rigid sectarians. When he insisted on the presence"? of the elders at a wedding feast with "Jezebel" (for in spite of the fact that he had a legally wedded Cossack wife, he was bent upon celebrating a fresh alliance by an orgy worthy in every respect of his bride), a mutiny occurred among his followers. In _^ order to distract the attention of his army from these troublesome domestic matters he now threatened to lay siege in regular form to the great city of Kazan, and a strong Russian force under General Bibikov was sent to the relief of that place.
By a quick march towards the frontier, Samara, an important city on the Volga, was recovered from the rebels, and the lower course of this stream once more opened to navigation. But the wild character of the countrj% among whose deserts and salt marshes his followers found themselves at home, enabled "Peter III" not only to keep his armies intact, but also to obtain a sudden advantage. Returning after a long detour, he surprised an isolated force forming the personal guard of General Bibikov. Amazed by this unexpected attack the Russians were almost annihilated and their leader escaped, only to die later of a slight wound, which his rage and mortification alone rendered serious.
Galitzine and his regulars now once more appeared upon the scene, attacking the Cossack bands with such vigour that in the course of a six hours' struggle the rebels were in their turn completely defeated. This time, Pougatchev with a few followers barely succeeded in escaping to the unknown country among the foothills of the Urals. Through the success of these military operations the great Cossack rebellion was generally supposed in Europe to be at an end. But the cause of Pougatchev had become identified with the wrongs of the peasants, the sufferings of the enforced colonists of the Siberian frontier and the "privileges" of which the Cossacks felt themselves unjustly deprived. Even the wild tribes of Bashkirs and Kalmoucks inhabiting the deserts and steppes about Orenburg looked to Pougatchev to relieve them of the taxes and tasks imposed upon them by Catherine's officers. His misfortunes, moreover, had done much to wipe out the unfavourable impression made by his excesses in the minds of the Puritan Raskolniki. In ever-increasing numbers recruits once more travelled by desert ways, unknown to the Russians, to join the new "Army of Revenge." Fanaticized by his indomitable eloquence and energy, his wild horsemen made a sudden descent upon the frontier blockhouses undeceiving the officials who had thought Pougatchev's powers for mischief -making at an end.
This time the help of one of Russia's ablest generals, Michelson (a soldier of Scottish descent, the favourite pupil of the great Romarzov), was invoked to meet the situation. Wholly new tactics were adopted. Quantities of mounted troops were improvised from the foot regiments, and during a running battle of three days Michelson finally succeeded in cornering his enemy. A crushing defeat put an end to the strange career of the Cossack "Peter III" — "redivivus" no more. Pougatchev escaped, but veteran troops, including several regiments of Cossacks from the Don lately returned from the Turkish wars, were now used by the Russian authorities to hunt down the scattered bands of the malcontents. A last tragic episode was, how-"^ ever, to be added to the ill-fame of the chieftain.
The wrongs of the dispossessed Cossacks and peasants who formed a large part of Pougatchev's armies, justified in a measure their actions and their revolt against tyranny. But no cause, however just, could long prosper under such a leader. To the last, the career of the "Cossack Tsar" remains unrelieved by a single ray of noble or generous intention. Seldom was a popular "hero" so imworthy of his opportunities. The news of the final defeat of Pougatchev's armies was coupled with that of a brutal murder which, even in his retreat, he paused to accomphsh. The philosopher Lowitz, who, with a few learned companions, had been engaged in surveying a route for a canal to join the great highway of the Volga with the Blacky Sea, was surprised by the fleeing "Tsar Peter" during this work. The celebrated savant — to give point to a brutal jest — was impaled upon a long stick "in order to continue star gazing."