The return to Russia by carriage was long and over many bad roads, and Prince Andrei worried very much for his country. Pestel was right. Russia could not continue to enslave the serfs, but would a constitutional monarchy ever be possible? It did not seem so under this tsar, whom many saw as installed by God.

Prince Andrei thought of his younger years and the time he had dedicated at Bogucharevo to writing state reforms, reforms that lived now only on paper.

“Perhaps change is best left to younger men like Pestel,” he thought. “And I, well, I have done and seen a lot. I will take to the writing of history. I will countervail Karamzin. I will write a memoir and tell of the spiritual magnanimity and humanity of Kutuzov. I will write of the war from my experience and knowledge.”

Prince Andrei was deep in thought as the carriage rocked side to side in its slow procession when Natasha shook his knee and said,
“Andrei, what are you thinking?”