In this state of things it was that Stenko Razin, dragging after him the scum and refuse of various robber nations, made his appearance before Astrakhan, and, assuming the mask of humanity, summoned the governor to throw open to him the gates of the city, in order to avoid pillage and massacre. The governor, by way of reply, had his messenger hanged from the battlements on the rampart. The bravest of the troops were now posted at the weakest points, and volleys of musketry were returned in answer to the insolent pro- position. In a short time, however, thousands of scaling-ladders were applied to the walls: the Cossacks mounted them with surprising audacity: instead of resisting them, the Russian soldiers received them as brethren. The result may be easily foreseen. Some of the officers, who wished to recall the troops to their duty, were instantly set upon, and, together with all those who were most interested in the defence of the town, overpowered and put to the sword, their houses pillaged, their wives maltreated, and their children thrown out of the windows. Stenko himself, drunk with brandy and carnage, and covered all over with blood, ran through all the streets, poniard in hand, in search of Prozorowskoi, whom he at last discovered lying wounded in a church. He ordered him to be thrown, in his presence, from the top of a high tower. By a singular accident, his body, crushed and mutilated, fell close by that of his brother, who also was mortally wounded and expiring. He then had Prozorowskoi's two boys hanged by the heels, under the pretext that, after repeated questions put to them on the subject, they refused to discover where the government chest was deposited. The metropolitan, who endeavoured to protect them, was put to death. The mother of the two boys was spared. A general pillage wound up this eventful day, ever memorable for Astrakhan, wherein all the Tatars were spared, as being victims of Muscovite tyranny.
Now it was that, master of a city renowned for its commerce, and of several fortresses, with a fleet and an army at the extremity of Russia, Stenko Razin meditated the overthrow of the Romanow dynasty, their expulsion from the Muscovite throne, the abolition of serfdom, the extermination of the noblesse of the empire, and the erection into independent principalities of all those provinces which Russia had recently and perfidiously seized from the Tatars and theii* allies, as likewise from other nations.
A YSLiiety of singular circumstances existing at the period seemed to favour this project; amongst others the quarrel between the Czar Alexy and the patriarch Nickon, whom he had just deposed, and the recent death of his eldest son and heir to the throne, against whom it was generally supposed his father had conceived a deeply-rooted hatred. Stenko Razin resolved to turn these incidents to account, and to excite the Cossacks and other superstitious subjects of the czar to rebellion by an appeal to their feelings of religious fanaticism. To this end he caused a rumour to be circulated that both the patriarch and the czarewicz, (the heir apparent) having escaped, by miracle, from their oppressor, had fled to him for protection and vengeance for their wrongs. In order to give confirmation to this rumour, he had two barks constructed, the one covered with red, and the other with black velvet. In the former was understood to be concealed the fugitive czarewicz,* and in the latter the injured patriarch. The ruse succeeded to admiration. From this moment F Stenko was regarded by the multitude in no other light than as the guardian angel of religion and the champion of outraged liberty. All the fanatics, adventurers, and brigands, far and near, flocked to his standard, and his army already amounted to 100,000 men. In a short time he quitted Astrakhan, where he left 25,000 of his troops, and advanced up the Volga, to establish his head-quarters at Kazan, the ancient metropolis of the Tatars. On his way thither he took Saratof and Samarra, seizing on all the money he could find there, and putting all the E-ussian inhabitants to the sword. The whole of the Cossack and Tatar populations on his route, including the various scattered and barbarian hordes, inflamed by his proclamations, and headed by their respective chiefs, declared for him. All the country, from Astrakhan to Nizny Novograd, was sacked and pillaged; the nobles were massacred, their wives dishonoured, and their dwellings set on fire, till at last Sineberik succeeded in arresting their sanguinary and devastating march.
A division of the Russian army, under the orders of Miloflaskoy, who was instructed to retake Astrakhan, met with the rebels, whom they defeated; the latter retreated into the town, resolved to defend themselves to the last extremity, under the orders of Krivoy.