Leo Tolstoy

“ Butler was there too. He tried to see the poetry of warfare in this also, but in the depth of his soul he was sorry for the major. To stop him, however, was quite impossible; and Butler, feeling that the fumes were mounting to his own head, quietly left the room and went home.
The moon lit up the white houses and the stones on the road. It was so light that every pebble, every straw, every little heap of dust was visible. As he approached the house he met Marya Dmitrievna with a shawl over her head and neck. ”

“ You won't be frightened, Marya Dmitrievna?"
"Why should I be frightened?" she replied.
"Here it is!" said Kamenev taking out a man's head and holding it up in the light of the moon. "Do you recognize it?"
It was a shaven head with salient brows, black short-cut beard and mustaches, one eye open and the other half-closed. The shaven skull was cleft, but not right through, and there was congealed blood in the nose. The neck was wrapped in a blood- stained towel. Notwithstanding the many wounds on the head, the blue lips still bore a kindly childlike expression. ”

“ Major Petrov, very drunk and no longer red but ash pale, sat astride a chair and, drawing his sword, hacked at imaginary foes, alternately swearing and laughing, now embracing someone and now dancing to the tune of his favorite song. ”