All who opposed them were strung up, and the Colonel was taken a prisoner to Pugasceff, who showed no mercy to any one who wore his hair long, which was the fashion at the time amongst the Russian officers, and for this reason the pseudo-Czar hung every officer who fell into his hands.  Now, provided with guns, he made his way towards the fort of Nisnaja Osfernaja, which he also captured after a short attack.  Those whom he did not kill joined him.  Now he led 4,000 men, and therefore he could dare attack the stronghold of Talitseva, which was defended by two heroes, Bilof and Jelagin.  The Russian authorities took up a firm position in face of the fanatical rebels, and they would have repulsed Pugasceff, if the hay stores in the fort had not been burned down.  This fire gave assistance to the rebels.  Bilof and Jelagin were driven out of the fort-gates, and were forced out into the plains, where they were slaughtered.  When the pseudo-Czar captured the fort of Nisnaja Osfernaja, a marvelously beautiful woman came to him in the market-place and threw herself at his feet.  “Mercy, my master!” The woman was very lovely, and was quite in the power of the conqueror.  Her tears and excitement made her still more enchanting.

“For whom do you want pardon?”

“For my husband, who is wounded in fighting against you.”

“What is the name of your husband?”

“Captain Chalof, who commanded this fort.”

A noble-hearted hero no doubt would have set at liberty both husband and wife, let them be happy, and love one another.  A base man would have hung the husband and kept the wife.  Pugasceff killed them both!  He knew very well that there were still many living who remembered that Czar Peter III. was not a man who found pleasure in women’s love, and he remained true to his adopted character even in its worst extremes.

The rebels appeared to have wings.  After the capture of Talicseva followed that of Csernojecsinszkaja, where the commander took flight on the approach of the rebel leader, and entrusted the defense of the fort to Captain Nilsajeff, who surrendered without firing a shot.  Pugasceff, without saying “Thank you,” had him hanged.  He did not believe in officers who went over to the enemy.  He only kept the common soldiers, and he had their hair cut short, so that in the event of their escaping he should know them again!  Next morning the last stronghold in the country, Precsisztenszka, situated in the vicinity of the capital, Orenburg, surrendered to the rebels, and in the evening the mock Czar stood before the walls of Orenburg with thirty cannon and a well-equipped army!  All this happened in fifteen days.

Since the moment when he carried off the Cossack who had been sent to capture him, and met Kocsenikoff, he had occupied six forts, entirely annihilated a regiment, and created another, with which he now besieged the capital of the province.

The towns of the Russian Empire are divided by great distances, and before things were decided at St. Petersburg, Marquis Pugasceff might almost have occupied half the country.  It was Katharine herself who nicknamed Pugasceff Marquis, and she laughed very heartily and often in the Court circles about her extraordinary husband, who was preparing to reconquer his wife, the Czarina.  The nuptial bed awaited him—­it was the scaffold!