Volume II, Book II, Chapter VIII

Did you know that they call the Napoleon army a race "Bonapartius"? Interesting.

It's 1807, February.. Andrei has been spending more time at Bogucharuvo, one of the old Prince's estates about 30 miles from Bald Hills. Marya is taking care of young prince Nikolai, with assistance from Mlle Bourienne. The old prince is in charge of a militia, and Andrei is so disgusted with the military that when all are consigned he opts to serve under his father.

At the moment, he's wracked with worry about his son's fever. He's certainly as cantankerous as his father. the old prince sends a note that Andrei should gallop to another town to tell a commander to send additional men and supplies or heads will roll. Andrei decides to ignore the order since his son is sick, and that's his main concern.

You just know that's going to be important, don't you? No novelist spends that much time on something and then drops in a little detail, like not following an order, without it having consequences. We'll see.