More excited than dispirited by these reverses, he determined to retrieve his fortune by all possible means. Pugatchef descended, for the third time, from the summit of the Ural, and conceived the bold idea of conquering the ancient kingdom of Kazan; like a chafed lion rushing suddenly from his den, he marched towards Kazan on the wings of destruction; burning, sacking, and killing everything which obstructed his terrible progress, but treating at the same time his friends with great kindness and liberality. After gaining several victories over the Kussians, and putting to the sword every one in the suburbs of Kazan, he mastered nearly the whole kingdom. Everything was completely subdued excepting the citadel. The Archbishop of Kazan came submissively, with large bags of gold, to Pugatchef; acknowledged him publicly as his sovereign, and promised to crown him, and to provide him with immense treasures, as soon as the citadel surrendered. Not only the latter, but the generality of the population in the regions of Orenburg, Kazan, UiFa, the whole of Siberia, and the whole country to the river Ural, had declared unanimously for the daring impostor. Pugatchef besieged the strong citadel of Kazan; and having been apprised of the treasures there concealed, promised its plunder to his bands, and pressed the siege vigorously. Major General Paul Potemkin, relative to the celebrated favourite of the czarina, dared not openly to fight with Pugatchef; he did not even try to prevent the burning of Kazan; and would, in all probability, have been taken by him, and have perished in torments, had not Colonel Michelson appeared, at the critical time, to relieve him.
Michelson, the active, indefatigable, worthy subaltern of Rumiantzov, was not wanting in this exigency; he gave not a moment's rest to the rebels, and was constantly at their heels. During several days they resisted him with great skill and ferocity; he, however, compelled them to accept a battle, in which they were so far beaten and routed, that Pugatchef himself escaped almost by miracle. He repassed the "Wolga with scarcely three hundred Cossacks of the lai'k, the remainder of his numerous army. This time, according to all human probability, he was humbled to the dust, and the rebellion seemed crushed and annihilated. But while various rumours were prevalent respecting his death, he suddenly reappeared, like the fabled Antaeus, reinvigorated from his fall. He seemed only to have to stamp with his foot on the top of the Ural mountains, to wrest from them new and powerful legions devoted to him. His manifestos and proclamations, written in different languages, penetrated into the remotest parts of the empire; other hordes of Baskirs, Kalmucks, Cossacks, and exiles, swarms of peasants armed with scythes and other agricultural instruments, flocked from all directions to hail their liberator. The mass of the people are seldom mistaken ill their friends. At siglit of these new bands, which seem to have mainly increased in proportion to his misfortunes, he yet cherished a hope of reaching Moscow, where his emissaries were secretly organizing a powerful rebellion. Well aware of their exertions, and having been taught by experience how difficult it was for his newly-levied troops to cope in the field with well-trained regulars, Pugatchef resolved to avoid all fortified towns and general engagements; to march through the deserts, to descend the Volga, to approach the Caucasus, and to amass, during his projected journey, the remainder of the new colonies, the hordes of discontented Tatars, the Cossacks of the Don favourable to himj as well as the Cossacks of the Ukraine, and especially the Zaporogues, deprived of their ancient territory. He intended also to proclaim, for the third time, the freedom of the press, liberty of conscience, the extermination of the nobility, and the abolition of all social and hereditary distinctions. In spreading everywhere terror, devastation, and fire, he wished to disorganise the stability of the empire, to undermine the throne, and to change, reform, and remodel the whole of E-ussia; or to plunge her in anarchy, if he could not be her sole and mighty ruler.