Book: Stories by Foreign Authors: Polish

V >> Various >> Stories by Foreign Authors: Polish




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. 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!

On the news of Pugasceff's approach, Reinsburg, the Governor of
Orenburg, sent, under the command of Colonel Bilof, a portion of his
troops to attack the rebel. Bilof started on the chase, but he shared
the fate of many lion-hunters. The pursued animal ate him up, and of his
entire force not one man returned to Orenburg. Instead of this,
Pugasceff's forces appeared before its gates.

Reinsburg did not wish to await the bombardment, and he sent his most
trusted regiment, under the command of Major Naumoff, to attack the
rebels. The mock-Czar allowed it to approach the slopes of the mountains
outside Orenburg, and there, with masked guns, he opened such a
disastrous fire upon them that the Russians were compelled to retire to
their fort utterly demoralized. Pugasceff then descended into the plains
and pitched his camp before the town. The two opponents both began with
the idea of tiring each other out by waiting. Pugasceff was encamped on
the snow-fields. The plains of Russia are no longer green in October,
and instead of tents he had huts made of branches of oak. The one force
was attacked by frost--the other by starvation. Finally, starvation
proved the more powerful. Naumoff sallied from the fort, and turned his
attention towards occupying those heights whence his forces had been
fired upon a short time previously. He succeeded in making an onslaught
with his infantry upon the rebel lines, but Pugasceff, all of a sudden,
changed his plan of battle, and attacked with his Cossacks the cavalry
of his opponent, who took to flight. The victory fell from the grasp of
Naumoff, and he was compelled to fly with his cannon, breaking his way,
sword in hand, through the lines of the Cossacks. Then Pugasceff
attacked in his turn. He had forty-eight guns, with which he commenced a
fierce bombardment of the walls, which continued until November 9th,
when he ordered his troops to storm the town. The onslaught did not
succeed, for the Russians bravely defended themselves. Pugasceff,
therefore, had to make up his mind to starve out his opponents. The
broad plains and valleys were white with snow, the forests sparkled with
icicles, as though made of silver, and during the long nights the cold
reflection of the moon alone brightened the desolate wastes where the
audacious dream of a daring man kept awake the spirits of his men. The
dream was this: That he should be the husband of the Czarina of All the
Russias.

Katharine II. was passionately fond of playing tarok, and she
particularly liked that variety of the game which was later on named,
after a celebrated Russian general, "Paskevics," and required four
players. In addition to the Czarina, Princess Daskoff, Prince Orloff,
and General Karr sat at her table. The latter was a distinguished leader
of troops--in petto--and as a tarok-player without equal. He rose from
the table semper victor! No one ever saw him pay, and for this reason he
was a particular favorite with the Czarina. She said if she could only
once succeed in winning a rouble from Karr she would have a ring welded
to it and wear it suspended from her neck. It is very likely that the
mistakes of his opponents aided General Karr's continual success. The
two noble ladies were too much occupied with Orloff's fine eyes to be
able to fix their attention wholly upon the game, whilst Orloff was so
lucky in love that it would have been the greatest injustice on earth if
he had been equally successful at play. Once, whilst shuffling the
cards, some one casually remarked that it was a scandalous shame that an
escaped Cossack like Pugasceff should be in a position to conquer a
fourth of Russia in Europe, to disgrace the Russian troops time after
time, to condemn the finest Russian officers to a degrading death, and
now even to bombard Orenburg like a real potentate.

"I know the dandy, I know him very well," said Karr. "During the life of
His Majesty I used to play cards with him at Oranienbaum. He is a stupid
youngster. Whenever I called carreau, he used to give coeur."

"It appears that he plays even worse now," said the Czarina; "now he
throws pique after coeur!"

It was the fashion at this time at the Russian Court to throw in every
now and then a French word, and coeur in French means heart, and piquer
means to sting and prick.

"Yes, because our commanders have been inactive. Were I only there!"

"Won't you have the kindness to go there?" asked Orloff mockingly.

"If Her Majesty commands me, I am ready."

"Ah! this tarok-party would suffer a too great loss in you," said
Katharine, jokingly.

"Well, your Majesty might have hunting-parties at Peterhof," he said,
consolingly, to the Czarina.

This was a pleasant suggestion to Katharine, for at Peterhof she had
spent her brightest days, and there she had made the acquaintance of
Orloff. With a smile full of grace, she nodded to General Karr.

"I don't mind, then; but in two weeks you must be back."

