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The entire force will be commanded by Murad, King of Naples.

All preparations for this forthcoming campaign,

if the event should occur, will be made on the

assumptions that these will be our initial dispositions.

Read back from Macdonald.

...under whom will be placed the army corps of Marshal Davout, Oudinot,

and Ney, to number no fewer than 200,000 men, infantry and cavalry.

The second will be placed under King Jerome of Westphalia, including the corps

of General Van Damme, Pugnatovsky, and René,

amounting to 80,000 infantry and cavalry.

The third and central army of 100,000 men will be under Viceroy Eugène, and will be

directed to press between the 1st and 2nd Russian

Army, rendering their junction impossible.

The cavalry of the entire force will be commanded by Murad, King of Naples.

All preparations for the forthcoming campaign, if such an event occurs,

shall be made on the assumptions that these will be our initial dispositions.

Mark it highly confidential to all corps commanders.

Yes, sir.

See also that my memorandum on the methods of supplying the army while operating in

Russia is delivered to all divisional commanders and above.

In that connection, I want the Intendant General and his staff here tomorrow.

Yes, sir.

4.30.

That's all.

Sir, the Duke is still waiting outside, sir.

Ah, yes.

Fouché.

You may show him in.

Sir.

Thank you, sir.

Well, Fouché, are you happy to be back in France?

It was good of you to permit it, sir.

Banishment is a tedious business.

I thought you would have liked Rome.

The air was very bad for my health.

And then, you know I never made friends easily.

Only enemies.

The Chief of Police expects to make enemies, sir.

But then I never minded that since I was making them all in your service.

You've made one too many, Monsieur le Duke.

You've made one of me.

Me?

I could have had you shot for trying to negotiate with England behind my back.

Not negotiate, sir, never.

I just wanted to see on what terms peace could be arranged.

I wasn't to know you'd embarked on the same course yourself.

It was most unfortunate.

It made the English very suspicious.

Still, my only regret is that I lost your regard in doing it.

You nearly lost your head.

I never place much value on my head, sir.

Anyone who's lived through the last 20 years would be a fool if he did.

Be careful all the same.

It was only the memory of your service to the Revolution that saved you last time.

It won't save you again.

Oh... We can all outlive our usefulness.

You know, Fouché...

I begin to regret a certain lack of firmness in dealing with you.

No, no, sir.

You'd have lost a devoted servant.

To yourself, you're always such a great believer in firmness.

True.

I've often thought Louis XVI would be alive and

king of France today if he'd acted with firmness.

As I remember it, it was you who helped him to the scaffold.

Yes, sir.

That was the first service I had the honor of rendering your majesty.

You've also rendered your last.

I suggest you return to your chateau and finish your memoirs.

Oh, memoirs.

I leave those to others.

No, sir.

I ask for this interview because I've been working on something else.

A memorandum.

The last time you presented me with a memorandum, I ended up divorcing my wife.

Ah.

That was an occasion on which I more happily anticipated the true course of events.

I trust the empress Marie-Louise is in good health.

She's well.

What's your memorandum?

It's a detailed exposition of all the reasons why I think

the coming campaign against Russia should be abandoned.

Interesting.

The product of three months' hard thinking and writing, sir.

I've been engaged on it since I returned to France.

Your industry is to be commended.

Will you read it?

I've already read it.

Read it, sir?

Read it.

How can that be?

It was brought to me a week ago, or at least a copy.

Ah.

The police.

Precisely.

I knew I was being watched.

You see, the department which you built up with such

care continues to be a source of pride to us all.

I had thought to surprise you with the argument.

You never cease to surprise me, Monsieur Le Duc, if that's any consolation to you.

Did you read it all?

Every word.

You betray an author's vanity.

I have no literary ambitions, sir.

You'd do better to cultivate those than most others.

Oh, I see you actually doubt whether I've been through it.

Forgive me, sir, but... Let me see.

How will this do?

You tell me that I am the absolute master of

the finest empire the world has ever seen.

That all the lessons of history demonstrate the

impossibility of attaining universal monarchy.

You tell me that the time is ripe for consolidation, not acquisition.

Since what I shall acquire in extent, I shall lose in solidity.

You talk of the extent of the country, the

poverty of the soil, the rigors of the climate.

The extent of our communication, the size of the opposing forces.

