" By half-past five Napoleon was on his way over to the village of Shevardino.
It was getting light, and the sky had cleared. A solitary stormcloud lay in the eastern sky. The deserted camp-fires were going out in the pale light of morning.
A single deep cannon-shot roared out on the right. The boom whooshed past and died away in the stillness. Several minutes passed. A second shot rang out, then a third, and the air shook. Then came the solemn boom of the fourth and a fifth, not far away on the right.
The first shots had barely died away when another one came, then another and another, more and more, some blending into a single sound, others bursting in alone.
Napoleon and his entourage continued their way to the Shevardino redoubt, where he got down from his horse. The game had begun. "

― Leo Tolstoy , War and Peace