas pour lui; il s'expose au danger avec tant de simplicit?, qu'on dirait qu'il n'en a pas l'id?e et qu'involontairement qu'on n'a plus peur de lui que pour soi-m?me; et puis donnant ses ordres avec tant de clart? et de pr?cision et avec cela toujours affable avec chacun. C'est un grand, c.? d. un homme qui s'est vou? toute sa vie au service de sa patrie et pas par l'ambition, mais par le devoir. Je vais vous raconter un trait de lui qui se lie ? l'histoire de cet assaut que j'ai commenc? ? raconter. L'apr?s-d?ner du m?me jour on a fait sauter la mine, et pr?s de 600 pi?ces d'artillerie ont fait feu sur le fort qu'on voulait prendre, et on continuait ce feu pendant toute la nuit, c'?tait un de ces coups d'oeil et une de ces ?motions qu'on n'oublie jamais. Le soir de nouveau le prince, avec tout le tremblement, est all? coucher aux tranch?es pour diriger lui-m?me l'assaut qui devait commencer ? 3 heures de la nuit m?me.

Nous ?tions tous l? et comme toujours ? la veille d'une bataille nous faisions tous semblant de ne pas plus penser de la journ?e de demain qu'? une journ?e ordinaire et tous, j'en suis s?r, au fond du coeur ressentaient un petit serrement de coeur et pas m?me un petit mais un grand, ? l'id?e de l'assaut. Comme tu sais que le temps qui pr?c?de une affaire est le temps le plus d?sagr?able--c'est le seul o? on a le temps d'avoir peur, et la peur est un sentiment des plus d?sagr?ables. Vers le matin, plus le moment approchait, plus le sentiment diminuait et vers 3 heures quand nous attendions tous ? voir partir le bouquet de fus?es qui ?tait le signal de l'attaque--j'?tais si bien dispos? que si l'on ?tait venu me dire que l'assaut n'aurait pas lieu, cela m'aurait fait beaucoup de peine. Et voil? que juste une heure avant le moment de l'assaut arrive un aide de camp du mar?chal avec l'ordre d'?ter le si?ge de Silistrie. Je puis dire sans craindre de me tromper que cette nouvelle a ?t? re?ue par tous--soldats, officiers et g?n?raux--comme un vrai malheur, d'autant plus qu'on savait par les espions, qui nous venaient tr?s souvent de Silistrie, et avec lesquels j'avais tr?s souvent l'occasion de causer moi-m?me, on savait que ce fort pris,--chose dont personne ne doutait--Silistrie ne pouvait tenir plus de 2 ou 3 jours. N'est-ce pas que si cette nouvelle devait faire de la peine ? quelqu'un ce devait ?tre au prince, qui pendant toute cette campagne ayant fait toute chose pour le mieux, au beau milieu de l'action vit venir le mar?chal sur son dos pour g?ter les affaires et puis ayant la seule chance de r?parer nos revers par cet assaut, il re?oit le contre ordre du mar?chal au moment de le commencer. Eh bien, le prince n'a pas eu un moment de mauvaise humeur, lui, qui est si impressionable, au contraire il a ?t? content de pouvoir ?viter cette boucherie, dont il devait porter la responsabilit? et tout le temps de la retraite qu'il a dirig? lui-m?me, ne voulant passer qu'avec le dernier des soldats, qui s'est faite avec un ordre et une exactitude remarquables, il a ?t? plus gai qu'il n'a jamais ?t?. Ce qui contribuait beaucoup ? sa bonne humeur, c'?tait l'?migration de pr?s de 7000 familles bulgares, que nous prenons avec pour le souvenir de la f?rocit? des Turcs--f?rocit? a laquelle malgr? mon incredulit? j'ai ?t? oblig? de croire. D?s que nous avons quitt? des diff?rents villages bulgares que nous occupions, les Turcs y sont revenus et except? les femmes assez jeunes pour un harem, ils ont fait main basse sur tout ce qu'il y avait. Il y a un village dans lequel je suis all? du camp pour y prendre du lait et des fruits qui a ?t? extermin? de la sorte. Alors d?s que le prince avait fait savoir aux Bulgares que ceux qui voulaient pouvaient avec l'arm?e passer le Danube et devenir sujets russes, tout le pays se soul?ve et tous avec leurs femmes, enfants, chevaux, b?tails arrivent au pont,--mais comme il ?tait impossible de les prendre tous, le prince a ?t? oblig? de refuser ? ceux qui sont venus les derniers et il fallait voir comme cela le chagrinait. Il recevait toutes les d?putations qui venaient de ces pauvres gens, il causait avec chacun d'eux, t?chait de leur expliquer l'impossibilit? de la chose, leur proposait de passer sans leurs chariots et leur b?tail et en se chargeant de leurs moyens de subsistence jusqu'? ce qu'ils arrivassent en Russie, payant de sa propre bourse des vaisseaux particuliers pour les transporter, en un mot faisant tout son possible pour faire du bien ? ces gens.