You say we will arouse not only the opposition of the aristocracy,

but the fanaticism of the peasants.

You talk of the English, as always, waiting in the wings.

And the possibility of discontent and intrigue behind my back in France.

Do I do it justice?

More than justice, sir.

I wish it might have taken me so little time to write.

No, no, no.

You enjoyed doing it.

That was the main thing.

It passed the time for you.

In fact, your pleasure was so evident, I

instructed the police to allow you to finish it.

I simply felt it my duty to make some observations on the current crisis.

There's no crisis.

Merely a war of a political character.

I am forced into it by events.

And remember, I regulate my conduct on the opinions

of the army, not on the sentiment of you grandees.

We grandees have made a contribution at home no less than the armies abroad.

Made, yes.

But you've become too rich.

I've made you too rich.

While you profess an anxiety for me, you're only apprehensive

of the general confusion that would follow my death.

Well, we must all think of France, sir.

No, let me think of that!

I've done well enough until now.

The present situation is merely a sketch of a picture that must be finished.

There must be one universal European code.

One code of appeal.

The same money, the same weights and measures, the

same laws must be in currency throughout Europe.

I shall make one nation out of all the states

of Europe and Paris will be its capital.

Only the Tsar of Russia prevents that from coming about.

You follow me?

Haven't I always?

You do not serve me well at this moment.

That is because you think my affairs are in danger.

But before the year is out, you'll do it.

And you'll do it with the same ardor and zeal as

you displayed in the days of Marengo and Austerlitz.

Adieu, Monsieur le Duke.

We go to fulfill another destiny.

Be so good as to put a little confidence in your Emperor.

Bonjour, sir.

How are you?

I'm well.

Did you have a good journey?

It was a long one.

You must be tired.

Are you staying for a while?

No, I must leave tomorrow.

For the war?

For the army.

The war has not yet begun.

Pray God it never will.

Come into the drawing room.

Papa is sleeping before dinner.

Bring some tea for Prince André.

How is he?

He's well, but...

but difficult.

He's getting old.

Aren't we all?

How is my son?

You'll see.

He's with his tutor.

He'll be down soon.

You're looking better than when I saw you last.

Army life seems to agree with me.

You've... got over... the other.

Countess Rostova.

I don't think about it.

Truly not?

Now and then.

I had a letter from Pierre.

He says she's recovered from her illness, but goes nowhere.

He says you should try to forgive her for your own sake.

She was confused.

But he believes she truly loved you, and still does.

Perhaps.

You should try, André.

I can neither forgive nor forget.

That's a woman's virtue.

Is that why you joined Kutuzov's army in Turkey?

Pierre also wrote that Anatole had joined a regiment there.

André, you mustn't.

What good would it do to fight a duel?

You would just add one wrong to another.

I must settle these things in my own way.

Please, don't interfere.

But you didn't find him?

No, his regiment had been transferred to the

army in the west, so I had a trip for nothing.

Now, don't let's talk about me.

Tell me, how are you getting on with father?

Well...

You know I hate to criticize him, but something has happened which does worry me.

What is that?

He's taken to seeing a great deal of Mademoiselle Bourrienne.

Oh, I'm sure there's nothing in it.

And he only does it to make me angry.

Why should he want to make you angry?

I don't know.

I know he loves me, but I seem to provoke him.

He hates my dependence on religion.

He thinks it childish, and I only do it to spite him.

Has it gone far, this relationship with Bourrienne?

Oh, no.

But he flirts with her in front of me, and she, poor creature, plays up to him.

You should get rid of her.

I never liked the woman.

It's not her fault, really.

And she has no one, and nowhere to go.

Perhaps he'll get bored with it and stop doing it.

Ah, Nicoletta, your papa is here.

Well, you've grown.

Hello, papa.

Hello.

You'll soon be a man.

Yes, papa.

How are you getting on with your studies?

Very well.

And what do you like best?

Geography.

Oh, why geography?

Because I want to be a soldier, and you have to know

where the countries are before you march into them.

Naturally, he plays at soldiers a great deal.

Are you going back to the army, papa?

Yes.

Do you like being a soldier?

Well, sometimes one has to be a soldier, whether one likes it or not.

But it'll soon be all over, and I'll be back, and I won't be going away again.

May I stay up and have dinner with you tonight?

It'll be too late.

Why don't we go and get your books?

Then you can show me all that you've been doing.

