The Russian troops surrounded the plain whence Pugasceff and his men could not escape.  And yet he still dreamt of future glory!  Amidst the great desert his old ambition came back to him—­he pictured the golden dome of the Kremlin, and the conquered Czarina.  And with these dreams he suffered the tortures of hunger.  For days and days he had no nourishment but horseflesh roasted on the reeds, which was made palatable by meadow-grass in place of salt.  One night, as he was sitting over the fire and roasting his meagre dinner on a wooden spit, one of the three Cossacks who formed his body-guard said to him, “You have played your comedy long enough, Pugasceff!” The adventurer sprang up from his place.

“Slave, I am your Czar!” and whilst saying this he slew the speaker.  The two others made a rush at him, struck him to the ground, bound him, tied him to a horse, and thus took him to Ural Sorodok and delivered him to General Szuvarof.  It was the very same Ural Sorodok whence he had started upon his bold undertaking.  From here he was taken to Moscow.  The sentence passed upon him was that he should be cut up alive into small pieces.  The Czarina confirmed the sentence, though her beautiful eyes had had great share of responsibility for the sinner’s fate.  The hangman was more merciful.  It was not specified in the sentence where he should commence the work of slaughter, so he began at once with his head, and for this oversight he was sent to Siberia!  Katharine about this time changed her favorite.  Instead of Orloff, Potemkin, a fine fellow, was chosen.

*** End of the project gutenberg EBOOK, stories by foreign authors:  Polish ***

This file should be named s4fap10.txt or s4fap10.zip Corrected editions of our eBooks get a new number, s4fap11.txt versions based on separate sources get new letter, s4fap10a.txt

Project Gutenberg eBooks are often created from several printed editions, all of which are confirmed as Public Domain in the us unless a copyright notice is included.  Thus, we usually do not keep eBooks in compliance with any particular paper edition.

We are now trying to release all our eBooks one year in advance of the official release dates, leaving time for better editing.  Please be encouraged to tell us about any error or corrections, even years after the official publication date.

Please note neither this listing nor its contents are final til midnight of the last day of the month of any such announcement.  The official release date of all Project Gutenberg eBooks is at Midnight, Central Time, of the last day of the stated month.  A preliminary version may often be posted for suggestion, comment and editing by those who wish to do so.

Most people start at our Web sites at:  http://gutenberg.net or http://promo.net/pg

These Web sites include award-winning information about Project Gutenberg, including how to donate, how to help produce our new eBooks, and how to subscribe to our email newsletter (free!).