Oui, ch?re tante, je voudrais bien que votre proph?tie se r?alise. La chose que j'ambitionne le plus, est d'?tre l'aide de camp d'un homme comme lui que j'aime et que j'estime du plus profond de mon coeur. Adieu, ch?re et bonne tante; je baise vos mains.

This then was an ordinary performance we had every day, and one in which I took a share when I was sent to the trenches with orders; but we also had extraordinary performances, such as the one on the eve of the attack, when a mine of 240 poods of gunpowder was exploded under one of the enemy's bastions. On the morning of that day the Prince had been to the trenches with all his staff to make the final arrangements for next day's assault. The plan--too long for me to explain here--was so well arranged, all was so well foreseen, that no one doubted its success. Apropos of this I must tell you further that I am beginning to feel admiration for the Prince .

We were all there, and as usual on the eve of a battle, we all made believe not to think of the morrow more than of any other day, and we all, I am sure, at bottom, felt our hearts contract a little at the thought of the assault. As you know, the time before a fight is the most disagreeable: it is only then that one has time to be afraid, and fear is a most disagreeable feeling. Towards morning, the nearer the moment came the more the feeling diminished, and towards 3 o'clock when we were all expecting to see a shower of rockets let off, which was the signal for the attack, I was so well inclined for it that I should have been much disappointed if any one had come to tell me that the attack was not to take place. And there! Just an hour before the time for the attack, an aide-de-camp comes from the Field-Marshal with orders to raise the siege of Silistria! I can say, without fear of making a mistake, that this news was received by all, soldiers, officers, and generals, as a real misfortune, the more so as we knew from the spies--who very often came to us from Silistria, and with whom I very often had occasion to speak--that once we had taken this fort Silistria could not have held out for more than 2 or 3 days. Is it not true that if this news was calculated to pain any one, it must have been the Prince, who having all through this campaign arranged everything for the best, yet saw, in the very middle of the action, the Field-Marshal override him and spoil the business? Having this one chance to repair our reverses by this assault, he received counter-orders from the Field-Marshal at the moment of commencing! Well, the Prince was not put out of temper for a moment. He who is so impressionable, was, on the contrary, pleased to be able to avoid that butchery, the responsibility for which he would have had to bear; and during the whole time of the retreat--which he directed personally, not wishing to cross before the last of the soldiers--which took place with remarkable order and exactitude, he was gayer than he has ever been. What contributed much to his good humour, was the emigration of nearly 7000 Bulgarian families, whom we took with us as a reminder of the ferocity of the Turks: a ferocity in which, in spite of my incredulity, I was obliged to believe. As soon as we quitted the different Bulgarian villages we had occupied, the Turks returned to them, and except women young enough for a harem, they made a clean sweep of all that was in them. There was one village to which I went from the camp for milk and fruit, which had been exterminated in this way. So, as soon as the Prince let the Bulgarians know that those who wished to, could cross the Danube with our army and could become Russian subjects, the whole country rose, and with their wives, children, horses and cattle, came to the bridge: but as it was impossible to take them all, the Prince was obliged to refuse the last arrivals, and you should have seen how it grieved him to do so. He received all the deputations which came from these poor folk, and spoke with them all: trying to explain the impossibility of the matter, offering to let them cross without their carts and cattle, charging himself with their support till they could reach Russia, and out of his own purse paying for private ships to transport them; in a word, doing his very best for the welfare of these people.

Yes, dear Aunt, I should much like your prophecy to come true. What I desire most is to be aide-de-camp to such a man as he, whom I love and esteem from the bottom of my heart. Adieu, dear and kind Aunt. I kiss your hands.

The army retired to Bucharest, and here, at an officers' ball, Tolstoy seized an opportunity to beg Gortchak?f to have him transferred to where service would be most active.