"Ah! what is two weeks?" returned Karr; "if your Majesty commands it, I
will seat myself this very hour upon a sledge, and in three days and
nights I shall be in Bugulminszka. On the fourth day I shall arrange my
cards, and on the fifth I shall send word to this dandy that I am the
challenger. On the sixth day I shall give 'Volat' to the rascal, and the
seventh and eighth days I shall have him as Pagato ultimo, bound in
chains, and bring him to your Majesty's feet!" [Footnote: "Volat" is an
expression used in tarok to denote that no tricks have been made by an
opponent. This is another term in the game, when the player announces
beforehand that he will make the last trick with the Ace of Trumps.]

The Czarina burst out laughing at the funny technical expressions used
by the General, and entrusted Orloff to provide the celebrated Pagato-
catching General with every necessity. The matter was taken seriously,
and Orloff promulgated the imperial ukase, according to which Karr was
entrusted with the control of the South Russian troops, and at the same
time he announced to him what forces he would have at his command. At
Bugulminszka was General Freymann with 20,000 infantry, 2,000 cavalry,
and thirty-two guns, and he would be reinforced by Colonel Csernicseff,
the Governor of Szinbirszk, who had at his command 15,000 horsemen and
twelve guns; while on his way he would meet Colonel Naumann with two
detachments of the Body Guard. He was in particular to attach the latter
to him, for they were the very flower of the army. Karr left that night.
His chief tactics in campaigning consisted in speediness, but it seems
that he studied this point badly, for his great predecessors, Alexander
the Great, Frederick the Great, Hannibal, etc., also travelled quickly,
but in company with an army, whilst Karr thought it quite sufficient if
he went alone. He judged it impossible to travel faster than he did,
sleighing merrily along to Bugulminszka; but it was possible. A Cossack
horseman, who started the same time as he did from St. Petersburg,
arrived thirty-six hours before him, informed Pugasceff of the coming of
General Karr, and acquainted him as to the position of his troops.
Pugasceff despatched about 2,000 Cossacks to fall upon the rear of the
General, and prevent his junction with the Body Guard.

Karr did not consult any one at Bugulminszka. He pushed aside his
colleague Freymann in order to be left alone to settle the affair. He
said it was not a question of fighting but of chasing. He must be caught
alive--this wild animal. Csernicseff was already on the way with 1,200
horsemen and twelve guns, as he had received instructions from Karr to
cross the river Szakmara and prevent Pugasceff from retreating, while he
himself should, with the pick of the regiment, attack him in front and
thus catch him between two fires. Csernicseff thought he had to do with
clever superiors, and as an ordinary divisional leader he did not dare
to think his General to be so ignorant as to allow him to be attacked by
the magnificent force of his opponent, nor did he think that Pugasceff
would possess such want of tactics as, whilst he saw before him a strong
force, to turn with all his troops to annihilate a small detachment.
Both these things happened. Pugasceff quietly allowed his opponents to
cross over the frozen river. Then he rushed upon them from both sides.
He had the ice broken in their rear, and thus destroyed the entire
force, capturing twelve guns. Csernicseff himself, with thirty-five
officers, was taken prisoner, and Pugasceff had them all hanged on the
trees along the roadway. Then, drunk with victory, he moved with his
entire forces against Karr. He, too, was approaching hurriedly, and,
thirty-six miles from Bugulminszka, the two forces met in a Cossack
village. General Karr was quite astonished to find, instead of an
imagined mob, a disciplined army divided into proper detachments, and
provided with guns. Freymann advised him, as he had sent away the
trusted squadron of Csernicseff, not to commence operations now with the
cavalry, to take the village as the basis of his operations, and to use
his infantry against the rebels. A series of surprises then befell Karr.
He saw the despised rowdy crowd approaching with drawn sabres, he saw
the coolness with which they came on in the face of the fiercest
musketry fire. He saw the headlong desperation with which they rushed
upon his secure position. He recognized that he had found here heroes
instead of thieves. But what annoyed him most was that this rabble knew
so well how to handle their cannon; for in St. Petersburg, out of
precaution, Cossacks are not enlisted in the artillery, in order that no
one should teach them how to serve guns. And here this ignorant people
handled the guns, stolen but yesterday, as though accustomed to them all
their lifetime, and their shells had already set fire to villages in
many different places. The General ordered his entire line to advance
with a rush, while with the reserve he sharply attacked the enemy in
flank, totally defeating them. His cavalry started with drawn swords
towards the fire-spurting space. Amongst the 1,500 horsemen there were
only 300 Cossacks, and in the heat of battle these deserted to the
enemy. Immediately General Karr saw this, he became so alarmed that he
set his soldiers the example of flight. All discipline at an end, they
abandoned their comrades in front, and escaped as best they could.

