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War and Peace Volume 3, Part 3, Chapter 34 Summary

  • When he gets back to the square, it's filled with people and he can’t figure out where the crying woman is.
  • He finally finds someone who knows the woman and her daughter.
  • As he talks to these neighbors, he sees French soldiers stripping the boots and fur coat from a rich Armenian man. His family sits nearby, and another soldier comes and starts to menacingly get close to their daughter.
  • It’s a horrifying scene, especially since the daughter just sits there and doesn’t even struggle against the soldier.
  • Pierre runs up, screams for them to let the young woman go, and starts to beat the stuffing out of the soldier. A patrol group of soldiers rounds the corner and takes him out.
  • Apparently the French have orders to round up anyone suspicious as part of a strategy to stop the fires, which they think are being set by guerrilla fighters.
  • Pierre fits the bill. He's taken into custody and placed in a house under guard. Talk about a cliffhanger.