through the darkness at the sound of
Dolokhov's and Petya's steps as they advanced to the fire leading their
horses.

"Bonjour, messieurs!" * said Dolokhov loudly and clearly.

* "Good day, gentlemen."

There was a stir among the officers in the shadow beyond the fire,
and one tall, long-necked officer, walking round the fire, came up to
Dolokhov.

"Is that you, Clement?" he asked. "Where the devil...?" But, noticing
his mistake, he broke off short and, with a frown, greeted Dolokhov as a
stranger, asking what he could do for him.

Dolokhov said that he and his companion were trying to overtake their
regiment, and addressing the company in general asked whether they knew
anything of the 6th Regiment. None of them knew anything, and Petya
thought the officers were beginning to look at him and Dolokhov with
hostility and suspicion. For some seconds all were silent.

"If you were counting on the evening soup, you have come too late," said
a voice from behind the fire with a repressed laugh.

Dolokhov replied that they were not hungry and must push on farther that
night.

He handed the horses over to the soldier who was stirring the pot and
squatted down on his heels by the fire beside the officer with the long
neck. That officer did not take his eyes from Dolokhov and again asked
to what regiment he belonged. Dolokhov, as if he had not heard the
question, did not reply, but lighting a short French pipe which he took
from his pocket began asking the officer in how far the road before them
was safe from Cossacks.

"Those brigands are everywhere," replied an officer from behind the
fire.

Dolokhov remarked that the Cossacks were a danger only to stragglers
such as his companion and himself, "but probably they would not dare to
attack large detachments?" he added inquiringly. No one replied.

"Well, now he'll come away," Petya thought every moment as he stood by
the campfire listening to the talk.

But Dolokhov restarted the conversation which had dropped and began
putting direct questions as to how many men there were in the battalion,
how many battalions, and how many prisoners. Asking about the Russian
prisoners with that detachment, Dolokhov said:

"A horrid business dragging these corpses about with one! It would be
better to shoot such rabble," and burst into loud laughter, so strange
that Petya thought the French would immediately detect their disguise,
and involuntarily took a step back from th