andard
again for fresh armies to spring up as if from the ground, and early
June found him once more in the field. Defeated on June 4, he fled once
more to the hills, but in the beginning of July was facing his foes
again at the head of twenty-two thousand men.

Only the cruelty shown by himself and his followers, and his
ruthlessness in permitting the plunder and burning of churches and
convents, kept back the much greater hosts who would otherwise have
flocked to his ranks. And at this critical moment in his career he
committed the signal error of failing to march on Moscow, the principal
seat of the old Russian faith which he proposed to restore, and where he
would have found an army of partisans. He marched upon Kasan instead,
took the city, but failed to capture the citadel. Here he was making
havoc with fire and sword, when Michelson came up and defeated him in a
long and obstinate fight.

[Illustration: THE CITY OF KASAN.]

He now fled to the Volga, wasting the land as he went, burning the crops
and villages, and leaving desolation in his track. Men came in numbers
to replace those he had lost, and an army of twenty thousand was soon
again under his command. With these he surprised and routed a Russian
force and took several forts on the Volga, while the German colonies of
Moravians which had been established upon that stream, and were among
the most industrious inhabitants of the empire, suffered severely at his
hands. In the town of Saratof he murdered all whom he met.

As an example of the character of this monster in human form, it is
related that hearing that an astronomer from the Imperial Academy of
Sciences of St. Petersburg was near by, engaged in laying out the route
of a canal from the Volga to the Don, he ordered him to be brought
before him. When the peaceful astronomer appeared, the brutal ruffian
bade his men to lift him on their pikes "so that he might be nearer the
stars." Then he ordered him to be cut to pieces.

The end of this carnival of murder came at the siege of Zaritzin. Here
Michelson came up on the 22d of August and forced him to raise the
siege. On the 24th the insurgents were attacked when in the intricate
passes of the mountains and encumbered with baggage-wagons, women, and
camp-followers. Though thus taken at a disadvantage, they defended
themselves vigorously, the mass of them falling in the mountain passes
or being driven over the cliffs and precipices. Pugatchef continued t