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'O, hoy!' He heard at that moment the inimitable hunting halloo which unites the deepest bass and the shrillest tenor notes. And round the corner came the huntsman and whipper-in, Danilo...
Leo Tolstoy,War and Peace, William Heinemann Ltd., London, 1971, p.531.
PLACE: Country estate in Southern Russia
TIME: 1809
CIRCUMSTANCE: Getting ready for wolf hunt.
The hounds' cry was followed by the bass note of the hunting cry for a wolf sounded on Danilo's horn. The pack joined the first three dogs, and the voices of the hounds could be heard in full cry with the peculiar note which serves to betoken that they are after a wolf. The whippers-in were not now hallooing, but urging on the hounds with cries of 'Loo! loo! loo!' and above all the voices rose the voice of Danilo, passing from a deep note to piercing shrillness. Danilo's voice seemed to fill the whole forest, to pierce beyond it, and echo far away in the open country.
Leo Tolstoy,War and Peace, William Heinemann Ltd., London, 1971, p.536.
PLACE: Country estate in Southern Russia
TIME: 1809
CIRCUMSTANCE: during a wolf hunt
The bells were tied up and stuffed with paper. The prince allowed no one at Bleak Hills to drive with bells. But Alpatitch loved to have bells ringing when he went a long journey.
Leo Tolstoy,War and Peace, William Heinemann Ltd., London, 1971, P.750.
PLACE: Estate in Southern Russia
TIME: August, 1812
There was the sound of wheels and hoofs and the ringing of bells as the gig drove out of the gates. All of a sudden there came a strange sound of a far away hiss and thump, followed by the boom of cannons, mingling into a dim roar that set the windows rattling.
Alpatitch went out into the street; two men were running along the street towards the bridge. From different sides came the hiss and thud of cannon-balls and the bursting of grenades, as they fell in the town. But these sounds were almost unheard, and the inhabitants scarcely noticed them, in comparison with the boom of the cannons they heard beyond the town.
...Meanwhile other projectiles - now a cannon-ball, with a rapid, ominous hiss, and now a grenade with a pleasant whistle - flew incessantly over the people's heads: but not one fell close, all of them flew over.
Leo Tolstoy,War and Peace, William Heinemann Ltd., London, 1971, p.755.
PLACE: Smolensk, South Russia
TIME: August, 1812
CIRCUMSTANCE: French attack on the town.
The singers of the cavalry regiment passed close by the cart.
'A! za-pro-pa-la...' they sang the military dance tune. As though seconding them, though in a different tone of gaiety, clanged out the metallic notes of the chimes at the top of the hill.
Leo Tolstoy,War and Peace, William Heinemann Ltd., London, 1971, p.821.
PLACE: Mozhaisk, South Russia
TIME: August 25, 1812
CIRCUMSTANCE: Day before the battle of Borodina.
It was deserted as a dying, queenless hive is deserted.
In a queenless hive there is no life left. Yet at a superficial glance it seems as much alive as other hives.
...The flight of the bees is not as in living hives, the smell and the sound that meet the beekeeper are changed. When the beekeeper strikes the wall of the sick hive, instead of the instant, unanimous response, the buzzing of tens of thousands of bees menacingly arching their backs, and by the rapid stroke of their wings making that whirring, living sound, he is greeted by a disconnected, droning hum from different parts of the deserted hive.....Around the entrance there is now no throng of guards, arching their backs and trumpeting the menace, ready to die in its defence. There is heard no more the low, even hum, the buzz of toil, like the singing of boiling water, but the broken, discordant uproar of disorder comes forth. The black, long-shaped, honey-smeared workers fly timidly and furtively in and out of the hive; they do not sting, but crawl away at the sight of danger.
Leo Tolstoy,War and Peace, William Heinemann Ltd., London, 1971, p.944.
PLACE: Moscow
TIME: Septemeber 1812
CIRCUMSTANCE: Likening the state of the city to a beehive.
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