Pierre gets co-opted

Just as War and Peace threatens to become a Dostoyevsky novel - Pierre gets the idea that he's going to assassinate Napoleon (this explains why he's wearing a kaftan and disguising himself as a workingman) - Pierre gets co-opted. He's sleeping on a couch in a mansion owned by his late benefactor (the man who introduced him to the Masonic temple), when a French officer comes in to take over the place for billeting. A crazy old man who'd been living there tries to shoot the officer, Pierre (who till then had pretended he didn't speak French), deflects the shot and saves the officer's life. The office (Rampalle?) then insists that Pierre (now speaking French) dine with him. They eat and drink well, the officer goes on at great length about his adventures in love and war, Pierre is rather silent. Rampalle asks about Pierre's love life; in great contrast with the officer, Pierre says he has loved only one woman, and in recollecting his lifelong adoration of Natasha, Pierre realizes that his life has been tragic and that he still loves only her - remembers that moment of her calling to him as she flies by in the carriage leaving Moscow. Quite beautiful - another one of those great interior moments in War and Peace. We then see Natasha, a few miles outside of Moscow, deeply depressed. She now knows that Prince Andrei is mortally wounded and part of her family caravan. (Sonya told her, to Countess Rostov's ire.) In the distance, Moscow is burning. Natasha fakes sleep, gets up in the night, and goes into Andrei's room. She's terried at what he might look like. She hasn't seen him in years - certainly not since she jilted him for Kuragin. He sees her, smiles, and reaches out his hand. Another beautiful moment, especially in counterpoint to what we have just learned about Pierre. Natasha has surely become the emotional center of the story.