words, "Redevivus et ultor." As he had no silver mines, he struck the
roubles out of copper, of which there was plenty about. This good
example was also followed by the Russians, who issued roubles to the
amount of millions and millions, and made payments with them generously.
Pugasceff now turned the romance of the insurrection into the parody of
a reign. Instead of advancing against the unprotected cities of the
Russian Empire, he attacked the defended strongholds, and, in the place
of pursuing the fairy picture of his dreams which had led him thus far,
he laid himself down in the mud by the side of a common woman!

Generalissimus Csika was instructed to occupy the Fort Ufa, with the
troops who were entrusted to his care. The time was January, 1774, and
it was so terribly cold that nothing like it had been recorded in
Russian chronicles. The trees of the forest split with a noise as though
a battle were proceeding, and the wild fowl fell to the ground along the
roads.

To carry on a siege under such circumstances was impossible. The
hardened earth would not permit the digging of trenches, and it was
impossible to camp on the frozen ground.

The two rebel chiefs occupied the neighboring towns, and so cut off all
supplies from the neighboring forests. In Orenburg they had already
eaten up the horses belonging to the garrison, and a certain Kicskoff,
the commissary, invented the idea of boiling the skins of the
slaughtered animals, cutting them into small slices and mixing them with
paste, which food was distributed amongst the soldiers, and gave rise to
the breaking out of a scorbutic disease in the fort which rendered half
the garrison incapable of work. On January the 13th, Colonel
Vallenstierna tried to break his way through the rebel lines with 2,500