Preparations

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 think 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 a-clutching my hair

It's the very devil!

Here, feel how it beats!

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

Ah mon cher, mon cher

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!