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The excerpt represents the core issue or deciding factor on which you must meditate, and is drawn from War and Peace by Leo Tolstoy: that the Emperor Alexander wished for peace, but would not enter
into negotiations except on condition that... Here Balashev hesitated:
he remembered the words the Emperor Alexander had not written in his
letter, but had specially inserted in the rescript to Saltykov and had
told Balashev to repeat to Napoleon. Balashev remembered these
words, "So long as a single armed foe remains on Russian soil," but
some complex feeling restrained him. He could not utter them, though
he wished to do so. He grew confused and said: "On condition that
the French army retires beyond the Niemen."
Napoleon noticed Balashev's embarrassment when uttering these last
words; his face twitched and the calf of his left leg began to
War and Peace |
