clearly proved the Government had nothing to do pike! Pugasceff had just
taken refuge amongst them at the time when they were dividing the arms
of the Russian soldiers, and were scheming as to what they should
further do. One lovely autumn night the escaped convict after a great
deal of wandering in the miserable valley of Jeremina Kuriza, situated
in the wildest part of the Ural Mountains, and in its yet more miserable
town, Jaiczkoi, knocked at the door of the first Cossack habitation he
saw and said that he was a refugee. He was received with an open heart,
and got plenty of kind words and a little bread. The house-owner was
himself poor; the Kirgizians had driven away his sheep. One of his sons,
a priest of the Roskolnik persuasion, had been carried away from him
into a lead-mine; the second had been taken to serve as a soldier, and
had died; the third was hung because he had been involved in a revolt.
Old Kocsenikoff remained at home without sons or family. Pugasceff
listened to the grievances of his host, and said:

"These can be remedied."

"Who can raise for me my dead sons?" said the old man bitterly.

"The one who rose himself in order to kill."

"Who can that be?"

"The Czar."

"The murdered Czar?" asked the old soldier, with astonishment.

"He has been killed six times, and yet he lives. On my way here,
whenever I met with people, they all asked me, 'Is it true that the Czar