instead of thieves. But what annoyed him most was that this rabble knew
so well how to handle their cannon; for in St. Petersburg, out of
precaution, Cossacks are not enlisted in the artillery, in order that no
one should teach them how to serve guns. And here this ignorant people
handled the guns, stolen but yesterday, as though accustomed to them all
their lifetime, and their shells had already set fire to villages in
many different places. The General ordered his entire line to advance
with a rush, while with the reserve he sharply attacked the enemy in
flank, totally defeating them. His cavalry started with drawn swords
towards the fire-spurting space. Amongst the 1,500 horsemen there were
only 300 Cossacks, and in the heat of battle these deserted to the
enemy. Immediately General Karr saw this, he became so alarmed that he
set his soldiers the example of flight. All discipline at an end, they
abandoned their comrades in front, and escaped as best they could.

Pugasceff's Cossacks pursued the Russians for a distance of thirty
miles, but did not succeed in overtaking the General. Fear lent him
wings. Arrived at Bugulminszka, he learned that Csernicseff's horsemen
had been destroyed, that the Body Guard in his own rear had been taken
prisoners, and that twenty-one guns had fallen into the hands of the
rebels. Upon hearing this bad news he was seized with such a bad attack
of the grippe that they wrapped him up in pillows and sent him home by
sledge to St. Petersburg, where the four-handed card-party awaited him,
and that very night he had the misfortune to lose his XXI. [Footnote:
The card next to the highest in tarok.]; upon which the Czarina made the
bon mot that Karr allowed himself twice to lose his XXI. (referring to
twenty-one guns), which bon mot caused great merriment at the Russian
Court.

After this victory, Pugasceff's star (if a demon may be said to possess