Page:Tolstoy - Tales from Tolstoi.djvu/27

Biography out the war he distinguished himself, both as an officer and a soldier, by the most irreproachable valour, realising his own ideal of true courage by doing his duty on every occasion without vain glory or desperation. Arriving at Sebastopol in November, 1854, he was speedily made commander of a division, and took an active part in the disastrous battle of the Black River, as the Russians call Balaclava. There can also be little doubt that the rude but salutary lessons of active warfare, teaching as it does to those who will learn the lesson, the urgent necessity of complete self-restraint and self-surrender, had a purifying, ennobling influence on Tolstoi's character. His comrades, in general, seem to have adored him. "Tolstoi," says one of them, "with his tales and couplets, enlivened us all. In the fullest sense of the word he was the soul of our party. When he was with us, time seemed to fly, and our merriment was endless; but when he was away all our noses hung down dismally enough." The couplets he composed on the occasion of the battle of August 4th were sung by the whole army; but his hopes of obtaining a field-adjutancy were dashed in consequence of some bitterly sarcastic verses on his official chiefs which he could not resist writing, and which when once written circulated in MS, from hand to hand. It was now, too, that he drafted the first sketch of his famous "Sevastopolskie Razskazui" ("Sebastopol Tales"), which, even in its rough form, drew tears xix.