Pugasceff's Cossacks pursued the Russians for a distance of thirty
miles, but did not succeed in overtaking the General. Fear lent him
wings. Arrived at Bugulminszka, he learned that Csernicseff's horsemen
had been destroyed, that the Body Guard in his own rear had been taken
prisoners, and that twenty-one guns had fallen into the hands of the
rebels. Upon hearing this bad news he was seized with such a bad attack
of the grippe that they wrapped him up in pillows and sent him home by
sledge to St. Petersburg, where the four-handed card-party awaited him,
and that very night he had the misfortune to lose his XXI. [Footnote:
The card next to the highest in tarok.]; upon which the Czarina made the
bon mot that Karr allowed himself twice to lose his XXI. (referring to
twenty-one guns), which bon mot caused great merriment at the Russian
Court.

After this victory, Pugasceff's star (if a demon may be said to possess
one) attained its meridian. Perhaps it might have risen yet higher had
he remained faithful to his gigantic missions, and had he not forgotten
the two passions which had led him on with such astonishing rapidity--
the one being to make the Czarina his wife, the other, to crush the
Russian aristocracy. Which of these two ideas was the boldest? He was
only separated from their realization by a transparent film.

After Karr's defeat he had an open road to Moscow, where his appearance
was awaited by 100,000 serfs burning to shake off the yoke of the
aristocracy, and form a new Russian empire. Forty million helots awaited
their liberator the rebel leader. Then, of a sudden, he away from him
the common-sense he had possessed until now-for the sake of a pair of
beautiful eyes!

After the victory of Bugulminszka a large number of envoyes from the
leaders of the Baskirs appeared before him, and brought him, together
with their allegiance, a pretty girl to be his wife.

The name of the maiden was Ulijanka, and she stole the heart of
Pugasceff from the Czarina. At that time the adventurer believed so
fully in his star that he did not behave with his usual severity.
Ulijanka became his favorite, and the adventurous chief appointed
Salavatke, her father, to be the ruling Prince of Baskirk. Then he
commenced to surround himself with Counts and Princes. Out of the booty
of plundered castles he clothed himself in magnificent Court costumes,
and loaded his companions with decorations taken from the heroic Russian
officers. He nominated them Generals, Colonels, Counts, and Princes. The
Cossack, Csika, his first soldier, was appointed Generalissimus, and to
him he entrusted half his army. He also issued roubles with his portrait
under the name of Czar Peter III., and sent out a circular note with the
words, "Redevivus et ultor." As he had no silver mines, he struck the
roubles out of copper, of which there was plenty about. This good
example was also followed by the Russians, who issued roubles to the
amount of millions and millions, and made payments with them generously.
Pugasceff now turned the romance of the insurrection into the parody of
a reign. Instead of advancing against the unprotected cities of the
Russian Empire, he attacked the defended strongholds, and, in the place
of pursuing the fairy picture of his dreams which had led him thus far,
he laid himself down in the mud by the side of a common woman!

Generalissimus Csika was instructed to occupy the Fort Ufa, with the
troops who were entrusted to his care. The time was January, 1774, and
it was so terribly cold that nothing like it had been recorded in
Russian chronicles. The trees of the forest split with a noise as though
a battle were proceeding, and the wild fowl fell to the ground along the
roads.

To carry on a siege under such circumstances was impossible. The
hardened earth would not permit the digging of trenches, and it was
impossible to camp on the frozen ground.

The two rebel chiefs occupied the neighboring towns, and so cut off all
supplies from the neighboring forests. In Orenburg they had already
eaten up the horses belonging to the garrison, and a certain Kicskoff,
the commissary, invented the idea of boiling the skins of the
slaughtered animals, cutting them into small slices and mixing them with
paste, which food was distributed amongst the soldiers, and gave rise to
the breaking out of a scorbutic disease in the fort which rendered half
the garrison incapable of work. On January the 13th, Colonel
Vallenstierna tried to break his way through the rebel lines with 2,500
men, but he returned with hardly seventy. The remainder, about 2,000
men, remained on the field. At any rate, they no longer asked for food!
A few hundred hussars, however, cut their way through and carried to St.
Petersburg the news of what Czar Peter III. (who had now risen for the
seventh time from his grave) was doing! The Czarina commenced to get
tired of her adorer's conquests, so she called together her faithful
generals, and asked which of them thought it possible to undertake a
campaign in the depth of the Russian winter into the interior of the
Russian snow deserts. This did not mean playing at war, nor a triumphal
procession. It meant a battle with a furious people who, in forty years'
time, would trample upon the most powerful European troops. There were
four who replied that in Russia everything was possible which ought to
be done. The names of these four gentlemen were: Prince Galiczin,
General Bibikoff, Colonel Larionoff, and Michelson, a Swedish officer.
Their number, however, was soon reduced to two at the very commencement.
Larionoff returned home after the first battle of Bozal, where the
rebels proved victorious, whilst Bibikoff died from the hardships of the
winter campaign.