All right.

He's very like you.

I hope not.

Napoleon has been massing his troops in Prussia and on the river Neman for weeks.

The Tsar can't ignore it.

But still, he's made overtures in an attempt not to provoke a war.

Do you think Napoleon is bent on war?

He's bent on unifying Europe.

I think he's carried forward by a conception of the role he must play.

I thought everything had been arranged between the two emperors.

I thought they were friends.

I never thought it would last.

To remain an ally of Napoleon, the Tsar must become his vessel.

Napoleon knows no other form of friendship.

Don't you agree, father?

What do you think, mademoiselle?

You know how I value your opinion.

You are French.

Tell us what you think about your eminent countryman.

Countryman?

He's a Corsican who's too big for his boots.

He's never a Frenchman.

There!

There's nothing like a woman to put a man in his place.

We'll leave you to talk, father.

Come, Amélie.

You can read to me.

Kutuzov asked me to give you his respects.

She does it deliberately.

Who?

Your sister.

She interferes.

I don't follow you.

She hates me.

Hates me!

It's all that religious cant of hers.

She hates me because I laugh at her silly beliefs.

Why should you?

Why should I?

Why should I?

You dare ask me in my own house?

You've always given her the right to choose.

She's a silly, stupid woman!

Stupid!

She's very fond of you.

She hates me.

Do you think I'm a fool that I can't see it?

How does she hate you, father?

Ah... You don't believe me, do you?

You're on her side, naturally.

I'm quite certain that she loves you.

And you must be blind not to see it.

If there's any cause of friction between you, it's as a result of that worthless

woman who isn't fit to be my sister's companion.

Oh, I see.

Been talking, have you?

I can see for myself.

Fool!

She's the only one who has any feeling for me.

I am not a fool, father.

And I don't believe she has the slightest regard for you.

Who asked you?

Who asked you to interfere?

You brought the subject up and I have a right to give you my opinion.

Get out!

Get out of my sight!

I never want to see you again!

Never, never, never!

Are you really leaving?

Thank God that I can.

I'm only sorry that you can't.

How can you say that?

You're going off to this awful war and...

Stay till morning.

No, it wouldn't make any difference.

He wouldn't speak to me.

He does these things, but he doesn't know why he does them.

Something seems to take possession of him.

I'll write to him.

It's better that way, believe me.

It'll give him time to think things over.

He loves you.

He loves both of us in his way.

Andre, promise me one thing.

If you meet Anatole Kiragin, don't pick a quarrel with him.

It would be so degrading for you to fight a duel.

Please.

I can't promise that.

But you must.

No, don't ask me.

There are things that... a man must do.

Don't worry.

I never thought when you came home last time you'd be going away again.

Hardly seems any time at all.

The war may not happen.

But you think it will, don't you?

Look after Nikolinka.

And yourself.

You should get married.

Oh, my life isn't dependent on that.

If I must remain as I am, then I must.

But you would like to.

Yes.

But not to someone who just wants to make a good match.

It'll happen for you.

Someday.

There is a rumor that we shall be moving

tomorrow nearer to what will be the front line.

But there is nothing positive yet.

Whether the war will happen or not is something we cannot even guess at.

They say Napoleon has left Paris and is on his way to Dresden where all the princes

and kings of Europe are waiting to dance attendance on him.

We'll let them.

Our own Tsar stands firm and demands that Bonaparte

withdraw the armies he's massed on the frontier.

If he does not, then most certainly we are at war.

As you probably know, Mama and Papa have written begging me to come home.

And indeed, I only came back to the regiment to wind up my affairs.

Then all this broke out again.

I would dearly love to come home and nothing save honor would keep me here.

But I cannot put my personal happiness before love for the fatherland.

Isn't that just like him?

Yes, it is.

I do hope he'll be all right.

We must pray for him, Sonia.

Go on.

He refers to me then.

Shall I read it?

Yes.

What does it say?

But this will be our last separation.

Be sure that directly the war is over.

Sonia, if I'm still alive and you still love me, I

shall give up everything and come to you forever.

Oh, Sonia, I'm so happy for you.

It's hard to believe.

You don't think he's saying it because... because he's away from us all and feeling.

..

No, I don't.

Well, it's only what he said to me that night coming home from Uncle's.

And to me in the barn at Christmas.

Of course.

Yes.

