Down so long it looks like up - Pierre the Saint

As the Russian prisoners are herded along by the French soldiers during the retreat from Moscow, Pierre stands out in many ways - he's huge, he speaks fluent French (it's not clear how many French soldiers know this), he is evidently, to everyone, of a higher social strata. But what we see during the retreat his Pierre's abasement, his hair matted, his clothes in tatters, barefoot. He seems to have found a peace, serenity, in this condition, realizing the insignificance of so much of his life. He is, in the sense, a saintly character, almost monkish or even a martyr - clearly how Tolstoy saw himself, or wished to see himself. Pierre has sought truth an meaning in many different ways, through the Masons, through military service, through heroism (his will to assassinate Napoleon, rescuing the girl from the fire), early in life through debauchery, through love (for Natasha), through honor (the duel, with Dolokhov?). By the end, or near the end, of War and Peace he is more like King Lear, old (though he isn't really old), suffering, disillusioned - or he would be disillusioned except that he is strangely drawn to the peasant Platonov (sp?) (weird reference to Plato?), simple of expression, his weird tendency to call everyone "little falcon," his stories and parables that seem to have a deep meaning that is just barely out of reach - he is so different from Pierre and from everyone Pierre has known that Pierre elevates him to a saintly status. There are Platanovs all around him, but he has never seen them or talked with them! Section 2 of volume 4 ends (other than some further history lessons) with the death of Platonov, horrible, off-screen so to speak, Pierre hears only the gunshot and the dog howling (the dog later snuggles up to Pierre and others, looking for affection anywhere), an echo of the death of Petya, just as pointless but much more cruel - the shooting of a straggler who couldn't keep up with the march.