The retreat from Silistria took place at the end of June, and on 2nd August we find Tolstoy starting for Russia. On the journey he fell ill and had to lie up in hospital. On 13th November in Kishin?f he renewed his application for an appointment in the Crimea, and was ordered to Sevastopol, which he reached on the 20th of that month.

In this chapter the dates, when possible, are given new style , in order that they may tally with English accounts of the Crimean war.

The situation there, at this time, was the following. The Allies had landed in the Crimea to the north of Sevastopol on 14th September, and had defeated the Russian army under M?nshikof on the 20th at Alma. Instead of marching straight into the town, which was almost undefended, they had then gone round and encamped on the south side, where they remained inactive till 17th October, by which time Todleben, an engineer of rare genius, had thrown up earthworks and mounted guns . M?nshikof himself had practically abandoned the town, withdrawing the bulk of his army northward; but the situation was saved by the patriotism of just that section of the Russian forces which had been least exposed to the deadening influence of Nicholas the First's militarism,--namely by the officers and men of the fleet. Inspired by the example of the heroic Admiral Korn?lof they rallied to the defence with a courageous devotion seldom paralleled. Their example awoke enthusiasm throughout Russia and compelled M?nshikof to supply reinforcements, which enabled the town to hold out for eleven months, in spite of the great superiority of the Allies in rifles, artillery and the modern equipments of war generally.

Tolstoy reached Sevastopol when the defence was already fully organised, and when the garrison had gained confidence in their powers of resistance, and had settled down to a dogged defence.

Of the hospitals, in which the wounded saw one another's limbs amputated while waiting their own turn; of the staff officers, who managed to amuse themselves pretty well during the siege; of the commissariat officers, flourishing amid the general havoc; as well as of the line and non-commissioned officers and privates, upon whom the greatest hardships fell, Tolstoy gives vivid glimpses in the Sketches he wrote during the siege.

A fortnight after his arrival he writes, from somewhere outside the town, to his brother Sergius, apologising for not having sent him a letter sooner, and adds:

This must refer to some family joke, as it occurs in other letters home, apropos of people who were killed.

The spirit of the army is beyond all description. In the times of ancient Greece there was not such heroism. Korn?lof, making the round of the troops, instead of greeting them with, 'Good health to you, lads!' says: 'If you have to die, lads, will you die?' and the troops shout, 'We'll die, Your Excellency! Hurrah!' and they do not say it for effect. On every face one saw that it was not jest but earnest; and 22,000 men have already fulfilled the promise.

A wounded soldier, almost dying, told me they captured the 24th French Battery but were not reinforced; and he wept aloud. A Company of Marines nearly mutinied because they were to be withdrawn from batteries in which they had been exposed to shell-fire for thirty days. The soldiers extract the fuses from the shells. Women carry water to the bastions for the soldiers. Many are killed and wounded. The priests with their crosses go to the bastions and read prayers under fire. In one brigade, the 24th, more than 160 wounded men would not leave the front. It is a wonderful time! Now, however, after the 24th, we have quieted down; it has become splendid in Sevastopol. The enemy hardly fires, and all are convinced that he will not take the town; and it is really impossible.... I have not yet succeeded in being in action even once; but thank God that I have seen these people and live in this glorious time. The bombardment of the 5th remains the most brilliant and glorious feat not only in the history of Russia, but in the history of the world. More than 1500 cannon were in action for two days against the town, and not only did not cause it to capitulate, but did not silence one two-hundredth part of our batteries. Though, I suppose, this campaign is unfavourably regarded in Russia, our descendants will place it above all others; do not forget that we, with equal or even inferior forces, and armed only with bayonets, and with the worst troops in the Russian army are fighting a more numerous enemy aided by a fleet, armed with 3000 cannon, excellently supplied with rifles and with their best troops. I do not even mention the superiority of their Generals.

Only our army could hold its ground and conquer under such circumstances. You should see the French and English prisoners : they are each one better than the other--morally and physically fine fellows. The Cossacks say it is even a pity to cut them down, and alongside of them you should see some Chasseurs or others of ours: small, lousy, and shrivelled up.

Father of the present Premier of Russia.

I, thank God, am well, and live happily and pleasantly since I returned from Turkey. In general, my army service divides up into two periods: beyond the frontier--horrid: I was ill, poor, and lonely. This side of the frontier--I am well and have good friends, though I am still poor: money simply runs away.

