Having left that soldier who was evidently drunk, Rostov stopped the horse of a batman or groom of some important personage and began to question him.

The man announced that the Tsar had been driven in a carriage at full speed about an hour before along that very road and that he was dangerously wounded.

"It can't be!" said Rostov.

" It must have been someone else.

" "I saw him myself," replied the man with a self-confident smile of derision.