Chapter 30
We're now back to Pierre. On returning home on the evening of the 25th, he asked his groom to have the horses ready and to wake him up early, and then immediately fell asleep. Everyone was gone before his groom woke him and the canons had already begun firing. Now it looks like a proper battle, especially with the dawn and the mist rising and the corpses in the golden wheatfields and so on. Kutuzov rides past Pierre, barking orders, and Pierre decides to follow him.
Chapter 31
Pierre loses the general when some soldiers get in his way. In trying to move his horse out of the way and keep from trampling Russian soldiers, he finds his way to the bridge across the Kolocha, which is being attacked by the French, who have, by now, occupied Borodino. He doesn't realise he's in the middle of a battle, despite the guns, and looks about himself with a smile. Btw, throughout this whole chapter, people are yelling at Pierre to get out of the way and stop being a moron, but I'm not going to mention it every time. Pierre runs into one of Raevski's adjutants and starts following him. He starts noticing the dead and wounded men. The adjutant has to point out to Pierre that Pierre's own horse is wounded, congratulating him on his "baptism of fire". The adjutant leaves Pierre on the knoll to wait for the general, while he rides away. Pierre doesn't seem him again and doesn't learn for quite a while that the adjutant will lose an arm in the battle. He also won't learn for a while that the knoll he's on will be the most important point of the battle. He spends a bit of time wandering around the guns and trying not to get away from the soldiers loading them. Since no one here is in immediate danger, it actually starts to feel quite convivial. Pierre is definitely feeling better than everyone else, with one of the soldiers asking how he manages not to be afraid, what with the shells falling not two paces from him. They're a little impressed, what with him being a gentleman and not a soldier. They also seem to be getting giddier with adrenaline, the longer they remain alive and uninjured.
The battle starts to get more serious, with the wounded being carried back, and many of the dead left to lie. People start to get irritated about Pierre being in the way again. The battle suddenly begins to feel real to him when a young man near him is hit. He begins to hear the cannons. They only have eight rounds left, and a colonel calls for someone to bring the reserve ammunition boxes. Pierre volunteers, eager to run away, but he hesitates halfway there. This saves him - they're blown to pieces before he can reach them.
Chapter 32
Pierre now feels genuine terror, and runs back to the battery. When he gets back the colonel has been killed and a prisoner has been taken, but Pierre doesn't really take any of it in. A French soldier is running towards him and, without thinking, Pierre picks him up by the soldier and throat. The French soldier then grabs him by the throat, and they both gaze at one another in confusion for a moment. The Frenchman is giving up - because Pierre is bigger and stronger, and is squeezing tighter without actually intending to - but then a cannonball whistles right over their heads and they both let go and start running again. Pierre gets back to the battery, but no one's left alive. He doesn't recognise all of the dead, but some he does. He's sure that both sides will stop from the sheer horror of it, but it's still early in the day.
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