Stories by Foreign Authors: Polish, Greek, Belgian, Hungarian eBook

This eBook from the Gutenberg Project consists of approximately 153 pages of information about Stories by Foreign Authors.

Stories by Foreign Authors: Polish, Greek, Belgian, Hungarian eBook

This eBook from the Gutenberg Project consists of approximately 153 pages of information about Stories by Foreign Authors.

History records for the benefit of future generations the name of the Cossack whom Pugasceff carried away with his horse:  Csika was the name of this timid individual!  This happened on September 15.  Two days afterwards Pugasceff came back from the forest to the outskirts of the town Jaiczkoi.  Then he had his horse, a scarlet fur-trimmed jacket, and three hundred brave horsemen.  As he approached the town he had trumpets blown, and demanded that Colonel Simonoff should surrender and should come and kiss the hand of his rightful master, Czar Peter III.!  Simonoff came with 5,000 horsemen and 800 Russian regular troops against the rebel, and Pugasceff was in one moment surrounded.  At this instant he took a loosely sealed letter from his breast and read out his proclamation in a ringing voice to the opposing troops, in which he appealed to the faithful Cossacks of Peter III. to help him to regain his throne and to aid him to drive away usurpers, threatening with death those traitors who should oppose his command.  On hearing this the Cossack troops appeared startled, and the exclamation went from mouth to month, “The Czar lives!  This is the Czar!” The officers tried to quiet the soldiers, but in vain.  They commenced to fight amongst themselves, and the uproar lasted till late at night, with the result that it was not Simonoff who captured Pugasceff, but the latter who captured eleven of his officers; and when he retreated from the field his three hundred men had increased to eight hundred.  It was a matter of great difficulty to the Colonel to lead back the rest into the town.  Pugasceff set up his camp outside in the garden of a Russian nobleman, and on his trees he hung up the eleven officers.  His opponent was so much alarmed that he did not dare to attack him, but lay wait for him in the trenches, at the mouth of the cannon.  Our daring friend was not quite such a lunatic as to go and meet him.  He required greater success, more decisive battles, and more guns.  He started against the small towns which the Government had built along the Jaik.  The Roskolniks received the pseudo-Czar with wild enthusiasm.  They believed that he had risen from the dead to humiliate the power of the Moscow priests, and that he intended to adopt, instead of the Court religion, that which had been persecuted.  On the third day 1500 men accompanied him to battle.  The stronghold of Ileczka was the first halting-place he made.  It is situated about seventy versts from Jaiczkoi.  He was welcomed with open gates and with acclamation, and the guard of the place went over to his side.  Here he found guns and powder, and with these he was able to continue his campaign.  Next followed the stronghold of Kazizna.  This did not surrender of its own accord, but commenced heroically to defend itself, and Pugasceff was compelled to bombard it.  In the heat of the siege the rebel Cossacks shouted out to those in the fort, and they actually turned their guns upon their own patrols. 

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Stories by Foreign Authors: Polish, Greek, Belgian, Hungarian from Project Gutenberg. Public domain.