In Which We Discuss War and Peace, Part 3, Chapters 18 and 19

Chapter 18

Rostov is still looking for Kutuzov and/or his beloved emperor, but he can only find crowds of disorganised troops.  Eventually someone tells him that they've already run away, but Rostov dismisses him as a drunk.  Someone else tells him that Emperor Alexander rode away in his carriage an hour ago, and Rostov marvels at just how many drunks there are in the Russian army today.  They did have vodka for breakfast, so it can't be that much of a surprise.  The next rumour he hears is that the commander in chief is wounded, having been struck by a cannon ball in the chest, but that it wasn't Kutuzov.  Rostov decides that that must be what has happened to the Emperor.  When he asks for directions, he's told that the road ahead is certain death, but decides to take it anyway, because what is his life without Tsar Alexander in the world?

Rostov finally reaches a village, where he hears that the carriage was, in fact, driven by Count Tolstoy and the Emperor really was wounded, or maybe not.  The rumour mill is grinding.   Rostov hears a rumour that someone from HQ was seen in the village behind them, and goes searching for them.  It turns out that it is his beloved Emperor!   Nikolai knows he needs to speak to him and deliver his message, but he loses his nerve at actually approaching the Tsar.  All his planned speeches were intended for noble moments, like after victory or when he's dying heroically in the Tsar's arms, not at 4 o'clock in the afternoon while asking for instructions that were needed at 9am.  Captain von Toll - who we haven't met before - happens to be riding past and goes to comfort the emperor, and Rostov is struck with jealousy and despair.  He goes after Kutuzov, having lost the emperor.

It's now 5pm and the battle is lost on all flanks.  I'm not sure if Andrew is dead or not, but I think he might have been the one who took a cannonball to the chest, so probably.  Dolokhov is the only one left of his regiment (can't recall if that's the one Andrew was in) because everyone else is dead by cannonball.  He tries to run across the ice on a frozen lake with a crowd of others, but it sinks as the cavalry follow them and everyone dies.

Chapter 19

Andrew is alive!  He's been lying where he fell all die, because he's pretty injured.   He regains consciousness properly as night falls and tries to figure out where he is.  He can't move, since he's lost quite a lot of blood.   It's probably for the best, because Napoleon is wandering around nearby, admiring the Russian dead as "fine men".   He calls Bolkonski's "a fine death", since Andrew is so still, but then Andrew manages a groan and gets captured as a prisoner of war.  He loses consciousness again, until the next day when he's taken to a French hospital.  Napoleon comes to see him and a few others as members of Tsar Alexanders honoured guard, but all Andrew can think about it is how insignificant his hero now seems, compared to the sky he saw as he was dying.  The cross his sister Marya gave him had been taken by a French soldier, but is hastily returned when they see how respected these guards are by Napoleon.  Andrew thinks about how he envies his sister's faith, which is the first time he's thought of his sister throughout the whole book.  He still hasn't thought about his unborn child.