Nicholas continues on his mission looking for Kutuzov or the Emperor. He notices broken carriages along the roads and hordes of troops in worsening levels of disorganization. Many are wounded. He reaches an area safe from cannon fire coming from the Pratzen Heights and slows to realize that there is no point to what he is doing.  He has nothing of import to convey to the Tsar or to Kutuzov, should they remain alive. He learns the direction surviving commanders headed and hears conflicting reports about Alexandr being wounded or killed. One soldier, however, expressed confidence the Tsar was driven away at full speed in a carriage pulled by his customary driver, Illya Ivanych,

  Rostov rides on -- not knowing how to direct himself. He took in the scenery and local architecture, including a church, symbolic of the sacred blotted out by War.  He felt that if the Emperor was slain, he should have no desire to save himself.   The point is that Alexandr, who does not know the thousands of young men he sent to their ignominious end, remains Rostov’s end-and-be-all. This is a contrast to Andrei, who finally realizes there is something much greater than ambitious rulers.

 Rostov soon passes the battlefield where the largest number perished.  Here, “men lied like heaps of manure on well-kept plowland.” There were 10 to 15 dead to each couple of acres. Those wounded stumbled together in twos and threes and Rostov absorbed their screams and groans.

  Rostov became noticeable on his horse and some French on higher ground trained a few shots at him.  He was snapped out of his moroseness through thinking of his mother’s love. Once again Nicholas adopts the instincts of a rabbit who senses danger and escapes.   

He made it to a small village many utilized as a Haven. Upon hearing more rumors about the Emperor, he continued on for a couple of miles, coming to a ditch where he saw two men who seemed out of place on their grand horses. Another stood by a tree and Rostov noticed it was his Monarch.  Such a scenario may be thought fictional or symbolic – namely, Alexandr becoming virtually alone in the disorder of the retreat.  However, there is enough truth in this description to commend Tolstoy for weaving fiction and history in the way that Shakespeare did with his Histories, where the Bard’s writing often stands for a greater truth.

  What happened historically was that the struggle for The Pratzen Heights decided the Battle and Kutuzov remained at the center of the conflict for as long as prudent.  Both Kutozov and even Weyrother were shouting orders, trying to rally men, dispatching messengers -- all actions of reputable commanders. Amidst the chaos, there are reports that Alexander was separated from his Guard and wound up with some of the survivors of Gen. Miloradovich’s brigade. At one point, Alexandr was found “on damp ground under a tree, with his face covered with a handkerchief, bitterly crying.”   This was the account of Gen. Carl Freidrich Graf von Toll.

        The sentiment portrayed by Tolstoy is that Alexandr started the day envisioning he would be at the head of His army, like a Greek Warrior-King, at least at the moment of Triumph.  Yet the accounts are that he was reduced to the image of something like……Job among the ash heap.  So Tolstoy depicts Rostov as having the opportunity to comfort his Beloved. Yet Tolstoy does NOT have Nicholas take that step.   Instead, Rostov backs down with the fear of a youth who cannot approach his true love. Though Nicholas had played over a million speeches in his head on what he would say to Alexandr should they meet, he was now immobilized by fear. Instead he convinces himself of the imprudence of an approach at such an unpleasant moment. He felt any such interaction should be reserved for when Rostov was dying on the field and there would be a poetic moment of thanks.  Tolstoy then has Von Toll come into the scene and upon seeing the Emperor, comfort him while the two spend a few moments under an apple tree.