" said he. "They say he
weceives evewyone, thank God!... It's awful with those sausage eaters!
Ermolov had weason to ask to be pwomoted to be a German! Now p'waps
Wussians will get a look in. As it was, devil only knows what was
happening. We kept wetweating and wetweating. Did you take part in the
campaign?" he asked.

"I had the pleasure," replied Prince Andrew, "not only of taking part
in the retreat but of losing in that retreat all I held dear--not to
mention the estate and home of my birth--my father, who died of grief. I
belong to the province of Smolensk."

"Ah? You're Pwince Bolkonski? Vewy glad to make your acquaintance! I'm
Lieutenant Colonel Denisov, better known as 'Vaska,'" said Denisov,
pressing Prince Andrew's hand and looking into his face with a
particularly kindly attention. "Yes, I heard," said he sympathetically,
and after a short pause added: "Yes, it's Scythian warfare. It's all
vewy well--only not for those who get it in the neck. So you are Pwince
Andwew Bolkonski?" He swayed his head. "Vewy pleased, Pwince, to make
your acquaintance!" he repeated again, smiling sadly, and he again
pressed Prince Andrew's hand.

Prince Andrew knew Denisov from what Natasha had told him of her first
suitor. This memory carried him sadly and sweetly back to those painful
feelings of which he had not thought lately, but which still found
place in his soul. Of late he had received so many new and very serious
impressions--such as the retreat from Smolensk, his visit to Bald Hills,
and the recent news of his father's death--and had experienced so many
emotions, that for a long time past those memories had not entered his
mind, and now that they did, they did not act on him with nearly their
former strength. For Denisov, too, the memories awakened by the name of
Bolkonski belonged to a distant, romantic past, when after supper and
after Natasha's singing he had proposed to a little girl of fifteen
without realizing what he was doing. He smiled at the recollection of
that time and of his love for Natasha, and passed at once to what now
interested him passionately and exclusively. This was a plan of campaign
he had devised while serving at the outposts during the retreat. He had
proposed that plan to Barclay de Tolly and now wished to propose it
to Kutuzov. The plan was based on the fact that the French line
of operation was too extended, and it proposed that instead of, or
concurrently with, action on the front to b