We're still with Rostopchin. By 9am, no one is coming to him for instructions and he can longer tell himself that he's the leader of his people, as he did when things were peaceful. He is feeling very powerless and exasperated when the superintendent of police comes to tell him that an immense crowd has gathered in the courtyard. Rostopchin decides the crowd must be looking for a victim to blame, because he is and he's projecting. He tells the crowd he's going to fetch the villain then stalks back into his room. Apparently, he was referring to Vereshchagin, the artist and political prisoner he sent for at the end of the last chapter. When Vereshchagin arrives, Rostopchin publically denounces him as a traitor and hands him over to the crowd. They pause, despite Rostopchin demanding that they beat the traitor. It's basically that scene in The Handmaid's Tale where the handmaids have to murder the doctor. Vereshchagin points out that there is one god above them all, but he's interrupted when a soldier, after much prompting, hits him on the head with the blunt end of his saber. This sparks the crowd into madness, and they beat Vereshchagin and trample him and anyone who gets underfoot. After he's dead, they're suddenly struck with guilt and horror.
Oh, wait, I looked it up and while Vereshchagin is the name of a Russian war artist, he was born in 1842 and is no relation to this Vereshchagin, who is an invented merchant and suspected Napoleonic spy, here to demonstrate Rostopchin's poor leadership skills. Anyway, Rostopchin starts to panic at having gotten exactly what he called for, and climbs into his coach to head to his country house, away from Moscow. He comforts himself with the idea that he's working "for the greater good".
...typing that sentence sent me on a binge for Harry Potter memes. Anyway. Rostopchin also comforts himself by telling himself that Rostopchin was sentenced to death anyway, which he wasn't, he was sentenced to hard labour. It kind-of works - Rostopchin is distracted as he shouts orders at his country house, and as he leaves, right up until some injured men ask for help on the road and he has a little flashback and demands his coach driver drive faster.
Rostopchin ends up with Kutuzov, and tells him everything is his fault for abandoning Moscow, but doesn't quite specify what 'everything' is. Kutuzov says he won't be giving up Moscow without a fight, but Tolstoy doesn't seem to be sure of what he's thinking at this point.
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