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CHAPTER I

"Well, Prince, so Genoa and Lucca are now just family estates of

the Buonapartes. But I warn you, if you don't tell me that this

means war, if you still try to defend the infamies and horrors

perpetrated by that Antichrist-I really believe he is

Antichrist-I will have nothing more to do with you and you are no

longer my friend, no longer my 'faithful slave,' as you call

yourself! But how do you do? I see I have frightened you-sit down

and tell me all the news."

It was in July, 1805, and the speaker was the well-known Anna

Pavlovna Scherer, maid of honor and favorite of the Empress Marya

Fedorovna. With these words she greeted Prince Vasili Kuragin, a

man of high rank and importance, who was the first to arrive at

her reception. Anna Pavlovna had had a cough for some days. She

was, as she said, suffering from la grippe; grippe being then a

new word in St. Petersburg, used only by the elite.