- For the past two days, Pierre has slowly been going crazy. Seriously.
- He’s been reading all these Masonic books, thinking again about the number of the beast and how his name can be rejiggered to fit into some kind of numeric pattern. And he’s become convinced that he is supposed to be the anti-beast to Napoleon.
- Meaning, that he has to assassinate him. Wow.
- Pierre is fully invested in doing this and fueled by the energy of his decision to become an assassin.
- When Pierre is in mid-fantasy about the future on September 2, Makar Alexeevich, the crazy brother of his mentor, runs into the room, grabs Pierre’s gun, and runs off yelling something about no surrender.
- As Pierre and the servant Gerasim try to calm Makar down and take the gun away from him, there is a knock at the door.