After miracles of valour and supernatural efforts in fighting to the last, Pugatchef, covered with Russian blood and gore, was compelled to seek safety in flight. Unhurt amidst a thousand dangers which threatened his life; spared by all the bullets, spears, and swords directed against him, he plunged into the Wolga, swam across the river, and fled into the desert, where he found himself by a singular chance on the wild banks of the Ouzem, in the very spot so familiar to him, whence lie had started eighteen months before on his terrible expedition. Weary, anxious, having lost his army, his wealth, and his most devoted subalterns; hunted in all directions, but not dispirited, he took shelter in a wild cavern, concealed by an enormous stone, bearing to this day his name, and attended only by a few friends, who soon, however, were obliged to disperse. Of all his partisans torn from him by terror, fatigue, misery, and all-powerful hunger, there remained only three Cossacks, TworogofF, of Iletz; Tschumakof, and Fidulef, of laik. All three gave him, repeatedly, the most unequivocal proofs of their devotion; and never failed to risk their lives for him and his popular cause; all three seem to have enjoyed, to the last, his confidence. At last, however, alarmed at their common danger and the gloomy prospects for the future, they began to waver; they remarked to each other the full pardon and the reward which was offered by the empress to him who should deliver their chief to the Russians. After some consultation, the lower feelings of human nature prevailed, and they resolved to purchase their own safety by the sacrifice of their chief: but such was the magic ascendancy which Pugatchef exercised over every one who came in contact with him, that though they were, next to himself, the most daring, they all trembled lest he should suspect their intention. One of them being seated close to Pugatchef, hinted to him the danger to which he was exposed, and the impossibility of avoiding it, if he should still refuse to beg the mercy of the empress. At the word, mercy, Pugatchef, though humbled and assailed by his misfortunes, started like a tiger, and drew a sharp dagger to plunge it into the heart of his pretended friend; when the two other Cossacks, who were already anxiously watching all his movements, jumped on him, and after a desperate struggle, disarmed, secured, and conducted him immediately to the camp of Major-General Samarof, posted at that time with his corps on the banks of the laik. Thence he was dragged in chains, to the town of laitzkoy (now Uralsk), and soon after, to Simbirsk. From this place, by the express order of General Panin, he was publicly driven through all the country he had sacked, to Moscow, shut up in an iron cage, and attended by a detachment of soldiers.
As soon as Pugatchef arrived at that capital, his trial commenced with all possible formality and display; a special commission of the Senate was ordered to attend it and be present at all its minute investigations. There he avowed that he was a Cossack of the Don; he named the place of his birth; he was recognised not only by his relatives, but by his former companions in arms; and after the strictest examination of his life, it was not proved either that his rebellion was instigated by any foreign power, or that he had made treaties with independent states, as mentioned in the historical romance bearing his name; though all this might certainly have happened, had the existence of the rebellion been prolonged. The empress forbade the application to him of the torture, as at first intended; either from clemency, or the fear of some sanguinary reaction which might have exposed the empire to dangerous disturbances. It is said that the Empress Catherine visited him secretly in disguise, -attended by her lover.
Pugatchef voluntarily avowed, before his death, that his great resemblance to Peter IIL, coupled with clerical intrigue, was the true reason of his rebellion, in which he would undoubtedly have been successful, had his lieutenants fulfilled his orders, and had he not had Colonel Michelson for his principal adversary. The above named resemblance between the ill-fated Peter III. and Pugatchef was not such as is sometimes met with between twins; but it was at all events a striking resemblance, although Pugatchef's countenance was gloomy, and his frame infinitely more vigorous. Pugatchef was condemned to be quartered alive; to have his hands, feet, and head cut off, and to be left on the scaffold, his body to be burned, and his ashes scattered to the wind.