Stories by Foreign Authors: Polish, Greek, Belgian, Hungarian
General
Stories by Foreign Authors: Polish, Greek, Belgian, Hungarian
Short stories -- Translations into English
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.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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