As a ‘mark of especial favour’, Prince Andrei Bolkonsky is entrusted with the task of taking news of the Russian victory at Krems to the Austrian Court. The battle has recorded itself on the Prince in the form of a slight graze on his hand: now, as he journeys on his errand, he formulates his own record of events, imagining himself stating each detail to the Emperor Francis ‘in due sequence, word for word’. As well as picturing his delivery of the news, he also pleasurably anticipates its reception: ‘vividly he imagined the casual questions that might be put to him and the answers he would give’. Driving in his post-chaise, he cuts an impressive figure, stopping to distribute gold pieces to wounded soldiers. The errand will not only ensure him a decoration but also constitutes an important step towards promotion.

But Prince Andrei's reception at Brünn is deflating. Greeted by an adjutant, he is kept waiting for five minutes before being ushered in to see the minister of war. The minister's reaction to the dispatch is dismay at the death of the Austrian general Schmidt: he virtually ignores the Russian victory. Bolkonsky's ‘exultant feelings’ are ‘considerably impaired’; he feels ‘affronted’, about as ‘welcome as a dog in a game of skittles’. A ‘sense of wounded pride’ changes into disdain for his audience on the grounds of their lack of experience: ‘“Gaining victories probably seems easy to them, when they don't know the smell of gunpowder!” he said to himself.