Zelezniak

As the rebellion, daily increasing in intensity and extent, began to assume a very alarming aspect, some Polish troops, under Brigadier Stempkowski, in conjunction with a corps of faithful Cossacks under Nekrassa, came up and gave successful battle to the rebels in several encounters. The general terror arising from this appalling outbreak at length arose to so high a pitch, that the court of St. Petersburgh was obHged to discountenance by an overt disavowal, the rebellion excited by its own instrumentality; and to punish those who had taken a part in it. (See Lesur.) The main body of the Haidamaques still maintained their encampment at Houmagne under Gonta; while Zelezniaque was constantly sending out detachments to I overrun the country, when a body of infantry and Russian Cossacks of the Don, under the command of Nolkin and Goloriva, suddenly showed themselves before the town. As the Poles under Nekrassa, who had cut up to the last man some troops of rebels, were advancing to engage in battle, the Russian general Kretchetnikoff despatched Colonel Goloriva to apprise the rebel chiefs of the impending danger. This step was crowned with complete success. Goloriva spoke in friendly terms, approved everything that had been done in the name of the czarina, drew up an ulterior plan of military operations, assisted in regulating the discipline, visited the chief officers, assured them that they would be defended in case of any sudden attack by the Poles, and completely won their confidence. The rebel confederates shortly after, while reconnoitring for information, fell in with the Polish vanguard. Beaten by this force and pursued by Nekrassa, they took refuge in the Russian camp, but Goloriva then adopted an opposite line of conduct, and after having hemmed them in on all sides, he ordered them to be thrown into irons, together with Zelezniaque and other chiefs. He then attacked and routed the rest of the Haidamaques conjointly with the Poles; and having surrounded them, caused them to be sent back, to the number of eighteen hundred, together with Gonta, to General Branetzki, while he reserved to himself Zelezniaque with a smaller number of Russian prisoners. The accounts relative to the death of Zelezniaque are contradictory. The end of his earthly career has never been altogether cleared of mystery, although no doubts remain touching the concluding scene of the life of Gonta. Some say that Zelezniaque, after the dispersion of the Ha'idamaques, was punished with the knout, and transported for life with all his family into Siberia: others assert that he succeeded in effecting his escape, and that he fell in a skirmish at the head of one of his detachments. Again, it is maintained by others that he died at a very advanced age, a -voluntary recluse in a monastery at Moscow. This last statement appears to me to rest on an apparently good foundation, as I very distinctly remember having heard it on several occasions during my stay in the Ukraine. It is also confirmed by some of my fellow-exiles and countrymen, natives of that district. Zelezniaque may have survived the punishment of the knout, though instances of this are very rare; he may also have been left for dead upon the field of battle, and there have returned to consciousness.