To the last moment he hoped for mercy, in consideration of the daring courage he undoubtedly possessed; but when all hope of life had vanished, he completely lost, it is said, that spirit and ferocious energy which made him so celebrated: he appeared, even, so timid and terror-stricken in his dungeon, that it was necessary to lift him up, that he might not faint, and to enable him distinctly to hear every word of his sentence, to which he was obliged to listen.
The vanquished rebel-chief, however, was not subjected to the whole of his cruel sentence; in all probability owing to a mistake, or the pity of his executioner. What confirms this is, that the executioner received the knout, had his tongue cut out, and was sent to Siberia for life. Pugatchef was first beheaded (21st of January, 1775,) and afterwards quartered, and the different parts of his body exhibited on the principal gates of the town. Some of his accomplices were also executed, and others were sent to Siberia. The others, among them Antizof, were employed in pacifying their countrymen. The payment for guarding the frontiers, suspended temporarily, in order to defray the expenses of the Turkish war, was resumed among the hordes oi the laik; and everything, for the time, pacified.
Such was the end of this rebellion, which, during the space of eighteen months, was the cause of immense losses, the burning of numerous and flourishing towns, the complete destruction of three hundred and fifty boroughs, the sack of extensive provinces, the massacre of upwards of 350,000 human beings, and the extinction of several noble families.
It was decided by a special order, that the town of laitzkoy, near which was the principal focus of the rebellion, should in future be called Uralskaia; and the river laik, Uralsk; alluding to the large chains of mountains of that name, from the foot of which it flows to the northern shore of the Caspian sea.
In investigating the life of Pugatchef, we cannot 22 REBELLION OP refrain from comparing him with Stenko Razin. Both these celebrated men were Cossacks; both raised a rebellion which made the whole of Russia tremble to her very foundation; both rose by the same means, and almost in the same places; both would have changed the de§tiny of the Russian empire, had they not missed the proper tide of action; both intended to abolish slavery, and exterminate the nobility; both, cloaking themselves under the mask of concern for the people, aspired to the supreme power; both took advantage of religion and of the clergy for accomplishing their private political purposes; both were practical and excellent seamen, as well as good generals; both were betrayed, and perished on the scaffold; both were cruel, daring, and crafty; and might have been mighty rulers in the north-eastern wilds; but would have been crushed under the weight of the crown of the czars, after plunging the Russian empire in a long anarchy; both punished crimes by the commission of still greater crimes; so certain is it that every great injustice perpetrated in a higher social position, always creates a terrible reaction. Had the brother of Stenko Razin, a colonel of the Cossacks, not been hanged by the orders of Prince Dolgorouki, the lives of upwards of 300,000 human beings would have been spared; and fifteen thousand men would not have perished in torments on the scaffold: had not Peter III. been murdered by order of the Empress Catherine, the frightful rebellion of Pugatchef would never have taken place, and 350,000 men would PUGATGHEF. 22S have been spared. They were both evidently children of democracy. Stenko Razin seems to have been craftier than Pugatchef, because the latter cast off the mask too soon. It is, however, difficult to say, which of the two was more daring and skilful. Some writers, and among them two Englishmen, assert that Pugatchef met his fate with the most undaunted resolution. Let it be remembered that his examination was secret; and that what was allowed to transpire respecting him was exactly suited to Catherine's interest. I gathered many things from a friend of Suchodolski, who returned to Russian Poland, and who used to relate many interesting anecdotes of Pugatchef. Suchodolski died at an advanced age. Pugatchef was evidently a sort of Tamerlan; his rebellion gives an idea of the weak points of Russia.
"We have not had, to this time, any real, well written history of Pugatchef. What seems extraordinary is, how Pugatchef, after his defeats, appeared with new trains of artillery. The best lieutenants of Pugatchef were Chita, Salavatka, Naga-Baba-Azanof, and Suchodolski. (0 See Lesur"*s Histoire des Cosaques; William Tooke; Authentic Memoirs of Catherine II.; Life of Catherine II., 3 vols.; Biography of Russian Generals; Les Amours de Catherine II.; Voltaire; and Cox's Travels in Russia.