- Pierre rides home, checking out the propaganda posters hanging all over Moscow to boost morale against the French.
- He realizes that the war is actually coming and starts to worry. He lays out a game of solitaire and decides that if the cards work out, he’ll join the army. If not, he’ll wait.
- He doesn’t go into the army.
- Pierre’s estate manager comes and says that to outfit a regiment, they need to sell one of his estates. Pierre is fine with that.
- None of his friends are left in the city except the Rostovs, but he avoids them.
- Riding around one day, Pierre sees a crowd watching a man being whipped on suspicion of being a French spy. For some reason, this finally moves Pierre to action. He goes home ready to leave that night but is forced to wait until the next day. At dawn he takes off, feeling like he’s connecting with something bigger than himself.