entire force not one man returned to Orenburg. Instead of this,
Pugasceff's forces appeared before its gates.

Reinsburg did not wish to await the bombardment, and he sent his most
trusted regiment, under the command of Major Naumoff, to attack the
rebels. The mock-Czar allowed it to approach the slopes of the mountains
outside Orenburg, and there, with masked guns, he opened such a
disastrous fire upon them that the Russians were compelled to retire to
their fort utterly demoralized. Pugasceff then descended into the plains
and pitched his camp before the town. The two opponents both began with
the idea of tiring each other out by waiting. Pugasceff was encamped on
the snow-fields. The plains of Russia are no longer green in October,
and instead of tents he had huts made of branches of oak. The one force
was attacked by frost--the other by starvation. Finally, starvation
proved the more powerful. Naumoff sallied from the fort, and turned his
attention towards occupying those heights whence his forces had been
fired upon a short time previously. He succeeded in making an onslaught
with his infantry upon the rebel lines, but Pugasceff, all of a sudden,
changed his plan of battle, and attacked with his Cossacks the cavalry
of his opponent, who took to flight. The victory fell from the grasp of
Naumoff, and he was compelled to fly with his cannon, breaking his way,
sword in hand, through the lines of the Cossacks. Then Pugasceff
attacked in his turn. He had forty-eight guns, with which he commenced a
fierce bombardment of the walls, which continued until November 9th,
when he ordered his troops to storm the town. The onslaught did not
succeed, for the Russians bravely defended themselves. Pugasceff,
therefore, had to make up his mind to starve out his opponents. The
broad plains and valleys were white with snow, the forests sparkled with
icicles, as though made of silver, and during the long nights the cold
reflection of the moon alone brightened the desolate wastes where the