ore genial
climate of the city on the Neva.

Years passed before Russia settled down to full acceptance of a reign
begun in violence and sustained by force, and in this interval there
were no fewer than six impostors to be dealt with, each of whom claimed
to be Peter III. Murdered emperors sleep badly in their graves. The
example of the false Dmitris, generations before, remained in men's
minds, and it seemed as if every Russian who bore a resemblance to the
vanished czar was ready to claim his vacated seat.

Of these false Peters, the sixth and most dangerous was a Cossack of
the Don, whose actual name was Pugatchef, but whose face seemed capable
of calling up an army wherever it appeared, and who, if his ability had
been equal to his fortune, might easily have seated himself on the
throne. The impostor proved to be his own worst foe, and defeated
himself by his innate barbarity.

Pugatchef began his career as a common soldier, afterwards becoming an
officer. Deserting the army after a period of service, he made his way
to Poland, where he dwelt with the monks of that country and pretended
to equal the best of them in piety. Here he was told that he bore a
striking resemblance to Peter III. The hint was enough. He returned to
Russia, where he professed sanctity, dressed like a patriarch of the
church, and scattered benedictions freely among the Cossacks of the Don.
He soon gained adherents among the old orthodox party, who were bitter
against the religious looseness of the court. Finally he gave himself
out as Peter III., declaring that the story of his death was false, that
he had escaped from the hands of the assassins, and that he desired to
win the throne, not for himself, but for his infant son Paul.

The first result of this announcement was that the impostor was seized
and taken to Kasan as a prisoner. But the carelessness of his guards
allowed him to escape from his prison cell, and he made his way to the
Volga, near its entrance into the Caspian Sea, where he began to collect
a body of followers among the Cossacks of that region. His first open
declaration was made on September 17, 1773, when he appeared with three
hundred Cossacks at the town of Yaitsk, and published an appeal to
orthodox believers, declaring that he was the czar Peter III. and
calling upon them for support.

His handful of Cossacks soon grew into an army, multitudes of the
tribesmen gathered around him, and in a brief time he found hims