Galiczin and Michelson alone remained. The Swede had already gained fame
in the Turkish campaign from his swift and daring deeds, and when he
started from the Fort of Bozal against the rebels his sole troops
consisted of 400 hussars and 600 infantry, with four guns. With this
small force he started to the relief of the Fort of Ufa. Quickly as he
proceeded, Csika's spies were quicker still, and the rebel leader was
informed of the approach of the small body of the enemy. As he expected
that they only intended to reinforce the garrison of Ufa, he merely sent
against them 3,000 men, with nine guns, to occupy the mountain passes
through which they would march on their way to Ufa. But Michelson did
not go to Ufa as was expected. He seated his men on sledges, and flew
along the plains to Csika's splendid camp. So unexpected, so daring, so
little to be credited, was this move of his, that when he fell on
Csika's vanguard at one o'clock one morning nobody opposed him. The
alarmed rebels hurried headlong to the camp, and left two guns in the
hands of Michelson. The Swedish hero knew well enough that the 3,000 men
of the enemy who occupied the mountain pass would at once appear in
answer to the sound of the guns, and that he would thus be caught
between two fires; so he hastily directed his men to entrench themselves
beneath their sledges in the road, and left two hundred infantry with
two guns to defend them, whilst with the remaining troops he made his
way towards the town of Csernakuka, whither Csika's troops had fled.
Michelson saw that he had no time to lose. He placed himself at the head
of his hussars, sounded the charge, and attacked the bulk of his
opponents. For this they were not prepared. The bold attack caused
confusion amongst them, and in a few moments the centre of the camp was
cut through, and the first battery captured. He then immediately turned
his attention to the two wings of the camp. After this, flight became
general, and Csika's troops were dispersed like a cloud of mosquitos,
leaving behind them forty-eight cannon and eight small guns. The victor
now returned with his small body of troops to the sledges they had left
behind, and he then entirely surrounded the 3,000 rebels. Those who were
not slaughtered were captured. The victorious hero sent word to the
commander of the Ufa garrison that the road was clear, and that the
cannon taken from his opponents should be drawn thither. A hundred and
twenty versts from Ufa he reached the flying Csika. The Generalissimus
then had only forty-two officers, whilst his privates had disappeared in
every direction of the wind. Michelson got hold of them all, and if he
did not hang them it was only because on the six days' desert march not
a single tree was to be found. In the meantime, Prince Galiczin, whose
troops consisted of 6,000 men, went in pursuit of Pugasceff. On this
miserable route he did not encounter the mock Czar until the beginning
of March. Pugasceff waited for his opponent in the forest of Taticseva.
This so-called stronghold had only wooden walls, a kind of ancient
fencing. It was good enough to protect the sheep from the pillaging
Baskirs, but it was not suitable for war. The genius of the rebel leader
did not desert him, and he was well able to look after himself. Round
the fences he dug trenches, where he piled up the snow, on which he
poured water. This, after being frozen, turned almost into stone, and
was, at the same time, so slippery that no one could climb over it. Here
he awaited Galiczin with a portion of his troops, while the remainder
occupied Orenburg. The Russian general approached the hiding-place of
the mock Czar cautiously. The thick fog was of service to him, and the
two opponents only perceived one another when they were standing at
firing distance. A furious hand-to-hand fight ensued. The best of the
rebel troops were there. Pugasceff was always in the front and where the
danger was greatest, but finally the Russians climbed the ice-bulwarks,
captured his guns, and drove him out of the forest. This victory cost
the life of 1,000 heroic Russians, but it was a complete one! Pugasceff
abandoned the field with 4,000 men and seven guns; but what was a
greater loss still than his army and his guns, was that of the
superstitious glamour which had surrounded him until now. The belief in
his incapability of defeat, that was lost too! The revengeful Czar, who
had but yesterday commenced his campaign, now had to fly to the desert,
which promised him no refuge. It was only then that the real horrors of
the campaign commenced. It was a war such as can be imagined in Russia
only, where in the thousands and thousands of square miles of borderless
desert scantily distributed hordes wander about, all hating Russian
supremacy, and all born gun in hand. Pugasceff took refuge amongst these
people. Once again he turned on Galiczin at Kargozki. He was again
defeated, and lost his last gun. His sweetheart, Ulijanka, was also
taken captive--that is, if she did not betray him! From here he escaped
precipitately with his cavalry across the river Mjaes.

Copyright (c) 2007. knowncrafts.net. All rights reserved.