But don't show it to Mama.

No.

Oh, Sonia, it's not her fault.

You mustn't blame her.

I don't.

She's been very good to me.

Well, go on.

Tell me what else he says.

Ah, Volkonsky!

I'm very glad to see you.

Weren't you with Mikhail Kutuzov in Turkey?

He graciously releases me, Sire, to serve with the army on the Western Front.

And how were things in Turkey when you left?

Marshal Kutuzov was in the act of concluding a peace with the Turks.

That sounds like Mikhail.

Have you been attached to anyone here?

Yes, Sire.

To the Commander-in-Chief.

Good.

Well, you may as well join us inside.

You are probably aware that my Ambassador to

Paris has been given his passports and sent home.

And that the Emperor Napoleon has arrived in Dresden.

And this inevitably brings the catastrophe of war closer.

However, I am at this very moment doing all I can to avert it.

I have appealed to the Emperor to withdraw his troops

from the Neman and to return them behind Prussia.

In exchange, I have offered to look again at his continental system.

And more I cannot do.

But there is still hope that our efforts will not be in vain.

However, we must prepare for the worst.

And so I have brought you together for an informal discussion, not a council of war,

on what should be our best policy in the event of the disaster happening.

Full, perhaps, you would like to begin.

Sit down.

But do let us all be brief.

Well, there is no question in my mind.

I had the full support of Colonel Varsovan and General Binti Corotta.

The science of war requires us to do one thing and one thing alone.

If an attack comes, we must retire into the interior of the country in strict

accordance with the principles of war and avoid open confrontation until Napoleon's

lines of communication have been stretched to the limit.

This, I imagine, will be somewhere in the area this side of Smolensk.

Any other proposition, in my opinion, is madness.

And what of my commander-in-chief, General Barclay de Tolly?

Your Majesty knows I am a soldier, not a diplomat.

I can't say what can be settled without a war, but I can say this.

If it comes, we must stand and fight.

The question is where.

We must look at the facts as they are.

We must look at the map, look at the forces engaged.

In my opinion, there is an advantage in avoiding a full-scale engagement too soon.

Napoleon likes to win in one stroke.

What are they talking about?

How can there be such a thing as a science of war?

What science is possible where the conditions

of a subject are unknown and cannot be defined?

Where even the strength of the forces engaged cannot be ascertained?

No one can know with any exactitude the relative

positions of the armies at any given moment.

Sometimes a division of 5,000 men is as good as 30,000

because one soldier shouts hurrah and runs forward.

At others, as at Austerlitz, 50,000 will fly from eight.

So what are they talking about?

Is a man a military genius because he knows when to order up the biscuits?

He's called a genius because of the glamour with which the military is invested.

And Napoleon is no exception.

He thinks he commands a million men, moving them here, there and everywhere.

But really, he follows them.

They've not been brought to the borders of Russia

by him, but by forces beyond our comprehension.

A sudden upheaval that occurs regularly in the history of the human race,

like the yearly migration of birds.

Napoleon is just a straw thrown to the fore in the wind they make.

He's just a banner that they hold aloft.

No, don't stop, please.

I heard you as I came in.

It was beautiful.

I was trying to get into the way of playing and singing again.

Quite right, too.

You don't think it's wrong?

No, no.

On the contrary.

In any case, why'd you ask me?

I don't know.

Well, it's because I value your opinion so much.

If it hadn't been for you, I'd...

Oh, I've just come from counter-estoptions.

The courier arrived with the mail and there was a letter from Nikolai.

Where is it?

I've sent it up to your father.

You are staying for lunch?

Yes, of course, if I may, please.

We haven't seen you for a week.

What have you been doing?

Well, thinking, thinking.

Should I join the army or shouldn't I?

I don't know.

Look at me.

What kind of a soldier were you, May?

Not a very good one.

But you're no worse for that.

Well, it's been tormenting me, though.

Everyone is putting on uniform and I feel out of it and yet...

I don't know.

To tell you the truth, I don't want to go at all, really.

Because I... I feel...

I have this feeling inside me that I'm...

marked out to do something special here, in Moscow.

Does that sound insane to you?

It sounds very strange.

Oh, yes.

Yes, it seems so to me, too, and yet I don't know.

I don't know.

Perhaps I shouldn't tell you.

No, tell me.

Well, I've been poring over the Bible night after night.

