Rebellion of Pugatchef

For a long time Pugatchef following strictly the rites of his adopted creed (Roskolniki Starowiertzy), assumed their abstinence and piety. Often he was seen in sacerdotal robes to bless, with humility, the ferocious fanatics continually flocking to his presence. On his standards were written, in large letters of gold, the latin words, Redivivus et ultor (Re-arisen and avenged), a motto which, often repeated and explained, daily increased the number of his partisans. In order to stimulate as far as possible the zeal of his people, Pugatchef, being well aware that one of their priests, Fuma, had been condemned to lose his right hand by fire and to be burned alive, in 1715, at Moscow, by the orders of Peter the Great, for having hewn to pieces, with an axe, the images of the Saints and of the Virgin, in the Russian church; and having been also apprised that that religious fanatic, when summoned before the Russian authorities and clergy for the recantation of his faith, was true to his creed, and possessed extraordinary firmness; calmly preaching against the abuses of the Russian heresy, while his right hand was burned to ashes; (for which he was worshipped by the Roskolniki, his image exhibited without a hand, and himself considered as a saint); the crafty Pugatchef not only procured the likeness of the martyr without a hand as his standard, to which he showed publicly a religious veneration, but he also found an impostor without a hand of the name of Fuma. This fanatic, possessing great flow of language, assumed the character of a descendant of the celebrated martyr; preached daily against the abuses of the Russian church and against Catherine's tyranny; and with such effect, that crowds of people were always saluting him ■Nvith repeated huzzas, crying, " Long live Fuma! " "Long live our beloved emperor; our great czar; our benefactor, the defender of our church;"*' with a sort of phrenzy. Speaking of his resurrection and vengeance, the pretended Peter III., openly declared that, having himself no longing for power,, he had decided to place the Muscovite crown on the brow of the grand duke his son; and, after accomplishing that laudable action, to spend the remainder of his days in retirement. This pretended disinterestedness, this resignation and piety, this deep and well sustained hypocrisy, admirably served his purposes. In the meantime, active, enterprising, indefatigable; always reay to take every possible advantage of the weakness of the Russians, and of the incapacity of their generals; combining with superiority of information, a perfect knowledge of the country and of his numerical strength, Pugatchef soon inspired his army with that blind confidence in his genius, which Mahomet, in bygone ages, infused into the hearts of his warlike and conquering followers.