At last seizing a soldier by his collar he forced him to answer.

"Eh, brother! They've all bolted long ago!" said the soldier, laughing for some reason and shaking himself free.

Having left that soldier who was evidently drunk, Rostov stopped the horse of a batman or groom of some important personage and began to question him.

The man announced that the Tsar had been driven in a carriage at full speed about an hour before along that very road and that he was dangerously wounded.