And I'm sure that the events which are about

to happen are prophesied here in the Bible.

Because I came across something in Revelations, chapter 13, verse 18.

Just listen.

Here is wisdom.

Let him that hath understanding count the number of the beast.

For it is the number of a man, and his number is six hundred,

three score, and six.

In other words, 666.

Can you make sense?

Yes, I think I can.

If the French alphabet is written out and given the same numerical value as the

Hebrew, in which the first nine letters are denoted by the units, and the next by

the tens, and so on, into the hundreds, you get what I've written out thus.

Now, I discovered that if you give the exact numerical value to each of the

letters of the words L'Empereur, Napoleon, you get exactly six hundred,

three score, and six.

In other words, 666.

Now, in the same chapter, verse 5, it says,

And there was given unto him, that is the beast, Napoleon, L'Empereur, Napoleon,

there was given unto him a mouth speaking great things and blasphemies.

And power was given unto him to continue forty and two months.

Now, the French word for forty-two is caranteuse.

If you apply the same system of numbers to the word

caranteuse, you get exactly six hundred, three score, and six.

Now, yet again, this year of 1812, Napoleon, the French

Emperor, L'Empereur Napoleon, reaches his forty-second year.

Which indicates, at least I think so, that this

year of 1812, he will reach his zenith of power.

Now, Pierre, did you see about my business?

Yes, ah, just a moment please.

Did you see?

What has all this got to do with you?

Well, that's exactly what I asked myself.

So, I tried a variety of combinations of my own name in the same system,

and nothing worked.

Until I...

described myself as Le Rousse Bizouhoff.

But it all added up to 666.

So, therefore, I concluded that Napoleon's destiny

and my own destiny were in some way linked.

Ah, is it possible?

It's ingenious.

You don't believe it.

Nor do I.

And yet, I don't know, it's this... this that keeps me here, this belief...

that his path and my path will somehow cross here in the city of Moscow.

Natasha!

A letter from Nikolai.

Your mother's still reading it.

What does he say?

He's well, and the regiment's in Poland.

Well, lunch is ready.

Any news?

Oh, rumors, rumors.

They say they've arrested a French spy in the city.

I think he's a grocer.

Oh, I keep telling the Countess she shouldn't speak French so much.

It's not the time for it.

Count Pierre, may I talk to you for a moment?

What about?

We're going to have lunch.

He wants me to get him into the Hussars.

What?

The milk isn't dry on your lips.

You want to join the army?

I must, I must.

Do you want to give your mother a heart attack?

Stop talking nonsense.

It's not nonsense.

Fedor Oblyansky is younger than me, and he's going.

You'll finish your studies.

How can I study when the fatherland's in danger?

Oh, fatherland rubbish.

Be quiet, I tell you.

Go into lunch.

Go on.

What's happening to everyone?

Boys of 16 running off to join the army.

One son's enough, isn't it?

Peter!

I so enjoy your coming here.

Well, I shouldn't come so often.

Why?

Why not?

Well, because I have no right to.

Did your husband not wish to join the court here at Vilna, Countess?

No, sir.

He preferred to remain in Moscow.

He is not with the army, then?

A countless involved is not a military man.

Soldiers!

Soldiers of France!

I have a word to say to you.

A quarter of a million men are at this moment poised along this river bank.

More will follow.

Across the river lie the steps of Russia and then Moscow.

Soldiers, Russia is dragged on by her fate.

Her destiny must be accomplished.

Therefore, let us march.

Let us cross the Neman.

Let us carry the war into her territories.

And I promise you that the peace we shall

conclude will end the haughty influence of Russia.

In the affairs of Europe for the next hundred years!

Soldiers!

Your emperor is here!

March!

March!

March!

To enter Russia without a declaration of war?

What barbarian is this?

I will not make peace so long as a single enemy soldier remains in my country.

You will take a letter to the French emperor and hand it to him personally.

You will, in addition, tell him what I've said.

I will make no peace so long as a single enemy soldier remains on Russian soil.

Fetch quill and ink.

I'll dictate the letter now.

The Tsar was in this room.

Yes, sir.

If we had hurried a little, we might have caught him.

General Balakhov, sir.

Personal envoy of the Tsar.

Well, General, you're back where you started.

You'd have done better to wait here for us.

The emperor ordered me to give you this letter, sir.

The End