Bagration bowed his head and listened: Bring glory then to Alexander's reign And on the throne our Titus shield.
A dreaded foe be thou, kindhearted as a man, A Rhipheus at home, a Caesar in the field! E'en fortunate Napoleon Knows by experience, now, Bagration, And dare not Herculean Russians trouble... But before he had finished reading, a stentorian major-domo announced that dinner was ready! The door opened, and from the dining room came the resounding strains of the polonaise: Conquest's joyful thunder waken, Triumph, valiant Russians, now!... and Count Rostov, glancing angrily at the author who went on reading his verses, bowed to Bagration.
Everyone rose, feeling that dinner was more important than verses, and Bagration, again preceding all the rest, went in to dinner.
He was seated in the place of honor between two Alexanders--Bekleshev and Naryshkin--which was a significant allusion to the name of the sovereign.
Three hundred persons took their seats in the dining room, according to their rank and importance: the more important nearer to the honored guest, as naturally as water flows deepest where the land lies lowest.