As to writing, I do not write; but, as Aunty teases me by saying, 'I test myself.' One thing disquiets me: this is the fourth year I live without female society; and I may become quite coarse and unsuited for family life, which I so enjoy.

A few days later his battery was moved to Simfer?pol, a town lying to the north of Sevastopol, beyond the sphere of actual fighting.

On 6th January he wrote to his Aunt:

On ne se bat plus en rase campagne, ? cause de l'hiver qui est extraordinairement rigoureux, surtout ? pr?sent; mais le si?ge dure toujours.... J'avais parl? je crois d'une occupation que j'avais en vue et qui me souriait beaucoup; ? pr?sent que la chose est d?cid?e, je puis le dire. J'avais l'id?e de fonder un journal militaire. Ce projet auquel j'ai travaill? avec le concours de beaucoup de gens tr?s distingu?s fut approuv? par le prince et envoy? ? la d?cision de sa Majest?, mais l'empereur a refus?.

Cette d?confiture, je vous l'avoue, m'a fait une peine infinie et a beaucoup chang? mes plans. Si Dieu veut que la campagne de Crim?e finisse bien et si je ne re?ois pas une place dont je sois content, et qu'il n'y ait pas de guerre en Russie, je quitterai l'arm?e pour aller ? P?tersbourg ? l'acad?mie militaire. Ce plan m'est venu, 1? parce que je voudrais ne pas abandonner la litt?rature dont il m'est impossible de m'occuper dans cette vie de camp, et 2? parce qu'il me para?t que je commence ? devenir ambitieux, pas ambitieux, mais je voudrais faire du bien et pour le faire il faut ?tre plus qu'un Sub-Lieutenant; 3? parce que je vous verrai tous et tous mes amis.

There is no more fighting in the open country on account of the winter, which is extraordinarily rigorous, particularly just now; but the siege still goes on.... I think I have mentioned an occupation I had in view, which promised very well--as I may say, now that it is settled. I had the idea of founding a military newspaper. This project, at which I worked with the co-operation of many very distinguished men, was approved by the Prince and submitted to His Majesty for his consent, but he has refused.

This disappointment has, I confess, distressed me greatly, and has much altered my plans. If God wills that the Crimean campaign should end well, and if I do not receive an appointment that satisfies me, and if there is no war in Russia, I shall leave the army and go to Petersburg to the Military Academy. I have formed this plan, because I do not want to abandon literature, at which it is impossible to work amid this camp life; because it seems to me that I am becoming ambitious: not ambitious, but I want to do some good, and to do it one must be something more than a Sub-Lieutenant, and because I shall see you all and all my friends.

In May he wrote again to his brother:

It was, perhaps, at this time that Tolstoy found himself obliged to consent to the sale of the large wooden house in which he had been born, for the wretched price of 5000 'assignation roubles' . The house was taken to pieces, and removed to the estate of the purchaser, where it still stands, though not now in use.

Apropos of the above letter it should be mentioned that the Fourth Bastion was the one English writers call 'the Flagstaff Bastion.' It formed the southernmost point of the fortifications, as a glance at the accompanying map will show, and it was for a long time the point exposed to the fiercest fire.

...You want to get quickly to the bastions, especially to that Fourth Bastion about which you have been told so many and such different tales. When any one says, 'I am going to the Fourth Bastion,' a slight agitation or a too marked indifference is always noticeable in him; if men are joking they say, 'You should be sent to the Fourth Bastion.' When you meet some one carried on a stretcher, and ask, 'Where from?' the answer usually is, 'From the Fourth Bastion.'...

...Beyond this barricade the houses on both sides of the street are unoccupied: there are no signboards, the doors are boarded up, the windows smashed; here a corner of the walls is knocked down, and there a roof is broken in. The buildings look like old veterans who have borne much sorrow and privation; they even seem to gaze proudly and somewhat contemptuously at you. On the road you stumble over cannon-balls that lie about, and into holes full of water, made in the stony ground by bombs. You meet and overtake detachments of soldiers, Cossacks, officers, and occasionally a woman or a child--only it will not be a woman wearing a bonnet, but a sailor's wife wearing an old cloak and soldier's boots. Farther along the same street, after you have descended a little slope, you will notice that there are now no houses, but only ruined walls in strange heaps of bricks, boards, clay and beams, and before you, up a steep hill, you see a black untidy space cut up by ditches. This space you are approaching is the Fourth Bastion.... Here you will meet still fewer people and no women at all, the soldiers walk briskly by, traces of blood may be seen on the road, and you are sure to meet four soldiers carrying a stretcher, and on the stretcher probably a pale, yellow face and a blood-stained overcoat....

