Preparations

(Pierre runs into Anatole on the street. Pierre is drunk, Anatole in a hurry.)

[PIERRE]
Ah, Anatole! Where are you off too?

[ANATOLE]
Pierre, good man
Tonight I go away, on an adventure
You'll not be seeing me for some time
I've found a new pleasure
And I'm taking her away
I'll send you a letter from Poland.

[PIERRE]
Ha! An elopement!
Fool, you are married already!

[ANATOLE]
Don't talk to me of that!
I will not deprive myself of this one!
Tonight! I take her tonight!
Lend me fifty rubles?

[PIERRE]
Ah, that's a true sage
Living in the moment
What I wouldn't give to be like him!

[DOLOKHOV]
The plan for Natalie Rostova's abduction
Had all been arranged and the preparations made
On the day that Sonya decided to save her
That was the day that the game was to be played.

Natasha was to be on her back porch at ten
Anatole and his troika would scoop her up and then
They'd ride forty miles to the village of Kamenka
Where an unfrocked priest was to make 'em get wed
Then back into the troika off they'd go
Take the Poland highroad to the wedding bed.

[ANATOLE]
Passports, horses, ten thousand rubles I have taken from my sister
And another ten thousand raised with Dolokhov's help.

[DOLOKHOV]
We were gathered in my study drinking up some tea
Just Anatole, the two wedding witnesses, and me
An abacus and paper money strewn on the desk
Persian rugs and bearskins hanging grotesque
Anatole was walking with his uniform unbuttoned
Walking to and fro
To and fro
To and fro.

[ANATOLE & DOLOKHOV]
To and fro
To and fro
To and fro
To and fro.

[DOLOKHOV]
Now wait!
You better
Just
Give it up now
Why dontcha
While there's still time!
You'd really better drop it all
Give it up now!
While there's still time!
Do you know?

[ANATOLE]
What, teasing again?
Fool don't talk nonsense!
Go to the devil! Eh?
Really this is no time for your stupid jokes.

[DOLOKHOV]
I am not joking, I am talking sense
This is serious business, a dangerous business
Come here, come here, come here Anatole!
Why would I joke about it?
Me of all people
Who found the priest, raised the money, got the passports, got the horses?

[ANATOLE]
And well I thank you for it
Do you think I am not grateful?

[DOLOKHOV]
And now you'll carry her away but will they let it stop there?
You haven't thought this through or do you just don't care?
Now listen to me tell it to you one last time
They will take you to the court and convict you for your crime
Already married and you're playing with a little girl
Don't you know, don't you think, don't you know?

[ANATOLE]
Nonsense, nonsense!
I'm scowling and grimacing
Didn't I explain it to you, didn't I, what?

[DOLOKHOV]
And here Anatole
With the stubborn attachment small-minded people have
For conclusions they've worked out for themselves
Repeated his argument to me for the hundredth time.

[ANATOLE]
If this marriage isn't valid
Then I'm off the hook
But if it is valid, it really doesn't matter!
No one abroad is gonna know a thing about it
Isn't that so now don't you know?
Don't talk to me, don't don't what what
Ah go to hell now
I'm clutching my hair!
It's the very devil!
Here, feel how it beats!

(He presses Dolokhov's hand to his heart. A light comes up on Natasha across the room.)

Ah ma chere, ma chere
Quel pied, quel regard!
What a foot she has, what a glance!
A goddess!

And my handsome lips
Mutter something tender to myself.

It's time!
It's time!
Now then! Nearly ready? You're dawdling!
The driver is here
The driver is here
Balaga is here!