It is even very likely that the naval officer, from vanity, or merely for a little recreation, will wish to show you some firing. 'Call the gunner and crew to the cannon'; and fourteen sailors--clattering their hob-nailed boots on the platform, one putting his pipe in his pocket, another still chewing a rusk--quickly and cheerfully man the gun and begin loading.

At these sounds you will experience a strange feeling of mingled pleasure and fear. At the moment you know the shot is flying towards you, you are sure to imagine that this shot will kill you, but a feeling of pride will support you and no one will know of the knife that is cutting your heart. But when the shot has flown past and has not hit you, you revive, and, though only for a moment, a glad, inexpressibly joyous feeling seizes you, so that you feel some peculiar delight in the danger--in this game of life and death--and wish that bombs and balls would fall nearer and nearer to you.

But again the sentinel, in his loud, thick voice, shouts 'Mortar!' again a whistle, a fall, an explosion; and mingled with the last you are startled by the groans of a man. You approach the wounded man just as the stretchers are brought. Covered with blood and dirt he presents a strange, not human, appearance. Part of the sailor's breast has been torn away....

'That's the way with seven or eight every day,' the naval officer remarks to you, answering the look of horror on your face, and he yawns as he rolls another yellow cigarette.

It was during one of his sojourns in the Fourth Bastion, that Tolstoy noted down in his Diary the following prayer:

Lord, I thank Thee for Thy continual protection. How surely Thou leadest me to what is good. What an insignificant creature should I be, if Thou abandoned me! Leave me not, Lord; give me what is necessary, not for the satisfaction of my poor aspirations, but that I may attain to the eternal, vast, unknown aim of existence, which lies beyond my ken.

It was due to Tolstoy's own choice that he was exposed to the rough life of the bastion, for Prince Gortchak?f, at whose house he was a constant visitor, had offered him an appointment on his staff. This offer, which at Silistria he had so ardently desired, Tolstoy declined, having come to the conclusion, subsequently expressed in his writings, that the influence exercised by the staff on the conduct of a war is always pernicious! This opinion not only influenced his conduct, and expressed itself in his novels, but fitted into a general view of life he ultimately arrived at, a view the consequences of which must be dealt with in the sequel to this work. For the moment, let it suffice to mention that whereas he shows a keen appreciation of Admiral Korn?lof's achievement in rousing the spirit of the garrison, he nowhere praises Todleben's achievement in organising the defence of the town and improvising that 'labyrinth of batteries' in which Tolstoy used constantly to lose his way. He says, for instance:

Now you have seen the defenders of Sevastopol.... The principal, joyous thought you have brought away is a conviction of the strength of the Russian people; and this conviction you gained, not by looking at all these traverses, breastworks, cunningly interlaced trenches, mines and cannon, one on top of another, of which you could make nothing; but from the eyes, words and actions--in short, from seeing what is called the 'spirit' of the defenders of Sevastopol.

To everything a man can do off his own bat and by his own effort, Tolstoy is keenly alive and sympathetic; but when it comes to a complex, co-ordinated plan, involving the subordination of many parts to one whole, he is suspicious or even hostile. Had he remained a subordinate officer, or even a novelist, it would not have been specially necessary to draw attention to this peculiarity; but that we may understand his later teachings, it is important to note all the roots of feeling from which they grew, and this one among the rest.

To get on however with our tale. One evening, while Tolstoy was sitting with the adjutants of Count Osten-S?ken, Commander of the Garrison, Prince S. S. Ouro?sof, a brave officer and first-rate chess player and a friend of Tolstoy's, entered the room and wished to speak to the General. An adjutant took him to Osten-S?ken's room, and ten minutes later Ouro?sof passed out again, looking very glum. After he had gone, the adjutant explained that Ouro?sof had come to suggest that a challenge should be sent to the English to play a game of chess for the foremost trench in front of the Fifth Bastion: a trench that had changed hands several times and had already cost some hundreds of lives. Osten-S?ken had naturally refused to issue the challenge.

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